False Friends between English and Spanish

Building a bridge between two languages is a very demanding undertaking, and

false friends make it harder still. False friends are more commonly known as false
cognates, or words that are similar or identical in both languages but which convey a
different meaning. They give us a false sense of security before leading us astray.
Because of their seeming familiarity the rascals are notoriously difficult to spot.
Our English-Spanish False Friends Dictionary deals with the pitfalls that exist
between English and Spanish. English is a hybrid language, with a Germanic base and a
large Latin superstructure; indeed, about half of its vocabulary is of Latin origin. So
when Spanish speakers encounter an English word with a Latin root, we tend to think
that it means the same as it does in Spanish. Sometimes it does, but we need to remain
watchful because a false cognate is never far away, waiting to trip us up.

English-Spanish false friends

One of our favourite false cognates listed in the dictionary is plague, not to be
confused with Spanish plaga (pest). In fact, the Spanish for plague is peste, thus
forming a symmetrical quartet of false friends.
Although false cognates mean different things in the two languages if they didnt
they wouldnt be false friends it is rare that they mean exactly the opposite. One
example where they do is inhabited(habitado in Spanish), whilst Spanish inhabitado
means uninhabited.
Some false cognates ought to come with a warning; not only can they lead you
astray, they can be simply embarrassing: for example estar constipado in Spanish
means to have a cold; to say youre constipated you say estreido. A learner of
Spanish may find it an odd subject for the dinner table. Another classic source of
misunderstanding is embarazada meaning pregnant, not embarrassed. Embarrassed in
Spanish is molesto or incmodo.

Choosing which false friends to include

When my colleague Francisco Hidalgo and I began compiling a Spanish-English
dictionary of false cognates, we established two selection criteria: the first, that the

English word should resemble a Spanish word, the second that it should have a different
meaning from the similar Spanish word, thus creating the potential for confusion. We
then decided that in order for a false friend to make an appearance in our dictionary, it
would also have to meet a third criterion: having a common etymology with its Spanish
pair. However, we soon realized that this gave rise to two additional problems: firstly,
not all words have clear etymologies; and secondly, some false friends can give rise to
confusion even without sharing an etymology. So, we eventually abandoned the idea of
using etymology as a criterion and returned to our original two criteria.
Of course, it is still true that in most cases a common etymology still exists usually
a Latin one when looking at English which can be either direct (contingent) or indirect
via a Romance language, mostly French (culture) and less often Spanish (desperado) or
Italian (influenza).
Then there are those other oddities: the English guerrilla is guerrillero in Spanish;
guerrilla (literally small war) in Spanish is a guerrilla war or insurgency, itself derived
from guerra (war). But guerra has a Germanic root, not a Latin one. So we have a
Germanic language borrowing a word of Germanic origin from a Romance language.
A project that originally began as a short glossary has started taking on a life of its
own. We had originally planned to distribute it amongst interpreter colleagues, but as
the list of words grew we decided to share it with a wider audience. The list is growing
ever longer, thanks in part to user contributions, and by placing the dictionary online for
free we can now share the material, collaborate with others, and really put this resource
to use the way we always wanted to. Sharing the dictionary is key to its success.
False Friends is not an English dictionary or a dictionary for correct Spanish usage;
our ambitions are more modest and limited: to draw attention to potential confusion, or
at least to encourage healthy suspicion and reflection to avoid assuming that two similar
words in different languages mean the same thing. Some words may prove to be false
friends, while some may be reassuringly loyal.
The English-Spanish False Friends Dictionary was compiled and designed
by Francisco Hidalgo and Lourdes de Rioja.