Episode 88: False Friends...are you embarrassed or pregnant??

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Ian: Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today we're gonna be talking about something grammatical—we're gonna be talking about false friends. So, false friends are words that sound very familiar but, unfortunately, they mean something totally different. Okay, so there's a handful of them, especially between English and Spanish. So, we decided it'd be fun for us to go through some of those today. Okay, so, Paige, what is a false friend that you can think of?

Paige: Well, I think the most common one, which you don't want to confuse as a female is “embarazada,” which is pregnant and embarrassed. which is “avergonzada.” There's been many times where I've been out trying to practice my Spanish, and I've said, “Estoy embarazada” and people were like, “Oh, why are you drinking?” So, that one you don't want to get confused. You know, I often say I'm embarrassed about my level of Spanish, but really, I'm saying that I'm pregnant.

Ian: Yeah, big difference in that one, for sure.

Paige: Yeah, so that one is one you don't want to confuse. What about you? Any embarrassing stories with false friends?

Ian: Nothing as embarrassing as saying, like, that I'm pregnant. I don't think anything that bad, but little ones, yeah. So, like, when I was learning Spanish, for a while, I was saying “actualmente” a lot, thinking that it meant, “actually” because it's pretty common, you know—"-mente” is like the “-lly” in English—that suffix. So, I thought I was saying, “actually,” but “actual” or “actualmente” really means “current” or “currently.” So, I was talking to a lot of people wanting to say “actually” and I was saying, “currently.” So, they gave me a lot of confused looks. And finally, after a while someone corrected me, and I thought, why didn't anyone correct me earlier? I've been walking around sounding like an idiot for a few days. So, that’s one that comes to my mind when I think of it. Another good one, just in general, is “carpeta”, which is a “folder.” But for English- speakers, it sounds almost the exact as “carpet,” which is actually “alfombra” in Spanish. So, people might say, “I need to vacuum the carpeta.” Someone says that and it's like, “You need to clean your folder? You need to vacuum your folder?” It's a commonly confused one, as well. What about you? Are there some other ones that come to your mind or other ones you've heard before?

Paige: Another good one I've heard students mess up is “arm” and “arma.” So, “arm” is “brazo” and “arma” is “weapon.” So, those are very different things. So, I think that one I've heard because, obviously, they look so similar.

Ian: Unless, you've been hitting the gym and your arms are now weapons, right? You're big and muscular.

Paige: True, true. Another one that I've always been confused by too, like, walking around malls or stores is that a “library” in the US is “biblioteca,” where a “bookstore” here is a “librería”. And so, I used to think going around I was like, “Oh that's a library.” But it really means “bookstore” but they look almost identical.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. It'd be really easy to put two and two together and think those were the same, for sure. One that I can think of is a verb, and it's “chocar”, which in Spanish is, like, “to hit” or “crash” or “collide”—like, in a car, something like that. And it gets confused a lot, with English-speakers, with the verb “to choke”, which is “ahogar.” And so again, these are very different things, but you know, you might hear someone say, “I choked my car today.” You did what? You crashed your car today? Or vice versa, with an English-speaker, they might use it in that other way, so.

Paige: I actually didn't hear that one. Another one that I think is very common, obviously here because Chileans love bread, is “pan.” “Pan” is bread, but in the US, a “pan” is something you used to cook, right? So, I feel like that one could be very confusing, especially how much “pan” is used here.

Ian: Yeah, exactly.

Paige: Another one that I've had to use a lot with my reporting, because I read a lot about politics, is “mayor.” “Mayor” is “older” but in English, “mayor” is “alcalde.” So that one I think is easy to get confused because it's exactly the same spelling, it's just a little different pronunciation.

Ian: Yeah, totally. And just a quick reminder, if you are interested in taking private classes with Dynamic English, go ahead and check out our website at dynamicenglish.cl and there you can sign up for private classes in your apartment, in your house, in your office. You can even now take classes online. Sitting on your couch, you can log on and practice English. It’s very easy. So, if you're interested, check us out also, on social media through Facebook, or Instagram. Another one I can think of is the verb in Spanish is “atender,” which is “to pay attention.” But it sounds very, very similar to the verb “to attend” in English, which in Spanish is actually “asistir.” So, I think, actually, this is one that, if I can remember correctly, I used incorrectly a few times and learned the mistake pretty quickly. And now, I don't make that mistake anymore. It's pretty quick to correct yourself when you've been using a false friend, and then you get embarrassed by it, and you think, “Oh my god, I've been saying this incorrectly for how long?” For me that's a really good motivation and point for me to remember that word moving forward.

Paige: You get embarrassed, not “embarazada.”

Ian: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm embarrassed—not pregnant.

Paige: I think that is part of language, right? When you're learning is making mistakes, and being corrected, because then you have these stories of being embarrassed and having that shame that, like, sticks, right? So, it's kind of good when you make these mistakes because you remember it and learn from it.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. For me, that's been a big part in language-learning. Like, helping me learn Spanish, exactly. It's like, I think language-learning, in general, I always tell my students, you know, if you want to progress, if you want to get better, you have to be okay with making mistakes and not being too hard on yourself. It's completely normal and really, you know, I think it's fair to say you could even celebrate the mistakes because, again, you really remember the mistakes you made, you remember what the word should be, and it helps you to not make that mistake moving forward. So, while at the moment, might be embarrassing and you might think like you sound like an idiot, it's totally okay. It's actually a good thing. I tell my students, it's a good thing if you make mistakes because that means you're learning. If you're improving and if you're correcting that word, then that's tangible proof you're improving. So, I think it's funny but, in the end, it's a good thing.

Paige: Always a good story to tell. Another one that I've made the mistake of is because I'm a radio reporter, I need to record, very often. And so, “record” in English is “grabar” and in Spanish, “recordar”, which is very similar—you’d think they would mean the same—is “to remember.” So, I would often say using the verb “recordar” for “to record” and I had a lot of confusion when I talked to people for interviews.

Paige: “I mean, it's cool you remember things but why you have a microphone in my face?”

Ian: “Yeah, but we need to film this, right?” Exactly.

Paige: Another common one, especially for people who come from the US because, when you go to college, you live in “dorms” is “dormitorio” in Spanish, is your “bedroom.” But a “dorm” is only something that you stay in when you're at university. It's when you live with other students in a building and there's all different, very, very small prison-like rooms called dorms. So, that one I feel like is always very common.

Ian: Yeah and going off of your example, another one that I get a lot in class with my students is “colegio”, which in Spanish, that means, like, “high school” or, you know, just “secondary school.” And in the US, we say “college.” And “college” is more like a university, so that's when it’s like a higher learning. So, I have a lot of students that say, “Yeah, I took my kids to the college this morning before I came to work.” And I have to say, “Are you sure? Are you sure it was a college?” They say, “Ahhh, okay. It was high school, it was high school.” So, you have to make that distinction but it's a very common one for the two languages. We could go on and on and on. There’s tons of words between Spanish and English, especially, there those false friends. So, listeners, don't be confused. Don't let yourself get tripped up by these words. Remember the differences, but remember, it's okay if you make mistakes, it means you're learning, okay? So, if you get a chance, check out more false friends when you get a chance, okay? And remember, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript, okay? Thanks for listening,

Paige: And we'll see you next time. “Coffee with Gringos” was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you’re interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     handful (noun): a significant amount of something; enough.

a.     There are a handful of people that are interested in English classes.  

2.     suffix (noun): the end part of a root word to modify the word.

a.     Adding the suffix “-lly” turns an adjective into an adverb.

3.     to mess up (phrasal verb): to misunderstand, to believe incorrectly.

a.     I mess up the meaning of the verbs when I don’t pay attention.

4.     to hit the gym (phrasal verb): to go to the gym, to work out.

a.     He likes to hit the gym twice a week after work.  

5.     to put two and two together (idiom): to make a guess about something, predict, hypothesize.

a.     She put two and two together when she saw them kissing and believed they were married.  

6.     to stick (verb): to have something continue and stay with someone; to persist.

a.     The embarrassment of speaking the language incorrectly sticks with me to this day as motivation to correct it.

7.     to be too hard on oneself (phrasal verb): to be very self-critical, to punish oneself too much.

a.     She is always too hard on herself whenever she doesn’t get a perfect score on her exams.

8.     tangible (adjective): clear and definite; real

a.     She could see tangible improvements in her language fluency.

9.     distinction (noun): the difference between two similar things.

a.     It is important to know the distinction between vocabulary words.

10.  tripped up (adjective, informal): confused, unsure.

a.     Don’t get tripped up by the similarities of false friends!