• treadful@lemmy.zip
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    7 hours ago

    Although false friends can also be quite annoying.

    What does “false friends” mean?

    • sbeak@sopuli.xyz
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      6 hours ago

      In a nutshell, words that look the same / similar but with different meanings in their respective languages, making it pretty confusing.

        • Lemmert@reddthat.com
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          25 minutes ago

          False friends usually aren’t homonyms since the word comes from different languages.

          To give an example: an English speaker might look at “rare auto” (Dutch) and might translate it to “rare car”. But “rare” means “weird” in Dutch. So rare is a false friend in this case

          Edit: an example of one a false friend that is a homonym is “horloge” in French and Dutch. They are pronounced and written the same, but it means “clock” in French but “(wrist)watch” in Dutch