false friend
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AI overview
A "false friend" is a word in one language that sounds or looks similar to a word in another language, but actually means something completely different. False friends matter because they can trick speakers into using the wrong word and accidentally saying something unintended or confusing when communicating across languages.
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Article
An example of false friends in German and English
In linguistics, a false friend is a word or letter in a different language that looks or sounds similar to a word in a given language, but differs significantly in meaning. Examples of false friends include English embarrassed and Spanish embarazada ('pregnant'); English parents versus Portuguese parentes and Italian parenti (the latter two both meaning 'relatives'); English demand and French demander ('ask'); and English gift, German Gift ('poison'), and Norwegian gift (both 'married' and 'poison').