Saturday, August 11, 2007

False Friends

"False friends are words that may sound similar in two or more languages but in actuality mean different things."
-Wikipedia

Here some English-Portuguese falsies:
  • largo - wide, not large
  • longe - far, not long
  • novela - soap opera, not novel
  • propaganda - advertising, not political propaganda
  • receipt – recibo, not receita
  • estúpido - rude, not stupid
  • puxe – pull, not push (this was the worst, resulting in many temporary door wars)

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