Tuesday 27 October 2009

False Friends


inhabitable - not "inabitável" (uninhabitable); it means habitável.
ingenuous - not "ingênuo" (naive); it means engenhoso.
library - not "livraria" (bookstore); it means biblioteca.
scholar - not "escolar" (school); it means erudito.
comprehensive - not "compreensivo" (understanding); it means abrangente, amplo, extenso.
eventually - not "eventualmente" (ocasionally); it means finalmente, conseqüentemente.
injury - not "injúria" (insult); it means ferimento, lesão.
pretend - not "pretender" (to intend, to plan); it means fingir.
realize - not "realizar" (to carry out, to make come true, to accomplish); it means notar, perceber, se dar conta.
record - not "recordar" (to remember, to recall); it means gravar disco, gravação, registro.
legend - not "legenda" (subtitle); it means lenda.
genial - not "genial" (brilliant); it means afável, aprazível.
balcony - not "balcão" (counter); it means sacada.
anticipate - not "antecipar" (to bring forward, to move forward); it means prever, aguardar, ficar na expectativa.
actual - not "atual" (present, current); it means real, verdadeiro.
service - not "serviço" (job); it means atendimento.
tax - not "taxa" (fee); it means imposto.
lamp - not lâmpada (light, bulb); it means abajur.
intend - not "entender" (understand); it means pretender.
sensible - not "sensível" (sensitive); it means sensato.
novel - not "novela" (soap opera); it means romance (livro).


8 comments:

  1. So many "false friends" and I didn't realize that ingenuous means engenhoso. I thought it was really naive.
    What a surprise!

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  2. God you guys really put a long list together.But inhabitable is one that I bet most people will be unfamiliar with. Congrats!

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  3. It would be so nice if we didn´t have these false friends to get us mixed up
    Andressa

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  4. Some of them are really tricky, like novel, especially for Brazilian people, since we watch so many soap operas.
    Yuri Hennies.

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  5. I wish I could remember at least 50% of those in the near future.
    Andrea Drewanz

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  6. It comes in very handy to know all these. I hope to never be fooled by a false friend.
    Eduardo Gelli

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  7. Thank you all for this amazing blog that helps us to learn every time a little bit more about English.

    Thanks
    Henrique Monsanto Pohl

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  8. Im enjoying this opportunity to take part in the project! This is a kind of thing we wouldn´t learn in the classroom!

    Thank You
    Rodrigo Brito =]

    ReplyDelete