10 Spanish false friends: describing words – Episode 55

10 Spanish false friends: describing words

Podcast episode 55 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today you’re going to learn 10 words with an unexpected meaning.

Today’s question comes from James, one of my newsletter subscribers. James said: “The other day I came across the word ‘largo’ and the translation the book gave me was: ‘long’. Is it not ‘large’?”

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

In previous lessons we’ve seen that there are dozens of words in English and Spanish that look very similar and have the same meaning.

Spanish false friends: what are they?

But there are also many words that look very similar in both languages, but mean quite different things. ‘Largo’ is just one of them. Those words are called false cognates, or false friends.

Learning those words, or at least the most common ones, is always a good idea. Because it’s easy to use them wrong. In some cases, you can simply be misunderstood. But in the worst cases, you could be offending people.

10 Spanish false friends

So, to help you avoid awkward situations, in today’s lesson you’re going to learn 10 common false friends. Here they are. Repeat after me:

• actual – current
• educado – polite
• embarazada – pregnant
• gracioso – funny
• largo – long
• sano – healthy
• sensato – sensible
• sensible – sensitive
• simpático – pleasant, nice
• último – final, last

Let’s say them again. Repeat after me.

Spanish false friends: pronunciation tips

When saying those words, make sure you follow the Spanish pronunciation rules. Don’t be tempted to say those words like in English.

Remember the five Spanish vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

Also, notice where the stress falls on:

actual
gracioso
sensato
sensible

Spanish false friends: listening drill

Let’s now do a listening drill. Can you tell me what these 10 words mean?

• educado – polite
• último – final, last
• sano – healthy
• embarazada – pregnant
• sensible – sensitive
• gracioso – funny
• actual – current
• sensato – sensible
• simpático – pleasant, nice
• largo – long

Spanish false friends: speaking drill

Now, let’s do a speaking drill. Can you tell me these 10 words in Spanish?

• simpático – pleasant, nice
• educado – polite
• último – final, last
• largo – long
• sensible – sensitive
• gracioso – funny
• sano – healthy
• actual – current
• sensato – sensible
• embarazada – pregnant

Spanish false friends: let’s recap

To recap, let’s say those 10 words again. Repeat after me:

• actual
• educado
• embarazada
• gracioso
• largo
• sano
• sensato
• sensible –
• simpático
• último

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