True false friends 2

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-10-14, 15:47

(es) metal brass [in a musical context]
(en) metal

I'm currently editing an article translated rather too literally from the Spanish and I was confused by the line "participating only with metals and keyboards" until I realised the original was "participando solo con metales y teclados".
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-10-18, 17:11

(en) indoctrinated taught to accept a set of beliefs without questioning them; brainwashed
(es) indoctrinado uneducated, lacking education, ignorant ("indoctrinated" is adoctrinado)

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-10-22, 21:00

(ca) xocolatina chocolate bar; bonbon
(fr) chocolatine pain au chocolat
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-10-23, 0:08

linguoboy wrote:(ca) xocolatina chocolate bar; bonbon
(fr) chocolatine pain au chocolat

(es) chocolatina chocolate bar (=tableta de chocolate)
(es-ar) chocolatín chocolate bar (=tableta de chocolate)
(es-mx) chocolatín pain au chocolat (=napolitana de chocolate)

And then there are Chocolatines made by Gamesa (Mexican cookie company), which are basically a marshmallow ball on a chocolate wafer, dipped in chocolate and covered with peanuts.

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-10-23, 4:44

(en) experiment
(es) experimentado experienced, seasoned
(es) experimentar (1) to experiment, to try out; (2) to experience, to undergo, to feel
(pt) experimentar (1) to experiment, to try out; (2) to try, to attempt

(en) practically
(es) prácticamente (1) practically; (2) through practice

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-10-27, 4:47

(en) Pope
(es) pope Eastern Orthodox priest

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby OldBoring » 2020-10-27, 14:17

Linguaphile wrote:(en) experiment
(es) experimentado experienced, seasoned
(es) experimentar (1) to experiment, to try out; (2) to experience, to undergo, to feel
(pt) experimentar (1) to experiment, to try out; (2) to try, to attempt

What surprised me is that in Portuguese experimentar can also be used to mean "to taste, to try food or beverages".
I am confused by the last two, cause the meanings are not too different, but when thinking better I'd say that Italian sperimentare is like Spanish.

(en) practically
(es) prácticamente (1) practically; (2) through practice
(it) practicamente basically

(ca) xocolatina chocolate bar; bonbon
(fr) chocolatine pain au chocolat
(es) chocolatina chocolate bar (=tableta de chocolate)
(es-ar) chocolatín chocolate bar (=tableta de chocolate)
(es-mx) chocolatín pain au chocolat (=napolitana de chocolate)

And then there are Chocolatines made by Gamesa (Mexican cookie company), which are basically a marshmallow ball on a chocolate wafer, dipped in chocolate and covered with peanuts.

(it) cioccolatino chocolate bonbon
Pain au chocolat is fagottino in Italian.

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Dormouse559 » 2020-10-27, 15:27

OldBoring wrote:
Linguaphile wrote:(en) experiment
(es) experimentado experienced, seasoned
(es) experimentar (1) to experiment, to try out; (2) to experience, to undergo, to feel
(pt) experimentar (1) to experiment, to try out; (2) to try, to attempt

What surprised me is that in Portuguese experimentar can also be used to mean "to taste, to try food or beverages".
I am confused by the last two, cause the meanings are not too different, but when thinking better I'd say that Italian sperimentare is like Spanish.

French is like Spanish in this case, and I can say the "experience" meaning for expérimenter takes getting used to for an English speaker. We express "experience" with, well, "experience". "Experiment" is treated as an unconnected verb with its own semantic space.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-11-11, 18:28

(fr) gosses kids
(fr-QC) gosses bollocks
(fr-frc) gosses husks, shells
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-11-12, 4:08

(en) permanence state of remaining unchanged indefinitely; everlasting quality
(es) permanencia (1) state of remaining unchanged indefinitely; everlasting quality; (2) stay; visit; sojourn (3) term; tenure; duration i.e. de corta permanencia = short-term, short-lived

oho

Re: True false friends 2

Postby oho » 2020-11-13, 7:11

OldBoring wrote:
(en) practically
(es) prácticamente (1) practically; (2) through practice
(it) practicamente basically

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-11-14, 18:50

(en) avuncular
(de) onkelhaft

This one is interesting to me because it's a difference of connotation rather than denotation (doubtless stemming from different cultural stereotypes around the behaviour of uncles). Duden labels onkelhaft as "meist abwertend" ("usually pejorative") and says, yes, it means "kindly" but also "gönnerhaft [und herablassend]" ("patronising [and condescending]").

This makes me wonder if the meaning of English "avuncular" might vary according to dialect.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-11-16, 20:53

(et) avarii crash, accident
(es) avería breakdown, failure

I know I've posted this one before in a different thread but it got me again: hearing about someone who had frequent "averías" on a long trip and my immediate thought was that they had gotten into a lot of car accidents (!), when actually the car kept breaking down. Neither is a good situation but having frequent breakdowns on a long trip with an old car is a lot more understandable than having a lot of car accidents along the way. :mrgreen:

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-11-17, 19:13

This one is really embarrassing. Today I was doing some authority work on Welsh musicians and I was puzzled by the fact that a brass band from Anglesey was referred to as both "Seindorf Beaumaris Band" and just "Beaumaris Band". Beaumaris is the name of the town where it is based and Seindorf, well, I assumed it was a personal name like "Waldorf" and that, at some point in the past, there must have been a rich benefactor of German or German-Jewish origin who endowed the band.

Turns out, "seindorf" is just an older term for "band", a native compound formed from sain "sound" and torf "crowd" (cognate with Latin turba) which shows up in the proper names of other longstanding musical groups in Wales.
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Dormouse559 » 2020-11-23, 6:31

It was mentioned last year that "notorious" has negative connotations in English while its Romance cognates are neutral/positive. I happened upon another set of this kind of false friend:

(en) egregious - especially bad; conspicuous
(it)/(es) egregio - distingished, illustrious
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby OldBoring » 2020-11-24, 16:42

I may consider myself lucky for having never written "Egregious Sir" (egregio signore in Italian) in my life... :para:

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-11-27, 18:32

Basically the issue here is that this word is much less often used figuratively in English (where by "figuratively" I mean "not pertaining to literal nerve pain") and when it is used figuratively in English, it is with a consistently negative meaning. It is therefore a false friend for English speakers when used with meaning (2) in the other languages, even more so when meaning (2) is meant to have a neutral or positive connotation.

(en) neuralgic (1) pertaining to neuralgia (severe pain along a nerve) (2) causing or feeling very strong, painful emotions
(es) neurálgico (1) pertaining to neuralgia (severe pain along a nerve) (2) decisive, crucial, central
(ca) neuràlgic (1) pertaining to neuralgia (severe pain along a nerve) (2) decisive, crucial, central
(fr) névralgique (1) pertaining to neuralgia (severe pain along a nerve) (2) decisive, crucial, central
(pt) nevrálgico, neurálgico (1) pertaining to neuralgia (severe pain along a nerve) (2) decisive, crucial, central
(it) nevralgico, neuralgico (1) pertaining to neuralgia (severe pain along a nerve) (2) decisive, crucial, central

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby h34 » 2020-12-01, 17:01

(no) å være sosial
= to be sociable

(de) sozial sein/handeln
= to be socially minded, to act in a socially conscious or public-spirited way

Corona-related examples:
(no) Vær sosial, men hold avstand.
= Be sosial, but keep the distance.
(de) Sei sozial, halte Abstand.
= Be sozial; (thus) keep the distance.

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Re: True false friends 2

Postby linguoboy » 2020-12-01, 20:42

(ca) noia girl
(pt-BR) noia drug addict, crazie
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Re: True false friends 2

Postby Osias » 2020-12-02, 0:23

I always thought there was an accent on the o. Rules for graphic accents on the second to last syllables are the worst.
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