FALSE FRIENDS

(ENGLISH – POLISH)

Justyna Filim

False friends

(French: faux

amis) are pairs of words or
phrases in two languages or
dialects (or letters in two
alphabets)[citation needed]
that look or sound similar,
but differ in meaning.

The

term

should

be

distinguished from

"false

cognates",

which

are

similar words in different
languages that appear to
have a common historical
linguistic origin (whatever
their current meaning) but
actually do not.

Both false friends and false
cognates can cause difficulty
for

students

learning

a

foreign language, particularly
one that is related to their
native language, because
students are likely to identify
the words wrongly due to
linguistic interference.

Basic division of false friends:

Total false friends

-

pairs of words which
meanings are completely
disparate although they
look or sound practically
the same,

Polish

English

Accurate

translation

of English

word

Accurate

translation

of Polish

word

karnacja

carnation

goździk

complexion

konduktor

conductor

dyrygent

ticket

controler

paw

paw

łapa

peacock

data

data

dane

date

sad

sad

smutny

orchard

klozet

closet

szafa

toilet

Polish

English

Accurate

translation

of English

word

Accurate

translation

of Polish

word

pies

pies

placki

dog

list

list

lista

letter

sad

sad

smutny

orchard

fabryka

fabric

Materiał

factory

ewentualnie

eventually

w końcu

alternatively

patetyczny

pathetic

żałosny

exalted

Partial false friends

-

pairs of words which
meanings are slightly
similar (but narrower or
broader) although they
look or sound
practically the same.

e.g. English word

dog

and the

Polish

dog

are party similar in

meaning, but the Polish word

dog

has a narrower range as

it denotes only one breed of
dog; the word has undergone
the semantic process called
specialization.

Thank you for your
attention :)