Spanish-English false friends: clarifying the issue

Maybe you have noticed that many words from Spanish resemble words in English. This is caused by the Latin cultural background that both of these languages share. Nonetheless, such resemblance not always implies that the two words have the same meaning in the respective languages. We, the people from the linguistics field call this phenomenon False Friends.

Even though false friends can be considered to be a real problem whenever you are trying to learn a foreign language, you should not feel distressed by this difficulty. We, the Translate-in-Chile team are willing to lend you a hand to overcome this obstacle in a very gracious fashion. Let us get started!

The following table has five columns: the first one for the Spanish word, the second for its meaning, the third for the English similar word, the fourth for its meaning, and the fifth for the word in Spanish that better conveys the English meaning.

Note: some words resemble others that are different parts of speech. For example, an adjective could be compared to a verb, a verb to a substantive, etc.

Spanish word	Spanish meaning	English word	English meaning	Better word
Actual	Current, at the present time	Actual	Existing in reality	Real, verdadero
Asistir	To attend, to be present	To assist	To help	Ayudar
Bizarro	Brave, courageous	Bizarre	Strange	Extraño, raro
Carpeta	Folder, portfolio	Carpet	Large rug	Alfombra
Compromiso	Promise, commitment	Compromise	Agreement	Acuerdo
Constiparse	To catch a cold	Constipation	Difficulty in emptying the bowels	Estreñimiento
Contestar	To answer	To contest	To quarrel	Discutir
Delito	Crime, offense	To delight	To cause pleasure	Deleitar
Desgracia	Misfortune	Disgrace	Shame	Vergüenza, escándalo
Disgusto	Annoyance	Disgust	Revulsion	Repugnancia
Embarazada	Pregnant	To embarrass	Cause to  be ashamed	Avergonzar
Emocionante	Thrilling	Emotional	Emotionally affected, upset	Emocionado, sensible.
En absoluto	Absolutely not	Absolutely	Totally	Completamente
Éxito	Success, hit	Exit	A way out	Salida
Fábrica	Factory	Fabric	Cloth	Género, tela
Ganga	Bargain	Gang	Group	Pandilla, grupo
Minorista	Retailer	Minority	Small group	Minoría
Molestar	To bother	To molest	To assault sexually	Abusar sexualmente
Once	Eleven	Once	On one occasion	Una vez
Pretender	To expect, to try	To pretend	To fake	Fingir, simular
Realizar	To carry out, to make	To realize	To become aware	Comprender, darse cuenta
Recordar	To remind	To record	To convert into a permanent form	Grabar, capturar
Ropa	clothing	Rope	Thick string	Cuerda, lazo
Sano	Healthy	Sane	Reasonable	Cuerdo, en su sano juicio
Sensible	Sensitive	Sensible	Wise, prudent	Sensato
Suceso	Happening, event	Success	Good outcome	Éxito
Tuna	Fruit of a cactus. Also, a musical club that represent the traditional Spanish colonial musicians.	Tuna	An edible fish	Atún

Thank you for reading! ☺

Source: Article Obvious…But Wrong, from the webpage http://spanish.about.com

By Rocío Viveros