False Friends

False Friends

Very similar words but with a slightly different spelling.

Attention - atención
Delicious - delicioso

​Near perfect cognates

Same spelling and same meaning.

Chocolate - chocolate
Animal - animal

​Perfect Cognates

Cognates

​False Cognates False Friends

False friends are pairs of word in two languages that look and/or sound the same but have different meanings.

They are often confused with a word in another language with a different meaning because they look or sound familiar.

embarrased - embarazada
library - librería

hotel - hotel
sensible - sensible
exit - éxito
actually - actualmente
religious - religioso
simple - simple
carpet - carpeta
public - público

​English - Spanish

10 False Friends in English and Spanish [Infographic] | Oxford House Barcelona (oxfordhousebcn.com)

Bibliography