Here are two rather false friends which are quite common among German native speakers. False friend #1: Greet Vienna from us! This is not the proper English phrase, but a false friend based on the German expression Grüße Wien von uns! More generally, the German “jemanden grüßen lassen” translates into the English expression “to send/give
The words price [praɪs] (listen here) and prize [praɪz] (listen here) sound and look quite similar, but have very different meanings. Therefore, make sure that you do not confuse them when writing about any prestigious prizes you won, for example, in a cover letter for a job application. Since both words exist in the English
Here are some false friends that are quite common among German native speakers. When talking about academic fields such as Physics, Mathematics or Genetics, you can quite often hear and read the false friends ‘Physic’, ‘Mathematic’ and ‘Genetic’, because in German the correct names do no have an s at the end: Physik, Mathematik and
The German word ‘Karte’ is used with many different meanings. This fact often leads to confusion among German native speakers, because they use the potential false friend ‘card’ when they speak English. Here are two good examples: Karte (or Speisekarte) [False friend] This is a true classic. Just last week, the waiter in a posh
Most people are very comfortable cursing in their native language, because it is (for so many of us) something we do every day. In recent years, certain English curse words have become very popular also in other languages, most notably the four-letter word starting with an F (yes, an F, see here). However, cursing in
Here’s a false friend a German lady reminded me of today on the train. The correct translation of the German word Platz (short for Sitzplatz) is not place, but seat. Hence, if you are trying to defend or claim your seat, do not say This is my place! Moreover, when asking if a seat is
You all use the punctuation marks “.” and “:” when writing in English. However, in my experience, many German native speakers (and quite possibly other nationals as well) fall into the false-friend trap when actually having to name these symbols. Let me refresh your memory. The symbol “.”, used at the end of sentences as
In my professional environment (university), I often hear and even read two literal and rather awkward translations from German to English. First, people like to use the expression to hold a lecture because the corresponding German expression is eine Vorlesung halten. However, the correct English expression is (see here) to give a lecture. Similarly, the
During a recent chat over lunch, I heard two non-native speakers discuss the power of car engines, and one of them used the expression How many PS does the car have? This is a false friend originating from the German Pferdestärke, which is often abbreviated as PS. The proper English expression would be How much
A remarkable number of German native speakers, including university professors and even Nobel Prize winners, make the mistake of translating Studium into study. For example, they would write 1997-2001 Study of physics in their CV. However, the English noun study translates into the German Studie, but not into Studium. A proper translation to English would