Friday, September 15, 2006

False Friends

Those who learn other languages than their own will sometimes come across words which look or sound the same as English but mean very different things:

kill (Arabic) good friend
bless (Icelandic) goodbye
aye (Amharic, Ethiopia) no
snags (Afrikaans) during the night
sofa (Icelandic) sleep
purr (Scotttish Gaelic) to headbutt
hoho (Hausa, Nigeria) condolences on a death

Has anyone come across any other amusing ones ?