Oropeza, César Mgter.

María José Alemán

May 15, 2019 Written Composition III

Do You Know the Meaning?

Nor for a moment did I imagine I would end up moving to Argentina. Getting used to the new
language was not easy. Although Portuguese bears close resemblance to Spanish, I found the
process of learning Spanish quite challenging. What remained a challenge, however, was not so
much the understanding of Spanish grammar or the pronunciation of words, but the meaning.
There were some Portuguese and Spanish words that sounded and looked similar, and even some
words were spelled the same, but regarding meaning they were subtly different. These tricky
words, which led me to embarrassing moments, are more commonly known as false friends, and
during the adaptation process of my new life in Argentina I faced some of them.

One example of a false friend is the word ¨reto¨. The word ¨reto¨ in Portuguese means rectum,
but in Spanish it means challenge. The first time I read this word in the newspaper headline ¨El
gran reto de Gustavo¨, I was stupefied. It was not until minutes later that I realized that Gustavo
was a swimmer, and wanted to swim across the Lake Nahuel Huapi. From that moment on,
headlines like ¨Vivir es un reto¨ or ¨El reto de mi vida¨ no longer confused me.

Another example of a word that led me to confusion several times is the word ¨borrar¨. I
remember being in a class of graphic design working with some house-sketches, when the teacher
approached me. He carefully saw my design and with a look of disapproval he told me ¨borra la
luz¨, and so I did. I stood up and turned off the light of the room without hesitation. Every student
in the classroom fiercely looked and yelled at me ¨what are you doing! ¨. What I did not know was
that my teacher meant that I should ¨erase¨ the light from the house-sketches and not ¨turn off¨
the light of the room. In Brazil, ¨borrar¨ means ¨turn off¨, and so I got terribly confused.

The most significant example is the word ¨exquisito¨. Had I realized that there would be a
terrible misunderstanding when I uttered ¨que cachorro esquisito¨, I would have remained silent.
A day like any other day I went out with some new friends to the pet store to buy some dog food.
All of a sudden my friends yelled ¨ oh! These puppies are the cutest in the world! ¨. When I turned
around to see them, one of the puppies called my attention as it had black lines on his chest, and
Oropeza, César Mgter. María José Alemán
May 15, 2019 Written Composition III

so I exclaimed ¨que cachorro esquisito! ¨. The owner immediately looked at me and said ¨get out
of my store¨. I had to explain to the shocked owner that I meant ¨unusual¨ and that I was not a
puppy eater.

I could keep giving examples like these and the list would never end, but these ones were the
roughest. Although I struggled at the beginning of my adaptation to Argentina, I ended up learning
all these differences between these similar words. It would be a good idea to learn all these ¨false
friends¨ so as to avoid moments of embarrassment in front of native speakers. Learning them will
be completely helpful, believe me!