Cognates

False cognates are the Achille's heel for ESL students. For languages like Spanish and English, most
of the words that look and sound the same do have the same meaning, making them an instinctive
way to learn a new language. This is because the two languages share many of the same Latin and
Greek roots. Spanish-speaking English Learners who grow accustomed to using their first language
as a basis for learning English can start assuming that all words that sound the same also share the
same meaning. Of course, this is not the case, as anyone who has ever confused the proverbial
"embarazada" with "embarrassed" can tell you.

Learning Spanish vocabulary can seem so easy: Constitutición means "constitution," nación means
"nation," and decepción means "deception," right? Not quite. True, most words that end in -ción
can be translated into English by changing the suffix to "-tion." And the pattern holds true for the
first two words listed above (although constitución refers to how something is constituted more
often than does the English word, which usually refers to a political document). But una decepción
is a disappointment, not a deception.

Spanish and English have literally thousands of cognates, words that are basically the same in both
languages, having the same etymology and similar meanings. But combinations such as decepción
and "deception" are so-called false cognates — known more precisely as "false friends" or falsos
amigos — word pairs that look like they might mean the same thing but don't. They can be
confusing, and if you make the mistake of using them in speech or writing you're likely to be
misunderstood.

Following is a list of some of the most common false friends — some of the ones you're mostly
likely to come across when reading or listening to Spanish:

English Word Spanish False Cognate Correct Spanish Word

actually actualmente en realidad
assist asistir ayudar
attend atender asistir
bizarre bizarro extraño
carpet carpeta alfombra
choke chocar estrangular
deception decepción engaño
embarrassed embarazada avergonzado
exit éxito salida
idiom idioma modismo
large largo grande
library librería biblioteca
parent pariente Padre de familia
realize realizar darse cuenta de
record recordar anotar
sane sano cuerdo
sensible sensible sensato
support soportar apoyar
ultimately últimamente finalmente
vase vaso jarrón
Extension: https://www.spanish.academy/blog/false-cognates/