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Old 10-10-2012, 10:35 AM   Top  -  End  -  #507
Eldan
Colossus in the Playground
 
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: 
Switzerland
Gender: Male
Default Re: Musings on Language #2

Oh yes. There's a ton of words that are written or pronounced the same way in English and German, but mean different things.

The English word "Gift" is a present. It's also the German word for "Poison".
Or the German verb "winken", which does not mean "to wink", but "to wave" (your hands at someone to say goodbye).
Or even the small word "also", which is used commonly in both languages, but is just different enough in meaning to be annoying.

There's tons of them. Blamieren (to embarrass, not to blame), bekommen (to get sth (i.e. a gift), not to become), dezent (unobtrusive, not decent), fast (almost, not fast), and so on (the last few from an online list, just a few chosen ones from the A-F section).
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