German: False Cognates

Hello all, Chris here. Today I would like to share a few false cognates between German and English which students are likely to mix up. I always find it useful to present some of these early on so that students learn the corrects words before they get int he habit of using them incorrectly. In many cases the cognates can lead to some humorous sentences. Nevertheless, using the wrong word will drastically change the meaning of a sentences and can lead to serious misunderstanding. Here are a few common ones:

             English/German                                                 German/English
actual/actually --> eigentlich               vs          akutell       --> current, up-to-date

also                  --> auch                      vs          also            --> thus, therefore

(to)become     --> werden                   vs          bekommen --> to get, receive

fast                 --> schnell                    vs           fast             --> almost

gift (present)  --> (das)Geschenk       vs           (das)Gift    --> poison

I will present more of these in future posts!

• What other false cognates do you know?
• What are false cognates between other languages? French vs. Spanish etc?
• How would you teach your students about these false cognates?
• Should these be explicitly taught or implicitly as they arise?