'False friends' or 'Useful friends'?

Are false friends really an impediment?

Throughout my school life I have been told that I had to be very careful with them... But, is that true?

But first of all: do we know what they are? Yes? No?

Let's remember it just in case ...

--> FALSE FRIENDS: False friends are words in two languages (or letters in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning.

Now that we have remembered what they are ... What do you think? Are they helpful or just serve to distract us? They make us go wrong? All my life I have thought they are "negative". At school they always told me: BEWARE OF THEM! But for a short time I think that this is not so, they can be very useful! And now you are thinking: why is she saying that? Don't worry, I'll explain it to you!

--> Why can false friends be useful? It's simple: they make us notice more, they catch our attention. Everything that is different, that is curious, will be easier to remember for us. For this reason, the false friends make us realize that this word does not really mean what we think. We know it, we pay attention, and there we have it! WE REMEMBER IT! Are curious facts that make us see that this is not what it seems to be, and just because of that we'll remember that this word is not a normal word.

For example, when I was in Secundary School, I was reading a text and suddenly the word actually appeared. What did I think? Easy! I thought the word meant actualment in Catalan. But that was not true! Later on I discovered the real meaning, which is something like en realitat. What curious!- I thought. From that moment I never forgot what that word meaning. Why? Because it did not mean what I thought!

On the other hand, throughout my life, I have read many texts in which I have found words that I did not understand. Many of them I have looked for in the dictionary or in the translator. And if you ask me now how many of them I remember I would say: very few. They were not interesting! Just simple words…

Therefore, what makes false friends different is that they catch our attention, and because of that is easier to remember them! So, friends, let's use them to teach and learn English! It’s a funny way of learning English, in my opinion!

Here I leave you a small list of my favorite false friends, enjoy!:

WORD IN ENGLISH - WHAT WE THINK THAT IT MEANS IN CATALAN -> WHAT REALLY MEANS IN CATALAN

Actually - Actualment ->En realitat, realment

Argument - Argument -> Discusió

Dessert - Desert -> Postre

Embarrassed - Embarassada -> Avergonyit

Library - Llibreria -> Biblioteca

Eventually - Eventualment, ocasionalment -> A llarg termini

Apology - Apologia -> Disculpa

Do you know more? Which ones are your favorites? Do you want to share some of them with us? Feel free to do it in our comments!