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Common errors made by Spanish learners (Part 2)

By 20 November, 2013October 24th, 2018Spanish language

There are many more False Friends that make students confuse when they start studying Spanish. Most False Friends are between English and Spanish, but there are many of them with French and Italian, too. No one is safe from False Friends. The following are some of the typical mistakes when learning Spanish.

 Compliment-Complemento. “Compliment” means “flattering”, “gift”,  “gallantry” or “flirtatious remark” in Spanish,  whereas “Complemento” refers to something, a quality or circumstance that may be added to any other thing to make it more complete or perfect.

Carpet-Carpeta. “Carpet” means “rug” in Spanish. A Carpeta, on the other hand, is something you use to keep or classify files.

Application-Aplicación. An “Application” is a formal request or petition when translated into Spanish. In Spanish, Aplicación means: 1)Action and effect of applying or applying oneself; 2) effort or determination when you do something, Specially, it is referred to the action of studying; 3) ornamentation or embellishment made from a material different from any other thing on which it is put.

Sensitive-Sensitivo. “Sensitive” means “emotional” in Spanish. Sensitivo refers to the quality of having an especially well-developed sense.

There are also many “false friends” between Spanish and other languages. There are French-Spanish “false friends” (subir/subir. In French subir means “to suffer”; gâteau/gato. In French, gateau means “cookie”; nouvelle-novelaNouvelle means “news” in French; Ombre/Hombre. Ombre means “shadow” in French). We also have Italian-Spanish “false friends” (Aceto/Aceite. In Italian, aceto means “vinegar”) and Portuguese-Spanish “false friends” (Largo/Largo. In portuguese, largo means “wide”).

PART 1 | PART 2

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