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Why “angina” is not “sore throat”, but “resin” is not “rubber”, or False translator friends

Germans who learn English as a second language have a very common joke.

The English word “become” and the German “bekommen” are very similar in spelling and sound. But they mean different things. “Become” - “become, transform”, and “bekommen” - “get, find.”

The German mixed up the words and, having come to the butcher's shop, asked: “Where can I become a sausage?” Instead of “Where can I find sausage?” it turned out, “Where can I become a sausage?”.

This is the whole danger of the translator’s false friends. Words in different languages ​​that look the same but have completely different meanings. Today we’ll talk about them.



What are “false translator friends” and why do they exist?


Languages ​​of different countries and peoples did not appear from nowhere. Many of today's languages ​​have evolved side by side over many centuries and have common roots.

For example, Russian, English and Hindi belong to the Indo-European language family. Therefore, even in such radically different at first glance lexical systems, one can find something in common.

The languages ​​of peoples that were geographically neighbors inevitably influenced each other. But often words passed from language to language with a slightly changed meaning. And the further, the more the value changed.

, , «diamond» — , , , . ( ).

.

«dyamaunt», «diamant». «» « ».

— «adamas». , . , Marvel «» .



. — «ἀδάμας» (adamas). — . , — . , . XXV–XXI .

. . .

  • — «diamond». , , . «» .
  • — «». «» «». .
  • — «і». «», « ».
  • Polish - "diament". It is used only in the meaning of "rough diamond", mainly in the technical fields.

The values ​​are approximately similar, but the nuances are very different. But if the Englishman says “two of diamonds”, then most likely he means “two tambourine”, and not “two diamonds, three carats ”.

It turns out that one word in different languages ​​can be transformed as you like. And there are cases when words completely change their meanings, but they are equally written in different languages.

If you do not know the correct translation of the word, then with a probability of 99%, a person will make a mistake. This is all the cunning of the translator’s false friends.

, . «angina». , ? . , . , . «angina» «», «». «» «tonsillitis».

« »


In fact, there is only one way - to learn them before they fall into your “natural habitat” environment.

Because it is impossible to determine the correct value in a logical way, by analogy or by context.

We learn some common words at the elementary level. For example, absolutely everyone who teaches English knows that “family” is a “family” and not a “last name”.

But practically all students are genuinely surprised that the “Caucasian man” most often means not “Caucasian”, but “white man” in its most politically correct meaning.

We have put together a short list with false translator friends in English who are worth knowing from the Intermediate level.

Accurate — ( )
Actually — , ( )
Balloon — ( )
Behemoth — , , ( )
Biscuit — , ( )
Bra — , ( -)
Brilliant — , , ( )
Cabinet — , , ( )
Clay — ( )
Collaboration — ( )
Decoration — , , ( )
Dutch — ( )
Fabric— ( )
Genial — , ( )
Herb — ( )
Identity — , ( )
List — ( )
Magazine — ( , - )
Paragraph — ( )
Pretend — ( )
Profane — , ( )
Prospect — ( )
Resin — ( )
Servant — , ( )
Sympathy — , ( )

The main problem with the translator’s false friends is that they hide under completely understandable forms. In a pair of English-Russian languages, more than a thousand words are known in all, the meanings of which are either completely different from our usual lexemes or partially differ from them. It is clear that to learn the whole thousand is a task worse than memorizing all irregular verbs. Yes, and there is little sense in this, because 90% of these words are rarely used.

99 , , , « ».

ED Words -.

, — - ED Words . falsefriends ED Words 10 .

Conclusion: if an unknown word is found in the text, spend 10 seconds and look at its meaning in the dictionary. This will help protect against false friends.

As for the English-Russian language pair, there have been several attempts to create a complete dictionary of false translator friends.

On the Internet we found a book by A. Pakhotin, "English-Russian, Russian-English explanatory dictionary of deceitful words (" false friends ") . "



Here, for example, one of the turns. The text describes quite fully and clearly why the word cannot be translated in a certain way and what meanings it actually has.

There is also an online dictionary compiled by K. Krasnov . Although descriptions are not so detailed in it, there are all the nuances of translations.

Or, for example, there is stillspecial section on Wikipedia . In general, check where convenient.

But let us add that it is best to look at the meaning of unknown words in English dictionaries. For example, the Cambridge Dictionary . So you can be sure that the word is used in a certain way.

So learn English and win an unconditional victory over the false friends of the translator.

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