Tuesday, April 2, 2024

German False Cognates

German and English are both Germanic languages. They share many common words. However, a number of words are false cognates. They look the same as English words, but they do not have the same meaning. Here is a list of ten false cognates:

also (thus)
bald (soon)
fast (almost)
das Gift (the poison)
die Hose (the pants)
der Hut (the hat)
die Pest (the plague)
der Rat (the advice)
der Sender (the broadcaster)
die Wand (the wall)

German nouns are always capitalized. The article das is for neuter nouns, die is for feminine ones, and der is for masculine ones. Most of the false cognates from the list are nouns, but three are adverbs.


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