I like to discover Spanish words etc that look familiar in English but turn out to mean something else. They are called false friends in some phrase books.
Here are some that I have noted.
An extintor is an extinguisher.
Area restringada means restricted area.
Empaque resellable means resealable packet.
Desfrutar is to enjoy something. I dis-fruit chocolate?
Despertar means wake up. 'Despierta tu inspiration' is Starbucks' theme. Darned if I can translate it idiomatically. 'Wake up your inspiration' doesn't sound right.
A tormenta is a storm
Exito means success.
Diversion is amusement.
Did you know 'refried' beans are not actually refried. The Spanish prefix 're' means 'well' but in English means 'again'. For some reason in English the term 'refried' was adopted without translation.
Toilets
El bano (ban-yo)in Latin America is the toilet (like US).
Here in Mexico most hand drying paper dispensers in toilets have infrared beams that sense your hand stretching out for a piece of paper & dole out precisely one sheet's worth for you to tear off. Why hasn't the rest of the world got this?
Seen on inside of a bus
Conserve su vocabulario. Watch your tongue!
Colgate toothpaste is called Coal-Ghat-Ay. Amused when I first heard it advertised on TV.
Fruit
A guanabana is a cherimoya with bumpy bits
A noni is the most repulsive fruit I've ever tasted...how do they eat it!
No comments:
Post a Comment