22 Spanish false friends that trip up English speakers

One of the nicest surprises when you start to learn Spanish is how many words you already know. Hospital, animal, chocolate, idea, natural: thousands of words look and mean almost the same in both languages, because both borrowed heavily from Latin.

That generosity comes with a catch. Some words look familiar but mean something quite different. These are false friends (falsos amigos), and they cause some of the most memorable mistakes learners make. Here are the 22 that catch English speakers most often, each with an example and the word you actually want.

The classics everyone falls for

• Embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed. Mi hermana está embarazada de cinco meses. (My sister is five months pregnant.) For embarrassed, say avergonzado/a or, more naturally, me da vergüenza (I'm embarrassed).
• Actual means current or present-day. El presidente actual is the current president. For "actual" in English, use real or verdadero; for "actually", use en realidad.
• Librería is a bookshop. A library is a biblioteca. Compré este libro en una librería del centro.
• Éxito means success. La película fue un éxito. The way out of a building is the salida.
• Constipado means having a cold (mainly in Spain). Estoy constipado, no puedo respirar bien. If your problem is the other one, the word is estreñido.
• Preservativo is a condom. If you're reading food labels, a preservative is a conservante.

Everyday objects and places

• Carpeta is a folder. A carpet is an alfombra (a rug) or moqueta (fitted carpet, in Spain).
• Ropa means clothes. Tengo que lavar la ropa. A rope is a cuerda.
• Fábrica is a factory. Mi abuelo trabajaba en una fábrica de coches. Fabric is tela.
• Vaso is a drinking glass. ¿Me das un vaso de agua? A vase is a jarrón.
• Colegio is a school, usually primary or secondary. College or university is universidad (or facultad for a specific faculty).
• Largo means long, not large. Tiene el pelo muy largo. Large is grande.

Verbs that say something else

• Realizar means to carry out or to do: realizar un proyecto. To realise (to become aware) is darse cuenta: Me di cuenta de que era tarde.
• Asistir means to attend: Asistí a la reunión. To assist (help) is ayudar.
• Atender means to serve, to look after or to pay attention: ¿Ya la atienden? (Are you being served?) It doesn't mean to attend an event; that's asistir a.
• Recordar means to remember or to remind. No recuerdo su nombre. To record (audio or video) is grabar.
• Pretender means to intend or to aim to. Pretendo terminar hoy means "I intend to finish today". To pretend is fingir.
• Soportar means to put up with or to stand. No soporto el ruido. (I can't stand the noise.) To support someone is apoyar.
• Molestar simply means to bother or to annoy. ¿Te molesta si abro la ventana? is a perfectly polite question. Be careful the other way round: the English word "molest" refers to sexual abuse, which in Spanish is abusar de or acosar.

Ideas and feelings

• Decepción means disappointment. Fue una decepción no verte. Deception (tricking someone) is engaño.
• Sensible means sensitive. Tengo la piel muy sensible. A sensible person is sensato/a.
• Suceso is an event or incident, often an unfortunate one; newspapers have a section called sucesos. Success, remember, is éxito.

A few more worth knowing

Once you've got those 22 under control, keep an eye on these too:

• Casualidad is a coincidence (¡Qué casualidad!). A casualty is a víctima or herido.
• En absoluto means not at all. ¿Te molesta? — En absoluto. For "absolutely" as a yes, say totalmente or por supuesto.
• Billón is a million million (a trillion in English). An English billion is mil millones.
• Disgusto is upset or displeasure, not revulsion. Disgust is asco.

How to stop falling into the trap

False friends are sneaky because your brain recognises the word instantly and moves on. A few habits help:

1. Learn them in pairs. Don't just memorise librería = bookshop. Learn the pair: librería (bookshop) and biblioteca (library). The contrast is what sticks.
2. Learn them inside a sentence. Estoy embarazada is harder to forget than a list entry, especially once you imagine saying it by accident.
3. Be suspicious of words that seem too easy. If a Spanish word looks like English but the sentence doesn't quite make sense, check it. Usually the sentence is right and your reading of the word is wrong.
4. Laugh at your mistakes. Every Spanish speaker who has taught English has heard someone announce they were embarazado after a clumsy moment. It's a rite of passage, and people are generally kind about it.

If you're learning with Parlumi, the lessons flag false friends at the moment they come up, with explanations written for English speakers, so you meet actual and éxito with a warning label rather than discovering them the hard way.

The good news is that the list of real traps is short compared with the thousands of honest cognates working in your favour. Learn these, and you can trust your instincts with the rest a little more.