English and German share so many words that reading German feels like cheating for the first week. Then you see a bottle labelled Gift, and a job advert asking for someone brav, and a sign that says the shop will open bald. Gift is poison. Brav is well-behaved. Bald means soon. These are false friends: words that look like English, sound like English and mean something else, sometimes something embarrassing.
There are a few hundred of them, but only about two dozen turn up in daily life often enough to cause trouble. Here are the 25 that every English speaker falls for, grouped by how much damage they do.
The ones that cause real misunderstandings
1. Gift is poison. A present is das Geschenk. The word Mitgift (dowry) still carries the old meaning of „something given“, which is the only place the two languages agree.
2. bald means soon. Bis bald! is „see you soon“. A bald head is eine Glatze.
3. Chef is the boss, in any company. The person cooking is der Koch. If a German says „my chef is angry“, nobody is in a kitchen.
4. Handy is a mobile phone, a German invention from the 1990s that sounds English and is not. Handy in the English sense is praktisch.
5. also means „so“ or „therefore“, and Germans use it constantly to start a sentence: Also, was machen wir? „So, what shall we do?“ The English „also“ is auch.
6. brav means well-behaved, obedient, and is said of children and dogs. Brave is mutig. Calling a soldier brav is a compliment to his manners.
7. Rat is advice, or a council. Das Rathaus is the town hall, not a house of rats. The animal is die Ratte.
8. bekommen means to get, to receive. It does not mean to become; that is werden. Ich bekomme ein Bier means „I’m getting a beer“, and the classic learner sentence „I become a beer“ is what a German hears when you use the English word the other way round.
The ones that make you sound odd
9. aktuell means current, up to date. Actually is eigentlich. Die aktuelle Version is the latest version.
10. eventuell means possibly, perhaps. Not eventually, which is schließlich. If a German colleague says something will „eventually“ happen, they may mean it might not happen at all.
11. sympathisch means likeable, pleasant. It says nothing about sympathy. Er ist sehr sympathisch is „he is a really nice guy“.
12. sensibel means sensitive. Sensible is vernünftig. A sensibles Thema is a touchy subject.
13. Gymnasium is an academic secondary school, the one that leads to university. The place with the weights is das Fitnessstudio. Germans say ich gehe ins Gym in English, so the confusion runs both ways.
14. Rente is a pension. Rent is die Miete. In Rente gehen is to retire.
15. spenden means to donate. To spend money is ausgeben. Blut spenden is to give blood.
16. Kaution is a deposit, the money you pay a landlord. Caution is die Vorsicht. Every rental listing has a Kaution, usually three months‘ rent.
17. Provision is a commission, the percentage an agent takes. Provisions in the sense of supplies are der Proviant.
The ones you see on signs and menus
18. Menü is a set meal, several courses at a fixed price. The list you order from is die Karte or die Speisekarte. Ask for the Menü and you will get the daily special.
19. Fabrik is a factory. Fabric is der Stoff.
20. Prospekt is a brochure or leaflet. A prospect is die Aussicht. Shops hand out Prospekte with the week’s offers.
21. Mist is manure, and by extension „rubbish“ or „damn“. So ein Mist! is what a German says when the train is cancelled. Fog and mist are der Nebel. The perfume called Irish Mist sold badly in Germany, for this reason.
22. Rock is a skirt. The music is also Rock, so context decides. Ein kurzer Rock is a short skirt.
23. See is a lake when masculine (der See) and the sea when feminine (die See). One word, two articles, two bodies of water. Der Bodensee is Lake Constance.
24. Kind is a child. Kind in the English sense is nett or freundlich. Kindergarten you already knew, and now you know why.
25. fast means almost. Quick is schnell. Fast fertig is „almost finished“, which is worth knowing when a builder says it.
Why these words exist
Most false friends are relatives that drifted apart. Gift and gift both come from „to give“; German kept the sense „a dose given“, English kept the present. Bald and bold share a root meaning „quick, brave“, and German narrowed it to speed while English changed it to courage. Others are recent borrowings that German bent to its own use, Handy and Chef among them.
Knowing this does not help you avoid the mistake, but it explains why your instinct is so confident and so wrong. The word feels familiar because it is family. It just moved out a thousand years ago.
Say it like this
Ich habe ein Geschenk für dich. – I have a present for you. (not Gift)
Ich bekomme einen Kaffee, bitte. – I’ll have a coffee, please. (bekommen = get; this is how Germans order)
Also, bis bald! – So, see you soon!
Mein Chef ist sehr sympathisch. – My boss is really nice.
How to learn them so they stick
Do not learn false friends as a list of warnings. Learn them in sentences where the German meaning is obvious, so the new meaning overwrites the English one: Vorsicht, Gift! on a bottle, Bis bald at the end of a phone call, Mein Chef in an office. The more of these you read in context, the faster the English meaning stops popping up.
Bilingual stories are the best tool for this, because you see the German sentence with the English translation beside it and the false friend explains itself. The course we describe on our page Learn German with an English interface includes bilingual stories and novels for exactly this kind of reading. And if you are moving to Germany, several of these words, Kaution, Miete, Rente, Provision, will be on the first forms you sign. We have collected the vocabulary for that in Moving to Germany: the German you actually need in your first month.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common German false friend?
For learners, bekommen (to get) versus „become“ causes the most actual mistakes, because it is a verb used every day. Gift (poison) is the most famous one but rarely leads to a real misunderstanding, since the context is usually clear.
Are there English words that Germans get wrong the same way?
Yes, and the same list works in reverse. Germans say „I become a beer“, „my chef“ for their boss, „eventually“ when they mean possibly, and „handy“ for a mobile phone. Knowing the list helps you understand German colleagues speaking English.
Is Handy a real German word?
Yes. It was coined in Germany in the early 1990s for mobile phones, probably from „handheld“, and is standard German today, spelled with a capital H and taking the article das. English speakers do not use it in this sense.
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