It’s April 1st, aka April Fool’s day (why is it fool’s day is a story for another day!). So, I chose 5 of my favorite German “False Friends”, i.e. words that are very similar to their English counterparts but have a very different meaning. Any English speaker would be easily fooled by them. Ask me, I have been in Germany for over 11 years and still confuse them!
#1 Chef
This mistake is pretty easy to make. The English word “Chef” which means a cook (a talented one, not like me who just whips up something together and calls it food) is so deeply fixed in our brains that we can’t think of anything else it might mean. Actually, it’s original meaning is different. ‘Chef’ is a French word which means the chief or the head. So, it might refer to any person who heads a team, i.e. the boss of a team, be it a cooking, team, an engineering team, an Olympic rowing team(?) and such. This is the sense in which the word is used in German where it has also been borrowed from French. For a ‘cook’, Germans simply use the word ‘Koch’. So, be careful the next you want to introduce your boss or your cook to someone. Don’t let the cook be your boss or the boss be your cook!
#2 Muster
Okay, these two might look the same but they are pronounced differently and mean totally different things. The German ‘Muster’ is a noun and is pronounced with a short vowel as in ‘book’. The English ‘muster’ is a verb and is pronounced with a small vowel as in ‘hut’. Muster (DE) means ‘pattern‘ or ‘example‘, for example a flowery pattern on a ceramic plate or a document template. In fact, the name ‘Max Mustermann’ is the placeholder name in German (similar to ‘John Doe’ in English). Muster (EN), on the other hand, means ‘to gather‘, as in ‘muster the courage to tell someone something’. The German equivalent would be ‘versammeln’ or ‘zusammenbringen’ or even ‘mustern’ (but keeping the German pronunciation).
#3 Hose
It’s weird how words change their meaning over time or when they are adopted from one language to other. The German word ‘Hose’ is a prime weird example of it (and in German it’s pronounced like the Spanish name José with a longer ‘o’ sound and a shorter ‘é’). It means pants or stockings. But because pants or stockings are shaped like long pipes, this is what it has come to mean in English – pipe. For this meaning, the words ‘Rohr’ or ‘Schlauch’ are used in German. And while I haven’t heard too many British people using the word ‘Hose’ (pronounced ‘houz’), it’s quite commonly used in American English. In pretty much every American TV series I have watched, someone at some point says ‘hose it down” (i.e. wash it thoroughly) or “I will turn the hose on you!” (and shoo you away). And speaking of the English word ‘hose’ and water, there is also an Arabic word that is pronounced the same way and means a water reservoir or fountain. I wonder if there is any connection there?
#4 Brand
Even weirder is the change in the meaning of the word ‘Brand’ when it was adopted from German to English. ‘Brand’ in German means fire (another, easier to learn, word for it is ‘feuer’). So, you might see words like ‘Brandschutz’ (fire safety) in the guidelines of your company. How do we come to the English ‘brand’ from here (no need to tell you what English ‘brand’ mean – the logo, symbol or trademark of a company on a product)? Well, it’s a nice story. Many cattle- and sheep-herders used to (and still do) used fire to burn a symbol on the skin of their animals to mark them in case they are lost or there is a dispute of ownership. This practice of marking something with your symbol came to known as ‘branding’. And in the era of industries and products, when the companies started to mark their products with their names or symbols, the same word ‘branding’ was used. This is how ‘brand’ came to mean what it means in English. Amusing, isn’t it? And by the way, the German word for English ‘brand’ is ‘Marke’ (mark). So, you might hear terms like ‘Top Marke’ or ‘Eigenmarke’ (own brand).
#5 Gift
And in this example, it’s German rather than English that loses points for abandoning the older meaning of a word root. Gift (DE) and Gift (EN) come from the same root of giving but they couldn’t be more different in meaning. While one would be happy to receive a gift (EN), one would avoid, at any cost, receive Gift (DE). Apparently, due to frequently occurring instances of poisoning in the famous German fairytales, the word has come to mean ‘to posion‘ in German. This is my favorite example of ‘False Friends’. In fact, I designed a t-shirt exploiting exactly this meaning difference. It said – “never accept Gift in germany”; the capitalization of the words is deliberate. But the fabric (not “Fabrik”) of it was not very good and I ended up wearing it only a few times!
