falsche Freunde (fAl-shuh fRoyn-duh)

I am starting to get excited about the days I'll spend in Deutschland in a few weeks, but I gotta say, it is slow moving for me learning this stuff.

I am loving all the 'cognates' - those words that look like what they actually mean in English- bier/beer, mein/mine, kommen/to come, you get the idea.

Now however, I have come upon false friends, also known as falsche Freunde ( again with the capitalized nouns!)

Linguistically, false friends are words spelled the same or almost the same in two languages that have different meanings.

For example-in English fast is an adjective. In German, fast is an adverb and means almost.

In English, knack is a noun, and in German it is also a noun but means old fogy.

Lastly- as an example, but by no means the end to my study of false friends- in English after is an adverb whereas in German it is a noun and means anus. ACHTUNG!!!

I love this stuff.