you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 7 months ago (5 children)

mare:

  • french: pond
  • english: female horse
  • italian: ocean
  • dutch: message

P.S the word for what you're describing is either homonym (spelled the same, sounds the same) or a heteronym (spelled the same, sounds different). Wiktionary has a good table

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    No, what they're describing is a False Friend. A very specific type of homophone/graph/nym. They work across languages. And in many cases (though not a hard rule) have close enough meaning/usage that would confuse non-native speakers trying to comprehend things via context.

    E.g. A German telling his English friend, "I'll meet you at the gymnasium". The sentence is correct, and makes perfect sense to both. But they'll end up at two different places.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    OP wrote (emphasis mine)

    What are the most confusing false friends from your language to another that are spelled exactly the same?

    Definitions of a heteronym

    wikipedia

    A heteronym (also known as a heterophone) is a word that has a different pronunciation and meaning as another word but the same spelling.

    dictionary.com

    a word spelled the same as another but having a different sound and meaning

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments