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Better German Podcast with Susi

Susanne Schilk-Blümel
Since 09/2023 42 episodes

When Gift Means Poison: Surprising German-English False Friends

Better German Podcast Episode 41

2025-07-31

Description & Show Notes

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Summary
In this episode of Better German, host Susi Blumel explores the often confusing concept of “false friends”—German words that look or sound like English ones but mean something entirely different. With relatable stories and examples like Gift, become, and Rat, Susi highlights how these tricky pairs can lead to misunderstandings. She shares practical tips for spotting and mastering false friends, including smart vocabulary-building strategies and the importance of a good dictionary. The episode also gives a shoutout to the free Better German Community—which is completely free to join and is an encouraging space for learners to connect and keep growing!

Introduction
Welcome to another episode of Better German! In today’s episode, host Susi Blumel dives into the fascinating and sometimes hilarious world of “false friends”—those tricky words that sound similar in German and English but mean totally different things. Susi shares her own first encounter with the confusion these words can cause, like mistaking the English word “gift” for poison, and breaks down some of the most common and confusing false friends you might run into as a learner of German. Plus, she’ll share some practical tips on how to not fall into the language false friends trap. Whether you’ve struggled with words like “become” or “brave,” or just want to avoid embarrassing mix-ups, you’ll find plenty of helpful examples and advice in this episode. Grab your dictionary and get ready to laugh as we uncover all the ways language learning can keep us on our toes!

Key Topics 🔎False Friends Between German & English 
  • What “false friends” are—and how they sneakily confuse language learners
  • Susi’s story: mistaking “Gift” (poison) for “gift” (present)—plus other classic mix-ups
  • Why trusting your instincts can be risky when vocabulary looks familiar
  • Practical strategies for avoiding false friend pitfalls
  • Why building vocabulary isn't optional—and how it fuels fluency, education, and career
  • What to do when a sentence just doesn't make sense—it might be a false friend!
  • Learn key German-English false friends (with context and meaning): 
    ▫️“bekommen” vs. “become” 
    ▫️“fast” (almost) vs. “fast” (quick) 
    ▫️“brav” vs. “brave,” “Aktuell,” “Fabrik,” and more
  • Practice ideas: 
    ▫️Pause and check unknown words while watching or reading 
    ▫️Look up full definitions—not just quick translations 
    ▫️Make example sentences to solidify understanding
  • Bonus: Share your false friend moment in the Better German community
  • Final word: Join the conversation, leave a review, and keep learning smarter!
Related Episodes🎧
Episode 1: Introduction to Better German
Episode 4: How to Learn German
Episode 5: Introduction to Articles
Episode 40: Colors

Other Resources📚
  • Check out this Interactive German Movie Guide  with suitable TV shows and movies with subtitles in your language, so you can start using movies to learn right away! Watching German movies and TV shows is great to help you learn German. In this guide, you will find 
  • Listen to All The Episodes Published So Far !

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Transcript

False friends, so there is something, that is called a false friend. And a false friend is a, word that sounds as if it should have the same or similar meaning in two different languages, and it's not. "Fast" English is "schnell" in German, but in German "fast" has nothing to do with speed. It means almost. Ich bin fast fertig. I'm almost done. Welcome to the Better German podcast. I am Susi Blümel, a German teacher and founder of Better German. This podcast helps to learn German in a simple and clear way. With useful words, clear sentence structures, pronunciation, and real life topics from daily life and culture. You'll also get tips for learning German and understanding how the language actually works. And when you are ready, we have a free community and courses to support you even more. All right, welcome. So this is about false friends, so there is something, that is called a false friend. And a false friend is a, word that sounds as if it should have the same or similar meaning in two different languages and it's not. Maybe let's look at first how things could have similar meanings and so they are no false friends. So For example, German and English are related languages, and you see that in a lot of words. "Father" English "father" is German " Vater," "Fisch" is "fish," " mother" is "Mutter". —"house" is "Haus." So there are very many words that sound the same, or very similar, and you can correctly guess what they are. However, sometimes there are, words that really sound as if they should be something particularly, and they are not. Of course, this is not just between German and English, that can exist between any languages, maybe not exactly between German and Chinese so much, but any languages that are somehow related. So let's start with one example that is kind of simple. That is actually a good one, because that was maybe the first time I realized that there is something like false friends, and I did not know the term at this point, but when I found out later, I actually had a laugh out of it. The first time I was in an English speaking country was when I was 14 years old. I was in, we call it, "vierte Klasse," which is fourth grade, but, we count it differently. anyway, so I was 14 years old. I had learned English at that time, seriously for four years, because we do learn it a little bit earlier than that, but real lessons with a teacher that has a curriculum and stuff like that for four years. And I was in England for the first time and the first time in an English speaking country. By the way, I do understand all people that learn foreign languages and how tough it can be, if you go to a different country. So I was there and there was a gift shop and that was very confusing for me. Depending on what your level of German is, you may or may not realize why. So, gift, "Gift" I do not even think that there is any difference in the pronunciation. " Gift" in German is poison. And I was like, "Why poison shop?" and it did not make sense and it looked to me like a paper shop, paper supply shop, The English word, "gift", is in German "Geschenk," in the sense of present, and we do not have really "Geschenk Geschäfte." Sometimes we have these, maybe in hospitals and stuff like that. It was probably a train station where I saw that, maybe even the airport. Anyway, I was very confused and I think I was confused for at least another hour, and that is also a very good example of what can happen if you do not understand something, particularly words, in this case we're talking about language, so if you do not understand a word, things can become very, very confusing. I'm definitely not an advocate of that philosophy that exists, in, I think it's particularly a thing in the German speaking area, where they say, "Okay, good, fine, if there is words that you do not understand, do not worry. Just keep reading. Get used to it." So I've been teaching languages for almost 20 years professionally, as a teacher, getting people to pay me to help them, and I have always seen that it's important to learn and to understand words and not ignore them. So let's go into more examples of false friends. I'm also going to give you some tips other than just, "Okay, you have to look them up," on how to see that this could be a false friend. So, okay, good. A very, very important one is "become" and "bekommen." So English "become," in the sense of "make a development." And so, "he's becoming a teacher". In German " bekommen," means to receive something. So that would be "get." So, "I'm getting a gift." That could be very confusing Another one that could be happening is "Rat." "Der Rat," in German is an advice and you write it, R-A-T, so like "rat". So "ein Rat" If you give somebody , "einen Rat," ich brauche einen Rat" means, "I need some advice." It does not mean "I need a rat". I think that could be confusing too. Another one, "fast" -English, is "schnell" in German, but in German, "fast," has nothing to do with speed. It means, "almost." "Ich bin fast fertig" -"I'm almost done" "Ich habe fast kein Geld mehr," "I am almost out of money". "fast" means almost. Then, another one, "brav" and brave. So "brav," is well behaved. You use that with children and dogs maybe. I do not think we use it on adults so much. It's a little weird if you say, my husband's well behaved. I would never think of that. But if you say, um, "Ja, jetzt sei brav,"   ("be good" or "be well behaved") like, I will say that to my dog, actually. I have no idea if he uh, understands that. maybe he does not understand German, anyway, so, obviously it's not brave, it's not courageous, so it's well-behaved. "Brav" I hope you like what you hear. I wanted to mention this, so the best way to learn German with me is through my life group courses. You get real teaching, you get life support, and you get a clear path to really learn German and use the language. We also offer self-paced courses and the free community with resources and practice. All of that you find on bettergerman.info. Then let me do another one, "aktuell." So "Ich höre aktuelle Nachrichten" That means, " current," "up to date." That would mean the sentence I just said, "ich höre aktuelle Nachrichten," - "I'm listening to current news." So I'm going to just give you a few more. "Kaution" in German, you could mix it up with "caution," but what it means is "deposit." Usually when you, rent an apartment in Austria- you usually have to give a deposit. The usual thing is three months, maybe four, with the first rent. That is a deposit, and in German, that is "die Kaution." Another one, " eine Billion"- 1 billion. That is I think between German and American English, I'm not sure about. UK by the way, so let me know. Is that the case also in the UK? " Eine Billion" is 1 trillion. That is a number with 12 digits. And another one, "Sparen" means to save money. "To spare" someone in German, that would be, "jemanden verschonen", "not do anything to him". That is "to spare" someone. Okay, I have a few more. A "fabric" in English is a " Stoff" in German, like the materials, and, " eine Fabrik, die Fabrik," is a factory. German word, "die Fabrik," means it's a factory or plant There is another set, "Icon" and "Ikone." "Icon" is a symbol, like when you have small icons in the computer world or maybe you could even call emojis, icons. They are special kind of icons. That is also an icon in German, we have taken over a lot of computer words. But, there is this word "Ikone" and that is the picture we have in some churches, or it could be also an icon in one particular sense, like somebody's an icon of beauty or something like that. Then we have the word "sea" and "See" The word "sea" in English is of course referring to ocean, you know, big amounts of water, and in German, this is "Meer." So by the way, "Ozean" and "ocean" works. There is a German word "der Ozean," and that is English, "the ocean." And Then, for kind of smaller parts of the ocean that we call sea, in German we call it "Meer." And "einen See," the German word "See" is a "lake", in English another, the word, "another" in English means in the sense of "an additional one," "ein weiterer." "Ein anderer," is "a different one." It could be the same, but it could be wrong too. So, "ein anderer" is a different person, a different one, and " another" can mean an additional one, that you would have to say, "ein weiterer" or that is an important one: the English word "where" means "wo" and the German word, "wer" where, "wer," they are written similarly, not the same in German, "Wer," you write W-E-R and that means "who?" Then, English "who" is in German "Wer," so there are a few things that could be confusing. I do not want to go into much more, but let me know if that is interesting to you and then I can give you more examples, and I can give you a whole list of them. What I do want to tell you is, first of all, what you have to do in order to not fall into the trap of false friends, is you have to continuously work on your vocabulary. You can learn really, really well by watching TV You should be watching with subtitles You should read books and look up the words in the books, but you should not just do this passively, but you should actively always continue to work on your vocabulary. Make it a point whenever you want to improve German or any language for that matter, you learn, you continuously learn vocabulary. You need like 3000 words to become somewhat fluent, but that is only a start. A relatively uneducated person, in their native language, maybe only uses 5,000 words in their day-to-day life. But, that is still 5,000. That is many more than those famous 3000 words. But, an educated person uses 10 to 20,000 words or more. Very educated person, up to 50,000 words. Basically, the level of education, and with that, the level of potential income and so on, are influenced by the number of words, you know. So, always make it a point of learning new words. And The other thing is, if you hear a sentence and you are wondering, " huh, that does not make any sense?" or just a little bit puzzled, then it's usually because it does not make sense. In that case, just look up the words to be very sure. And really, I also suggest you to use a dictionary and not just a translator, because a dictionary gives you different versions of the words and you can scan through them and find the one that you need in that context. Okay, thank you very much for listening. In any case, let me know what false friends you had problems with. Maybe if there is any funny stories, let me know. And also, if there is some false friends that you are puzzled about, let me also know. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone else who's learning German. it could be exactly what they need. And when you are ready to go further, you'll find everything at bettergerman.info. tune in the next time. Bye bye.

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