Look! I got a gift from my friends! How nice of them. Huh? What?
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Back in the video on what I find fascinating about the German language, I mentioned a few
false friends between German and English. And these are words that look and perhaps
sound alike in the two languages, but do not mean the same thing.
And I said that I love false friends. Sure, they can be confusing in the moment, but all
in all I’m fascinated by them and actually think that the little and usually pretty harmless
mix-ups they cause keep things in life interesting. So let's look a few more today.
In English this is a gift. Not in German. In German "Gift" means something a little bit
more sinister. It means poison.
Bye honey! I’ll be back bald! Huh? In German, "bald" means soon, but in English it has a
very different meaning. Someone who’s bald doesn’t have any hair on their head.
This one really cracks me up. Just really amuses me. So in English this is mist. A lovely
light spray of water. In German not so much.
In German "Mist" is actually manure. But it has a slang meaning as well, which is like
dang it! So if something happens that you don’t like, for example you drop an egg on the floor,
you could say "oh Mist!"
I actually learned about this word in college in America when I took an international advertising
class. The teacher explained to us that some company had made this curling iron that also
misted and they called it the Mist Stick. Sales were fine in America but surprisingly
the Mist Stick didn’t do so well in the German market. Hmmm I wonder why. Manure stick
for your hair.
If someone calls you this in German, don’t worry, they aren’t hoping for three wishes.
This doesn’t mean, like in English, genie -- a spirit that comes out of a lamp to grant
your wishes -- but actually, it’s a compliment because in German this word means genius.
So go you, you smartypants.
This one really shocked me when I first came to Germany and saw it written all over the
downtown shops: schmuck, schmuck, schmuck, schmuck, schmuck, schmuck, schmuck all over
the place. And I thought what is with everyone here? Because in English a schmuck
is basically a fool, a foolish person. But in German "Schmuck" is jewelry.
In English a wand is what a fairy godmother has to help grant wishes. Bippity boppity boo.
But in German it’s not magical at all. A "Wand" is a wall.
And last but not least, in English N-O-T, not, is used to express negation. So when
I first came to Germany and saw not, not, not written all over the place, over fire
extinguishers and doors, I was a little taken aback. Until I learned that "Not" means emergency
in German. And then that made a lot more sense.
So my question for you is: what false friends stories do you have? Have you ever been tripped
up by a false friend or had a little mix-up with someone because of a false friend?
Please let me know in the comments below.
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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen.
Let's see what I got for a gift.
Oh look! It's Super Dickmann's! Just what I always wanted.
Auf Wiedersehen.