Spanish false friends for English speakers: embarazada, actual, librería and the rest

English gives you hundreds of honest Spanish words: la nación, la ciudad, famoso. That is the good news, and it is why so many Spanish words feel familiar. The other side of it is a smaller set of words that look just as familiar and mean something else. They are called false friends, and they are dangerous because they raise no suspicion: your eye knows the shape, and your brain fills in the English meaning before you have a chance to check.

Here are the ones that matter most, grouped by where you'll run into them.

The famous one

Estoy embarazada "I-am pregnant". Not embarrassed. Every Spanish teacher has a story about a student who announced it to the class.

To say you're embarrassed, Spanish talks about shame: Qué vergüenza "What shame", Me da vergüenza "To-me it-gives shame". You can also use the adjective avergonzado / avergonzada, but in conversation people reach for vergüenza more often. In Mexico and much of Latin America you'll also hear Me da pena "To-me it-gives pain (= I'm embarrassed)"; in Spain pena is pity, and Me da pena means "I feel sorry".

Now and then

La situación actual "the situation current" is the present situation. And Actualmente vivo en Lima "Currently I-live in Lima" says where you live these days, not that you're correcting someone. When you want "actually", say En realidad, … or De hecho, … "Of fact, …".

At work and at school

Realizamos un estudio "We-carried-out a study"; Me di cuenta del error "Myself I-gave account of-the mistake" (= I realised the mistake). Asisto a clase "I-attend to class" is just going to class; the help you offer someone is ayudar. And when you introduce a friend, you present them: Te presento a Marta "To-you I-present Marta".

At the doctor's

Estoy constipado "I-am having-a-cold" is what you say in Spain with a runny nose; Estoy resfriado "I-am chilled (= I have a cold)" works everywhere. Notice the verb in all of these: states of the body take estar, and some take tener: Estoy cansado "I-am tired", Tengo frío "I-have cold" (= I'm cold). That pattern has its own place in the course: I am tired, I have hunger.

Feelings and people

Es muy sensible "He-is very sensitive"; a sensible person is una persona sensata. Estoy excitado is the one to avoid before a trip: say Estoy muy ilusionado "I-am very illusioned (= thrilled, looking forward to it)" or Me hace mucha ilusión "To-me it-makes much illusion" (= I'm really excited about it). And ¿Te molesta la música? "To-you bothers the music?" is a perfectly polite question.

Words that change across the Atlantic

Some traps are inside Spanish itself. Coger "to take, to catch" is everyday in Spain (coger el autobús); in much of Latin America it is a vulgar word, and people say tomar or agarrar el autobús. Tomar is safe everywhere. If you learn from mixed sources, these regional pairs are worth a look, and the course comes back to them at the top level: regional vocabulary and false friends.

Why they survive, and what helps

A false friend fires automatically: the stronger your English, the more confidently your brain supplies the wrong meaning. One rule catches most of them: if a familiar word makes a sentence strange, check it. Voy a la librería a comprar un libro "I-go to the bookshop to buy a book" makes sense; borrowing a book is la biblioteca.

A list alone won't fix them, because the English meaning keeps winning. They settle when you meet the word in a real sentence and use it yourself a few times. In the course, the false friends sit inside the chapters where they turn up: constipado and embarazada in the chapter at the pharmacy and the doctor's, on the A2 page. If you slip, the sentence becomes a review card and comes back right before you'd forget it.

To find out which chapter to start from, take the level test: ten minutes, free.