Since English and German both belong to the family of Germanic languages, there are many word similarities, or cognates, between them. These similarities can be really helpful, enabling you to easily recognize words you may have never seen or heard before!
der Frosch
=
frog
die Prinzessin
=
princess
das Wasser
=
water
schwimmen
=
to swim
sich wünschen
=
to wish
golden
=
golden
But the fact that there are so many similarities between English and German can also lead you to mistakenly recognize words in the two languages that may look similar but are actually different. These words are known as false friends.
der Tag
!=
tag
der Rat
!=
rat
die Wand
!=
wand
tasten
!=
to taste
blamieren
!=
to blame
groß
!=
gross
As you can imagine, false friends like these can make for some pretty humorous miscommunications between English speakers and German speakers! Take for example the following exchange between an American movie director and the Frog King:
amerikanischer Filmregisseur
Guten Tag, Herr Froschkönig. Ich bin kurios - möchten Sie vielleicht in unserem Film spielen?
Good afternoon, Mr. Frog King. I'm odd - would you perhaps like to act in our film?
der Froschkönig
Ahem ... Sie meinen, Sie sind neugierig, ob ich Filmstar werden will?
Ahem ...You mean you're curious if I'd like to be a movie star?
amerikanischer Filmregisseur
Ja, wir wollen einen Film über Sie machen! Dieses Gift ist für Sie - mit freundlichen Empfehlungen von Disney.
Yes, we want to make a movie about you! This poison is for you - with kind regards from Disney.
der Froschkönig
Was, Gift?!? Ach so!! Sie meinen Geschenk. Mensch, Sie sollen Ihr Deutsch üben!
What, poison?!? Oh, I see!! You mean present. Gosh, you should really practice your German!
Below is an alphabetical list of the 75 most notorious English-German false friends: