Doot dat!

False Friend Alert! Linguistic "false friends" are words or expressions that look or sound similar or the same, but that mean different things. They are particularly common between closely related languages, or languages in close contact with each other. They tend to lead to misunderstandings. There are a number of false friends between Shaetlan and Standard English. For example:

︎doot = 'think, expect' in StE (not "doubt"!)

︎wife = 'woman' in StE (not necessarily married)

︎denner = 'lunch' in StE (not "dinner")

︎as = 'than' in StE (not "as")

To "correct" false friends is misguided. It is simply different words/expressions in two different languages that happen to sound very similar.

Previous
Previous

A’m don it!

Next
Next

Tags…