Wednesday, April 18, 2012

False Friend: Sopa vs. Soap

Hello, and-- wait, is it Wednesday?! Whoops! It's Word Wednesday, so I need to write a False Friend, and quickly, since it will be Thursday in one hour. Let's see, here's a good one, and it even came up in a class earlier today. It's often a pronunciation problem, but if you change the pronunciation, you change the word. But first... QUICK! What is in this picture? 


If you said "soup," you're excused to go. If you said "soap," then you should probably read the rest of today's post:

False Friend: sopa vs. soap 
This SPANISH word...
Looks like this ENGLISH word...
...but they are DIFFERENT because...
sopa
soap
This is pretty easy to correct. (Click on the words in green for their pronunciation.)

Sopa in Spanish is "soup" in English. It is what you order in a restaurant, and the word rhymes with "loop" and "stoop."

On the other hand, "soap" in English is jabón in Spanish. You use it to wash and clean your hands, for example. "Soap" rhymes with "hope," "rope," and "dope."

So, now that you've read this post, you can eat a nice bowl of soup... but first, be sure to wash your hands with plenty of soap!

Hmm... just to check, QUICK! What is this a picture of?


If you said "soup," then you should probably start reading at the top again, and repeat as necessary!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. If you have suggestions for other False Friends or Common Errors, please tell me. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

(Image Credits: First and Second Picture)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment! If you have a specific comment about this post, please tell me. If you have a general question about the site or a common error suggestion, you can also use the "Contact" link at the top of the page.
-Ryan

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.