False Friend: Terrorífico vs. Terrific

Hello! I've been pretty busy lately, so instead of a (longer) Common Error post, I decided to do a False Friend post today (especially since we talked about this word in my class this evening). If you're not sure what a False Friend is, check out this post. Today we'll look at the difference between terrorífico in Spanish and terrific in English. 

Is this clown terrific or terrorífico? I guess it depends on your point of view, but read on to find out the difference between these two words (they're very different)! Image by Graeme Maclean via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

False Friend: terrorífico vs. terrific
This SPANISH word...	Looks like this ENGLISH word...	...but they are DIFFERENT because...
terrorífico	terrific	In Spanish, something that is terrorífico is very scary; the English equivalent is terrifying: "La foto del payazo es terrorífica!" ("The photo of the clown is terrifying!") In English, terrific is a synonym for words like excellent, wonderful, or amazing: "I had a terrific time on my vacation. I can't wait to show you the pictures I took!"

So, I think this is pretty easy. Just remember that "terrorífico" and "terrifying" are bad, and "terrific" is good!

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for other False Friends or Common Errors, please tell me.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

False Friend: Profesor vs. Professor

Is the man in the white lab coat a teacher or a professor? (Image)

Hello! Today we have another False Friend. If you're not sure what a False Friend is, check out this introductory post. Today we'll look at the difference between profesor in Spanish and professor in English. We'll look at the word "teacher" next Monday, since this topic comes up in almost every class I teach.

False Friend: profesor vs. professor
This SPANISH word...	Looks like this ENGLISH word...	...but they are DIFFERENT because...
profesor	professor	In Spanish, at least in Costa Rica, profesor/a can be used for any kind of teacher or instructor: "La profesora de cuarto grado habló con sus alumnos." ("The fourth grade teacher spoke with her students.") In English, professor (note the spelling) refers to a person who has a PhD (doctorate of philosophy) degree from a university. Normally a person becomes a professor after studying in the university for at least 7 years total. The word can be used for a man or a woman, and it can also be used as a personal title: "I got bad grades in my university Chemistry classes, but at least my professor was good. She was always helpful and patient." OR "Professor Smith will be giving a lecture on tropical ecosystems." You can refer to any instructor or teacher who isn't a professor as a "teacher," but "teacher" is just a job description and generally not a title. We'll look more at this on Monday.

So, in the picture above, is the person in the white lab coat a teacher or a professor? Possibly both. He's definitely a teacher, but if he has a PhD, then he's also a professor. In this case, the picture information says his name is Professor Hellmuth Stachel --we capitalize "professor" since it's his title. Because he has a doctorate degree, we can also call him "Doctor Hellmuth Stachel," but in academia it's more common to say "professor" instead of "doctor," since "doctor" can cause confusion with medical doctors.

If you don't understand this, you can ask me or your normal English teacher or professor. But remember that I'm  not a professor, because I only have an M.A., not a PhD. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for other False Friends or Common Errors, please tell me.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Loanwords Part 4: German Words in English

Welcome to our final post about loanwords! We've previously talked about loanwords from French and Spanish, but I wanted to mention German loanwords. I studied German for nearly 10 years, and even though it's difficult, I really do like German.

Sauerkraut, anyone?
I didn't think so.

I originally was going to talk about how German is related to English, but I think that topic is much more complicated than just loanwords, so I'll talk about that in a different post in a day or two. Today let's just focus on German loanwords in English.

German and English share many historical similarities, so many vocabulary words are similar. However, the number of direct German loanwords in English is much smaller than the number of words from French or Spanish. (Click here for a partial list). There are a few areas where we can notice a higher concentration of German loanwords.

Like Spanish, German gave English some specialty words related to food; some examples are bratwurst, sauerkraut, delicatessen, schnitzel, and strudel. There are also words related to technology, such as autobahn, wunderkind and ersatz. Also, it's interesting to note German's contribution to philosophical and psychological vocabulary, with words such as gestalt, realpolitik, angst, and zeitgeist.

Unfortunately, many German words migrated into English as a result of World War II, and as a consequence they have an association with Nazis and/or war in general. Such words include blitzkrieg, fuehrer, lebensraum, flak and even Nazi (an abbreviation of "Nationalsozialist").

However, it's not all gloom and doom (or Sturm und Drang, if you prefer). German has many great words that made it into English, so here I present you with my list of...

Ryan's Top 7 German Loanwords in English*:

7. kindergarten: Literally meaning "children-garden," it makes going to school seem fun. Now I suspect it may have just been a trick.

6. poltergeist: It means "banging spirit." In other words, call the Ghostbusters.

5. kitsch: A dismissive word used to indicate something is tacky or uncool.

4. kaput: A synonym of "broken."

3. gesundheit: It literally means "health," but it's what you say when someone sneezes.

2. schadenfreude: It means "misfortune-pleasure," but it's a word to describe the sensation of being happy when bad things happen to other people. Very German.

1. wanderlust: Not as funny as "schadenfreude," but it's nicer. It means the desire to wander or travel.

Can you think of any others? What are your favorite loanwords, either from German or any other language? Please share your thoughts in the comments section!

So, that's it for today. Since we're already talking about German, I'll write a post in a few days exploring some similarities and differences between German and English, just in case you're interested. Thanks for reading, and have a great day! 

From the (English-language) comic Bizarro.

*A few of these words are spelled differently in German (like kaput/kaputt), and in German all of them except kaput would start with a capital letter, since German nouns are capitalized.