In our last lesson on false friends, we discussed a few false cognates that begin with the letter B. Today, we're moving one stop further down the alphabet to learn about some falsche Freunde starting with C and D:

der Chef / die Chefin: the boss or departmental head
False English friend: chef, the head cook (German: der Chefkoch / die Chefköchin, der Küchenchef / die Küchenchefin)

Ich werde morgen mit meinem Chef reden.

I will talk with my boss tomorrow.

Caption 53, Lektionen - Morgen
Play Caption

dezent: discreet, discreetly, low-key, unobtrusive
False English friend: decent, appropriate, fitting (German: anständig, ordentlich)

Normalerweise sind die Tuaregs ja auch eher dezent gekleidet.

Normally the Tuaregs are indeed dressed rather discreetly.

Caption 46, Rat für nachhaltige Entwicklung - Mode gegen Armut
Play Caption

Dose: can, tin
False English friend: dose, a quantity of medicine (German: die Dosis)

... denn über den Schaumwein in Dosen geht ihr nichts.

... because for her, there's nothing like the sparkling wine in cans.

Caption 17, Paris Hilton - in Frankfurt
Play Caption

Further Learning:

Try to find more words in German and English that sound similar but have different meanings. For a thorough list of German false friends, take a look at this extensive chart and then search Yabla videos to find the words used in context!

Topics Grammar