Words, Terms & Phrases: False friends: Hose & hose

Since German and English both belong to the family of Germanic languages, there are many word similarities between them, e.g. trinken - to drink, Butter - butter, Milch - milk, grün - green. These similarities enable you to recognize words you may have never seen or heard before. But you will also come across a few "false friends", German words that look or sound like English words but mean something completely different.

Here is one famous example.

 

Look at the two pictures and listen to the sound file.

 

Then fill in the missing word.

 

 

   

Welche Farbe hat die Hose? - Sie ist .

          Umlaute & Eszett:          

 

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Tip: If you don't belong to the lucky few who possess a photographic memory, write down what you learnt while doing this exercise.  

Photos: © Dagmar Fischer