Words, Terms & Phrases: False friends: Kind & kind

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 German 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 example. Look at the two pictures and read the sentences under the pictures. Also listen to the short sound files. Fill in the gaps, then press [Check] to see if you were right.

„Wie alt ist das Kind?” - „Das Kind ist acht Jahre alt.

Es ist ein Mädchen. Das MMädchen heißt Lisa.”

Franziska consoles her friend.

She is a very kind person.

The English "kind" and the German "Kind" are , apart from the fact that the German like all German starts with . However, the two words are and mean .

Wörterbuch (LEO)

Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS)

Wörterbuch (Linguee)

Wörterbuch (dict.cc)

Wörterbuch (PONS)

Terminologie A - Z

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
© Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/person-in-black-long-sleeve-shirt-holding-babys-feet-aPa843frIzI
© Dagmar Fischer