Your three guesses
Read out the three words you assumed the meaning of. Your teacher will tell you which ones you were right about.
Most guesses are right — English and Portuguese really do share thousands of words. That is exactly what makes the handful that lie so expensive.
One question before we start.
1. Why is a false friend more dangerous than a word you simply do not know?
Five sentences that mean the wrong thing
Each of these is grammatically perfect. Each one says something the speaker did not mean.
What they said, and what they meant
1. I pretend to go to London next year. — meant: I intend to go
2. Actually I live in Porto. — meant: Currently I live in Porto
3. Push the door. (pulling it) — meant: Pull the door
4. All my parents came to the wedding. — meant: All my relatives came
5. I bought it in the library. — meant: I bought it in the bookshop
Match each English word to what it really means — not what the Portuguese word beside it means.
Answer from the five sentences.
1. Sentence 1: what did the listener actually hear?
2. Sentence 4: how many people came, as the listener heard it?
3. What do all five have in common?
The five, and their real partners
What you meant, and the word you needed
| Portuguese | Looks like | But means | You wanted |
|---|---|---|---|
| pretender (to intend) | pretend | to act as if — fingir | intend · plan |
| atualmente (currently) | actually | in fact — na verdade | currently · at the moment |
| puxar (to pull) | push | to press away — empurrar | pull |
| parentes (relatives) | parents | mother and father | relatives · family |
| livraria (bookshop) | library | where books are borrowed | bookshop · bookstore |
The five words you actually needed
Tap each. These are the replacements — learning the false friend is only half the job.
Five sentences, five false friends. Rewrite each one so it means what the speaker intended.
1. I pretend to study medicine.
2. Actually I work in a hospital.
3. Push the handle towards you.
4. I have a lot of parents in Brazil.
5. I bought this book in the library.
Catch them in context
One word per gap. Every gap is a place where a false friend would fit and be wrong. Write the right one.
I to move to Lisbon next year, though nothing is decided. I live with my parents — my mother and father, I mean, not the whole family. Most of my other are in the north. On Saturdays I work in a near the station, selling books rather than lending them, and on the door there is a sign that says , which I read wrongly for about six months.
Each sentence is correct English. Choose what it actually means.
1. He pretended to be asleep.
2. Actually, it was quite good.
3. My parents are both retired.
4. We eventually found it.
Use all five, correctly
Task card · Speaking
Two minutes about your plans, your family, and where you buy things.
Use all five words correctly: intend, currently, pull, relatives, bookshop. Your teacher stops you the moment a false friend appears.
- Say what you intend to do this year, and what is only a possibility.
- Say who your parents are and how many other relatives you have.
- Say where you buy books, and where you borrow them.
- Every stop costs you ten seconds. Two minutes becomes ninety if you are careless.
One decision.
1. You want to say your plan is not certain. Which?
How many stops
Answer about the two minutes.
1. How many times were you stopped?
2. Which one is hardest to stop using?
Before the interview
Thirty seconds. Match each Portuguese word to the English word you actually need.
Before Lesson 5. Next lesson is a weekend interview with a follow-up question compulsory after every answer. Nothing to prepare.
But have an actual weekend ready — something happened, however small, and "nothing" is not going to survive twenty minutes of questions.