13/05/2026
Spanish is trying to trick you.
Not maliciously.
Not on purpose.
But there is an entire category of Spanish words that look so much like English words that your brain fills in the meaning automatically.
Confidently.
Incorrectly.
Sometimes catastrophically.
These words have a name.
Linguists call them false friends.
And once you know them — really know them — your Spanish changes forever.
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Let us start with the one that has caused more confusion than any other word in the history of English speakers learning Spanish.
Embarazada.
You already know this one from our mistakes post.
But it deserves to be here again because it is the king of false friends.
The original. The legend.
You see embarazada and your brain says — embarrassed.
Your brain is wrong.
Embarazada means pregnant.
The number of English speakers who have accidentally announced a pregnancy in a Spanish speaking country is unknowable.
But it is large.
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Now look at constipado.
Your brain says — constipated.
A reasonable assumption.
A completely wrong assumption.
Constipado means having a cold.
As in — estoy constipado — I have a cold.
Not the other thing.
Never the other thing.
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And mo**star.
This one makes English speakers deeply uncomfortable.
Because in English the word mo**st has a very specific and serious meaning.
In Spanish mo**star simply means to bother or to annoy.
No más mo**stes — stop bothering me.
Said by every Spanish parent to every Spanish child approximately forty times a day.
Perfectly innocent.
Completely harmless.
Just a word that took a very different journey through the English language.
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Our personal favourite on this list is éxito.
You see it and you think exit.
A door. A way out. The green sign above the emergency escape route.
Éxito means success.
Think about that for a moment.
The word that looks like exit means success.
There is almost a philosophy in that.
Sometimes the exit is the success.
Sometimes leaving is exactly the right move.
We did not plan that.
But we are keeping it.
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And then there is soportar.
You think — to support. To hold up. To encourage.
Soportar means to tolerate. To put up with. To endure.
No te soporto — I cannot stand you.
Not — I do not support you.
The difference between support and tolerance.
One tiny false friend.
One very different conversation.
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Here is the thing about false friends that nobody tells you:
They are actually a gift.
Not because they are easy.
Because they are memorable.
The words you learn from mistakes and surprises and moments of slight horror are the words that stick forever. You will never forget that embarazada means pregnant. You will never forget that éxito means success. You will never confuse constipado again.
False friends do not slow down your Spanish.
They accelerate it.
Because surprise is the best teacher language ever had.
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💾 Save this post. This is your official false friends survival guide.
🔁 Tag someone learning Spanish who needs to see this before they accidentally tell someone they are pregnant when they are just embarrassed.
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Now the question everyone is thinking:
Which of these false friends have you already used incorrectly?
The comments are a safe space.
We have all been there.
Tell us your story below 👇
And if you know a false friend we did not put on the list — drop it in the comments. The best ones from the community will make it into a follow up post with a shoutout to whoever found them.
