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Falsche Freunde — Words That Lie
🎭 Falsche Freunde — Words That Lie
Some German words look exactly like English words — but mean something completely different. AQA loves using these "false friends" (falsche Freunde) as traps in the reading paper. Learn the worst offenders and you'll never fall for them again.
The False Friends Table — AQA GCSE Priority
These four appear most often in AQA reading texts to catch students out: das Gift (poison, not gift), bekommen (to get/receive, not become), also (so/therefore, not also), der Rat (advice, not rat). Memorise these four first.
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- Never translate a German word just by how it looks in English — always check whether the context makes sense.
- The most common AQA traps: Gift, bekommen, also, Rat, fast, der/die See, sensibel, eventuell, aktuell.
- The article on See is the deciding clue: der See = lake; die See = sea.
- In multiple-choice questions, AQA puts the false-friend translation as a distractor — always verify against context.
- When you spot a German word that looks English, pause and ask: "Does the English meaning make sense in this sentence?"
❌ Common error: Translating Ich bekomme ein Geschenk as "I become a present."
✓ Correct: "I get / I receive a present." — bekommen means to get or receive, never to become.
Why it costs marks: bekommen is the classic German false friend. "To become" is werden. Translating bekommen as "become" changes the meaning entirely and loses the mark for that segment. This error appears every year in AQA reading and translation tasks.