In English / Finnish
novel - a narrative of considerable length / novelli - a short story
grape - a type of berry used to make wine / greippi - grapefruit
liquor - alcohol / likööri - liqueur
billion (US) - 10 to the 9th power / biljoona - a trillion (US)
canine - dog family / kaniini - rabbit
petrol (Br.) - gasoline / petroli - paraffin oil
bassoon - a type of oboe / pasuuna - trombone
faggot - a homosexual or a bundle of sticks / fagotti - bassoon
risky - dangerous / riski - strong (person)
silicon - a type of element in the earth’s crust / silikoni - silicone
motorist - one who drives in an automobile / motoristi - motorcyclist
In Romanian / Polish
trup - body / trup - a corpse!
In Polish / Czech
zapach - sweet smell / zapach - offensive odour
In Dutch / Afrikaans
aardig - nice / aardig - queasy, not well
What are some false friends in your language?
English/Spanish
embarrassed - ashamed or encumbered/ embarazada - pregnant!
I guess getting pregnant would be embarrassing.
Bulgarian/Czech
pozor - shame, disgrace/pozor - beware
German-English
Gymnasium-grammar school
Art-kind
bekommen-to get
Note: mark,grade(at school)
Handy:mobile phone,not an English word
Serbian/Croatian "grad" - "town, city" / Czech/Slovak "hrad" - castle, fortress (the word for town is "místo/miesto", which in turn means "place" in Serbo-Croatian).
English "novel" / Hungarian "novella" (the latter means a short story, as in Italian, and, as I have learnt, in Finnish as well)
Some of the other false friends between English and Finnish in the first post also exist between English and Hungarian.
English "ember" (if it is used in singular) / Hungarian "ember" - man
Verena,
What you listed can be very confusing, that caused me some trouble when I was learning German simultaneously with English (fortunately no longer). At any rate, I have often heard people who learnt English after German say things like "I became a nice present yesterday". :-)
Spanish - Filipino false friends
siempre - always / syempre - of course
seguro - sure, secure, stable / siguro - maybe, perhaps
sabe - (he/she) knows… / sabi, sabe - (I/you/he/she) said…
sigue - (he/she/it) continues / sige - okay, go ahead, goodbye (informal)
basta - enough! / basta - as long as
mas que - more than / maske - even
cubeta - bucket, pail / kubeta - toilet, outhouse
casilla - cabin, hut, little house / kasilyas - toilet, toilet seat, to shit
la mierda - the shit / lamierda - to hang out with friends, to have a night out on the town, to "paint the town red" ("Oy paré, mag-lamierda tayo" - "Hey buddy, let's party.")
puto - a male prostitute / puto - a type of rice cake
bajo - below, descend / baho - pungent, smelly
mamón - sucker / mamon - a sponge cake
muchacho - boy; muchacha - girl / mutsatso (muchacho) - houseboy, servant; mutsatsa (muchacha) - maid, cleaning woman, servant
Strange brand name: Cebo de Macho - a popular skin cream
In informal Spanish "coger una mierda" can also mean "to get drunk". It's closely related to having a night out with friends.
Muchacho/a also means a "servant" in Spanish. Actually, that has given "chacha" meaning "house servant".
Cebo de Macho means "male grease". I can imagine that being a popular skin cream.
Seguro! If you say that ironically in Spanish it also means "maybe"
Sigue: also means "go ahead" in Spanish.
In Spanish if you say "basta que me lo digas" It also means "as long as you tell me"
All the uses you mention are secondary acceptions, which are correct in Spanish. It would seem you have been influenced by the "informal Spanish" probably from soldiers and the such.
"coger una mierda" is similar to "to get shitfaced" (drunk) in English.
La chacha recoge la mierda.
Rapariga
1. girl in Continental Portuguese
2. easy woman or prostitute in Brazilian Portuguese
Rato
1. rat in Brazilian Portuguese
2. mouse in Continental Portuguese
Camisola
1. nightdress in Brazilian Portuguese
2. sweater in Continental Portuguese
Cueca
1. (men's) underpants in Brazilian Portuguese
2. (women's) panties in Continental Portuguese
Bicha
1. gay in Brazilian Portuguese
2. line, cue in Continental Portuguese
Cachorro
1. dog in Brazilian Portuguese
2. hot dog in Continental Portuguese
Puto
1. gay in Brazilian Portuguese
2. kid in Continental Portuguese
"puto - a male prostitute / puto - a type of rice cake"
Hehe. There is a shop in Manila that specializes in rice cakes, with a clever name, "Puto Ng Ina Mo" which means "Your mother's rice cakes." This is a play on the popular Filipino insult, "Puta'ng ina mo" -- "you're mother's a bitch."
straagik-fence / stragik-mountain
kraas-bull / kræs-lady
My uncle married a Brazilian woman. When she came to Ecuador to meet her father and mother-in-law, she saw in the newspaper a title that shocked her: "Paro de busetas". 'Buseta' in Latin American Spanish means a bus, and 'paro' means a strike. But she says that in Brazilian Portuguese, 'buseta' means v*g*na. So she suffered a heart attack (OK, that's false, but the story is TRUE!!!) What do you think, Garota?