False Friend Friday! 🥳
Before you ask, the false friends I'm talking about here are those tricky words that are in one language but also appear the same or similar in another language... but have different meanings.
😳 Anyone who knows more than one language will be able to tell you some funny/embarrassing moment when they've fallen for a false friend.
💁🏻♂️Here are three Latin-derived false friends that I've encountered a bit too often in translations from Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Serbian into English...
Realizacija
❎ Realisation/Realization
✅ Implementation
This is a regular one, and also appears in many other European languages. How many times I've seen "the realisation of a project", even in EU-related materials. "Realisation" in English is "the act of a being becoming completely aware of something", so the more appropriate translation here is "implementation" i.e. "the process of putting a decision or plan into effect".
Konkurencija
❎ Concurrence
✅ Competition
Another regular. "Concurrence" in English is "the fact of two or more events or circumstances happening or existing at the same time" or can mean even mean in some cases "agreement". Now that's a bit of a difference from its correct translation of "competition", i.e. "the activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others".
Relacija
❎ Relation
✅ Route
Careful with this one because in some circumstances (particularly in more scientific and mathematical texts) it can mean "relation" as in "the connection or similarity between two things", but when translating something like "relacija Beograd-Zagreb" on a timetable, then we're talking about the "route" between Belgrade and Zagreb.
👉 To avoid having the embarrassment of your text being filled with false friends, make friends with me and I'll be able to translate your texts to be false-friend-free!
📷 And seeing it's Latin-themed, here's another pic of me taken in July this year at the Roman ruins of Felix Romuliana near the village of Gamzigrad in Serbia.
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