False Cognate - Examples

Examples

• Arabic/Hebrew akh/aḥ (brother) and Mongolian akh (brother)
• Arabic sharif (and its Portuguese descendant xerife) and English sheriff
• Arabic ana/Amharic ena (I) and Gondi ana (I)
• Arabic arḍ (earth) and Dutch aarde (earth)
• Arabic/Amharic anta (you, masculine singular) and Japanese anata (貴方, あなた) / anta (あんた) (you, informal or rude) and Malay anda (you)
• Arabic ma and Greek mē (Doric ma) (not)
• Arabic walad (ولد) (boy, son) and English lad
• Aramaic di or de- (which, of), and Italian di and Spanish and French de (of)
• Ashkenazi Hebrew meis (dead)/ mos (Death of ___, or Die, as imperative) and Latin mors (death); Sephardi Hebrew mot (death of) and Italian morte
• Bengali fela (throw away/put down) and English fell (make something fall) and fall and Hebrew pol. Note: In Hebrew, P and F are allophones of the same phoneme (historically, pol is rendered fol - when following a vowel sound).
• Bikol aki (child) and Korean agi (child) and Japanese aka (baby)
• Blackfoot aki (woman) and Even akhi (woman)
• Coptic per (house) and Etruscan pera (house) and Hittite pēr (house)
• Dutch elkaar (each other) and Basque elkar (each other)
• Dutch maar (but, from PIE *ne h₂wes-) and Italian ma (but, from PIE *meǵh₂) and Vietnamese mà (but)
• Egyptian bity and English bee
• Egyptian *marar (to see, to look) and Japanese miru (見る) (to look) and Spanish mirar (to look at, to watch)/Portuguese mirar (to stare)
• Egyptian mennu (food) and French menu
• English among and Visayan among (accidentally included)
• English lake (from PIE *leg-, to leak) and Latin lacus (lake, pond, from PIE *lakw-)
• English able and Turkish -abil/-ebil (ability infix)
• English am (first person present tense of to be), Etruscan am (to be), and Sumerian am (to be)
• English amenable and English amenity
• English and and Indonesian dan
• English aye (yes, affirmative vote) and Japanese hai (はい) (yes) and Cantonese hai (係) (yes)
• English bad and Farsi bad
• English boy, Japanese bōya (坊や) (young male child), and Finnish poika (boy, son)
• English brush and Texmelucan Zapotec brush
• English can and Japanese kan (缶) (cylindrical metal container)
• English canteen and Chinese cāntīng (餐厅) (dining room, cafeteria), although Pinyin has the value
• English cheek and Russian shcheka (щека; cheek)
• English chop and Uzbek chop
• English cover and Hebrew kaphar (Hebrew word #3722 in Strong's) (appease, cover over)
• English cut and Vietnamese cắt (to cut)
• English dairy and Russian/Ukrainian doyar (дояр; milker), doyarka (milkmaid)
• English day, daily and Spanish día (day) (or Latin dies (day) or even English diary)
• English delete and Russian udalit' (удалить; to delete, remove)
• English die and Thai dtâi (ตาย) (to die)
• English dog and Mbabaram dog
• English dork and Russian durak (дурак)
• English dragon and Dzongkha Druk
• English dung and Korean 똥 ttong (excrement)
• English earth and Hebrew erets (אֶרֶץ) (land, earth)
• English egg, Ganda eggi (egg) and Egyptian Arabic eggah (omelette)
• English evaporate and Ukrainian vyparovuvaty (випаровувати);
• English eye Hebrew `ayin/ Arabic `ain (eye)
• English fee and Chinese fèi (simplified Chinese: 费; traditional Chinese: 費)/ Vietnamese "phi"
• English fire and Thai fai (ไฟ)
• English fruit, and Hebrew perot (פֵּרוֹת) Note: In Hebrew, P and F are allophones of the same phoneme (historically, perot is rendered ferot - when following a vowel sound).
• English great and English/French grand
• English have and French avoir
• English hole and Mayan hol
• English honest and Japanese honne
• English house, Hungarian ház (house, block of flats)
• English hut and Ukrainian hata (хата)
• English Indian (native American) and Mescalero Inde (Apache, person)
• English island and isle
• English it, Russian eto(это) and Tagalog eto/ito (it, this)
• English laser and Scottish Gaelic lasair (light beam, flame)
• English male and English female, which come from the Latin masculinus and foemella, respectively.
• English man and Latin humanus (people, mankind)
• English many and Korean 많이 mani (much, many)
• English market and Kannada maarukatte
• English mount (short form of mountain), and Hawaiian mauna (mountain)
• English much and Spanish mucho
• English mysterious and Hebrew mistori (מִסְתּוֹרִי)
• English name and Japanese 名前 namae (name)
• English neck/German Nacken and Spanish nuca and Hungarian nyak
• English nerdy and Chuvash nĕrtte (awkward, inept)
• English pan and Mandarin pan/Vietnamese bàn (pan, shallow plate, table)
• English pear and Korean 배 pay, bae (Korean pear)
• English pen and pencil
• English persecution and Russian presechenie (пресечение; persecution, suppression, injunction)
• English pussy (pet name for cat) and Samoan pusi (cat)
• English reason and Russian razum (разум)
• English seed and Korean 씨 ssi (pip)
• English stone and Mandarin shítou (traditional 石頭, simplified 石头)
• English strange, Italian strano and Russian stranno (странно)
• English stranger and Russian strannik (странник)
• English trawl (to fish by dragging a net) and English troll (to fish by trailing a line, or to provocate someone on purpose)
• English two and Korean 두 tu (two)
• English villain and English vile
• English viscosity and Russian vyazkost' (вязкость)
• English why and Korean 왜 wae (what for)
• English yea and Korean 예 ye (yes)
• Estonian/Finnish ei (no, not), Etruscan ei (no, not), and Norwegian ei/Swedish ej (not)
• Estonian mina/Finnish minä (I), and Zulu mina (I)
• Estonian sina/Finnish sinä (singular you) and Turkish sen (singular you) (see also: Ural–Altaic languages)
• Estonian ta (short form of tema) (he/she) and Mandarin tā (他) (he/she)
• Estonian/Finnish ja (and) and Japanese ya (や) (and, used in an incomplete list)
• Etruscan ac (to make, act) and Sumerian ak (to make,act)
• Etruscan an (he/she/it) and Sumerian ane (he/she/it)
• Etruscan ipa (who, which) and Sumerian aba (who)
• Etruscan mi (I/me), Sumerian ma (I/me) and Lombard mi (I/me)
• Finnish kaataa (to cut down) and English cut down (to hew)
• Finnish kasa (pile) and Japanese kasamu (嵩む) (to pile up)
• Finnish hän (he, she) and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish han (he)
• French écouter (listen) and Greek akouō (hear)
• French caisse/Italian cassa (money box) and Tamil kasu (an ancient monetary unit) (see Cash (disambiguation))
• French le (the) and Samoan le (the)
• French lien (link) and Mandarin lián/ Vietnamese liên (link)
• French papillon (butterfly) and Nahuatl papalotl (butterfly)
• French qui est-ce? (who is this?) and Hungarian ki ez? (who is this?)
• French rue (road) and Mandarin lù (road)
• Ga ba (come) and Hebrew ba (בא) (came) and Tamil Va (Come). Note: In Hebrew, B and V are allophones of the same phoneme (historically, ba is rendered va - when following a vowel sound).
• Ganda na ('and') and Dutch en (and)
• German Ach, so! and Japanese Aa, soo (ああ、そう) (I see)
• German haben (to have) and Latin habere (to have)
• German Kreuz (cross) and Russian krest (крест; cross)
• Greek thesato and Russian sosat' (сосать; to suck)
• Greek root -lab- and Sanskrit root -labh- (take)
• Greek pou (where) and Hebrew poh (here)/ephoh (where)
• Greek stylos (column) and Latin stilus (pen): the English spellings "style" and "stylus" result from a false etymology
• Greek theos (god) and Greek Zeus (the king of all gods)
• Greek theos (god) and Latin deus (god)
• Greek theos (god) and Nahuatl teo (god - absolutive: teotl)
• Greenlandic tallimat and Filipino lima (five)
• Hawaiian kahuna (priest) and Hebrew k'huna (כְּהוּנָה) (priesthood)
• Hawaiian/Maori wahine (woman) and Latin vagina
• Hebrew/Aramaic ella (but rather) and Greek alla (but)
• Hebrew ish (man) and Yana Ishi (man)
• Hebrew ish (man; can be used for "each") and English "each"
• Hebrew ari (lion) and Tamil ari (lion) and Kazakh Aristan
• Hebrew derekh (דֶרֶך) (way, route) and Russian doroga (дорога; road), Ukrainian doroha (дорога)
• Hebrew shesh (שׁשׁ) (six) with Persian shesh (six), Hurrian šeše (six), Spanish seis (six), Russian shest (шесть) (six)
• Hebrew sheva (seven) and English seven
• Icelandic fold (earth, land, ground) and Hungarian föld (earth, land, soil)
• Indonesian dua (two) and Pashto dwa (two) and Korean dul (two) and Mandarin dui/ Vietnamese đôi (pair)
• Indonesian kepala (head) and Greek kephale (head)
• Inuktitut kayak and Turkish kayık and Choco language group cayuca (rowing boat)
• Italian "ciao" and Vietnamese "chao" (greetings, hi)
• Italian micio (small cat) and Quechua michi (cat)
• Italian roba (set of things) and Croatian roba (goods, things for sale)
• Japanese arigatō (ありがとう; thank you) and Portuguese obrigado (obliged)
• Japanese baba (祖母/ばば) (grandmother) and Russian baba (бабушка, баба; grandmother) and Yiddish Bubbe (Grandmother)
• Japanese gaijin (non-Japanese), Romani gadjo (non-Gypsy), Hebrew and Yiddish goy (non-Jew) – all of them can mean stranger, foreigner
• Japanese ne (ね) (tag question marker) and colloquial German ne (tag question marker)
• Japanese shiru (知る) (know) and Latin scire (know)
• Korean tokki (axe) and Mapuche natives and Easter Island Polynesian toki (axe)
• Korean nan (난) and Tamil naan (நான்), both meaning: I.
• Kyrgyz ayal (woman) and Parji ayal (woman)
• Latin duo and Malay dua (two)
• Latin ego (I) and Tagalog ako (I)
• Malay atuk (grandpa) and Inuit atuk (grandfather)
• Malay mata and modern Greek mati (eye)
• Mandarin Chinese nǐ (你), Swedish ni and Tamil nii (நீ). All three words mean you.
• Mandarin Chinese er (耳) and English ear.
• Mandarin Chinese de (的) and Spanish de, both used for possession
• Minangkabau duo (two) and Latin duo (two)
• Persian se (سه) and Korean se (세) and Shanghainese 三 se, all meaning: three.
• Polish mieszkanie (apartment) and Hebrew mishkan (מִשׁכָּן) (dwelling)
• Spanish como (as/like) and Hebrew k'mo (כְּמוֹ) (as/like) and Arabic kma (as/like)
• Sanskrit urj (ऊर्ज्) (strength, vigour) and English urge
• Spanish y ('and') and Slavic и/i (and)
• Spanish first-person pronoun yo (I) and archaic Japanese first-person pronoun yo (よ) (I)
• Tamil "amma" (அம்மா)(mother) and Korean "amma" (엄마) (mother)
• Tamil "appa" (அப்பா) (father) and Korean "appa" (아빠) (father)
• Turkish bir (one) and Ingain biré (one)
• Turkish dil and Tagalog dila (tongue)
• Welsh cwmwl and Japanese kumo (雲) (cloud)