# false friends



## laur&a

Hi,
what is the Czech for "false frinds" the words that look alike but have different meaning?


----------



## Enquiring Mind

You'll come across the term _falešní přátelé_ (singular: _falešný přítel_), and in fact a bachelor's thesis has recently been written on the subject here.   

However, my feeling is that the term is used merely as a direct translation - a calque - of "false friend" or "faux ami". Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think _falešný přítel _is in general use as a grammatical term in Czech grammars.   You may see the term _false cognate_.  Interestingly, when Dr. Josef Hladký first published a book on this subject in 1990, he avoided the term, and chose instead to call it  Zrádná slova v angličtině.


----------



## Tchesko

In the Czech version of Wikipedia they're indeed called "_falešní přátelé_".
I share Enquiring Mind's feeling that the Czech translation is barely used and I can say I have never come across it when learning languages in the Czech Republic. On the other hand, a Google query returns several hundreds of results.


----------



## laur&a

Thank you, Tchesko and enquiring mind


----------

