In our last lesson on false friends, we discussed a few false cognates that begin with the letter A. Today, we're moving one stop further down the alphabet to learn about some falsche Freunde starting with B:

das Bad: the bath or bathroom (room with a bath, not the toilet!)
False friend: bad: of low quality or poor standard (German: schlecht)

Jetzt packe ich noch die Sachen vom Bad in den Koffer.

Now, I'll still pack the things from the bathroom into the suitcase.

Caption 18, Christiane - fährt in den Urlaub
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bekommen: to get or receive
False friend: become: to begin to be, to develop into (German: werden)

Ich hab' noch nie einen Preis bekommen in Deutschland.

I've never received an award in Germany.

Caption 17, DIVA-Verleihung - Schauspieler des Jahres
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brav: good, well-behaved

False friend: brave: possessing or exhibiting courage (German: tapfer, mutig)

Und wer nicht brav war, der soll auch noch darum bitten.

And those who were not good, they should even beg for it.

Caption 14, Jan Wittmer - Weihnachtslied
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Further Learning:

Try to find more words in German and English that sound similar but have different meanings. For a thorough list of German false friends, take a look at this extensive chart.

Topics Grammar