Embarazada is not embarrassed: false friends for Spanish speakers
Aylara A.
Kids' teacher · founder of AylaraTalks
Spanish gives learners a glorious head start — thousands of near-identical cognates — and then plants a minefield of exceptions in it. A false friend (falso amigo) looks like Spanish, sounds like Spanish, and means something else entirely. Here is the kid-safe dozen, and the giggle-first way to teach them.
The kid-safe dozen
- rope is a cuerda — Spanish ropa (clothes) is clothes in English.
- exit is a salida — Spanish éxito (success) is success.
- large means big — Spanish largo (long) is long.
- carpet is an alfombra — Spanish carpeta (folder) is a folder.
- soap is jabón — Spanish sopa (soup) is soup.
- pie is a tarta — Spanish pie (foot) is a foot.
- arena means a stadium — Spanish arena (sand) is sand.
- library is a biblioteca — a librería (bookshop) is a bookshop.
- assist means to help — asistir (to attend) is to attend.
- constipated is about the tummy — constipado (with a cold) is having a cold.
- embarrassed means ashamed — embarazada (pregnant) is pregnant. The all-time classic.
- actually means 'in fact' — actualmente (currently) is currently.
The giggle method
Draw the wrong picture on purpose: soup in the bathtub, a foot on a plate, success signs over every door. The class corrects YOU — 'no, teacher, soap!' — and correcting the teacher is the strongest memory glue primary school owns. One pair a week, resurrected in every Friday quiz.
And keep the perspective: for every false friend, Spanish hands your class fifty true ones. Teach the dozen traps with laughter, then go back to spending the inheritance.
⭐ Take this with you
Twelve traps, one a week, each defused by a wrong picture and a class that gets to correct the teacher. The rest of Spanish's gift — thousands of true cognates — stays exactly as generous as it looks.
🎈 Put it into play
Everything here pairs with our free classroom games — no prep, no accounts.
About the author
Aylara A.
Kids' teacher · founder of AylaraTalks
Aylara is a kids' teacher who spent years hand-making every classroom game — cutting cards and drawing boards on paper sheets. She created AylaraTalks so no teacher has to start from a blank page again.