Day 47 False Friends

When learning other languages it is important to be aware of cognates and false cognates. Cognates are words that look similar in both languages and have similar meanings. For example televize in Czech means television in English. False cognates on the other hand, might look similar but will have completely different meaning. Again taking examples from Czech and English, gymnasium means school in Czech and a place to work out in English, while host actually means guest in Czech. These are also sometimes also known as false friends.

Sitting on the train from Ostrava to Prague I have discovered a new false friend. This train is called the Expres 144 Landek. Express in English means ‘(Of a train or other form of public transport) making few intermediate stops and reaching its destination quickly:’ (Oxford online dictionaries.) So one might expect this train to move at a decent pace to whisk me through the Czech countryside and not stop at every dirt track chicken farm on its route.  But then you will have fallen into the false cognate trap. Because according to the Czech Railways Dictionary of Czech Expres means crawl at a snail’s pace for much of the journey while stopping whenever any Tomas Rikard or Jindrich flags it down. So here I sit, 2.5 hours into a nearly 4 hour journey stopping at those famous Czech towns Zabreh Na Moravia and Hranice Na Moravia and not so much being whisked through the Czech country as being nudged and nurdled along. I guess it is a perfect journey for those who think the journey is as important as the destination, but today I just want to get my tired body home.