Professional German and English translators are well aware of the similarities of the two languages, especially when it comes to certain vocabulary words. This can be both a benefit and a curse for students of German Translation.
English-speakers who are learning to become German translators need to be aware of this. But too often, beginning language learners neglect the fact that appearances can be deceiving. What experts call “false friends,” or “false cognates” are words that sound like a similar word in one language but mean something completely different. In the translation profession translators should be just as wary of false language friends as they would be of false human friends. Once again, false cognates are deceiving because they look like a common word, but in actuality they have nothing to do with it. The improper placement of false cognates in a translation can lead to conveying the wrong meaning of a text and the possibility of a lawsuit.
When comparing German and English, you will find countless numbers of false cognates because the two languages have the same origins. There are countless words that look and sound alike in German and English. Some examples of true cognates (or true linguistic friends) are the following: hound /Hund, mother / Mutter, end / enden, word / Wort, dance / Tanz, and many others. Many such true cognates exist between the German and English languages, and these should be differentiated from the many false cognates between the two languages.
Regardless of whether you are translating into English from German or into German from English, your translation process will go much more quickly if the text contains true cognates. But false cognates are just a fact of life for a translator, whether you translate from German to English or from English to German. Regardless of what you call them: “falsche Freunde,” “false friends,” or false cognatesby any name can present problems if translation service providers are not careful.
The objective (Objektiv) act (Akt) of translation should be done after (After) review of the document. This sentence shows how the German words in parentheses can be misinterpreted because of their nature as false cognates. As an illustration, the words in parentheses: “After”, “Akt” and “Objektiv” have very different meanings from their English equivalents. In actuality they mean “rectum,” “nude” and “camera lens” in English. Medical Translation are also full of false friends, such as “Krank”, which really means “ill” or “sick”. Experienced medical translators look out for false friends like these in order to avoid making silly mistakes.
Legal translations are also replete with false cognates, which may include words like “Rat,” “Jura,” and “Advokat,” which mean “advice,” “law,” and “attorney,” respectively. Other false cognates common in Legal Translation include “Akt,” which, as described above, means “nude,” and “absolvieren,” which means to complete coursework.
And these are only a small number of the long list of false cognates that plague the English and German languages. A “Drogerei” is like a drugstore, but lacks the drugs. Instead, you will find only personal care items such as razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, etc. there. Germans know they must go to the Apotheke to get their prescription medications. If you need a prescription filled, it is called a “Rezept,” but this is different from a receipt, which is a completely different word in German.In summary, this all just underlines the importance of remaining attentive to the complexities involved in professional translation, with particular attention to ensuring you understand that false cognates can ruin a translation. Relying on assumed meanings of false cognates can mean the end of a translation career and can also do serious harm to the person or organization hiring the translator. It can also very often prove to be a costly mistake.