Universidad técnica particular de loja la universidad Técnica Particular de Loja

use of false cognates, we need to 
understand that this term is used to refer pairs of words in two 
languages or dialects that look and/or sound similar, but differ in 
meaning. Using this definition we can easily understand how the 
interference is produced. There are words like “assist”, “attend”, 
“actually”, “sympathetic” that Spanish native speakers may use because 
of their similarity with Spanish words.
As we saw when we analyzed the previous variable (grammar 
structures), the syntactic changes within the sentences barely affected 
the main sense of the sentences. However, when the use of a false 

---

65
cognate occurs, it may affect the semantic aspect of the sentence in a 
very dangerous way causing a complete misunderstood between the 
writer and the reader (assuming the reader is an English native speaker. 
Remember that false cognates may differ in meaning although they 
would look the same as their “Spanish cognates”. If an English native 
speaker reads a false cognate he/she would be thinking about the 
meaning the word has in his/her language and it will confuse the native 
reader. Let us look at the following examples:
- “My swimming instructor was very hard with me.”
- “I assisted to class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:30 
to 6:30.”
- “All my family reunited in my grandmother’s house.”
- “The mirror said that she was actually living with seven efls.”
- “He was very anxious to become a real boy.”
- “Many people have seen her Casualty or not.”
- “The wolf went to sleep because he was supporting the weight of 
““caperucita” and her grandmother.”
- “Since that time, there have been a lot of UFO visions in the U.S”
- “I think that the technology is the principal thing that we can 
learn from them”
- “Actually, there are a lot of videos and photos that show UFOs.”
- “The figures in the corn fields are signals that say we are not 
alone.”

---

66
- “Doctors win a lot of money.”
- “I’m sure I can approve the subject.”
As we can see, the use of false cognates is very frequent. This may 
be due to the lack of vocabulary the writers have. 
Time factor is also a reason to use false cognates. Students 
wanted to finish their essays/stories/tales within 40 minutes so they 
had to write quickly. It can be said that they were also under pressure.