Home › False Friends

Time

Meaning: Actually means 'hour'. En halv time = half an hour. Time in the general sense is tid.

Language: Norwegian

Literally: time

Category: Everyday

Origin: Norwegian splits what English packs into one word: tid is time that passes, en time is sixty minutes of it.

More false friends — Everyday

  • Sky — Actually means 'cloud'. The sky overhead is himmelen.
  • Familiya (Фамилия) — Actually means 'surname'. A family is семья (semya).
  • Aktualny (Актуальный) — Actually means 'topical' or 'currently relevant'. For actual (real), say настоящий (nasto…
  • Artist (Артист) — Actually means 'performer' — an actor, singer or circus artiste. A painter is художник (k…
  • Gift — Actually means 'poison'. A present is ein Geschenk.
  • Éxito — Actually means 'success'. An exit is una salida.

More Norwegian false friends

  • Grine — Actually means 'to cry' or to pull a sour face. In Danish, grine means 'to laugh' — the e…
  • Frokost — Actually means 'breakfast'. In Danish the same word means 'lunch' — so a cross-border inv…
  • Full — Actually means 'drunk'. Jeg er full = I'm drunk — not full after a meal.
  • Rolig — Actually means 'calm' or 'quiet'. (Confusingly, in Swedish rolig means 'funny' — a false…

← Back to False Friends

Loading the full interactive collection…