User:Salpfish

Working on false cognate stuff.

This is an initial list of false cognates between various languages. They therefore look similar in form and have similar meanings, but nevertheless do not come from the same root.

Copied over from the Wikipedia page before the cleanup.


 * Antillean Creole
 * Latin


 * Hebrew
 * Mongolian


 * Arabic
 * Japanese
 * Malay


 * Egyptian Arabic
 * English


 * Italian
 * Maltese


 * Arabic
 * Persian


 * Arabic
 * Spanish
 * Tagalog


 * Arabic
 * English


 * Arabic
 * English


 * Tunisian Arabic


 * Arabic walad (ولد) (boy, son) and British English lad
 * Aramaic di or de- (which, of), Italian di & Spanish/French de (of), Mandarin de (的) ('s)
 * Archi dogi and English donkey
 * Archi mejmanak (monkey) and Spanish mono (monkey)
 * Archi qaz (goose) and English gosling
 * Archi qol (ice) and English cold
 * Armenian hēr (հեր) (hair) and English hair
 * Ashkenazi Hebrew meis (dead)/ mos (death of) and Latin mors (death); Sephardi Hebrew mot (death of) / Arabic "mawt" and Italian morte
 * Babylonian šī, English she and Irish sí
 * Bagvalal акъо /atɬʼo/ (hut) and Greenlandic illu /iɬːu/ (house)
 * Bagvalal уᴴ /ũ/ (yes) and Japanese un /ɯɴ/ (yes)
 * Basque elkar (each other) and Dutch elkaar (each other)
 * Bengali fela (throw away/put down) and English fell (make something fall) and fall and Hebrew pol (which becomes fol after a vowel sound)
 * Bikol aki (child) and Korean agi (child)
 * Blackfoot aki (woman) and Even akhi (woman)
 * Chinese cāntīng (餐厅) (dining room, cafeteria) and English canteen (Pinyin  has the value [ts])
 * Chinese dàmā (大妈) (middle-aged woman) and Spanish dama (lady)
 * Chuvash nĕrtte (awkward, inept) and English nerdy
 * Coptic per (house) and Etruscan pera (house) and Hittite pēr (house)
 * Dutch door (through, from Proto-Germanic *þurhw) and English door (partition that one operates to pass through, from Proto-Germanic *durz)
 * Dutch maar (but, from PIE *ne h₂wes-) and Italian ma (but, from PIE *meǵh₂) and Vietnamese mà (but)
 * Dzongkha Druk (dragon) and English drake
 * Egyptian bity and English bee
 * Egyptian *marar (to see, to look) and Japanese miru (見る) (to look) and Spanish mirar (to look at, to watch)/Catalan mirar (also to look at, to watch)/Portuguese mirar (to stare)
 * Egyptian mennu (food) and French menu
 * English able and Turkish -abil/-ebil (ability infix)
 * English ache and Ancient Greek ἄχος (ákhos) (pain, distress)
 * English am (first person present tense of to be), Etruscan am (to be), and Sumerian am (to be)
 * English among and Visayan among (accidentally included)
 * English ask and Jaqaru aska
 * English aye (yes, affirmative vote), Japanese hai (はい) (yes) and Cantonese hai (係) (to be [used to answer to yes-no questions)
 * English bad, Persian bad, and Armenian vad (ւադ) (bad)
 * English be and Gbaya be
 * English beat and Russian бить (to hit or batter; both words also pronounced nearly identically)
 * English better and Persian behtar
 * English buy and Japanese on'yomi bai (買, to buy)
 * English boy, Japanese bōya (坊や) (young male child), and Finnish poika (boy, son)
 * English brush and Texmelucan Zapotec brush
 * English can and Japanese kan (缶) (portable container)
 * English cheek and Russian shcheka (щека; cheek)
 * English chop and Uzbek chop
 * English cover and Biblical Hebrew kaphar (appease, cover over)
 * English cut, Finnish kaataa (to cut down) (to hew), Vietnamese cắt (to cut) and Japanese katana (single-edged sword)
 * English dairy and Russian/Ukrainian doyar (дояр; milker), doyarka (milkmaid)
 * English day, daily and Spanish día (day) (or Latin dies (day) or even English diary)
 * English demure and German Demut (humility)
 * English delete and Russian udalit' (удалить; to delete, remove)
 * English die and Thai dtâi (ตาย) (to die)
 * English dog and Mbabaram dog
 * English dork and Russian durak (дурак)
 * English dung and Korean 똥 ttong (excrement)
 * English each and Hebrew ish (man; can be used for "each")
 * English egg, Ganda eggi (egg) and Egyptian Arabic eggah (omelette)
 * English emoticon and Japanese 絵文字 emoji
 * English evaporate and Ukrainian vyparovuvaty (випаровувати);
 * English eye and Hebrew `ayin/ Arabic `ain (eye)
 * English fall and Hebrew nafal (fell)
 * English fee and Shanghainese fi / Vietnamese phí
 * English fire and Thai fai (ไฟ)
 * English folk and Latin vulgus (the public)
 * English fruit and Hebrew perot (פֵּרוֹת) (which becomes ferot after a vowel sound)
 * English have and French avoir/Latin habeo
 * English heart and Malay hati
 * English hole and Mayan hol
 * English hollow and Lake Miwok hóllu
 * English honest and Japanese honne
 * English house, Hungarian ház (house, block of flats)
 * English humo(u)r and Russian umora (fun)
 * English hut and Ukrainian khata (хата)
 * English Indian (native American) and Mescalero Inde (Apache, person)
 * English it, Russian eto(это) and Tagalog eto/ito (it, this)
 * English kitten, Indonesian and Malaysian kucing (cat) and Tagalog kuting (kitten)
 * English lake and Latin lacus (lake, pond)
 * English laser and Scottish Gaelic lasair (light beam, flame)
 * English many and Korean 많이 mani (much, many)
 * English martyrdom and Russian mytarstvo (suffering, torture)
 * English mount (short form of mountain) and Hawaiian mauna (mountain)
 * English much and Spanish mucho
 * English mysterious and Hebrew mistori (מִסְתּוֹרִי)
 * English neck/German Nacken and Spanish nuca and Hungarian nyak
 * English observer and Russian obozrevatel' (observer)
 * English one (when used as a pronoun for an indefinite person) and French on
 * English order and Persian ord (اُرد) (order, command) (from Old Persian arta "divine/cosmic order, truth")
 * English over and Japanese 終わり owari (end)
 * English owe and Japanese 負う ou (to bear, to take responsibility, to owe)
 * English pan and Mandarin pan/Vietnamese bàn (pan, shallow plate, table)
 * English pear and Korean 배 pay, bae (Korean pear)
 * English persecution and Bulgarian and Russian presechenie (пресечение; persecution, suppression, injunction)
 * English person and Sanskrit puruṣa (person)
 * English platypus and Czech ptakopysk
 * English portion and Hebrew parashat (פָּרָשַׁת; weekly Torah portion)
 * English pussy (pet name for cat); Samoan pusi (cat) / Tagalog pusa (cat); and Turkish pisi (cat)
 * English reason and Bulgarian and Russian razum (разум)
 * English road and French route
 * English screech and Croatian skričati (shriek, screech)
 * English seed and Korean 씨 ssi (pip)
 * English shower and Portuguese chuveiro (shower)
 * English so and Japanese sō (そう) (in the sense of referring to something that was said being correct or referring to something said previously)
 * English strange and Italian strano (both from Latin extraneus) and Bulgarian stranno (странно)
 * English stranger and Bulgarian and Russian strannik (странник)
 * English tiny and Yana tʼinii
 * English tongue and Mapudungun dungun (tongue, speech)
 * English viscosity and Russian vyazkost' (вязкость)
 * English whole and Ancient Greek hólos (ὅλος)
 * English why and Korean 왜 wae
 * English woman and Old Japanese womi₁na
 * English yea and Korean 예 ye (yes)
 * English zone (state of immersion in an activity) and Japanese 禅 zen (from Sanskrit dhyāna, being absorbed in meditation)
 * Estonian/Finnish ei (no, not), Etruscan ei (no, not), and Norwegian ei/Swedish ej (not)
 * Estonian mana (magic, spell, incantation) and Polynesian-Melanesian mana
 * Estonian kalamari (roe, caviar) and Italian calamaro, Slovene kalamari (squid)
 * Estonian lapsus (childishness, childish error) and Latin lapsus (falling, slip, error)
 * Estonian mina/Finnish minä (I), and Zulu mina (I)
 * Estonian seitse (seven) and Japanese shichi (seven)
 * Estonian ta (short form of tema) (he/she) and Mandarin tā (他/她) (he/she)
 * Etruscan ac (to make, act) and Sumerian ak (to make, act)
 * Etruscan an (he/she/it), Sumerian ane (he/she/it) and Tagalog ang (it/the)
 * Etruscan ipa (who, which), Indonesian siapa (who) and Sumerian aba (who)
 * Etruscan mi (I/me), Lombard mi (I/me) and Sumerian ma (I/me)
 * Ewe yo (I agree, yes), Swedish jo (yes).
 * Finnish kasa (pile) and Japanese kasamu (嵩む) (to pile up)
 * Finnish ja (meaning "and") and Japanese や (ya) (meaning "or")
 * Finnish hän (he, she) and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish han (he)
 * Finnish liian (too, exceedingly) and Greek lían (λίαν; very, very much, overmuch, exceedingly)
 * Finnish mua (me, colloquial) and French moi (me)
 * French boudoir (bedroom) and English bower
 * French écouter (listen) and Greek akouō (hear)
 * French caisse/Italian cassa (money box) and Tamil kasu (an ancient monetary unit) (see Cash (disambiguation))
 * French feu (fire) and German Feuer (fire)
 * French Gaule (whence English Gaul) and Latin Gallia
 * French le and Samoan le (both "the")
 * French lien and Mandarin lián/ Vietnamese liên (both "link")
 * French papillon and Nahuatl papalotl (both "butterfly")
 * French qui/Italian chi (who) and Hungarian ki (who)
 * French rue and Mandarin lù (路)/ Vietnamese lộ (both "road")
 * Ga ba (come) and Hebrew ba (בא) (came) and Kannada ba (come).
 * Gascon babau, Romanian babau, Italian (dialectal) babau and Ukrainian babay (bogeyman)
 * German Ach, so! and Japanese Aa, soo (ああ、そう) (I see)
 * German -chen (diminutive) and Japanese -chan (ちゃん) (diminutive honorific)
 * German haben and Latin habere (both "have")
 * German Schwur and Hebrew shvu`a (שבועה) (both "oath")
 * German Seele and Lithuanian siela (both meaning "soul")
 * German Kreuz and Russian krest (крест) (both "cross")
 * Greek thesato and Russian sosat' (сосать; to suck)
 * Greek alla (but) and Hebrew/Aramaic ella (but rather)
 * Greek gyné (γυνή; woman), Hawaiian/Maori wahine (woman) (and similar forms in other Polynesian languages) and Latin vagina
 * Greek root -lab- and Sanskrit root -labh- (take)
 * Greek meta (μετά, between) and Mi'kmaq mata (junction, as in matapegiag)
 * Greek pauo (παύω, stop, cease) and Hawaiian pau (finished, done, end)
 * Greek phullon (leaf, plant), Korean p'ul (풀) (herb, grass) and Tamil pul (புல்) (grass)
 * Greek pou (where) and Hebrew poh (here)/ephoh (where)
 * Greek stylos (column) and Latin stilus (pen): the English spellings "style" and "stylus" result from a false etymology
 * Greek theos (god) and Greek Zeus (the king of all gods)
 * Greek theos and Latin deus (both "god")
 * Greek theos (god) and Nahuatl teo (god – absolutive: teotl)
 * Greenlandic tallimat and Tagalog lima (both "five")
 * Hawaiian kahuna (priest) and Hebrew k'huna (כְּהוּנָה) (priesthood)
 * Hebrew ari (lion) and Tamil ari (lion) and Kazakh Aristan
 * Hebrew din (law) and Persian din (religion)
 * Hebrew derekh (דֶרֶך) (way, route) and Russian doroga / Ukrainian doroha (дорога; road)
 * Hebrew derekh (דֶרֶך) and German durch (both "through")
 * Hebrew har (הר) and Ukrainian hora (гора) (both "mountain)
 * Hebrew ish and Yana Ishi (both "man")
 * Hebrew sar (prince), English sir (nobleman), Russian Tsar (emperor)
 * Hebrew shesh (שׁשׁ) (six) with Hurrian šeše and Persian shesh (six)
 * Hindi chapatti and Italian ciabatta
 * Hungarian föld (earth, land, soil) and Icelandic fold (earth, land, ground)
 * Indonesian dua (two), Korean dul (two) and Vietnamese đôi (pair)
 * Indonesian kepala (head) and Greek kephale (head)
 * Inuktitut kayak and Turkish kayık and Choco language group cayuca (rowing boat)
 * Irish ach and Hebrew ach (אַך) (both "but")
 * Italian aiutare and Finnish auttaa (both "to help")
 * Italian donna and Japanese onna (女) (both "woman")
 * Italian micio (small cat) and Quechua michi (cat)
 * Italian popolo and K’iche’ popol (both "people")
 * Italian roba (set of things) and Croatian roba (goods, things for sale)
 * Italian sette (seven) and Yakut sette (seven)
 * Japanese arigatō (ありがとう; thank you) and Portuguese obrigado (thank you)
 * Japanese baba (祖母/ばば) (grandmother) and Bulgarian and Russian baba (бабушка, баба; grandmother) and Yiddish Bubbe (Grandmother)
 * Japanese gaijin (外人) (non-Japanese), Romani gadjo (non-Romani), Hebrew and Yiddish goy (non-Jew)
 * Japanese hato (dove, from Proto-Japanese pato) and Spanish pato (duck)
 * Japanese kofun (古墳) (megalithic tomb) and English coffin
 * Japanese ne (ね), colloquial German ne, colloquial Portuguese né (contraction of não é? "isn't it?"), colloquial Kapampangan neh ("right?", "isn't it?") (all tag question markers)
 * Japanese oi (おい) and British English oi (Interjection to get someone's attention)
 * Japanese shiru (知る) (know) and Latin scire (know)
 * A graphic example; the Japanese katakana ト to and the Latin letter t, as well as the hiragana て te and ꞇ, a Gaelic form of the Latin letter t
 * Kannada kivi (ಕಿವಿ) (ear) and Korean kwi (귀) (ear) (Korean kwi pronounced ki in normal speech)
 * Korean tokki (axe) and Mapuche natives and Easter Island Polynesian toki (axe)
 * Korean nan (난) and Tamil naan (நான்) (I)
 * Korean mal (말) and Icelandic mál (speech)
 * Kyrgyz ayal and Parji ayal (both "woman")
 * Latin ego and Tagalog ako (both "I")
 * Latin et and Kapampangan at (both "and")
 * Latin faciō (I make) and Māori whaka- (causative prefix; wh represents an f-like sound)
 * Latin fēmina (woman, female) and Old English fǣmne/Old Frisian fēmne (maiden)
 * Latin Iov- (Jupiter, oblique case stem) and Medieval Latin Iehovah (Jehovah)
 * Malay atuk and Inuit atuk (both "grandfather")
 * Malay mata and modern Greek máti (eye, from ommátion)
 * Mandarin Chinese nǐ (你), Swedish ni and Tamil nii (நீ). All three words mean you.
 * Mandarin Chinese "tā shì" (她是) and Irish "tá sí", meaning "she is"
 * Persian ābād "city, building, habitation" (compare -abad in South Asian city names) and English abode (also compare Scots abade or abaid, Middle English abad and unattested Old English *ābād)
 * Persian se (سه) and Korean se (세) and Shanghainese 三 se, all meaning: three.
 * Polish mieszkanie (apartment) and Hebrew mishkan (מִשׁכָּן)  (dwelling)
 * Proto-Indo-European *temh₁- "to cut" and Proto-Algonquian *temah- "to cut off (by tool)" (compare tomahawk)
 * Romanian rău and Hebrew ra (רַע) (both masculine forms of adj. "bad")
 * Romanian feminine definite article -a and Aramaic definite article -a (both suffixes)
 * Russian нам (nam, us, dative of мы (my, we)), Ngarrindjeri nam (us) and Tagalog namin (us, by us, through us)
 * Russian taz (basin) and unitaz (toilet bowl)
 * Spanish como (as/like) and Hebrew k'mo (כְּמוֹ) (as/like) and Arabic kma (as/like)
 * Sanskrit urj (ऊर्ज्) (strength, vigour) and English urge
 * Santali seta (dog) and Ainu seta/sita (dog)
 * Spanish y [i] and Slavic и/i [i] (both "and")
 * Spanish first-person pronoun yo (I) and archaic Japanese first-person pronoun yo (よ) (I)
 * Tamil amma (அம்மா)(mother) and Korean eomma (엄마) (mother)
 * Tamil appa (அப்பா) and Korean appa (아빠) (both "father")
 * Tamil nāḷ (நாள்) and Korean nal (날) (both "day")
 * Tamil vā (வா) (come) and Korean wa (와) (come) --the Korean wa is an artifact of verb conjugation
 * Tamil onnu (ஒண்ணு) and Korean eoneu (어느) (both "one")
 * Thai dao (ดาว) and Vietnamese sao (both "star")
 * Turkish bir and Ingain biré (both "one")
 * Turkish dil and Tagalog dila (both "tongue")
 * Turkish göl and Swedish göl (both "lake")
 * Turkish kara (land, shore) and Tamil karai (கரை) (shore)
 * Welsh cwmwl / Latin cumulus and Japanese kumo (雲) (cloud)
 * Welsh hi and Hebrew hi (הִיא)  (both "she")