Hola chic@s,

Hope you’re doing ok.

So I’ve told you about the dread I used to feel at that lunchtime table in Madrid.

Another big contributor to that was a mistake I made pretty early on…

It was an extremely embarrassing one ☠️


My colleagues were nattering away at a million miles an hour.

I was desperately trying to keep up, smiling and nodding at what felt like the appropriate moments.

Then suddenly everyone looked at me.

My input was required.

I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on.

I thought the best approach would be to admit this to my colleagues.


So I said👇

‘Estoy muy ebarazado, no entiendo’.


Which I thought meant👇

‘I’m really embarrassed, I don’t understand.’


To which they burst out laughing hysterically.


Turns out ‘estoy muy embarazdo’ actually means ‘I’m really pregnant’.


HOH-DEERRR.


All these years later I’m glad it happened.

I’ve realised it’s all about collecting stories, not just doing grammar exercises.

Besides, I’ll never make that mistake again.

As it turns out, ‘embarazada’ is one of Spanish’s most dangerous ‘false friends’.

These are words and phrases that look like they mean one thing in English, but don’t translate equally in Spanish.

Some are harmless.

Some are very embarrassing.

And a few can get you in real trouble 😉

So I’ve put together a Survival Spanish Quiz to see how dangerous your Spanish really is.


👉 Take the quiz here 👈

(Share it with a friend to see how they do)


Un abrazo,
Harrison

Spanish for living, not just learning


P.S - I’d love to hear your embarrassing Spanish stories. And if you’re ok with me sharing them anonymously with the rest of the community, even better. I find it really helpful to see that it’s far more common than you might think 🙏

P.P.S - HOH-DEERRR is the word ‘joder’ used in Spain. It means ‘f***’.

P.P.P.S - You can get the Chat Spanish False Friends Guide here.