aktueel Adjective
Looks like actual Really means current, topical, up to date
For actual or real in Afrikaans, say werklik or eintlik; aktueel means current.
Some Afrikaans words look like an English word you already know, then mean something completely different. Here are 17 of the most common traps, each with the English word it resembles, what it really means, and how to say the English sense instead.
False friends in Afrikaans are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, aktueel means current, not actual, and eventueel means possible, not eventually. This free guide lists 17 real Afrikaans false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 17 Afrikaans false friends.
Looks like actual Really means current, topical, up to date
For actual or real in Afrikaans, say werklik or eintlik; aktueel means current.
Looks like eventually Really means possible, potential, if applicable
For eventually in Afrikaans, say uiteindelik; eventueel means possibly.
Looks like gift Really means poison
For a gift (present) in Afrikaans, say geskenk; gif is poison.
Looks like slim Really means clever, smart
For slim (thin) in Afrikaans, say maer or skraal; slim means clever.
Looks like ramp Really means disaster, catastrophe
For a ramp (sloped surface) in Afrikaans, say oprit; ramp means disaster.
Looks like brood Really means bread
Brood is a loaf of bread here, nothing to do with a brood of chicks or brooding.
Looks like pad Really means road, path
For a soft pad in Afrikaans, say kussing; pad means road.
Looks like stem Really means voice, or a vote
For a plant's stem in Afrikaans, say stingel; stem means voice.
Looks like arm Really means poor
As an adjective arm means poor; the noun arm still means the body part too.
Looks like fabric Really means factory
For fabric (cloth) in Afrikaans, say stof; fabriek is a factory.
Looks like bank Really means couch, sofa (or a bench)
Sit op die bank means sit on the couch, though bank can also mean a financial bank.
Looks like as Really means than (in comparisons), or if
Groter as jy means bigger than you; as does not form the as...as construction.
Looks like see Really means sea, ocean
For to see (the verb) in Afrikaans, use sien; see is the noun sea.
Looks like wet Really means law
For wet (damp) in Afrikaans, say nat; wet means law.
Looks like glad Really means smooth, slippery
For glad (happy) in Afrikaans, say bly; glad means slippery.
Looks like branding Really means surf, the breaking waves along a shore
For branding (marketing) in Afrikaans, say handelsmerk or brandmerk.
Looks like wins Really means profit, gain
For wins (victories) in Afrikaans, say oorwinnings; wins means profit.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Afrikaans with sentence-aligned translation and native-narrated audio, so the true meaning attaches to the story instead of the English lookalike. Save the tricky words and review them later. Free to start.
A false friend is a word that looks or sounds like a word in your language but carries a different meaning. English and Afrikaans overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Afrikaans aktueel still reads like "actual" to an English eye even though it means "current, topical, up to date".
These slips are common because your brain rewards the shortcut: a familiar-looking word feels safe, so you skip the check. That is fine until aktueel or eventueel changes the meaning of a whole sentence. Recognizing the pattern is half the fix. Knowing the handful of high-frequency offenders on this page is the other half.
The durable fix is not memorization but exposure in context. When you read Afrikaans and see one of these words doing its real job in a sentence, with a translation a tap away, the correct meaning wins. That is exactly what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
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False friends are Afrikaans words that look almost identical to an English word but mean something different, like aktueel, which looks like "actual" but means "current, topical, up to date". They exist because both languages inherited or borrowed from shared roots that then drifted apart. The fix is meeting them in real sentences until the true meaning sticks.
No. Afrikaans aktueel actually means current, topical, up to date, not actual. For actual or real in Afrikaans, say werklik or eintlik; aktueel means current. This is one of the most common Afrikaans false friends for English speakers, so it is worth learning early.
Memorizing a list helps for a day; context makes it permanent. When you meet Afrikaans words like aktueel and wins inside real sentences, with the translation one tap away, the correct meaning attaches to the situation instead of to the English lookalike. That is how reading in Lingo7 trains them out of you.
Yes. Afrikaans and English share a large amount of vocabulary through Latin, French, and centuries of borrowing, and that overlap is exactly what breeds false friends. This page covers 17 of the most common ones, from aktueel (looks like actual) to wins (looks like wins). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.