fabrika Noun
Looks like fabric Really means factory
Fabric in Bosnian is tkanina.
Some Bosnian words look like an English word you already know, then mean something completely different. Here are 15 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 Bosnian are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, fabrika means factory, not fabric, and eventualno means possibly, not eventually. This free guide lists 15 real Bosnian false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 15 Bosnian false friends.
Looks like fabric Really means factory
Fabric in Bosnian is tkanina.
Looks like eventually Really means possibly, potentially, if needed
Eventually in Bosnian is na kraju or konačno.
Looks like sympathetic Really means nice, likeable, cute (describing a person)
Sympathetic in Bosnian is saosjećajan.
Looks like sympathy Really means a crush, a romantic liking for someone
Sympathy (compassion) in Bosnian is saosjećanje.
Looks like academic Really means a member of an Academy of Sciences and Arts (an academician)
A general scholar or professor in Bosnian is naučnik or profesor.
Looks like preservative Really means condom
Preservative (food additive) in Bosnian is konzervans.
Looks like advocate Really means a lawyer, an attorney
To advocate for a cause in Bosnian is zagovarati.
Looks like magazine Really means a warehouse, a storage facility
Magazine (the publication) in Bosnian is časopis.
Looks like actual Really means current, topical, relevant right now
Actual (real) in Bosnian is stvaran.
Looks like cabinet Really means a study room or specialist office
A furniture cabinet in Bosnian is ormar.
Looks like gymnasium Really means an academic secondary school (high school)
Gymnasium (for exercise) in Bosnian is teretana.
Looks like novel Really means a novella, a short prose work
Novel (full length book) in Bosnian is roman.
Looks like condition Really means physical fitness, being in good shape
Condition in general in Bosnian is stanje.
Looks like provision Really means a commission, a broker's fee
Provision (supply) in Bosnian is snabdijevanje.
Looks like realize Really means to carry out or implement a plan
To realize, meaning understand, in Bosnian is shvatiti.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Bosnian 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 Bosnian overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Bosnian fabrika still reads like "fabric" to an English eye even though it means "factory".
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 fabrika or eventualno 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 Bosnian 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 Bosnian words that look almost identical to an English word but mean something different, like fabrika, which looks like "fabric" but means "factory". 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. Bosnian fabrika actually means factory, not fabric. Fabric in Bosnian is tkanina. This is one of the most common Bosnian 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 Bosnian words like fabrika and realizirati 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. Bosnian 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 15 of the most common ones, from fabrika (looks like fabric) to realizirati (looks like realize). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.