kind Noun
Looks like kind Really means child
For kind (nice), Dutch says aardig or vriendelijk.
Some Dutch words look like an English word you already know, then mean something completely different. Here are 18 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 Dutch are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, kind means child, not kind, and wet means law, not wet. This free guide lists 18 real Dutch false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 18 Dutch false friends.
Looks like kind Really means child
For kind (nice), Dutch says aardig or vriendelijk.
Looks like wet Really means law
For wet (moist), Dutch says nat.
Looks like bad Really means bath
For bad (not good), Dutch says slecht.
Looks like slim Really means smart, clever, intelligent
For slim (thin), Dutch says slank or dun.
Looks like ramp Really means disaster, catastrophe
For a ramp (slope), Dutch says helling.
Looks like brutal Really means cheeky, insolent, rude
For brutal (violent), Dutch says wreed or bruut.
Looks like brave Really means well-behaved, obedient (of a child or pet)
For brave (courageous), Dutch says moedig or dapper.
Looks like stout Really means naughty, badly behaved
For stout (sturdy), Dutch says stevig.
Looks like glad Really means slippery, smooth
For glad (happy), Dutch says blij.
Looks like rare Really means strange, weird, odd
For rare (uncommon), Dutch says zeldzaam.
Looks like trap Really means stairs, staircase
For a trap (snare), Dutch says val.
Looks like bang Really means afraid, scared
For a bang (loud noise), Dutch says knal.
Looks like meaning Really means opinion
For meaning (of a word), Dutch says betekenis.
Looks like billion Really means trillion (10^12)
Dutch billion is miljard; biljoen is one step higher.
Looks like file Really means a traffic jam
For a file (documents), Dutch says dossier or bestand.
Looks like pet Really means a cap, baseball cap
For a pet (animal), Dutch says huisdier.
Looks like will Really means to want (to do something)
For future will, Dutch uses zullen (ik zal gaan, I will go).
Looks like actual Really means current, up to date, topical
For actual (real), Dutch says werkelijk or feitelijk.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Dutch 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 Dutch overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Dutch kind still reads like "kind" to an English eye even though it means "child".
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 kind or wet 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 Dutch 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 Dutch words that look almost identical to an English word but mean something different, like kind, which looks like "kind" but means "child". 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. Dutch kind actually means child, not kind. For kind (nice), Dutch says aardig or vriendelijk. This is one of the most common Dutch 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 Dutch words like kind and actueel 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. Dutch 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 18 of the most common ones, from kind (looks like kind) to actueel (looks like actual). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.