embarazada Adjective
Looks like embarrassed Really means pregnant
To say embarrassed in Galician, use avergoñado (avergoñada for a woman).
Some Galician 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 Galician are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed, and billón means a trillion (a million million, not billion. This free guide lists 18 real Galician false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 18 Galician false friends.
Looks like embarrassed Really means pregnant
To say embarrassed in Galician, use avergoñado (avergoñada for a woman).
Looks like billion Really means a trillion (a million million, 1,000,000,000,000)
To say billion (1,000,000,000) in Galician, use mil millóns.
Looks like carpet Really means a folder for papers or computer files
To say carpet in Galician, use alfombra.
Looks like parent Really means a relative, any family member
To say parents in Galician, use pais (nai is mother, pai is father).
Looks like sensible Really means sensitive, easily affected or hurt
To say sensible, showing good judgment, in Galician, use sensato.
Looks like actual Really means current, present day
To say actual, meaning real, in Galician, use real or verdadeiro.
Looks like molest Really means to bother or annoy
Molestar has no sexual meaning in Galician, it just means to bother or annoy someone.
Looks like constipated Really means a cold, a respiratory illness with a stuffy nose
To say constipated in the digestive sense, use estrinxido, not constipado.
Looks like college Really means a primary or secondary school
To say college or university in Galician, use universidade.
Looks like compromise Really means a commitment or obligation
To say compromise, a mutual agreement, in Galician, use acordo.
Looks like discussion Really means an argument or quarrel
To say a calm discussion in Galician, use conversa or debate.
Looks like fabric Really means a factory
To say fabric or cloth in Galician, use tecido or tea.
Looks like lecture Really means reading, the act of reading
To say lecture, a talk given to an audience, in Galician, use conferencia.
Looks like record Really means to remember
To say record, as in document something, in Galician, use gravar.
Looks like success Really means an event or incident
To say success in Galician, use éxito.
Looks like large Really means wide, broad
To say large or big in Galician, use grande; long is longo.
Looks like eventually Really means possibly, occasionally, depending on circumstances
To say eventually, in the end, in Galician, use finalmente.
Looks like pretend Really means to intend, to aspire to something
To say pretend, fake, in Galician, use finxir.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Galician 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 Galician overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Galician embarazada still reads like "embarrassed" to an English eye even though it means "pregnant".
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 embarazada or billón 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 Galician 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 Galician words that look almost identical to an English word but mean something different, like embarazada, which looks like "embarrassed" but means "pregnant". 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. Galician embarazada actually means pregnant, not embarrassed. To say embarrassed in Galician, use avergoñado (avergoñada for a woman). This is one of the most common Galician 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 Galician words like embarazada and pretender 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. Galician 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 embarazada (looks like embarrassed) to pretender (looks like pretend). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.