puxar Verb
Looks like push Really means to pull
To push is empurrar; doors marked puxe mean pull.
Some Portuguese 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 Portuguese are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, puxar means to pull, not push, and pretender means to intend, not pretend. This free guide lists 18 real Portuguese false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 18 Portuguese false friends.
Looks like push Really means to pull
To push is empurrar; doors marked puxe mean pull.
Looks like pretend Really means to intend
To pretend or fake is fingir.
Looks like parent Really means relative
A mother or father is pai or mãe.
Looks like library Really means bookshop
A lending library is uma biblioteca.
Looks like sensible Really means sensitive
Level-headed sensible is sensato.
Looks like actually Really means currently
For actually, say na verdade.
Looks like exquisite Really means strange, weird
Exquisite or refined is requintado.
Looks like pasta Really means folder
The food pasta is massa.
Looks like data Really means date (calendar)
Data or figures are dados.
Looks like costume Really means custom, habit
A costume you wear is uma fantasia.
Looks like legend Really means subtitle
A legend or myth is uma lenda.
Looks like lunch Really means snack
Lunch is almoço; lanche is a snack.
Looks like assist Really means to watch
Assistir a um filme means to watch a film; to assist is ajudar.
Looks like balcony Really means counter
A balcony is uma varanda or sacada.
Looks like journal Really means newspaper
A personal journal is um diário.
Looks like novel Really means soap opera
A novel you read is um romance.
Looks like compromise Really means appointment
A compromise or deal is um acordo.
Looks like fabric Really means factory
Cloth fabric is tecido.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Portuguese 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 Portuguese overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Portuguese puxar still reads like "push" to an English eye even though it means "to pull".
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 puxar or pretender 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 Portuguese 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 Portuguese words that look almost identical to an English word but mean something different, like puxar, which looks like "push" but means "to pull". 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. Portuguese puxar actually means to pull, not push. To push is empurrar; doors marked puxe mean pull. This is one of the most common Portuguese 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 Portuguese words like puxar and fábrica 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. Portuguese 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 puxar (looks like push) to fábrica (looks like fabric). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.