embarazada Adjective
Looks like embarrassed Really means pregnant
To say embarrassed in Spanish, use avergonzado.
Some Spanish 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 Spanish are words that look like an English word but mean something completely different. For example, embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed, and éxito means success, not exit. This free guide lists 18 real Spanish false friends: the English word each one resembles, what it truly means, and how to say the English sense correctly.
All 18 Spanish false friends.
Looks like embarrassed Really means pregnant
To say embarrassed in Spanish, use avergonzado.
Looks like exit Really means success
An exit sign reads salida; éxito is a hit or triumph.
Looks like carpet Really means folder
A floor carpet is una alfombra.
Looks like rope Really means clothes
A rope is una cuerda.
Looks like soap Really means soup
Soap for washing is jabón.
Looks like constipated Really means having a cold
Estar constipado means to have a head cold; constipated is estreñido.
Looks like library Really means bookshop
A lending library is una biblioteca.
Looks like sensible Really means sensitive
Level-headed sensible is sensato.
Looks like realize Really means to carry out
To realize as in grasp is darse cuenta.
Looks like fabric Really means factory
Cloth fabric is tela or tejido.
Looks like parent Really means relative
Your mother or father is un padre or una madre.
Looks like large Really means long
Large in size is grande.
Looks like once Really means eleven
A single time, once, is una vez.
Looks like record Really means to remember
To record audio is grabar.
Looks like actual Really means current
Actual as in real is verdadero or real.
Looks like assist Really means to attend
Asistir a clase means to attend class; to assist is ayudar.
Looks like molest Really means to bother
It simply means to annoy or disturb, nothing sexual.
Looks like luxury Really means lust
Luxury goods are lujo.
Data verified as of July 2026.
False friends stick when you meet them inside a real sentence. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Spanish 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 Spanish overlap heavily because both borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French, or share older roots. The spelling stayed close while the meaning drifted, so Spanish 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 éxito 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 Spanish 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 Spanish 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. Spanish embarazada actually means pregnant, not embarrassed. To say embarrassed in Spanish, use avergonzado. This is one of the most common Spanish 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 Spanish words like embarazada and lujuria 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. Spanish 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 lujuria (looks like luxury). Reading in context is the surest way to keep them straight.