False Friends August 2005



These sentences are all easy to translate into English. At least they are if you know they all contain false friends – words that sound the same but mean something different in English.

1. Meine Ärztin gab mir einen Rezept für Hustensaft.

2. Der Apotheker gab mir eine Quittung für die Medizin.

3. Meine Tante hat mir ihr Lieblingsrezept für Schokoladenkekse geschickt.

The false friends here are Rezept, which has two English translations, recipe if it it’s to do with cooking, prescription  if it’s something your doctor gives you.
These are not to be confused with receipt,  which is  Kassenbon or Quittung.
Also, be careful how you pronounce recipe and receipt. In recipe,  the ‘e’ at the end is pronounced, which is unusual for an English word. In receipt, the ‘p’ is
silent. Test your pronounciation at dict.leo.org.

So the sentences translate as follows:


1. My doctor gave me a prescription for cough medicine.

2. The chemist gave me a receipt for the medicine.  

3. My aunt sent me her favourite recipe for chocolate biscuits.

 

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