Anything to do with the psyche – the human mind or soul, after the goddess of the same name – has to be referred to as “psychological” or “mental”, not “psychic”.
Category Archives: Valse vrienden
Relations and relationships
Dutch uses the same word for both (relatie), but the meanings in English are distinctly different.
Cowboys and Indonesians
Unusually for European languages, Dutch has retained the word “Indisch” as the demonym for the former East Indies and people are always mistranslating it as “Indian”.
Quartermaster
A quartermaster is a low or mid-level military administrator responsible for supplies and equipment, not some kind of high-level official trailblazer for projects.
Trajectories are for ballistics
The curve taken under gravity by a thrown object, or a metaphorical upward progression such as a career. Not a generic synonym for a route or pathway.
Eventually
Most Dutch writers are aware that “eventual” means “uiteindelijk”: in the end. But they’re still often unsure how to deal with the faux-ami “eventueel”.
A monumental mistake
A monument is a structure erected in remembrance of a person or event. They’re often on a grand scale, which is why “monumental” simply means extremely large.
So-called
Watch the overtones: it’s not only telling you a term is used but also implying that it’s incorrect. A so-called expert or so-called friend is not to be trusted!
Checking the controls
Controls are mechanisms or procedures for making machines or processes behave as you want, i.e. controlling them, not checking them.
Species names
A goldfinch isn’t a goudvink. A coal tit isn’t a koolmees. Your pond is unlikely to be visited by a ring snake or a salamander.
