Abstract
Romance languages share a considerable number of words with the same or similar spelling and meaning. Although these can help the translator, he/she needs to pay attention to those words which appear similar – often sharing the same etymology– but which have different meaning in all contexts, or in just one special context. When translating from Italian or Portuguese to Spanish or vice versa, a large number of terms can cause problems because they prove to be false friends in the two languages. In this article, we aim to cover aspects of false friends between these related languages and study their influence in the translation process. In the first part, we analyse the principal studies of the typology of false friends between Spanish-Italian and Spanish-Portuguese. In the second part, a proposal for the taxo- nomy of false friends is offered, and some problems arising from overgeneralization about the use of false cognates are highlighted.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
