False Cognates between Portuguese and English

The same day which I incorrectly said that I was planning to come back to Brazil, I made another mistake. I said that I pretended to do it.

Well, pretend is a false cognate, (also known as false friend) between English and Portuguese.

What is a false cognate? 

According to Macmillan Dictionary, a false cognate is “a word in a language that looks or sounds similar to a word in another language but means something different.”

Now that we know what is a false cognate, let’s go back to my mistake. 
Portuguese has the verb pretender, and English has the verb pretend. It seems to be the same, but it is not. While pretender in Portuguese means to intend; to plan to do something, pretend in English means to be fake; to simulate.

Educated is another false cognate that tricked me. I was in class, and I wrote a sentence "He doesn't stop yelling. Clearly, he is not educated". My teacher looked at me confused, and another Brazilian in class helped me, "You should say polite."

I made this mistake because Portuguese has the word educado, and English has the word educated. While educado in Portuguese means polite, educated in English means someone that acquired knowledge from a school or institution.

Below you can see the most common false friends between these two languages.

English	Meaning in English	Portuguese	Meaning in Portuguese
actual	in fact, real	atual	current, modern
amass	to accumulate	amassar	to crush
application	request, software	aplicação	financial investment
assist	to help	assistir	to watch, to attend
assume	presume, suppose	assumir	to take over
balcony	outside viewing area, terrace	balcão	counter (typically in a bar)
brave	courageous,valiant	bravo	mostly used as mad,angry
collar	neckband	colar	necklace, to glue, to cheat (in quiz)
costume	particular set of clothes	costume	tradition, costum
data	collection of information and facts	data	date
dent	smashed, beat	dente	tooth
design	to plan the form and structure of something	designar	designate
discuss	to talk about something	discutir	Heavy argue
editor	redactor	editor	publisher
educated	someone with knowledge by schools or institutions	educado	polite
enroll	to register	enrolar	to roll up, to curl up
eventually	in the end, finally	eventual	occasionally, by chance
exit	way or passage out of a place, vehicle, etc	êxito	success, accomplishment
expert	special skills, knowledge	esperto	clever, smart
exquisite	beautiful, delicate	esquisito	weird
fabric	cloth made by weaving or knitting	fábrica	factory
grip	take and keep a firm hold of, grab	gripe	the flu, cold
gripe	complaint	gripe	the flu, cold
injury	contusion, hurt	injúria	insult
jar	container, vase	jarra	jug
legend	traditional story whose facts are unverified	legenda	subtitle
letter	letter of the alphabet	letra	lyrics, handwriting
library	a building or room containing collections of books, periodicals, etc	livraria	book store
music	vocal or instrumental song	música	mostly used as a song, it can be music too
notice	to see, to feel	notícia	news
novel	fictional books	novela	soap opera
parents	mother and father	parentes	relatives
pasta	a dish originally from Italy	pasta	folder
preservative	food additives	preservativo	condom
pretend	to be fake, simulate	pretender	to intend
propaganda	manipulative advertising	propaganda	advertising, advertisement
pull	exert force on (someone or something) to move them toward oneself	pular	to jump
push	exert force on (someone or something) to move them away oneself	puxar	to pull
realize	see, understand	realizar	accomplish
record	save information, highest achievement	recordar	remember, recall
refrigerant	It’s a word not often used in everyday speech to describe chemicals used to cool things	refrigerante	soda, soft drink
resume	continue, curriculum vitae	resumir	summarize
sensible	wise, reasonable	sensível	sensitive
stranger	person who is unknown	estrangeiro	foreigner
support	encourage	suportar	to withstand
tax	tribute	Taxa	fee, rate