False friends

With thousands of words, meanings, and translations, some languages share pairs of words or phrases that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning. These are called false friends. On the other hand, those words that have the same linguistic derivation are cognates. We have to be very careful with these situations because we could cause confusion inside or outside the classroom.

Many Spanish words are similar to English words, like:

abbreviation - abreviación

education - educación

ignorant - ignorante

ocean - océano

urgent - urgente

However, some Spanish words look like English words but they have a very different meaning, like: 

Spanish 

asistir

English translation

attend

Confusion with

assist: to help

Spanish 

dirección

English translation

address

Confusion with

direction: a course along which someone or something moves

Spanish 

éxito

English translation

success

Confusion with

exit: salida

Spanish 

decepción

English translation

dissapointment  

Confusion with

deception: engaño

Spanish 

pretender

English translation

to expect

Confusion with

to pretend: fingir

The exercise #9 from the link of Oxford University Press can help us with these confusions.

http://www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com/view/Document.html?filename=/oldo/resources/es/swordgames.pdf

This video can also guide us with more examples: