Today's post will be about two false friends that English and Spanish have and so many times Spanish speakers have made mistakes with these words. I remember one day, when one of my student sent me a message in Whatsapp telling me: "Sorry, Denis, I don't feel well today and I'm constipated...". Of course, English speaker will think, that she might have this, as you can see on the right picture.But I understood her, that she literally translated the Spanish word constipado into constipated, and these two words are similar, but their meanings are absolutely different!
If I say "I'm constipated"(Estoy constipado) in Spanish. it means that I have flu, I'm sick, I've got cold and don't feel well, as on the left picture. But the same phrase in English has absolutly different meaning. If we say "I'm constipated", it means in Spanish "Estoy estreñido".So sometime literal translation from Spanish into English can be a little bit dangerous, because we can missunderstand you!
