This volume collects and explores in a spirit of relaxed scholarship and inquiry those moments (Gift, Kost, hissen, Rat, pathetisch, and over a thousand more) when German and English might appear to be closest together yet are often most misleadingly, and teasingly, apart. In alphabetically arranged entries, the author discusses not only Faux amis, or falsche Freunde, but the many other linguistic pitfalls and traps that lie in wait for the English-speaking learner of German, and he illustrates his explanations with examples from literature, the press and everyday life. Divided into ten sections, including ‘History & politics’, ‘Philosophy, religion & morals’, ‘Literature, the arts & the media’, ‘Sex & the family’, and ‘Food & drink’, it offers instructive and entertaining reading for all students and lovers of the German language (including native speakers with a knowledge of English) who seek enlightenment on the numerous fine points of apparent and real contact, as well as confusion, that exist between the two cousin languages which sometimes seem more than once removed.

Published by Libris in 1996