Hell is bright and Gift is poison while a Taste is a keyboard key and Klang is not my husband’s hometown but sound. In German, that is.

Charming for the first fortnight, not so much when you actually have to communicate. In language class, I learned the concept of falsche Freunde – ‘false friends’ – words in two languages which appear the same but have very different meanings.

A cruel trick to play when both English and German are kissing-cousin West Germanic languages and actually share many cognates (words which mean the same thing). In class, the surfacing of falsche Freunde tended to be greeted with despairing groans. ω