German Art vs. English art - Tricky False Friends in German and English

The German "Art" and the English word "art" are false friends (or, technically, "false cognates") because even though they may look like twins their meanings have no connection whatsoever. In this post, I will explain the difference in meaning between the two nouns "art" with an upper and a lower-case a.

The German noun "die Art" translates as "kind", "sort" or "type", while the English word "art" means "die Kunst" in German. So there is no connection at all.

The last nine entries in our blog series revealed that there is no relation between the German fast and the English fast, German blenden and the English blend, the difference between become and bekommen, the surprising meaning of a German Gift, English also and its meaning in German, the English "bald" vs. the German "bald", the difference between “brand” vs ”Brand”, showed that "spenden" in German is not what you might think it is. 

On our German grammar blog, you will find posts on adjective ending rules in German, the German cases, rules on German genders, the Konjunktiv 2 in German, German word order, and many other topics. Just scroll through our blog and learn more about the language.

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