German blenden vs English blend- Tricky False Friends in German and English

The German verb “blenden“ and the English “to blend” are so-called false friends (or false cognates) because even though they may look like twins their meanings bear no relation whatsoever. In this post, I will explain the difference in meaning between blenden and blend.

While the German verb ‘blenden’ means ‘to deceive, to blind’, the English ‘blend’ stands for ‘mischen or verschmelzen’.

E.g. Er blendet viele Leute mit seiner emphatischen und herzlichen Art und seinem guten Aussehen.

(He deceives many people with his emphatic and affectionate behaviour and his good looks)

 Um einen Smoothie zu machen, vermischt sie Basilikum, Bananen, Äpfel und Kiwi mit einem Mixgerät.

(In order to make smoothie, she blends basil, bananas, apples, and kiwis with a blender)

Following from the above, for a German native speaker a ”Blender” wouldn’t be a helpful kitchen device but a deceitful person.

The last seven entries of our blog series revealed 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”,

On our German Language Blog "Auf Deutsch, bitte!", you also find posts on very German things to do, long German nouns, why the English word fun is used in a different way in German, why Am Morgen and morgens are not the same, as well as reading comprehension exercises at A2 German, B1 German, B2 German We also warn you about the top 5 mistakes in German and tell you how to avoid them.

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