Jens Olesen

May 6, 20211 min

German brav vs. English brave- Tricky False Friends in German and English

Updated: Dec 27, 2023

Even though only one letter separates the two adjectives, but the German “brav” and the English “brave” have nothing in common but their spelling. In this post, I will explain the difference in meaning between the German brav and the English word.

While the German “brav” translates into English as “well-behaved” or “obedient”, the English “brave” means “mutig” or “tapfer” in German.

Some of our previous posts in this blog series on tricky false friends in German and English revealed that there is no relation between the German Art and the English art, German fast and the English fast, German blenden and the English blend, and discussed the difference between become and bekommen.

On our German Language Blog "Auf Deutsch, bitte!", you will find posts on the German kennen vs. wissen, as well as besuchen vs. besichtigen. We also cure your German grammar phobia with our posts explaining adjective ending rules in German, the difference between viel and viele, the German cases, rules on German genders, weak nouns in German, when to use ß in German, Just scroll through our blog and learn more about the language.

Learn more about German lessons in London and online, small-group German courses in London, and online German classes on our website.

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