German Chef vs. English chef - Tricky False Friends in German and English

Don’t be fooled to think that the German noun "Chef" and the English noun “chef” mean the same thing. In fact, they are false friends (also known as "false cognates") because, even though they might be spelled the same, their meanings are very different indeed. In this post, I will explain the difference in meaning between the German Chef and the English word.
 

 The German noun “der Chef” translates as “the boss” in English and is therefore not confined to the kitchen. The English word “chef” means “der Koch” in German, so the cook. Confusingly, the German word “der Küchenchef” refers to the head chef of a restaurant, which makes sense as he or she is the boss of the kitchen 😉.

The last eleven entries in our blog series revealed 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, and explained why schmuck wouldn't be considered as an insult by a German native speaker. 

On our German Language Blog "Auf Deutsch, bitte!", you will find posts on the best German songs to learn German, the most beautiful German words, and the German cases, rules on German genders, German word order, and many other topics. Just scroll through our blog and learn more about the language.

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