ooh, can I play?
I love these. I compiled a list similar to this when I was teaching someone English last year. I've taken out the ones already mentioned.
1. Asistir means to attend. Asisto a la oficina cada día, I go to the office daily. To say "to assist," use ayudar, to help.
2. Atender: Means to serve or to take care of, to attend to. If you're talking about attending a meeting or a class, use asistir.
3. Carpeta means a file folder (including the virtual kind) or a briefcase. "Carpet" is most often alfombra.
4. Compromiso means a promise, obligation, or commitment, it does not usually convey the sense that one have given up something to reach an agreement. There is no good noun equivalent of "compromise" that would be understood that way out of context, although the verb transigir conveys the sense of giving in to, yielding to, or tolerating another person.
5. Constipado: Una constipación, though not very common, is one of the words that means a cold. Someone who is constipated is estreñido.
6. Contestar: It's a very common verb meaning to answer. To contest something, use contender. A contest or a competition is concurso.
7. Decepción, decepcionar means disappointment or to disappoint. To deceive someone is to engañar a alguién.
8. Delito: There's seldom much delightful about a crime. (Delito usually refers to a minor crime, as contrasted with a serious crime or crimen.)
9. Desgracia: In Spanish, this is little more than a mistake or misfortune. Something shameful is una vergüenza.
10. Disgusto: Derived from the prefix dis- (meaning "not") and the root word gusto (meaning "pleasure"), this word refers simply to displeasure or misfortune. If you need to use a much stronger term akin to "disgust," use asco or repugnancia.
11. Etiqueta is a label, not a ticket.
12. Éxito: It's a hit or a success. If you're looking for the way out, look for una salida.
13. Fábrica: That's a place where they fabricate items, namely a factory. Words for "cloth" include tejido and tela. n.b. in the DR Factoria is used for rice mill.
14. Introducir: This isn't truly a false cognate, for it can be translated as, among other things, to introduce in the sense of to bring in, to begin, to put, or to place. For example, se introdujo la ley en 1998, the law was introduced (put in effect) in 1998. But it's not the verb to use to introduce someone. Use presentar.
15. Pretender: The Spanish verb doesn't have anything to do with faking it, only to try. To pretend, use fingir or simular.
16. Realizar, realizacón: The verb can be used flexibly to indicate something becoming real or becoming completed: Se realizó el rascacielos, the skyscraper was built. To realize as a mental event can be translated using darse cuenta ("to realize"), comprender ("to understand") or saber ("to know"), among other possibilities, depending on the context.
17. Reclamar: to complain.
18. Recordar means to remember or to remind. The verb to use when recording something depends on what you're recording. Possibilities include anotar or tomar nota for writing something down, or grabar for making an audio or video recording.
19. Sano means healthy. Someone who is sane is en su juicio or "in his right mind."
20. Suceso: Merely an event or happening, sometimes a crime. A success is un éxito.
Adapted from Spanish teaching websites like spanish.about.com
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