Dear Duolingo: Why can words have opposite meanings across languages?

Welcome to another week of Dear Duolingo, an advice column just for learners. Catch up on past installments here.

Hello, dear readers! I’m Stefanie Schantl, a linguist who works on Duolingo’s German course. Last time, I told you about diminutives in different languages. This week, we’ll look at words that have the same spelling in two languages—but completely different meanings! 😵‍💫

What a great question, Opposites Attract! You’re right that, when learning a language, you will sometimes find a word that looks familiar to you, but has an unexpected meaning in your new language. There are different reasons for why this might happen.

Some languages share a common ancestor

It’s not very obvious today, but English and German belong to the same language family. They were never one and the same language, but they both developed from a common ancestor called Proto-Germanic.

Proto-Germanic was spoken a very long time ago—somewhere around 2000 years in the past.  Linguists have compared later stages of Germanic languages to understand what Proto-Germanic would have been like, so we actually know quite a lot about it, even though we don’t have any direct sources from this period.

Languages with a common ancestor often share certain words, retain some core vocabulary that tends to remain unchanged, and may have similar grammatical structure and ways of forming words. This is why English and German have some words that are similar or even identical. And the same is true for many other languages! For example, Hungarian shares a language family with Finnish, and they both developed from Proto-Uralic. Arabic and Hebrew are closely related, both tracing their roots back to Proto-Semitic. Similarly, Ukrainian and Polish both developed from Proto-Slavic, making them closely related as well.

Shared history explains why related languages often have similar words. But why do some words that look the same have completely different meanings, like English gift and German Gift (poison)? The answer lies in how languages change over time.

Meanings can change over time

Language isn’t static. It is constantly evolving, even if the changes aren’t always obvious. Sometimes, new words emerge because we have a need for them. Other times, words or a certain use of them become obsolete. Words can also shift in meaning, either drifting in a particular direction, broadening to include more concepts, or narrowing to become more specific.

For example, the Spanish verb estar (to be) comes from the Latin word stāre (to stand)—the meaning of the Latin verb was widened. Wife, on the other hand, had a broader meaning in Old English—it meant any woman. Its meaning was narrowed to become more specific.

The example of English gift vs. German Gift (poison) is a case of meanings that drifted apart over time. Originally, the German word had the same meaning as the English one. Both trace back to the Proto-Germanic word giftiz (something given). In German, the meaning shifted from “gift” to a specific kind of giving, “giving a certain amount of a drug,” then to “giving something lethal” or ”poison.” The original meaning is still evident in the German word Mitgift (dowry).

Another example that falls into this category is English slim vs. Dutch slim. Both come from the Proto-Germanic word slimbaz, meaning “oblique” or “crooked”, but the meaning of slim(baz) evolved differently in these languages:

This shift is an example of amelioration, where a word’s meaning becomes more positive over time. The reverse—when a word takes on a more negative meaning—also happens sometimes. This is called pejoration. For example, silly comes from Proto-Germanic sēliz (happy, good) but gradually took on a more negative meaning.

Another example of words with the same origin that took different paths is English fast vs. German fast:

Sometimes it’s just a coincidence

However, not all words that look alike (or similar) have the same root. Take English hell vs. German hell (light, bright) as an example. While the English word comes from Proto-Germanic haljō (underworld), the German word originates from Proto-Germanic halliz (resounding). Over time, both words underwent different changes, and that they have the same spelling today is purely coincidental!

Another example is English fart vs. Swedish fart. Though they look the same, their meanings are completely different and they have different origins. So even though English and Swedish are related, the fact that they both have the word “fart” today is a linguistic accident!

The same is true for Italian droga vs. Polish droga: They have separate origins, and in fact, the Italian word was adapted from Dutch!

“I swear I’ve seen this before…” 🤨

Have you stumbled upon any words that looked familiar but had an unexpected meaning while learning a new language? Let us know!

For more answers to your language and learning questions, get in touch with us by emailing dearduolingo@duolingo.com.