herstellen

most annoying false friends: herstellen, meaning "to produce" in German and "to repair/restore" in Dutch.

the meanings are similar enough that context doesn't necessarily clear up the confusion, but different enough for a wrong interpretation to be very inaccurate.

prescriptive peeve

my biggest prescriptive pet peeve is when people talk about false cognates when what they're referring to are really false friends (and, in many cases, very real cognates).

i did just find out that false cognates are also a thing that exists, but still, very different from false friends. almost the opposite, really.

regardless of subject matter

latest book-related dumbassery:

one of my housemates ordered a book a while back, but only noticed after he received it that he'd accidentally ordered it in German (which he doesn't read). he talked about returning it, but apparently never got around to it, because he left it in the kitchen when he moved away.

now, i'm usually not in the least interested in books about economics, but because it was there in the kitchen and, especially, because it's in German, i decided for some reason to read it. and i just finished it today.