module 7 FALSE FRIENDS False friends are misleading because their meaning in English and Italian is different. The table below gives some examples: GRAMMAR FALSE FRIEND DOES NOT MEAN BUT eventually eventualmente infine, finalmente factory fattoria fabbrica actually attualmente realmente, di fatto advice avviso consiglio Find the right meaning of the following words by using your dictionary. a. actual ...................................................... m. assumption ...................................................... b. effectively ...................................................... n. audience ...................................................... c. vacancy ...................................................... o. dependable ...................................................... d. estate ...................................................... p. education ...................................................... e. pretend (v) ...................................................... q. facility ...................................................... f. firm (noun) ...................................................... r. file ...................................................... g. furniture ...................................................... s. rate ...................................................... h. fabric ...................................................... t. suggestion ...................................................... i. attend (v) ...................................................... u. target ...................................................... j. library ...................................................... v. topic ...................................................... k. advice ...................................................... w. versus ...................................................... l. camera ...................................................... x. consistent ...................................................... Now try to understand the meaning of the false friends in these sentences (bold character) from the context and translate them; when you have finished check them in your dictionary. a. After being entered, the data will be processed by the CPU and the results will be eventually output and made available to the user. b. Abstracts are very useful because they help in deciding whether we want to read an article or not. c. An engineer should always read specialised magazines in order to keep up with today s fastgrowing technological world. d. You can be good at figures but a computer will always be faster than you. e. If you do something which is not consistent with what the manual says you may find you have problems. f. A theory is not a good theory if it is not supported by facts. g. That s a sensible idea! h. I wanted to phone you and I looked your name up in the directory but I couldn t find it. i. Never lose confidence in yourself! j. If you are looking for a job, always read the job advertisements in your paper! k. For information, apply to the secretary. l. I think that before subscribing to any magazine we might ask for a complimentary copy. 278