>>>The problem with the false friends know for relatet languages - we have common jokes from german to english - get is "bekommen" with sound like become. So "How do I become a steak." is a filure the most do in there first english lessons. Much more nicier or mixed sounds.
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>>Similarly many Germans get confused between the English "to do" and "to make", for which I believe there is only one word in German (and in French) "Machen" (Faire). I've often heard only "make" being used, as in "I make my work" (which would be true of, say, a sculptor)
>
>Nope. We do not mix up make and do. We mix up "machen" and "tun", both of them translate mostly directly.
>Normaly we feel a little bit strange with do.
>The use of "Tun" is something that one has to avoid in german languge. It's a little bit like baby-speech.
>We normaly use a verb without "tun" - or we replace "tun" with "machen". So we have altered the meaning from "machen"
>(create) to do. (And in fact, nobody is thinking about it.).

Well this explains nothing! I still hear, and have heard, many times, a German saying like: "I make this (doing an action) ...", as in "I make all my housework before I leave the house". Maybe you don't, being a reguar English speaker on the UT.

>
>Agnes
>>
>>
>>>The dutch do oe for u and u for ü. Germans always read Roermond as Rörmond (A city river Rur (not Ruhr)). OTOH a dutch friend was mixing up Drucker (printer) with Drücker (doorknob). We didn't understand so he told us he would like to "drücken" (lot of meanings, from press do hug, have a look at a tranlator). He need to point to the printer so we got an idea.
>>>
>>>BTW. For what I know the russian "red" and "nice/beautifull" (No cyrillic keybord and my transkription is not yours) are somehow related.
>>>
>>>Agnes
>>>>>Just be carefull with russian words - the have often a lot of extra meanings. Remember а or к. ::)
>>>>
>>>>Slavic languages are a clockwork pussycat compared to English, when it comes to words with multiple meanings. True, any word can have sexual connotations, but that's more the matter of a sentence and its innuendos than of the regular usage of the word. In English, however, most of the words have multiple meanings depending on context (look up the ambiguity link in my signature).
>>>>
>>>>The trouble with Serbian vs Russian is with false friends. Since the languages share a common root, there are many words which are recognized as common, while they have different meanings. Here's a few common triplets:
>>>>
>>>>

>>>>word          meaning (ru)       meaning (sr)
>>>>krasni        red                nice
>>>>pravo         right              straight
>>>>oblok/oblak   window             cloud
>>>>slovo         word               letter, character
>>>>rech          speech             word
>>>>pitat'        feed               ask (a question)
>>>>iskustvo      art                experience