German and English are close cousins, which is exactly what makes them dangerous. Words that look identical often aren’t. “Gift” in German means poison. “Eventually” means possibly. “Brav” means well-behaved, not brave. A literal translation of any of these can range from alarming to absurd.
In business copy the damage is quieter but just as real. A German manufacturer describing a machine as “eklig” doesn’t mean it’s nasty, it means precise. A UK brand promising a “sensibler” response isn’t being sensible in the English sense; they’re saying sensitive and responsive.
Spell-check won’t catch these, because they’re spelled correctly. Only a reader who knows both languages in context will. That’s why we always translate with a native speaker on the target side and a fluent reader on the source side, two pairs of eyes, one text.
Our advice for in-house teams: keep a false-friends list for your own industry and add to it every time one nearly slips through. Ten minutes of maintenance prevents the kind of error that ends up in a customer screenshot.
– fin. Questions? Just ask.
We teach this stuff for a living.
Our training sessions turn posts like this into practical skills, clearer emails, smoother meetings, fewer cultural awkward moments.