A Linguistic Investigation Into False Friends in Arabic and English: The Students of Al-Balqa Applied University as a Model

The present study investigates the concept of false friends in two genetically unrelated languages: Arabic and English. It provides explanations for the source of possible confusion and misunderstanding caused by false friends in contemporary Arabic and English. It also highlights the nomenclature related to false friends where they can be classified into two categories: absolute false friends and partial false friends. The study explicates how false friendship, as a linguistic phenomenon, can be a real hurdle to communication among the learners and teachers of a certain language. The etymological development of some words is very important to explain how false friendship occurs. Morphologically, some special cases of intralingual morphological false friends are explored in so far as they are related to the concept of false friendship to put them into a certain linguistic framework.