- Éxito: It's a hit or a success. If you're looking for the way out, look for una salida.
- Fábrica: That's a place where they fabricate items, namely a factory. Words for "cloth" include tejido and tela.
- Fútbol: Unless in a context that indicates otherwise, this means soccer. If you want to refer the the popular U.S. spectator sport, use fútbol americano.
- Fútil: This refers to something trivial or insignificant. If your efforts are futile, use ineficaz, vano or inútil.
- Insulación: This isn't even a word in Spanish (although you may hear it in Spanglish). If you want to say "insulation," use aislamiento.
- Ganga: It's a bargain. Although ganga may be heard in Spanglish as a word for "gang," the usual word is pandilla.
- Inconsecuente: This adjective refers to something that is contradictory. Something inconsequential is (among other possibilities) de poca importancia.
- Introducir: This isn't truly a false cognate, for it can be translated as, among other things, to introduce in the sense of to bring in, to begin, to put, or to place. For example, se introdujo la ley en 1998, the law was introduced (put in effect) in 1998. But it's not the verb to use to introduce someone. Use presentar.
- Largo: When referring to size, it means long. If it's big, it's also grande.
- Minorista: Means retail (adjective) or retailer. A "minority" is una minoría
- Molestar: The verb doesn't have sexual connotations in Spanish, and it didn't originally in English either. It means simply to bother or to annoy. For the sexual meaning of "to molest" in English, use abusar sexualmente or some phrase that says more precisely what you mean.
- Once: If you can count past ten, you know that once is the word for eleven. If something happens once, it happens una vez.
- Pretender: The Spanish verb doesn't have anything to do with faking it, only to try. To pretend, use fingir or simular.
- Rapista: This is an uncommon word for a barber (peluquero or even the cognate barbero is more common), being derived from the verb rapar, to cut close or to shave. Someone who attacks sexually is a violador.
- Realizar, realizacón: The verb can be used flexibly to indicate something becoming real or becoming completed: Se realizó el rascacielos, the skyscraper was built. To realize as a mental event can be translated using darse cuenta ("to realize"), comprender ("to understand") or saber ("to know"), among other possibilities, depending on the context.
- Recordar: Means to remember or to remind. The verb to use when recording something depends on what you're recording. Possibilities include anotar or tomar nota for writing something down, or grabar for making an audio or video recording.
- Ropa: Clothing, not rope. Rope is cuerda or soga.
- Revolver: As its form suggests, this is a verb, in this case meaning to turn over, to revolve, or otherwise to cause disorder. The Spanish word for "revolver" is close, however: revólver.
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By Gerald Erichsen, About.com
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