"Robot" in South Africa is, believe it or not, traffic lights!

Gymnasium (English) = Fitnessstudio (Deutsch)

Gymnasium (Deutsch) = High school (English)

I've seen a <em>lot </em>of German speakers use 'Gymnasium' in English, thinking it's the same as in German. My friend says it comes from Latin, in which it was a general word for an academy (which included both sport academies and schools).

Handy (Deutsch) = Mobile phone (British English) = Cell phone (US English)

Handy (English) = Handlich (Deutsch)

In Slovak, a football jersey is called a <em>dres</em>!  There's no way around this - I tried asking for a <em>športový sveter</em>, but I was pointed to general exercise wear instead of a jersey with team colours.

Also, I first thought that <em>pneumatika</em>(Sk) was a rubber inner-tube (I was looking for bicycle parts), but it turned out to be the outer tyre.

I've also been caught out by the preservative/<em>preservatif</em>/<em>preservativo</em> confusion...

Bekommen (Deutsch) = Get (English)

Become (English) = Werden (Deutsch)

Will (Deutsch, in first and third person conjugation) = Want (English)

Will (English) = Werden (Deutsch, and yes, it's the same word as 'become')

'Will' in English was actually synomynous with German 'will' until a few hundred years ago, but it's meaning has changed.

Stuhl (Deutsch) = Chair (English)

A stool in English is a specific kind of chair: one that's tall and that has no back, like a bar stool.

Constipado (spanish) is someone who has a cold

Constipated (english) and constipé (french) is someone that can't defecate.

I remember that one day in my French class we laughed a lot because we had to make a dialogue : a boy was suppossed to be in a hotel, and he phoned the receptionist  to tell her that he was "constipé" (he meant he had a cold).