¶ Decepción: Disappointment, Not Deception
Picture this, you're all excited for a nice dinner out, you've been thinking about a big steak all week, you sit down, you order it medium rare, and it shows up well done. Shoe leather. That feeling inside your body? That's deception. Deception? Feeling deceived over an overcooked steak? That's a bit much. No no no, you misunderstood me. I didn't say deception, I said deception. That's right, my gringo. Today we're talking about a common false
Friend, when a Spanish word looks like an English word but actually means something different. And the verb decepcionar and the noun decepcion, la decepcion. still trip me up sometimes in conversation when I don't have time to remember. These words do not mean to deceive and deception. They mean to disappoint and disappointment. When your stake comes out well done, that's
That's decepcion, disappointment. You feel decepcionado, disappointed. So el bisteak me decepcionó. That means the steak disappointed me, not the steak deceived me. The steak didn't lie, it just came out overcooked. Estoy decepcionado would mean I'm disappointed, or for women, estoy decepcionada, say your football team just lost. You could say Fue una gran decepcion. You're not claiming the ref took a bribe, you're just saying that was a big disappointment.
¶ Spanish for Deceive and Cheat
So if decepcionar and decepcion don't mean to deceive and deception, how do we express deceive and deception in Spanish? Great question. The two most common ways are engañar and hacer trampa. Both are commonly translated as too cheap. Cheat. Enganar means to cheat as in to fool or trick somebody. You can enganar your friend, enganar a customer, or enganar and el amor. It's about lying or misleading. For example, El Bendedor Mengano.
The salesman deceived me, the salesman cheated me, then the noun is engaño, el engaño, todo fue un engaño. It was all a deception, they were fooled or tricked. Then hacer trampa means to cheat as in breaking rules in games, sports, tests. Anytime you gain an unfair advantage. Hizo trampa en el examen. He cheated on the test. He copied from his neighbor or used a cheat sheet. Ese jugador siempre hace trampa. That player always cheats.
He trips his opponents, uses steroids, something. Then the noun is trampa, la trampa, su trampa en el examen fuvia. His cheating on the test was obvious. So that's a bonus, false friend. Trampa in Spanish doesn't mean tramp. Trampa by itself means trap or the act of cheating, like in the previous example. Then when it's with hacer, hacer trampa, it means to cheat.
To make a cheat? In English, tramp is more about social judgment. In Spanish, trampa is about traps or cheating in games, sports, or tests. Now there is some overlap between engañar and hacer trampa. Let's say somebody cheats at poker. We could say hizo trampa en el poker, he cheated at poker, the focus is on breaking the rules, or we could say engañó a todos. And el poker. He tricked everyone at poker. He cheated everyone at poker. The focus is on fooling them. Different focus.
Same result. He's a cheater. With relationships though, he cheated on his wife is El Engañon a su esposa. Yep, they say ah when we say on. That's the personal aw. I have a video about that. Check it out. Cheating in a relationship is almost always with Engagna.
Saying Eliso Trampa a su esposa sounds like he cheated in a monopoly game, not that he was unfaithful. But actually, if they're in a polyamorous relationship with agreed rules, a ser trampa could work, because it would be breaking the rules. This is me getting over analytical, so don't worry if you don't get this part. But he cheated on his wife and their open relationship could be El Engan.
Esposa en su relación abierta, the focus is on fooling or tricking her, normal. Or it could be él hizo trampa en su relacion abierta con su esposa. The focus now is on breaking their agreed rules. You with me? Regardless, what's What's fun is this false friend example shows us how words work. Deceive and decepcionar both come from the same Latin root on the screen right now, which means to deceive. Then, over the centuries, English kept the meaning close to the root, but
But Spanish shifted it over to focus on the feeling you get when you realize you've been deceived. Disappointment. That's just how the cookie crumbled. So while it's never fun to hear as far as Stoi decepcionado contigo, you're not in as much trouble as it first sounds. They're saying they're disappointed with you, not that you deceive them. Ye or nay. Decepcionar means to disappoint, la decepcion is disappointment, then to cheat as into fool or trick?
Is engañar, the noun is el engaño, and to cheat as and to break the rules is hacer trampa. The noun is la trampa. Wanna see more videos like this one? Watch all my false friend videos at Spanish dude.com slash false dash friends. Link is below. If this video helped you, hit the like button. If it didn't, don't. The more I know what helps you, the more I can make videos that help you. Until the next time, hasta luego.