FALSE FRIEND: CASUALTY
02 / 03 / 2004
FALSE FRIEND: CASUALTY: meaning and examples
Good morning.
Lately I have noticed that a lot of my students use the word casualty to mean chance, accident or coincidence. However, in reality casualty means something very different in English: someone who is killed or injured in military action or in an accident. The word that English students are really trying to express is coincidence.
Coincidence means: a situation in which separate things happen in the same way or at the same time by chance.
Consider the following examples that demonstrate the important difference between these words.
Example 1
Since the official "end" or the war in Iraq, there have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of casualties; people from both sides are dying every day.
Example 2
When I was in Amsterdam last weekend with my wife, I saw my maths teacher from secondary school. I hadn't seen him for years and suddenly he appeared in Amsterdam at the same time we were there. What a coincidence!
As you can see, these words are very different.
Have a good day.
Lately I have noticed that a lot of my students use the word casualty to mean chance, accident or coincidence. However, in reality casualty means something very different in English: someone who is killed or injured in military action or in an accident. The word that English students are really trying to express is coincidence.
Coincidence means: a situation in which separate things happen in the same way or at the same time by chance.
Consider the following examples that demonstrate the important difference between these words.
Example 1
Since the official "end" or the war in Iraq, there have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of casualties; people from both sides are dying every day.
Example 2
When I was in Amsterdam last weekend with my wife, I saw my maths teacher from secondary school. I hadn't seen him for years and suddenly he appeared in Amsterdam at the same time we were there. What a coincidence!
As you can see, these words are very different.
Have a good day.
