I Thought Germans Were Giving Each Other Poison

There is a German word I was absolutely sure I understood:

Gift.

Easy.

English already has this word.

🎁 gift = present

No translation necessary.

Thank you, German. Finally, you're being reasonable.

Then I discovered that in German:

das Gift = poison

Excuse me?

So apparently I had been walking around Germany seeing the word Gift and imagining birthdays, Christmas and nicely wrapped presents.

German was talking about poison.

And it gets better.

giftig means poisonous / toxic.

So:

eine giftige Pflanze

is not a particularly generous plant.

It's a plant you probably shouldn't eat.

Meanwhile, if you actually want to give someone a gift in Germany, you need:

das Geschenk

So now my brain has two completely different associations:

English:

gift 🎁🥰🎂

German:

Gift ☠️💀🚑

Same spelling.

Slightly different birthday experience.

And this is exactly why knowing English sometimes makes learning German easier...

...and sometimes gives you completely unjustified confidence.

You see a familiar word and think:

“I know this one.”

German:

“No, you absolutely do not.”

At least I'll never forget Gift again.

Which is useful.

Because of all the German words you could misunderstand, poison is probably one worth getting right.