Weather expressions. Without a doubt, false friends sometimes make us laugh.

It's nearly the end of November and it's getting chilly. Spanish people say "Estoy cogiendo un constipado". In English, the word "constipated"already exists. However, it does not mean what everybody thinks it does at first sight. It refers to a problem of certain people who have a desperate need to go to the toilet but they can't due to a physiological problem called "constipation". Would you like to look it up in the dictionary and find out? You will probably have a laugh! So the right translation is "I'm getting a cold" instead of "I'm getting constipated".

On the other hand, Spanish learners of English get three expressions confused: "Tengo frío" is not the same as "I have a cold". The latter means "Tengo un resfriado" and "Tengo frío" is translated as "I'm cold", thus using the verb "to be". "Hace frío" or "It's cold" does not need the verb " to do" as the subject of the sentence is "it", referring to the weather itself. So "It does cold" is wrong in English. An interesting way of paraphrasing "It's cold" would be "The weather is cold".