Jaguar friends

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The way to say “false friends” in Brazilian Portuguese is “amigos da onça,” literally “friends of the jaguar” (Panthera onca). Why? According to https://super.abril.com.br/historia/cacador-espantou-a-onca-com-um-berro/, it comes from a popular story from the countryside: “A hunter was fleeing from an enormous jaguar and along the way he lost his rifle and eventually he got cornered in the woods. All he could do was to yell as loud as possible. He yelled so loud that he scared the jaguar, which ran away and left him in peace. A friend who heard his story was dubious and said “Oh, if that story were true, you would have been devoured!” To which the indignant hunter is said to have replied, “So are you my friend or the jaguar’s friend?”

Both “amigos da onça” and “false friends” are used by grammarians to refer to false cognates, pairs of words that seem similar because of sound/spelling, but don’t actually mean the same thing. There are tons of these between Portuguese and English, some well known, some less so.

For example, the Portuguese pretender looks and sounds like it should mean “to pretend” in English (which is fazer de conta in Portuguese) but actually means “to intend.”
Lanche sure looks like it should mean “lunch” but actually means “snack” (“lunch” = almoço).
If you’re having “pasta” for lunch, don’t say pasta because that means “folder” (the food is massa or macarrão).
Taxa is not “tax” but “fee” or sometimes “rate” (a “tax” is an imposto).
Sensível looks and sounds like “sensible” but is actually “sensitive” (“sensible” is sensato, a false friend itself).
Atual is not “actual” as it seems, but actually “current” (“actual” is real).
And if you’re “anticipating” (as in looking forward) to more of these, you’re aguardando and not antecipando because that means “moving forward.”