English can be tricky sometimes, I know it. There is an endless number of words out there that can confuse everyone because of Portuguese interference. We must be very careful because a word we use may not mean exactly what we are trying to say...
The thing is that our mother-tongue language may help the learner in many cases owing to the similarity between English and Portuguese words. Examples that come to mind are: consequently, result, use, recommend, observe, suggestion, telephone, visit, implement, obvious, conclusion, moment, divorced, paranoid, different, restaurant, apartment, family, intelligent, distant, movement, adult, invest... I am sure (certain!) you recognized them!!! ;-)
There are even better cases - when they are identical!!! Cinema, superficial, banana, piano, hotel, similar, social, panda, altitude, zebra, capital, ego... We only pronounce them differently, of course.
However, we all know life is not easy. Life is full of mysteries, adrenaline, challenges. As I said in the beginning, English can also fool us!!! Words which appear to be close to Portuguese, well, they can be a real trap! Pretend, anniversary, actually, chef, expert, pasta, terrific, prevent... I am sorry to inform you, but these words are quite dangerous!
The best to do is to keep on studying, reading, practicing, being curious.
I am reading a book about this at the moment. It is called "Small differences, huge mistakes", by Israel Jelin. On its cover, it is written under the title "Evitando gafes em inglês". Yes, a word that is not used correctly can put you in a bad situation.
As some Spanish books say: ojo. A reminder: Spanish is trickier than you think!
