There exist in Portuguese the following two very similar words:
Aprovar (verb): Approve (also used as "to pass" in school)
Aproveitar (verb): Take advantage of
There is, in fact, a very big difference between these words, and one would do well not to confuse them. I got some rather weird looks from my colleagues this morning as we were discussing our students this trimester.
What I thought I said:
I love my students! I passed almost all of them this trimester!
What I actually said:
I love my students. I took advantage of almost all of them this trimester!
Er... oops.
That is funny! And I can relate - I made similar goofs more times than I will ever admit while we lived in Brazil. Mrs. H.
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