# Identical spellings: a totally awesome rarity **URL:** \ **Category:** WaniKani\ **Created:** [September 16, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762 "2017-09-16T09:39:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gidneybeans](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@Gidneybeans](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Gidneybeans)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/1 "2017-09-16T09:39:05Z")
Just came across 絵文字 (emoji) on level eight and was pleasantly surprised to find out the English and Japanese spellings are identical. Just wanted to know if there were any other totally awesome words were English Japanese actually match? I’m guessing not?! ---
**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 9:39am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/2 "2017-09-16T09:39:41Z")
All the other loanwords? sushi, tsunami, samurai, etc… ---
**Author:** ![rodrigowaick](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/rodrigowaick/32/114953_2.png) [@rodrigowaick](https://community.wanikani.com/u/rodrigowaick)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 10:40am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/3 "2017-09-16T10:40:20Z")
What a coincidence! 😅 ---
**Author:** ![polv](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/polv/32/572691_2.png) [@polv](https://community.wanikani.com/u/polv)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 10:55am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/4 "2017-09-16T10:55:10Z")
> [@False cognates](https://community.wanikani.com/t/false-cognates/19304): > > A false cognate is a pair of words that have similar sounds and meanings, but have different etymologies. These can exist in the same language or in two different languages. They are essentially neat coincidences that occur between (sometimes widely different) languages. [Here’s a wikipedia article on the phenomenon.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate) One between English and Japanese that many learn early on is name and 名前 (なまえ). (Compare the [English origin](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=name&searchmode=none) and the [Japanese origin](http://gogen-allguide.com/na/namae.html).) Share any false cognates that you’ve noticed! … ---
**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 10:56am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/5 "2017-09-16T10:56:36Z")
Yes, those would be actual coincidences. Some of them are kind of neat. Rather than the relatively boring fact that English borrowed “emoji” from Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![VegasVed](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/vegasved/32/33664_2.png) [@VegasVed](https://community.wanikani.com/u/VegasVed)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 11:36am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/6 "2017-09-16T11:36:43Z")
> [@Gidneybeans](#): > > any other Kaomoji is one. ---
**Author:** ![jasonlint](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/jasonlint/32/35893_2.png) [@jasonlint](https://community.wanikani.com/u/jasonlint)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 1:14pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/7 "2017-09-16T13:14:11Z")
_ **typhoon** _ and 台風 (たいふう)? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/2/a/62a8b0f4c59ff2c5b6651ffcf43531480b3e5297.png) [@system](https://community.wanikani.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/identical-spellings-a-totally-awesome-rarity/19762/8 "2018-09-16T13:14:38Z")
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