False friends are pairs of words in different languages that look or sound similar but have different meanings. The document provides examples of false friends between English and Spanish words, such as "parents" and "parientes" which look similar but have different meanings in their respective languages, and "avocado" and "abogado" which are easily confused due to their similar spellings. In total, 10 examples of English-Spanish false friend word pairs are listed to illustrate how words can deceive due to superficial similarities in spelling or sound between languages.