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Words that mean something else in another language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5619 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 32 02 June 2009 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just for a laugh and to warn new learners.. ! We've all come across the "totally false friends" -- words that look or sound the same, but mean something entirely different.
For example the word "sex" in Swedish means six! So if you hear it a lot when two Swedish friends are talking, they are probably just planning to meet at six-thirty or exchanging phone numbers with lots of sixes... :-) Have you got any examples from your language or a language you are learning? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5547 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 2 of 32 02 June 2009 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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German
das Gift = poison eventuell - possibly hell - bright der Stab - a rod, batton etc.. wanken - to stagger, waver winken - to wave die Wand - a wall der Roman - a novel der Page - a page boy (weddings etc) EDIT: der Igel - hedgehog dick - fat das Bild - a picture der Band - volume (of a book series) das Band - tape, ribbon bitte - please fast - almost bald - soon rot - red war - was (past tense of "to be") der Mist - dung, rubbish locker - loose das Lager - a camp, warehouse das Kissen - a pillow der Chef - boss NB - die Band means a music band. French La lecture - reading Ignorer - to be ignorant of, to not know about - Is there any case where this can mean "to ignore"? It may be, but I've never found one? La fin - the end Russian шить (transliterated "shit' ") - to sew спина (spina) - your back (part of the body) глаз - (glaz) - an eye. фамилия (familija) - surname первый (pervij) - first брат (brat) - brother сок (sok) - juice друг (droog) - friend погода (pagoda) - weather мат (mat) - bad language вокзал (vokzal) - railway station Jack Edited by LanguageSponge on 02 June 2009 at 6:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kyrie Senior Member United States clandestein.deviantaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5510 days ago 207 posts - 231 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese | Message 3 of 32 02 June 2009 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish
molestar = to bother 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| evandempsey Diglot Newbie Ireland Joined 5465 days ago 27 posts - 53 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian, Russian | Message 4 of 32 02 June 2009 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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In English 'to molest' used to mean 'to bother', 'to annoy'.
In French 'une douche' just means a shower... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6045 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 5 of 32 02 June 2009 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Japanese a "mansion/マンション
" is an apartment. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5546 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 6 of 32 02 June 2009 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was discussing my feelings about a political matter in French with my language exchange partner, and I was trying to say that I felt ambivalent on the issue. I said something along the lines of "Je ne sais pas... je suis ambivalente..."
But apparently in doing so I'd implied that I was bisexual! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6937 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 7 of 32 02 June 2009 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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These are legion and sometimes a funny distraction. Here are some off the top of my head.
1) False friends that have the same form but different pronunciation in each language. English - Hungarian arc - arc ("face") bolt - bolt ("shop") ember - ember ("person") here - here ("testicle") lap - lap ("page") most - most ("now") pad - pad ("bench") van - van ("is") English - Polish, Slovenian lice - lice ("face", "cheek") English - Polish cholera - cholera! ("damn it!") 2) False friends that have different meanings but varying degrees of similarity in form and/or pronunciation which may be enough to trip up outsiders or beginners in the relevant languages. ale "but" (Czech, Polish, Slovak) ale "sale" (Finnish) frajer "sucker", "gullible man", "oaf" (Polish) frajer "dandy" (a more modern translation could be "metrosexual") (Czech) frajer "boyfriend"; "dandy" (Slovak) godina / година "year" (BCS / Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian) hodina "hour" (Czech, Slovak) godzina "hour" (Polish) kurva "whore" (Czech, Hungarian, Slovak) kurwa "whore" (Polish) kurva "curve" (Swedish) olovo "lead" (BCS / Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Slovak) ołów "lead" (Polish) олово "tin" (Russian, Ukrainian) pas "dog" (BCS / Serbo-Croatian) pas "pass", "permit" (as in "zbrojný pas" meaning something like "gun permit") (Slovak) sklep "cellar" (Czech) sklep "shop" (Polish) sklep "(skeletal) joint" (Slovenian) szukać "to look for" (Polish) šukať "to f***" (Slovak) záchod "toilet" (Czech) zachód "west" (Polish) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kyrie Senior Member United States clandestein.deviantaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5510 days ago 207 posts - 231 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese | Message 8 of 32 02 June 2009 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
Not anymore.. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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