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Foreign words used in strange ways | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5770 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French | Message 9 of 32 26 April 2010 at 2:33am | IP Logged | ||
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The only one I can think of at the moment is Spanish "anoche." In Spanish, "a" is "to" and "noche" is "night," so
naturally one might think this is the Spanish equivalent of the English "tonight," but no, it means "last night." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6703 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 10 of 32 26 April 2010 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's a few more Japanese examples:
カンニングする (to do cunning) - to cheat on an exam ハイテンション - high tension - excited, enthusiastic セリフ - serif - one's own words, lines, remarks 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6243 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Smi, Latin | Message 11 of 32 28 April 2010 at 2:41am | IP Logged | ||
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A few Italian examples, enjoy:
- Did you know that the Italian word for the special kind of windows, where it's possible to let outside air in by opening only the upper part, is finestra a "vasistas". Now, that doesn't make any frickin' sense, but I've heard a theory according to which it derives from the German expression "Was ist das?" (What's that?). Explain this to me, please. - An Italian bowling hall is called simply "bowling" (pronounced as "boo-ling", haha). - The reason why Italians often forget the -s ending when they speak English is that in Italian, English words are ALWAYS used in singular, even when we speak about them in plural! Just put the plural article before the noun... For example, "Ho rivisto i manager al bar." (I saw the managers again in the bar) And one English example, too: - the Italian expression "al fresco" does NOT mean "outside". ;) Literally it means "in cool air", but in Italian slang its meaning changes to "in jail". I'd like to complain also about the often incorrect spelling of Italian words in other countries.. Here's the correct spelling of some frequently misspelled Italian words: cappuccino, espresso, caffè latte, macchiato, (pizza) margherita, quattro stagioni, americana. Oh yes, I almost forgot... "Vero moda" doesn't make any sense. If you want to say "true fashion" in Italian, you must say "moda vera". :) By the way, the town of Pisa is NOT pronounced as "pizza"... That's about it. Edited by bela_lugosi on 28 April 2010 at 2:50am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6264 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 12 of 32 06 May 2010 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Polish we call the means of transportation the means of communication (literally "środki komunikacji"). We call our cell phones "komórka" (read: comoorca) - which is also a word for a small cellar in the basement of your house.
We use differently a word for a bus. "Bus" in Polish means rather a mini-bus. If you want to say you came by bus you say you came by "autobus". 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5598 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 13 of 32 06 May 2010 at 2:20pm | IP Logged | ||
According to wikipedia it is a borrowing from French and it does come from "Was ist das?”, since this was the reaction of Germans when visiting France. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5598 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 14 of 32 06 May 2010 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Usually Italians approximate English vowels to the Italian ones when using loanwords.
This involves [a] in place of /ʌ/ and [ɛ] in place of /æ/ (so that man and men are pronounced alike). Interestingly enough the words “bus” and “fan” are pronounced /bus/ and /fan/ (which is the way they would be pronounced according to the Italian orthography), while “rugby” and “club” are pronounced /ˈrɛgbi/ and /klɛb/, which makes no sense whatsoever. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6261 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 15 of 32 06 May 2010 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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One interesting one I know of is "faux pas". Apparently at one time the expression was authentic French, but I believe francophones stopped using it, at least in the metaphorical sense of "blunder" (the literal meaning is "misstep"), and now it exists with this meaning only in English.
And, though the meaning is the same, it's odd how English speakers mispronounce the first vowel in "lingerie" -- we say it more like lawn-zher-ay -- to the point that, if you say it correctly, other people will think you're saying it wrong. It's as if we thought the actual French pronunciation wasn't French enough. Edited by furrykef on 06 May 2010 at 6:31pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MarlonX19 Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 3954 days ago 40 posts - 51 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: French | Message 16 of 32 09 July 2013 at 4:01am | IP Logged | ||
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In Portuguese people say ''Notebook'' for ''laptop''. I always find it interesting. If you say ''laptop'' Portuguese speakers will know what you mean but 99% of Portuguese speakers never say laptop, they always say ''notebook''. As an English speaker (not fluent though) I automatically say ''laptop'' because saying notebook sounds kind of weird for me since I know the correct way is ''laptop''.
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