The Stand Still, Stay Silent Fan-Forum

General => Language Board => Topic started by: Laufey on May 30, 2015, 05:18:12 PM

Title: False friends
Post by: Laufey on May 30, 2015, 05:18:12 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/RWvyaUA.png)
Translation: "Mum, that one, that one, that one, please!"

I think we don't yet have a thread for false friends...

(False friends: words or word combinations that sound identical or almost identical but mean different things between two languages, hilarious misunderstandings very likely.)

The reason why I randomly wanted to start a thread like this is that I was going through some old family photos and found one from Faroe Islands with a sign saying "bert ferðafólk". In Faroese it apparently means "for travelers only", but in Icelandic it's "naked tourists". This also reminded me of another old favourite of mine, the Finnish word "hallitus" (= government), which amuses Estonians on occasion. In Estonian - if memory serves - it means mold. :D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Daéa Reina on May 30, 2015, 05:23:09 PM
Quote from: Laufey on May 30, 2015, 05:18:12 PM
This also reminded me of another old favourite of mine, the Finnish word "hallitus" (= government), which amuses Estonians on occasion. In Estonian - if memory serves - it means mold. :D

Oh, these are really fun!

Just for the record: in Portuguese, "hálito" means "breath" as in "you have bad breath" (Você tem mau hálito).
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Haiz on May 30, 2015, 05:35:36 PM
As was pointed out a few days ago in the general thread, in Norwegian "dress" means suit, so that allows for some fun mixups

I know several others, but right now I can't come up with anything... other than the fact that "stol" in norwegian, meaning chair, is pronounced exactly the same way as "stul" in czech, which means table. Not exactly the worst thing to confuse

edit: hang on, remembered another one! The czech word for snot, "sopel", sounds a lot like the norwegian word for garbage, "søppel". Not too alike, but it lead to my little brother once yelling "I DON'T HAVE GARBAGE IN MY NOSE" at my grandma once
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on May 30, 2015, 07:29:26 PM
Spanish has plenty. I think I've got a list somewhere, actually.
(Bear with.)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Ana Nymus on May 30, 2015, 08:24:27 PM
Ooh, I know a Spanish one! "Embarazada" sounds like "embarassed", but it really means "pregnant". That was a fun Spanish class when we all found out about it (after having thought it was a cognate for years). :P
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: zetkaj on May 30, 2015, 08:36:00 PM
False friends are great! I mean, they're awfully confusing, but fun.
There's probably a ton of them, but ones I remember now (from Polish) are: dres, which means tracksuit; fart, which is a rather rarely used word for luck; smoking, meaning a tuxedo. The word for hangover, kac, is pronounced similarly to German Katze...at least similarly enough to laugh at it :d'
Quote from: Haiz on May 30, 2015, 05:35:36 PM
edit: hang on, remembered another one! The czech word for snot, "sopel", sounds a lot like the norwegian word for garbage, "søppel". Not too alike, but it lead to my little brother once yelling "I DON'T HAVE GARBAGE IN MY NOSE" at my grandma once
It is the same (I guess?) as the Polish sopel, though. Which means icicle.
On a related note:my big confusion as a kid was the word jahoda, which means a strawberry in Czech, but is almost identical to Polish word for blueberry (jagoda). I spent some time wondering why is this blueberry icecream pink.

Ahh, I wish I could remember more! I like confusing things.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Fenris on May 30, 2015, 08:54:53 PM
Bæsj. In Norwegian, it means poop. In swedish, it means beer. Cue jokes about the quality of swedish beer.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Auleliel on May 30, 2015, 09:13:47 PM
In Japanese, /consent/ (コンセント) means electrical outlet, /home/ (ホム) means train station platform, and /punk/ (パンク) means flat tire. These supposedly are all loan words from English...
(I put what it sounds like to an English speaker in // and the Japanese spelling in (), in case that wasn't clear.)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on May 30, 2015, 09:33:15 PM
Hungarian-swedish stuffs?

in Swedish, Öl means Beer.
but in Hungarian Öl means “it kills”

in Swedish, Kaka means Cake
but in Hungarian, Kaka means Poop

Learning swedish is so much fun, however the bra, fart, slut and so on are so well swedish (or scandinavian) words.

Ando "here" means testicle in hungarian
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Daéa Reina on May 30, 2015, 10:05:22 PM
Quote from: Ana Nymus on May 30, 2015, 08:24:27 PM
Ooh, I know a Spanish one! "Embarazada" sounds like "embarassed", but it really means "pregnant". That was a fun Spanish class when we all found out about it (after having thought it was a cognate for years). :P

Yes! This one!
I mean, "embarazada" (spanish) and "embaraçada" (portuguese) sound almost EXACTLY the same way. But in portuguese it really means "embarassed". This has been a great source for jokes in my family. XD

I need to make a list of spanish/portuguese false friends: there's a lot. Mainly because they sound a little alike, and most foreign people think it's all the same thing. And portuguese and spanish speakers must remind them that no, they're DEFINITELY not the same thing.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: viola on May 30, 2015, 10:20:41 PM
The french word for seal is phoque, which doesn't look like a false friend but when said out loud sounds extremely similar to a four letter English explicative starting with the letter F.

The Icelandic (and Swedish) word for 6 is sex, which can occasionally cause some confusion for English speakers.

Also in Icelandic word kind is a sheep, in English it means nice, and in German it means child. I once heard a joke about a German who asks an Icelandic sheep farmer how many 'kind' he has, to which the farmer replies over 500 and then the German faints.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Bobriha on May 31, 2015, 12:29:49 AM
I'm late here, but here are my two cents for russian:
In russian the word стул (stul) means chair. The word ягода (yagoda) means berry in general.
Another one, in many slavic languages the word uroda (or alike) means beauty, while in russian урод (urod) means the directly opposite - ugly.
In comparison with english: the russian word for english velvet is бархат (barhat) and english word for russian вельвет (vel'vet) is corduroy. I've found out it just several days ago. Guess what I was imagining when I heard "Her skin is like velvet" ;D.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Nimphy on May 31, 2015, 07:23:05 AM
Hmm, right now I can only think of Italian "verde" (green) and Albanian "e verdhë" (yellow). It caused much, much confusion.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: kjeks on May 31, 2015, 07:24:43 AM
dritt => Norwegian connected to poop while
zu dritt, der/die/das dritte => means third in German.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Nimphy on May 31, 2015, 07:27:57 AM
Ooh. I KNOW. English "arm" . Basically I was five, and in my very first English class. I already knew a bit of English, so when the teacher explained to us that "arm" meant well, an arm, I wasn't confused, but a boy started pretending to have a weapon ("armë"=weapon). I think this confusion is shared by many a language.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Haiz on May 31, 2015, 07:28:28 AM
Quote from: zetkaj on May 30, 2015, 08:36:00 PM
On a related note:my big confusion as a kid was the word jahoda, which means a strawberry in Czech, but is almost identical to Polish word for blueberry (jagoda). I spent some time wondering why is this blueberry icecream pink.
WHAT! Jagoda means blueberry? I have been mistaken all this time??

oh, and 'fart' is the norwegian word for speed.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Fimbulvarg on May 31, 2015, 07:32:40 AM
Quote from: Haiz on May 31, 2015, 07:28:28 AM
oh, and 'fart' is the norwegian word for speed.

And 'smell' means collision, as per the legendary Solbergism ("I came with a great fart and ending in a smell").
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on May 31, 2015, 07:33:07 AM
Quote from: Martti on May 30, 2015, 09:33:15 PM
in Swedish, Öl means Beer.
but in Hungarian Öl means “it kills”
And in German, oil. I suggest y'all watch what drink you're ordering.

Quote from: Feartheviolas on May 30, 2015, 10:20:41 PM
The french word for seal is phoque, which doesn't look like a false friend but when said out loud sounds extremely similar to a four letter English explicative starting with the letter F.
That latter's spelt with an "i" in German, while Swedish uses "fick-" to indicate something that goes into your pockets - including duplicating the concept of a child's allowance being called "pocket money", "Taschengeld" in German, "fickpeng" in Swedish.

Quote from: Haiz on May 31, 2015, 07:28:28 AM
oh, and 'fart' is the norwegian word for speed.
In German, "Fahrt" means drive, travel or something to that effect, and gets used quite frequently. My father once got asked by his U.S. boss to please explain the term "Rundfahrt" (round fart trip).
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Laufey on May 31, 2015, 07:44:42 AM
I just remembered an awesome cat-related one that works two ways:

In English you'd call a cat by saying "puss-puss". In Finnish that sounds like a kiss-y sound, as one word for a kiss is pusu. Finns call a cat by saying "kis-kis".
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on May 31, 2015, 12:02:45 PM
Quote from: Laufey on May 31, 2015, 07:44:42 AM
I just remembered an awesome cat-related one that works two ways:

In English you'd call a cat by saying "puss-puss". In Finnish that sounds like a kiss-y sound, as one word for a kiss is pusu. Finns call a cat by saying "kis-kis".

Pusz-pusz (puss-puss) is literally the sound of kisses in hungarian as well.

in english, you call cats as Pussy, which literally sounds like "Puszi" in hungarian, which means "kiss".

let's just give cats love~<3
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: zetkaj on May 31, 2015, 12:10:32 PM
On the cat topic, cat is pronounced the same as kat, which means an executioner (like a medieval one, or just used on someone who is cruel), while Polish word for cat (kot) is pronounced like cot...I never thought about it much before that discussion;;;
(And you call the cat with 'kici-kici', but I doubt it would be a false friend anwhere)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Helia on May 31, 2015, 12:42:18 PM
Quote from: zetkaj on May 31, 2015, 12:10:32 PM
(And you call the cat with 'kici-kici', but I doubt it would be a false friend anwhere)

It depends on the pronunciation.
'kicsi' (kichi) means small or little in Hungarian.
'kis' (kish) has the same meaning, and it's also a common family name written with double 's': Kiss :)

we call a cat by saying 'cicc' (tsits...)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Blackjazz on May 31, 2015, 01:20:46 PM
This is off the current topic, but it has to be said.
The worst false friend that I still have trouble dealing with is "excited." In English it means all sorts of wonderful things and I use it all the time, but in French and Spanish it means that you are, um, sexually aroused.

During a grammar exercise once I turned to my Peruvian friend and said "La familia está excitada."

.......

She laughed very, very hard.

(Also, this --> 비 means "rain" in Korean, and is pronounced "pee". ;D)



Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Nimphy on May 31, 2015, 01:38:27 PM
Quote from: Blackjazz on May 31, 2015, 01:20:46 PM
This is off the current topic, but it has to be said.
The worst false friend that I still have trouble dealing with is "excited." In English it means all sorts of wonderful things and I use it all the time, but in French and Spanish it means that you are, um, sexually aroused.

During a grammar exercise once I turned to my Peruvian friend and said "La familia está excitada."

Yes. Been there, with Italian too (as far as I know it can mean both excited and sexually aroused)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Blackjazz on May 31, 2015, 02:36:58 PM
Quote from: Nimphy on May 31, 2015, 01:38:27 PM
Yes. Been there, with Italian too (as far as I know it can mean both excited and sexually aroused)

Dictionaries say that they can mean the same thing, but my experience with native speakers has been so awkward that I avoid it like the plague. Heh. I was a little scarred by my experience.

And unless someone comes around telling me it's perfectly fine in Portuguese, I'm going to believe it's like that for all romance languages, just to be on the safe side. :)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on May 31, 2015, 03:14:43 PM
I have some not-that-nice one, some english words, that sounds something kind of bad in hungarian

Spoiler: show

in hungarian the cookie sounds like "kuki", which means weenie/willy
also whenever I say "of us" it sounds like I say "ó fasz" which means "oh dick", not the nicest.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Daéa Reina on May 31, 2015, 03:24:29 PM
Quote from: Blackjazz on May 31, 2015, 02:36:58 PM
Dictionaries say that they can mean the same thing, but my experience with native speakers has been so awkward that I avoid it like the plague. Heh. I was a little scarred by my experience.

And unless someone comes around telling me it's perfectly fine in Portuguese, I'm going to believe it's like that for all romance languages, just to be on the safe side. :)

No, Portuguese has this same problem. When trying to translate the word "excited" it is better to come up with a synonym, or everyone will look at you weird.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Pessi on June 01, 2015, 03:48:55 AM
A Hungarian woman living in Finland once said to me there were some funny situations when she had just moved here and spoke Hungarian with her husband in public. There seems to be an often repeated, totally innocent Hungarian word that sounds exactly like the Finnish vulgar word for human bottom.

On the other hand the Finnish word kone, "machine", is a very rude word in Italian, or so I've heard. The Finnish elevator company KONE had to develope another name for operating on the Italian market.

Between Finnish and Estonian there are a lot of false friend words since the languages are really near relatives but have borrowed words from different directions. One example I learned at university (and which therefore is probably more trustwothy than the myriad of made up ones I know) is that when an Estonian says he is going to "koristaa ruumiid" he means he's going to tidy up the rooms. However in Finnish "koristaa" means "to decorate" and "ruumiit" (which is how the Estonian "ruumiid" sounds to Finnish ears) means "corpses", so a misunderstanding is almost unavoidable.

Funnily enough there are quite many false friends between Finnish and Japanese too. Some examples are "hana" which in Japanese means a flower but in Finnish a faucet, "kita", Japanese north, Finnish maw, and "kasa", Japanese umbrella, Finnish pile.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Mélusine on June 01, 2015, 04:05:19 AM
Quote from: Blackjazz on May 31, 2015, 01:20:46 PM
The worst false friend that I still have trouble dealing with is "excited." In English it means all sorts of wonderful things and I use it all the time, but in French and Spanish it means that you are, um, sexually aroused.
I disagree :) You have the two meanings in french.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 01, 2015, 11:42:37 AM
Quote from: Pessi on June 01, 2015, 03:48:55 AM
A Hungarian woman living in Finland once said to me there were some funny situations when she had just moved here and spoke Hungarian with her husband in public. There seems to be an often repeated, totally innocent Hungarian word that sounds exactly like the Finnish vulgar word for human bottom.

I think that word is the "Persze", we often use it in repeat also, it means "of course", but in Finnish (perse) is not the nices word to repeat!
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Sunflower on June 01, 2015, 01:25:35 PM
And I was told that "fika," the Swedish word for coffee break (with yummy coffee-cakes) means "flake of dried snot" in Hungarian. 
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Auleliel on June 01, 2015, 01:30:18 PM
Czech yes (ano) sounds like Korean no (아니오 /anio/), and Czech no (ne) sounds like Korean yes (네 /ne/).
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Eriaror on June 01, 2015, 01:37:29 PM
Quote from: Sunflower on June 01, 2015, 01:25:35 PM
And I was told that "fika," the Swedish word for coffee break (with yummy coffee-cakes) means "flake of dried snot" in Hungarian.
I can confirm that. I actually chuckled when I've first seen that Swedish word. :D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Blackjazz on June 01, 2015, 04:34:54 PM
Quote from: Daéa Reina on May 31, 2015, 03:24:29 PM
No, Portuguese has this same problem. When trying to translate the word "excited" it is better to come up with a synonym, or everyone will look at you weird.
Quote from: Mélusine on June 01, 2015, 04:05:19 AM
I disagree :) You have the two meanings in french.
Yeah... I still do not trust the word. I will simply be "super contente" for the rest of my life.


Quote from: Pessi on June 01, 2015, 03:48:55 AM
Some examples are "hana" which in Japanese means a flower but in Finnish a faucet...
And in Korean, the same word is the number one!

Also, why do so many perfectly normal Swedish words sound like something gross in another language? XD
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: viola on June 01, 2015, 05:07:36 PM
Quote from: Pessi on June 01, 2015, 03:48:55 AM
Some examples are "hana" which in Japanese means a flower but in Finnish a faucet

Quote from: Blackjazz on June 01, 2015, 04:34:54 PM

And in Korean, the same word is the number one!


In Icelandic, hana means her :)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Snommelp on June 01, 2015, 06:59:46 PM
I know it's true in Norwegian, and I'm pretty sure it's true in the other Scandinavian languages, that "Jeg er full" means "I'm drunk." What makes that one extra confusing is that "full" in those languages can mean full, but not when talking about people in regards to food.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 01, 2015, 09:27:33 PM
Quote from: Sunflower on June 01, 2015, 01:25:35 PM
And I was told that "fika," the Swedish word for coffee break (with yummy coffee-cakes) means "flake of dried snot" in Hungarian.
Quote from: Eriaror on June 01, 2015, 01:37:29 PM
I can confirm that. I actually chuckled when I've first seen that Swedish word. :D

Yes, it is true, like it was said before, I loved swedish how it could be funny more was!

There are some swedish-hungarian alike words
Igen - again - yes
Ingen - nothing - on the shirt
Far - father - butt
Var - be - scar
Is - ice - too/also
Falun - (swedish city) - on the countryside

Some similar but accents difference
Utan/után - without - after
Bok/Bók - book - compliment
Mig/míg - me - till/untill

Mostly short words... and I can't remmeber more with hungarian. .
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: UFOO9000 on June 01, 2015, 11:11:23 PM
Oohh! I got some from learning a few Danish words that I found were really familiar in a very unfamiliar way !
Barn in Danish (and Swedish ? ) means Child.
And just because I'm trying to remember them I can't seem to find more...

As someone already mentioned, there is a french word for Seal (Phoque) that sounds a lot like an English swear word starting with F, and ending with -ck.

But in Québec we speak French, but our French is not really the same as most other places. we use words most people do not use the same way in the same freaking language.
Someone talked about the word Excited in french (excité), well in Québec we don't care. It has nothing to do with sex (most of the time, though we still joke about it)
Staying in the sexual stuff, in Quebec we say "capote, capoté" (over the top?) but anywhere else that speak French that is the word for condom.
Many words we use to insult someone are words that actually mean something completely different, again still in french, but we want to be special in Quebec. Most of these words can be translate with other words but these are the ones used as insults in Quebec : thin (plate), basement (cave), large (épais)

Must be more but those are the ones that I could find before going to bed XP
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Antillanka on June 01, 2015, 11:55:07 PM
Haha good thread! I'm learning sooo much! ;D Apparently, the Czech yes (ano) sounds like anus in Spanish... oh, goodness, the scandal :o !!!

Not to mention so many more that may lead to confusion from Spanish! Let's see:
Arma (weapon) vs. English "arm"
Excusado (toilet) vs. English "excused"
Obligado (forced to do sth.) vs. Portuguese "obrigado" (thank you)

It's specially funny when it comes to car model names! In Chile, they had to change the Mitsubishi model Pajero to Montero, because nobody would buy a car that basically said "wanker". Or the infamous Mazda Laputa (the whore)... or the Ford C-Max Turbo (I won't translate this one)....Or the Nissan Moco (snot)... Endless source of fun!
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: viola on June 02, 2015, 04:44:25 PM
Paprika is a pepper in Icelandic and a spice in English. This lead to some confusion at Subway when my friend from Iceland asked for paprika on her sandwich and was told they didn't have any, even though she could see the peppers right in front of us.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 02, 2015, 06:28:34 PM
Quote from: Feartheviolas on June 02, 2015, 04:44:25 PM
Paprika is a pepper in Icelandic and a spice in English. This lead to some confusion at Subway when my friend from Iceland asked for paprika on her sandwich and was told they didn't have any, even though she could see the peppers right in front of us.

I am still confused about the names. I thoguht pepper was the only word, and paprika is hungarian for it, when I heard using paprika in english and I thought they were just taking the hungarian word (hetalia's hungary kept using that word, and I thought it was hungarian) but I am still unsire what pepper and paprika in english.

both paprika (as english word) and pepper seems to mean same in hungarian (paprika)

also about paprika... my real name sounds totally like you say paprika, my dad used to call em paprika, I hated that also my real name.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Sunflower on June 02, 2015, 08:06:25 PM
Quote from: Martti on June 02, 2015, 06:28:34 PM
I am still confused about the names. I thoguht pepper was the only word, and paprika is hungarian for it, when I heard using paprika in english and I thought they were just taking the hungarian word (hetalia's hungary kept using that word, and I thought it was hungarian) but I am still unsire what pepper and paprika in english.

both paprika (as english word) and pepper seems to mean same in hungarian (paprika)

In U.S. English, "pepper" = both the spice (as in black pepper, Piper nigrum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pepper)) and the fruit of the capsicum plant (though we usually add a modifier, e.g. bell pepper, chile pepper, etc.).  "Paprika" = the Hungarian spice, the dried, powdered form of a particular type of capsicum.

According to my cookbooks, bell peppers are "capsicums" in Australia, maybe also the U.K.  Probably for the best (since the confusion in U.S. English between the two peppers comes from the same source as calling Native Americans "Indians"). 

But good luck getting American consumers to get with the program.  For some people, today it's European cooking terms, tomorrow it's the metric system, globalism, and black helicopters... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_%28conspiracy_theory%29)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Solovei on June 02, 2015, 09:09:26 PM
Don't even get me started on vegetable etymology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga#Etymology) ...
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on June 02, 2015, 09:33:51 PM
Quote from: Martti on June 02, 2015, 06:28:34 PM
I am still confused about the names. I thoguht pepper was the only word, and paprika is hungarian for it
The term "paprika" did indeed originate from older names for pepper, with the more remote languages (like English) typically having obtained it through Hungarian and German.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paprika#Etymology_and_history

The actual meanings attached to it are quite muddied, though. From a botanical/scientific point of view, you have peppers (genus Piper, family Piperaceae) which are hot thanks to the contained piperine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piperine), chilis (genus Capsicum, family Solanaceae) containing capsaicin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin), the special case of sweet paprika (Gemüsepaprika) which essentially had its capsaicin content reduced to near zero by breeding, and then some "peppers" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper) which occasionally just look like other peppers.

But since historically, people didn't look into the details beyond "yum, spicy", we're now blessed with things like "paprika" being a hot spice in English but the sweet paprika fruit in German, "chili" and "pepper" being basically interchangeable in (particularly U.S.) English, South American chilis being often called "bird peppers" in German, etc. ad nauseam.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Ana Nymus on June 02, 2015, 11:04:18 PM
Quote from: JoB on June 02, 2015, 09:33:51 PM
...South American chilis being often called "bird peppers" in German, etc. ad nauseam.

Fun fact: Birds can't taste spiciness because the capsaicin doesn't affect them. Which is why squirrels will stay away from your chili pepper garden, but the birds will eat them all. T_T
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on June 03, 2015, 05:32:03 PM
Quote from: Ana Nymus on June 02, 2015, 11:04:18 PM
Fun fact: Birds can't taste spiciness because the capsaicin doesn't affect them. Which is why squirrels will stay away from your chili pepper garden, but the birds will eat them all. T_T
And the respective plants are called "bird pepper"s because the two-legged mammals were so astonished to see birds happily gobble the fruit up. :D

AFAIK capsaicin "works" only on mammals. "Pepper" sprays - also capsaicin based - definitely fail to turn away crocs or sharks.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Synthpopalooza on June 04, 2015, 02:40:56 PM
One false friend that sticks in my mind, is what came up on a duolingo lesson once ...

"Min hund dog i morse."

Which is Swedish for:

"My dog died yesterday."

Seeing "hund" and "dog" in the same sentence is disconcerting, when you realise "dog" is the past tense of "dö" (die).

Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Solovei on June 04, 2015, 06:22:02 PM
Quote from: Synthpopalooza on June 04, 2015, 02:40:56 PM
One false friend that sticks in my mind, is what came up on a duolingo lesson once ...

"Min hund dog i morse."

Which is Swedish for:

"My dog died yesterday."

Seeing "hund" and "dog" in the same sentence is disconcerting, when you realise "dog" is the past tense of "dö" (die).
Relatedly, and maybe more confusingly: kon dog = the cow died
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Pessi on June 05, 2015, 12:51:37 AM
The name of Turkey's capital city, Ankara, tends to make Finnish school kids smile on geography lessons since the Finnish word ankara means "severe, strict". Same goes for Lima in Peru since lima is the Finnish word for phlegm.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Helia on June 05, 2015, 04:03:12 AM
Talking of capital cities...

Oslo sounds like 'oszló' in Hungarian, which means 'festering, decaying'.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Synthpopalooza on June 05, 2015, 04:29:27 PM
I always found this one disconcerting

Cookie in swedish is "kaka" ... which in English, is a slang term for feces.

You mentioned Ankara ... in Swedish, this is close to the word "Anka" or Duck.

Then there is "Glass" ... the same word in Swedish, means Ice Cream.  Jag äter glass ... gives me horrid images of someone eating broken shards of glass.  The actual word for glass in Swedish is "glas" (one s).  So, to say "a glass of ice cream" in Swedish, it is "en glas glass".
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Snommelp on June 05, 2015, 05:26:41 PM
Quote from: Synthpopalooza on June 05, 2015, 04:29:27 PM
Then there is "Glass" ... the same word in Swedish, means Ice Cream.  Jag äter glass ... gives me horrid images of someone eating broken shards of glass.  The actual word for glass in Swedish is "glas" (one s).  So, to say "a glass of ice cream" in Swedish, it is "en glas glass".

I always screw up glas/glass. Though now that you point out the difference, it's clear enough that it follows the same "rule" as English desert/dessert: double s on the delicious food, because that's the one you want more of.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Kizzy on June 06, 2015, 06:04:57 AM
There's a Syrian/Turkish sweet called rahat (aka Turkish delight), and rahat in Romanian means "poop". So one time my Romanian friend was offered one by her mom; cue my friend's incredulous reaction  ;D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Haiz on June 06, 2015, 06:27:15 AM
Quote from: Helia on June 05, 2015, 04:03:12 AM
Talking of capital cities...

Oslo sounds like 'oszló' in Hungarian, which means 'festering, decaying'.
sounds accurate

every single czech person i know makes fun of the norwegian bye: hade (actually 'ha det'), because 'hade' would be calling someone a snake in czech.

also this probably doesn't really count as false friends, but norwegian/english speakers say "on the tv" and "take the bus", right? But if you say the same thing in czech, people will look very weird at you. In czech you can't say on the tv, you have to say in the tv, otherwise you mean something that is literally on top of the tv box. And if you say 'take the bus', they will imagine you just grabbing a bus under your arm like and go.

otherwise, I recently discovered a book in the apartment called "hora hore"....... hora means mountain in czech. in norwegian, it's a slur aimed against women.

also 'most' means bridge in czech. BRIDGE BEST

Oh and one last one for now, ost is norwegian for cheese. Which is funny when OST usually means "Original SoundTrack".
"Hey do you have that cd with the frozen CHEESE?"
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Laufey on June 06, 2015, 06:58:41 AM
Pfffttt bridge best...

I thought of another one between Finnish and Icelandic: in the latter, "píka" is a rude word for female genitalia. The first vowel is pronounced is long, which makes the word sound like the Finnish "piika", a wench.

It doesn't end here though: the word "pika" means "fast" in Finnish and is used on f.ex. express buses. You can imagine my Icelandic friends' reactions to seeing something like this (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51934812@N03/9048405070) for the first time. :D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Dane Murgen on June 06, 2015, 07:41:48 AM
I have a couple of stuffs:

1) The word for cow in Spanish and Filipino/Tagalog is vaca/baka which may or may not sound like the Japanese insult, if my anime knowledge is correct.

2) The word for milk in Filipino is gatas which is Spanish for female cats.

3) In Maori, there is a special way of cooking food by using heated rocks to cook the food underground called a hangi (though there is a macron over the a). I believe hangi is the word for hang or some equivalent in Icelandic. It is also which in Turkish I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

4) Ano means what in Filipino, um in Japanese, yes in Czech and sounds like no in Korean apparently.

5) Um in Mandarin ( 那个) sounds like a slur for an African-American in English slang (I say it not for fear of censors).
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: zetkaj on June 06, 2015, 09:47:05 AM
Quote from: Haiz on June 06, 2015, 06:27:15 AM
also 'most' means bridge in czech. BRIDGE BEST
Why haven't I made that connection before...Now I can't unsee it. (most means bridge in Polish too!)

On the topic of the capital cities:Rabat means 'discount' in Polish. It leads to the most awful puns (bad jokes? I don't know what English word would be good), like that one:
(http://xh.cdn02.imgwykop.pl/c3397993/link_heogYUSl9FBuTjVqqN0bKgYNctgWtdGg,w300h223.jpg)
"Dear Clients, in case you wanted to ask about a discount (rabat), we hereby inform that it is a capital of Morocco".
....this is terrible and I am kinda ashamed.


(pstt, Synthpopalooza-Polish diacritics work on the forums now, just in case you wanted to add 'em to your signature!)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: viola on June 06, 2015, 09:50:52 AM
Quote from: Haiz on June 06, 2015, 06:27:15 AM
also this probably doesn't really count as false friends, but norwegian/english speakers say "on the tv" and "take the bus", right? But if you say the same thing in czech, people will look very weird at you. In czech you can't say on the tv, you have to say in the tv, otherwise you mean something that is literally on top of the tv box. And if you say 'take the bus', they will imagine you just grabbing a bus under your arm like and go.

I read this on the internet, so I'm not sure if it's true, but it's funny so I'll share. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

So in English you can say "the tree was blown over" and a person would have the image of some fierce wind blowing the tree over, but if you said the same thing in Finnish, I read that it would imply a group of people got together and blew the tree over.

Edit: Confirmed by Laufey below
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Haiz on June 06, 2015, 10:34:12 AM
hah, I remembered another one. The word 'peach' is pronounced very similar to a czech cussword, which I realized VERY QUICKLY by playing as princess peach in mario kart with my czech friends.....

in a similar vein, I don't reeeally want my czech friends to call me Haiz, because that can very quickly be turned into hajzl/hajzlik, either a word meaning jerk or slang for toilet. SIGHS
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Laufey on June 06, 2015, 10:45:46 AM
Quote from: Haiz on June 06, 2015, 10:34:12 AM
hah, I remembered another one. The word 'peach' is pronounced very similar to a czech cussword, which I realized VERY QUICKLY by playing as princess peach in mario kart with my czech friends.....

I know the feeling... in regards what píka means in Icelandic, guess what Pikachu sounds like. :D

Quote from: Feartheviolas on June 06, 2015, 09:50:52 AM
So in English you can say "the tree was blown over" and a person would have the image of some fierce wind blowing the tree over, but if you said the same thing in Finnish, I read that it would imply a group of people got together and blew the tree over.

Hahaha, I guess I can see how it would happen. In Finnish you'd have to define that the thing that's blowing is wind, because else it sounds like a human action: "tuuli puhalsi puun nurin" = the wind blew the tree over. "Puu puhallettiin nurin" = someone huffed and puffed and blew the tree over.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Silent Fox on June 07, 2015, 07:50:34 PM
I remember going to an American store w/my father when I was little, and this little gift store had opened up nearby. Now in English, "gift" means present, while in German, when capitalized, it's poison. Needless to say I got wide-eyed (because I spoke barely any English at the time) and he laughed and explained it me. ;D

I now imagine a sadistic owner selling poisoned chocolates as presents.  >_>
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 07, 2015, 08:31:20 PM
Quote from: Helia on June 05, 2015, 04:03:12 AM
Talking of capital cities...

Oslo sounds like 'oszló' in Hungarian, which means 'festering, decaying'.

Or some hungarian places, which seems english words, like Bag or Pest.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Haiz on June 08, 2015, 02:13:54 AM
Quote from: Silent Fox on June 07, 2015, 07:50:34 PM
I remember going to an American store w/my father when I was little, and this little gift store had opened up nearby. Now in English, "gift" means present, while in German, when capitalized, it's poison. Needless to say I got wide-eyed (because I spoke barely any English at the time) and he laughed and explained it me. ;D

I now imagine a sadistic owner selling poisoned chocolates as presents.  >_>
ahahahaaa in Norwegian, gift can mean BOTH poison AND married, no difference in pronounciation or spelling, how's that for a false friend
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Pessi on June 08, 2015, 05:36:05 AM
I think it's the same with Swedish, at least our elementary school Swedish teacher told as some kind of joke about getting the two mixed in an official document. Something about a mistake between "ugift", unmarried, and "ugiftig", non-poisonous.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Silent Fox on June 08, 2015, 09:41:56 PM
Quote from: Haiz on June 08, 2015, 02:13:54 AM
ahahahaaa in Norwegian, gift can mean BOTH poison AND married, no difference in pronunciation or spelling, how's that for a false friend
Goodness that is horribly awesome! ;D

And I've got a slightly more mature-tinged one my high school French teacher used to tell us.

There once was an English-speaking girl who was sent on a foreign exchange to France. While eating breakfast with her host? family, she asks to be passed a glass of marmalade and refers to it as wanting the "preservatif", sil vous plais". The folks give her a really weird look, and she doesn't know why. Only later did she find out that she was asking to be passed a condom!
If I remember correctly "confiture" would have been a good choice.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Pessi on June 09, 2015, 02:00:12 AM
Just remembered a story my mom told about the time she was living in Netherlands in the 70's. She was invited to a party and they were drinking a toast to something and, being a Finn, my mother shouted out loud "kippis!", since that's what we say when toasting. Everyone was looking at her funnily and then they started laughing since in Dutch "kip" is chicken and "pis" is, well, piss.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 10, 2015, 05:26:05 AM
One word with multiple meanings is often in hungarian

Követ követ követ (seems/sounds same words 3 times,  but no)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Auleliel on June 10, 2015, 12:39:15 PM
Quote from: Martti on June 10, 2015, 05:26:05 AM
One word with multiple meanings is often in hungarian

Követ követ követ (seems/sounds same words 3 times,  but no)
There is a similar thing in English. Any number of the word "buffalo" can be put together to make a grammatically correct sentence, because it has a different meaning as an adjective, noun, and verb. As an adjective it means "from the city of Buffalo, New York". As a noun it means a large animal also known as a bison. And as a verb it has a meaning similar to "bully".
So the sentence " Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo" would mean the same as "Bison from New York bully some other group of bison." I think the most famous example of this kind of sentence has nine words, all "buffalo".
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Snommelp on June 10, 2015, 12:46:05 PM
Quote from: Auleliel on June 10, 2015, 12:39:15 PM
There is a similar thing in English. Any number of the word "buffalo" can be put together to make a grammatically correct sentence, because it has a different meaning as an adjective, noun, and verb. As an adjective it means "from the city of Buffalo, New York". As a noun it means a large animal also known as a bison. And as a verb it has a meaning similar to "bully".
So the sentence " Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo" would mean the same as "Bison from New York bully some other group of bison." I think the most famous example of this kind of sentence has nine words, all "buffalo".

In that same vein, in Swedish one can ask "får får får?" which translates to "do sheep get sheep?" Apparently it's part of a children's riddle: "Får får får? Nej, får får lamm!" Do sheep get sheep? No, sheep get lambs!
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Laufey on June 10, 2015, 12:58:09 PM
Icelandic joining in with Árni á Á á á á á = Árni from the place Á has a sheep by a river. Declension does funny things in this language...

To break it up: Árni á (preposition) Á (a place called Á) á (the verb eiga, to own, in 3rd person) á (ær = sheep, in accusative) á (preposition) á (= river). Sometimes you see a slightly more grammatically correct version - Árni á Á á á í á, but that kind of ruins the joke a bit (besides using á is not entirely wrong, í and á as prepositions mean pretty much the same thing, it just depends on the verb, use, pure chance, the position of the stars and the speakers' Icelandic ability which one gets used when. :Þ
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Snommelp on June 10, 2015, 01:05:20 PM
...suddenly, the fact that Árni from the prologue decided to go be a shepherd became hilarious.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on June 10, 2015, 05:48:40 PM
Quote from: Auleliel on June 10, 2015, 12:39:15 PM
There is a similar thing in English. Any number of the word "buffalo" can be put together to make a grammatically correct sentence
As demonstrated here (http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2014/06/26/0593-buffalo-buffalo/), and shown for German (http://www.sandraandwoo.com/woode/2014/06/26/0593-weiche-weichen/) as well by the same author. :)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: AuthorOfLight on June 10, 2015, 06:33:52 PM
and then, of course, in English you can have 'had' eleven times in a row, all while being grammatically correct. I saw something on Tumblr about this, to the effect of:

James and John were taking an English test, one of the questions of which was whether to use 'had' or 'had had' in a particular sentence. James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'. 'had had' had had a better effect on the teacher.

English is a retarded language.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Ana Nymus on June 10, 2015, 07:50:17 PM
Quote from: AuthorOfLight on June 10, 2015, 06:33:52 PM
English is a retarded language.

Don't forget about our lovely pronunciation rules. I don't know if this has been posted somewhere else, but here:
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html (http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 10, 2015, 08:20:09 PM
Quote from: AuthorOfLight on June 10, 2015, 06:33:52 PM
English is a retarded language.
Quote from: Ana Nymus on June 10, 2015, 07:50:17 PM
Don't forget about our lovely pronunciation rules. I don't know if this has been posted somewhere else, but here:
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html (http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html)

english has a pronounciation rule??? I thought it is like "pronounce how you like"

like there is this word "ghoti" which is same pronounced like "fish" because
GH - enough
O - wOmen
TI - pronounciaTIon
it is just a pronounciation joke...

english is the weirdest language of all
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Ana Nymus on June 10, 2015, 08:43:24 PM
Quote from: Martti on June 10, 2015, 08:20:09 PM
english has a pronounciation rule??? I thought it is like "pronounce how you like"

Sort of?  :P In the words of the comedian Brian Reagan:

Teacher: Brian, what's the i before e rule?
Brian:     I before e... ALWAYS.
Teacher: What are you, an idiot, Brian?
Brian:     Apparently.
Teacher: No, Brian, it's, "I before E EXCEPT after C, AND when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY!!!!"
Brian:     That's a hard rule. That's a— that's a rough rule.

The sad part is, that rule is verbatim from what I learned up until the part about "weekends and holidays."
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: AuthorOfLight on June 10, 2015, 09:17:32 PM
Quote from: Martti on June 10, 2015, 08:20:09 PM
english has a pronounciation rule??? I thought it is like "pronounce how you like"

Not so much a rule per se, but each word has its own pronunciation, and it's pretty much always consistent. Letters and their combinations, though? laughs and throws all pronunciation guides out the window

Really, the only ways to learn English pronunciation are either to memorize the pronunciation of every word (which native speakers naturally do anyway) or to figure out the root language of the word and figure it out from there. But yeah, there aren't actual rules because:
Through, though, and cough - they don't rhyme.
Pony and bologna - they rhyme.
welcome to English pronunciation, everyone...
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Solovei on June 10, 2015, 10:49:07 PM
Quote from: AuthorOfLight on June 10, 2015, 09:17:32 PM
Not so much a rule per se, but each word has its own pronunciation, and it's pretty much always consistent. Letters and their combinations, though? laughs and throws all pronunciation guides out the window

Really, the only ways to learn English pronunciation are either to memorize the pronunciation of every word (which native speakers naturally do anyway) or to figure out the root language of the word and figure it out from there. But yeah, there aren't actual rules because:
Through, though, and cough - they don't rhyme.
Pony and bologna - they rhyme.
welcome to English pronunciation, everyone...
They actually had a whole category on Jeopardy tonight called "Words that should rhyme"
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Viisikielinenkantele on June 13, 2015, 02:38:10 AM

Quote from: JoB on June 10, 2015, 05:48:40 PM
As demonstrated here (http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2014/06/26/0593-buffalo-buffalo/), and shown for German (http://www.sandraandwoo.com/woode/2014/06/26/0593-weiche-weichen/) as well by the same author. :)

As a child I realy liked these:
Wenn Spinnen hinter Spinnen spinnen, spinnen Spinnen spinnen nach. (When spiders spin after spiders, then spiders spin after spiders)
Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach. (When flies fly after flies, then flies fly after flies)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Pessi on June 15, 2015, 04:08:28 AM
Quote from: Solovei on June 10, 2015, 10:49:07 PM
They actually had a whole category on Jeopardy tonight called "Words that should rhyme"

This reminded me of a short program about Shakespearian English that I watched about a year ago. They were musing about how much the pronunciation has changed since Shakespeare's times, making many puns in his plays obscure to modern people. One example was the word "hour" which acoording to the program used to be pronounced the same way as "whore" - giving a whole new double meaning to these lines from As You Like It:

'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
And after one hour more 'twill be eleven;
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 15, 2015, 08:05:53 AM
there are some english words that seems same like hungarian words for various body parts

ember (human being)
arc (face)
fog (tooth)
comb (thigh)
here (testicle)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Guardian G.I. on June 26, 2015, 04:02:48 AM
Czech vs Russian.
Spoiler: show
(http://i.imgur.com/UkwJQ6H.jpg)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 26, 2015, 04:29:12 AM
Dutch joke:

A Dutchman and an Englishman meet and talk about their hobbies:

Dutchman: I like to fok horses
English: Pardon?
Dutchman: Yes! Parden!

fok in Dutch is to breed, specifically horses
Parden is Dutch for horses


Here are a few more:
broodroof  - ('bread-theft') taking away someone's livelihood
kinderarts  - '[children's doctor] pediatrician'
sleepboot  - 'tugboat'
Hij is in de war.  - He is confused, not in his right mind.
Karel de Kale  - Charles the Bald
Hij deed talk in de band.  - He put baby powder in the tire.
(Obsolete procedure! Not recommended!)
Jan met de pet  - The man in the street
Een brave man  - 'a harmless, obedient man'
De brave baker at brood met worst op de brink. - The obedient nanny ate bread with sausage on the village square.
(baker 'nanny' is somewhat obsolete Dutch)

Title: Re: False friends
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 26, 2015, 04:38:24 AM
And just to show how contrary English can be here are some Janus words:

1. Sanction (via French, from Latin sanctio(n-), from sancire ‘ratify,’) can mean ‘give official permission or approval for (an action)’ or conversely, ‘impose a penalty on.’

2. Oversight is the noun form of two verbs with contrary meanings, “oversee” and “overlook.” “Oversee,” from Old English ofersēon ‘look at from above,’ means ‘supervise’ (medieval Latin for the same thing: super- ‘over’ + videre ‘to see.’) “Overlook” usually means the opposite: ‘to fail to see or observe; to pass over without noticing; to disregard, ignore.’

3. Left can mean either remaining or departed. If the gentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’s left? (The gentlemen have left and the ladies are left.)

4. Dust, along with the next two words, is a noun turned into a verb meaning either to add or to remove the thing in question. Only the context will tell you which it is. When you dust are you applying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops or the furniture.

5. Seed can also go either way. If you seed the lawn you add seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.

6. Stone is another verb to use with caution. You can stone some peaches, but please don’t stone your neighbor (even if he says he likes to get stoned).

7. Trim as a verb predates the noun, but it can also mean either adding or taking away. Arising from an Old English word meaning ‘to make firm or strong; to settle, arrange,’ “trim” came to mean ‘to prepare, make ready.’ Depending on who or what was being readied, it could mean either of two contradictory things: ‘to decorate something with ribbons, laces, or the like to give it a finished appearance’ or ‘to cut off the outgrowths or irregularities of.’ And the context doesn’t always make it clear. If you’re trimming the tree are you using tinsel or a chain saw?

8. Cleave can be cleaved into two “homographs,” words with different origins that end up spelled the same. “Cleave,” meaning ‘to cling to or adhere,’ comes from an Old English word that took the forms cleofian, clifian, or clīfan. “Cleave,” with the contrary meaning ‘to split or sever (something), ‘ as you might do with a cleaver, comes from a different Old English word, clēofan. The past participle has taken various forms: “cloven,” which survives in the phrase “cloven hoof,” “cleft,” as in a “cleft palate” or “cleaved.”

9. Resign works as a contronym in writing. This time we have homographs, but not homophones. “Resign,” meaning ‘to quit,’ is spelled the same as “resign,” meaning ‘to sign up again,’ but it’s pronounced differently.

10. Fast can mean "moving rapidly," as in "running fast," or ‘fixed, unmoving,’ as in "holding fast." If colors are fast they will not run. The meaning ‘firm, steadfast’ came first. The adverb took on the sense ‘strongly, vigorously,’ which evolved into ‘quickly,’ a meaning that spread to the adjective.

11. Off means ‘deactivated,’ as in "to turn off," but also ‘activated,’ as in "The alarm went off."

12. Weather can mean ‘to withstand or come safely through,’ as in “The company weathered the recession,” or it can mean ‘to be worn away’: “The rock was weathered.”

13. Screen can mean ‘to show’ (a movie) or ‘to hide’ (an unsightly view).

14. Help means ‘assist,’ unless you can’t help doing something, when it means ‘prevent.’

15. Clip can mean "to bind together" or "to separate." You clip sheets of paper to together or separate part of a page by clipping something out. Clip is a pair of homographs, words with different origins spelled the same. Old English clyppan, which means "to clasp with the arms, embrace, hug," led to our current meaning, "to hold together with a clasp." The other clip, "to cut or snip (a part) away," is from Old Norse klippa, which may come from the sound of a shears.

16. Continue usually means to persist in doing something, but as a legal term it means stop a proceeding temporarily.

17. Fight with can be interpreted three ways. “He fought with his mother-in-law” could mean "They argued," "They served together in the war," or "He used the old battle-ax as a weapon." (Thanks to linguistics professor Robert Hertz for this idea.)

18. Flog, meaning "to punish by caning or whipping," shows up in school slang of the 17th century, but now it can have the contrary meaning, "to promote persistently," as in “flogging a new book.” Perhaps that meaning arose from the sense ‘to urge (a horse, etc.) forward by whipping,’ which grew out of the earliest meaning.

19. Go means "to proceed," but also "give out or fail," i.e., “This car could really go until it started to go.”

20. Hold up can mean "to support" or "to hinder": “What a friend! When I’m struggling to get on my feet, he’s always there to hold me up.”

21. Out can mean "visible" or "invisible." For example, “It’s a good thing the full moon was out when the lights went out.”

22. Out of means "outside" or "inside": “I hardly get out of the house because I work out of my home.”

23. Peer is a person of equal status (as in a jury of one’s peers), but some peers are more equal than others, like the members of the peerage, the British or Irish nobility.

24. Toss out could be either "to suggest" or "to discard": “I decided to toss out the idea.”

25. Garnish can mean to add or then have it removed. "My wage was garnished by the tax office."
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Ana Nymus on June 26, 2015, 09:23:12 AM
Quote from: OnButerflyWings on June 26, 2015, 04:38:24 AM
And just to show how contrary English can be here are some Janus words:

I humbly apologize to all languages on behalf of English. Its kleptomaniac behaviors will no longer be tolerated, and I apologize for any inconvenience.

Seriously, though. That's how we ended up with all the weird pronunciation "rules" too. 
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 26, 2015, 07:04:22 PM

most known misheard lyrics (called as finnish-hungarian language relation), mostly not even similar to the word, but yeah, I can't listen to this song anymore to it with with it.... with the misheard hungarian lyrics. I guess if I sang it to anyone who speak no finnish or hungarian, they won't notice!
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: viola on June 29, 2015, 07:37:35 AM
The Japanese word for train station: 駅 is pronounced eki which sounds like the Icelandic word ekki which means 'not'
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Silent Fox on June 29, 2015, 08:02:25 PM
Saw one on a truck today. "Leer" in English means a sideways or sly look, but in German it means empty.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 30, 2015, 03:11:05 AM
Here are a few Estonian and Finnish ones:

Estonian says: Onk kaik ruumit koristellu?

What a Finn hears: Are all the corpses decorated?

What the Estonian actually said: Are all the rooms cleaned?

A few more:
Est: raamat ('book') - Fin: Raamattu ('Bible')
Est: surm ('death') - Fin: surma ('murder' or rather 'manslaughter'[?])
Est: tee ('tea' but also 'road') - Fin: tee ('tea')
Est: määre (fat) - Fin: määre (attribute, qualifier)
Est: kannatus (agony, suffering) - Fin: kannatus (support, adhesion)
Est: kaabu (hat) - Fin: kaapu (cloak, gown)
Est: surema (to die) - Fin: surra (to grieve)
Est: halb (weak, bad) - Fin: halpa (cheap, inexpensive)
Est: vaim (spirit, ghost) - Fin: vaimo (wife)
Est: tema (he/she) - Fin: tämä (this)
Est: toore (raw) - Fin: tuore (fresh)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Laufey on June 30, 2015, 04:34:54 AM
Surma can actually just mean death in Finnish as well. It's an old way of saying it but not so old that Finns wouldn't easily understand it - other than that it can mean manslaughter as well (but not murder, murder = murha).

You forgot the best one though:

:finland: hallitus = the government
:estonia: hallitus = rotten/moldy food

Also the Estonian way of saying "Sit next to me" (Istu mu kõrval) sounds really similar as the Finnish "Sit on my d[forum cencor]"... thankfully it only looks like "Sit on my ear" when written.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 30, 2015, 04:44:45 AM
Quote from: Laufey on June 30, 2015, 04:34:54 AM
Surma can actually just mean death in Finnish as well. It's an old way of saying it but not so old that Finns wouldn't easily understand it - other than that it can mean manslaughter as well (but not murder, murder = murha).

You forgot the best one though:

:finland: hallitus = the government
:estonia: hallitus = rotten/moldy food

Also the Estonian way of saying "Sit next to me" (Istu mu kõrval) sounds really similar as the Finnish "Sit on my d[forum cencor]"... thankfully it only looks like "Sit on my ear" when written.

hehe. This is very true. A bit like rathaus in German (means city-hall).

and as for surma, yes it's an old word where Estonian and Finnish have diverged. All dealing with the happy topic of death.

NetMOT says the following:

1. väkivaltainen t. tapaturmainen kuolema, hengenmeno. Joukkosurma. Usean ihmisen surma onnettomuudessa. Saada surmansa kuolla onnettomuudessa t. väkivaltaisesti. Maanjäristyksessä surmansa saaneet. Viisi ihmistä sai surmansa. Useita siviilejä sai surmansa [paremmin: useat siviilit saivat surmansa t. useita siviilejä kuoli] tulituksessa.
Kuv. Joutua surman suuhun. Ei suurin t. suin surminkaan [= ei kuolemakseenkaan, ei millään ehdolla] suostunut tulemaan.
2. oik. lieventävien asianhaarojen vallitessa tehty tappo.
3. surmaaja, tuhoaja; perikato, tuho, häviö, loppu, turma. Kissa on hiiren surma. Uusi lumi [on keväällä] vanhan surma SL.
4. Musta surma ks. musta 2.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Auleliel on July 03, 2015, 01:45:26 AM
Recently I have been seeing the word コク (sounds like "coke" to my English ears) on a lot of cans of coffee in the vending machines here, and I have been wondering why anyone would mix coffee with cola. It turns out that コク means "strong delicious taste", so I can stop avoiding that now. :P
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: viola on July 17, 2015, 02:39:48 PM
Yesterday I accidentally learned that "water" said with a thick New Jersey accent sounds like the Finnish word for prostitute.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on July 18, 2015, 08:12:20 AM
Is that count when a word was taken from an other languageand gives a different meaning?

Because the german word, schmuzig means dirty or something, but in Hungarian (smucig?) means greedy
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on September 25, 2015, 07:26:52 AM
A couple months back, I walked by a sign advertising a dog food shop, focusing on something called "B.A.R.F.". Insert puzzled look here, but I had no idea what to make of that.

Today, I visited another pet store and noticed a couple books with "BARF" in their title. Turns out that it's an acronym for "biologisch artgerechte Rohfütterung" (biological, species-appropriate raw (food) feeding), and sort of the newest semi-esoteric "science" in full-tilt (single) pet care. So now you can fill a bookshelf with books on how to feed your cat or dog proper BARF.
(http://i.imgur.com/lAmgtLK.png)
Should I ever find out which punster passed the pet enthusiasts that terminology suggestion, I'll hand him a dozen medals. ;D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: DancingRanger on October 16, 2015, 11:12:52 PM
So as you guys may or may not know I'm writing a Fanfic, and I need help with a list of words that would crop up fairly commonly in the SSSS crews conversions and be confusing to an English speaker. Kinda like 'they're talking about what now?' And vice-versa. Thank you in advance!
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Solovei on October 20, 2015, 01:38:40 AM
Quote from: DancingRanger on October 16, 2015, 11:12:52 PM
So as you guys may or may not know I'm writing a Fanfic, and I need help with a list of words that would crop up fairly commonly in the SSSS crews conversions and be confusing to an English speaker. Kinda like 'they're talking about what now?' And vice-versa. Thank you in advance!
You would primarily have to watch out for Swedish/Danish/Norwegian; being Germanic languages, they share a fair number of common origins with English. I have this list, it might offer a good starting point:

Swedish-English false friends (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_%C3%B6ver_falska_v%C3%A4nner_mellan_svenska_och_engelska)

Finnish is from a totally different language family an shouldn't have too much in common as far as I know.

Title: Re: False friends
Post by: DancingRanger on October 20, 2015, 07:43:27 PM
Quote from: Solovei on October 20, 2015, 01:38:40 AM
You would primarily have to watch out for Swedish/Danish/Norwegian; being Germanic languages, they share a fair number of common origins with English. I have this list, it might offer a good starting point:

Swedish-English false friends (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_%C3%B6ver_falska_v%C3%A4nner_mellan_svenska_och_engelska)

Finnish is from a totally different language family an shouldn't have too much in common as far as I know.

Thanks Solo!
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: SasanachAerach on October 21, 2015, 07:37:37 PM
When a lot of people first learn there is an Irish language their first reaction (after the argument where they try to convince you that your language is either dead or just a dialect of English) is to ask to say something simple, like "My name is X", the Irish for that is "X is ainm dom" but you can never convince someone to say it because "dom" (for/to me) is pronounced the same as dumb, and they assume you are trying to trick them into insulting themselves, so you have to tell them the much longer and more formal "Is é X an t-ainm atá orm", or the fairly terse sounding "Is mise X". Focal is another one which confuses anglophones who mishear it as the well known curse, when really it just means word/sentence. Ceap (pronounced cap) means think, not cap. Scoil means school and not skull (that got me when I first moved here and though the Irish had an extremely morbid passion for skulls in their education system). Dia means God, not day as many Spaniards think, and Dé also means god (in the genitive) though it is pronounced the same as the English word day, the word for day being Lá or Lae.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on October 24, 2015, 10:46:56 PM
Quote from: Solovei on October 20, 2015, 01:38:40 AM
Finnish is from a totally different language family an shouldn't have too much in common as far as I know.
Non sequitur, I'm afraid. Just because Finnish and (say) Swedish cannot possibly have a word "X" in common, complete with etymology and meaning, doesn't mean that they could not possibly have a false friend "X" between them which just happens to sound / be spelt the same.

(I don't speak a word of Finnish, so I can't give you an actual example, but I guess that a glowworm being a "kiiltomato" (huh, what (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080391/) now!?) gets close enough for discomfort.)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: shaeira on October 24, 2015, 11:20:28 PM
So this is a story one of my teachers told our class about differences in our dialects :
 So we have this word "sili" which means chili pepper but in another dialect it means pen*s (the male genitalia ). So my teacher visited a friend who speaks that dialect (its basically the same as ours except for certain words) and she saw a chili pepper plant and commented ," Look how ripe that sili is. So red and big !"





Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Laufey on October 25, 2015, 04:53:20 AM
Quote from: DancingRanger on October 16, 2015, 11:12:52 PM
So as you guys may or may not know I'm writing a Fanfic, and I need help with a list of words that would crop up fairly commonly in the SSSS crews conversions and be confusing to an English speaker. Kinda like 'they're talking about what now?' And vice-versa. Thank you in advance!

I'm a bit late to the party but there's actually one false friends couple that might be very, very usable in SSSS-verse! Kissa means a cat in Finnish... but "to pee" in Swedish (why yes I'm easily amused how did you know).
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Auleliel on November 15, 2015, 11:03:24 PM
The Korean word for 15 (십오 /shibo/) sounds like the Japanese word for death (死亡 /shibō/). I am tempted to go around Tokyo counting in Korean...
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Fenris on November 16, 2015, 10:14:08 AM
Quote from: DancingRanger on October 16, 2015, 11:12:52 PM
So as you guys may or may not know I'm writing a Fanfic, and I need help with a list of words that would crop up fairly commonly in the SSSS crews conversions and be confusing to an English speaker. Kinda like 'they're talking about what now?' And vice-versa. Thank you in advance!
I did do some work which included a canadian and some americans, so I know of some.

One is 'Bad', although mostly in written form. It means 'bathroom' in Norwegian at least, and also to swim. You got some names that sound odd/funny in English, like Odd and Randi.

Another is 'Pimpe' which has nothing to do with prostitution, but refers to drinking alcohol (often alone).

Then you got 'Korn' which means grains, while corn is 'mais'.

'Kondisjon' means physical stamina/fitness, rather than condition.

'Kraft' has nothing to do with crafting or suchlike, meaning 'power' generally of a physical or electrical type.

'Gift' could maybe qualify, although its generally pronounced 'jift', but it means either poison or marriage.

'Hell' has nothing to do with any afterlife, but rather means luck. In a similar vein, 'lykke' has only coincidental relation to luck since it means happiness.

'Mappe' is a folder rather than a map.

'Offer' in Norwegian means a sacrifice, rather than a proposal.


A lot of these should work for swedish and danish as well, but can't say for sure.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on November 16, 2015, 12:16:02 PM
when the english cursing word, probably the most know sounds like you say "fák(, juh)" in hungarian, which just mean "trees(, sheep)"

if you say it could accidentally you can add, "I said trees in hungarian" xD
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Pupunen on November 16, 2015, 01:33:11 PM
The Finnish phrase katso merta ("look at the sea") sounds almost exactly like the Italian swearwords cazzo and merda. I lived in Italy for three years as a teenager, and it was quite difficult to completely avoid using the verb katsoa ("to look"), especially since a lot of other words have been derived from it. I remember getting some raised eyebrows when I said the word katsomo ("bleachers/stands"), for example.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Cliodna on December 06, 2015, 08:11:05 AM
Quote from: OnButterflyWings on June 30, 2015, 03:11:05 AM
Here are a few Estonian and Finnish ones:

Estonian says: Onk kaik ruumit koristellu?

What a Finn hears: Are all the corpses decorated?

What the Estonian actually said: Are all the rooms cleaned?

You gave the finnish sentence. The estonian for "Are all the rooms cleaned?" would be "On kõik ruumid koristatud?". It's still pronounced relatively similar to the finnish sentence. :P
I'll add a few more false friends I know about:

:finland: Talo = House | :estonia: Talu = Farm
:finland: Viineri = Pastry | :estonia: Viiner = A sausage
:finland: Linna = Castle | :estonia: Linn = City
:finland: Kaupunki = City | :estonia: Kaup = Product
:finland: Kalju = Bald | :estonia: Kalju = Cliff
:finland: Pikku = Small | :estonia: Pikk = Long
And finally:
:finland: Katso = to look | :estonia: Katsu = touch
That was an especially difficult one for my classmates to remember. Turned an innocent schooltext about a visit to the ophthalmologist into a horror story about doctors poking the patients in their eye. :D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Eslenna on January 07, 2016, 08:03:14 AM
tull means customs(the type that's on airports and borders) in Swedish and nonsense in Norweigan.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Maglor on February 05, 2021, 06:02:23 AM
"Kanava" means "Channel" in Suomi, but in Russian it means "Ditch". Well, at least one common word in our languages...
Also I wonder if there's more of such words in "karjalan kieli" (Karelian)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Annuil on February 05, 2021, 07:55:32 AM
Quote from: Maglor on February 05, 2021, 06:02:23 AM
"Kanava" means "Channel" in Suomi, but in Russian it means "Ditch". Well, at least one common word in our languages...
Also I wonder if there's more of such words in "karjalan kieli" (Karelian)
Haha, that’s interesting, I’ve never heard of this one.
There is also a Finnish word “majakka” (a light-house) that corresponds with Russian word ”маяк” ([majak]) and actually means “a light house”, but this one is not exactly a “false” friend, this one actually means what it sounds like  ;)

Also, Maglor, welcome to the forum! You can visit the Introduction Thread on General Discussion Board to say hi to everyone!  :reynir:
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Maglor on February 05, 2021, 08:08:51 AM
Ok)
There's also one interesting lingustic thing (not a false friend tho).
In all of Russian sources up untill XIX century all the ugorian people (there are lot of them in Russia) had been called "chood'" or "white-eyed chood'". Which is a root to our words "choodesnyi" (wanderfull), "choodnyi" (marvelous) and "choodnoy" (weird). Since those people were here (territory of modern Russia I mean) for allmost as long as slavs (or mb even longer) tere's also a few legends that give that name to some sort of magical people like fairy, or elves or dwarves.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Annuil on February 05, 2021, 08:26:37 PM
Huh, that’s a very interesting fact. I wonder if they called the ugorian people this way because their language sounded weird to them? And also they were foreign, which means they were weird/strange/unknown to the Russians, so that might also be the reason for the usage of that word.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on February 06, 2021, 04:19:09 AM
I recently learned two things about terms for furniture:
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Mirasol on February 06, 2021, 10:40:07 AM
Quote from: JoB on February 06, 2021, 04:19:09 AM
  • Random find while trying to work my way out of said rabbit hole: While English would allow to call the thing an ottoman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_(furniture)) instead, the German term Ottomane (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottomane) (top photo only, the second's just to illustrate the false English friend) requires enough length to lie down on it, and the presence of curved armrests, if not a (partial or full) backrest as well.

Huh, looks like the game Sims4 fell into that trap. My settings there are set on German, and the game refers to one item that may be an ottoman in English as an "Ottomane". It´s clearly not made to lie down on it.

I´d have some Finnish-German false friends to offer:

"ja" means "and" in Finnish but "yes" in German. Becomes infinitly funnier if you talk Finnish to a German who doesn´t understand it and thinks they recognized a familiar word.
"susi" means "wolf" in Finnish but is a female first name in German. I remember it was on one of the wolf-beast´s infopages and I nearly lost it when I read that.*
"oma" means "own" in Finnish but "grandma" (or rather "granny" or some kind of nickname) in German

(But actually, I´m often surprised that there are quite a few words that are almost or even exactly the same as in German, like "auto"="car", "tee"="tea" or "radio", which coincidentally even means the same thing in English)

*On a related note, but it´s a false friend from Turkish: The word for "mom" in Turkish, "Anne", is a female first name in German as well. In my kindergarten were quite a few kids whose first language was Turkish and who referred to their mothers that way. This led 3/4-yearold-me to believe that the mother of all the Turkish kids is named Anne. The kid who ended up explaining to me how wrong I was was quite ammused.[/list]
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Maglor on February 06, 2021, 11:00:37 AM
Quote from: Annuil on February 05, 2021, 08:26:37 PM
And also they were foreign, which means they were weird/strange/unknown to the Russians

Not as foreign as other foreigners. Told you' they've been here for allmost as long as us. And tho germanic peoples are geneticly closer to slavs, we shared a territory with ugorians more.
Germanic peoples are closer to ancient Rus' nobility, and "middle class", especially since Roerich
PS: Another false friend here.
There are two big figures in Russian history, who's names are written wrong in Russian and sound different that way, but, being written right, sound the same way:
Roerich of Frisland - the primogen of our royal family, and Yuri Roerich - XX-century artist.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Maglor on February 06, 2021, 11:01:50 AM
Quote from: Mirasol on February 06, 2021, 10:40:07 AM
"ja" means "and" in Finnish but "yes" in German.

Kek. In Russian it means "I". Or "I am")
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on February 07, 2021, 03:38:06 AM
Quote from: Maglor on February 06, 2021, 11:00:37 AM
PS: Another false friend here.
There are two big figures in Russian history, who's names are written wrong in Russian and sound different that way, but, being written right, sound the same way:
Roerich of Frisland - the primogen of our royal family, and Yuri Roerich - XX-century artist.
... I'm a bit confused there. Yuri (later: George) Roerich is labelled a tibetologist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_de_Roerich) on Wikipedia, with "painter" and "writer" (and a lot more) being occupations attributed to his father Nicholas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Roerich). Also, Rurik (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurik) (etymologically connected to the first name Roderick) reportedly was a Varangian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians) (so, a Viking hailing from Sweden) and is theorized to possibly be the same person as king Rorik of Dorestad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorik_of_Dorestad); only the latter would connect him to Frisia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisia) ...

... and again, not at all what a German today would feel reminded of (https://www.werner-broesel.de/darsteller/ww03meister.html) by that term ... ;D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Raaffiie on March 25, 2021, 04:25:28 PM
Now that I think about it, prima is a really interesting Dutch word, which originally comes from the Italian word, but doesn't carry the usual meaning of 'first'. Apparently it was originally used in trading to indicate that goods were of prima kwaliteit(prime quality), and from there it came to mean 'excellent' in a more general sense. Nowadays it's not only used to mean 'excellent', but also 'fine' as in 'that's fine, no problem'. It's a very common word in everyday conversation, and one that hardly seems to be thought of as a loan word.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Songbird on March 25, 2021, 08:46:29 PM
Quote from: Raaffiie on March 25, 2021, 04:25:28 PM
Now that I think about it, prima is a really interesting Dutch word, which originally comes from the Italian word, but doesn't carry the usual meaning of 'first'. Apparently it was originally used in trading to indicate that goods were of prima kwaliteit(prime quality), and from there it came to mean 'excellent' in a more general sense. Nowadays it's not only used to mean 'excellent', but also 'fine' as in 'that's fine, no problem'. It's a very common word in everyday conversation, and one that hardly seems to be thought of as a loan word.

It's still used to indicate excellence in Portuguese in a very specific expression: Obra prima - masterpiece

I don't recall any other usage for it though and we have different words using the prim- root meaning "first".


Two from Portuguese x English:

Assalto - Robbery; it almost implies armed
Espancar - To beat, as in battery. No other connotation. I fell for this one and accidentally used "spanked" in a TTRPG once... Awkward!
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on March 26, 2021, 03:26:40 PM
Found more or less by chance today: The French acolyte has rather little to do with its English counterpart; it leans more toward "co-conspirator" or "partner in crime".
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: moredhel on March 26, 2021, 04:39:06 PM
Quote from: Raaffiie on March 25, 2021, 04:25:28 PM
Now that I think about it, prima is a really interesting Dutch word, which originally comes from the Italian word, but doesn't carry the usual meaning of 'first'. Apparently it was originally used in trading to indicate that goods were of prima kwaliteit(prime quality), and from there it came to mean 'excellent' in a more general sense. Nowadays it's not only used to mean 'excellent', but also 'fine' as in 'that's fine, no problem'. It's a very common word in everyday conversation, and one that hardly seems to be thought of as a loan word.

In german prima is used exactly as in dutch. It is a little bit confusing, when learning italian.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Raaffiie on March 27, 2021, 09:12:35 AM
Quote from: moredhel on March 26, 2021, 04:39:06 PM
In german prima is used exactly as in dutch. It is a little bit confusing, when learning italian.

That's cool that we both use it! I thought German might have it as well but I wasn't sure. I didn't retain much of my high school German lessons, unfortunately, aside from passive reading/listening.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: blabo on March 28, 2021, 05:57:37 PM
Straks [strax] means "immediately" in :no: [:is:], but "soon" in :nl: [:se:].

Salire means "to climb, to go up" in :it:, whereas salir means "to go out, to step out" in :es: and "to sully, to make dirty" in :fr:.

Fermare is "to stop, to halt" in :it:, but fermer is "to close, to shut" in :fr:.

And one should always pay attention at the different nuances of :gb: travail / :fr: travail / :es: trabajo / :pt: trabalho ("job, work, labor, effort, toil", with different degrees of struggle/pain), vs. :it: travaglio, which either means "struggle" or "labor"... only in the childbirth sense, though. "Job, employment, work" etc. in :it: is lavoro.
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Tarnagh on March 28, 2021, 07:21:11 PM
Someone on the Internet posted the "Me Gusta" meme as a response to someone else's post on Facebook and I remembered when I first saw that meme.

"Gusta" in Spanish (like; as in "I like") sounds a lot like the word "gust" in English (noun: a brief, strong rush of wind; verb: referring to the wind blowing in gusts).

It's the "rush of wind" part that confused me when I first saw the "Me Gusta" meme because my mind translated it as "I farted."  :V

Considering the facial expression on the meme, it made sense to me at the time. :)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Jitter on March 29, 2021, 12:45:42 PM
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5X_dmYpjBolZmajsP1U3c1c6H3JDAm6pKxGjPB3-vCk=w274-h280-no)
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: JoB on March 29, 2021, 01:13:51 PM
Rrrrrrrrrrradio reloj (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzgjiPBCsss). :D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: catbirds on March 29, 2021, 02:06:51 PM
Quote from: JoB on March 29, 2021, 01:13:51 PM
Rrrrrrrrrrradio reloj (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzgjiPBCsss). :D

Oh, at one point it alternates between Spanish and French :( I thought for a second that I magically gained the ability to understand Spanish... maybe someday
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Konnash on June 28, 2022, 10:45:45 PM
Here in Brazil, when you're opening doors in shoppings you read the tagged word "puxe" (meaning pull) that when spoken sounds exactly like English "push" ("empurre" in Portuguese)
And never say "pay day" ("dia de pagamento") in Brazil - it sounds exact as "peidei" (En. "I farted") :D
Title: Re: False friends
Post by: Suominoita on August 02, 2022, 01:19:41 PM
Quote from: Cliodna on December 06, 2015, 08:11:05 AM

:finland: Talo = House | :estonia: Talu = Farm
:finland: Viineri = Pastry | :estonia: Viiner = A sausage
:finland: Linna = Castle | :estonia: Linn = City
:finland: Kaupunki = City | :estonia: Kaup = Product
:finland: Kalju = Bald | :estonia: Kalju = Cliff
:finland: Pikku = Small | :estonia: Pikk = Long
And finally:
:finland: Katso = to look | :estonia: Katsu = touch
That was an especially difficult one for my classmates to remember. Turned an innocent schooltext about a visit to the ophthalmologist into a horror story about doctors poking the patients in their eye. :D

Ah, but pikk and pitkä aren't that different. Also, I'd translate pikku as little rather than small. As in little brother/sister. for example. Small is pieni.
I add some more:
 :ee:piim (milk) and  :fi:piimä. (sour milk). You want maito.
:ee:öö (night) :fi:öööö... (Er...) Or öööö! (Cheering noise) Still, yö, with plural stem öi- is kind of close to öö anyway.
:ee:pulmad (wedding) :fi:pulmat (problems, puzzles)
:ee:vaim (spirit) :fi: vaimo (wife)
Just makes you wonder what happened at the wedding between a Finnish and an Estonian person.