General > Language Board
False friends
Laufey:
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
Daéa Reina:
--- 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
--- End quote ---
Oh, these are really fun!
Just for the record: in Portuguese, "hálito" means "breath" as in "you have bad breath" (Você tem mau hálito).
Haiz:
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
ParanormalAndroid:
Spanish has plenty. I think I've got a list somewhere, actually.
(Bear with.)
Ana Nymus:
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
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