Some words in one language, mean something else in another...

[hectorberlioz]

Point to illustrate: when in Mexico City (I was not born then), my older brother who was just a young lad, said something which by normal spanish standards means something quite innocent. But the Mexico City woman who was babysitting, spanked my brother for saying it...


Any stories or examples?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Puta means "Think" in Latin. It's a very naughty word for "whore" in Portuguese.

"Book" means poop in, I think, Tatar.

There are so many examples...

[Butterbeer]

Fanny ...

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Butterbeer

Fanny ...

Some people have that as a name!

[Nurvingiel]

The Spanish word "excusado" sounds a lot like it should mean, "excuse me," but what it really means is "toilet".

If you want to say you're full of food in French, you might directly translate "I'm full" into "J'ai plein." However, the verb "avoir plein" (to be full) is one that must be conjugated with the verb "être," to become "Je suis plein." What does "J'ai plein" mean? "I'm pregnant."

Similairly, to be "full" in Swedish means you're drunk. Hee.

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

If you want to say you're full of food in French, you might directly translate "I'm full" into "J'ai plein." However, the verb "avoir plein" (to be full) is one that must be conjugated with the verb "être," to become "Je suis plein." What does "J'ai plein" mean? "I'm pregnant."

Similairly, to be "full" in Swedish means you're drunk. Hee.

Idioms. Each of these phrases is an idiom, a phrase that has a peculiar meaning in a language that does not carry that meaning based merely upon its words, but upon context and use. For instance, in English, if you say, “I’m full,” you might mean you want nothing more to eat: you are satiated. On the other hand, if you say of a journalist, “He’s full of it!” you mean something quite different: that he’s full of … something else. Again, if you say of a child, “He’s full of himself,” you mean another thing altogether, one that might be even complimentary (of a child) in some instances (that he is precocious, perhaps: a double-edged word that might or might not be a compliment); but if you say of an adult, “He’s full of himself,” you typically mean something not complementary in any instance.

A German idiom (eine Redewendung): “Er hat einer Vogel in der Kopf,” literally “He has a bird in the head.” The English variant: “He has bats in the belfry.” Try this one: “He’s a few bricks shy of a full load” (there’s a direct German counter-part to this one, too), or “He’s not playing with a full deck [of cards].”

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You can always tell a German tourist in an English restaurant. The German verb meaning “to order” something, as in a restaurant, is zu bekommen, leading to this grand declaration: “I become steak and baked potato, please.” The English speaker’s goof in German, “Ich habe ein Steak und Kartoffel, bitte,” would leave the waiter rolling on the floor: where do you have it, coming out your ears? Just one steak, sir? (The really English foul-up is even funnier: “Ich will Steak und Kartoffel haben, bitte,” which more or less means, “I’m going to have [want to have, will have, am trying to get] steak and baked potato [growing out of my head, nose, what have you], please.”)

Zu bekommen is really and truly the same verb as the English to become, but 1,000 years of linguistic drift seperates the usage. Will means almost the same thing in English and German, and to have/zu haben are still almost identical in every respect – except that the important adjective here is “almost.”

I wonder what funny things Tolkien imagined Quenya and Sindarin speakers said to one another in the first years of the First Age?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

Some people have that as a name!

Like Fanny Crosby.