Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
Lost In Translation - Even in the same language, the same word can have very different meanings. What are five English words used in the United States that mean something completely different in other countries?
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That's a good one! Okay, let's see...
barf: means vomit in English, but in Welsh it's just a beard
frown: means a certain facial expression in English, in Welsh it's the colour brown, at least when it undergoes soft mutation (a brown beard seriously translates to barf frown, a brown whereas brown sugar will be siwgr brown instead)
bean: a type of vegetable, but it's a woman in Welsh
bra: a type of female undergarment, but it means good in Swedish
kiss: a show of affection, but in Sweden it stinks as there it means urine
fart: now that stinks in the US, but in Sweden it means speed
slut: a female person with questionable morals, in Sweden merely the end or sold out. So when a swedish costume store wanted to let their customers know that several costumes were already sold entirely, it looked like this:
(honorable mentions: slutspurt is a commonly used term for sale in Sweden, and slutstation a train's final destination. A speed control by the police is a fartkontrol)
gift: you would love to receive a present in the US, but in Germany you're actually getting poison, so be careful
die: the act of losing one's life may sound horrid, but the main reason you encounter this word so often in Germany is because it's the definite article for female nouns
fast: it can mean speedy, but in German it means almost
bald: someone having no hair, or soon in German
hell: it might be a place where we all end up in, but that's because it's one that's brightly illuminated in Germany, or a tender one in Estonia. What were you thinking?
part: if your piece of a whole suddenly quacks, then maybe because in Estonian it means duck
(honorable mention: seaside in Estonian roughly translates to pig's communication, though I think it's not 100% grammatically correct)
brat: it might be an annoying person, or just your brother in Russia. Not that there's always so much difference between the two...