False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
- Thrice Xandvii
- runic
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- Joined: 25 Nov 2012 10:13
- Location: Carnassus
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
I was referring to Alice in Wonderland, but apparently my mind went back to Tim Burton's movie (and not the book or Disney movie)... in which the character was a female mouse who brandished a sword.
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
If anyone's familiar with The Catherine Tate Show from the BBC, there's "dried shiitake mushrooms". Mostly based on spelling when both written using the Latin Alphabet, it takes Japanese [ɕíìtàkè] and shifts it to English [ʃɪt eɪk], the couple in the sketch reading the <ake> as [eɪk] in line with the "long vowel, silent e" type rule of English orthography. So ummm...
shiitake vs. shit ache
shiitake vs. shit ache
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
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- mayan
- Posts: 2080
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Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Why not share some examples from within one language?
Mandarin's tonal contrast is something that foreigners often have a lot of difficulty with. While you can usually tell what's being said without the right tones from context, there are still some words you want to be careful not to mix up:
:zho: 买 mǎi "to buy", :zho: 卖 mài "to sell" (the diacritic indicates the tone)
:zho: 那 nà "that, those", :zho: 哪 nǎ "which"
:zho: 那里/那儿 nàli/nàr "there", :zho: 哪里/哪儿 nǎli/nǎr "where"
:zho: 妈 mā "mom", :zho: 马 mǎ "horse"
:zho: 汉语 hànyǔ "Chinese (language)", :zho: 韩语 hányǔ "Korean (language)"
:zho: 草 cǎo "grass", :zho: 肏 cào "to fuck"
Mandarin's tonal contrast is something that foreigners often have a lot of difficulty with. While you can usually tell what's being said without the right tones from context, there are still some words you want to be careful not to mix up:
:zho: 买 mǎi "to buy", :zho: 卖 mài "to sell" (the diacritic indicates the tone)
:zho: 那 nà "that, those", :zho: 哪 nǎ "which"
:zho: 那里/那儿 nàli/nàr "there", :zho: 哪里/哪儿 nǎli/nǎr "where"
:zho: 妈 mā "mom", :zho: 马 mǎ "horse"
:zho: 汉语 hànyǔ "Chinese (language)", :zho: 韩语 hányǔ "Korean (language)"
:zho: 草 cǎo "grass", :zho: 肏 cào "to fuck"
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
rar "nice" ~ rar "weird" (of course these are cognates with rare, so in Norway it was rare to be weird, as opposed to in Denmark where niceness was a rarity, apparently)
lort "shit" ~ lord (Jutlandic dialects pronounce lort [lɒːd̥] - very close to the English word)
That's all I can think of at the moment.
lort "shit" ~ lord (Jutlandic dialects pronounce lort [lɒːd̥] - very close to the English word)
That's all I can think of at the moment.
Native: | Fluent: | Less than fluent: , , | Beginner: , :fao:,
Creating: Jwar Nong, Mhmmz
Creating: Jwar Nong, Mhmmz
- alynnidalar
- greek
- Posts: 700
- Joined: 17 Aug 2014 03:22
- Location: Michigan, USA
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Also causes confusion when you first start listening to K-pop and hear 내가 "naega" all over the place...Thrice Xandvii wrote:Yes!Lao Kou wrote:Many?GrandPiano wrote:which many English speakers hear as "n***er"
My whole class thought our Chinese teacher was saying that until someone finally got the cojones to ask him what he was really saying!
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
This reminds me of the worker who came to my apartment and parsed the transcription of the Hebrew/Yiddish word "Niggun" (a tune; or more specifically a song without lyrics) as "a firearm designated to kill African-Americans". I am dead serious.
Also the Racist Rabbi I once knew who kept making jokes connecting the Hebrew word /nɛgaʕ/ (the /ʕ/ being not pronounced in our reading) meaning "plague" and the English "N*gga"
Also the Racist Rabbi I once knew who kept making jokes connecting the Hebrew word /nɛgaʕ/ (the /ʕ/ being not pronounced in our reading) meaning "plague" and the English "N*gga"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
-JRR Tolkien
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
In Danish it is common to say Du er hjertelig velkommen "You are very welcome". The problem being the word hjertelig, which can be directly translated as "heartly", only that is not a very common English word, and may be easily mistaken for the much more common "hardly". So a Dane might say to an Englishman You are hardly welcome, when they arrive.
Native: | Fluent: | Less than fluent: , , | Beginner: , :fao:,
Creating: Jwar Nong, Mhmmz
Creating: Jwar Nong, Mhmmz
- Thrice Xandvii
- runic
- Posts: 2698
- Joined: 25 Nov 2012 10:13
- Location: Carnassus
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
(Given the context, I'd think the word "heartily" would be a better fit.)
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
The Thai male greeting /sàwàtdi: kʰráp/ sounds like English "So what the crap?"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
-JRR Tolkien
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- mongolian
- Posts: 3931
- Joined: 14 Aug 2010 09:36
- Location: California über alles
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Here's one that really tripped me up:
blanc (white) / black (opposite of white)
blanc (white) / black (opposite of white)
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 89,000 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 89,000 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
- Thrice Xandvii
- runic
- Posts: 2698
- Joined: 25 Nov 2012 10:13
- Location: Carnassus
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Weird, you'd think your mind'd go to blank and it would serve as a mnemonic.
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Well, there is hearty[ADJ]; heartily [ADV]. Hearty means "full", "robust", "genuine", "wholehearted", with connotations of "large", "complete", "satisfying". Heartily can mean "fully", "robustly", "wholeheartedly", "very".CMunk wrote:In Danish it is common to say Du er hjertelig velkommen "You are very welcome". The problem being the word hjertelig, which can be directly translated as "heartly", only that is not a very common English word, and may be easily mistaken for the much more common "hardly". So a Dane might say to an Englishman You are hardly welcome, when they arrive.
Therefore, while I don't think this is normally said in ('Murican at least) English,
You are heartily welcome
sounds okay by me.
I think this may be more common:
We gave him a hearty welcome.
Let's give her a hearty welcome, folks!
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
That was a funny little culture-shock for me when I heard that for the first time inThrice Xandvii wrote: constipado stuffed up, congested; constipated unable to poop
(Weird, I just looked this one up and it appears as though Google Translate doesn't agree with me. I specifically recall this being taught to us in Spanish and our class having a lot of fun with this fact. Hmmmm.)
That, and when I heard congestionado used to describe traffic, and not sinuses or nostrils.
So, lemme add that one:
congestionado gridlocked (traffic) ≠ congested blocked up (sinuses, nostrils)
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Bit of a stretch, but gave us some chuckles when we misheard this for the first time in class -
どういたしまして dou itashimashite you're welcome ≠ don't touch my moustache
どういたしまして dou itashimashite you're welcome ≠ don't touch my moustache
Last edited by Lambuzhao on 16 Jan 2016 12:27, edited 1 time in total.
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
Oh yes, and, speaking of , Peruvians liked to chortle about this one now and again:
Sacsahuayman (Pre-Colombian fortress just outside Cusco) ≠ sexy woman
Sacsahuayman (Pre-Colombian fortress just outside Cusco) ≠ sexy woman
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
I just spotted this nice pair:
German Fuß "foot" ~ Tarifiyt Berber fus "hand"
German Fuß "foot" ~ Tarifiyt Berber fus "hand"
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
You can definitely use congested in English for traffic.Lambuzhao wrote: So, lemme add that one:
congestionado gridlocked (traffic) ≠ congested blocked up (sinuses, nostrils)
- Thrice Xandvii
- runic
- Posts: 2698
- Joined: 25 Nov 2012 10:13
- Location: Carnassus
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
I don't think anyone was contesting that. The point was that the Spanish word doesn't do double duty.
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- roman
- Posts: 1500
- Joined: 16 May 2015 18:48
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
I've been starting to learn Georgian recently because I want another language and I'm really interested in Georgian (not sure how long I'll stick with it but so far it's fun), and right on my first vocab list I found some false friends.
:kat: mama "father" and mama "mother"
:kat: deda "mother" and dada "father"
:kat: mama "father" and mama "mother"
:kat: deda "mother" and dada "father"
Last edited by HoskhMatriarch on 21 Jan 2016 02:46, edited 2 times in total.
No darkness can harm you if you are guided by your own inner light
- Dormouse559
- moderator
- Posts: 2947
- Joined: 10 Nov 2012 20:52
- Location: California
Re: False friends and other unfortunate coincidences
It's kat. You can find all the flag icons by clicking on the link below the emoticons to the left of the post editor.