I’m wondering what words/phrases are like that? e.g. “beer can” sounds like “bacon” in a Jamaican accent. And of course, “to die” sounds like “today” in an Australian accent. I think there’s one going around now about “khakis” and “car keys” and Boston accents, but I don’t get that one.
I found a short thread about this on another board:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.302306-Words-said-in-one-accent-that-sound-like-another-word-in-a-different-accent
I once heard an Irish comedian do a bit confusing lettuce/letters
I was very confused once when the lass who took my ticket money for a tour in Kilkenny told me to meet the guide at Half Tree.
(She meant 3:30.)
In Co.Clare (and I’m sure other parts of western Ireland) “bar” sounds a lot like “bear” and “car” like “care”. Confused the hell out of me. Bears? In Ireland? Eek! Very happy they turned out to be bars!
I heard a story once about a person from Australia who was visiting the US (Washington D.C., perhaps?), and was at a restaurant. The waitress brought coffee, but he said, “I’ll have my coffee later”, which the waitress heard as “I’ll have my coffee lighter”. So she went back and poured some cream into it and brought it back. Repeat several times until the waitress said, “If you want your coffee any lighter, you’ll have to provide your own cow.”
On a possibly related subject, check out the Wikipedia link for Mots d’Heures, which is a collection of poems which are supposed to be “archaic” French, but are in fact, English nursery rhymes using French words/pronunciations.
A security person at Gatwick airport and I once got into a confusing back and forth in which I thought he was asking if I had any “shop objects” in my bag and I kept saying, “Well, I do have this book I bought at the newsstand,” and he kept going, “No, SHOP objects.” (He meant sharp objects.)
“I…am Hugh.”
“You’re me?!”
“No! I am Hugh!”
How about an entire book that uses this concept, as BobArrgh mentions, and gives it away: Mots D’Heures: Gousses, Rames?
Say it aloud, and pretend you are reading French, even if you don’t understand French.
Phoque is french for the mammal seal.
While visiting Spain with a couple of friends many decades ago, the first stop we made we attempted to buy beer (cerveza) and got led to this little back corner hole in the wall with a drain on the floor (servicios). Confusion in the same language, but funny nonetheless.