# Foreign Words That Look Like English, But Don’t Mean The Same **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 27, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902 "2010-05-27T02:04:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![orchidcolors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@orchidcolors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orchidcolors)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/81 "2010-05-28T18:08:27Z")
> [@edinbourgeoise](#): > > The Hungarian for ‘cheese’ is _sajt_, pronounced ‘shite’. > > They don’t make great cheese. LOL. 😃 One of the forms of the Japanese verb suru (to do, or to make) is shite. (pronounced like shee-tay) I often have to remind myself that I’m not swearing, even if Roman letters make it look like I am. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/82 "2010-05-28T20:27:07Z")
In Czech, “no” means “yes.” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/83 "2010-05-28T21:12:21Z")
Urdu Hug: To shit Pull: A bridge lull: slang word for penis. Cheese: Thing Mama: Your uncle Sir: Head ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/84 "2010-05-28T21:34:22Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Going along with **Nava** ’s _Quince_ above, _once_ means not “a single time” but “eleven.” Although it’s pronounced “on-say”, rather than “wunce”, which makes it a false cognate only when written. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/85 "2010-05-28T21:37:10Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > In Czech, “no” means “yes.” It’s not _spoken_, but Bulgarians nod when they mean no. And shake their heads for yes. Possibly expressly to confuse hapless foreigners. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/86 "2010-05-28T22:14:59Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Yeah, you could open a Gifthaus, like they have all over eastern Pennsylvania. Since Gift is a word in German and English, but Haus is only a German word, the only possible meaning of that is Poison House. Still looks better on a billboard on the interstate than _Geschenkhaus_. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/87 "2010-05-28T22:26:15Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > Yeah, but they also aren’t keen on collecting slang usages or documenting change - like a lot of other language academies (the French Academy probably being the worst offender) they tend to be very reluctant to ‘allow’ new words into the Spanish language. Yes, this is true. The main reason they’re reluctant to accept new words is because, for many of them, _there is already an established word (or even more) in that language, with the exact same meaning._ And I think the main point in this thread was to point out words that are usually “false cognates” or “false friends”, NOT to point out neologisms. Finally, estor is a “false friend”, since, if you check the RAE online dictionary, it means something completely different to what you expect. > [@](#): > > It’s also the _Spanish_ academy - that is, it’s located in Spain - so if some of the words in this thread are Argentinian they probably won’t be in there. I was looking up some translations for words in _El Gaucho Martín Fierro_ which is by no means new or slang-y, it’s just Argentinian Spanish which to me (educated on Mexican and Spanish Spanish) is almost an entirely different language. Nope, completely wrong in this regard. It may have been like this, years ago, but the current dictionary put out by the RAE includes words in all the dialects, from all the regional Academies (which roughly correspond to each Spanish-speaking country). In fact, if you care to look at other words… for example, the word “onda”, which I used in other thread today… You can see it includes idiomatic expressions _from different Latin American countries._ ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/88 "2010-05-28T22:28:40Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Well, Spain’s spanish and the Riverplatense dialect we speak in Argentina and Uruguay are mutually intelligible, barely. 🙂 > > For example: > > Spanish: Coger = To take something (“Coge una manzana” = “take an apple” > Riverplatense Spanish: Coger = to fuck (“Querés coger” = “Wanna fuck?”) > > Hilarity (And penis!) usually ensue. Actually, while “coger” as “to fuck” is not used commonly in my dialect (Puertorican), I understand it, and I quickly understood it when my Mexican friends used that word. It is not a “single country” slang term. 😉 And, speaking of slang-y, if you DO look at the RAE entry for this word, it DOES include “to fuck” as one of the definitions, and cites as Latin American colloquialism. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/89 "2010-05-28T22:36:55Z")
To clarify: Real Academia Española is the Spanish-based language academy. But, it is part of an association of Spanish academies, each coming from different countries. And the dictionary that is usually called “Diccionario de la Real Academia Española” is supposed to be an all-inclusive dictionary done in combination with all the academies. So it WILL (and does) have colloquialisms. Perhaps not all, but most of them. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/90 "2010-05-28T22:37:49Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Yeah, you could open a Gifthaus, like they have all over eastern Pennsylvania. Since Gift is a word in German and English, but Haus is only a German word, the only possible meaning of that is Poison House. > > RS Amazingly, it seems that German “Gift” actually _is_ a cognate of English “gift” – via the sense of “something given.” At any rate, I discovered a useful one last summer. When travelling where I don’t speak the language, I try to at least learn “excuse me” and so forth. Conveniently, the Danish word for “excuse me,” _undskyld_ sounds something like “unskilled,” so it was easy to remember what to say when I do something _unskilled._ ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/91 "2010-05-28T22:46:09Z")
(withdrawn) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/92 "2010-05-28T23:30:41Z")
> [@edinbourgeoise](#): > > The Hungarian for ‘cheese’ is _sajt_, pronounced ‘shite’. > > They don’t make great cheese. Ah, I forgot about that one. And, yes, Hungarian cheese isn’t particularly exceptional. It isn’t _bad_, per se, just bland and generic. Although some of the smoked cheeses were decent enough. Another one you hear a lot is “puszi,” which sounds a lot like “pussy” (although the “u” sound is more of an “oo.”) It means “kiss.” And there’s “puszikát,” which sounds like it should be “pussycat,” but means “little kiss” in the objective case. There was a terrible rap song in the late 90s called “Kérek egy puszikát,” which, when I first arrived in the country and only knew the basic phrases, I thought translated into “I’d like a pussycat” (lit, “a pussycat, please.”) It baffled me why a Hungarian group would be rapping about their desire for a feline, but it was explained later to me that it was a little kiss they were requesting. There’s also fák, which sounds like an Eastern European accented version of “fuck.” (Think “fock.”) It means “trees.” ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/93 "2010-05-28T23:59:53Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > Amazingly, it seems that German “Gift” actually _is_ a cognate of English “gift” – via the sense of “something given.” I am now wondering whether English ‘poison’ is a cognate of French _poisson_ ‘fish’. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/94 "2010-05-29T00:45:19Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Although it’s pronounced “on-say”, rather than “wunce”, which makes it a false cognate only when written. Yeah, but 15 is “keen-say” not “kwinss” ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/95 "2010-05-29T00:51:36Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Czech: ‘Ano,’ pronounced with the stress on the ‘no,’ means ‘yes.’ > [@pravnik](#): > > In Czech, “no” means “yes.” Nitpick: the full word _is_ ano, in which the stress is on the ‘a-’, not on the ‘-no’, but often the ‘a-’ is left out so that all that remains is ‘no’, which does indeed mean yes. Also, Czech ‘fakt’, pronounced ‘fucked’, means ‘really?’ and can often be exclaimed loudly in the middle of the street to the utter befuddlement of Anglophone tourists. ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Keen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/96 "2010-05-29T00:57:41Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > That’s all I can think of for now. Sorry it’s only boring numbers. How about 乱暴/_ranbou_, sounds kind of like “Rambo” and means…violence. Wait a minute… ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/97 "2010-05-29T04:21:53Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > Nitpick: the full word _is_ ano, in which the stress is on the ‘a-’, not on the ‘-no’, but often the ‘a-’ is left out so that all that remains is ‘no’, which does indeed mean yes. True - I [usually include “ano” in the explanation](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9323197&postcount=24), but sometimes a simple “no means yes” seems funnier somehow. 🙂 > [@Švejk](#): > > Also, Czech ‘fakt’, pronounced ‘fucked’, means ‘really?’ and can often be exclaimed loudly in the middle of the street to the utter befuddlement of Anglophone tourists. Heh…“fakt jo” (fucked yo) is also probably close enough to “fuck you” to have started fights at some point. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/98 "2010-05-29T05:57:34Z")
> [@Commander\_Keen](#): > > How about 乱暴/_ranbou_, sounds kind of like “Rambo” and means…violence. > > Wait a minute… Eeeeh, nice try, but I’ve never heard Rambo rhyme with mambo, like the Japanese word ‘ranbou’ does. It’s a neat coincidence though. ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Keen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/99 "2010-05-29T06:48:52Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Eeeeh, nice try, but I’ve never heard Rambo rhyme with mambo, like the Japanese word ‘ranbou’ does. It’s a neat coincidence though. [digression] I thought I was clever when I noticed that, but I googled it and it seems a lot of people already discovered the same thing (including some people who think the character was actually named after the Japanese word, but I’ve never heard that before). The googling led to [this page](http://blog.livedoor.jp/fairypot/archives/51388266.html) (in Japanese) which has a list of supposed sound-alikes, most of which are pretty funny and even more of a stretch than the Rambo/ranbou one (moshi moshi = washing machine?). [/digression] ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Keen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/100 "2010-05-29T07:07:39Z")
Eh, even though they’re not mine, might as well some to the list! I couldn’t think of any other Japanese ones either. Credit goes to the above-linked blog for taking up the task. _saikou_ (best) = psycho _binbou_ (poverty) = bimbo _kichinto_ (precisely/accurately) = “kitchen toe”, whatever that’s supposed to be _yamato_ (old name for Japan) = tomato _kokuban_ (blackboard) = “cock up bum” (interestingly, the definition they give for this English phase is like “listen up, you bum!”) …let’s skip to one that actually sort of has the same meaning! _okoru_ (happen/occur) = occur And my favorite, _itadakimasu_ (what you say before you eat) = “eat a duck I must” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902.md?page=6)