I thought the stress was on the ‘n,’ but it could well be that I was just hearing people dropping the ‘a’ altogether.
My accent’s British RP, in which Rambo and mambo definitely do rhyme. I’m sure they would in quite a lot of accents.
The verb pule in Norwegian is a very rude word for sex. 
Interestingly it means “to fiddle with something” in Swedish. You can see where that might go wrong in pan-Scandinavian conversations.
I had to read this post twice to notice you were in the train station… I was rather wondering what she might have been selling the tickets FOR if they had been open…:eek:
If we want to go there I can think of a few. kirei(na) in its na-adjective form sounds an awful lot like the word “clean.” I know there are others, but I’d have to look through my past vocabulary to remember them.
Some other similar sounding but different ones-
hiro (hero) means “fathom” (or “spacious” if you’re thinking of an adjective in non-dictionary-form). There’s also hirou which could mean, announcement or fatigue, or be a verb meaning “to gather.” (Well, I guess that last one makes sense if you consider your typical RPG schmuck hero).
I suppose if you want to push it we have ~jin (sounds like gene) which means something along the lines of “person of” (i.e. “citizen of” or “in the profession of”) rather than referring to your biological information.
Oh, just thought of my favorite one from class -
chokin (suru) It does not have anything to do with strangling or swallowing your food badly… it means to save money.
What about all the Japanese words stolen from English that have different meanings? Like “high tension,” which means exciting or really fun.
In Russian, как also means how.
Russian…Pronounced…Means
Пуп…Poop…Belly button
Лук…Look…Onion or bow
Ток…Talk…Electric current
Дай…Die…Give
Кот…Caught…Cat (masculine)
Бой…Boy…Battle
Труп…Troop…Corpse
Гад …God…Can’t think of a good translation, but it’s an insult (masculine)
Лак…Luck…Polish (like nail polish)
That’s a little different, called wasei-eigo: Wasei-eigo - Wikipedia
These are the same in Bulgarian. ETA: except that in Bulgarian, “TOK” sounds like “toke”, not “talk”. I guess that’s kind of funny, too.
Dai/die reminds me that the same word means “enough” in Hebrew, and is often used to tell people to shut up (like “bastante” in Spanish). It’s strangely fun to say “die!” when you want someone to shut their mouth.
German: Mobbing has come to mean a form of group psychological bullying aimed at an individual victim, as in a school or workplace. As I’ve seen it used in English, it’s usually in the sense of a crowd converging on a celebrity or other popular person, out of adulation.
Do false friends caused by Denglish* count, although they are neologisms?
Handy = cell/mobile phone
Body bag = bags in different sizes worn diagonally across one shoulder (as opposed to a shoulder bag, worn straight over one shoulder, or a backpack, worn on the back)
Handy-wood = Ad I recently saw, about a new mobile phone/ tarif that allows you to watch Hollywood movies on your handy (mobile).
- Denglish = English words mixed into German (Deutsch), because English is cool and modern and in and hip for advertising and young modern people
I will accept KarlGrenze’s correction that the RAE exists in several different countries but I continue to maintain that I was not able to find a lot of words that were Argentinian.
Also, has anyone mentioned “12 months” in Estonian? (Slightly NSFW)
Interestingly enough, in Italian “dai” (pronounced “die”) is the imperative form of the verb for “to give”, so you can hear people saying “die” in an angry fashion (although you are probably more likely to hear it in a wheedling or playful fashion).
When someone first posted about this on the SDMB, I started to think: “Januaar, Vebruaar, Marts… I don’t get it.” Once I watched the clip I realized that the poster meant the phrase “twelve months” not how to say the twelve months.
Well, in the accent where the movie was made, it doesn’t, so nyah! 
In Dutch I can only think of “Joke”, which is a somewhat old-fashioned but perfectly normal name, but you wouldn’t want to be called that in an English speaking country.
A boring but ever so common Italian one is that the “libreria” is the bookshop. If you want to borrow books you need a “biblioteca” instead. Similar thing happens in French, I believe. Perhaps in Spanish too?
Had a somewhat Pythonesque debate at an Italian immigration office. I needed a social security number which you need to present often in Italy. My friends had a little plastic card, like a credit card, with the number and their name one it but I had only received a paper print-out. I didn’t know that the rules had changed and that the printout now sufficed.
Me: I have this (the paper print-out) but I need the carta.
Bored Civil Servant: You have the carta.
Me: I need the carta.
BCS: But you have it.
Me: But my friends have the carta.
BCS: So have you.
Ad infinitum.
You see, “carta” in Italian means paper, not “card”, so I kept asking for the thing that was right in front of me. I should have asked for a “tessera”. :smack:
It’s also an informal way of saying “yes” in Italian, akin to “yeah”. Or is that a regional thing?
The word pule means to f*ck in Norwegian, but it beats me how anyone could make the connection between that word and puller as the pronunciations are totally different. On the other hand pula in Swedish just means being busy doing something.
I have no idea whatsoever what word you could be thinking of. No little bells are ringing.
Then of course we have the case of the car that Honda tried to sell by the name Fitta. Not a good idea in Sweden and Norway as it means pussy (and I’m not thinking of cats).
I love it! Especially because I have kinda a thing for Estonian women (long story).
I corrected myself in a subsequent post. Slutspurt.
I’ll make note of this. If I ever hear a Russian referring to someone as a god, I’ll chuckle to myself.