# "Fuck" is a seal in French: Funny language translations? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 22, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042 "2006-01-22T00:04:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/21 "2006-01-22T20:24:50Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > The Italian river _Po_ and the British English _po-faced_ (denoting a serious, disapproving or humourless expression) look just a bit amusing to a speaker of German as _Po_ (noun, m.) in German means “bottom/buttocks/arse/ass”. > > When I read about a po-faced British official I get an inappropriate mental picture. Mm, that reminds me of something that amused me a great deal when I was fourteen: the Spanish word _ano_ means “anus”. The word _año_, however, means “year”. And, of course, native Spanish speakers let everyone know this back in Spanish 1, so we could all giggle when someone forgot the tilde in “Tengo catorce años.” ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/22 "2006-01-22T23:10:47Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Mm, that reminds me of something that amused me a great deal when I was fourteen: the Spanish word _ano_ means “anus”. The word _año_, however, means “year”. … [Tell that to amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9871138148/)… ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/23 "2006-01-22T23:56:12Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > [Tell that to amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9871138148/)… _points and giggles_ ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/24 "2006-01-23T00:30:55Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > “Gift” means “poison” in German. And watch out for the mist as you stroll through a german cow pasture. mist=manure ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/25 "2006-01-23T00:51:45Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > [Tell that to amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9871138148/)… 😃 One Hundred Solitary Assholes. . . ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/26 "2006-01-23T01:55:25Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > The Italian river _Po_ and the British English _po-faced_ (denoting a serious, disapproving or humourless expression) look just a bit amusing to a speaker of German as _Po_ (noun, m.) in German means “bottom/buttocks/arse/ass”. > > When I read about a po-faced British official I get an inappropriate mental picture. When an alternative radio station played a (thankfully brief) bit of Kevin Federline’s song “Popozao,” they claimed that the title means “big butt” in another language but did not mention which one. Here are the lyrics: [http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/12/31/popozao/](http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/12/31/popozao/) Have fun. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/27 "2006-01-23T02:37:46Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > “Gift” means “poison” in German. and exactly why i have several rolls of wrapping paper printed with the word ‘gift’ all over it=) is especially fun to wrap bottles of wine in for my german friends 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/28 "2006-01-23T02:44:15Z")
The Armenian word for ‘kiss’ is _batchik_, pronounced “butt cheek.” So if an Armenian ever says “kiss me” I could not help hearing “kiss my butt cheek.” > [@pizzabrat](#): > > That me reminds me of something similar in the (Englsih-speaking) US, where they say “do” (“do”) to mean “fuck”. Meanwhile, in American English, people still use “do” to mean “do”. You might be interested to know the very same thing happened in different branches of the Turkic language family. Turkic has two roots for ‘do’: _et-_ and _qil_-. In any given language, one of these roots will be used to mean ‘do’ while the other falls out of use because it gets used as a synonym for having sex. Turks are very polite people and are pretty careful not to offend. Sometimes the two roots alternate over time: Let’s say _et-_ becomes shunned as a sexually-stigmatized ‘do’. So _qil_- is the only ‘do’ root remaining. Then it starts to be used for sex because people will anyway want to talk about sex. Until it can’t be used any more, so bring _et-_ back in… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/29 "2006-01-23T02:49:15Z")
> [@](#): > > The second person singular imperative form of the Latin verb facio (meaning to make or to do) is often written as fac and pronounced like you know what. This was the source of endless mirth at school in Latin classes. And if a baker asked you how many rolls you wanted him to make, and you wanted half a dozen, you’d tell him “Fac sex”. The latter word being pronounced just like in English. On a less naughty note, Latin has no word for “Yes” or “No”. To answer a yes-no question, you restate part of the question. So if you asked an ancient Roman fish if it swam, the answer would be “No.”. Which literally means “I swim”. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/30 "2006-01-23T04:48:39Z")
Everytime this kind of thread comes up I’m reminded of the time in high school when a boy in my class attempted to french-ify the word ‘insane’ because he couldn’t remember the translation, and wound up declaring that he was not completely pregnant 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Batman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@The\_Batman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Batman)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/31 "2006-01-23T09:20:49Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > My name is apparently a derogatory word for “Jew” in Amharic. I have something similar. My nickname in spanish among my family, Kike (keekay), is a derogatory for jews in american english. ---
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/32 "2006-01-23T09:30:56Z")
> [@](#): > > You’re thinking of einfahrt and ausfahrt (literally, “intravel” and “outtravel”), which is how freeway entrances and exits are labeled in Germany. I remember a newcomer in Frankfurt telling how she was wondering where the big city of Ausfahrt was, since there were so many exits to it. No…I meant to clarify that it was Swedish. I was there recently and saw all sorts of funny words. I forgot what “fart” is, but the entrance to gas stations were all marked with a sign “infarting.” ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/33 "2006-01-23T10:11:00Z")
Kant in Afrikaans means “side” but the a sounds a lot closer to “uh” than “ah”. Ander, which means “other”, has the same pronunciation for the A. If someone asks you where something is, you could say “Daar ander kant” (There on the other side), which to the uninitiated might sound like a suggestion that a woman is sitting on it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/34 "2006-01-23T10:39:38Z")
The English word _cushion_ sounds like a French word for pig (cochon), so if your French is a little sketchy and you try filling in the blanks with English words, you could easily be asking for a pig to put on your uncomfortable chair. ---
**Author:** ![grey\_ideas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@grey\_ideas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grey_ideas)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/35 "2006-01-23T10:40:59Z")
Danish has some good ones; [‘Fart’ in Danish is ‘Speed’ in English](http://sean.treadway.info/words?word=fart&search-da=to+English). When roadworks are being done on the motorways around here there are often these machines on the side of the road that display ‘din fart’ (‘your speed’) to try and keep you to the speed limit. I did hear that these get removed when English speaking dignitaries are visiting 😃 [‘Gift’ in Danish is another good one](http://sean.treadway.info/words?word=gift&search-da=to+English). It shares the German translation to ‘poison’ _but_ also means ‘married’…now there is an odd duality of terms. [‘Skat’ in Danish](http://sean.treadway.info/words?word=skat&search-da=to+English) is one that demonstrates the Danes attachement to taxes. It means both ‘tax’ and ‘darling’ when translated to English. I’m trying to think of some others, but need a coffee boost first. grey\_ideas ---
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/36 "2006-01-23T10:50:56Z")
> [@grey\_ideas](#): > > Danish has some good ones; > > [‘Fart’ in Danish is ‘Speed’ in English](http://sean.treadway.info/words?word=fart&search-da=to+English). When roadworks are being done on the motorways around here there are often these machines on the side of the road that display ‘din fart’ (‘your speed’) to try and keep you to the speed limit. I did hear that these get removed when English speaking dignitaries are visiting 😃 > > [‘Gift’ in Danish is another good one](http://sean.treadway.info/words?word=gift&search-da=to+English). It shares the German translation to ‘poison’ _but_ also means ‘married’…now there is an odd duality of terms. > > [‘Skat’ in Danish](http://sean.treadway.info/words?word=skat&search-da=to+English) is one that demonstrates the Danes attachement to taxes. It means both ‘tax’ and ‘darling’ when translated to English. > grey\_ideas I think that’s the Swedish meaning of “fart” I was looking for, “speed.” I’d presume a lot of the funny Swedish words I saw are close to the same in Danish, as the two langauges are pretty similar, right? When I was in Sweden, my friends could read and understand Danish fairly easily (they had some Danish TV stations), but I don’t know if that’s because the two langs are really close to one another or because my friends had studied Dansih (I saw a swed-dan dictionary in their apartment). ---
**Author:** ![grey\_ideas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@grey\_ideas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grey_ideas)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/37 "2006-01-23T11:08:25Z")
> [@gitfiddle](#): > > I think that’s the Swedish meaning of “fart” I was looking for, “speed.” > > I’d presume a lot of the funny Swedish words I saw are close to the same in Danish, as the two langauges are pretty similar, right? When I was in Sweden, my friends could read and understand Danish fairly easily (they had some Danish TV stations), but I don’t know if that’s because the two langs are really close to one another or because my friends had studied Dansih (I saw a swed-dan dictionary in their apartment). Sort of, Danish and Norwegian are the closest to each other and (as far as I understand) they don’t have any problems understanding each other. Swedish is a little different, there are Swedes and Danes that don’t understand each other. Although most of the time it will only take them a little bit of exposure to the other language to be able to understand. I had a Swedish friend who moved to Denmark and said for the first month or so she had a really hard time understanding the Danes, but after that she was fine. There are a lot of common words, but also a lot of differences. Oddly enough I can read Norwegian without too many problems but I can’t understand it spoken too well. The Danes and Norwegians find that odd, but I think the different accent on the same words is what throws me off. Again, this is from my understanding of it. Might be better to let the Nordic lot come in here and tell you who they do and don’t understand. But the Danes do tend to get the most stick from the other countries for their unintelligible language 😃 grey\_ideas ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/38 "2006-01-23T12:10:12Z")
My memory is a bit hazy, it is about 20 yrs since I was in Greece, BUT I seem to recall that Malacca (Malakka?) meant wanker. The straights of Malacca (off Malaysia) always make me giggle. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/39 "2006-01-23T12:13:26Z")
Of course English to English can be just as amusing to the immature mind. Fannypack is one of the funniest words/phrases ever. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042/40 "2006-01-23T13:21:50Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Kant in Afrikaans means “side” but the a sounds a lot closer to “uh” than “ah”. Ander, which means “other”, has the same pronunciation for the A. Another one in Afrikaans is the word “vak” meaning “subject” - particularly academic subject within a school context. In Afrikaans, a “v” is pronounced as an “f” and, as **TMINC** says, an “a” is pronounced as “uh”. Imagine the hilarity that ensues whenever an Afrikaans teacher tries to talk about a “subject” to a class of adolescent boys… Grim [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-is-a-seal-in-french-funny-language-translations/341042.md?page=3)