# Things you know that it never occurred to you others wouldn't know... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 5, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696 "2015-11-05T11:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/201 "2015-11-11T17:23:10Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > False almost-cognates are a never ending source of both consternation and fun the world over. > > Never having seen pineapple flambé on offer in a native English-speaking area I almost think this dish was created as a way to play a trick on the English-speaking tourists. > > Hee, hee, such fun; Stoopid Greeengos!! 😃 On my first Caribbean trip I tried using my Spanish as much as possible. I asked a cute bartender how I would say vodka in Spanish, “como se dice “vodka” en espanol?” She leaned across the bar, licked her lips, made prolonged eye contact, and said, very slowly, “v o d k a.” Later, in Barbados, I ate at a lunch cart. The woman who made my meal cooked with her baby in her arms! I told her, in Spanish, that the food was delicious and her baby was cute. She giggled and explained that she knew some English, and that I had told her I would like to eat her delicious baby. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/202 "2015-11-11T17:24:29Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Bananas. Ah. They assumed that an otherwise-French menu had one English word, with a missing letter. Makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/203 "2015-11-11T17:43:02Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Ah. They assumed that an otherwise-French menu had one English word, with a missing letter. Makes sense. Well, it’s a Caribbean restaurant where the menu, while mostly in French, at times attempts to be user-friendly for Americans. Next to Poisson they might have inked in “fich” for example. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/204 "2015-11-11T17:48:48Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Ah. They assumed that an otherwise-French menu had one English word, with a missing letter. Makes sense. Or rather they had assumed, mistakenly in this case, that the French word for “bananas” is quite similar to the English word for “bananas.” As you may have noticed, many European languages share many similar words. By no means all, but still a bunch. When the French word for “pineapple” turns out to be quite similar to the English word for “banana” silliness ensues. Had “ananas” actually been French for “eel brains” it would have been even more entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/205 "2015-11-11T18:13:28Z")
> [@lslguy](#): > > by no means all, but still a bunch. I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/206 "2015-11-11T18:36:33Z")
I took up the banjo a few years ago. Having never played a note of anything on any instrument in my life (perhaps the triangle in 2nd grade). It was a whim, a what the hell, give it a try. It is fun. A very good friend said “Hey, you’re going to be the next Pete Seeger” I didn’t have the first clue who she was talking about. On the subject of the OP. I live in snow country. Sure there is some confusion about different types of four wheel drives, AWD and all. It’s getting blurred. There are those that think that a more powerful engine, say a V8 instead of a V6 is much better when roads are slick and snow is deep. That the spinning wheels of a V8 will somehow provide better traction than the spinning wheels of a V6. Came across two vehicles 4 years ago (walking my dogs). A Nissan X-tera had drifted a bit into the ditch and was stuck. His friend in (his fathers borrowed) Ford Expedition was ramming it from behind. Again and again. Just pushing it further into the ditch. They felt that this abuse would somehow get the x-tera unstuck. :smack: I walked home, got my car and pulled the x-tara out. Oh… and on a one lane icy road with no visibility around corners, don’t drive your vehicle faster than what you can stop and see. Came across those goof balls last winter. GAAAAHHH. I was going uphill and stopped. Threw my car in reverse and backed down out of there way while they where sliding towards me. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/207 "2015-11-11T18:47:16Z")
So have you become the next Earl Scruggs? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/208 "2015-11-11T19:33:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > So have you become the next Earl Scruggs? No, he’s still a bit flat. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/209 "2015-11-11T20:44:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Or rather they had assumed, mistakenly in this case, that the French word for “bananas” is quite similar to the English word for “bananas.” Well, it’s actually a correct assumption, they just screwed up which letter changed. It’s ‘bananes’. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/210 "2015-11-11T22:13:56Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > False almost-cognates are a never ending source of both consternation and fun the world over. They make one so embarazada. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/211 "2015-11-12T02:20:25Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > This, a thousand times this^ > And this^. If I were talking to the investigating detective I would say “My house was burgled”, because it means something different than “robbed”. In casual conversation I would say “My house was robbed” because “burgled” sounds pretentious. I think the word you are looking for is burglarized. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/212 "2015-11-12T02:24:34Z")
> [@ThisSpaceForRent](#): > > I think the word you are looking for is burglarized. “Burgle” and “burglarize” are synonyms. The latter is a bit more common, but the former is an acceptable word. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/213 "2015-11-12T03:01:40Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > They make one so embarazada. After her divorce one of my aunts began dating a Belgian expat here in the US. She slowly got better at her rusty college French. They decided to get married after a couple years dating & so off to Belgium they go to meet all his family before they commit to the wedding. This is a big, rural, conservative extended Belgian family who weren’t too sure about their son / nephew / cousin / grandson / etc. going off to the USA for good. Especially to marry a divorcee w young kids. This was back in the early 1970s when divorce was rather scandalous. So there they all are; a huge extended family around the huge farmhouse table having the huge farmhouse dinner. Aunt is keeping up, barely, with bits of the convo. Somebody asks her if she wants more food. She says the French equivalent of “No thanks; I’m full.” The boisterous room falls to a hushed silence. Horrified looks all around. Sidelong glances between the elders. Aunt’s incorrect choice of idiom had amounted to a cruder variation of “No thanks; I’m knocked up.” Her fiancé resolved the crisis and they all had a good laugh. But a couple of the elder spinster types never quite believed it was an innocent rookie mistake until a year had gone by with no kidlet appearing. Today they’re still married and going strong in their 80s, so all’s well that ends well I guess. \*Embarazada \*indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/214 "2015-11-12T14:18:01Z")
Thanks, **Jeff Lictman**. ‘burgled’ is exactly the word I meant to type. Once, while traveling in Costa Rica, I was with my friend - a fluent Spanish speaking guide - in a local market. My Spanish is good enough to get by, but I was relying on her in the fast paced market. One vendor was selling hand made wool scarves that my friend really liked. She meant to say to the vendor “I really need one of these. winter is coming!”. The vendor got wide eyed and slowly backed away. What she actually said was “I really need one of these. Hell is coming!” inviernes = winter, infierno = hell ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/215 "2015-11-12T14:28:36Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > ETA: Ref \*\*Philster \*\*… > > Neither are the times consistent between the north and south end of a given longitude in a large country. The difference may not be huge, but it’s plenty real and in some cases is enough to make a real difference. > > And as to east/west, it’s a bit worse than that. If all time zones were the same size they’d all be an hour wide. For historical reasons the US Eastern time zone is about 50% wider than it ought to be. So all the DST-related whining is extra huge in that time zone. Which happens to contain about 40% of the US population. Which is why the whining here on SDMB can be deafening. Yep… I wasn’t about to get into every nuance, but as a defender/lover of Saving Time adjustments, the folks at the western end of Eastern zone sure make a lot of racket that scares me, and the fact that it’s larger than it should be just makes it worse. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/216 "2015-11-12T15:10:48Z")
> [@ThisSpaceForRent](#): > > I think the word you are looking for is burglarized. > [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > “Burgle” and “burglarize” are synonyms. The latter is a bit more common, but the former is an acceptable word. Intending to inform, not gratuitously to US-bash; but in Britain, “burgle” is the form always used. “Burglarize” is considered an American abomination ! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/217 "2015-11-12T15:50:58Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > Yep… I wasn’t about to get into every nuance, but as a defender/lover of Saving Time adjustments, the folks at the western end of Eastern zone sure make a lot of racket that scares me, and the fact that it’s larger than it should be just makes it worse. Agreed. We ought to trim the eastern TZ back to where the Sun wants it to be. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/218 "2015-11-12T16:49:25Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Thanks, **Jeff Lictman**. ‘burgled’ is exactly the word I meant to type. > > Once, while traveling in Costa Rica, I was with my friend - a fluent Spanish speaking guide - in a local market. My Spanish is good enough to get by, but I was relying on her in the fast paced market. One vendor was selling hand made wool scarves that my friend really liked. She meant to say to the vendor “I really need one of these. winter is coming!”. The vendor got wide eyed and slowly backed away. What she actually said was “I really need one of these. Hell is coming!” > > inviernes = winter, infierno = hell A wool scarf for when hell freezes over. ---
**Author:** ![Whatever4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@Whatever4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whatever4)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/219 "2015-11-13T04:42:23Z")
I haven’t read all the posts yet, so sorry if this is a repeat. People who don’t know that a pony is not a small horse. People who can’t parallel park or drive a stick. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/220 "2015-11-13T07:39:16Z")
> [@Whatever4](#): > > People who don’t know that a pony is not a small horse. A pony _is_ a small horse. Did you mean people who don’t know that a pony is not a young horse? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=12)