Translating: words that don't mean what you'd guess. Examples?

[Bippy_the_Beardless]

From an Astrix comic.

Astrix and Oblex are fighting some British Pirates, and beating them up badly

Pirate “Mercy, Mercy”

Astrix to Oblex “Why do they keep thanking us (merci) for hitting them?”

[minor7flat5]

Portuguese…

experimentar: experience
experimentado: experienced
embaraçado: Most common usage is “tangled up” (as in string), but can be used as in English. This is a problem because Portuguese is so close to Spanish that the aforementioned “pregnant” meaning might seem true, but it isn’t.
molestar: can simply be “to bother/annoy” (in Spanish too)
pretender: to intend (fingir = pretend)
clamar: to shout (not “to claim”)

And a borrowed English word that bugs me…

outdoor (pronounced with Portuguese accent): billboard

[Excalibre]

@Barbarian

Peut-etre, mon ami, but anywere outside of the dictionary the only acceptable meaning is boredom, and not annoyance.
Either that, or my wife and in-laws, and other assorted French mother-tonguers are just repeatedly jerking my chain

Mon français n’est pas très bon, mais je sais que j’ai entendu this usage quite a few times, actually. “Ennuyer” can mean either thing, as far as I’ve heard. Perhaps you’re slightly confused because the English borrowing of the noun form, “ennui”, only applies to boredom.

[Hooleehootoo]

@ShibbOleth

I’ll also throw out that the French poisson is not related to the English poison, nor is the German Gift something you’d want to give, unless you really don’t like someone.

I did not know this one, but I do know that after means “rectum”. I got this from Cassell’s Colloquial German which has a whole section on false friends.

German (Gift ) = English (poison).

[John_Mace]

@Polycarp

No, as I understand it, both came from Old Norse – actually Old Danish, but the difference was at that point purely dialectal. But words beginning with a “sk-” were pronounced, and later came to be spelled, with as “sh-” sound in Danelaw-dialect Norse and from there by borrowing into Old English. The “sk-” forms that survived were borrowed later and did not experience this shift. (One of our resident linguists can speak more to this shift; I’m just aware it happened, not the details of when and why.)

Could be. Old Norse and Old English were pretty darn similar, so it’s not out of the question that a word could have come from BOTH languages. Two other words that survive in both forms are ship/skiff, with those showing the p → f transition as well. Or was it an f → p transition… I can never keep those things straight.

[Ignatz]

@ianzin

If your first language is English and you learn French, you soon come across the verb ‘rester’. Many beginners fall into the trap of thinking it means ‘to rest’. It doesn’t. ‘Rester’ means ‘to stay’.

Likewise, if you’re English and learning Italian, you encounter the adjective ‘caldo’. If I told you it had something to do with temperature, you’d guess ‘cold’, but it actually means ‘warm’.

Can anyone provide any other examples of these ‘traps’ or ‘false friends’… words which novices tend to guess mean one thing but which actually mean something different?

The French chaise longue does not mean Chase lounge but long chair.

Defense de deposer des ordures = Dumping prohibited.

Good place for longterm quandary: Why was John F. Kennedy’s* Ich bin ein Berliner* reported humorously by some as “I am a sausage”?

[mangeorge]

@Ignatz

The French chaise longue does not mean Chase lounge but long chair.

Defense de deposer des ordures = Dumping prohibited.

Good place for longterm quandary: Why was John F. Kennedy’s* Ich bin ein Berliner* reported humorously by some as “I am a sausage”?

There is, I think, actually a thread here about JFK’s beloved speech.

[Peter_Morris]

From what I’ve heard:

• Berliner is a type of donut. (Jam-filled, IIRC)

• Most Germans would *not *think he had claimed to be a donut. After all, if someone told you “I am Danish”, you wouldn’t think they had claimed to be a pastry, would you?

[mangeorge]

What gives with the ever popular “mano a mano”.
Hand by hand?
Brother by brother? (Hermano) Mano, in that sense is a familiar address and expresses affection. Certainly not someone you want to duke it out with.
Or am I a “girlie-man”?

[Colibri]

@Peter Morris

From what I’ve heard:

• Berliner is a type of donut. (Jam-filled, IIRC)

• Most Germans would *not *think he had claimed to be a donut. After all, if someone told you “I am Danish”, you wouldn’t think they had claimed to be a pastry, would you?

But what if they said “I am a Danish,” which is parallel to what JFK said? Without the article, it means the nationality, while with the article it means the pastry. (And I recognize there is a dispute about whether or not this is the case with regard to the phrase JFK used.)

@mangeorge

What gives with the ever popular “mano a mano”.
Hand by hand?

Hand to hand, as in hand-to-hand combat. It means you’re duking it out with someone.

[Asteroide]

@Excalibre

Mon français n’est pas très bon, mais je sais que j’ai entendu this usage quite a few times, actually. “Ennuyer” can mean either thing, as far as I’ve heard. Perhaps you’re slightly confused because the English borrowing of the noun form, “ennui”, only applies to boredom.

je m’ennui - I’m bored
tu m’ennuies - you’re boring me
ça m’ennui - that bothers/distresses me
c’est ennuyeux - that’s unfortunate

The usual colloquial expression for “it’s boring” is “c’est chiant”, “I’m bored” is “je m’emmerde” or “je me fais chier”.

Another good one for mix-ups is introduce/introduire. “Introduire” means “to insert” or “introduce into”. So, you don’t generally say “Laisse-moi m’introduire”.

[Ignatz]

@mangeorge

There is, I think, actually a thread here about JFK’s beloved speech.

Thanks, Man… I found the posting from February, including links to the speech and BBC coverage about the translator. Very interesting and informative. Sorry I misremembered “jelly donut” as “sausage”.

[astorian]

One of the words that used to nail us in high school French: “actuellement.” It doesn’t mean “actually” in the way that Americans use the word. To an American, “actually” means “really or truly.” In French, “actuellement” means “at present, or right now.”

[SanibelMan]

Wikipedia has a list of false cognates.

[John_Mace]

@mangeorge

What gives with the ever popular “mano a mano”.
Hand by hand?
Brother by brother? (Hermano) Mano, in that sense is a familiar address and expresses affection. Certainly not someone you want to duke it out with.
Or am I a “girlie-man”?

Mano a mano has branched out. You often hear people say mano y mano, and they often use it (either form) to mean “man to man”. Funny how things get twisted.

Of course, in Spanish it means “hand to hand” as in “hand to hand combat”. The implication is that we’ll go at it on equal footing-- one of us doesn’t get to use a knife, for instance.

[Polycarp]

@Ignatz

Thanks, Man… I found the posting from February, including links to the speech and BBC coverage about the translator. Very interesting and informative. Sorry I misremembered “jelly donut” as “sausage”.

That would be Ich bin ein Frankfurter or …ein Wiener. Not that there weren’t those, at the time, who didn’t think he was…

[Colibri]

@Polycarp

That would be Ich bin ein Frankfurter or …ein Wiener. Not that there weren’t those, at the time, who didn’t think he was…

You mean a hot dog?

[Ignatz]

@Polycarp

That would be Ich bin ein Frankfurter or …ein Wiener. Not that there weren’t those, at the time, who didn’t think he was…

Oh, I thought that would mean “I am from the city of Frankfurt” or “Vienna”. I actually voted for Tricky Dickie Nixon instead of JFK. Been kicking myself ever since. I was in Portland, Maine, when JFK was killed. I went to his gravesite less than a year later when I was stationed at Bainbridge NTC. I know, I’m off the OP.

Now jes 'nuther fellow Tarheel.

[mangeorge]

@John Mace

Mano a mano has branched out. You often hear people say mano y mano, and they often use it (either form) to mean “man to man”. Funny how things get twisted.

Of course, in Spanish it means “hand to hand” as in “hand to hand combat”. The implication is that we’ll go at it on equal footing-- one of us doesn’t get to use a knife, for instance.

The “man to man” is what I was getting at. Now it usually means one on one, with no battle connotation. Simply as equals and without pretense. Like a talk between father and son. Or brothers (hermanos) even.
My Mexican friend say’s it means pretty much the same thing in Mexican-American culture. Kinda like a handshake, which itself means “ain’t got no weapons”.

[gum]

I don’t know if this is a false cognate, but ‘acorn’ phonetically sounds exactly - in Dutch - as 'squirrel’

I’ve always wondered if there was once a Dutchman - seing this furry little animal in a tree - asked the Englishman: “What is that?” Upon which the Englishman - looking up, seeing no squirrel [who was in his hidy-hole eating acorns] but a tree full of acorns, said: “That’s an acorn, my good man”.

Hence the confusion on sounds.
acorn = eikel, squirrel = eekhoorn

NB: “eikel” is also a vulgair name of the top of the penis, often used as a cuss word.