# What amuses you about different languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692 "2009-05-17T00:37:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/1 "2009-05-17T00:37:56Z")
Today I was waiting for the bus and started thinking about my favorite thing about Bulgarian - its word order is not completely unlike the way Yoda speaks. It really tickles me to say stuff like “tired I am” and “weather the very nice is, isn’t it?” and “next the week to Chicago will I go.” Languages very are fun! (I have never seen _The Empire Strikes Back_ in Bulgarian, but I once asked my friend who LOVES Star Wars if Yoda uses strange word order, and she said yes. I like to think they probably just translate directly from the English - that would look pretty funny in Bulgarian.) Also, the word for “vacuum cleaner” is _prahusmukatchka_. PRAHUSMUKATCHKA. It’s fun to say! Tell me what amuses you about different languages. I’d _love_ to hear what ESL speakers think is amusing in English, too. ---
**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 17, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/2 "2009-05-17T00:42:03Z")
Every elevator in Denmark says _i fart._ It means “in motion,” i.e. in use, and has a little red light by it. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/3 "2009-05-17T01:19:19Z")
I have know a Polish guy who’s lived in the US for many years. One thing he misses is the case indications of declensions in Polish. In other words, since the endings usually make it clear which noun is the subject, which is the object, etc., you can vary the word order quite a bit for emphasis without the sentence becoming unclear or sounding too weird. I think I’ve previously mentioned these two from before I got a hold of a Polish-English dictionary: Some how I got the idea that \*nieruchomosci \*meant “pregnancy.” Then I started seeing signs all over Krakow that included that word. It means “real estate.” I saw signs all over town saying “buro stomatologiczne.” “How odd,” I thought, “that stomach ailments are so common here.” Then I saw such a sign that also bore a picture of a tooth. It made much more sense that there would be that many dentists. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/4 "2009-05-17T02:36:39Z")
> [@zagloba](#): > > I think I’ve previously mentioned these two from before I got a hold of a Polish-English dictionary: > > Some how I got the idea that \*nieruchomosci \*meant “pregnancy.” Then I started seeing signs all over Krakow that included that word. It means “real estate.” > > I saw signs all over town saying “buro stomatologiczne.” “How odd,” I thought, “that stomach ailments are so common here.” Then I saw such a sign that also bore a picture of a tooth. It made much more sense that there would be that many dentists. Ha! I used to be amazed by all of the signs I saw in Bulgaria that said НОТАРИУС, which reads pretty much as “notorious”. I thought they were all slutty clothing shops or dance clubs. (It would be very normal to name a slutty clothing shop or a dance club after an English word that most people wouldn’t understand…but why would there be so _many_ of them with the same name?) Then I discovered that it meant…notary public. D’oh. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/5 "2009-05-17T03:03:34Z")
When I was in France, I was endlessly amused by all the bakeries. Those wacky French, what with their Pain Shop on every corner. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/6 "2009-05-17T03:25:21Z")
Yep" is the imperative form of a naughty word in Russian. I’m told that in regions of the U.S. where “yep” is a common form of “yes,” Russians find this endlessly amusing. When I was in Bulgaria, the warning signs on the electrical poles, etc at the train station were marked “opacniye za jivot” which means “dangerous to life” in Bulgarian, but means “Dangerous to your stomach” in Russian. I was always amused thinking that Russians are extra tough – electrical shocks that would be fatal to a Bulgarian would only cause a Russian a mild stomach ache. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/7 "2009-05-17T04:14:46Z")
Le vagin is the French word for Vagina. The word is masculine. The word for girl in German is neuter. He means she in Hebrew. Gender is a strange concept for those like myself who are not used to it. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/8 "2009-05-17T04:23:59Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > He means she in Hebrew. First thing everyone learns in Hebrew class: who is he, he is she, and dog is fish. Also, me is who. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/9 "2009-05-17T07:09:57Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > The word for girl in German is neuter. In Irish it’s masculine. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/10 "2009-05-17T07:18:49Z")
Micaela (the best second-language teacher ever) taught us how to find the underlying common structures between Spanish and English. I consider myself native in three languages (Spanish, English and Catalan) and have had one or more years of class in Latin, French and German; I’ve also spent time working and talking with people whose mother tongue (and sometimes, only tongue) was Portuguese or Italian. I’ve had moments like looking at my _Catalan as first language_, German-SL classmates and being the one to point out common stuctures between German and Catalan (for me Catalan is the second or third language depending on how you count). My WoW guild has a TON of Swedes and some Dutch folk. I probably wouldn’t be able to understand a word if I heard them speak, but when they chat in their languages I can grasp a lot of the conversation unless it’s about food (not just wow-stuff, but also sports or politics) thanks to commonality with other languages. And then, there was that Chinese teacher… in theory he could speak English (he’d been in the US for more than 11 years and had become an American citizen). In theory. One day, coming out of his class, I asked one of the Chinese students “in Chinese, do you use one word to say ‘a lot’ and then use ‘not plus that word’ to say ‘a little’?” He thought and said “yes, why do you ask?” “Because HE does it…” (a “negative charge differential” was, in the teacher’s speak, “no little little no charge”). So I guess what I find funny is that so much about learning other languages is “the little differences” and yet now and then you run into “a huge difference.” ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/11 "2009-05-17T17:50:07Z")
In Hebrew, there is a word that means a covering, a pouch , or a case (like the case you carry your glasses in, or the little pocket pouch that engineering nerds but their pens in). But the same word , in medical terminology, means vagina. So…(you know what’s coming:…) a guy at my office ask me to hand him his vagina, the one over there on the table… ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/12 "2009-05-17T19:46:40Z")
The etymologies for some Russian words are very cute. The Russian word for “pillow” comes from “under the ear.” “Alarm clock” is “wake-me-up.” And refrigerator? “Cold-maker.” I love it. It’s like what would happen if a refrigerator tried to take over the world. “Beware, mortals, for I am _the Cold-Maker_!” ---
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/13 "2009-05-17T20:10:00Z")
I was away on holiday with my wonderful Lithuanian friend. She has quite a silly sense of humour, and decided to hide around a corner and jump out and surprise me. So one would expect she would shout ‘Surprise!’… I loved that she in fact shouted ‘Ah, you didn’t \*expect \*me!’ ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/14 "2009-05-17T20:50:50Z")
> [@Tenebras](#): > > When I was in France, I was endlessly amused by all the bakeries. Those wacky French, what with their Pain Shop on every corner. Mmm, I love pain with chocolate, in no small part because it makes me giggle _every_ time. I have a particular fondness for the - to my ears, anyway - primal assertiveness of the Spanish language’s “I have hunger!” I’m not hungry, I _have_ hunger, which for some reason conjures images of an angry, hungry Viking-type with a big axe, roaring at their prey. In my mind it needs to be an exclamation, not merely a statement. ¡Tengo hambre! ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/15 "2009-05-17T20:57:28Z")
I haven’t studied it in any kind of depth but I am superficially fascinated by the concept of [evidentiality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidentiality) in languages. I read a great story not long ago about a linguist, studying the Cochiti of the American Southwest, who was trying to find out the first person possessive form of “wings”. Nobody would tell him, because this would require the speaker to say “my wings” and the speaker couldn’t say “my wings” because he didn’t _have_ wings. The dilemma was finally solved when the Cochiti realised that it was ok for the linguist himself to say “my wings”… because his name was Robin. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/16 "2009-05-18T00:26:35Z")
Klein, in German, is little; kein is no, as an adjective (e.g., “yes, we have no bananas”). I love how a word with a diminutive meaning loses a letter to become a word describing the absence of something. This has to be the source of some German wordplay, right? ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/17 "2009-05-18T00:45:48Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > First thing everyone learns in Hebrew class: who is he, he is she, and dog is fish. Also, me is who. And if you have to call a girl, you say “boy”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/18 "2009-05-18T01:15:56Z")
> [@apollonia](#): > > The etymologies for some Russian words are very cute. The Russian word for “pillow” comes from “under the ear.” “Alarm clock” is “wake-me-up.” And refrigerator? “Cold-maker.” I love it. It’s like what would happen if a refrigerator tried to take over the world. “Beware, mortals, for I am _the Cold-Maker_!” This reminds me of certain Spanish words that combine verb and noun to describe the object, such as _paraguas_ (stops water), _saltamontes_ (jumps mountains), and _chupacabras_ (sucks goats). “Oh, I don’t mind that it’s raining, I have my stops water right here!” I also love the Spanish way of adding the suffix “ón/óna” to describe people or things who have a prominent feature. Examples I’ve heard are _narizón_ (guy with a big nose), _chillona_ (little girl who whines constantly), and _pollón_ (guy with a large, um, male body part). My favorite incidence was my roommate talking about a girl who always wore a giant pair of sunglasses (_gafas_): “I hate her! She’s a _gafona!_” ---
**Author:** ![Arglefraster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@Arglefraster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arglefraster)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/19 "2009-05-18T16:50:50Z")
My favorite word in any language is zapatos, which is Spanish for shoes. It’s so much fun to say! Zapatos! I used to work at a Subway, and a girl with a middle-eastern accent (sorry, I don’t know the accents well enough to tell you which country) got stuck when she wanted pickles on her sandwich. After a bit of pointing (That one? No. How about that one? No.) to figure out what she wanted she asked me what they were called. The word “pickles” gave her a giggle fit. “Pickles? Really? They are called pickles?” I don’t know if pickles means something else in her native language, or if she just thought the word sounded funny. ---
**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:** [May 18, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692/20 "2009-05-18T17:20:17Z")
Pickles also sounded mildly disturbing to me at first because the English word is a false friend for German _Pickel_ - pimple (as in undesirable skin feature) or pick (as in implement). What’s an amusing failure of my own language (German) is not to distinguish between llamas and lamas. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-amuses-you-about-different-languages/496692.md?page=2)