Beware of False Friends

Ed   Monday, January 24, 2005, 02:17 GMT
Hahahahaha that was funny!
Garota de Ipanema   Monday, January 24, 2005, 03:20 GMT
[bu'seta] is informal and regional pronunciation of the word BOCETA (meaning ''pussy'') also known as ''xoxota'' or ''perereca'' (perereca = little frog :) )

Some people pronounce it [bo'seta], other people prefer [bu'seta]
(just like BONITO...some people say [bo'nitu], some people say [bu'nitu])

In Portugal, they call PANDORA'S BOX: Boceta de Pandora, since in Portugal the word BOCETA does not have that ''slang'' meaning, in Portugal it means A SMALL BOX (boceta = boxie :) )

Bus is said ÔNIBUS in Brazilian Portuguese, but their are colloquialisms as well: BUZU [bu'zu] in Salvador, and BUZÃO [bu'zãun] in São Paulo.

-------------------------

some false friends:


TORTA
1. a pie (in Brazilian Portuguese)
2. a cake (in Spanish)

CONTESTAR
1. to dispute (in Portuguese)
2. to respond (in Spanish)

RATO
1. a rat (in Brazilian Portuguese)
2. a moment (in Spanish)

caçar
1. to hunt (in Portuguese) is pronounced as
casar
2. to marry (in Spanish)
Fredrik from Norway   Monday, January 24, 2005, 03:59 GMT
Danish newspaer says: Kuk i metroen = Problem in the subway
Norwegians read and think: Penis (kuk) in the subway!

Norwegians say, in German bar: Öl (=beer in Norwegian), bitte!
Germans understand: Oil, please!
Fredrik from Norway   Monday, January 24, 2005, 04:01 GMT
Danish newspaper says: Kuk i metroen = Problems in the subway
Norwegians read and think: Penis (kuk) in the subway!

Norwegians say, in German bar: Öl (=beer in Norwegian), bitte!
Germans understand: Oil, please!
Tiffany   Monday, January 24, 2005, 18:34 GMT
English / Italian

I am excited - you are very happy and anxious about something
Sono eccitata - you are horny (stimulated)

Can't think of much else that could be misconstrued English to Italian though there are a ton Spanish to Italian (such as "burro" that someone mentioned before. burro = donkey in spanish, butter in italian). Don't ever just say one pea in Italian though. Peas = pizelli, but un pizello means "penis".
Xatufan   Monday, January 24, 2005, 19:52 GMT
'Excited' also means horny in Spanish.

Other English-Spanish false friends:

En.: actual (real, correct, true)
Sp.: actual (current, present)

En.: disgrace (dishonor)
Sp: desgracia (accident, bad luck)

En.: embarassed (ashamed)
Sp.: embarazada (pregnant)

En.: fabric (cloth)
Sp.: fábrica (factory)

En.: large (big)
Sp: largo (long)

En: library (the place where you RENT books)
Sp: librería (bookshop, the place where you BUY books)

En.: sensible (prudent)
Sp.: sensible (sensitive)
Tiffany   Monday, January 24, 2005, 21:22 GMT
A lot of those exist between Italian - English too (except for disgrace and pregnant).

There is molestar in Spanish as well, meaning to bother. In English, well it means to touch children in inappropriate places. :) And it's a crime.
Ed   Monday, January 24, 2005, 21:40 GMT
Bulgarian/Russian
gora - wood/gora - mountain
Ed   Monday, January 24, 2005, 21:43 GMT
Bulgarian/Russian
gora - forest/gora - mountain
Xatufan   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 16:12 GMT
From the webpage of BBC:

Meet the parents
Whilst studying abroad in Valencia, I shared a flat with two Spanish boys. One day, José Luis's parents came to visit, ostensibly for lunch, but also to meet me. So, as we sat down to a lovely meal of roast chicken, salad and crusty bread, I was asked what I would like to eat. Nervously, I assured his mum that I loved chicken - me gusta la polla. Unfortunately, what I actually professed a fondness for was rather more rude than that. Let's just say that in Spanish the word polla is used as slang for a certain part of a man's anatomy, and leave it at that!!!! What I should have said was el pollo. Needless to say, his mother was fairly shocked, but fortunately for me this was quickly followed by gales of laughter, so I was off the hook!

The German words for temperature are kalt = cold, warm = warm, heiß = hot. But while in Germany, I discovered you have to be very careful how you say you're feeling cold etc. You should say Mir ist kalt - I am cold. If you say Ich bin kalt it means 'I am frigid'. If you say Ich bin warm it means 'I am homosexual'. And if you say Ich bin heiß it means 'I am horny'!

Very safe wood
I live in Menorca and every spring, when the British owners come out to do some work on their properties here, you can expect to hear someone in the local DIY shop ask for un preservativo para madera, which causes both laughter and some embarrassment. They think they are requesting wood preservative, but they are actually asking for a condom for wood!
You may also find it helpful to explain that in Spanish polla is not a chicken - this too has caused more than its share of hilarity in the local market when one of the British visitors says Quiero una polla grande, por favor - and is usually met with the response ¡Yo también!

Post-nuptial bliss
I am currently studying at a German university as an Erasmus exchange student. Recently, an American girl on my language course was asked to read a text which included the line Nach der Hochzeit, war das Ehepaar sehr froh, which means 'After the wedding, the married couple were very happy'. But she actually pronounced Ehepaar as Eierpaar (literally a pair of eggs, but a pseudonym for something entirely different!). This changed the meaning to 'After the wedding, the pair of testicles were very happy'. How we laughed!

Rude food
While on holiday in Spain, I wanted to show off to my fiancé how well I could speak the language. We wanted a traditional Spanish dish so I asked for coño y patatas fritas, thinking I was ordering rabbit and chips. We watched as our waiter fell about laughing, told his two friends at the bar what I wanted and they hid behind the bar! All you could hear was the sound of the three men laughing. Imagine my embarrassment when they explained I'd asked for the female part of the anatomy and chips!!!!


Rare medical condition
When travelling in Spain a cab driver asked my friend how old she was. She tried to explain that she was 23 years old: Tengo veintitrés años, literally "I have 23 years". Unfortunately she pronounced años as anos which means, well, let's just say the English word is very similar.
A medical first surely?

A Sin-ful beer
I was on holiday in Madrid with my family when, after a long day of seeing the sights, my father went out to get a six pack of beer. Extremely tired, he came back to the hotel room, excited that he had found a beer so strong that it was labelled, Sin. In Spanish, the word sin means 'without', so he ended up with beer that had no alcohol in at all!

Touchy feely
Whilst living and studying in Spain, I suggested to a Spanish friend that we sit down. Instead of vamos a sentarnos, I said vamos a sentirnos which apparently means "let's go and feel ourselves"!
My friend didn't bat an eyelid, just looked at me and smiled!

Chat up defence line
I was in a chat room brushing up on the old Español and started chatting to a Spanish guy. He said that he'd bet I was pretty and I said Ya basta, estoy embarazada. I thought I'd said I was embarrassed but I had actually just told him I was pregnant! Needless to say that was the end of that conversation ...

I like you a lot
While I was living in Mexico, I met a British guy who was learning Spanish. He didn't speak any of the language before he arrived there, so he was picking everything up as he went along, beginning with the phrases in his guidebook.
Problem was that he didn't always carry it with him. So, he told me about how, for the first two months that he was there, he would always say me gustas mucho whenever he met anyone. People would always look at him strangely - he was actually saying 'I like you a lot' rather than mucho gusto which means 'a great pleasure (to have met you)' ...

You gotta have balls
Whilst traveling through Guatemala a few years ago, I couldn't understand why shopkeepers laughed at me every time I asked for eggs: ¿Tiene huevos, por favor?
Until one day someone explained to me I was actually asking if the shopkeeper had 'balls'. A less confusing way of asking for eggs is: ¿Hay huevos, por favor?.

With a glass of Chianti
After three weeks of living in a hotel in Spain, we finally moved into a flat. I decided to cook a really typical English meal for us, as we were fed up with eating in restaurants.
I could not speak a word of Spanish, so out came the trusty pocket dictionary. I carefully wrote down each ingredient, double checked the words, and then headed off to the local supermarket. A small type of 'local' shop. Completed by a long line of housewives. After waiting ten minutes for my turn I carefully asked the butcher for medio kilo de hidalgo. The result was stunned silence, then he asked me: ¿De qué parte? Then gails of laughter from the curious housewives who had stayed to hear me speak. I hadn't a clue what I'd said, but the butcher took pity on me and bought out some liver.
When I presented my husband with his supper, and told him of my problem, he also had a good laugh.
Did you know that the words hidalgo, gentleman, and higado, liver, are really close to each other in the Spanish side of the dictionary? Well, I certainly found out. We have now been here in Galicia for 13 years, and the ladies still chuckle when they see me. However, I have never made that mistake again!

Look at my plants
I'm currently studying in Spain. Recently I was waiting in a friend's flat for my lift home. My friend called me to say that he'd arrived to pick me up.
My friend is a plumber, and as the owners of the flat had a problem with the tap I asked him to come upstairs to the flat to look at la grifa.
He almost crashed the car as he was laughing so much. He said he was sure I meant el grifo. How was I to know that la grifa meant 'dope' and el grifo 'tap'?!

Fork and other members of the family
Once in a class at school when we were about 15, we were told to give a short presentation on family life. My friend Tracy duly stood up and announced Mi padre es tenedor, much to the amusement of the class!
She actually stated that her father is a fork! What she wanted to say was Mi padre es tendero, my father is a shopkeeper.

An enlightening moment
I needed to buy some light bulbs and went into a shop in Madrid saying: Necesito unas bulbas, thinking 'bulba' was Spanish for 'bulb'.
As B's and V's sound the same in Spanish, the shop keeper thought I was asking for a 'vulva' which - being the same in English - is a private part of the female anatomy!
You can imagine the look on her face. At the time I had no idea why till I went home to tell my Spanish wife!
The Spanish word for bulb is una bombilla. I'll never forget that.

Free cat
Working in a Spanish restaurant as a waitress I once served a Spanish family some meat, in which they found maggots!
Desperate to save the situation I apologised profusely, and to make up, offered them some free cake. Not knowing the word for cake, I used the French word gâteau. Gâteau sounds like gato, which in Spanish means 'cat'! They fled.

Some soup soap
A friend came to visit us in Seville last year, and realising she had forgotten some soap, popped out to get some supplies.
She came back a short while later, saying: 'That was a real failure' and explained. She had gone to the chemist for some soap, and on asking in Spanish, was met with a puzzled look. So she started miming washing in the shower, but still more puzzled looks. In the end she gave up and left.
The problem was that in asking for sopa rather than jabón, she was actually asking for soup. The Spanish must be questioning our standards of hygiene to this day.

What a donkey
Thinking that most Spanish words are very similar to the corresponding Italian word, I once asked for 250g of burro in a Spanish grocer's shop.
As I know now, burro in Spanish is a donkey and the proper term for butter is mantequilla.

A beetroot hitchhiker
I remember telling a group of Spaniards about my first visit to Spain when I was 18. I tried to go hitchhiking, but without much success. One of the factors in my lack of success was, I explained, the huge rucksack on my back. Unfortunately, I confused the word for a rucksack una mochila with the word for a beetroot una remolacha. It was altogether a rather surreal image!

The Three Forks
I've been learning Spanish for several years now and consider myself quite reasonable at expressing myself and general conversation. However, it never pays to become overconfident.
During a group conversation about music I proudly announced that I had been to an outdoor concert to see Los Tres Tenedores. I couldn't understand why I brought the conversation to a complete stop, but the puzzled looks told me something was wrong. Keen to explain, I said "You know, Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo". It was then explained to me that what I had seen was Los Tres Tenores 'The Three Tenors' and not 'The Three Forks'! We were in Andalucia but I swear you could hear the laughter in Madrid!

After a pilot
I'd been studying conversational English for a year and was delighted with my progress. I loved experimenting with new vocab and when out shopping in London's Selfridges with my host family, I decided to show off with some new words. I wanted to buy a raincoat, which is called in Argentina un piloto, so I guessed the word in English and asked the assistant "I'd like a pilot, please"!

What a delicious cat!
Years ago when I was in college, I was studying first year Spanish after studying French. I was in the International Club and was invited over to the house of a graduate student and his wife from Chile.
We finished eating a wonderful meal and the wife brought out a wonderful cake. After eating it I said ¡El gato es delicioso!
The little boy and parents looked at me strangely. Then I pointed and said it again. The husband told me I had said 'The cat is delicious.'
I explained to him that in French le gâteau is 'cake' and I thought it was the same in Spanish. Oops!

Drink! Gals! Us!
I spent a summer working with a group of Spaniards and some English friends. Being fans of Father Ted, we were in the habit of releasing tension by loudly mimicing Father Jack's cry of 'arse!'. I asked my Spanish friend for a Spanish translation. After a puzzled frown, he replied nosotros, which I happily shouted for the rest of the day. The next morning, I was asked politely why I was shouting 'us', at which point I realised my English accent had not clearly enunciated 'arse'. Cue a week's solid teasing.

Sweet motorcycle
I was looking at a motorcycle at a shop in Valladolid. I asked the salesman:
¿El asiento, es de miel auténtica? He gave me a very strange look and no answer. I thought about what I just said again and it dawned on me. I thought I asked him if the seat was real leather, or piel auténtica, instead I said miel auténtica, real honey!

No postman lost
The first night of our trip to Madrid, my friend lost his wallet. The next day, we went to a police station to report the loss.
Unfortunately, my grasp of masculine/feminine nouns is sometimes confused, as it was when I announced to the desk sergeant A mi amigo se le ha perdido el cartero.
The sergeant corrected me with la cartera, as he quickly realised that my friend had lost his wallet and not his postman. D'oh ...

I'll be back
While my wife and I were walking to the mall in Cancun, Mexico, a street vendor stopped us and tried to sell us something. I wanted to press on so I said "We'll be back" in Spanish. He looked amused and asked me ¿Qué?, so I repeated ¡Revolvemos! I kept wondering why he thought it was funny. Hours later, I realized I had said "We are stirring"...
Editor's note: The phrase needed was Volvemos luego - "We'll be back later".

Ordering shrimps
In my early days while living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, I called out to the waiter in a busy cafe: Camarón, venga acá. It worked and he did respond by coming over to our table. My date pointed out to me that what I had said was "Shrimp, come over here". I had mistakenly used the word camarón, shrimp, instead of camarero, waiter.
Funny thing was that the waiter was a very short fellow.

A dinner to die for
I've been holidaying in Spain for the first time and was very proud of my Spanish which I've picked up from a phrase-book. For a fortnight I asked for the bill in Spanish. Only on the last day the waiter told me that I had actually asked for a rope. For two weeks I've been saying la cuerda, por favor instead of la cuenta, por favor. Oh dear!
Point? Check phrase-book, don't memorise wrong word!

Mexican delights
Last year while I was in Frankfurt, I wished to savour the flavours of Mexican food in an authentic Mexican restaurant. With my knowledge of the Hispanic language, I thought I could enjoy the specialities all the more.
During the meal, I wanted to have a cup of tea and very willingly expressed my desire to the waitress. What I got in return was not a cup of tea, but a peck on both my cheeks!! The reason for this nice surprise? I ordered the cup of tea by saying te quiero - 'I love you' - instead of quiero té - 'I want tea'!!

Fresh fish for lunch?
I have heard of tourists ordering un pez (fish) in restaurants in Spanish-speaking countries. But pez actually refers to fish that are still alive and swimming! The correct word to use would be el pescado, which is dead or cooked fish. There has been many a waiter who had a bit of fun in bringing a live fish to a customer's table!!

More or less married
After a month of Spanish lessons, my friend joined a Mexican firm in a small town where the office workers only spoke Spanish and a little broken English. One of the Mexican secretaries asked: ¿Estás casado? - meaning "Are you married?", to which my friend replied Más o menos - meaning 'More or less'. He had mistranslated the word casado as cansado, the Spanish for tired. We all had a good laugh.

Car-jack cat
While proud of my conversational Spanish, there seem to be some phrases with which I am not familiar. Back in 1991, I was in Tijuana, Mexico, for the day with some friends - all of whom were true native speakers, except for me. We came upon a distressed-looking couple who asked me ¿Trae usted un gato en su carro que nos pueda prestar? In perfect Spanish, I asked them 'Why would I have a cat in my car ... and what do you want with a cat?' They explained that they needed something to lift their car with so they could change a flat tyre. I felt kind of dumb for my deficiency in Spanish, but was more than happy to loan them my gato, car-jack!

At the cow wash
While on placement in Spain, I asked my flatmate if I could I wash my cows with a load she had put in the washing machine: Puedo lavar mis vacas instead of ¿Puedo lavar mis vaqueros? - 'Can I wash my jeans?' I don't think I ever stopped making people laugh when I was a student!!

Little men
Whilst attending a few lessons to improve my Spanish, I tried to explain that I was reading The Hobbit in Spanish. My Spanish tutor hadn't heard of it so I tried to describe the story of the little man, Bilbo Baggins. So, little - poco and man - hombre, I described the story of the poco hombre, whereupon my tutors eyes opened like saucers! It transpired that poco hombre means 'not much of a man', or something along those lines. What I should have said was hombre pequeño, meaning little or small man. Oops!

Miraculous conception
My Spanish teacher told me of his experience in Bolivia when he got something wrong. He owned up by saying Estoy embarazado and wondered why the room went quiet. He had said that he was pregnant!

Beautiful blisters
I spent one and a half years in Spain so there were plenty of opportunities to embarrass myself! One day, we drove past a big field of poppies and I got all enthusiastic: ¡Qué bonito es ese campo de ampollas! How on earth can a field of blisters be beautiful??!! However, ever since I will always remember that poppies are amapolas in Spanish.

Do you feel old?
Whilst on vacation in Mexico with a friend and her family, her father became slightly ill. One day, we stopped for dinner and I sat next to him. I practiced what I wanted to say nearly a half dozen times in my head and finally asked: ¿Señor, se siente mayor o peor? After a hearty round of laughter from the table, my friend's sister leaned over and said 'You asked him if he felt older or worse'.
Paul   Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 17:25 GMT
This is between two French words, but I once asked for directions to a Lodge which is 'auberge' in Quebec and used the word "aubergine" by accident, which means eggplant.
Xatufan   Thursday, January 27, 2005, 18:21 GMT
Ha ha ha
Xatufan   Friday, January 28, 2005, 14:53 GMT
When my mom was in France, she bought a bottle of milk that said LAIT. My mom read it /lait/, because she didn't speak French, and thought LIGHT, i.e. non-fat milk. But no, the milk was whole milk and she gained 3 kg. She was really shocked and angry!!!
Ved   Friday, January 28, 2005, 23:46 GMT
SKY (Eng.) : SKY (Danish=CLOUD)

PONOS (Serbo-Croatian=PRIDE) : PONOS (Russian=ARSE)

ZHIVOT (Serbo-Croatian=LIFE) : ZHIVOT (Russian=STOMACH)

Disclaimer: I don't speak Russian and might be mistaken, but I think I'm right.
Xatufan   Saturday, January 29, 2005, 19:34 GMT
Russian is a disgusting language!!! :-)))))