It’s no secret that English is one of the most baffling languages out there.
Sometimes it seems like there are more exceptions than rules, doesn’t it? While those of us who are native speakers breeze through everyday conversations, the words that come out of our mouths get lost in translation elsewhere.
Here are 14 English words that have homonyms with totally different meanings in other languages! Although the words themselves aren’t direct translations, they mean something totally different when you break it down to phonetics.
1. Air means water in Indonesian.
2. Pet translates fart in French.
3. Here’s another English-to-French doozy. Smoking means tuxedo.
4. Kiss means pee in Swedish.
5. Handy means cellphone in German.
6. Die translates to the Italian phrase for “come on!”
7. In Sweden, bra means good.
8. Ohio translates to good morning in Japanese.
9. Mist means manure in German.
10. Vader from Star Wars means father in Dutch.
11. Barf translates to snow in Hindi.
12. Gift means poison in German.
13. Preservative roughly translates to condom in French.
14. LOL means fun in Dutch.
The moral of the story is that you really shouldn’t walk around Paris talking about your pet…unless getting weird looks is your jam, that is.
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