I know for instance, between Japanese & Mandarin there are a few words that are written the same despite them being pronounced differently along with having different meanings altogether:

Word Japanese Definition Mandarin Definition
手紙 Letter (mail) Toilet Paper
先生 Teacher Mister (Mr.)
天井 Ceiling Atrium
説話 Folktale To Speak
新聞 Newspaper News (media)
約束 Promise Constrain
文句 Complain Phrase
怪我 Injury Blame me
白鳥 Swan White Bird
皮肉 Irony Skin & Flesh
王妃 Queen Princess
中古 Used Product Medieval Times
氷箱 Ice Box Refrigerator
手袋 Gloves Handbag
邪魔 Hinderance Devil
Hot Water Soup
Boar Pig
Arm Wrist
Run Walk
Shelf Shed
Neck Head
Floor Bed
Scold To Eat
Desk (Furniture) Machinery
Daughter Mother

In hindsight: if you are bilingual, do you know any false friends between two languages (i.e. English & French) or (i.e. Spanish & Portuguese) that are spelled the same but have different definitions across both languages?

  • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    Spanish and Italian have a few funny ones:

    Burro: Donkey (Spanish) / Butter (Italian)

    Porro: joint (of weed, you know) / Leek

    Orto: Ass (not everywhere, but where I lived, it had that meaning) / vegetable garden

    There’s probably more, but these come to mind now.

  • hcf@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    To add a funny one:

    Word English Definition Jamaican Definition
    Beer can Metal container for booze Delicious, cured pork product

    (Hint for Americans: the joke makes more sense if you pronounce it with a British accent)

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    One of my favorites are the chains between Spanish and Portuguese:

    • Garbage in Spanish is Basura
    • But Vassoura in Portuguese means broom
    • But in Spanish broom is said Escova
    • Which in Portuguese means brush

    Or

    • Tea cup in Spanish is Taza
    • A Taça in Portuguese is a wine cup
    • But in Spanish wine cup is a Copa
    • And in Portuguese a Copo is a regular glass
    • But in Spanish regular glasses are called Vaso
    • Which in Portuguese means vase.

    Or

    • Cutlery in Portuguese is Talher
    • But Taller in Spanish is a workshop
    • Which in Portuguese is Oficina
    • Which in Spanish means office
    • But in Portuguese you say Escritorio
    • Which in Spanish means desk

    Or a short one:

    • Your last name in Portuguese is your Sobrenome
    • But in Spanish Sobrenombre is your nickname
    • While in Portuguese nickname is Apelido
    • But in Spanish Apellido means last name

    Another one I like is Vamos a chatear 1 rato which in Spanish means “let’s chat for a little while” but in Portuguese means “let’s bother a mouse”.

  • Lee@retrolemmy.com
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    2 months ago

    If I understand your question correctly, between English and Italian is “camera”. In Italian it means “room”, not a device for photographs.

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Sure, but “camera” doesn’t really mean room, it means chamber, which is a small enclosed space, and if you grab a box it is a camera by definition (just a very small one). And if you close every place where light can get into a small chamber you get a “camera obscura” which just means a dark chamber. And if you poke a hole on a camera obscura you will see an image of the outside being projected on the opposite wall. This was a very common trick in pre-industrialization, and became known as Camera Obscura, from then someone had the idea to put photosensitive material, also known as photographic, on the opposite wall and created the first photographic chamber, or “photographic camera”, which eventually was abbreviated to camera.

      So yeah, they mean different things, but not really.

  • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    It’s not just in different languages, but sometimes in different variants of the same languages.

    For instance, in Belgian French, “tournante” is any task in which people take turn, like a card game. In French French, it’s specifically gang rape.

    And then you have words that aren’t spelled exactly the same way but seem like an obvious translation (actual false friends, which aren’t usually exact matches), like the Spanish “constipado”, which means to have a stuffy nose and not what you think.

    • Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Some examples from flemish (belgian dutch) to dutch:

      Word flemish dutch
      Lopen to run to walk
      Stappen to walk to go out (to a bar)
      Poepen to have sex to poop

      I remember the first time in a swimming pool in flanders I was so confused by all the signs saying I shouldn’t walk.

  • trashcroissant@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    I’m going to spoiler tag this because it’s a slur but I’ve always found this one the most comical

    spoiler

    puto ::: seco.
    In Tagalog = type of cookies
    In Spanish = dry (male) whore

  • schnokobaer@feddit.org
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    2 months ago
    English German Dutch
    how wie hoe
    who wer wie

    Both who/hoe and wie/wie are pronounced almost identically. Always creates a knot in my brain that usually grinds my already not fluent speaking to a halt.

  • ViatorOmnium@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    There are a few close ones between Portuguese and Spanish but I can’t think of any that’s spelled exactly the same.

    Between Portuguese dialects, the first that comes to mind is “puto” which just means young boy in European Portuguese and it’s a swear word meaning male prostitute in Brazilian Portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese technically makes more sense because it’s symmetrical to the female “puta” which always means “slut”).

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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    2 months ago

    I remember the Czech word Pozor. It means “Attention” and is seen everywhere on all sorts of signage.

    In Russian, however (and possibly other slavic languages), it means shame/disgrace.

    I’m sure there were jokes about it when Russians were the invaders, but can’t remember any.


    Then there’s Finnish/Estonian

    Finnish Estonian
    Hallitus Government Mold
    Maasika Earth-pig (not a thing) Strawberry
    Maasikapirukas Earth-pig devil Strawberry cake
    Piim(ä) Buttermilk/sourmilk Milk
    Kalju Bald Rock

    But my favorite is “nahkhiir”, which means leather mouse, i.e. a bat. (in Finnish it would be nahkahiiri, but bats are called lepakko)
    Batman is consequently called Nahkhiirmees in Estonian.

      • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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        2 months ago

        You mean it means both bald AND rock in French?

        It’s not really surprising. The differences between Finnish/Estonian are usually small shifts in development. E.g. kallio means rock in Finnish - not too far from kalju. And it’s easy to see why such a word could mean both.

        • tristan@tarte.nuage-libre.fr
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          2 months ago

          It doesn’t exactly mean bald in French. Bald would be expressed as: « pas un poil sur le caillou » meaning “not a hair on the rock (the head).”

  • LeapSecond@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    Greek: Ναι (ne) means yes. Greeks often move their head up and down to say yes.
    Bulgarian: Не (ne) means no. Bulgarians often move their head up and down to say no.

    So if someone says ne and moves their head up and down it could be a Greek saying yes or a Bulgarian saying no. In reality the movements are not the same but it would probably be confusing to an outsider.