Funny how a word in one language.....

[vyv_cox]

...can mean something completely different in another

 

[prv]

Seen on a delivery trip in Denmark:

Pete

 

[emsworthy]

...can mean something completely different in another

You're right. The correct superlative of the adjective should surely be "Krappest"!

 

[vyv_cox]

You're right. The correct superlative of the adjective should surely be "Krappest"!

I thought it was a noun!

 

[emsworthy]

I thought it was a noun!

You could be right! Maybe you have to pump the boom up and down to flush the thing!!

 

[Norman_E]

Or even in the same language. An old colleague of mine was fluent in Spanish, learned in Ecuador. He liked to drink Papaya juice. He ordered it in a bar in Miami, where Cuban Spanish is the local version. His order was greeted with silence, then laughter. In the local lingo, "papaya" is slang for part of the female anatomy!

 

[colingr]

Bit of fred drift but there you go

 

[snowleopard]

...can mean something completely different in another

Singularly appropriate given the type of boat

 

[Twister_Ken]

The table mats at the Scuttlebutt bash in Cherbourg were advertising for events at a local cultural centre. One of the acts was Lilly Wood and The Prick. Must mean something different in French.

 

[johnalison]

Some foreign boat names are just mystifying. Presumably owned by some nuns:

 

[citlab]

Indeed. You need to zoom in for the detail.

The front..

http://web.me.com/karivierinen/Höga-Kusten-2010/Katanpäässä.html#43

and stern...

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=961862

 

[Supine Being]

I was in Bucharest a couple of years ago being treated to a meal in a nice fish restaurant by some partners. Very nice it was too, but I couldn't help but giggle at the english language menu I was given. It was pretty well translated except for all instances of one particular fish: carp. You see, Romanian for carp is ****, so for starters you could have **** eggs. Moving on, you could have grilled ****, **** with garlic, **** fillet, **** in cream and mushroom sauce etc.

Only time I ever ate **** and enjoyed it.

** Arrrgh, the system put in the asterisks!!! God I hate that. You must be a right bunch of sensitive souls Ok, just swap around the A and the R in carp and you get the idea ***

 

[Tidewaiter2]

Then there's Dutch!

SeaFart- 'sea wind' as used to be the name of the HM brother's cafe/bar on Terschelling, not a typical Forumite
And Danish-
Max 3 knob!= 3 knots max not number of blokes allowed on a boat

The French call them 'faux ami'= 'false friends'

 

[multihullsailor6]

Some years ago at the Southampton Boat Show I came across a Dragonfly trimaran called "Puff". First thing after stepping aboard was to tell the owners NEVER to take this boat to Germany - in German it means brothel!

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Was once told ( may well be nonsense) that the Scandinavian word fitter had the english equivalent that rhymed with merchant banker

 

[rotrax]

...can mean something completely different in another

In the Czech republic your are often asked for your Podpis-signature.

 

[vyv_cox]

Another Danish one

 

[jhr]

Corsa means - doesn't work

"Nova" (no va) means "doesn't work" in Spanish, which is why Vauxhall fell into line with the other GM European subsudiaries, and changed it to Corsa.

In the same way, I don't think Toyota ever called their small, mid-engined sports car the MR2 in France - it sounds like "emmerdeur", which is French for "pain in the arse". Or perhaps they were just referring to the handling, which could be a bit of a challenge sometimes

 

[Twister_Ken]

Pal of mine tells a story of how, as a schoolboy, he went on an exchange visit to Germany. As he was about to leave his hosts, he trotted out a phrase he had been rehearsing which he had translated directly from English. "Thank you very much. I have enjoyed myself."

Apparently this was greeted with rather shocked looks from the family. Later, his German contemporary made an unmistakeable hand gesture and dissolved into laugher.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

"Nova" (no va) means "doesn't work" in Spanish, which is why Vauxhall fell into line with the other GM European subsudiaries, and changed it to Corsa.

Hey ho. The Nova one is not correct - see http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp. And yes, the Snopes article does refer to another car with the name "Nova", but all the arguments apply to a car called "Nova".