The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't • Hacker News Board

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#11

Post by raldi » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:20 AM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #7

They forgot parking in french which is the word for car park. And japanese has so many of such words that are imported from English with a totally different meaning you d need a book to cover them.

Like "Italian sauce", the (often quite tasty and authentic) tomato-based dressing they put on their spaghetti.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#12

Post by maxerickson » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:21 AM UTC

kawera wrote: post #10

In Brazil, any kind of sports shoes is a "tenis".

"tennis shoe" has a pretty generic meaning in the US also.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#13

Post by pandaman » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:23 AM UTC

I don't think Russian "face control" is borrowed from English entirely. "Control" (контроль) is a proper Russian word, borrowed from French/German and in this context means "checking","verification".

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#14

Post by ScottBurson » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:24 AM UTC

Let's not forget that entrée, in French, means "appetizer".

ETA: I see this is mentioned in the article. Posted too hastily :-)

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#15

Post by ekianjo » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:25 AM UTC

ivarious wrote: post #9

And then there's the whole business of Wasei-Eigo, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo .

Which is still going on strongly and introducing new words every year.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#16

Post by bgilroy26 » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:25 AM UTC

'Portable bassinette' is American for carrycot

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#17

Post by kawera » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:28 AM UTC

kcorbitt wrote: post #6

ln Spain, everyone refers to Facebook as el face , (with the English pronunciation of the word "face") which sounded pretty funny until I got used to it.

In Brazil too, just "face" and "whats" for Whatsapp, both with the english pronunciation.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#18

Post by ekianjo » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:28 AM UTC

raldi wrote: post #11

ekianjo wrote: post #7

They forgot parking in french which is the word for car park. And japanese has so many of such words that are imported from English with a totally different meaning you d need a book to cover them.

Like "Italian sauce", the (often quite tasty and authentic) tomato-based dressing they put on their spaghetti.

They also have "french dressing" a generic white sauce for salads that we dont even use in France.

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#19

Post by userbinator » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:29 AM UTC

ivarious wrote: post #9

And then there's the whole business of Wasei-Eigo, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo .

The associated list page is worth reading too, if only to see how much of the meaning you can guess just by looking at the first 3 columns of that table:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gairaigo_and_wasei-eig...

Re: The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

#20

Post by Camillo » Sun, Oct 16, 2016, 2:30 AM UTC

ScottBurson wrote: post #14

Let's not forget that entrée , in French, means "appetizer". ETA: I see this is mentioned in the article. Posted too hastily :-)

This confused me when I moved to America, because I thought it meant an appetizer. Then, when I visited France, it confused me again, because by that point I thought it meant a main course.