False Friends

[midnightsun]

Ass (means… you know.)
Ass (means ace or hotshot in English)

So if a German says "Du bist ein Ass“ he isn’t insulting you. It’s a compliment.

 

[Sammy]

I‘ve met people in german speaking countries who are not aware of the fact that Handy (mobile phone) does not have the same meaning in

 

[0scar]

One of my favourite false friends:

Zee = sea
See = lake

Meer = lake
Meer = sea

 

[mup]

salida = exit, way out
salita = climb, rise, ascent

salir = to leave, to go/get out
salire = to climb, to go up

subir = to rise, to go/get up
subire = to suffer, to endure, to undergo

 

[randajad]

...

 

[mitch67]

mist means "garbage"/"rubbish" in
so as a german speaking person, this whiskey may not be your first choice.

well maybe because Canadian whiskey is just sucha thing...;-)

 

[mitch67]

when germaqns try to speak Denglish

public viewing: in Germny this is an outdoor event to watch a sports event or Eurovision

in English: display of a dead person before tjhe funeral

 

[Sammy]

well maybe because Canadian whiskey is just sucha thing...;-)

Never tasted it tbh...

 

[mitch67]

i am fine with Scottish and Irish

no need to experiment

 

[MilenaC91]

Caldo - hot in Italian, cold in English, Hladno - cold in my native language, the most annoying simple thing

 

[Himan]

poepen
to poop

(Flemmish part) poepen
To do the deed.

 

[nofuxCZ]

Saw this on twitter and that made me laugh

frajer in Czech can have both negative and positive meaning, depending on the context, but usually we say it as a positive word - often meaning a "cool guy" or something similar. It can also be a general word for a guy or for a boyfriend
I see Polish has it quite differently

 

[Paper7]

Hure = prostitute
- anne hure = to crouch
- huere gut = very good

Fotze = vulgar for Vagina
- Fotzel = a shred (of paper)

when germaqns try to speak Denglish

public viewing: in Germny this is an outdoor event to watch a sports event or Eurovision

in English: display of a dead person before tjhe funeral

Not such a widespreaden false friend (just one case), but once a shop had for their catalog the following thoughts "Yeah... Rucksack is such a lame german name for this item, we need something cool in english!" and they called their rucksacks (which is an existing germanism in english for a special type of backpacks...) "body bags" which means Leichensäcke in german.