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Welshfarmer has just reminded me. About the only thing I remember from German lessons at school is the phrase "sugar makes you fat".
Zucker macht dick!
I am pretty sure the Finnish word for "cheers" when drinking sounds like "Keepist". Which seemed rather appropriate
(Ah googled it... it is written as "kippis")
I think Norwegian for "Exit" is "Ut", very similar to Scots "Oot"
'Cyclist' in German is 'radfaher', which also means sycophant or brown-noser.
iolo - Member
I see popty ping has raised its head again.
No Welsh speaker has ever used popty ping.
Mebbe not, but I can see a good case for it being adopted this side of the channel.
That's Bristol, of course.
Scots Gaelic - a language so poor/efficient* it only has 18 letters
*delete as appropriate
The original British/Celtic alphabet only has 18 characters, it makes it very difficult to write modern words in Ogham, no 'v', for example.
I have two Ogham tattoos, fortunately they both worked with the 18 characters.
"twelve months" in Estonian
plenty of vids on youtube with the pronunciation
Not in the same league as some of the above but I always like the Dutch for mnemonic: ezelsbruggetje literally Donkey Bridge.
Slaapkammer is Bedroom in Dutch. Amuses me also.
Slagroom is whipped cream. There is surely some mileage there..
Mandarin Chinese has no direct word for yes or no. Also 'Ni yao dafaiji ma?' translates as 'Do you want to hit the aeroplane? ' which is what prostitutes ask their prospective clients if they're interested in a hand job. 'Bun dan' means stupid egg which translates as 'idiot'. And in German Weichei or soft egg means a wimp.
Neither does Gaelic.Mandarin Chinese has no direct word for yes or no
Also 'Ni yao dafaiji ma?' translates as 'Do you want to hit the aeroplane? ' which is what prostitutes ask their prospective clients if they're interested in a hand job.
'faiji jaa' = aeroplane boy (re: ^^^^)
'Handy' is a slang word for a Mobile phone in germany.
Widely used term, same in France and in Singapore they call it a "hand phone" or h/p commonly seen on business cards
In fact let me dig up some Singlish - very amusing
Can - yes
Can Can - yes, definitely
Cannot - definitely not
Also can - either way is good
I see you no up - derived from a Chinese phrase meaning I will never show you respect, very severe insult
Mandarin Chinese has no direct word for yes or no
Neither does Gaelic.
Neither does Welsh
Not direct, but in Irish (proper) Gaelic, "is ea" (ish ah) has been shortened to "Sea" (Sha) for yes. No is still "ní hea" (nee hah). They both translate roughly as "that's It" or "that's not it".
'Handy' is a slang word for a Mobile phone in germany.Widely used term, same in France
I have never heard [i]handy[/i] used in France. Someone would give you their numéro de portable, or téléphone. If they were talking about their new phone, smartphone would quite probably crop up in the conversation.
Isn't [b]tá[/b] used for yes in gaelic ?
julianwilson - Member
'Cyclist' in German is 'radfaher', which also means sycophant or brown-noser.
Falsch... Sycophant/brown nose is most commonly Schleimer. Have never heard Radfahrer used in the context.
However, Radler is Cyclist. It is also the name for a shandy. So a Radler is a beer for a Radler.
Exhaust is Auspuff. Lit. blow out.
A bracket is Winkel.
Welsh (like many others I think ) technically has no yes or no words - you have to answer questions in the affirmative or negative. "Are you coming biking?" "I am"
However there is 'ie' (pronounced 'yeah') and 'na' for general agreement or disagreement, or dismay. My kids only hear (good) Welsh in school, consequently my daughter has adopted the tone of voice that nursery school teachers use to her. So if she spills something for example she says 'O na!' in an amusingly exaggerated way 🙂