FUNNY WORDS IN OTHER LANGUAGES FULL

Ras-le-bolĪ bowl full of it is quite a good image to express what this word figuratively means in French. Now, if someone’s talking about “un oeil de boeuf”, they are most likely talking architecture rather than anatomy. In the shape of an oval, the bull’s eye (as they are also called in English), is a small window located in the upper part of a building, or in the attic, to let the light in and ventilate a place. But that would be weird, right? L’oeil de boeufĪn ox’s eye can be three things in French: the literal eye of an ox, a peephole or a very cute and practical window in a building. Therefore, we shouldn’t call them “flying deers” but “flying snakes” (serpent-volant). Would it make more sense if I told you that this is what we call kites in French? Originally, the word “cerf” (deer) was badly translated from the word “sèrp” (meaning “snakes”). You would probably call me crazy if I was telling you that we can see a lot of “flying deers” on the beaches in France, particularly in the city of Berck, in the north of France. Anyway, it’s still has nothing to do with goats… Le cerf-volant To confuse things even more, according to the legend, the sprouts of this aromatic plant were eaten by roe deers, called “chevreuil” in French. Even if we know the words “chèvre” (goat) and “feuille” (leaf), this still doesn’t help guess that “chèvrefeuille” is nothing but “honeysuckle” in English. Ok, this one isn’t as popular as the others but its name is definitely as interesting. Originally, it may have come from “chouette-souris” (owl-mouse) because they are nocturnal animals but was transformed into “chauve-souris”, which is a lot funnier indeed.

What is the difference between a mouse and a bat in French? Apparently one of them is bald! Formed with the words “chauve” (bald) and “souris” (mouse), the French word for bat doesn’t seem to make much sense. It seems that a knot butterfly, as the literal translation suggests, is for French people’s mind a very accurate description of a bow tie… Why not? La chauve-souris “Le noeud pap”, as the French would say, is a very fancy piece of clothing usually worn only on special occasions like weddings or balls. Weird, when we know that a potato is not a fruit but a root… And to confuse things even more, you’ll often hear French speakers call a “pomme de terre” a “patate” in colloquial French. Literally, it translates as “apple from Earth” or “apple of the Earth”, it actually means a mere potato. This may be the most common and strange compound word of the French language. Don’t forget: it may not make sense to you but it does for French speaking people. Thankfully for you – or unfortunately, your call – the French language has some wonderful funny words of its own. Yes, it might not make sense to someone else, but to me it’s a perfect mnemonic way to learn vocabulary. Sure, it has nothing to do with a flying dragon like I imagined them (do you also picture the ones from Game of Thrones?) but it’s so unexpected that it’s actually pretty easy to remember it. In German, the word for plane is also pretty funny: “das Flugzeug” literally translates, in my mind, as the “flight stuff”. Take the English word “dragonfly” for instance. In fact, those are the words that I find the most interesting and the most memorable. When learning a language, we often come across words that, translated into our own language, seem bizarre, stupid or funny. “Do you eat apples of the Earth?”, “You should wear a knot butterfly at the wedding”, “My grandma’s house has two beautiful ox’s eyes”, “I have an irrational fear of bald-mice.” are all perfectly understandable sentences for someone who speaks French. Translated into English, however, the wording sounds a little bit funny.

Funny words in other languages