The humour of similar-sounding words

[Qwynegold]

Smart arab(same meaning in both languages) backwards. in Swedish, is "bara trams" which translates to "just bullshit"

Also "bara krut" (only gunpowder).

And while these aren't really humorous just because, they caused me no end of trouble when I was learning Dutch (and sometimes still do):

huren [hyr@n] vs hoeren [hur@n]
'to rent' vs. 'prostitutes'

Ja, ik zoek een apartment om te hoeren....
'Yes, I'm looking for an apartment to whore out.'

Yesterday I saw a picture someone had taken of a note that had been posted in an apartment building. They had misspelled it so it said something like "the whores for this year have been prepared".

[Zwap]

this may be a bit meta, but pun in my dialect is an endearing way to refer to farts.

ふん, fun, is an endearing way to refer to poop in Japanese.

[Torco]

is poop semantically fun, or phonetically fun ?

[Tropylium]

Pretty sure it's both.

---

A poem that's simultaneously in English and in Finnish (you may have seen this before if you speak both):
Sun on helmet,
Sun on villas.
Talon join.
Ah, sure Hamlet!
Miss lie into sun?
Miss on ties?
Maiden pimentotie.
Valehelmet vain
Sullen vein.

[WeepingElf]

Pretty sure it's both.

---

A poem that's simultaneously in English and in Finnish (you may have seen this before if you speak both):
Sun on helmet,
Sun on villas.
Talon join.
Ah, sure Hamlet!
Miss lie into sun?
Miss on ties?
Maiden pimentotie.
Valehelmet vain
Sullen vein.

Excellent. (Though I have to trust your word that it is also correct Finnish, not speaking that language.)

[Tropylium]

Sullen with /-n/ is not quite a word, but otherwise it works pretty well. (Well, trying to parse some of it in *English* is fairly difficult, but that's just my L1 instincts.)

quickie translation:
"Yours are the pearls
Yours are the wools.
Despair, o Hamlet!
I drank the house.
Where might be your enthusiasm?
Where is your road?
The shadowed road of the lands.
The fake pearls only
To you I took."

[clawgrip]

this may be a bit meta, but pun in my dialect is an endearing way to refer to farts.

ふん, fun, is an endearing way to refer to poop in Japanese.

The word fun is basically only used for animal droppings, not for humans droppings, the endearing word for which is unchi, or even more endearing, unko, which means little or child unchi. It is alarmingly close to unchin, which means freight.

[Wattmann]

Bestiality and scatophilia - fun!

[Torco]

so having fun with another's fun is no fun in japan ?

[hwhatting]

pimentotie.

That is supposed to be an English word?

[Travis B.]

Sullen with /-n/ is not quite a word, but otherwise it works pretty well. (Well, trying to parse some of it in *English* is fairly difficult, but that's just my L1 instincts.)

Since when is sullen not a word in English? According to this, this, and this it is...

[Bob Johnson]

Since when is sullen not a word in English?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sulle#Finnish

[Travis B.]

Since when is sullen not a word in English?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sulle#Finnish

Okay, I forgot to look up to see the attempt at writing Finnish, I know.

[TomHChappell]

pimentotie.

That is supposed to be an English word?

Sure, it's a transparent compound.
It's one of these.

[Bob Johnson]

ratio.of.circumference.to.diameter-man.PL-small.carrying.bag-DIMINUTIVE

[Thry]

In Portuguese, puta means plainly "bitch" while os putos can be used for "little kids" xD.

[Herr Dunkel]

Bitchlets = little children
Actually does sound legit.

[hwhatting]

Sure, it's a transparent compound.
It's one of these.

That really was in bad taste.

[WeepingElf]

Sure, it's a transparent compound.
It's one of these.

That really was in bad taste.

That kind of necktie is the perfect camouflage for geeks. Other geeks will recognize that the pattern is fractal, and consider it cool and recognize that you are a geek. The jocks will mistake it for paisley and won't care.

[Torco]

anyone who's old enough to wear a necktie isn't young enough to be worrying about what 'the jocks' will think, methinks

[Zwap]

I'm sure some foreigners would chuckle if they arrived at the end station of a Swedish train.

[Thry]

xDDDDD

[Karutoshika]

Here's another one for you. This one is from Russian.

"Водку найду" = "What can I do" (pronounced in very simular way)
But russian one means "I will search for vodka" xD
So it is from the song which goes like "Водку найду, What can I do"

[hwhatting]

"Водку найду" = "What can I do" (pronounced in very simular way)
But russian one means "I will search for vodka" xD

Actually, it means "I will find vodka."

[Noriega]

Re: Swedish skjuta (shoot) and sköta (look after, care for). There's the story about a sign saying "Sköts av kyrkogårdsförvaltningen" next to tombstones in a cemetary. This is intended to mean "Looked after by the cemetary administration". (Present tense passive of sköta.) However, sköt- is also the past tense of skjuta, so another perfectly grammatical interpretation is "Was shot by the cemetary administration". Hurr hurr!

Also, the old unverified commercial for the Swedish consumer cooperative Konsum: "Kom med i det glada Konsumgänget!" meaning something like "Come and join the happy Konsum crowd". Now, put two dots above the o in "Konsum" and you get "Kom med i det glada Könsumgänget!", meaning "Come and join the happy intercourse". (lit. köns-umgänge ≈ genitalia-relations).