English words you'll find in other languages—and their unexpected meanings

It can feel satisfying to learn a word in your new language that's the same as in your first language. What an easy win!

But sometimes a familiar-seeming word has a totally different meaning. In this post, we are going to look at some of these interesting cases across languages!

But why do similar words have different meanings across languages?

There are a few reasons words across languages might look familiar but mean different things.

Sometimes words look similar but mean different things purely by coincidence-there are only so many sounds in the world's languages, so it's no surprise that there's overlap. For example, Spanish pregunta may look a bit like the English word pregnant, but pregunta means "question"!

There's also the case of false cognates or false friends, where related words have evolved in different languages to have different meanings. The actual Spanish word for "pregnant" is embarazada… which looks a lot like English embarrassed! In fact, these very different words share roots in old words for "to block" or "to bar."

Words can also be borrowed from one language to another, and while their meanings may initially remain similar, their meanings can also diverge, sometimes dramatically.

Smoking, camping, dancing-oh my!

English is an especially common source of these shape-shifting words since it functions as a lingua franca or common language in many settings. As a result, speakers who know the word's new meaning may not even realize how much it has changed from the English version! Here are a few dramatic examples.

Smoking
This word was initially borrowed from English into French to refer to a specific type of lounge jacket, which was called a smoking jacket, but was shortened to just smoking. From there, it got borrowed into other languages such as Czech, German, Italian and Russian.

When words enter other languages like this, they have to adjust to the sound rules of the language, and sometimes their meaning becomes much more specific, or much less. This is how smoking ended up referring to a tuxedo in many languages!

Homeoffice / home office
You likely know what a "home office" is in English, but this meaning was already covered in many languages by existing words or phrases. What often wasn't covered was working from home-which is the exact hole that this phrase has filled!

For example, in German you can say Ich habe Homeoffice, which doesn't mean they have a room to work in at home, but instead means "I am working from home." Similar expressions can be found in Spanish and Portuguese!

Camping
Camping is used in French, Greek, Polish, and Russian to refer to the location used for camping, which we would call a campsite in English!

For example, in French you could say Je retourne au camping to mean "I am returning to the campsite."

But this doesn't stop at camping! Similar -ing words are used in many languages to refer to the location where the specific activity takes place: You'll find that dancing means "dancehall" in Dutch, Italian, and Spanish and sleeping can mean sleeping car of a train in French.

Examples from around the world

Language	Borrowed word	Probable root	Meaning
Brazilian Portuguese	o box	box	shower stall
Danish	butterfly	butterfly	bow tie
Dutch	de panty	pant + -y	tights
French	le baby-foot	baby foot(ball)	foosball
German	das Handy	hand(held) + y	cellphone
Italian	il box auto	box + auto	garage
Japanese	サラリーマン (Sararīman)	salary + man	office worker
Korean	핸드폰 (haendeupon)	hand + phone	cellphone
Mandarin	图样图森破 (túyàngtúsēnpò)	too young too simple	naive, nonsensical
Polish	dres	dress	tracksuit
Spanish	el footing	foot + -ing	jogging
Swedish	afterwork	after + work	happy hour after work
Tagalog	ref	ref(rigerator)	refrigerator
Thai	เช็คบิล (chĕkh bil)	check + bill	Check, please / Bill, please

Languages make words their own

Language contact works in interesting and sometimes mysterious ways. And don't worry if you get confused-that's part of the fun!

If it's any comfort, this also happens in English, to people learning English. For example, the phrase double entendre is actually not used in French!

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