This time in Language day we embark on an imaginery journey through languages. We introduce one word in one language, and try to find the same word in another language, but meaning something else. We are looking for short stories of linguistic coincidences!

When a Greek learns the Finnish word for thank you, Kiitos, he might be thinking of a whale - for that’s what whale is in Greek (although they do say φάλαινα as well).

When an American finds that his house in Finland contains home, he might at first be perplexed, and think that it’s quite alright - until he learns that the word Home in Finnish means mold (and that’s no good of course).

When an Estonian talks about that same thing, a Finn might be equally perplexed - until he or she finds out that the Estonian word for mould is Hallitus (but the exact same word in Finnish means government). Perplexed?

When a German speaks in the negative, with a definite no to a question, Nein! Well, that we all know, right? That an English speaking person hears number nine (only written differently, nein and nine)

There’s a joke about the Japanese language in Finland. A Finn would know a whole sentence in “Fapanese”: Jokohama kumahuta, written like that in Finnish. Naturally, it sounds a bit like Yokohama (pronounced the same way), and some words after that. Kuma is Japanese for bear by the way. Well, the joke is not just about the language, but the meaning of the sentence, for it is a funny way to ask another person: Shall I punch (you) already? Ready for the punch?! Or it could very well be a name for a Japanese boxer!

An additonal explanation for the Finnish language readers, a disection of the words: jo (already) - ko (question mark) - ha (emphasizing ending for jo, more or less like yes?! in English) - ma (I, from minä/mä, becomes ma to suit the previous syllables) - kumahuta (verb with the base form kumahuttaa, meaning to punch, to strike, but without the ending -n for I; this verb sounds very colloquial, like something said in Ostrobothnia where coming out to give a punch (much more pleasant than striking with a knife) used to be a very common thing.

So anyway, here follows a short (that might get to be pretty long) alphabetical list of homogeneous words (written alike) having different meanings in some other language(s). For the sake of clarity and equality, both the host language and the receiving language indicated, so everything appears twice, thrice or even more!

Aisa (Fin) means shaft, but ice in Samoan
Aisa (Sam) means ice, but is shaft in Finnish
Angel (Eng) means angel, yes, but fishing rod in German
Angel (Ger) means fishing rod, but angel in English

Bad (Eng) is bad, opposite of good, but it means bath in Dutch and Swedish
Bad (Swe/Dut) means bath, but something worse, i.e. bad, in English
Barn (Eng) means an outlying building in a farm, but children in Swedish and Dutch
Barn (Swe/Dut) means children, but an outlying building in a farm in English
Bat (Eng) is bat: a flying mammal or a club used to hit a ball, but whip in Polish
Bat (Pol) means whip, but something else in English!
Burro (Spa) means donkey, but it is butter in Italian
Burro (Ita) means butter, but donkey in Spanish

Fart (Eng) means expelling intestinal gas, but it means speed in Swedish and Good luck in Polish
Fart (Pol) means Good Luck, but expelling intestinal gas in English
Fart (Swe) means speed, but expelling intestinal gas in English
Gift (Eng) means present, but poison in German and Norwegian, and married in Swedish
Gift (Swe) means being married, but stands for present in English, and poison in German and Norwegian
Gift (Ger/Nor) means poison, but being married in Swedish, and (give-away) present in English

Hallitus (Est) means mould, but government in Finnish
Hallitus (Fin) means government, but mould in Estonian
Home (Fin) means mold, but home in English
Home (Eng) is home, but it means mold in Finnish, and man in Catalan

Kaka (Bul) means older sister, but other things in the languages below
Kaka (Ice) means cake, but older sister in Bulgarian
Kaka (Swa) means brother, but cookie in Swedish
Kaka (Swe) means cookie, but older sister in Bulgarian and brother in Swahili
Kama (Fin) means stuff, but is a Japanese type sickle in Japanese
Kama (Jap) 鎌 or かまis a Japanese sickle, also employed as a weapon, but it stands for stuff in Finnish
Kan (Swe) means the verb can, but it is blood in Turkish
Kan (Tur) means blood, but stands for the present tense of to be able to, can in Swedish
Kina (Fin) means a quarrel, but stands for China in Swedish
Kina (Swe) means China, but a quarrel in Finnish
Kind (Eng) as adjective is being benign, but it means child in German
Kind (Ger) means child, but being kind, benign, gentle etc in English, and sheep in Icelandic
Kind (Ice) means sheep, but child in German, and being kind, benign, gentle etc in English
κήτος (Gre) means whale or sea monster, but thanks in Finnish
Kiitos (Fin) means thanks, but whale or sea monster in Greek
Koko (Jap) ここ means here or this place, but stands for size in Finnish
Koko (Fin) means size, but here or this place in Japanese
Kudos (Eng) means praise given for achievement, but simply tissue in Finnish
Kudos (Fin) means tissue, but praise (given for achievement) in English
Kuu (Est) means month, but stands for the moon in Finnish
Kuu (Fin) means moon, but stands for month in Estonian

Mono (Fin) is a ski boot, but a thing in Japanese
Mono (Jap) もの means thing or things, but ski boot in Finnish
Nami (Fin) means candy, but wave in Japanese
Nami (Jap) 波 means wave, but candy in Finnish

Oma (Fin) means owned by oneself, one’s own, but stands for one's grandmother in German
Oma (Ger) is the affectionate term for one’s grandmother, but it means one’s own in Finnish
Otto (Fin) means withdrawal, but number eight in Italian
Otto (Ita) means number eight, but withdrawal in Finnish

Panna (Fin) means to put, but cream in Italian
Panna (Ita) means cream, but it is the verb to put in Finnish
Pato (Spanish) means duck, but dam in Finnish
Pato (Fin) means dam, but stands for duck in Spanish

Rana (Spa) means frog, but wound in Romanian and Bulgarian
Rana (Rom/Bul) means wound, but frog in Spanish

Tie (Eng) as a noun can mean a connecting link, a necktie etc, but it is road in Finnish
Tie (Fin) means road, but has many meanings in English, such as a connecting link, or a necktie
Tuna (Eng) is that most favorite fish of many of us, but it means ton in Czech
Tuna (Cze) means the weight ton, but it is a kind of fish in English

Vita (Ita) means life, but it stands for war in Swahili
Vita (Swa) means war, but life in Italian

Languages appearing in this list: Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish and Turkish

This list is definitely being updated from time to time! If you want to leave your own suggestions, forward them to kivita@gmail.com

https://langfocus.com/language-features/how-similar-finnish-and-estonian/

https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/different-meanings/

Updated 28.7.2023 Helsinki