Non-English English words

[DearPrudence]

Also:
"le dressing": walk-in closet
"le paperboard": "flip chart"
"un lift" (tennis): "a topspin shot"

 

[Brioche]

Is 'ee-the-berg' really any sillier than 'gue-wree-llah' and 'pah-tee-ow' (or whoever on earth you pronounce my favourite hispanicisms in English i.e. 'guerrilla' and 'patio')?

guerilla is pronounced the same as gorilla which is handy for silly jokes.

The woman who lived across the street from me when I was a kid pronounced "patio" to rhyme with "ratio". I'm sure she had no idea of its origin.

 

[EmilyD]

How about this one!

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jonr%C3%B3n

Es incluida tambien en la RAE.

It wouldn't surprise me if American/U.S. baseball terms had entered Japanese and Korean vocabulary and now Chinese, too.

Nomi

 

[jess oh seven]

Is 'ee-the-berg' really any sillier than 'gue-wree-llah' and 'pah-tee-ow' (or whoever on earth you pronounce my favourite hispanicisms in English i.e. 'guerrilla' and 'patio')?

But at least they´re SORT OF close to the proper pronunciation! "Iceberg" in Spanish just kills me everytime!

I don't think it really works in reverse since English is just entirely comprised of words from other languages.

 

[Outsider]

I don't think it really works in reverse since English is just entirely comprised of words from other languages.

Oh, some foreign-words-as-pronounced-by-English-speakers can be a bit giggle-inducing too, trust me.

 

[jess oh seven]

Oh, some foreign-words-as-pronounced-by-English-speakers can be a bit giggle-inducing too, trust me.

Don't I know it. I know I'm guilty of it. But if I know it's foreign, even if it's in everyday vocabulary, I try and pronounce it "correctly", but most of the time this just makes me sound pretentious

 

[Sepia]

Don't I know it. I know I'm guilty of it. But if I know it's foreign, even if it's in everyday vocabulary, I try and pronounce it "correctly", but most of the time this just makes me sound pretentious

What always made me wonder is the BE pronounciation of "lieutenant".

 

[zpoludnia swiata]

Words become part of a language if they are used enough. Spaghetti is an English word for all practical purposes as is Kindergarten, Santa Ana (type of wind), sauna, or piano... By the same token, Handy is a German word, berries is becoming a Chilean Spanish word, etc... It's a common thing for languages to incorporate words of "other" origin.

 

[Stiannu]

In Italian, I confirm smoking (tuxedo), footing (jogging), flipper (pinball machine) and many others already mentioned.
WC is also pronounced in the Italian way ("vee-tchee"), or sometimes referred to as water, but pronounced "vah-ter".

I'd like to add trolley, used alone (not in association with other words) to indicate a trolley bag for long distance trips, a piece of luggage, and not the normal trolley used for supermarkets or labs or restaurant kitchens, etc.
And block-notes, with a funny pronounciation ("block-noh-tess"), meaning a notebook or a writing pad.

 

[Porteño]

Here in Argentina we have many examples of the 'misuse' of English words, some of which I see are the same as those mentioned in French.

Dinner jacket/tuxedo -smoking
Tracksuit/jogging pants - jogging
Shopping centre - shopping
Jogging (activity) - footing
Campsite - camping
Parking lot - parking (not very common)

 

[Nanon]

Mispronouncing with misspelling: coocooning (with pronounced twice) is frequently heard and found in French. Ahem... French?!

 

[DearPrudence]

We call carparks "parkings", we call jogging "footing", we call a stud or a ring "un piercing", and so on.

The French also have a few false anglicisms. [...]
pressing = dry cleaners

Also:
"le dressing": walk-in closet
[...]

Paul Taylor, an English comedian who's lived in France for 9 years and speaks impeccable French, has a very interesting analysis on this situation
LES ANGLICISMES EN FRANÇAIS - #FRANGLAIS - PAUL TAYLOR

 

[tunaafi]

LES ANGLICISMES EN FRANÇAIS - #FRANGLAIS - PAUL TAYLOR

Well worth a look, though not a relooking.

 

[merquiades]

Oh gees, what a subject. Franglais drives me batty. There is a new one every day. Black Friday toute la semaine. Often I have to ask French people what the words are supposed to mean.

 

[Pedro y La Torre]

That one is fairly obvious, all the same. You get used to it after a while. The one that really took me time to decipher is "shunter" (which is a term used in IT meaning to bypass) from the English "to shunt". The problem is that the French pronounce it as something approximating "shanter" which is nothing like the English pronunciation of "shunt".

 

[Frank78]

Some more from German:

Public Viewing - is rather a pleasant event, namely watching a sports event together on a big screen in a public place
Bodybag - messenger bag
Oldtimer - not an old person but a classic car
Pullunder - sweater vest
Showmaster - TV host
Slip - underpants
Spot - a short video clip, normally a commercial
Shooting - you don't need a gun but a camera in German; a photo shoot

An the other way round German words English speakers use in a different sense:

stein - not a drinking vessel in German but just a "rock", "stone" or "brick"
blitz - the sole word can't be used to describe a quick action; "thunderbolt" or "flash" or as verb "being caught speeding (by a camera)".

 

[symposium]

In Italian also "hard" used as a synonym of "pornographic, sexually explicit": un film hard, un video hard, un messaggio hard = a text with explicit sexual content.

 

[Red Arrow]

"Footing" and "iceberg" (pronounced "ee-see-berg") are my two favourite anglicisms in Spanish, without a doubt. They're so silly.

Iceberg comes form Dutch ijsberg = "ice mountain"
The English mispronounce berg, so why can't the Spanish or Italians?

Oh gees, what a subject. Franglais drives me batty. There is a new one every day. Black Friday toute la semaine. Often I have to ask French people what the words are supposed to mean.

Recently, it was Black Thursday in Flanders, which is the day before Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving

 

[Red Arrow]

Another good one in Flanders is:
a sandwich: a little milk bread
(pronunciation: sontwish)

A baguette with meat and/or cheese and vegetables is called a club, for instance "club kaas" (club cheese). A baguette with meat and/or cheese without vegetables is called a broodje.

 

[Stoggler]

A baguette with meat and/or cheese and vegetables is called a club, for instance "club kaas" (club cheese). A baguette with meat and/or cheese without vegetables is called a broodje.

Vegetables? Do you mean salad stuff, like lettuce, tomato, cucumber, that sort of thing? To me vegetables suggests a load of peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts (among lots of other cooked “greens”)!

 

[Frank78]

Vegetables? Do you mean salad stuff, like lettuce, tomato, cucumber, that sort of thing? To me vegetables suggests a load of peas, carrots and Brussels sprouts (among lots of other cooked “greens”)!

Hm that sounds a bit odd to me. A sliced tomato or cucumber isn't really a salad. It still needs some kind of dressing or sauce to become one.

 

[Stoggler]

I didn’t say it was a salad, I said salad stuff (ie some of the ingredients that you might find in a salad). Things like tomatoes and cucumber are often found in sandwiches, I was wondering if that was meant by vegetables (if it is, then that’s not what we call such things in sandwiches in English).

 

[Frank78]

I was wondering if that was meant by vegetables (if it is, then that’s not what we call such things in sandwiches in English).

I think so.

 

[Perseas]

It still needs some kind of dressing or sauce to become one.

Or olive oil.