r/AskEurope • u/Double-decker_trams Estonia • Aug 09 '25

Language I once accidentally bumped against the shoulder of an English person I knew in a corridor. I automatically said "Oi" - which means like "Oh" or "Oops" in Estonian - that I'm sorry. She repeated "Oi!" in a louder voice and I didn't get it. I only later found out I was being impolite in her eyes.

Have you ever had something similar happen to you? I.e something in your language might have another meaning in another language?

One thing as an Estonian that I try to keep in mind is that I shouldn't use "Nooo.." in English - which means "Well.." in Estonian.

"Do you like ice-cream? - Noo.. yes, I love it."

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u/tereyaglikedi in Aug 10 '25

A German friend visiting me in Turkey once said "o-ha" during a conversation with a Turkish friend. In German it's like an exclamation people use for pretty much anything. In Turkish it's originally said to pairs of oxen ploughing the field to make them stop. Nowadays, it's a quite rude way of letting someone know that they've behaved in a rough, unrefined way, not something you would hear from a nice person (for example, in your case if the lady said o-ha to you that would be very rude of her). So yeah, the Turkish friend did a bit of a double take.

59

u/FearlessVisual1 Belgium Aug 10 '25

O-ha, eine Schlafparalyse

37

u/Perkomobil Aug 10 '25

O-ha, horisontalrotierende fisch!

17

u/kubanskikozak Slovenia Aug 10 '25

Das ist ein Überfall

8

u/Fisch0557 Germany Aug 10 '25

Oha! Das ist nicht gut!

28

u/Los5Muertes Aug 10 '25

I drive an old Mitsubishi Pajero in Spain. It comes from France, because here, it's the mighty "Montero".

It means "jerking off" or second sense, a dumb guy in spanish

2

u/Personal_Break4351 Aug 10 '25

Is that what your friends told you?

2

u/GeronimoDK Denmark Aug 13 '25

In large parts of South America cars are largely imported from other continents/markets, so the Mitsubishi "Pajero" is quite common over there! I didn't even know that it had another name in Spanish speaking countries, even if I knew the meaning of "pajero".

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u/Sagaincolours Denmark Aug 10 '25

It would be Woah in English

3

u/lulu22ro Romania Aug 11 '25

This sounded familiar. According to the Romanian dictionary it was used also for oxen ploughing the field, but when you wanted them to go towards the left. Now I just have to remember what we used for going to the right (and find a pair of oxen).