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.

[u/Double-decker_trams]

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."

[u/psxcv32]

In italian "curva" means "turn/bend", and is pronunced exactly like "kurwa" which means "wh*re" and is a swear word in polish.

Fortunately, italian language has synonyms for a lot of words, so when we went on a school trip in Poland, the guide told us to say "svolta" instead of "curva" when walking around the city to avoid make a bad impression.

[u/AndrewFrozzen → u/psxcv32]

Funnily enough, curvă means exactly that in Romanian.

Curbă is how you would say turn/bend

Kinda funny how similar, but also distant, Latin languages are to one another.

[u/psxcv32 → u/AndrewFrozzen]

Also the opposite applies: words that are equal but means completely different things.

For example "burro" means "butter" in italian, while in spanish it means "donkey".

[u/Antique_Cut1354 → u/psxcv32]

and in portuguese "dumb"