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Favourite foreign words

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Eynsham Red 18 Jan 7:39am, 18 Jan 2025 11,721 posts	Quote Pin Eynsham Red Hurtigruten. Definitely has a Muppet Swedish Chef vibe.
richmac 18 Jan 8:00am, 18 Jan 2025 31,147 posts	Quote Pin richmac Ersatz my fav for years And Наздраве!" (nahz drav vee) - Bulgarian for Cheers used it everyday after a bar owner said, through a cloud of fag smoke 'Наздраве! Will open many doors" also made me smile to pronounce it as No strava.
Big_G 18 Jan 8:15am, 18 Jan 2025 4,434 posts	Quote Pin Big_G A basic one, but Huisdier. In Dutch, Huis=house, dier=animal. Huisdier=pet.
richmac 18 Jan 8:26am, 18 Jan 2025 31,148 posts	Quote Pin richmac I like the simplicity of that
becca7 18 Jan 8:27am, 18 Jan 2025 9,931 posts	Quote Pin becca7 I like the Chinese word for cat, Mao pronounced with a long tone. It does sound a little like the noise a cat makes.
NordRunner 18 Jan 10:12am, 18 Jan 2025 4,918 posts	Quote Pin NordRunner Eynsham Red wrote:Hurtigruten. Definitely has a Muppet Swedish Chef vibe. Yes, in Norwegian meaning «the fast route». [The -ig ending in hurtig is related to the adjective -y ending in English, and that's how it's pronounced. “Fennig” in English used to mean dirty, marshy, but it changed to -y in the place Fenny Compton, meaning marshy valley settlement]. My favourite person's name in Norwegian is Christian Landmark. I often wonder whether visiting him is equivalent to a pilgrimage to Rome.
Muttley 18 Jan 11:11am, 18 Jan 2025 3,721 posts	Quote Pin Muttley A favourite phrase in Russian is "to hang noodles on your ears". In English we would pull the wool over your eyes, or pull your leg.
jabberknit 18 Jan 11:39am, 18 Jan 2025 4,599 posts	Quote Pin jabberknit My boss in my first proper job was Swiss-German (incidentally married to a sister of crooner Engelbert). He often translated sayings from his own language into English and my favourite was 'that man walks beside his own shoes' meaning he's bonkers or mad. Sadly I never found out the original. I love the bizarre Spanish word for carrot, zanahoria.
Big_G 18 Jan 4:14pm, 18 Jan 2025 4,435 posts	Quote Pin Big_G Not the point of this thread, but my OH’s Dutch Mum speaks perfect English, but one time forgot the English word ‘binoculars’. Whilst trying to find the right word, she called them ‘faraway lookers’, so that is now what we call them.
paulcook 18 Jan 4:22pm, 18 Jan 2025 7,247 posts	Quote Pin paulcook Entrepreneur. Simply because the French don’t have a word for it!