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Your say - Lost for words 3l126w

What a gay day! x2x4t

When I was learning German at school our teacher, Mr Sprake, told us of a time he was in on holiday, where they were enjoying very sunny, warm weather. He attempted to comment to his German friend how 'humid' it was that day by saying Es ist sehr schwul heute. Unfortunately, the word schwul when mis-pronounced means homosexual instead of humid, so he ended up sounding like Larry Grayson, saying 'What a gay day!'

Editor's note: Just a case of an extra couple of dots! Adding an umlaut to the 'u' in schwül and pronouncing it slightly differently, gives you the word for 'humid'.

Sent by: Karen

Comments 682840

Anonymous 2009-02-16

Ik ben warm (Lit.: I am warm)
Doesn't mean anything in Dutch
Instead it's: Ik heb het warm.
Lit.: I have it warm

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YYLim 2008-09-21

Woa! I was about to tell my German-talking guy to turn the fan down coz it's cold! Good job I stumbled over this!

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Lauren 2008-12-09

The same distinction is made in Spanish. I had a friend in Spain who, after a dancing with a girl, said muy caliente instead of muy calor. He got slapped!

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Hannah 2008-02-20

Oops, my friend and I always say Ich bin kalt. Wait until I tell her what it means. At least thats one phrase I won't use again.

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Dean 2006-08-03

I'll be going to soon, hopefully I'll this advice and won't make an embarrasing mistake!!

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Laura 2006-04-05

I can't actually how many times I have said Ich bin kalt, whoops! Won't be saying that again.

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Hubert Cumberdale 2005-12-07

During a German lesson our teacher asked us for the answer which was a letter and number. When she said 'G 6' we all burst out laughing because in the German pronunciation (geh sechs) it sounded like 'gay sex'!

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Roger 2006-02-09

A friend of mine was in an advanced English class in southern . Her teacher made the statement: 'A gay man is a happy man.' He couldn't quite understand why my friend and another girl who had both been exchange student in the US were laughing so hard.

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David 2005-07-27

This same problem occurred in when a female friend walked into a crowded lift and said Je suis chaud which won her many interested looks from the men. She wanted to say J'ai chaud, I am hot, not 'I am horny'!

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Kadooshka 2005-06-09

The German words for temperature are kalt = cold, warm = warm, heiß = hot. But while in , I discovered you have to be very careful how you say you're feeling cold etc. You should say Mir ist kalt - I am cold. If you say Ich bin kalt it means 'I am frigid'. If you say Ich bin warm it means 'I am homosexual'. And if you say Ich bin heiß it means 'I am horny'!

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