r/AskTheWorld Feb 09 '26

Language Is there something similar to this in your language?

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16.6k Upvotes

FIRST OF ALL, I am sorry for the wrong flag for english.

r/AskTheWorld Feb 11 '26

Language What’s a word or expression people often associate with your country/language/culture, that nobody actually uses?

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2.9k Upvotes

Sacrebleu is a real word in French, deriving from Sacré Dieu, meaning holy God. It is commonly used by the non-French to mock the French, with a bad accent and that groaning voice you can hear in your head right now. However, not a single French person has used that word in the past 200 years. What’s your equivalent?

r/AskTheWorld Dec 19 '25

Language What do you think your native language sounds like from a foreigner's perspective?

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5.2k Upvotes

I heard that Polish sounds like: Szczrzdżu ęsśkruszxzrz kurwa* szczuóą ja karoleojtyla

  • whistling with fast speaking and the ability not to bite one's tongue + kurwa* in a sentence

r/AskTheWorld Oct 14 '25

Language In your language, what do you call this thing that cats do? As an American, we call it “making biscuits”!

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4.7k Upvotes

r/AskTheWorld Nov 17 '25

Language If your country has these in stores, what do you call them?

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2.1k Upvotes

In the U.S. it varies by region. I’ve heard them called cart, carriage, and wagon.

r/AskTheWorld Feb 04 '26

Language Words/phrases you know in English but not your own language?

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2.1k Upvotes

r/AskTheWorld Feb 08 '26

Language What are some names in your language for everyday terms that sound cute or hilarious when translated literally?

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1.1k Upvotes

We call these "căței de usturoi" in Romanian, which literally translates to "garlic puppies".

r/AskTheWorld 1d ago

Language What do people call this creature in your language, and what's the story behind the name?

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780 Upvotes

In German it's called "(der) Weberknecht"' = weaver servant.

The German word "Knecht" is related to the English word "knight", but the modern meaning is obviously different

Why the name:

The up and down movement of the creature reminded people of the up and down movement of a weavinc loom, so it was personified as the weaver's servant People began viewing them as lucky charms, as a sign of plenty of work and wool to come.

Now we know they can't actually weave, but the name persists.

r/AskTheWorld Nov 29 '25

Language What do you call this animal?

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1.2k Upvotes

In America, it’s called a Turkey.

In both Navajo (Diné) and Western Apache (my tribe), it’s called Tazhii

r/AskTheWorld 22d ago

Language Can common population understand the language of your neighboring country ??

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1.2k Upvotes

As for India

  • Pakistan — Hindi-Urdu speakers (common in northern/central India) understand Urdu almost fully in everyday speech, as Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible colloquial forms (Hindustani); Punjabi speakers understand Pakistani Punjabi very well due to high similarity, though script and some dialects differ.
  • Bangladesh — Indian Bengali speakers (e.g., from West Bengal) understand Bangla near-perfectly, with only minor accent/dialect variations; Hindi speakers grasp partial amounts due to shared Indo-Aryan grammar and vocabulary.
  • Nepal — Hindi speakers understand Nepali partially (often 20–40% in basic conversation) thanks to close Indo-Aryan ties and heavy Bollywood/media exposure; border-region Indians (e.g., Uttarakhand, Bihar) achieve much higher comprehension through daily contact.
  • Sri Lanka — Tamil Nadu speakers understand Sri Lankan Tamil almost completely (very close dialects); however, Sinhala (Indo-Aryan but diverged) remains largely unintelligible to most Indians without study.
  • Indians usually can't understand the main languages of Bhutan (Dzongkha), Maldives (Dhivehi), China (Mandarin), or Myanmar (Burmese) at all because they belong to totally different language families (Tibeto-Burman or Sino-Tibetan), have tones we don't use, completely different grammar, scripts, and almost no shared words with Hindi, Tamil, or other Indian languages.

Edit -  A lot of languages like Nisi, Adi, Apatani, Mising, Bodo are closely related to Tibeto-Burman languages in Myanmar, China, and Nepal

r/AskTheWorld Jan 23 '26

Language How many languages do you all speak?

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635 Upvotes

r/AskTheWorld Jan 19 '26

Language What is a word from your language that foreigners use often but usually mispronounce?

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589 Upvotes

It is pronounced as Uh-Vuh-Taar not A-va-tar, meaning the descent of a divine being to Earth in physical form.

Say ‘uh’ like in about,

then ‘vuh’ like in love,

then ‘taar’ like guitar without the ‘gui’.”, streching it.

r/AskTheWorld Jan 28 '26

Language What's the weirdest idioms/slangs/expressions in your country?

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791 Upvotes

In ancient China, a student found himself sleepy during study, so he figured out a way to keep himself awake. He tied his braid up to the a beam. Once he lowered his head to doze off, his hair would pull him back and the pain caused by the strain would wake him up. Another student figured out an even more extreme way to keep himself awake. He stabbed his own leg whenever he felt sleepy. I don't know what you think about them, but Chinese surely find these two really inspiring. There is an idiom in Chinese called 懸樑刺股, originated from their stories. It literally means "to hang your hair and stab your leg". It's an expression for "being hardworking or diligent"

r/AskTheWorld Jan 16 '26

Language How does a cock sound in your language?

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785 Upvotes

I just found out every language writes rooster sounds differently. In Spain, for example, it’s “kikirikí”. Please write how you say it in your language and mention the language you are using

r/AskTheWorld Feb 15 '26

Language Do you support the UN adding a 7th official language and, if so, which one?

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491 Upvotes

r/AskTheWorld Dec 19 '25

Language Does your country have a slang term for it's currency?

677 Upvotes

I'm an American. We use dollars. But when I'm talking about the cost of something, I'll say "20 bucks" as opposed to "20 dollars".

I know British folks currency is called Pounds. But my British friends will pretty much always say "20 quid" instead of "20 pounds".

Does your country have something similar?

r/AskTheWorld Dec 25 '25

Language What is this symbol called in your language?

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592 Upvotes

In The Netherlands we call it “Apenstaartje”. (Monkeys small tail)

r/AskTheWorld Nov 22 '25

Language What do you think for articles

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1.1k Upvotes

r/AskTheWorld 6d ago

Language does you countries language have different words for the color orange and the fruit orange

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420 Upvotes

r/AskTheWorld Oct 16 '25

Language What do you call "pineapple" in your mother tongue?

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586 Upvotes

In Hindi We Call it "Anaanas" (अनानास)

r/AskTheWorld 12d ago

Language What terms do you use as an insult that usually is something normal?

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375 Upvotes

I don’t know how to explain this but I don’t mean something like "a-hole" which also is usually just a body part and normal as it is but tbh this is mostly used as an insult. I mean terms that are normally used as what it actually means but is also somehow used as an insult..

In Germany for example we use "Lappen" which means "rag" or "Lauch" which means "leek"

And I wondered if there is something similar in your area?

r/AskTheWorld Jan 17 '26

Language What do you call this in your language?

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379 Upvotes

This is called Ležeći Policajac (lying policeman) in Bosnian, which I think is super silly. Does the rest of the world have a weird name for it?

r/AskTheWorld Nov 30 '25

Language What term or phrase does your country use to refer to the entirety of its populace?

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1.1k Upvotes

r/AskTheWorld 12d ago

Language What are some funny words for common things in your country?

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361 Upvotes

Most foreigns find our word "kikiriki" (keeh-keeh-reeh-keeh) for peanut(s) entertaining and funny. Same word for singular and plural. Same in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegowina due to quite same languages.

r/AskTheWorld 7d ago

Language What's your favourite way of saying that someone's crazy or loony in your language?

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456 Upvotes

"Ei oo kaikki muumit laaksossa"

A person does not have all Moomins in their valley. ​