30 Times People Hilariously Worked Their Way Around Forgetting Or Not Knowing Particular English Words
If you want to learn a language, you have to be OK with failing. You're gonna mess up sentence structures, mix up genders, and even forget the simplest words. It's bound to happen. But if your ego doesn't crumble in the process, you'll realize that it's the only way to master a foreign tongue. And that people don't give a damn about your mistakes; they respect the effort.
Sam Collins is a 26-year-old gay man and the CTO of a medical software company, who also streams on Twitch every week. He grew up in an English-speaking part of Canada, but later moved to the French-speaking area. And that's precisely where he met Vince, his boyfriend.
Vince isn't a native English speaker. But he's killing it. I mean, he finds a way out of a sentence even when he doesn't know the right words. This one time, for example, he forgot the word 'lid' so he held up a pot and asked Sam, "Where is his hat?"
The genius one-liner caught Sam completely off guard. He liked it so much, he even tweeted it. But the man wasn't the only one who loved it. Nearly 800,000 people have liked the example of Vince's linguistic freestyle, and many have responded to it with other brilliant English word 'replacements' as well. Continue scrolling and check them out.
Image credits: chemicollins
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Judging by the way Sam described his boyfriend, no wonder Vince had come up with something so simple yet so brilliant on the spot. "He's an absolute sweetheart," Sam told Bored Panda. "Our friends consistently call him an 'angel' because he's so thoughtful and kind. He can be a bit nervous in big social situations, but once you get him talking, he's happy to geek out and have fun! He tries hard not to depend on his French, so he makes a lot of word substitutions (like calling a pot lid a hat) when he's talking. I think it's cute as heck."
Once I couldn't remember how to say still water, so I ordered "water without bubbles". It worked 🤷♀️
Sam acknowledges that couples who have some sort of a language barrier between them face additional challenges. But that's nothing they can't solve if both partners are committed to one another. "Healthy relationships are built on good communication, so being in a bilingual relationship sometimes means working twice as hard to communicate clearly," the man said.
"We often find each other totally missing important things that the other person said, which can definitely be frustrating, but we make sure to be understanding and kind to each other when it does happen. On the plus side, we've both drastically improved our second language skills!"
The attention Sam's tweet has received was not something he expected. So many people have been relating to it. Sam himself thinks the Internet's reaction is really cute. "Amazingly, everyone has been so positive about it! Almost zero negativity. Lots of people sharing similar stories and talking about what it's like to live in a bilingual relationship. It's amazing! I'm happy to share in that joy with so many people."
Interestingly, Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Powers of Two, wrote that long-term couples "start to match each other in the basic rhythms and syntactical structures of their speech." This happens because of something psychologists call emotional contagion, which causes us to mimic everything from our partner’s accent to their laugh, bringing us even closer together. But it doesn't happen overnight.
"Be patient with your bilingual partner, and give them ample time to speak their mind," Sam added. "Celebrate the little mistakes and unique sayings that come from each other, and laugh about them together."
Makes sense though. It is the dark time.
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Once... a long time ago... during the finals in high school my entire class suffered a brain fart, one that affected out teachers as well. The most famous I think was "a round item to hold water".... Everybody knew what it was but we forgot the word. After 3 days of thinking a history teacher (which whom we first shared our dilemna) opened a door in the middle of math class and shouted "guys ... it's a barrel!"...
Well, so far Marky Mark. Knock on tree, it will get better.
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Can probably see the future.
"A friend of mine (whose first language _is_ English) . . .". Oddly, "who's" is not possessive, but just a contraction for "who is".
My stepdaughter once called the laundry soap "laundry sauce" because she couldn't come up with soap or detergent. It is now and forever laundry sauce in my house.
The word "mushrooms" eluded me for a couple of years. Even when told it, I would forget instantly. I knew fungi, champignones, not toadstools and gnome homes. I was ill at the time
I was describing a cartoon once and I could NOT remember Speedy Gonzales' first name. I was like, "he's a mouse, and he's really fast, and his last name is Gonzales." I am a native English speaker who used to be a writer and editor.
Then from the dark, They came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the First of the Dead, The Witch of Izalith and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights. And the Furtive Pygmy, so easily forgotten.
My son's first language is English but he's a bit of a polyglot. He forgets English words frequently.
When I was very little and hadn't learned the word "yesterday," I called it "last day." It made sense since we said "last night!"
we are English and we have always called milk cow juice. mind we do have funny names for lots of things
This reminds me of a student who didn't know the word "cow". On seeing the picture of one he declared, That's a beef".
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I'm german, but I write stuff in english. One time, I forgot the word "barrel". No problem, just enter the german word for it (Fass) in my translation app... except I'd also forgotten the grman word. I'd forgotten the exact same word in two different languages. I ended up substituting "round crate" until I remembered.
One day I had to be constantly switching between 3 languages and my brain was frankly short circuiting. So I called my mom to ask what the word for "cow holder" was. Barn. I was looking for the word "barn"...
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I am french and once went to a Tiffany store asking for handcuffs for my husband's birthday. I wanted cuff links... the lady laughed and said there might be a market for Tiffany handcuffs ;)
I remember once i was talking to one of my British friends and i forgot the word for Britain. I called it Britland.
funny! my bestie is Danish, and i always jokingly call Denmark Daneland, and we both find it excruciatingly funny
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I speak English, for 40+ years and I still completely blank on words. Luckily I have a best friend who will know exactly what I mean when I say 'you know, the thing with the thing!' My own personal translator
Once I forgot the word "Mouse" so I told my friend "The small annoying character in Tom and Jerry".
My mom and her family are multilingual and English is not th efirst for any of them. I grew up translating and needing a translator in English, LOL, tho' English is *my* first language. Like my mom, I call hurricanes "Hot blizzards", and baffled the hell outta my hubby when I once asked for, "Y'know, the stabby thing? Like for hay, but smaller." (I meant a *fork*. He still calls forks "stabby things". *sigh*)
My husband from Peru once asked: what's that thing bees make? I say: Honey. He says: You know the sweet thing bees make! I say: Honey! He (annoyed now) says: the liquid sweet thing I put in tea! I say: Honey! Then it dawns on me what's happening. In case you haven't guessed, my petname for him is "Honey". Poor guy thought I was mocking him. Many lost in translation moments over the years but that was our best abbott & costello inpersonation.
"The animal that looks like a mammal, but has a beak like ducks" (a platypus)
On our first trip to London we wanted to have lunch in an italian restaurant. Although we both learned English at school, my friend couldn't do anything with the English menu. At that time I only remembered the German terms for a couple of the pizza toppings. It ended with the waitress starting to paint on their pad the things they had on offer. Amazingly, we went there again the next day despite the embarrassment. I still tease her with it sometimes.
'The Fire Truck People' - Firemen, 'The sweep sweep scottish thing' - curling. I'm a native English speaker and I have way more than those two, I drop words and lose names all the time.
We are german and when i read a lot of english sites and listen to all of my favorite youtube channels i forget the german words when i tell him things that i read or watch. I than try to explain with the weirdest discriptions what i want to tell him.
For quite some time I've said dinner instead of lunch and caused real confusion. At school I've learned the word supper for a meal in the evening so I thought dinner was the right word until a native English speaker explained the meaning of a few words to me.
I was invited for 'tea' in Scotland. What did I get? Soup. Dinner. Biscuits. And then tea : D
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I was in Vietnam and asked a local why they have hammer and 'metal-banana' symbol everywhere
Didn't you think to inform you about the country before travel???
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My boyfriend is from Poland, and while he is completely bilingual and has lived in the US for 23 years, will sometimes forgets English words. He refers to a spatula as "that flat thing." He'll be talking, forget a word in English, and I'm not always quick to respond and my native language is English (I know six other languages besides but not Polish and none of the aforementioned languages very well)! He'll look at me and said, "you don't know English either!" We've been together for 16 years.
Me and my Norwegian ex girlfriend went to Olive Garden and she loved the "Tour of Italy" meal when it was time to order she ordered the "Italian Journey" hahah i miss and love her till this day!
Funny as it may sometimes sound, it is not nice to make fun of non-native speakers' efforts to explain themselves in a language that isn't their own.
In a way it depends. I'm a non-native speaker who studied in Britain and after particularly long days it used to be insanely difficult to express myself. But it was pretty easy to distinguish between the a******s and people simply finding me funny. On one occasion I wanted to ask a classmate if we could share a room on an overnight trip. Turns out, the correct way isn't to ask whether I can sleep with them... 🤦🏻♀️
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I speak multiple languages, as do all of my friends. This is really typical of anyone in any language - and can be bloody funny if you have a sense of humour about learning languages. What's worse, is when you go back to your own main language and forget basic words, after speaking a different language for a while. "Chair" and "door" are 2 words I've forgotten when coming back to my primary-language. *eyeroll at myself*
I forgot the word for cream cheese once and asked for the bagel butter .
In Mandarin (and probably other languages) new words are formed from existing words - like "computer" is "electric brain machine".
When my dad (British) had his first stroke, he eventually got a lot of his language back, but he had some holes. So he would sometimes say things like "Where's my tiny clock?" "You mean watch?" "Yes, where's my watch?" An hour later... "What's the tiny clock called?"
I still call rainbow belt candy "gay bacon" because YASSSS QUEEEENNN!!!!!
My father in law had Alzheimer's and once came out of the bathroom telling me he had "changed the windy thing you clean with" I thanked him for changing the toilet paper.
My wife forgot the word "dusk" and called it "badger time" - I now only refer to the end of the day as badger time.
My husband’s nan asked me to get her some savoury cookies from the store.
“Water out, spaghetti stop” The one and only way I refer to a sieve (strainer) since I have heard the story about a new immigrant in the UK who didn’t let her basic level of English limit her 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
I am French and once went to a Tiffany store asking for "handcuffs for my husband's birthday. I wanted cuff links... the lady
On Sunday I forgot the word cooking spoon and kept calling it a stir stick
I only know English, but I forgot "absorbent" so I said "like flammable, but for water"
Numerous times I've told the cab driver to take me to the "plane station" instead of airport.
English isn't my first language so once I forgot the word for "river" and told the taxi driver to take me to "the place with boats".
This has happened only once ... I forgot the word "cotton" and being a Spanish-speaking person, I said (in clear English accent) "I would like like some 'al-guh-don'" ... I left empty-handed that day ...
It is SO refreshing to learn I'm not the only one forgetting words to common objects.
I love these, I love how they show how the brain tries to find a way to express itself when it's having a short circuit/senior moment
Not quite the same, but I was once asked by German tourists for 'coward jam'. They meant fig jam, but had Google translated 'feige' and gambled on the wrong translation. It was very hard to stay professional. I also wanted to give them a massive hug because it was so cute.
I worked with a spanish lady. Instead of "You don't realise" she would say "You no really lise". I thought it was so cute I didn't correct her. I am ashamed at how bad we english are at other languages. It's so rude to enjoy another countries beauty on holiday and make no attempt at all to speak the language. I can just about get by in german and when I was there people's jaws literally dropped open when I showed I understood what they said.
I forgot the french word for she-wolf (louve) and called it "loupette" (loup is a male wolf...)
It's not exactly the same thing, but when I was a kid, I used to say the same word over and over again until it lost all meaning. I found that 'purple' was the best word for that particular strangeness.
I'm like that with all words. If I say or hear it too many times. it becomes gibberish.
Load More Replies... I'm german, but I write stuff in english. One time, I forgot the word "barrel". No problem, just enter the german word for it (Fass) in my translation app... except I'd also forgotten the grman word. I'd forgotten the exact same word in two different languages. I ended up substituting "round crate" until I remembered.
One day I had to be constantly switching between 3 languages and my brain was frankly short circuiting. So I called my mom to ask what the word for "cow holder" was. Barn. I was looking for the word "barn"...
Load More Replies... I am french and once went to a Tiffany store asking for handcuffs for my husband's birthday. I wanted cuff links... the lady laughed and said there might be a market for Tiffany handcuffs ;)
I remember once i was talking to one of my British friends and i forgot the word for Britain. I called it Britland.
funny! my bestie is Danish, and i always jokingly call Denmark Daneland, and we both find it excruciatingly funny
Load More Replies... I speak English, for 40+ years and I still completely blank on words. Luckily I have a best friend who will know exactly what I mean when I say 'you know, the thing with the thing!' My own personal translator
Once I forgot the word "Mouse" so I told my friend "The small annoying character in Tom and Jerry".
My mom and her family are multilingual and English is not th efirst for any of them. I grew up translating and needing a translator in English, LOL, tho' English is *my* first language. Like my mom, I call hurricanes "Hot blizzards", and baffled the hell outta my hubby when I once asked for, "Y'know, the stabby thing? Like for hay, but smaller." (I meant a *fork*. He still calls forks "stabby things". *sigh*)
My husband from Peru once asked: what's that thing bees make? I say: Honey. He says: You know the sweet thing bees make! I say: Honey! He (annoyed now) says: the liquid sweet thing I put in tea! I say: Honey! Then it dawns on me what's happening. In case you haven't guessed, my petname for him is "Honey". Poor guy thought I was mocking him. Many lost in translation moments over the years but that was our best abbott & costello inpersonation.
"The animal that looks like a mammal, but has a beak like ducks" (a platypus)
On our first trip to London we wanted to have lunch in an italian restaurant. Although we both learned English at school, my friend couldn't do anything with the English menu. At that time I only remembered the German terms for a couple of the pizza toppings. It ended with the waitress starting to paint on their pad the things they had on offer. Amazingly, we went there again the next day despite the embarrassment. I still tease her with it sometimes.
'The Fire Truck People' - Firemen, 'The sweep sweep scottish thing' - curling. I'm a native English speaker and I have way more than those two, I drop words and lose names all the time.
We are german and when i read a lot of english sites and listen to all of my favorite youtube channels i forget the german words when i tell him things that i read or watch. I than try to explain with the weirdest discriptions what i want to tell him.
For quite some time I've said dinner instead of lunch and caused real confusion. At school I've learned the word supper for a meal in the evening so I thought dinner was the right word until a native English speaker explained the meaning of a few words to me.
I was invited for 'tea' in Scotland. What did I get? Soup. Dinner. Biscuits. And then tea : D
Load More Replies... I was in Vietnam and asked a local why they have hammer and 'metal-banana' symbol everywhere
Didn't you think to inform you about the country before travel???
Load More Replies... My boyfriend is from Poland, and while he is completely bilingual and has lived in the US for 23 years, will sometimes forgets English words. He refers to a spatula as "that flat thing." He'll be talking, forget a word in English, and I'm not always quick to respond and my native language is English (I know six other languages besides but not Polish and none of the aforementioned languages very well)! He'll look at me and said, "you don't know English either!" We've been together for 16 years.
Me and my Norwegian ex girlfriend went to Olive Garden and she loved the "Tour of Italy" meal when it was time to order she ordered the "Italian Journey" hahah i miss and love her till this day!
Funny as it may sometimes sound, it is not nice to make fun of non-native speakers' efforts to explain themselves in a language that isn't their own.
In a way it depends. I'm a non-native speaker who studied in Britain and after particularly long days it used to be insanely difficult to express myself. But it was pretty easy to distinguish between the a******s and people simply finding me funny. On one occasion I wanted to ask a classmate if we could share a room on an overnight trip. Turns out, the correct way isn't to ask whether I can sleep with them... 🤦🏻♀️
Load More Replies... I speak multiple languages, as do all of my friends. This is really typical of anyone in any language - and can be bloody funny if you have a sense of humour about learning languages. What's worse, is when you go back to your own main language and forget basic words, after speaking a different language for a while. "Chair" and "door" are 2 words I've forgotten when coming back to my primary-language. *eyeroll at myself*
I forgot the word for cream cheese once and asked for the bagel butter .
In Mandarin (and probably other languages) new words are formed from existing words - like "computer" is "electric brain machine".
When my dad (British) had his first stroke, he eventually got a lot of his language back, but he had some holes. So he would sometimes say things like "Where's my tiny clock?" "You mean watch?" "Yes, where's my watch?" An hour later... "What's the tiny clock called?"
I still call rainbow belt candy "gay bacon" because YASSSS QUEEEENNN!!!!!
My father in law had Alzheimer's and once came out of the bathroom telling me he had "changed the windy thing you clean with" I thanked him for changing the toilet paper.
My wife forgot the word "dusk" and called it "badger time" - I now only refer to the end of the day as badger time.
My husband’s nan asked me to get her some savoury cookies from the store.
“Water out, spaghetti stop” The one and only way I refer to a sieve (strainer) since I have heard the story about a new immigrant in the UK who didn’t let her basic level of English limit her 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
I am French and once went to a Tiffany store asking for "handcuffs for my husband's birthday. I wanted cuff links... the lady
On Sunday I forgot the word cooking spoon and kept calling it a stir stick
I only know English, but I forgot "absorbent" so I said "like flammable, but for water"
Numerous times I've told the cab driver to take me to the "plane station" instead of airport.
English isn't my first language so once I forgot the word for "river" and told the taxi driver to take me to "the place with boats".
This has happened only once ... I forgot the word "cotton" and being a Spanish-speaking person, I said (in clear English accent) "I would like like some 'al-guh-don'" ... I left empty-handed that day ...
It is SO refreshing to learn I'm not the only one forgetting words to common objects.
I love these, I love how they show how the brain tries to find a way to express itself when it's having a short circuit/senior moment
Not quite the same, but I was once asked by German tourists for 'coward jam'. They meant fig jam, but had Google translated 'feige' and gambled on the wrong translation. It was very hard to stay professional. I also wanted to give them a massive hug because it was so cute.
I worked with a spanish lady. Instead of "You don't realise" she would say "You no really lise". I thought it was so cute I didn't correct her. I am ashamed at how bad we english are at other languages. It's so rude to enjoy another countries beauty on holiday and make no attempt at all to speak the language. I can just about get by in german and when I was there people's jaws literally dropped open when I showed I understood what they said.
I forgot the french word for she-wolf (louve) and called it "loupette" (loup is a male wolf...)
It's not exactly the same thing, but when I was a kid, I used to say the same word over and over again until it lost all meaning. I found that 'purple' was the best word for that particular strangeness.
I'm like that with all words. If I say or hear it too many times. it becomes gibberish.
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