I know for instance, between Japanese & Mandarin there are a few words that are written the same despite them being pronounced differently along with having different meanings altogether:

Word Japanese Definition Mandarin Definition
手紙 Letter (mail) Toilet Paper
先生 Teacher Mister (Mr.)
天井 Ceiling Atrium
説話 Folktale To Speak
新聞 Newspaper News (media)
約束 Promise Constrain
文句 Complain Phrase
怪我 Injury Blame me
白鳥 Swan White Bird
皮肉 Irony Skin & Flesh
王妃 Queen Princess
中古 Used Product Medieval Times
氷箱 Ice Box Refrigerator
手袋 Gloves Handbag
邪魔 Hinderance Devil
湯 Hot Water Soup
猪 Boar Pig
腕 Arm Wrist
走 Run Walk
棚 Shelf Shed
首 Neck Head
床 Floor Bed
吃 Scold To Eat
机 Desk (Furniture) Machinery
娘 Daughter Mother

In hindsight: if you are bilingual, do you know any false friends between two languages (i.e. English & French) or (i.e. Spanish & Portuguese) that are spelled the same but have different definitions across both languages?

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    2·
    5 hours ago

    Sure, but “camera” doesn’t really mean room, it means chamber, which is a small enclosed space, and if you grab a box it is a camera by definition (just a very small one). And if you close every place where light can get into a small chamber you get a “camera obscura” which just means a dark chamber. And if you poke a hole on a camera obscura you will see an image of the outside being projected on the opposite wall. This was a very common trick in pre-industrialization, and became known as Camera Obscura, from then someone had the idea to put photosensitive material, also known as photographic, on the opposite wall and created the first photographic chamber, or “photographic camera”, which eventually was abbreviated to camera.

    So yeah, they mean different things, but not really.