By nullroute - 16/02/2016 11:34 - Switzerland

Today, I found out that while on foreign exchange for over six months now, I have been pronouncing the word for "night" in German wrong. Apparently, this whole time, the way that I have been pronouncing it in German means "naked". This explains a lot. FML
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Top comments

WCARlover 34

Why would it take 6 months for someone to correct you? I can imagine you saying something like "last naked we went out to dinner" would make a person confused and then realize you meant night and would teach you how to say it correctly way before 6 months went by

212 3
BlackHawkSavior 28

I can just imagine OP asking, "Are we hanging out naked?"

209 17

Comments

Tarlachia 33

"The night was young, and naked was the night."

74 2
l4urenz 23

For those who wonder: it's Nacht=Night nackt=naked

8 1
BlackHawkSavior 28

I can just imagine OP asking, "Are we hanging out naked?"

209 17
teentee401 36

Lol that still wouldn't make sense the right way

10 0
UnknownUs3r 3

And then OP would be really confused if they said yes and started taking of their clothes

18 2
Futacy 29

"Are we hanging out tomorrow naked?" Fixed it.

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Xion0014 20

Hanging out tonight. I think thats what he meant

1 3
BlackHawkSavior 28

Thank you #35, by the time I realized my mistake it was already to late to edit it lol

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WCARlover 34

Why would it take 6 months for someone to correct you? I can imagine you saying something like "last naked we went out to dinner" would make a person confused and then realize you meant night and would teach you how to say it correctly way before 6 months went by

212 3
askullnamedbilly 33

Because it was probably obvious from the structure of the sentence that he was trying to say 'Nacht', not 'nackt' - many foreigners have problems with the 'ch' sounds, so Germans generally aren't confused when someone mispronounces them. Also, I bet a lot of the people he was talking to secretly thought it was hilarious.

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Migole 36

"Nacht" = night and "Nackt" = naked sound really similar when pronounced with a heavy accent. Most languages don't have a sound like the German "ch".

13 0
Ashamed_Sister 60

The J in Spanish sounds similar to CH in German.

9 2
baka4815 21

I don't know about Germany but I know in Japan people will not correct you. It's considered rude there.

18 1
no_playa_hater 14

As a German, I would probably not correct them. Especially since it sounds as though they speak with a Bavarian dialect haha

9 3
NalaBaloo 13

It is not particularly rude to correct someone in Germany but it is not very common to do so. I'd correct friends but that's it. I'm not quite sure how people in Switzerland would handle it (where this FML originated). :)

8 0
Coland 19

They could have thought it was an accent? Maybe?

2 1
Colon_Man 17

#20; One of my dispatchers keeps saying "ju hachi", thinking he was swearing. I finally enlightened him, yesterday, after six months. :) *it means "18".

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Malsain_fml 10

Well, I've been living in Spain for 3 years now. It was only after 1 year and half that I was told that when I said "you are" (in the 4th person, when I am speaking to various people) was wrong. I was actually saying "six" (nothing ashaming) but people could understand and would not correct me, nor would I use the word so often for people to hear it.

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no_playa_hater 14

There is no 4th person. When you're talking to a group of people, you use the 2nd person (plural).

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mareike 16

Hahaha nice, as a German I can relate to the weird looks you must have gotten

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The_Avatar 22

Hey things couldve been way more awkward....i went on an anatomy conference and lets just say it can get weird

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NalaBaloo 13

I don't see why this was such a big deal. I'm German and of course there's a difference between "Nacht" (night) and "nackt" (naked) but no one should've had any problems understanding you. It's quite common for native English speakers to struggle with the ch-sound because it doesn't exist in English (except for Scottish English). These two words have a completely different semantic meaning, so everyone should grasp from context what you wanted to say.

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