# Homophonous words/sentences



## Dymn

This is a thread to comment pairs of words or sentences that are homophonous (having the same pronounciation, as English _two, to_), in your language or dialect. I am not asking for the whole list, just the most frequent or funny if you know any. Add meaning and IPA pronunciation, if possible.


In 'Standard' *Catalan*:

_beure - veure_
'to drink - to see'
['bɛwɾə]

_no té sentit - no t'he sentit _
'it has no sense - I haven't heard you'
[no te sən'tit]

_pegar - pagar_
'to hit - to pay'
[pə'ga]

_bell - vell_
'beautiful - old'
[beʎ]

i - hi
'and - there (as fr. _y _and it. _ci_)'
_


In most *Spanish* dialects:

vaya - valla
'what a..., subjunctive of to go - fence'
['baja]

a - ha
'to - he has (as in he has gone)'
[a]

hola - ola
'hello - wave'
['ola]_


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## ger4

In German (just a few examples):
_
lehren - leeren_
'to teach - to empty'
['le:ʀən]
_
Lehre - Leere_
'teaching, theory, doctrine - emptiness'
['le:ʀə]
_
sprengen - sprengen _(same spelling)
'to sprinkle, to water - to blow up, to blast'
['ʃpʀɛŋən]

(_den Rasen sprengen_ - 'to water the lawn' ; not [normally] 'to blow up the lawn'...)
_
mehr - Meer_
'more - sea'
[me:ʁ]
_
Bank - Bank_ (same spelling)
'bank - bench'
[baŋk]
_
Lache - Lache*_ (same spelling)
'laughter (the way a person laughs) - puddle*'
['laxə]
_
Lerche - Lärche_
'lerk (bird) - larch (tree)
['lɛʁçə]

---
Lache in the sense of 'puddle' can also be pronounced ['la:xə]


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## bearded

In Italian:
_sètte _= seven / sects
_spariamo _= we shoot / we disappear
_accoppiamo _= we couple / we kill
_sto - 'sto = _I stay - this (short form of _questo)_

In modern Greek:
_poià (pron. pià) _= which (fem.)
_pià _= more, any more

In French:
_vers / verre = _towards / glass


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## Perseas

In Greek the are many. Some of them:

ευφορία = euphoria, fertility (of the earth)
εφορία = revenue/tax department
[efo'ria]

γάλος = tyrkey(cock)
Γάλλος = French (man)
['ɣalos]

θήρα = hunting / Θήρα = another name of the island of Santorini
θύρα = door, gate
['θira]

ιός = virus
υιός = son
[i'os]

κενός = empty, vacant
καινός = new ( Καινή Διαθήκη = New Testament)
[ke'nos]

λίρα = lira (the currency)
λύρα = lyre
['lira]

ψιλός = thin, fine or shrill (voice)
ψηλός = tall
[psi'los]

χήρος = widower
χοίρος = pig 
['çiros]

For more I have found this.


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## Encolpius

Unlike English or French there are only few (18 or so) Hungarian homophones. 
here is the whole list. 
I find none of them funny and I have known only folyt-fojt [it flew - (s)he suffocates]


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## ger4

bearded man said:


> [...]In French:
> _vers / verre = _towards / glass


This reminds me of those French lessons at school... aren't all these words pronounced [vɛʀ] ?
vert - [adjective, masculine, singular] - green
vers - [preposition] - towards, to, around etc
vers - [noun] - verse (poetry)
verre - [noun] - glass
ver - [noun] - worm


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## cuore romano

_Lache - Lache_ (same spelling)
'laughter (the way a person laughs) - puddle'

This is new to me. I pronounce Lache (puddle) with a long *a*.


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## ger4

cuore romano said:


> _Lache - Lache_ (same spelling)
> 'laughter (the way a person laughs) - puddle'
> 
> This is new to me. I pronounce Lache (puddle) with a long *a*.


I've heard both pronunciations but I'll edit my post - 'let accuracy be king' 
--> http://de.pons.com/übersetzung?q=Lache&l=deen&in=ac_de&lf=de


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## TitTornade

Holger2014 said:


> This reminds me of those French lessons at school... aren't all these words pronounced [vɛʀ] ?
> vert - [adjective, masculine, singular] - green
> vers - [preposition] - towards, to, around etc
> vers - [noun] - verse (poetry)
> verre - [noun] - glass
> ver - [noun] - worm



We have some homophonous words in French. Here, some examples :

- [so] : seau (=bucket), sot (=stupide), saut (=jump), sceau (=seal)... and the corresponding plurals (seaux, sots, sauts, sceaux)
- [sa~] : cent (=hundred), sang (=blood), sent, sens (conjugated forms of sentir = to smell), sans (=without)
- [o] : haut (=high), eau (=water), aulx (=garlics), au / aux (=to the / at the)
- [va~] : vent (=wind), vends / vend (=conjugated forms of vendre : to sell)
- [si] : si (=if), six (=six), scie / scies (=singular and plural for : a saw), scient / scies (=conjugated forms of : scier = to saw)

We can obtain funny sentences  :
Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cent six scies scient six cent six cyprès
[si si si si si siprɛ, si sa~ si si si si sa~ si siprɛ]
If six saws saw six cypress trees, six hundred and six saws saw six hundred and six crypress trees.


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## Peterdg

In Dutch: ("ei" and "ij" are pronounced the same as are "ou" and "au")

lijden (to suffer) - leiden (to lead)
rouw (mourning) - rauw (raw)
waar (where) - waar (true)
reizen (to travel) - rijzen (to rise)
goot (gutter) - goot (poured)
veil (corruptible) - vijl (file)
verassen (to cremate) - verrassen (to surprise)
weiden (pastures) - wijden (to ordain)
rein (pure) - Rijn (Rhine)


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## Linguoman

Russian homophones are most often based on two factors: 

Unstressed vowel reduction (when different vowels merge into the same sound in an unstressed position);
Word-final consonant devoicing (when a voiced consonant merges with its voiceless counterpart word-finally).
Other cases also exist, but they are less common.

гриб [ɡrjip] "a fungus, a mushroom" – грипп [ɡrjip] "influenza"
лук [luk] "onion" – лук [luk] "a bow" (arms) – луг [luk] "a meadow"
прут [prut] "a twig, a withe" – пруд [prut] "a pond"

кот [kɔt] "a tom-cat" – код [kɔt] "a code" – This pair, for example, was a source of a pun when the famous "The Da Vinci Code" movie (Russian: Код Да Винчи) was demonstrated in Russia. The name of the movie (when spoken) can be understood as "Кот Да Винчи" which would mean "Da Vinci’s cat".

лиса [ljɪˊsa] "fox" – леса [ljɪˊsa] "forests" (plural form)
чистота [ʨɪstʌˊta] "cleanness, purity" – частота [ʨɪstʌˊta] "frequency"
умалять [ʊmʌˊljætj] "to belittle" – умолять [ʊmʌˊljætj] "to implore"

парок [pʌˊrɔk] "steam" (diminutive form of пар "steam") – порок [pʌˊrɔk] "vice" – порог [pʌˊrɔk] "threshold"

Sometimes words of different morphological structure may occasionally merge:

есть [jesjtj] "to eat" (infinitive) – есть [jesjtj] "exists, is, there is" (present tense) – This one is probably the most well-known pair.

простой [prʌˊstɔj] "simple, easy" (adjective) – простой [prʌˊstɔj] "idle time" (noun)

домой [dʌˊmɔj] "to home" (adverb) – домой [dʌˊmɔj] "finish washing!" (imperative form) – This one can be quite funny in some jokes!

сухой [sʊˊxɔj] "dry" (adjective) – с ухой [sʊˊxɔj] "with fish-soup" – It was the source of an episode in a Russian movie based on the famous fairy tail about Ivan the Fool. Ivan was requested by a king to get out dry (сухой) from the river. He said he could do so, and finally he got out from the river with a pot of fish-soup (с ухой).

По машинам! [pəmʌˊʂɨnəm] "Get into your cars!" /Literally: Upon the cars!/ – Помаши нам! [pəmʌˊʂɨnəm] "Wave your hand to us!" /Literally: Wave to us!/ – Homophonous commands.


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## Christo Tamarin

Holger2014 said:


> This reminds me of those French lessons at school... aren't all these words pronounced [vɛʀ] ?
> vert - [adjective, masculine, singular] - green
> vers - [preposition] - towards, to, around etc
> vers - [noun] - verse (poetry)
> verre - [noun] - glass
> ver - [noun] - worm



*Un ver vert dans un verre vert*: A green worm in a green glass.

There were many similar French sentences in my French manual decades ago. Another example (homophones in speech):

Ton thé t'a-t-il ôté ta toux?


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## AutumnOwl

*A few Swedish ones:*
_en _- one or juniper
_få _- few or get, receive
_får_ - sheep or present tense of get
_bok_ - book or beech (tree)
_dom_ - conviction/verdict or dome (cupola) - there is also a meaning of colloquial they, them, spelt the same way but pronounced differently, see http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dom#Swedish
_här_ - here or (historical) land army
skär - pink or small (rocky) island or present tense of cut or ice-skate blade
våg - wave _or_ scale
ben - bone _or_ leg

_Få får får inte får, får får lamm_ - few sheep don't get sheep, sheep get lamb


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## bo-marco

In Emilian:

['at 'maɲ] A t magn (I eat you) - At magn (you eat)
[iŋku'lar] (to glue - to sodomize)
[bri'za] (not - clumb)
['libar] (book - free)
['baŋda] (band - side)
['bala] (ball - lie - drunk)
['bkar] (peck - butcher)
['novf] (new - nine)
[ar'vɛrs] (rebel - backhand)
[ku'ʧar] (spoon - to push)
['vlu:] (wanted - velvet)
['bɛla] (beautiful - already)
['so:ɫ] (only - sun)


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## Encolpius

*Czech *

1) y/i: být-bít, mýt-mít, pyl-pil...zrdavý/zdraví...
2) assimilation of consonants: vézt/vést, zpráva/správa...
3) Word-final consonant devoicing: led-let, dub-dup... (it exists in German, Russian..etc...too..not in Hungarian or English)


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## luitzen

West-Frisian:
hoastje (to cough) - woarstje (small sausage)
laatsje (small drawer) - laatsje (to laugh, in some dialects)


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## vincentdev

French is the queen of homophones:
vois - see (I and you)
voit - sees
voix - voice
voie - path

those are just a few. And the most frustrating ones, when it has to do with Le/La 
like L'arrêt and La Raie sounds exactly the same


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## SuperXW

In Chinese, the basic morpheme is called "character" (i.e. a single pictograph), not "word". Every character already has some fundamental meanings. Then, 1-4 characters are joined together to form specific words.
Besides, Chinese is a tonal language. We consider different tones as different pronunciations. 
Even so, there are numerous homophones. 

A famous sentence reads: 近世进士尽是近视. It is made up by 4 identically pronounced words or characters:
近世 jin4shi4 "recent era"
进士 jin4shi4 an antiquated title for national-recognized scholars
尽是 jin4shi4 "all are"
近视 jin4shi4 "short-sighted" 
(The pronunciations are marked with Pinyin, a standardized phonetic transcription for Chinese.)

I can easily think of many other homophones:
意义 yi4yi4 "meaning"
意译 yi4yi4 "liberal translation"
异议 yi4yi4 "objection"


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## Lula Fenomenoide

two I can think of in Spanish!

vello / bello
_hair / beautiful_

maya / malla
_mayan culture / swimsuit_


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## bearded

I am not an expert on Spanish, but I suspect that maya/malla are homophonous in Argentina only, but not in other Spanish-speaking countries. Certainly not in Spain.


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## Dymn

bearded man said:


> I am not an expert on Spanish, but I suspect that maya/malla are homophonous in Argentina only, but not in other Spanish-speaking countries. Certainly not in Spain.


Well, it depends on which regions of Spain. In the south (Madrid included) they would be homophonous but not in the north. Since Spanish is not my mother tongue I've always pronounced them ([ʎ] and [j]) differently, as Catalan does; but recently I've noticed that some Spanish L2 speakers from here pronounce them both [j]. I guess that television (settled in Madrid, of course) causes a great influence on we the young people nowadays.

You can read more about it on Wikipedia (en, it, es).


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## Frank78

Holger2014 said:


> Lache in the sense of 'puddle' can also be pronounced ['la:xə]



I think the long a is standard, isn't it?

Finding two homophone words is too easy in German so how about three or four.

Waagen- wagen - Wagen - vagen

scales (plural) - to risk/to wage - cars (plural) - vague (adjective, dative/accusative singular) 


Ire - Ihre - ihre

Irishman - your (polite) - her 


Färse - Ferse - Verse

heifer - heel - verses


hacken - hecken - Hecken

to hack - to copulate (animals only) - hedges (plural) 


Stelle - stelle - Ställe

place - put (1st person sg) - stables/sheds (plural)


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## Lula Fenomenoide

bearded man said:


> I am not an expert on Spanish, but I suspect that maya/malla are homophonous in Argentina only, but not in other Spanish-speaking countries. Certainly not in Spain.



Sorry! I should have pointed that out: maya/malla are only homophonous in regions that speak with "yeísmo"((loss of the sound difference between Y and LL)), and in our River Plate speaking with "rehilamiento" or "sheísmo"((saying Y and LL as an English /sh/))

I suppose this happens in other languages. I mean, the dependance on the region to consider a word homophonous or not.


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## Encolpius

...here is a very nice collection of German homophones...


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## Peripes

In Spanish:

arroyo - a little water current
arrollo - to run over, from _arrollar_

asar - to roast
azar - luck, chance, random

halla - to find out, from _hallar_
haya - there is, subjunctive for _haber_

vacilo - to hesitate, to make fun of, from _vacilar_
bacilo - bacillus, a microorganism

beses - to kiss, subjuctive for _besar_
veces - times, as in twice, three times, four times...

I live in Peru, so there's _yeísmo_ and _seseo_. I don't feel like there's a lot of confusing homophones in Spanish, but that's just how I percieve it.


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## Dymn

I add three more in Catalan, all related to numbers:

[sɛt]
set - set; seven - thirst

[bujt]
vuit - buit; eight - empty

[nɔw]
nou - nou; nine - new


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## Messquito

因地制宜yīn dì zhì yí =adjust with places
陰地yīn dì=dark place
陰蒂yīn dì=clit, G spot

什麼叫作愛？shí me jiào zuò ài ＝What is love?
什麼叫做愛？shí me jiào zuò ài ＝What is making love?

自衛zì wèi ＝self-protection
自慰zì wèi ＝self-console＝masturbate

你近來好嗎？nǐ jìn lái hǎo ma ＝Are you doing great recently?
你進來好嗎？nǐ jìn lái hǎo ma ＝Can you come in?

經意 jīng yì =careful/aware
驚異 jīng yì =shocked
精益 jīng yì --> 精益求精=from good to great, from great to perfect/ excellence/...
精液 jīng yì =semen, sperm
...

有沒有應到的未到？ yǒu méi yǒu yīng dào de wèi dào ＝Is there anybody having not come that should come?
有沒有陰道的味道？ yǒu méi yǒu yīn dào de wèi dào ＝Is there the smell of vagina?

來韓/姚/簡/田老師這邊 lái hán /yáo /jián /tián lǎo shī zhè biān Come to Teacher Han/Yao/Jian/Tian
來含/咬/剪/舔老師這邊 lái hán /yáo /jián /tián lǎo shī zhè biān Come to me, the teacher and keep...in mouth/bite/cut/lick this thing of mine.

失聲shī shēng =to lose one's voice
濕身shī shēn =to wet one's body
失身shī shēn =to lose one's virginity(lit. body)

我下麵給你吃 wǒ xià miàn gěi nǐ chī Let me cook some noodles for you.
我下面給你吃 wǒ xià miàn gěi nǐ chī I'll let you eat my thing down there.

剝皮 bāo pí =to peel
包皮 bāo pí =foreskin

香口胶kǒu jiāo ＝bubble gum
口交kǒu jiāo ＝blowjob

There are tens of thousands of homophonous words in Chinese, so I'll just end here.

There's this group of fun proverbs called 歇後語 in Chinese, I give one example:
公共廁所裡丟石頭——激起公憤（糞）gōng gòng cè suǒ lǐ diū shí tóu ——jī qǐ gōng fèn （fèn ）
Throwing stones at a public toilet -- stir up public indignation(shit)


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## bearded

Hi Messquito,
You provided an interesting list of homophonous words, but....prohibited to minors!


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## David

Eng: How much time elapses from two-to-two to two-two? (Four minutes).
Span: Un pato con dos patas en un cajón, ¿cuántas patas son? (Six).
Fr: Vin (wine), vins (wines), vingt (two), vingts (score), vint (came), vain (in vain)


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## frugnaglio

Italian:
Guarda Milano! (Look at Milan!)
Guardami l'ano! (Look at my anus!)
There's a joke about two pigeons flying over Milan and the one in front tells the other to look at the city… the ending is pretty vulgar though


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## ilocas2

Czech:

z boží - from divine

zboží - goods


joke: 

Jaký je rozdíl mezi Ludvíkem XIV. a vibrátorem? Ludvík XIV. byl král z boží milosti a vibrátor je zboží ze sex shopu.

What's the difference between Louis XIV. and vibrator? Louis XIV. was king from divine mercy and vibrator is goods from sex shop.


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## AutumnOwl

A few words that I sometimes see wrongly spelled because the sound similar are _järn_ (iron) and _hjärn-_ (hjärna - brain), and verk (mill, or deed, or work (creation) ) and värk (pain). The results can be funny, I've seen _hjärntillskott_ insead of _järntillskott_ (iron supplement),_ järnblödning_ instead of _hjärnblödning_ (brain haemorrage), _huvudverk_ instead of _huvudvärk_ (headache), _verktabletter_ instead of _värktabletter_ (pain medicine).


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## Walshie79

Some homophones in my accent (non-rhotic UK English) that might not be to speakers of other English varieties (eg American, Irish):

saw-sore-soar
shaw-shore-sure
paw-pore-pour-poor
haw-hoar-whore
law-lore
laud-lord
sauce-source
awe-or-ore-oar
flaw-floor
caught-court (but NOT cot or coat)
pawn-porn (lots of giggles/double entendres when we play chess, "taking the king's porn"; not to mention misprinted adverts for "porn brokers")

father-farther (I very rarely use the latter word but Americans seem to do so all the time; it seems to have almost disappeared from dialects where it sounds just like "father")

The names Mia, Tia, Leah are homophones of mere, tear (eyes), leer

And many others..


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## Medune

Portuguese:_southern Brazilian _pronunciation

coser, cozer   [ko.ˈzer] or [ko.ˈzeʁ] to weave, to cook
há, a, a, a  [a] ( _there is_, feminine singular article, preposition _to, _feminine singular direct object)
como, como [ˈko.mo] (_I eat, how)_
canto, canto, canto  [ˈkɐ̃.to] ( I sing, the singing, corner)
cobra, cobra [ˈkɔ.βɾɐ] or [ˈkɔ.βɾa] (snake, he/she charges)
mato, mato [ˈma.to] ( _I kill, bush_)
lata, lata (formal singular imperative and third person singular subjunctive of _to bark, _can (noun.))
lixo, lixo  ['li.∫o] ( I grind , trash ) 
manso, manso ['mã.so]  ( amicable and submissive, land propriety)
rio, rio [ˈʁi.u] or ['ri.u] ( I laugh, river)
pinto, pinto [ˈpĩ.tu] or [ˈpĩ.to] (I paint,young chicken and also a slang for penis)


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## 810senior

In Japanese, there's some funny sentence that comes from semantic distinction of kanji.

お体に*障り*ますよ Take care of yourself. (lit. it's bad for your body) *障り(障る) means to hinder, to hurt
お体に*触り*ますよ lit. I'll touch your body. *触り(触る) to touch
[okarada-ni sawar-imasuyo]

As you can see, one change of kanji makes the sentence kind of nasty.


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## Red Arrow

This is the only homophonous sentence I know in Dutch. (very childish)

Ik loop in die stront. / Ik loop in Diest rond.
(I walk into that shit. / I'm walking around in Diest.)


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## frugnaglio

Red Arrow :D said:


> This is the only homophonous sentence I know in Dutch. (very childish)
> 
> Ik loop in die stront. / Ik loop in Diest rond.
> (I walk into that shit. / I'm walking around in Diest.)



I guess the chemical element strontium must sound funny in Dutch just like it does in Italian!


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## Peterdg

frugnaglio said:


> I guess the chemical element strontium must sound funny in Dutch just like it does in Italian!


Yes.


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## Messquito

frugnaglio said:


> I guess the chemical element strontium must sound funny in Dutch just like it does in Italian!


Is that because stronzio sounds like stronzo?

Speaking of strontium, I just thought of the many mnemonic phrases on chemical classes back in high school.
For example, to memorize the solubility chart/precipitation table (沈澱表), we have:
鉈 銀 亞汞 亞銅 鉛 (tā  yín  yà gǒng  yà tóng  qiān)-->他贏阿公一銅錢(tā yíng ā gōng yī tóng qián)
Ta Ag Hg Cu Pb-->He won one dollar from Grandpa
亞汞 鋇 銀 鍶 銅 鉛 (yà gǒng  bèi  yín  sī  tóng  qiān )-->阿公被贏十銅錢(ā gōng bèi yíng shí tóng qián )
Hg Be Ag Sr Cu Pb-->Grandpa lost ten dollars
鈣 鋇 鍶 鉛 (gài  bèi  sī  qiān)-->幹 被吃錢 (gàn  bèi chī qián)
Ca Be Sr Pb-->Fuck! Got ripped off!
Of course there are other versions of it (some of them sexual), and there are also phrases for periodic table and other stuff. I'll just stop here because the list goes on.


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## Kasrav

Telugu
cheppu = slipper,
cheppu - say (imperative 2 nd person singular)


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## Messquito

Chinese:

愛情的三個階段：(Three stages of love)

喜歡上一個人(Fall in love with someone)
喜歡上一個人(Like to have sex with someone)
喜歡上一個人(Like being alone)


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## Nawaq

*French:*

temps, tant, t'en, tan, tans
Tu, tue, tues, tus, tuent
Jean, j'en
dans, dent, dents
Lou, loup, loups, loue, loues, louent
et, es, est, aient, ait, ais, aie, aies, hait, hais, haie
pan !, pans, pend, pends, pan (not the same as pan !) ...
dis, dit, dix
thé, t'es
tante, tente
nul, nuls, nulle, nulles
nan, n'en
etc...


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## Karton Realista

Polish:
*rzyć - ass (little old-fashioned) 
żyć - to live 
*Chełm - town name
 hełm - helmet


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## Encolpius

I would be happy if someone could right/remember a short homophonous sentence. Once I knew a French one but have forgotten.


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## 810senior

Messquito said:


> Chinese:
> 
> 愛情的三個階段：(Three stages of love)
> 
> 喜歡上一個人(Fall in love with someone)
> 喜歡上一個人(Like to have sex with someone)
> 喜歡上一個人(Like being alone)


Very interesting
Could you explain the structure of those sentences?


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## SuperXW

810senior said:


> Very interesting
> Could you explain the structure of those sentences?


That's a classic one! 

喜歡 上 一個 人
"become to like" a person
上: "up", an auxiliary word, stressing the beginning of the action. 
So, 喜歡=like; 喜歡上=like "up"=become to like.

喜歡 上 一個 人
like "to ride" a person
上: developed from its basic meaning "up", 上 can also be a concrete verb to mean "get onto the top", or to "ride", to "fuck" someone.

喜歡 上 一個 人
"become to like" "(being) one person"
一個人 here means the status of "being one person (by oneself, without company)".


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## 810senior

@SuperXW, good to know it.  thanks a lot for the detailed explanation!


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