Same Same but different

Conversation overheard:

Little One : What mammu (food) are you going to make?
Grandma : Rasam
Jr. : What about More (More in Tamizh is buttermilk!)
Grandma : A little confused because she thought Jr. is mentioning the english word "more" for more Rasam rice..

then while I feed the kids, Grandma decides to start a game..

Kids, lets find out other words that say the same thing, but mean different things in English and Tamizh!

Jr. : Poo !
Grandma : How? (me looking puzzled as well, How?)
Jr. : Poo Poo means two flowers in Tamizh (saying the word twice apparently counts as two flowers!) and Poo Poo means what we go in the bathroom!

we started laughing out loud and that is when the little one chipped in with

"I have another word.. I have another word"

As the equal opportunity daddy, I ask Jr. to keep quiet and say

"Okay LO, your turn now! Tell us." and the response?

Potty! It means grandma in Tamizh and bathroom in english!

Jr.'s mention of Poo Poo led the little one to think Potty and she made a connection with Paati vs. Potti!

Slight pronunciation difference.. but she gets points for being creative!

Now the question for the readers.

Is there a single word for this in the english dictionary? Same phonetically sounding word, that means different things in different languages?!

Let me know. In the meantime we will explore more such words and hopefully we will move away from the bathroom to living room related words!



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