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Comment by mcorrand | Hacker News Reader

"bite" is safe according to this tool. Any french speaker does a double take when they see that word though, especially in certain sentences.

For reference: https://askafrenchguy.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/petite-bites-...

Edit: Yes, I have submitted it to the database, it should get vetted eventually. A crowdsourced process for the vetting could be fun too!

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And 7 Eleven in Sweden managed to make it even more dirty by using the headline "Bite sale!", which apparently means "Dirty dick!" in french. As if that wasn't bad enough, the ad was actually meant to sell sausages. To kids.

Reference: http://z.cdn-expressen.se/images/a3/9b/a39b426464844e3ba6ef3...

"Oh thank heaven". This is so hilariously unfortunate. The funny part is that I really don't notice "bite" in this way if it's surrounded by English words. The tumblr blog listed downthread does nothing for me for example.

But if the surrounding words exist in French too, my brain invariably gets tricked into switching to French.

The mature side of me sees a great tool that will help to avoid unintended public image issues.

The immature side of me sees a great tool for picking immature names for online games that won't be flagged.

This was the first word I tried too. As a frenchman in the US I can't help but laugh every time I see "bite" used on a product. It's the most common slang for "dick" in french, everyone knows it. Juvenile, yes, but still hilarious. Examples: http://bitesubite.tumblr.com/archive

"pipi" as well http://i.imgur.com/VcSKnTb.png

"zizi" too.

"Kekette" as well

In Dutch pipi is dialect for urination, often used when talking/referring to children.

It's "peepee" in English but you are likely to get a chuckle if you name your product "pipi". Back in 2006 Nintendo ran into this problem with the Wii ("wee" or "weewee" is also slang for urination eapecially among children.)

I always thought this was deliberate. You are telling me no one in Nintendo knew what Wii would mean to kids?

What it means to foreign kids. It's not surprising that a Japanese company wouldn't have that fine a grasp on English nuance.

I thought they chose the name to fit their inclusive, inviting target with the console. "Wii Play Sports" -- yes we do!

In Spanish it's exactly the same.

I wonder were the roots of that is?

In polish it's "psipsi" which is clearly an onomatopoeia.

Ditto in English, for that matter, although for various reasons we spell "i" with two "e"s.

In German as well, though I guess that's not very surprising.

"Verge" is similarily hilarious for french speakers

I remember a native French speaker was kind of disturbed by the sentence "où est ma chatte?", which is the sample French sentence Alice thinks of in Alice in Wonderland when she speculates that mice might speak French or Latin instead of English. (In the original story, it was disturbing to the mouse, too, though for a different reason!)

(Edit: this site's database recognizes "chatte" as a concern in French.)

I imagine "where is my pussy" would get a chuckle out of most anglophones today, too...

much less "bitenuker" which is highly offensive to those who speak either French or Dutch.

I'm Dutch and I know my offensive language. Never heard of that.

A Franco-Dutchman would pronounce it bete-neuker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqszqbd5cLg

It's a joke from 30 Rock.

It's not searching for 'sounds like', it doesn't think 'fuc' or 'fuch' are bad words.

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