Hacker News Reader

> the English "glass" is "glas" in Swedish, but the Swedish "glass" is "ice cream" in English

I feel the urge to speculate that Swedish "glas" comes down from proto-Germanic, while "glass" is a loan from French "glace".

You are exactly right.

Which makes isglass such a great word.

I know what I'm doing :)

This is one of many silly sentences I heard while growing up, mainly from other Swedish kids who were learning English and finding silly similarities in words. So it's definitely deliberate.

Why is this a joke for Swedish speakers learning English? Does it not work just as well purely within Swedish?

Glas (glass) and glass (ice cream) have very different pronounciations that you don't really mix up. Glas has an extended a, glass sounds just about the same as in english.

US English?

To an Aussie bogan like me I'd pronounce the two the same usually, I have to think of the difference as how an American says glass vs how an Englishman/Aussie might say glass

I haven't had the balls to try speaking Swedish yet so haven't asked to eat some glass yet