A Brazilian living in the Netherlands years ago needed to order a rental car. Having been trying to learn the language he called his colleague in the office that took care of that and said he wanted a “huurauto”, trying to mean a rental car, “hire car” in Dutch. He thought he heard a chuckle on the other end. Other times he ordered it the same way, and indeed he had a car every time.
Some years later, having already moved out of the country but visiting back, they finally decided to tell him what he had been saying. Instead of a “huurauto”, in his pronunciation he had been asking for a “hoer auto” which would really mean a “whore’s car”. Luckily the rental agencies there didn’t really have such options.
