I’m pretty sure that if you think hard enough, you will find multiple English words which have spellings that read differently in vernacular languages. Some may even end up being abuses! For example, if you think about the word ‘sale’, in English it means the exchange of a commodity for money, but the Hindi pronunciation of the same English word is an abuse. 😛
As a result, a man was left offended when he read the English word ‘sale’ and mistook it for the Hindi abuse saale. A user on Reddit shared a screenshot of his conversation with his account manager who made the mistake in understanding. The guy messaged him, “Sale invoice chahiye ya purchase invoice,” to which the account manager said “Sir gaali mat diya karo.”
When the user clarified that it was not an abuse but an English word, the account manager realized and even apologized.
Not only the account manager but, as it turns out, several people online also mistook ‘sale’ for ‘saale’ while reading the chat! Here’s how some of them responded:
Have you ever made a mistake like this? 😉