jeffers wrote:The problem, of course, is that huevo can also be a quite innocent word, a lot depends on the context (and the listener). I'm reminded of a story my friend told me about his German teacher. He was acting out different animals while describing them in German, and the students were supposed to guess what animal he was. When he said that he had large ears and he swings his "schwanz" back and forth there was quite a gasp from the students, because they all knew the word but none of them knew it also had quite an innocent meaning. It didn't help that the teacher was swinging his hand in front rather than behind!
I can just about imagine that scene Would have caused plenty of giggles among German high school students too
As for huevo ... my husband is Argentinian and for him it definitely sounded like a testicle reference in that context. He also said that in Argentinian Spanish any slang with huevo in it is normally negative.
But then to him Spanish from Spain sounds just wrong on so many levels. He pulls a face when people here use the verb "coger" when they talk about picking up their children from somewhere. One of the beaches is called La Concha, which is an Argentinian slang word for female genitalia. The first time we heard that the local film festival award is called "Concha de oro" we almost fell over from all the laughing
Language learners have of course a whole bunch of opportunities to embarrass themselves with words like that - One of my friends once ordered "polla" in a Spanish restaurant instead of "pollo" And another friend - a girl - tried to say that she wants a bunny. She meant of course a pet, but well, that's the Spanish female genitalia word and in combination with "yo quiero" not a good word to use ... especially in front of a bunch of 18 yr old boys.