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Using the wrong word at the wrong time
You may have heard of an incident in Washington D.C. when a city official was dismissed because he used the word "niggardly" to describe the city budget to a black man.

Niggardly (very close sounding to the racial epithet "nigger" used to disparage black people) means unwilling to spend money. The origin is probably the ancient Norwegian word "hnoggr" or the old English word "hneaw". Related is also the german word "genau". Its origin has absolutely nothing to do with the word "nigger". However, how might a gay person react if, in planning a bonfire for some civic event, a straight person suggested "pilling a few faggots on the fire" to get it going? (Faggot means small wooden stick and, of course, gay person)

Using obscene words unintentionally
A friend of mine was logged in to a chat. Someone asked her what she was doing, and she replied: "I study Enlishitalian at the university." As she forgot the space key between english and italian the embedded word "shit" transformed into ****. I hope that no one will be dismissed or impeached for saying English Italian too fast :-).

Not using obscene words unintentionally
English is a very common used language in Sweden. Even kids use it frequently, but sometimes they use it to soon. My daughter (8 years old) came home from school one day and said: The boys at school points with their long finger and says: "Thank you".  I told her: Just say "You're welcome":-).

If you have a good stories that relates to this page, don't hesitate, please mail them to me.