The same goes with the umbrella. In Chinese, the umbrella is 傘 (săn) sharing the same sound&tone with 散, to separate. Of course, this making any umbrellas totally wrong gift to your partner...
Pear isn't so bad, though can be still dangerous under certain circumstances. Why? Pear is in Chinese 梨 (lí) and the same sound is also to leave, 離.
Another interesting and similar language-related examples might be: number four 四 (sì) is similar to 死 (sĭ), death, die (well, the tone is different here!). The consequences are like that -- if you're choosing your cell number you can see a lot of options with 4s involved and hardly any without this number. At some places, there is no 4th floor or apartment with the same number (especially in Hong Kong) they will just use for instance 3B instead.
Another interesting and similar language-related examples might be: number four 四 (sì) is similar to 死 (sĭ), death, die (well, the tone is different here!). The consequences are like that -- if you're choosing your cell number you can see a lot of options with 4s involved and hardly any without this number. At some places, there is no 4th floor or apartment with the same number (especially in Hong Kong) they will just use for instance 3B instead.
Another obvious example -- character 春 (chūn) which means spring and can be seen at many places during Chinese New Year (Spring Festival).
Put it simply upside down, 倒 (dào), and since 到 (dào), to arrive, has got the same sound, you will get the meaning "spring is coming".
^.^ k.
^.^ k.
