Redalen is the name of a bed sold by Ikea, and it also sounds like the Thai term for getting to third base. Before the Swedish furniture company opened up in Thailand last year, it called in some translators to ensure that none of its product titles were offensive.

Ikea had language buffs carefully analyzing the long hard to say names, and even consulted with a panel of Thai speakers who helped them modify some of their product names. It meant removing a consonant or changing a vowel sound.

In some cases, the changes really had to happen. Jättebra, for example, is a planter. To the Thai ear, though, it sounds a lot like a slang term for doin' the nasty. So they changed it.

[WSJ via Huffington Post]