Parts of the body make for some tricky words, not just because some people don't know how to say them politely, but mention them continually nevertheless, but because the distinctions between them are different in Slovak and English. The trickiest ones in this respect are arms and legs, at least in the way people refer to them in everyday language.

You always have to think twice whether rameno means shoulder (plece) or arm , whether ruka means arm (paža) or hand (dlaň is palm), and whether noha means leg or foot (chodidlo). Rameno can also mean branch , like the branch of a river, but mŕtve rameno is not a dead branch (that's konár ), it is an ox-bow lake /oksbou/, named after the mašľa (uzol) which a vôl typically has tied on the top of its head.