Mistranslations

Language Discussions Language Learning
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We all know that sometimes when subbing some things get lost in translation, Viki even made a blog about that here. Of course it doesn’t only happen with subs but also with other things, like in stores where they want to give an English translation for tourists or when someone is just learning the language and says things in a wrong order etc.

For example in Dunglish, literal translation of English in the Dutch word order:
Heb je een leuke dag gehad vandaag? (Dutch)
Have you one nice day had today? (Dunglish)
Did you have a nice day today? (English)

Or what do you think of this one (Pic taken from MTTCW) :

No way I’m taking this taxi! And I think others who also don’t understand the other 2 languages won’t either.

Do you have any examples of mistranslations? Can be subs, something in a store or maybe yesterday a tourist asked you something in a very strange English or other language etc. (Please also explain why it is wrong or give a good English translation when needed/possible)

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All languages have certain words that wrongly translated, can be very funny. I have a Spanish friend who came to visit me. We were walking along the street with some other friends, and the conversation went like this:

-It is very cold, isn´t it?.
Yes, so much, that I´m wearing panties today, even though I never wear them in summer.
-What?
-Yes, they are too hot, uncomfortable and restricting. Why bothering?
-So, no drafts tonight then! (said my male friend with a smirk while I could have killed him with my stare)

(“Panties” in Spain = Tights/hold-ups, not knickers as we all thought she meant)

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I have seen in the recent episodes of the Korean" Fated to love you", subtitles referring to the baby in her stomach. A baby is in the belly, not where the food goes. I wonder if that was because of translating it from a particular language, with the same or similar words.

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Just stumbled across this one in Iljimae:

“After everything is settled, you must give me 100 bugs.”

Have insects ever been a currency in Korea? :slight_smile:

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Haha. Not as far as I know.

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Hahah I don’t know the first language of the picture (it seems to be like a languages from the Balkans) but its very funny if you translate the english into the german one. While the english one says: “I’m driving dangerously, please call” the german says, if you translate it word for word in english: " If I’m driving too dangerously, please call me." Hahah so these two have a completely different meaning" kkkkk -_-

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@popsicles Oh dear that poor friend. I bet you almost died laughing…LOL

About the bugs, I hear that in some US TV programs and movies too like “that costs 100 bucks” and bucks is a acronym for money, dollars. But I guess the translator confused “bucks” with “bugs”. The Idea to have I don’t how many bugs crawling in your wallet… yuck.

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Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?

They mixed it up phonetically, bucks and bugs :slight_smile:

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How funny!!

Mostly I just see awkward translations but they’re still understandable, like:

“What might a woman be talking to a man?” Should say: “What might the woman be saying to the man?” Their translation makes it sound like women don’t normally talk to men. :stuck_out_tongue:

Also a little awkward ^^

But I saw this site Engrish.com which has many amusing mistranslations:

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Post Deleted…

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@mazza OMG those are hillarious. Wow a sunblcok with UV in it :stuck_out_tongue: and that “I love beer”. I wonder if that’s made by Dutchies since “beer” is Dutch for “bear” and not “beer” which is “bier” in Dutch.

And I better don’t go to that festival, to much cat fights I guess :stuck_out_tongue:

And I checked that site engrish.com and I’m laughing so hard. This textbook to learn English might not be very good…LOL

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Lol, yeah I found two from the same website:

I remember I saw something similar in London… I think it said something like ‘‘1 for £12, 2 for £26’’

And:

(The Dutch sentence says that you shouldn’t walk ON it) The one who posted this picture in a blog wrote this under the photo: ‘‘It gets cranky when it gets too much exercise.’’

I remember I’ve seen a lot more photos with mistranslations like these but can’t find them right now :confused:

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Ahhh interesting!!! That would make sense! I hope it’s something like that :smile:

I love these. They are all hilarious!

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These are hilarious!!

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Found another one :laughing:

.
.
.
Can you see it?

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What? Is CNBlue out of a Contract so we need to give them one? Uhm sorry guys I don’t have the money to give you a contract unless you pay me to work for me :stuck_out_tongue: And I don’t get the StarCity StarCard thing but I think that’s just me…LOL

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It must be a professional deformation, but I read the word “contract” with the stress on the second syllable, as in to contract a disease. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I think they mean “contract them for a concert,” not “contact.” Of course, you would have to contact their management to contract them for a concert.

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I really had to laugh about this one…
Oh dear you can’t use the toilets because they did hide them.

What they meant to say is that they are clogged.
“Verstopt” has various meanings in Dutch but they picked the wrong English one :stuck_out_tongue:

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Love this one :smiley:
I think one day I will have to learn Dutch because it seems really similar to German.

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