Amusing translation errors

[Paul]

That’s interesting. I almost worked that out before reading your spoiler without knowing Polish. The words for (I assume) sugar and gum were recognisable enough for me to be thinking that they shouldn’t be there.
Does the next one translate as something like “shirt without sleeves “?

[T42]

I've always been tickled by the German instruction to wash & iron from the left, which really does mean inside-out.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That’s interesting. I almost worked that out before reading your spoiler without knowing Polish. The words for (I assume) sugar and gum were recognisable enough for me to be thinking that they shouldn’t be there.
Does the next one translate as something like “shirt without sleeves “?

Yes, it's literally "gum for chewing without sugar". I'm not even sure what language the next one is but the one underneath it, in Cyrillic, does translate as "shirt with short sleeves".

I've always been tickled by the German instruction to wash & iron from the left, which really does mean inside-out.

Same in Polish, and I think several other languages.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not actually a translation error, but an error of languages rather than language:

Hindi traditionally has very little presence in southern states such as Tamil-speaking Tamil Nadu and Kannada-speaking Kerala, and eastern states such as West Bengal, home to 78 million Bengali speakers.

Kannada is the language of Karnataka. Keralites speak Malayalam.

[T42]

Looking on-line for a wok brush t'other day, in France of course, one site offered me a grande sélection de tampons abrasifs.

Again, not a translation error but a prime example of faux amis.

[Giraffe]

Now I know where 'rough bit of c**t' er, comes from.

[L CC]

   Fernando
3.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Presencia 10 pero vacío , pero que es un plumas sin plumas
Reviewed in Spain on 27 February 2021
Buen acabado y presentacion , pero deja mucho que desear en contenido de pluma , es decir , que lo usé anoche y que por cierto me he muerto de frío ya lo imaginaba . Tendré que comprar otro y por cierto el primero que pedí , que me perdieron , pero como aún estoy pendiente de que me abonen el dinero pagado .... hasta que no lo tenga en cuenta no gasto más dinero en Amazon , aparte de haberme visto obligado y sin otra opción YA QUE TIENE QUE SER AMAZON PARA NO TENER YO LOS PROBLEMAS COMO ME HA PASADO , que he tenido que dos y quisieron meterme tres que gracias a Dios me di cuenta de la misma y lógicamente e insistiendo mucho , por segunda vez me ha tocado comerme los marrones yo , y encima , y por cierto lo que más me deja alucinado cada día con Amazon ... es que compre yo un edredón , pedido por mi y pagado por mi ... y tengan las narices de cobrarme por su cuenta y riesgo cobrarme otro aparte y preparar para enviar y eso que tarde 15 minutos maximo en descubrir el tema que me habíais preparado y por segunda vez y gracias a Dios que tengo un miedo que tengo que revisar 50 veces todo . Tendré que devolverlo y comprar el que yo quería y de ustedes no darme el servicio correcto , no me quedara otra opción que comprarlo directo a proveedor y Dios sabe que no me gusta actuar así .
El producto tiene un acabado expectacular ....
pero ni de lejos es el producto que yo buscaba y necesito , aparte es sacudirlo a la mañana ..... y como no me voy a morir de frío si se transparenta por el amor De Dios , el peor que he tenido en mi vida y con mucha diferencia . Es más , hasta el de IKEA , que cuesta 4 duros le da mil vueltas

   Fernando
3.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Presence 10 but empty, but what is a featherless feathers??
Reviewed in Spain on 27 February 2021
Good finish and presentation, but it leaves much to be desired in pen content, that is, I used it last night and that by the way I died of cold I already imagined it. I will have to buy another and by the way the first one I asked for, they lost me, but since I am still aware that they pay me the money paid... until I take it into account I do not spend more money on Amazon, apart from having been obliged and without any other option SINCE IT HAS TO BE AMAZON TO NOT HAVE ME THE PROBLEMS AS IT HAPPENED TO ME, I HAVE had two and wanted to put me three that thanks to God I realized the same and logically and insisting a lot, for the second time I had to eat the browns myself, and by the way what leaves me most amazoned every day with Amazon... is that I buy a duvet, ordered by me and paid for me... and have the noses of charging me for your account and risk charge me another separate and prepare to send and that takes 15 minutes maximum to discover the topic you had prepared for me and for the second time and thank God I have a fear that I have to review everything 50 times. I'll have to return it and buy the one I wanted and from you not give me the right service, I won't have any other option but buy it directly from the supplier and God knows I don't like to act like that.
The product has a spectacular finish...
but not by far is the product that I was looking for and need, apart from it is shaking it in the morning... and since I'm not going to die of cold if it transpares for God's sake, the worst I've ever had in my life and by far. What's more, even IKEA, which costs 4 hard gives you a thousand laps

[JellyLegs]

I am looking for some new cycling gloves and consulted the sizing instructions.

“Measure the circumference of your hand, right under the ankles”

Now anatomy isn’t my strongest subject but ….

[geraldc]

The mistranslation in Exodus which turned a sea of reeds into the Red sea.

[Moleman76]

Back before BIG Companies had staff devoted to researching possible cross-language meaning issues, General Motors' (of the USA) Chevrolet division sold a car named the "Nova".  I suppose they were thinking it meant "new" everywhere.

Well, in Mexico "no va" means "doesn't go".  Sales south of the border were low.

[Pingu]

Back before BIG Companies had staff devoted to researching possible cross-language meaning issues, General Motors' (of the USA) Chevrolet division sold a car named the "Nova".  I suppose they were thinking it meant "new" everywhere.

Well, in Mexico "no va" means "doesn't go".  Sales south of the border were low.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rffX5VFjAUg

[mark]

Back before BIG Companies had staff devoted to researching possible cross-language meaning issues, General Motors' (of the USA) Chevrolet division sold a car named the "Nova".  I suppose they were thinking it meant "new" everywhere.

Well, in Mexico "no va" means "doesn't go".  Sales south of the border were low.

Sorry, not true. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/

[T42]

OTOH Toyota did put their fut in it with the MR2, which sounds like "shitty" in French.

[Mr Larrington]

There are similar tales about the Rolls-Royce Silver Manure (Mist) and the Mitsubishi Wanker (Pajero).  The latter was called “Shogun” in the UK and “Montero” in North America and Hispanophonic countries, so that one’s actually true.

Edit: Motor Racing Developments declined to call their customer racing cars “MRD” in case of Frenchmen.  Also the head of the company was quite well-known as a successful driver in the company’s vehicles, being Jack Brabham.  Also, there is no need to tell me that you translated this page from Spaignish to Ing, Mr Google, because you didn’t.

[quixoticgeek]

There was a crypto firm who made a big marketing splash across social media.

They changed their name within 24 hours.

They did not have a Brit on their team.

The company was "Nonce Finance"

It may be a legitimate mathematical term, but the extra meanings on this side of the pond are not good.

J

[rafletcher]

There was a crypto firm who made a big marketing splash across social media.

They changed their name within 24 hours.

They did not have a Brit on their team.

The company was "Nonce Finance"

It may be a legitimate mathematical term, but the extra meanings on this side of the pond are not good.

J

It may be used in mathmatics, but that's not the origin, which is more like "for the time being"

[Clare]

Does Zoom transcription count?

placental extracellular vesicles

does not equal

the central extracellular bicycles

[T42]

There was a crypto firm who made a big marketing splash across social media.

They changed their name within 24 hours.

They did not have a Brit on their team.

The company was "Nonce Finance"

It may be a legitimate mathematical term, but the extra meanings on this side of the pond are not good.

J

There's a sign on the Autobahn to Karlsruhe that reads

NANCY
NOTTINGHAM

They're partner cities

[L CC]

A person residing in Saône-et-Loire and having contracted dengue fever stayed, during his period of viremia (presence of the virus in the blood), in Chaintre between August 12 and 17, 2023.

If a tiger mosquito has bitten this person, it is likely to transmit the virus to other people by biting them afterwards, thus potentially starting a chain of contamination.

For this reason, EIRAD (Rhône-Alpes Interdepartmental Agreement for Mosquito Control), ARS operator for the surveillance and control of vector mosquitoes, carried out an entomological survey on August 25, 2023 on the places frequented by the nobody during his stay in Saône-et-Loire.

Harsh.

Pour cette raison, l’EIRAD (Entente interdépartementale Rhône-Alpes pour la démoustication), opérateur de l’ARS pour la surveillance et la lutte contre les moustiques vecteurs, a réalisé le 25 août 2023 dernier une enquête entomologique sur les lieux fréquentés par la personne lors de son passage en Saône-et-Loire.

[Legs]

At RV hire desk in Denver, at 10:30am, the German couple in front of us were asked what pick-up time they'd booked; she said "half eleven" and the receptionist gave them a look of 'why the hell are you here so early', before hubby realised and interjected "half past ten"!

For the uninitiated, the German language renders 10:30 as halb elf, 'half to eleven'.

[Pingu]

IMG_5318_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

I don't know what hinking is, but I'd give it a go.

[Wowbagger]

I hink, therefore...

[ElyDave]

I hear this in the voice of Stanley Unwin ...

A very germanic accent in my branez

[Cudzoziemiec]

...the true expression of French terroir, the untranslatable concept encompassing...

"It's not untranslatable" I thought to myself. "We might not have a word for it in English, but it's not untranslatable." Then I stopped, struck by the absurdity of what I'd just thought. If there isn't a word for something, then of course it's untranslatable.

Or is it? There are things which are untranslatable – concepts we simply do not have – but terroir, even if it's not common enough in English-speaking thought to have its own word, is still expressible as a concept. As the sentence continues:

...not just the soil in which the vines grow but also the natural, geological climatic and cultural elements associated with it.

There you are, that's terroir in English. I've even read elsewhere that:

PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) is "EU for terroir".

But I expect that as long as it continues to be a concept most closely associated with wine, we won't develop a word for it. They've probably got one in Australia though!

[TheLurker]

...as long as it continues to be a concept most closely associated with wine, we won't develop a word for it.

Yes.  "Untranslatable" is usually shorthand for, "We haven't got a word that is a very close match so we'll have to explain it using several instead."  Wouldn't surprise me if terroir ends up in the OED sooner or later, if it isn't already in there, as yet another word we *cough* acquired.

Hang on a mo.  "Environment", which can encompass all the factors that affect something or someone for good or ill, would be a reasonably good single word substitution.  Doesn't roll of the tongue in quite the same way nor does it have the "showing off" appeal, but still.