| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] > |
Off topic: What is the funniest mistake you have come across when proofreading? Thread poster: Paul Dixon
|
|---|
| Orson Welles came out of a lamp | Apr 19, 2012 |
Yesterday I was grading translation exams (a form of proofreading? Maybe?) In the original Spanish text, Orson Welles is referred to as "el genio de Welles."
For those who don't know Spanish--"genio" can be translated as "genius" or "genie." It's usually quite easy to tell from context which is intended. But, sure enough, one of the students called Welles a genie.
Well, there certainly was something magical about the man....
Jane
| | | |
| Nothing to get uptight about... | Apr 19, 2012 |
Statistical means translated as "hosiery" in a text on earthquakes (statistical means = "medias" in Spanish, which can also mean - context is all - tights. I wasn't used to seeing hosiery, though. The writer must have been using a dusty dictionary).
| | | |
JoGunn
Local time: 19:43
English to Icelandic
+ ...
| A couple of examples | May 29, 2012 |
I came across this, which may have been a translation from another language or simply linguistic ineptitude, in the designation of goods and services for a pharmaceutical trademark:
“Erectional malfunction”. It was meant to read “erectile dysfunction”.
--
Many years ago I came across a screen translation of a crime drama from English into Icelandic in which someone’s neck had been broken as if by really bad whiplash. The source sentence went something l... See more I came across this, which may have been a translation from another language or simply linguistic ineptitude, in the designation of goods and services for a pharmaceutical trademark:
“Erectional malfunction”. It was meant to read “erectile dysfunction”.
--
Many years ago I came across a screen translation of a crime drama from English into Icelandic in which someone’s neck had been broken as if by really bad whiplash. The source sentence went something like “it looks like he died from whiplash”. It was translated as “hann virðist hafa dáðið úr svipuhöggi” (literally “he seems to have died from a lashing with a whip”). To make it more bizzarre, the Icelandic word for ‘lashing’ was in the singular, so it read as if the man had died from being lashed once with a whip.
If the translator had bothered to read more than the first definition for “whiplash” in the English-to-Icelandic dictionary he would have found the word “hálshnykkur” for this kind of injury. For that matter, the lack of an article should have been a clue as well. ▲ Collapse
| | | |
| speaking of hosiery | May 29, 2012 |
I once read a book translated into Czech where the original "(God is) blessing my socks off" was translated as "žehná mým ponožkám" (he's blessing my socks). The same translation referred to Babe Ruth, the famous basketball player, which just kind of defies belief...
| | |
|
|
|
| |
Annelise Brincker (X) 
Denmark
Local time: 21:43
English to Danish
+ ...
| Toilet quality | Nov 5, 2012 |
My favourite is still the Danish camping site who did not know how to use a dictionary, but proudly tempted English speaking visitors with "our delicious handicapfriendly toilets". Yummy. In Danish the word for "delicious" and "nice to use" is the same.
| | | |
Odette Grille (X)
Canada
Local time: 15:43
English to French
+ ...
| "clear" for a breast cancer test translated as "précis" | Feb 18, 2013 |
The text was to inform the woman patient that if her test was clear she would not be contacted, but if it was not, she would be asked to undergo more tests.
Translating "clear" as "précis", meant that whatever the result, as long as it was precise, good or bad, she would not be contacted.
Not sure it is funny, but sure glad I did not miss that one!
| | | |
I reviewed a translation for a Dutch auctionʼs centennial book last year (a publication of huge significance to Dutch companies) and found that in a section paying tribute to individuals who had shaped the auction in the past hundred years, the translator had rendered the compliment given to one of them, veilinglid in het groot (‘auction member at large’, implying that he got himself involved in everything for the good of the auction as a whole), as ‘a male member of massive propor... See more I reviewed a translation for a Dutch auctionʼs centennial book last year (a publication of huge significance to Dutch companies) and found that in a section paying tribute to individuals who had shaped the auction in the past hundred years, the translator had rendered the compliment given to one of them, veilinglid in het groot (‘auction member at large’, implying that he got himself involved in everything for the good of the auction as a whole), as ‘a male member of massive proportions’. The translator presumably added ‘male’ (not reflected grammatically in the Dutch. apart from the fact that the person being described was a man) because the Dutch word for ‘member’, lid, is neuter in gender and she probably thought adding the adjective would be good way of spelling out that this was a man. Oops.
In the same section of the same project, a Henk de Groot was featured, who had ended up machine-translated as ‘Henk the Large’.
[Edited at 2013-02-18 05:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
| Fashion trends... | Feb 18, 2013 |
Just a typo, but rather funny one:
"This classic men's skirt..." (from an online fashion catalogue, category 'Men's shirts)
[Edited at 2013-02-18 07:35 GMT]
[Edited at 2013-02-18 07:35 GMT]
| | | |
| Spanish menus | Feb 19, 2013 |
I can't help proofreading the English on everything when I'm out and about and the best mistakes I've come across (mainly in Spain) are:
The Spanish 'pastas' (as in pastas) translated as 'you graze' on a massive and expensive-looking PRINTED sign outside a restaurant. It took me a while...
The Spanish 'judías fritas' (fried beans) translated as 'fried jews'
The dish 'lenguas de cerdo' (pork tongue) translated as 'pig languages'
Margarita pizza... See more I can't help proofreading the English on everything when I'm out and about and the best mistakes I've come across (mainly in Spain) are:
The Spanish 'pastas' (as in pastas) translated as 'you graze' on a massive and expensive-looking PRINTED sign outside a restaurant. It took me a while...
The Spanish 'judías fritas' (fried beans) translated as 'fried jews'
The dish 'lenguas de cerdo' (pork tongue) translated as 'pig languages'
Margarita pizza translated as 'daisy pizza'
Salmón a la plancha (grilled salmon) translated as 'salmon on the iron' (the mind boggles)
Revuelto de setas (scrambled eggs with mushrooms) translated as 'untidy (mess) of mushrooms' (I thought it was brilliant that they'd added the '(mess)' in brackets as a caveat)
And once when I was proofreading the inventory for a Spanish property developer's brochure, I laughed for days when I saw that they had translated 'mesillas de noche' (bedside tables) as 'little tables at night'...
...and a colleague made me cry with laughter once when she asked me what 'cream' was in Spanish, to which I replied 'nata', only for her to dash into the pharmacy and ask for 'nata para la cara' (which means something like 'whipped cream for my face'). The importance of context... ▲ Collapse
| | | |
Swedish subtitles in an old "Till death us do part" Christmas episode translated crackers as 'Christmas fireworks'.
Subtitles are a constant source of wonder -- and I can't help reading them.
| | | |
Trisha F
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:43
English to Spanish
+ ...
| My own name in the wrong gender | Feb 19, 2013 |
There was this editor who didn't like me. It used to be quite an awkward situation since she was sort of my boss but couldn't speak proper English, couldn't understand spoken English and had no clue about British culture because she had never been to Britain before getting the job and didn't like the country anyway so she wouldn't bother.
One day she let me read this text she had translated. There was something about a woman called Trish but she made Trish come across as a man in t... See more There was this editor who didn't like me. It used to be quite an awkward situation since she was sort of my boss but couldn't speak proper English, couldn't understand spoken English and had no clue about British culture because she had never been to Britain before getting the job and didn't like the country anyway so she wouldn't bother.
One day she let me read this text she had translated. There was something about a woman called Trish but she made Trish come across as a man in the text as the name sounded male to her. I told her, "Trish is a short form of my name: Patricia". She was mortified because she had just sent the thing to the client. I'm not sure if she managed to fix that. I have seen worse things obviously but can't remember them at the top of my head right now.
[Edited at 2013-02-19 17:28 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
LEXpert
United States
Local time: 14:43
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
+ ...
| What's a "Dutch auction" in this context? | Feb 19, 2013 |
Alexander C. Thomson wrote:
I reviewed a translation for a Dutch auctionʼs centennial book last year (a publication of huge significance to Dutch companies) .
[Edited at 2013-02-18 05:00 GMT]
I'm genuinely puzzled, and but would rather be educated
What's a "Dutch auction"? I'm only familiar with the term as an auction type where the auctioneer starts high and lowers the offered price until a bidder accepts. Often used for IPOs, etc.
Auction house?
[Edited at 2013-02-19 19:14 GMT]
| | | |
| I would buy one... | Feb 19, 2013 |
Eye phone instead of Iphone...
It would be much harder to misplace it ^_^
| | | |
Jan Willem van Dormolen (X)
Netherlands
Local time: 21:43
English to Dutch
+ ...
Rudolf Vedo CT wrote: Alexander C. Thomson wrote:
I reviewed a translation for a Dutch auctionʼs centennial book last year (a publication of huge significance to Dutch companies) .
[Edited at 2013-02-18 05:00 GMT] I'm genuinely puzzled, and but would rather be educated What's a "Dutch auction"? I'm only familiar with the term as an auction type where the auctioneer starts high and lowers the offered price until a bidder accepts. Often used for IPOs, etc. Auction house? [Edited at 2013-02-19 19:14 GMT]
Maybe just an auction house in the Netherlands? A 'Netherlandish' auction?
| | | |
| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] > |
Login to reply/comment 
