Questions tagged [mistranslation]
The mistranslation tag has no usage guidance.
19 questions
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Term for Foreign Speakers of a language using the prepositions etc. of their mother tongue
One of the things I notice when conversing with people who have largely achieved full conversational English, is that they have the correct noun, verb and adjective vocabulary, but they frequently (...
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"Nineteenth hundred and sive" instead of "Nineteenth hundred and seven"
From the copyright page of Retana's Vida y escritos del Rizal (1907)
Se acabó de imprimir el 30 de Junio de 1907. — Inscripto en la oficina de la Propiedad literaria de los Estados Unidos, donde fué ...
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The meaning of "lou" [Lew - the person's name] [closed]
What is the meaning of “lou” at 0:23 in this video?
- 15
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The Hill (from Spoon River anthology) - Exact meaning of a verse
I was reading an Italian translation of the following verse from "The Hill":
They brought them dead sons from the war,
And daughters whom life had crushed, ...
The translation is ambiguous on ...
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2
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135
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Clean Words for the Money? [closed]
There is a discussion concerning how to translate the Norwegian expression ''Rene ord for Pengene" to English. The expression has the meaning that one has been quite forthright. Is it reasonable in ...
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What is the English equivalent of 干物女 (dried fish woman)?
Literally meaning dried fish woman, the popular slang 干物女 is used to call a woman in her twenties or older who, as nicely summarized in Wikipedia, has many of the following traits:
メールの返事が極端に遅い、短い (...
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Is it correct to say "collect puzzle (jigsaw)"? [closed]
Fun fact: there is no word for "Jigsaw puzzle" in Russian, so the English word "Пазл" is used. "Собирать" means collect (berries) or assemble (from parts). "Collect puzzle" seems like a direct ...
- 454
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What is the real meaning of these words when you are translating to spanish? [closed]
I'm working on improving my English to apply to the official translator title and I'm currently studying the concept of "Calco" Which means words that has meaning in English but when translating to ...
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Misprint or misunderstanding? [closed]
I tried to translate text:
Offer Declined - Candidate staying at his current job.
Recruiter - Why? This is a great offer. Did you accept a counter offer?
Candidate - NO counter offer. The ...
- 11
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What does "Infertile, Offspring Viable," mean? How does that work? [closed]
Yesterday I saw the sentence "Infertile, Offspring Viable"
What does that even mean?
If the parents are infertile, then they can't have produced children in the first place.
Does this have a ...
1
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Does "Period of Continence" mean the same as "Prescribed waiting period"?
If you are acquainted with Islamic Sharia (law), you may have come across the term "iddah" (the period a woman must observe after the death of her spouse or after a divorce, during which she may not ...
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Technical Term for Incorrect Homonym/Synomym Error
I am looking for the technical term for a specific kind of speech/writing error which is the bad intersection of homonyms, synonyms, and words with meaning which are related in one context but not ...
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Middle ground between "I'll live with it" and "Bring it on!"?
The context is a typical conversation. You've settled for a course of action and expressed yourself accordingly. Then you get from someone a warning of sorts about potential risks or consequences ...
user98955
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Etymology of Sleep like a Top
An explanation for the English expression "sleeping like (or as sound as) a top" is here.
Apparently case closed. It derives from the Italian expression Ei dorme come un topo with topo being wrongly ...
user24964
2
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0
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The funniest English mistranslations that you've ever heard [closed]
I live in Indonesia and English is not a primary language here but the Indonesia education system stipulates English as a compulsory subject. Therefore, most of Indonesians have learnt English since ...
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The boy who lived... come to die? (Harry Potter)
I hope I'm not giving away any Harry Potter plot points. I just watched the last movie of the series, and I'm pretty sure that they made an error in the German translation of a line from Voldemort ...
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How do you tell when you're reading a poor translation?
John Ciardi, in his foreword to his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, observes that any translation is, at best, a failure. He means it is impossible to convey the depth and levels of meaning of ...
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Is "like so" correct?
Reading blog entries about computing I often see "like so" instead of "like this". Is this correct English? It sounds to me like a word by word translation from German.
user1881
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What is the first recorded appearance of the mistranslation "Red Square"?
Does anybody know when the mistranslation "Red Square" made its first recorded appearance? Have there been any noteworthy attempts at establishing the correct translation "Beautiful Square" at some ...
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