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Translation - art & business » Linguistics »
Expressions that are prone to mistranslation
Thread poster: jyuan_us
jyuan_us
jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 19:33
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
Mar 21

I found some words/phrases are more often than not mistranslated into my target language. For example, the word "detail", when it means "a small detachment of troops or police officers given a special duty," was translated in the sense of "in detail" in at least five Youtube videos posted by some top Chinese American Internet influencers.

When a term like this is misunderstood by the translator, they would have to fake up the entire sentence where the word is contained, thus giving ... See more
I found some words/phrases are more often than not mistranslated into my target language. For example, the word "detail", when it means "a small detachment of troops or police officers given a special duty," was translated in the sense of "in detail" in at least five Youtube videos posted by some top Chinese American Internet influencers.

When a term like this is misunderstood by the translator, they would have to fake up the entire sentence where the word is contained, thus giving information totally different to what the author of the source text means to say.

It will be intereting to know what words/phrases are often mistranslated into your target language.

[Edited at 2025-03-21 18:43 GMT] ▲ Collapse


Ma. Alejandra Padilla-LaCour
 
Daryo
Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:33
Serbian to English
+ ...
I wouldn't use the term 'translated' Mar 22

when a text is processed by some software pretending to translate. A knowledgeable human author caring for his work would not make that kind of amateurish mistakes.

People putting blind faith in some over-hyped software can only lead to all predictable results. A software based on the unknowledgable assumption that there is always only one meaning for each word will ALWAYS produce that kind of 'pearls'.

You get a similar problem with 'automated transcription'. Pe... See more
when a text is processed by some software pretending to translate. A knowledgeable human author caring for his work would not make that kind of amateurish mistakes.

People putting blind faith in some over-hyped software can only lead to all predictable results. A software based on the unknowledgable assumption that there is always only one meaning for each word will ALWAYS produce that kind of 'pearls'.

You get a similar problem with 'automated transcription'. People invest time and energy in making some video, and then ruin it at the last step - couldn't be bothered to check and correct the automated transcript, so the intended message gets swamped under the irritation at reading a transcript stuffed with nonsense at key points.

Ah yes, you wanted some samples.

One of the most entertaining is when self-declared experts confuse 'consideration' in a contract with 'being considerate' to the other party – samples to be found in English / French / Serbian (that I know of)

BTW, speaking od 'details' there is also 'detailing' - that one would probably give terminal indigestion to any MT. ▲ Collapse


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Laura Curzi
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 19:33
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
That's a good one. Mar 22

Daryo wrote:
One of the most entertaining is when self-declared experts confuse 'consideration' in a contract with 'being considerate' to the other party – samples to be found in English / French / Serbian (that I know of)


"Thank you for being considerate" is also often mistranslated by human translators into Chinese as "Thank you for considering me. "
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 19:33
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Off-duty Mar 23

“An off-duty police officer” was almost always mistakenly translated as 休班警察 in Chinese media, which means ”A police officer who is having a day（days）off.” This translation excludes the police officers who are in the time of the day off their shift.

[Edited at 2025-03-23 04:08 GMT]
 


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Expressions that are prone to mistranslation


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