[0] - https://archive.org/details/englishassheissp00applrich/page/...
Global communication and travel, to say nothing of media consumption, is much easier today. Many more Portuguese or Brazilian people have easy access to English. But back then, someone who didn't even speak English could publish this phrase book and appear credible.
There are so many that there's now another genre of reacting to this bad advice.
English as She Is Spoke - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25784683 - Jan 2021 (129 comments)
"I go make some shoppings"
"Time for go"
Naturally, the rest of the gang picked them up and used them. I still say them to the consternation of others.
Also, "like such as," from the old "Miss Teen USA" viral video, has stuck in my craw to the point that its use is unconscious (though still intended humorously).
See an entry from Charles Scholl, Geroge Mcaulaly et al's "A Phraseological Dictionary of Commercial Correspondence in the English, German, French & Spanish Languages, with an Appendix Containing Lists of Commercial Abbreviations, Geographical Names, the Principal Articles of Commerce", published in 1891:
"Needful: he will do what is needful under the circumstances. We rely on your doing the needful for the protection of our interests. With which will you please do the needful. With which we shall do the needful, and credit you for the amount in due course. I shall do the needful at maturity. I enclose draft for 100 pounds at two months, to which I will thank you to do the needful"
Another entry from a law journal published in 1833 in UK: "The letter was immediately given by the bankrupt to the defendant, with directions that as the voyage was altered, he, the defendant, would do the needful."
> "I go make some shoppings"
As a Romanian living in the London, I hear English mistakes from various nationalities and I'm surprised how similar some are to Romanian, even when there's no connection. In this case, in Romanian we also word-for-word say "to make shoppings".
It often feels like English is the odd man out. :)
As an example, a Lithuanian was showing me a shortcut. He said "press alt plus ii". So I press "Alt+I". He chuckled and said "No, alt plus the English ii". So I pressed "Alt+E". The great vowel shift left vowels unrecognizable to other languages (/iː/ became /aɪ/, /eː/ became /iː/, ...).
Japanese person "Ohio gazimus!"
GI: "Well, Kentucky gazimus to you, too!"
or:
GI: "No toucha my mustache!"
Things went the other way, too. My dad would collect Japanese flyers aimed at GIs with horribly mangled English.
I have never independently confirmed if this was an actual saying in Iran or not. (Google is not helpful.)
[0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20170115091456/http://winterson....
This might legitimately be one of my favorite pieces of entertainment in existence, if only because of the delivery and emotion behind nonsense idiom mistranslations. It's glorious.
Even after seeing it many times, this old classic still makes me laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EShUeudtaFg
> O novo guia da conversação em portuguez e inglez, commonly known by the name English as She Is Spoke, is a 19th-century book written by Pedro Carolino, with some editions crediting José da Fonseca as a co-author. It was intended as a Portuguese–English conversational guide or phrase book. However, because the "English" translations provided are usually inaccurate or unidiomatic, it is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour in translation.
> The humour largely arises from Carolino's indiscriminate use of literal translation, which has led to many idiomatic expressions being translated ineptly. For example, Carolino translates the Portuguese phrase chover a cântaros as "raining in jars", when an analogous English idiom is available in the form of "raining buckets".
> It is widely believed that Carolino could not speak English and that a French–English dictionary was used to translate an earlier Portuguese–French phrase book, …
Really? Which part of the UK does that come from. Where I come from *Nort Wilts.) the related phrase would be "It's bucketing down!" but I've never heard anyone say "It's raining buckets!".
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005195.h...
Probably not what the above poster was referring to, but here's a sample:
https://www.reddit.com/r/engrish/comments/q1g8sh/a_restauran...
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/pedro-carolino_jose-da-fon...
Probably quite a few of them are no longer common in English either by now, which makes computing the inverse harder.
>"With tongue one go to Roma"
= you can achieve anything with good communication skills
>"It want to beat the iron during it is hot"
= seize the opportunity while you can
>"to come back to their muttons"
you say "let's go back to our sheep" when you realize you digressed
“Strike while the iron is hot” is a well known English saying as well. Guess blacksmith wisdom is universal.
And one that Hacker news and Silicon Valley didn’t coin but made famous is in this maybe, sorta:
> A bad arrangement is better than a process.
Which can be stretched to ‘Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good’ or ‘real engineers ship’!
The original Portuguese expression would be "A cavalo dado não se olha os dentes"
How did you find that?
Now if someone can figure out the source, that would be even more amazing.
Leibniz -> ライプニッツ (ripunittsu) -> Ripunitz
Times aren't that different!
Some friends and I used to use "spits in the coat" to express the superiority of one thing over another, e.g.
"Framework 1 spits in the coat of Framework 2". "Sports Team 1 spits in the coat of Sports Team 2."
In which dialect of English is that an idiomatic expression? Never heard it before (en-gb native). What's the interpreted meaning??
Google EN->JP doesn’t get it right, and also oddly translates the two sentences into different politeness levels.
"Der ganze Laden ist voller Schlamm." (German)
But if you place the cursor on "Laden" ("shop") it'll offer you alternatives including "Ort" ("place", i.e.: "There is mud all over the place"). The problem here is that what's meant depends on context: if you are a shopkeeper speaking after a downpour, your entire shop might indeed be full of mud your customers have dragged in. (Moreover, "der ganze Laden" can be used in German in much the same way as "all over the shop" in English, i.e. referring to any sort of building or establishment.)
More to the point perhaps, here is the output DeepL produces for the Portuguese phrases quoted in the table of "Phrase examples":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_She_Is_Spoke#Phrase...
1. "Walls have ears. Alternatives: The walls have ears. Walls do have ears." (1:0 for DeepL.)
2. "He rides pussycats. Alternatives: Walk with pussycats. Come on, pussycat. He's got pussy." (1:1. BIG FAIL.)
3. "Is the road safe? Alternatives: How safe is the road? Is the road safe ? Is the road safe for you? (2:1 for DeepL.)
4. "He can ride a horse. Alternatives: He knows how to ride a horse. You can ride a horse. You know how to ride a horse. (3:1 for DeepL. Note that the Portuguese can indeed mean either "you" or "he".)
5. "He who remains silent consents. Alternatives: He who is silent is consenting. He who is silent is consented. Those who keep silent consent." (4:1 for DeepL.)
6. "What does he do? Alternatives: What is he doing? What's he doing? What does it do?" (5:1 for DeepL.)
7. "I feel like vomiting." Alternatives: I feel like throwing up. I feel like puking." (6:1 for DeepL.)
8. "This lake looks pretty fishy to me. Let's go fishing for fun." (Not brilliant. 6:2.)
9. "The servant ploughed the royal ground." (Acceptable. "Earth", "land", "soil" etc. offered as alternatives when you click on "ground". 7:2.)
10. "I know what I should do or what is incumbent upon me." (Acceptable. Offers "what is my responsibility" when you click on "incumbent". 8:2 for DeepL.)
11. "I earned more than thirty thousand réis. Alternatives: I earned over thirty thousand réis. I won more than thirty thousand réis. I won over thirty thousand réis." (Perfect. 9:2 for DeepL.)
12. "Did you understand or did you understand what I said? Alternatives: Did you understand what I said? Did you understand me? (Perfect. 10:2 for DeepL. Note that the repeition is there in the Portuguese: it ask the same thing twice, in two past tense forms that aren't distinguished in English (formal/informal forms).)
13. "He's a good sport, as far as I can see. Look how I've tamed him." (I don't think the translation in Wikipedia is all that brilliant. "From what I see, he kicks"?? Alternatives offered by DeepL when clicking on "good sport" include: "He's got balls from what I can see. Look how I've tamed him." Inconclusive. Let's call it 10.5 : 2.5.)
So, not perfect, but a lot less funny than "English as She Is Spoke".
