Sign Language （間違っている英語の看板） Archives - Page 6 of 44

I wasn’t planning to eat the printed menu

This mark contains garlic

X This mark contains garlic

Tim says:

I’ve heard of soy ink, but I didn’t expect for certain symbols on the menu to be printed with garlic ink!

The way this is written, it means that the symbol itself contains garlic, but of course this is incorrect. The symbol doesn’t contain garlic; it designates menu items which contain garlic! We only need two words to tell us what the little brown mark symbolizes:

O Contains garlic

周囲にある英語を見て、果たしてそれが正しい英語なのだろうかと感じる英語はありますか？「あの英語は絶対に間違っている」という英語の表記はありますか？看板の写真を撮って、Machigai.comに送りましょう！とんでもない英語だったら、このコーナーで出します！

These English mistakes are making me sick!

Hospitalization Floor

X Hospitalization Floor

Tim says:

It’s certainly true that people who are staying on this floor have been “hospitalized”, but we don’t call the floor that. People who have been hospitalized are called “inpatients” (compare to “outpatients”, who come to see a doctor and then go home), so we would call this an “outpatient floor”.

O Inpatient Floor

English Reform is Needed

reform your furniture

X Reform your furniture

Tim says:

“Reform” means 「改革」. It’s strange to say that furniture should be reformed!

If it were a room, we would say “remodel”, but that’s also incorrect in this case. When old, broken furniture has its cloth parts replaced, we say it is being reupholstered.

O Have your furniture reupholstered

Make English Great Again

make English great again

X Make alliance even greater

Tim says:

During the 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump and his supporters wore red hats that said “Make America Great Again.” When Trump came to Japan, Shinzo Abe gave him one of these white hats. But there’s a problem with this English.

Simply saying “alliance” implies the general idea of working together, not a specific alliance! This hat is clearly meant to refer to the Japan-America alliance, so that should have been made clear.

O Make the alliance even greater O Make our alliance even greater

Exchange your sign

foreign currency

X 12Foreign Currency

Tim says:

Of course, there should be a space after “12”. But also, if there are 12 of them, shouldn’t the noun be plural!?

But also, the sign needs to explain what it wants to say about these 12 currencies! This place will accept them all for exchange!

O We Exchange 12 Foreign Currencies

A variety show’s conquest

fall of Italy

X Fall of Italy

Tim says:

You know, of course, that fall has two meanings: 「秋」and 「落ちる」. You might have thought that the second “fall” was only a verb, but actually there’s also a related noun “fall” meaning 「崩壊」. “Fall of Italy” sounds as if Italy has been defeated by a foreign army! For example, the “fall of Rome” (ローマ帝国崩壊).

This photo was taken from TV, so I didn’t have time to adjust my camera!

To make it clear that “fall” means “autumn”, it should be written this way:

O Fall in Italy

We are waiting for you to correct this sign

a plenty choices

X We are waiting for you to serve a plenty choices of pasta dishes…

Tim says:

There are two problems here. First, “we are waiting for you” does mean 「あなたに待っている」, but if you add “to 〜” after it, in means you are expecting that person to do it. So “we are waiting for you to serve pasta” seems to mean 「あなたがパスタを出すのを待っている」, just the opposite of the intended meaning!

Second, “a plenty choices” sounds strange. It should be “plenty of choices”.

O We are waiting to serve you plenty of choices of pasta dishes…

L or R #3

saron

X saron

Tim says:

A “saron” is an Indonesian musical instrument! And it won’t help your hair at all. It’s better to go to a “saLon”!

O salon

L or R #2

erevator

X erevator

Tim says:

As spelling mistakes go, this is pretty far DOWN. They’d better ELEVATE their spelling skills!

O elevator

L or R #1

omeret

X omeret

Tim says:

Actually, getting confused about L and R is only part of the spelling mistake on this sign!

O omelette

Category: Sign Language （間違っている英語の看板）

I wasn’t planning to eat the printed menu

These English mistakes are making me sick!

English Reform is Needed

Make English Great Again

Exchange your sign

A variety show’s conquest

We are waiting for you to correct this sign

L or R #3

L or R #2

L or R #1

machigaienglish