鑽石舞台

The auto-translate function is mighty... but not almighty.

Perhaps you've already seen lots of hilarious translations shared during the lockdown. What was your favorite?

That's Mandarin has picked 4 of our favorite translation fails and tried to explain why they failed 👇

01. "RICE" FAIL

📏 "Big meters"

This failed translation appeared in a supermarket. While you can literally translate 大米 (dà mǐ) as "big-meter", the word 大米 (dàmǐ) actually refers to white uncooked rice. Bad job, auto-translate.

大米

dàmǐ

white rice

WHAT IT MEANS…

大

dà

big / great / large

米

mǐ

rice (noun) /

meter (measure word)

02. "FLOUR" FAIL

🧴"Face powder"

This translation was from a supermarket too (perhaps the same one?). While you can literally translate 麵粉 (miàn fěn) as "face-powder", the word 麵粉 (miànfěn) actually refers to wheat flour. Another fail, auto-translate!

麵粉

miànfěn

flour / wheat flour

WHAT IT MEANS…

面

miàn

face / surface / side / flour / noodles

粉

fěn

powder / face powder / noodles

03."RICE" FAILII

👩‍🍳 "Cook your aunt"

This translation came from a shop too — even though this time, from a package. This one is really a mystery because an online dictionary wouldn't have translated the phrase 煮飯嬸 ("cook-food-auntie") into "cook your aunt". It would've at least been "cooking aunt". Perhaps this one was a human error!

煮飯嬸

Zhǔfàn shěn

Cooking lady / Cooking auntie

WHAT IT MEANS…

煮飯

zhǔfàn

to cook rice / meal

嬸

shěn

aunt / auntie

04. "DISINFECTION" FAIL

😱 "Go back and kill quickly. Kill yourself."

This one is the scariest of all since it came in a chat message. Poor receiver — they must've been terrified! The reason for all the trouble was the word 消殺 (xiāoshā), which is a combination of 消毒 (xiāodú, "to disinfect") and 殺菌 (shājūn, "to kill germs"), which WeChat translate... failed to translate.

回去迅速消殺, 自己做好消殺。

Huíqù xùnsù xiāoshā, zìjǐ zuò hǎo xiāoshā.

When you're back (home), immediately disinfect (everything, your belongings) and yourself.

WHAT IT MEANS…

回去以後要消毒殺菌, 你自己也需要消毒殺菌。

Huíqù yǐhòu yào xiāodú shājūn, nǐ zìjǐ yě xūyào xiāodú shājūn.

When you're back (home), you need to disinfect (everything, your belongings), and you also need to disinfect yourself.

消毒殺菌 / 消殺

xiāodú shājūn /xiāoshā

to disinfect

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Have you seen any translation fails in your friends' WeChat moments during the lockdown?

Or maybe you've tried to translate a message on your own and the result wasn't exactly what you expected?

Share your stories and translation fails with That's Mandarin👇

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