[Ads-l] mistranslation?

[Chris Waigl]

On 4/1/17 8:28 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

> Eng-Fr, on a card of bag clips intended to keep your (e.g.) potato chips
> enclosed and dry till you finish them:
> *Hand wash recommended.*
> Le lavage des mains est recommandé.
> Does that mean, as I think it does, that you should wash your hands, rather
> than that you should wash (the product) by hand? Should the translation be
> "... aux mains ..."?

Yes, it means "hand-washing is recommended" (as in, someone should wash
their hands). The clothes label version in French is typicaly  using a
verb, "laver à la main" (just one) or "lavage à la main", and you could
have  "lavage à la main recommendé". (Sometimes you see the ultra-short
version "laver main", but that's pretty much just on a label with very
limited space -- I searched for an example and couldn't find one.

BTW, there's a Facebook group called Traductions de merde. It hasn't
been very active lately, but its full of this stuff. (The source
language isn't always English, in our times of products manufactured in
China or elsewhere in Asia.)

Chris


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