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#21
Here in Germany you see quite often misspelled words and sentences as a result of word by word translation. One I noticed last week was a sign on the wall above a trash bin in a "Rasthof", a roadside service area (literally "Rest yard").
German word for waste is "Abfall", which is a combination of a preposition "ab", meaning off, away, from etc., and noun "Fall", meaning fall as in free fall, or case as in this case etc.. It really has a lot of different meanings, but as I mentioned, together with preposition "ab" it means waste.
So the sign said in German Abfall, and underneath in English the translation: Falling off
Luckily people tend to recognize trash bins, so maybe the sign is unnecessary...
Last edited by Kari; 07 Jun 2010 at 20:00. Reason: LOL, thread is about spelling, and I had some really bad typos :)