Witty Dunglish name for business
I was biking down the street in Amsterdam the other day when I saw a van from this catering company. I think ‘The Eet-Team’ (referring to old American television show ‘The A Team’, which is still on telly in the Netherlands!) is a great play on words. And for the foreign audience, ‘eet’ means ‘eat’ and ironically sounds a lot like ‘ate’ in English.
If you have any other examples of good Dunglish use, send them in!
Tags: catering, play on words
April 21st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Reminds me of this cartoon: http://www.nabaal.nl/?Dieet
April 26th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
In my street there is a restaurant saying “eating and wining”. Or did they mean whining?
April 27th, 2009 at 11:08 am
@Laurent: ‘Dining and wining’ zie je wel vaker bij restaurants. Glaasje wijn erbij. Maar daar kan je aan het rijm zien dat er sprake is van een dichterlijke vrijheid.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Actually, it’s “wining and dining” usually in that order. The Dutch and others often use “dealing and wheeling” when it’s better to use “wheeling and dealing”.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
“The Eet-team” is funny, but not logical. Why use ‘the’ in a Dutch phrase?
May 19th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
At first glimpse, I thought it said “Eejit”. Which, if I’m not mistaken, is a British slang pejorative or invective meaning something like “moron”. 🙂
May 19th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
This is another business name, but I’m not sure if it’s Dunglish:
http://www.hippostyle.nl/
Who’d want to dress like a hippo?
May 21st, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Someone who doesn’t know that a hippodrome isn’t a place where hippos are raced.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Eigenlijk is dit een heel slechte slogan. Fonetisch gezien staat er
de iet tiem
En in dat geval hadden ze beter “the eat-team” kunnen hebben, maar dan zou de woordspeling verloren gaan. Of ze hadden “het eet-team” moeten gebruiken, maar dan zou de verwijzing verloren zijn gegaan. Een slechte naam, dus.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I think it’s a rather good slogan, given a Dutch audience. The Dutch pronounce “The A-Team” with the English “A”; as long as the average Dutch person seeing the van is familiar with the show, it’s a cute little reference, with little room for misinterpretation. Sure, it doesn’t work for the non-Dutch-speaking tourist, but I don’t think the company is targeting tourists, if their Dutch-only website is any indication.