Good reading
Sure we understand what they mean. This ticket is from one of the parking machines found in most Dutch cities. These tickets are also in German and French for tourists. I can’t judge the German, but the French is fine: “The side of the ticket indicating the time must be visible behind the windscreen”. Hey look, a decent translation. Why is the English so bad? Good readable, my goodness!
July 11th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Ugh. I once encountered ‘heel goed mogelijk’ as ‘very good possible’ but convinced myself it was an aberration. Not so sure now.
The tickets here are even more succinct. At the top of the side with the time on it, it reads LEAVE ON DASH – THIS SIDE UP.
July 13th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Seen here (Montreal) recently: “Please pay your parking fees at the horodation machine.” In French it’s a ‘horodateur’, and the person who made the sign apparently didn’t have a translator at hand.
January 10th, 2012 at 6:45 am
[…] Hm, where to start? – Tariff = rate. It’s not about importing bananas, it’s about the price of something. – Sun- and Holidays. No, no, no you cannot cut a word in half like that in English. (It’s already a Dutch sin to go for ‘hard- en software’.) – Correct = correctly. English adverbs have different spelling. And their sentence is a big missing link. If you’ve entered your licence plate (two words!) correctly, you can’t possibly have a ticket in your car until the machine prints one out and you go and place it ‘good readable behind your windscreen’. […]
November 12th, 2012 at 11:53 am
not to talk about the 40 different types of user hostile parking machines……