We are the champions
This live TV Dunglish blunder I snapped yesterday reminds me of one of the first parties I went to when I moved to The Netherlands. Someone was trying to tell me they learnt something from all those American television shows on Dutch TV by saying that only Americans thought in terms of winners and losers (with just one ‘o’, eh).
Well, you were wrong.
December 28th, 2006 at 11:13 am
I think you should buy a new telly. Great site though!
December 28th, 2006 at 11:22 am
There’s nothing wrong with my telly, the picture got fuzzy this week!
December 28th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
It’s an extremely common mistake.
It seems people just do not know the word is spelled with just one “o”. Maybe they think it looks more English like this, or that the Dutch “oe” sound always has to be spelled “oo”.
Anyway, it seems to be the Standard Dunglish Spelling of “loser”.
December 28th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Those TV folks know better than to make such an amateur mistake. Or am I too nice?
And if the Van Dale does not have ‘looser’ in it, it’s wrong in Dutch as well or hasn’t made it in yet.
December 28th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
‘Loose(r)’ an extremely common mistake among native speakers of English too.
December 28th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Since I started reading your blog I’ve started noticing more of these mistakes too
December 28th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
🙂
December 29th, 2006 at 12:49 am
Snel lozen, die loosers! 😉
January 16th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Funny, funny, funny! But it irritates me, on the other hand. We’re in the Netherlands. Use Dutch words!
February 6th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
The journalists in question are probably from Amsterdam, so they swap their voiced and unvoiced fricatives. De son in de see sien sakke, remember? That’s how loser becomes looser.
February 10th, 2007 at 2:41 am
[…] Comedy gold from Dunglish.nl. In case you do not get the joke: a Dutch news show trying to be cool by using English words. Van means of. […]
September 15th, 2008 at 9:46 am
‘Looser’ is a dunglish mistake on the loose… 😉
It keeps coming back, like in this LinkedIn group I just got invited for: “Marketing Pioneers is a group of marketeers who want to be ahead of the masses. People who have the ambition to excel in the marketing expertise. Pioneers are known for their offensive strategies with an uncertain result. There is only a fine line between winning and loosing. Learn from both best practices and mistakes others made, meet other marketing pioneers and be inspired by leaders in the marketing discipline.”
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=810617