The Most Popular Chinese Translation Fails in Lockdown

The auto-translate function is mighty… but not almighty. Perhaps you’ve already seen lots of hilarious translations shared during the lockdown. What was your favorite?

We’ve picked 4 of our favorite translation fails and tried to explain why they failed 👇

01. “RICE” FAIL

📏 “Big meters”

This failed translation appeared in a supermarket. While you can literally translate 大米 (dà mǐ) as “big-meter”, the word 大米 (dàmǐ) actually refers to white uncooked rice. Bad job, auto-translate.

大米
dàmǐ
white rice

WHAT IT MEANS…

大
dà
big / great / large

米
mǐ
rice (noun) / meter (measure word)

02. “FLOUR” FAIL

🧴 “Face powder”

This translation was from a supermarket too (perhaps the same one?). While you can literally translate 面粉 (miàn fěn) as “face-powder”, the word 面粉 (miànfěn) actually refers to wheat flour. Another fail, auto-translate!

面粉
miànfěn
flour / wheat flour

WHAT IT MEANS…

面
miàn
face / surface / side / flour / noodles

粉
fěn
powder / face powder / noodles

03. “RICE” FAIL II

👩‍🍳 “Cook your aunt”

This translation came from a shop too — even though this time, from a package. This one is really a mystery because an online dictionary wouldn’t have translated the phrase 煮饭婶 (“cook-food-auntie”) into “cook your aunt”. It would’ve at least been “cooking aunt”. Perhaps this one was a human error!

煮饭婶
Zhǔfàn shěn
Cooking lady / Cooking auntie

WHAT IT MEANS…

煮饭
zhǔfàn
to cook rice / meal

婶
shěn
aunt / auntie

04. “DISINFECTION” FAIL

😱 “Go back and kill quickly. Kill yourself.”

This one is the scariest of all since it came in a chat message. Poor receiver — they must’ve been terrified! The reason for all the trouble was the word 消杀 (xiāoshā), which is a combination of 消毒 (xiāodú, “to disinfect”) and 杀菌 (shājūn, “to kill germs”), which WeChat translate… failed to translate.

回去迅速消杀, 自己做好消杀。
Huíqù xùnsù xiāoshā, zìjǐ zuò hǎo xiāoshā.
When you’re back (home), immediately disinfect (everything, your belongings) and yourself.

WHAT IT MEANS…

回去以后要消毒杀菌, 你自己也需要消毒杀菌。
Huíqù yǐhòu yào xiāodú shājūn, nǐ zìjǐ yě xūyào xiāodú shājūn.
When you’re back (home), you need to disinfect (everything, your belongings), and you also need to disinfect yourself.

消毒杀菌 / 消杀
xiāodú shājūn / xiāoshā
to disinfect

We hope you had fun learning more about Chinese translation fails. To find out more interesting phrases in Chinese, check out one of our blog posts 5 Small Talk Phrases in Chinese