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Sure, you might lose something in translation, but what you get in return—humor—is often more than worth it. English is a darn strange language when you really have a good and long think about it. The rules of spelling, for one, are so inconsistent, it practically borders on cosmically ironic poetry. And it can be a nightmare to learn for anyone hoping to study a second language… or, truth be told, for native speakers as well.

However, some English mess-ups are far worse and vastly more hilarious than others. The r/engrish subreddit has been sharing the most bizarre mistakes spotted all around the world for over 14 years, since 2008.

Check out the most hilarious English translations, typos, and errors below, Pandas. Be sure to upvote the ones that made you giggle the most. When you’re done, check out Bored Panda’s earlier article about the subreddit right over here. Oh, and keep in mind that nobody’s making fun of people who genuinely do their best: learning any new language is hard. But ridiculous mistakes are, well, genuinely funny—and they deserve to have an audience.

#1

Feel Like This Belongs In This Sub

Feel Like This Belongs In This Sub

xxawesomenz Report

#2

L'otters

L'otters

alocaionew Report

#3

When People Make Memes Out Of Memes

When People Make Memes Out Of Memes

OhThatNigGed Report

Bored Panda was very interested to figure out just how rare or widespread English errors like this actually are. That's why we reached out to a foreign exchange student who has recently moved from Europe to Japan's capital, Tokyo.

We had a chat about communicating with the locals in English, as well as the language mix-ups that she's personally seen with her own two eyes. The exchange student preferred to remain anonymous.

She told Bored Panda that, so far, it's been difficult finding Japanese people who choose to speak in English. "It’s difficult to communicate with the locals because they either do not speak English at all, but even those who speak some English are too embarrassed to try speaking it," she shared her firsthand experience.

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#4

It's Too Much

It's Too Much

Lycanfyre Report

#5

Omlette

Omlette

desimemewala Report

#6

Space Ship People

Space Ship People

BeyondFest Report

Though it's easy to think that hilarious spelling and translation errors are to be found around every corner abroad, that's not really how things work. The reality is actually far more mundane: jaw-droppingly hilarious mistakes are few and far between. Though this rarity probably helps make them all the funnier.

"I haven’t noticed that many bad translations," the exchange student shared with us about her experience living in Tokyo and traveling around Japan so far.

"Sometimes, 'R' and 'L' are mixed up in an English word and it makes me wonder how did they miss that because I assume they use a translator/dictionary when making signs and stuff," she pointed out that, in Japanese, both of these letters are pronounced interchangeably. "But it’s not that common," she added.

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"I haven’t seen any funny mistranslations, except one Italian-style restaurant had a really overall botched English menu translation," she said.

#7

Don't Delete The Baby!!!

Don't Delete The Baby!!!

aytozee_ Report

#8

Possibly Satire, Definitely Amazing

Possibly Satire, Definitely Amazing

thefanum Report

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#9

Trains Is Hard Job

Trains Is Hard Job

Asymmetrization Report

The r/engrish subreddit has amassed over 736k members in the nearly one-and-half decades since the online community was first created.

The moderators of the group ask people to follow the rules, including avoiding posting any intentional English mistakes. All errors have to be genuine. What’s more, tiny typos or unfunny spelling mistakes also aren’t the focus of the subreddit. The mess-ups have to be big, bold, and beautiful! Frankly, the more embarrassing and hilarious, the better

Everyone makes English mistakes. Whether you’re a foreigner or born in an English-speaking country doesn’t matter much. Your ability to write, edit, proofread, and translate well depends more on your work ethic and ability to learn than anything you’re born with.

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Sure, native speakers might have a head start. But we’ve all seen way too many cases of people who can’t string a proper sentence together to believe that they have any long-lasting advantage. Talents and opportunities mean nothing if you don’t put in the hard work to nurture them.

#10

No Is Not An Option

No Is Not An Option

BannedUser3 Report

#11

Just Stop Living Pls

Just Stop Living Pls

SuperLongUnagi Report

#12

I Choked While Reading This

I Choked While Reading This

Ramboryback Report

Writing for Aeon online magazine, John McWhorter a professor of linguistics and American, noted that English speakers “know that their language is odd. So do people saddled with learning it non-natively.”

“The oddity that we all perceive most readily is its spelling, which is indeed a nightmare. In countries where English isn’t spoken, there is no such thing as a ‘spelling bee’ competition. For a normal language, spelling at least pretends a basic correspondence to the way people pronounce the words. But English is not normal,” he points out.

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“Spelling is a matter of writing, of course, whereas language is fundamentally about speaking. Speaking came long before writing, we speak much more, and all but a couple of hundred of the world’s thousands of languages are rarely or never written. Yet even in its spoken form, English is weird,” McWhorter writes.

“It’s weird in ways that are easy to miss, especially since Anglophones in the United States and Britain are not exactly rabid to learn other languages. But our monolingual tendency leaves us like the proverbial fish not knowing that it is wet. Our language feels ‘normal’ only until you get a sense of what normal really is.”

#13

University Of Potato Ice

University Of Potato Ice

Smiling_longhair6870 Report

#14

Like Stepping On What?

Like Stepping On What?

icollecthumantears Report

#15

Twost And Twoith

Twost And Twoith

Hax_orus Report

He continues: “We think it’s a nuisance that so many European languages assign gender to nouns for no reason, with French having female moons and male boats and such. But actually, it’s us who are odd: almost all European languages belong to one family—Indo-European—and of all of them, English is the only one that doesn’t assign genders that way.”

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#16

This Disturbs Me

This Disturbs Me

JellyTrollRD Report

#17

Unrespectful

Unrespectful

callmealeksa Report

#18

Oh Yummmmm

Oh Yummmmm

DJ_MRTG Report

“More weirdness? OK. There is exactly one language on Earth whose present tense requires a special ending only in the third‑person singular. I’m writing in it. I talk, you talk, he/she talk-s—why just that? The present‑tense verbs of a normal language have either no endings or a bunch of different ones (Spanish: hablo, hablas, habla). And try naming another language where you have to slip do into sentences to negate or question something. Do you find that difficult? Unless you happen to be from Wales, Ireland or the north of France, probably.”

#19

You're Under The Rest

You're Under The Rest

ABCD181 Report

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#20

That Hit Hard, Like Rocks

That Hit Hard, Like Rocks

foxgirlhh Report

#21

Where’s The Queue??

Where’s The Queue??

pabs1988 Report

Add photo comments
POST
Uncanny
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Great. Now there’s a line of guys stretching around the block wanting to crowd surf! 😂

Passerby
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I mean, will the crowd ejaculate on me, or will I be made to ejaculate by the crowd? Just asking for a friend.

Spocks's Mom
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑑𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑔*

Whoopdeedoo
Community Member
5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's like they couldn't decide between ejected and evacuated.... though ejected is pretty fun too

Inmate 24601
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I mean, we already have been, so it's not like it's our first time....

Bored_NorWeirdian
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow 🤣🤣 I mean, I’m wondering if someone tried 🤣

Surfing Panda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why Him ? ( 2016 movie with James Franco) : " There's bukk*ke floating all around me! Barb Fleming : What's bukk*ke? Ned Fleming : Oh, Laird told me; it means when you're overwhelmed and ..."

JoJoB
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm sure the guys think this is even better than accident porn!

MED71
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I could so follow this with previous entry. Nevermind 😄

LapCat
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There have been times I wished I could have been ejaculated into a towel but here I am

Tyler
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this implies that we are inside someone's you-know-what

David
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Groping is still a crime, even if you are in a crowd and don't think you will be caught.

Black Pearl
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wait so who's doing the ejaculating? Does the person crowd surfing just ejaculate or does the crowd all ejaculate on them?

Injun Joe
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Never had that happen to me. I always landed on the floor...

View more commentsArrow down menu

Previously, Lisa McLendon, from the University of Kansas, explained to Bored Panda why English is such a “train wreck” when it comes to spelling.

"English spelling is such a train wreck, with its myriad silent letters and wildly varying pronunciations for letters and letter combinations. But also, articles (a/an/the) tend to be difficult for people whose native language doesn’t have them, and our tense/aspect blend with combinations of auxiliary verbs makes the English verb system tricky even for native speakers sometimes," she told us during an earlier interview.

#22

What

What

zhang3bot Report

#23

Accident P*rn Area

Accident P*rn Area

Horror-Entertainer65 Report

#24

Sounds Like And Interesting Dish

Sounds Like And Interesting Dish

Complex_Ad_9886 Report

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According to the professor, English isn’t spelled as it sounds for several reasons. Among them, we have to consider when certain words first entered the language, what their origins are, and when words were ‘codified.’

"People have proposed spelling overhauls before but they tend to not go anywhere, probably because it’s such a daunting project—could we all agree on what the changes would be?—and because then an entire body of texts would become basically a foreign language to the next generation. Many factors in addition to spelling contribute to a language’s 'character,' but some spellings do have echoes of archaic English—in my opinion, it would be a little bit sad to lose some of that," the professor told Bored Panda.

#25

Belly Button. Elevator

Belly Button. Elevator

Ariquitaun Report

#26

Chinese C**k Wanted

Chinese C**k Wanted

asportnoy Report

#27

Yeah, Mike

Yeah, Mike

Manalor Report

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See Also on Bored Panda

The language expert shared with us that spell check, as a whole, isn’t as great as many think it is. Sure, it’s wonderful for catching typos and misspellings, but it’s not quite up to part with our expectations yet.

"Where it’s more of a curse than a blessing is with homonyms/homophones because it won’t flag a word that is a word, but not the word you want. Think affect/effect, who’s/whose, led/lead but also word pairs like form/from and not-synonyms like bemuse/amuse, etc," she said.

#28

Help Me Translate This: 'Bloody Sl*twh*re Father F**k'

Help Me Translate This: 'Bloody Sl*twh*re Father F**k'

MaskyDo Report

#29

Don't Mind If I Do

Don't Mind If I Do

dizzy_200 Report

#30

Being Polite To The Boss’s Secretary While Using Grammarly

Being Polite To The Boss’s Secretary While Using Grammarly

fatimanga Report

#31

Noo Not Paul, He Had So Much To Live For

Noo Not Paul, He Had So Much To Live For

Silly_Matter_7563 Report

#32

You Are F**k

You Are F**k

LongIndividual2 Report

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#33

Jeez, They Went Harsh

Jeez, They Went Harsh

Imaginary_Box1158 Report

#34

Chilled Beer

Chilled Beer

zatoichi2015 Report

#35

Engrish

Engrish

Krokant-Kroketje Report

#36

Found This On Fb

Found This On Fb

Smart-Refrigerator18 Report

#37

Um, What?

Um, What?

datirishboii Report

#38

To Punish And Enslave

To Punish And Enslave

Silly_Matter_7563 Report

#39

Praganant

Praganant

BlackmanNthrobbin Report

#40

Like A God!

Like A God!

Lingering_Dorkness Report

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#41

Actually It Says Gym

Actually It Says Gym

KatzeGotVibes Report

#42

I Am God

I Am God

OpheliaLovesFelix Report

#43

A Height Measuring Pole I Found At A Restaurant

A Height Measuring Pole I Found At A Restaurant

eKONP12 Report

#44

Who Wants Go For German Sexual Harassment? Sounds Yummy Ngl

Who Wants Go For German Sexual Harassment? Sounds Yummy Ngl

Silly_Matter_7563 Report

#45

Give Me More Of Your Internet Daddy~~

Give Me More Of Your Internet Daddy~~

Silly_Matter_7563 Report

#46

Welp

Welp

TheFakeShark Report

#47

This Bizarre Conversation On The Side Of My Drink

This Bizarre Conversation On The Side Of My Drink

pdiddy919 Report

#48

Ah Yes! I’ve Always Wanted A Free Country!!

Ah Yes! I’ve Always Wanted A Free Country!!

annaanzi Report

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#49

Love Drippings

Love Drippings

CompetitionNo7300 Report

#50

Ok Probably Not The Type Of Engrish This Sub Normally Showcases But This Is Ridiculous

Ok Probably Not The Type Of Engrish This Sub Normally Showcases But This Is Ridiculous

Dark-Pit-37 Report

Note: this post originally had 112 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.