False Friends - Taschen Guide

reservation, it's a real booking.
    Julio: Do you mean a charge that was entered?
    Kirsten: Yes, that's right.
    Julio: Oh, now I understand. You know what? If you email me a pdf of the report showing the charge, I will call you back as soon as I have the information you need.
    Kirsten: That would be fine. Thank you Julio.
What caused the confusion?
Strictly speaking, ‚a booking‘ is something you make when you want hotel rooms, concert tickets or tables in restaurants. Also, footballers can receive bookings from the referee, meaning they are shown the yellow or red card for fouling other players during a match. When talking in German about a Buchung in an accounting system, in English it is more specific if you can say ‚ an entry has been made‘ or ‚ a debit has been charged to‘ or on the positive side: ‚ an amount has been credited to‘ . ↓ ↓
An ‚internal revision‘ sounds like changes being made within the company, whereas in this case an internal audit is taking place. ↓ ↓
The correct accounting term for Posten is not ‚post‘ but ‚item‘ . ↓ ↓
    Important
    One of the terms that can often confuse native English speakers is the German speaker's use of the term ‚controller‘ and ‚to control‘. It gives a sense of die Macht haben über etwas/jemanden, but in the financial context it is usual to say ‚ management accountant for ‘ Controller and ‚to monitor/to check‘ for kontrollieren.
    Sales and marketing
    Not so long ago, German companies such as car companies, perfume sellers and cosmetics manufacturers began marketing their products and filming adverts (Spots) with English slogans. With time, some of them have realized that the non-English speaking population often do not understand the message; so they have reverted to using German slogans.
    The most amusing situations – for native speakers of English, that is – arise from German companies using pseudo-anglicisms to name their products. Here are some examples:
    Product name in German:
What the English speaker understands:
Shirty (a type of nightdress)
‚Shirty‘ is used to describe a person and means aufgebracht .
Shorty (pyjamas with short trousers)
‚Shorty‘ is a nickname often given to people who are not very tall: Kleine(r) .
Body (name given to one-piece underwear: one type worn by women and a type also made for babies)
‚Body‘ means Körper . The kind worn by women is typically known as a ‚teddy‘ but, as mentioned earlier, it is also now called a ‚body‘ in stores in Britain. The type worn by babies is called a ‚baby-grow‘ (BE) or a ‚onesie‘ (AE).
Bodybag (a rucksack with a single strap that lies diagonally across the front of the body)
Bodybag means Leichensack . This is not a good choice for your product name!
Neckholder (a piece of clothing with straps which are tied behind the neck)
‚Neckholder‘ (Nackenhalter?) does not exist. The correct English expression is ‚halterneck‘, e.g. halterneck dress, halterneck top.
    This is not simply a recommendation: it is a necessity. If you wish to use English words to name, describe or advertise your products and/or services, it is crucial that you have them checked for their meaning in all of the English-speaking countries in which you hope to sell them.
    Production
    This is the division ( Ressort ) that manufactures products; it is the place where your ideas, in the form of designs, are turned into reality. In this context it is acceptable to speak of your concepts being ‚realized‘ ( realisiert ).
    Example: a meeting dialogue containing false friends
    At a product team meeting, three colleagues of different nationalities are updating each other on the status of the production of a plastic kitchen utensil. They are Hannes from the Konstruktionsteam, Melinda from Materialentwicklung and Sam, a native English-speaking product manager.
    Sam: „…. as I was saying, we're having one main issue with the product and I was hoping we could start analyzing it by going back to the source. Hannes, the main difficulty we are having is with this section of the product (Sam points to a diagram). As an engineer, perhaps you can see immediately what we need to improve.“
    Hannes: „You know I am not an engineer really, but I see the problem and I think that the construction needs to be improved at this place here …“
    Sam: „OK, I see – but so that we all understand this correctly, we're talking about the design, right? The construction is the