Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Awkward uses of English by Italians

I guess we've all seen seemingly odd uses of English by Italians. 
Please keep in mind that I am not trying to pick on the Italians, I've
seen just as many odd uses of Italian in America.  I live in Italy,
and mostly love it here.
I saw this yesterday and it really made me laugh. It was a big
headline on the front page of the Friday issue of "La Repubblica ":
"Dietrofront sul falso in bilancio" 
subhead:
"Pene soft per i colpevoli."
Poverini... Of course, I know what they meant, it sounds like the
colpevoli need some Viagra. 
There's another one that gets me every time - the advertising slogan
for "Wind", one of the major telephone companies. They run an ad very
often on TV for their services, trying to get you to sign up as an
alternative to Telecom Italia. The spot ends up with this kind of sexy
woman saying "Passa a Wind". The preposition is barely heard. 
OK, I'll try...
In the neighborhood, there's a parrucchiere with a shop called "Hair
for you" To me it sounds like you can go in and get a big bag of hair.
Then there's a ristorante - a kind of steak house called "The Meating
Place", which is a pretty good pun, but it sounds vaguely pornogrphic
to me. 
To be fair, in San Francisco it seems like every third business has an
Italian name. This is not (only) because there are many Italians
there, but it seems to be trendy. 
There's a big hairdresser place called "I Capelli" , which of course
is correct, but if the name was translated into English would you call
your business "The Hair" ? 
A verrrry chi-chi restaurant is called "Spago" The word has a nice
sound, but what does string have to do with fine dining?
I'd like to hear of more examples from you.

 woman saying "Passa a Wind". The preposition is barely heard.
I quite don't get it..


To "pass wind " in English = scoreggiare. 

 To "pass wind " in English = scoreggiare.
lol
sarà che ho sempre detto "to fart"

 sound, but what does string have to do with fine dining?
I believe "spago" is the singular of "spaghi" ("se famo du' spaghi"), that
is "spaghetti".
[...]
Ciao, FB
-- 
In any case, if you say 'I gotta go' at an important job interview you're
contributing to being allowed just that privilege.
(Tony the ice man on it.cultura.linguistica.inglese)

> I'd like to hear of more examples from you.
Slip per dire "knickers".
smoking per dire "tuxedo".
tight per dire "suit"
stage per dire "training" (anche se li' l'errore e' che la parola e'
francese e dovrebbe essre pronunciata come tale)
sexy shop per dire "sex shop"
Mi piacerebbe anche a me saperne altre.
P.S. giacche' mi pare di capire che sei americano, non e' che per caso le
suddette parole siano corrette in American English?
Antonio, Stoke-on-Trent

suddette parole siano corrette in American English?
Vedi sopra...
Thanks for the examples.   Post more!

Qui nel Nord Inghilterra c'e' un ristorante pseudo-italiano di nome "casa
italiano" e a pie' di pagina nel menu: "buono appetito".


Here in the USA, it is considered "chic" to have a business with a
French or Italian name, but sometimes people get confused between the
two. There is a spa called "Bella Sante", which can't seem to make up
its mind whether it wants to be Italian or French.
http://www.shopinusa.com/Personal_Care___Beauty/Spas/
Joe from Massachusetts