Never buy tickets from a European.

July 16, 2005 4:19 AM

Can anyone translate something from Dutch (or possibly Flemish) to English for me? I ordered tickets from a foreign website and it all went wrong..

"Er is een fout opgetreden.Is deze fout opgetreden nadat u het finale overzichtscherm (het scherm waarop naast uw reserveringsdetails o.a. ook het reserveringsnummer staat aangegeven) bereikte, dan is uw reservering correct verwerkt. U hoeft geen nieuwe reservering te maken, tenzij u bijkomende tickets wenst te bestellen."

Thanks in advance!

posted by ascullion to Writing & Language (16 answers total)

Best answer: It says: "An error occurred. If this happened after you reached the final 'overview' screen (the screen that mentioned your reservation details and, among others, your reservation number), then your reservation has been completed correctly. You don't need to make a new reservation, unless you want to order any other tickets"
posted by Narnia at 4:32 AM on July 16, 2005

Best answer: I don't speak Dutch. However, until someone else replies, here's my attempt at a translation.

It seems to say something like, "There has been an error. If you have seen this error after seeing the final screen (the one where you gave your reservation details, and where you got a reservation number), then your reservation was correct, and you don't need to do a new reservation to get the tickets you ordered."

On review: seems my Dutch translation skills are not too bad. That's pretty close to what Narnia said. :)
posted by ckemp at 4:34 AM on July 16, 2005

Ckemp: I actually like your translation better than mine, well done!
posted by Narnia at 4:38 AM on July 16, 2005

Response by poster: Thank you so much, you're both lifesavers. I wasn't sure if I needed to order again or not, now I can do so without worrying about being billed twice.

Thanks again.
posted by ascullion at 4:53 AM on July 16, 2005

Just to make sure (I'm not sure if I understand your last remark): it says you shouldn't order again! You will be billed twice if you order again (and you'll get double tickets), cause your first order was successful....
posted by Narnia at 5:01 AM on July 16, 2005

unless they weren't on the final screen, right?
posted by andrew cooke at 5:55 AM on July 16, 2005

right, you've got a point Andrew. I jumped to conclusions, sorry!
posted by Narnia at 6:08 AM on July 16, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for the caution. I hadn't made it to the final screen yet.
posted by ascullion at 7:21 AM on July 16, 2005

"There is wrongly has acted these error has acted after you final overview baffle (the baffle on which beside your reservation details among other things also the reservation number stands declared) reached, then your reservation has been correctly processed. You must no new reservation, make unless you wish additional order tickets."

Automated translation via BabelFish.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:57 AM on July 16, 2005

ckemp, how in the hell did you do that?
posted by danb at 8:36 AM on July 16, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks blue_beetle. I did the Babelfish translation myself, and that was why I ended up here! It gave my friend and I no end of amusement, though.
posted by ascullion at 8:39 AM on July 16, 2005

Yeah, we all know about the limits of machine translation, but the English< ->Dutch ones amuse me (as a bilingual) to no end as well. Partly this is because of word order: in English it's pretty much always SVO (Subject Verbs the Object) but in Dutch it's only SVO in a declarative head clause (I hope I got the terminology right, there), in subclauses it becomes SOV (Subject the Object Verbs) and in questions VSO (Verbs Subject the Object?). Compare:

The dog bites the man. (SVO)
The dog bites the man because the dog hates the man. (SVO, SVO)
Does the dog bite the man? (SVO)

De hond bijt de man. (SVO)
De hond bijt de man omdat de hond de man haat. (SVO, SOV)
Bijt de hond de man? (VSO)

Sounds more complicated than it is, really - humans do this pretty well as soon as they get a hang of the rules, but machines still suck at it. So that's why you end up with amusing constructions such as "You must no new reservation make".

Then, of course, there are false friends and homonyms, etc. How 'scherm' becomes 'baffle' at first seems a bit, well, baffling, but when you realise that the intended word was (computer) 'screen', you can easily see how Babelfish went for 'screen' in the physical construction sense, i.e. a baffle.

You've got your translation so this is just a tangent, but I wanted to to share. BTW ascullion, care to share with us what you ordered? Going to 5 Days Off, perhaps?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:34 AM on July 16, 2005

Response by poster: Tangents are always interesting. Not 5 Days Off, but that looks good too. I'm heading to Pukkelpop, if I ever get my tickets..
posted by ascullion at 11:09 AM on July 16, 2005

I don't speak Dutch or Flemish, but I do speak German and French. My native tongue (I'm from Luxembourg) probably also has a few words that are the same. But give me something Italian or Spanish to translate, and I'm lost. :)

Mostly, I deconstructed the sentences into individual words, looked if there was anything obvious and guessed the words inbetween. For example, "Er is een fout opgetreden". I thought "een" would be "one" - this is pretty close to German or Luxembourgish. "fout" looks remarkably like "faute", French for "error". "opgetreden" reminds the German "aufgetreten", implying "something surfaced". Combining all of the above, that gives "one error surfaced", or something similar.
posted by ckemp at 11:11 AM on July 16, 2005

Er is een fout opgetreden!!!!!!
posted by joelf at 12:16 PM on July 16, 2005

More precisely, joelf: "Er is een JRun-fout opgetreden". :)

Sounds good, ascullion, Pukkelpop is good fun. Myself, I'm going to Lowlands (only for the tenth time, heh).
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 12:51 PM on July 16, 2005