# Weird manglish from the wild **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 29, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160 "2021-11-29T20:25:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/61 "2021-12-06T00:04:36Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > A few years ago I saw a graffito that said, > > > Never stop giving up. > > I can’t decide whether the artist was an idiot or a genius. - Genius. No doubt about it. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/62 "2021-12-06T00:05:14Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > One term for this kind of mistake is an “eggcorn”. There’s an entire Reddit forum dedicated to this, but they call it bone apple tea (“Like when the food hella good, you say bone apple tea, it’s like french or some shit.”) [https://www.reddit.com/r/BoneAppleTea/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BoneAppleTea/) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/63 "2021-12-06T01:46:41Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > “CLEAN SOIL”. A sign at the door of my office says, “CLEAN AREA”. I tell people it’s not a description, it’s a command. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/64 "2021-12-06T03:28:15Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > So native Welsh speakers, when speaking English, often have a sentence structure that’s a bit Yoda-like. “Furious, he was.” “Very tasty, this meal is.” and so forth. Who knew Yoda was Welsh? ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2021, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/65 "2021-12-06T12:29:19Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > In my garage, there’s a magnetic sign I swiped just before the factory closed. It says, “CLEAN SOIL” I remember a picture that made the rounds years ago, it showed several old-fashioned metal garbage cans at a military base. The cans were labelled “EDIBLE GARBAGE”. (Likely the army base was selling leftover food scraped off of the plates, potato peelings, etc. to the local pig farm.) ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/66 "2021-12-08T09:00:06Z")
A co-receptionist at an old job hung up after taking a long message from a caller, turned to me and asked, “What’s ‘with Bateman’ mean?” I asked for context. The caller wanted her to pass on the message word for word. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/67 "2021-12-08T10:16:17Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > I had to look this one up. “The V is sometimes not heard”. Absolutely. If you hear a French person say it, you are quite likely to miss the faint ‘v’ sound at the beginning, and this is often absent altogether. So Wa-lah is more-or-less correct. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/68 "2021-12-20T15:40:27Z")
In one of my favorite episodes of “Cops”, a suspect unsteadily denied using illegal drugs, saying “I’m an aca-holic”.\* \*almost as good as the time a woman indignantly rejected the notion that she was dealing crack, proudly stating that she was a prostitute. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/69 "2021-12-20T16:16:21Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > If you hear a French person say it, you are quite likely to miss the faint ‘v’ sound at the beginning, and this is often absent altogether. So Wa-lah is more-or-less correct. I’ve always heard it as three syllables: oo-wah-LAH. Incidentally, the Arabic word “Wallah” is not necessary a prayer; based on context and tone, it can mean “Really?” “Gotcha!” or “No shit”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/70 "2021-12-20T18:25:02Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Never stop giving up. Sound like something from my page-a-day Zen calendar. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/71 "2021-12-27T01:06:26Z")
Friend’s mother would talk about things or people blown to Bolivia ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2021, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160/72 "2021-12-27T03:11:55Z")
That’s a pretty special one - usually bitch wouldn’t even get through if it was actually said! (Assuming it was live subtitling). “Walla” is a TV term that’s used for “general crowd sounds.” For a while we had a lot of files that had “walla” in them - I work as a subtitler and often we use subtitle files that have been made for US audiences, but for many reasons need lots of work on them for UK broadcast.\* We deleted or changed all of the wallas because nobody was ever going to know what the hell it meant, but for a while, for whichever country or company was using those subs before we changed them, some people were watching stuff like Trolls World Tour with the sound effect written as (walla). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-manglish-from-the-wild/955160.md?page=3)