# linguistic mistakes committed by politics



## asd5

I mean politics e.g embassadors of countries that English is not the first language when they use English in their political talks committ some mistakes (e.g in meaning) caused by languages interference which prevent them to explain their ideas for others.
i want to discuss this topic with you who can give an example or stories about it


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## Fernando

A Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister said (in the context of an EU summit) that all Spanish demands have been achieved but that the meeting should continue "by if the flies". It is a word-by-word translation of a common Spanish expression "por si las moscas" (meaning "just in case").


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## french4beth

Even though English _is_ his first language, American president George W. Bush, Jr., regularly makes mistakes. There are entire web sites devoted to reporting his errors. Here's one: 





> "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful - and so are we," the US president told a high-level meeting of Pentagon officials. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people - and neither do we."


(found here).

Also, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was said to have problems with both official languages (English and French) - here's an example: 





> --"We are politicians since a few years," instead of "We've been politicians for a few years," and "I enjoyed to be with him," instead of "I enjoyed being with him"


(found here)


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## asd5

Thanks a lot Fernando
Thank you very much french4beth


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## danielfranco

Another infamous politician with a penchant for malapropisms was Vice President Dan Quayle. Here's one of my favorites:
"... my fellow astronauts...", when greeting the President, First Lady and former astronauts in a speech.
Anyway, take a look!


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## asd5

thank u daniefranco very much
for ur valuable participation


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## moura

There was this Portuguese President, the Admiral Américo Tomaz, who ruled Portugal during the dictatorship. He was a real comic figure of the ancient regim, together with is wife Gertrudes, plus her funny hats, and his daughter Natália.
He said once, during one of his travels and on one of the 100.000.000 inaugurations of "important" things, as new fountains: 
This is the first time I am here, since the last time I came. 
(in Portuguese: "desde a última vez que cá vim, é a primeira vez que cá venho").


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## Dr. Quizá

Here you can see our "beloved" Generalísimo Franco sending a peace message to the all the world after winning the Spanish Civil War:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtAm0UepX8s

His English was too good for me. I can't understand a single word of what he says.


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## asd5

Thank u moura
Thank u Dr.Quiza
What i want the linguistic mistakes that make misunderstanding between the politician and his people or between him and another politician from another country.I know everbody do mistakes but as english teachers we try to dicrease these mistakes by learning about other's experiments.
 I know that:
To err is human, to forgive is divine


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## KateNicole

Just out of curiosity, don't you mean "linguist mistakes committed by _politicians_" as opposed to "politics"?  Politics is the concept, and politicians are the people.


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## asd5

KateNicole said:
			
		

> Just out of curiosity, don't you mean "linguist mistakes committed by _politicians_" as opposed to "politics"? Politics is the concept, and politicians are the people.


Thank you for correcting me. I am not a native speaker of english. iam here to learn more about english language. you are right but i think nowdays there is no difference between politics and politicians in meaning but politician is more correct especially in written english like this topic.
i wait you to give me your information about the topic


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## KateNicole

Hi asd5,
According to my dictionary, "politics" and "politicians" do not have the same meaning, and therefore cannot be used interchangeably.  I'm not sure what you mean by no "difference in meaning." For example, there's a difference in meaning between education and educator, mail and mailman, restaurant and restauranteur, etc.. Hope it helps


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## asd5

Hi KateNicole,
politic is an adjective not like education I think in spoken language not written you can say: "He or It a politic or political person or book but
Policy like education , mail they are all infinitive nouns
poltic comes from policy and educator comes from education when u say the educators all people will uderstand that you mean specailists in education and when i said politics all understand that i mean politicains
look at replies and u will see. I am with u but this expression is used in USA english u can look for this word in the internet,you will get huge numbers of times in this meaning i have used.
Thank you for ur kindness


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## KateNicole

asd5 said:
			
		

> when i said politics all understand that i mean politicains
> look at replies and u will see. I am with u but this expression is used in USA english u can look for this word in the internet,you will get huge numbers of times in this meaning i have used.
> Thank you for ur kindness


Hi, I understood you too--but just because I understood you doesn't mean you used the word correctly. Politics and politicians are two different things. Also, which specific expression are you talking about? Just because you find many results in an Internet search doesn't mean the useage is correct. Anyone can post anything on the internet.  Not everything is proofread and edited.  If you want me to give me a specific link, I'd be glad to check it out for you.


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## KateNicole

asd5 said:
			
		

> Hi KateNicole,
> politic is an adjective not like education I think in spoken language not written you can say: "He or It a politic or political person or book but
> Policy like education , mail they are all infinitive nouns
> poltic comes from policy and educator comes from education when u say the educators all people will uderstand that you mean specailists in education


Hi. You are correct that politic is an adjective. According to my home dictionary, as well as dictionary.com, politics is _only_ an adjective. Because of this, it is correct to say "He is politic(al)" but not "He is a politic." 
Some words, like "Mexican" for example, can function both as nouns and adjectives. Politic(s), however, is not one of those words. I hope this helps: http://http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/politic
Good luck


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## Setwale_Charm

Donald Rumsfeld ​ 
There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. 
There are known unkowns. That is to say, there are things we know we don't know. 
But, there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don't know we don't know. 
-- _(Rumsfield knows how to knowingly confuse his knowledgable Audience at a Pentagon briefing)_
 
 If anybody can translate that into ANY language for me...


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## Setwale_Charm

Asd5, I don`t know, I probably got it a bit wrong. You possibly meant purely English language mistakes, like the incorrent use of tenses?
Are Arabic politicians known for similar types of slips of the tongue?
I guess the Latin American Presidents (some of them) would be the most likely ones to gladden your heart. Many of them are very poorly educated.


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## KateNicole

I think he means an error that causes significant confusion, and not something minor like "President Bush and him have a meeting right now."
That's just my guess.


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## maxiogee

Setwale_Charm said:


> Donald Rumsfeld
> 
> There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know.
> There are known unkowns. That is to say, there are things we know we don't know.
> But, there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don't know we don't know.
> -- _(Rumsfield knows how to knowingly confuse his knowledgable Audience at a Pentagon briefing)_
> 
> If anybody can translate that into ANY language for me...



Do you seriously tell us that this is unintelligible to you?
Let us speak about the life of Whales and do so in a semi-mathematical way
We know certain things about whales (e.g. how they mate) — known "knowns" (let us call these things A, B, C, D, E)
We now that there are things we do not know (e.g. What their songs mean) — known "unknowns" (let us call these things a, b, c, d, e)
We do not presume to think we are aware of all there is to know about them.

In other words, if we were - tomorrow - to find answers to (a, b, c, d, e) and could then add those to (A, B, C, D, E) we are not so arrogant as to think we would know all there is to know about Whales!

In other words (A, B, C, D, E) + (a, b, c, d, e) ≠ Whales.

I have failed, since Rumsfeld said this, to see what difficulty anyone has with it. Wherein lies the bewilderment?


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## asd5

KateNicole said:


> Hi. You are correct that politic is an adjective. According to my home dictionary, as well as dictionary.com, politics is _only_ an adjective. Because of this, it is correct to say "He is politic(al)" but not "He is a politic."
> Some words, like "Mexican" for example, can function both as nouns and adjectives. Politic(s), however, is not one of those words. I hope this helps: http://http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/politic
> Good luck


hi KateNicole,
Iam satisfied that u r right. The adjectives dont have "s" in plural.  i know I did a big mistake but i did it because  i searched in all right words but find more results in this word so i thought it is slang english and famous more.
We can say: He is a poltic(al) person> a for person not for politic because a and an can not be written or spoken before adjectives .
 Iam grateful for ur kindness KateNicole.
please write "politics" in google search engine to see the result


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## asd5

Setwale_Charm said:


> Asd5, I don`t know, I probably got it a bit wrong. You possibly meant purely English language mistakes, like the incorrent use of tenses?
> Are Arabic politicians known for similar types of slips of the tongue?
> I guess the Latin American Presidents (some of them) would be most likely to gladden your heart. Many of them are very poorly educated.


 
Thank u Setwale_Charm all human beings do mistakes but i have no idea about arabic politicains. i wrote the same topic in arabic forums but untill now nobody answer me. May be becuase of arabic media dont publish these topics. iam sure that arabic politicians' mistakes may be more than others.
thank you.


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## KateNicole

Hi,
It's OK!  It's not a "big" mistake.  I'm sure we all understood what you meant.  I was just trying to help.  Good luck with everything.


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## Setwale_Charm

maxiogee said:


> Do you seriously tell us that this is unintelligible to you?
> Let us speak about the life of Whales and do so in a semi-mathematical way
> We know certain things about whales (e.g. how they mate) — known "knowns" (let us call these things A, B, C, D, E)
> We now that there are things we do not know (e.g. What their songs mean) — known "unknowns" (let us call these things a, b, c, d, e)
> We do not presume to think we are aware of all there is to know about them.
> 
> In other words, if we were - tomorrow - to find answers to (a, b, c, d, e) and could then add those to (A, B, C, D, E) we are not so arrogant as to think we would know all there is to know about Whales!
> 
> In other words (A, B, C, D, E) + (a, b, c, d, e) ? Whales.
> 
> I have failed, since Rumsfeld said this, to see what difficulty anyone has with it. Wherein lies the bewilderment?


 In the sense of humour, evidently. I was only joking, Maxiogee. The allusion was Donald Rumsfeld`s capacity to express himself. Thanks KateNicole, for the explanation.


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## BurningDesire

An Argentinian politician once said "conmigo o sinmigo".
Every Spanish-speaking person knows he meant to say "conmigo o sin mí".
Shame on him!


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## TRG

maxiogee said:


> Do you seriously tell us that this is unintelligible to you?
> Let us speak about the life of Whales and do so in a semi-mathematical way
> We know certain things about whales (e.g. how they mate) — known "knowns" (let us call these things A, B, C, D, E)
> We now that there are things we do not know (e.g. What their songs mean) — known "unknowns" (let us call these things a, b, c, d, e)
> We do not presume to think we are aware of all there is to know about them.
> 
> In other words, if we were - tomorrow - to find answers to (a, b, c, d, e) and could then add those to (A, B, C, D, E) we are not so arrogant as to think we would know all there is to know about Whales!
> 
> In other words (A, B, C, D, E) + (a, b, c, d, e) ≠ Whales.
> 
> I have failed, since Rumsfeld said this, to see what difficulty anyone has with it. Wherein lies the bewilderment?


 
Possibly the author has misunderestimated Mr. Rumsfeld. I should also add the the current POTUS must be the undisputed king of clumsy rhetoric. I wonder if anyone has actually gone to the trouble of checking to see how he compares with his predecessors? Please, don't go nukular on me.


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## asd5

BurningDesire, TRG thank you for the very (delicious) additonal information.
You have enriched my participation


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## mirx

> I guess the Latin American Presidents (some of them) would be the most likely ones to gladden your heart. Many of them are very poorly educated.


 
What makes you say that?
Do you have any fundaments to make such statements?


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## Venezuelan_sweetie

Setwale_Charm said:


> I guess the Latin American Presidents (some of them) would be the most likely ones to gladden your heart. Many of them are very poorly educated.





mirx said:


> What makes you say that?
> Do you have any fundaments to make such statements?


Exactly.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, Setwale Charm, but that's light-years far from reality. Are you aware of the fact that, even in this tropical jungle, we have laws regarding those important matters?

All Latin American countries that I know of (my homeland included), have laws which regulate who runs for presidence. Some (if not 'most') of them demand their candidates to achieve a certain degree in formal education, in order to be eligible. In fact, my country used to demand (yes, demand!) from its candidates to have accomplished a major universitarian degree in Political Sciences...

Sweet darling, I just can't conceive any reason why a person without bias like you would state such a bigotty remark. Would you please be so kind as to let us know what compelled you to say that?


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