Do not stair (sic)

It’s been a while since I’ve written about an English translation fail, so here’s a sign I saw when visiting an ancient walled city near Nîmes last week. ‘Interdit de monter‘ means ‘Forbidden to climb (the staircase)’ in English. Apparently, it also means ‘Do not stair’, where the noun for a staircase has been converted into the verb ‘to stair’.

Nouns becoming verbs is nothing new in English. ‘Google’ was once only a brand name, but it can now be used as a verb to mean ‘to search’ (for example, ‘I googled “dodgy translations” and found this.’). Don’t get me started on ‘I’ll inbox you’, which is a phrase that will never pass my lips. Bear in mind, however, that ‘I’ll email you’ was probably just as rebellious/cool in the nineties when email was still just a noun; we would have said, ‘I’ll send you an email’ back then.

So maybe whoever translated ‘Interdit de monter‘ wants ‘stair’ to find new fame as a verb. Perhaps we’ll start to see sentences like these popping up everywhere:

  • ‘Karen staired to avoid the escalator.’
  • ‘I staired the stairs to the first floor.’
  • ‘He destaired to get back to the ground floor.’

I’m not convinced.

No, I think someone in the tourist office said, ‘Merde, I forgot to ask the translator about this phrase. My anglais is good enough: “Do not stair” is correct. Voila.’

Voila indeed. Merde.

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About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.

4 Comments on “Do not stair (sic)

  1. The best I’ve ever seen was on the police municipal door in chamonix. The note said poussez fort but the English said push hardly.

    • Andy that’s one of the best I’ve heard of! It should be right, really, but how would a non-native speaker know?
      I wish I’d taken a photo yesterday in a shop that was selling ‘Bredowg’ beer. I will now always say ‘Brewdog’ with an American ‘dawwwwg’ drawl!