English words that the English do not understand

Transcript:

Hello!

Today we will look at some words that Italian people have borrowed from English, but which are used in a way that native English speakers would not easily understand. In bold is what you should say if want a native English speaker to understand you:

• Basket – The sport is called basketball in English. We use a basket” for picnics. If you say “Do you want to play basket?” We will understand “Do you want to play cestino?” You should say “Do you want to play basketball?“;
• Bar – The Italian “bar” is similar to an English “café“. For us a “bar” means a “pub” where coffee and tea are not served. If you say “Let’s go to the bar for breakfast”, I presume we will have beer and fish and chips;
• Block-notes or Bloc-notes – In English we call it a notepad;
• Body rental – Is a temporary staffing firm when referred to the company offering temporary staff, or temporary staf if referring to the person who is filling a temporary position;
• Box – “Box” means “scatola” in English. A car is parked in a garage;
• Box doccia – shower cubicle;
• Cotton fioc – We say Cotton bud (UK) or cotton swab (USA);
• Un discount – A Hard-discount supermarket. “Discount” only means “sconto” in English;
• Una fiction – A miniseries. “Fiction” means “storia o racconto di fantasia” in English;
• Un talent – A talent show. “Talent” means “talento” in English;
• Un golf – A sweater or a jumper or a jersey. “Golf” is a sport in the UK and USA;
• Un Mister – A football coach;
• Un night – A nightclub. On its own “night” only means notte in English;
• Un residence – A residencial hotel, a residency hotel or an extended stay hotel;
• Un happy hour – A happy hour is a time when drinks are sold cheaply, or half price, in a bar to encourage drinking and to get the bar full earlier. There is no equivalent for what Italians take to mean as “apericena”. At a Happy Hour in the UK or USA you drink a lot and pay very little. At a Happy Hour in Italy you drink very little and eat a lot!;
• Fare footing – Go jogging. “Footing” in English means “appoggio per i piedi“;
• Plum cake – Loaf cake. For us a plum cake means “torta di prugne“;
• Pullman – Luxury bus or coach;
• Pungiball – Punching bag or punching ball;
• Sexy shop – Sex Shop. “Sexy shop” to us would mean that the shop, itself, is very sexy (che il negozio stesso è sexy e affascinante);
• Social – We say Social network;
• Fare un po’ di social – to go onto social networking sites for a while;
• lo Smartworking – Working from home or Remote working. We have no idea what you mean if you say “He is in smartworking”. Please say “He is working from home“;
• Spot – TV advert. For us “spot” means macchia;
• Stage – Internship. “Stage” means “palcoscenico; palco“. Fare uno stage – to do an internship;
• Un ticket – pay the cost associated to a National Health Care System service;
• Tight – Morning Suit or Morning Dress;
• Un trolley – Roller bag or Suitcase with wheels. Trolley means “carrello da supermercato o da trasporto” in English, So if you say “I’ll take a trolley on my trip”, we understand that you will be using a supermarket trolley, like a homeless person;
• Tutor – Speed camera or Traffic enforcement camera;
• Water – Water closet or W.C. or toilet. “Water” on its own only means “acqua“;
• Un Writer – Graffiti writer or Graffiti artist;
• Un Babykiller or Baby Killer – Juvenile murderer. If you say “baby killer” an English speaker would understand “a person who kills babies”.

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Easement vs Profit à prendre

Transcript:

Hello!

Today we look at two interesting concepts in Land Law, namely an easement (servitù) and a profit à prendre (a volte servitù, o licenza, o usi civici).

Easements may arise (verificarsi) when you want to use another person’s land for a specific purpose, e.g., as a right of way for people, for telephone lines, gas pipelines, sewers (fognature), or for storage (stoccaggio).

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-er, -or and -ee names

Transcript:

Hello!

Names with reciprocal opposite relationships are often indicated by -er/-or and -ee endings in Legal English.

Generally the party who “does” or “gives” ends in -er/-or, while the party who “receives” ends in -ee. So, for example, an Employer is someone who gives employment to another person known as an Employee.

Lets look at some more common examples like this:

Assignor is a party who assigns or transfers something to another party.

Assignee is the party to whom something is assigned.

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The Objects Clause

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Before the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), every company was required to include an objects clause (oggetto sociale) in its memorandum of association (atto costitutivo). This objects clause set out the purpose for which the company was formed and limited the activities of the company to those set out (stabilite) in its objects clause. Any transaction that fell outside the objects clause was ultra vires, which means “outside the capacity of the company”, and therefore void (nulla). Today UK companies are no longer required to have an objects clause.

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When is Latin hot, and when is it not?

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Many Latin expressions are used in Legal English. Degrees in Law in Common Law countries do not require students to study Latin, so how do you know when you can or can’t use Latin expressions in a legal context? The answer is easy. I have drawn up a list and if a Latin expression is on my list, then it is hot, otherwise it is not. This list does not consider Latin words used in Criminal Law, but only focuses on areas which correspond to the Latin Civil Law. Continua a leggere →

Default

Transcript:

Hello!

Default has quite a few meanings and some may be new for you. It can be used to mean:

• failure to pay:

He defaulted in payment and the bank foreclosed on (ha pignorato) his car.

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Company Agent

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Be careful of how you perceive and translate “Agent”.

Agent, or a Company Agent or an Agent of the Company all mean the same thing (mandatario) and can be used interchangeably.

An agency relationship is a relationship between two parties called a Principal (mandante) and an Agent (mandatario). In this relationship the function of the agent is to create one or more contracts between the principal and third parties or to act as the representative of the principal in other ways.

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Injunction (often a false friend)

Transcript:

Make sure you understand how injunction is commonly used in Legal English.

In legal terms an injunction almost always has a negative implication. Fundamentally an injunction is a restrictive court order. It is an order to abstain from doing something or an order NOT TO DO something in the present or the future. For example, in real estate a court may impose an injunction (diffida; ordine di non fare) for the sale of the property to the third-party if a selling party agrees to sell a parcel of land to an individual and subsequently accepts and pursues an offer from a thirdparty purchaser.

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Mortgage

Transcript:

Hello!

Be careful of how you translate “Mortgage”. We use it to mean at least four different things like:

1. A loan (prestito; mutuo): We ask the bank for a mortgage when we want to buy a new home, e.g. (i) The bank granted her a mortgage of £200,000. (ii) She has to repay a mortgage of £200,000;

2. An agreement (Il contratto per il mutuo): It is a contract made between the bank that is lending money and the borrower. The mortgage agreement will specify the amount of money that the borrower receives, interest to be paid, and will state that the lender receives a lien (pegno) on the property. e.g. The mortgage will be signed tomorrow in the Regent Street branch of the bank;

3. A lien (pegno; vincolo): The mortgage is the lien over the real estate which the borrower grants to the lender. e.g. The bank has a mortgage over that home and must be repaid before title can pass to the new owner;

4. An instrument (strumento): The instrument by which rights are transferred. A civil-law hypotheca is the equivalent to an English mortgage by legal charge.

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Freehold, Leasehold and Commonhold estates

Transcript:

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Technically speaking all land in the UK is ultimately owned by the Crown and the most that anyone else can have is called an estate in the land. “Estate in land” means the rights which a person has to control and use the land. An estate owner is often said to have ownership (proprietà) of the land but legal specialists prefer to use the term “tenure” to express the way people “hold” land.

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Transferor, Transferee, Transmittee

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Transferor, Transferee and Transmittee are important words when speaking about the shares owned in a company. Make sure that the difference is clear to you.

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Tax evasion, tax mitigation and tax avoidance

Transcript:

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Today we look at the differences in meaning of tax evasion, tax mitigation, and tax avoidance.

Tax Evasion is an illegal way of escaping (sottrarsi al) tax payment. It is the deliberate hiding (occultamento) or non declaration of information from the tax authority. It is unlawful and usually a criminal offense (reato) in most jurisdictions. The verb is “to evade taxes” and it has a criminal connotation.

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Numbers

Transcript:

Hello!

Let’s look at some ways to deal with numbers in English.

Writing numbers:

• Numbers from 1 to 10 are often written as words, e.g.: three people; seven files;
• Numbers from 11 on are almost always written al numbers, e.g.: 27 clients; 350 members.

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Ordinary resolutions vs special resolutions

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When companies hold general meetings, they pass resolutions (approvare delibere). Remember, companies can hold two types of general meetings: The Annual General Meeting once a year, while any other general meeting for urgent business is called an Extraordinary General Meeting (See Peter’s Pills 29). There can be two types of resolutions passed at any general meeting: ordinary resolutions or special resolutions.

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AGM vs EGM

Transcript:

There are two types of General Meetings that companies have. Students of Legal English should take great care with these two concepts as they may be very different from meetings in your jurisdiction. Continua a leggere →