<h1><a href="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003205.html">GAN: Whodunnit, and how, and why?</a></h1>

<blockquote>
  <p>[Victor Mair sent in further analysis of a common but spectacular mistranslation, discussed in earlier LL posts: "<a href="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/003202.html">A less grand Chinglish</a>" 5/30/2006, which dealt with a button labelled "dry fry" in Chinese and "fuck to fry" in English; and "<a href="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/002915.html">Engrish explained</a>", which discussed a menu item reading "Hot and spicy garlic greens stir-fried with shredded dried tofu" in Chinese, but "Benumbed hot vegetables fries fuck silk" in English, 3/11/2006. Victor's note follows. ]</p>
  
  <p>The translation of GAN as "fuck" is fairly ubiquitous in China. There are complications, of course, since GAN1CHAO3 on the sign I wrote about must mean "dry fry," with GAN1 in the first tone, whereas GAN meaning "fuck" probably derives from GAN4 ("to do") in the 4th tone. This latter word, furthermore, is written with an entirely different character in the traditional script (幹), though GAN1 and GAN4 have both collapsed into the same three-stroke calendrical graph in the simplified script (干). Furthermore, the actual sign from which I took this example has an arrow next to the GAN1CHAO3 / FUCK TO FRY which seems to be pointing to a button that you're supposed to PUSH to start the frying. Still, if naughty people are intentionally producing these risque, nonsense translations, then the double entendre of GAN1/4 ("dry / fuck") must be taken into serious consideration.</p>
  
  <p>These sites show how widespread the mistranslation of GAN1/4 as "fuck" is:</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiaming/70761148/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiaming/70761148/</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.cameraontheroad.com/?p=1010">http://www.cameraontheroad.com/?p=1010</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="http://pangea.stanford.edu/~pvermees/chinglish/index.html">http://pangea.stanford.edu/~pvermees/chinglish/index.html</a> (select "Fuck the price" in the radio box).</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P14329_0_6_0_C">http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P14329_0_6_0_C</a></p>
  
  <p>Just google {<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;q=Chinglish%20fuck&amp;btnG=Google%20Search">Chinglish fuck</a>} and you'll get a lot of results.</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to make sense of how this phenomenon actually came about. It seems that the twenty or so different meanings of the three-stroke calendrical graph that is used to write GAN1/4 (a total of three distinct graphic forms in the traditional script -- <a href="http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=%E4%B9%BE&amp;searchtype=trad&amp;where=start">乾</a>, <a href="http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=%E5%B9%B9&amp;searchtype=trad&amp;where=start">幹</a>, <a href="http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=%E5%B9%B2&amp;searchtype=trad&amp;where=start">干</a> -- all reduced to one -- 干 -- in the simplified script) in Chinglish have all collapsed into the single meaning of "fuck". Wherever that graph occurs, Chinglish speakers will translate it as "fuck".</p>
  
  <p>This is an extremely bizarre situation, because:</p>
  
  <p>a. normal Chinese-English dictionaries do not even give this definition</p>
  
  <p>b. the widespread rendition of GAN1/4 as "fuck" in all sorts of situations where other translations are called for occurs on restaurant menus, official notices, and so forth, and it is not likely that the proprietors would intentionally want to insult or embarrass their patrons</p>
  
  <p>Who's telling the menu-makers and sign-painters to write "fuck" for GAN1/4? They probably don't even know English and probably don't know much Chinglish either. How did this get started? (Perhaps somebody was being intentionally mischievous.) And how did it become such a common phenomenon? That's the real mystery. How is this horrible mistranslation continuing to spread and not being caught by the tens of millions of Chinese who do speak good English?</p>
  
  <p>I'm deeply interested in the linguistic mechanics and the sociolinguistics of this baffling phenomenon. It is almost beyond belief that GAN1/4 as "fuck" proliferates when there are so many other good translations available in different contexts. You'd think that at least they'd write "do" everywhere, or that people who do know English would tell the proprietors to hurry up and change the offending word so as to avoid further embarrassment!</p>
  
  <p>[Guest post by Victor Mair.]</p>
  
  <p>[Update -- Brendan O'Kane wrote:</p>
  
  <p>Hi - long-time listener, first-time caller.</p>
  
  <p>I've been living in Beijing and working as a free-lance translator for some time now. It's pretty common for clients to take a text, hand it off to a (cheaper) Chinese translation company, and then pass it on to me to 'edit' - a lower-paid gig - and so I've seen quite a lot of this kind of thing. My guess, with the disclaimer that Prof. Mair has forgotten more than I'll ever know about Chinese, is that someone ran the Chinese 干炒 in the example in your blogpost, and the menu posted on <a href="http://rahol.com/">rahoi.com</a>, through a machine translation program, perhaps Jinshan Kuai Yi or something of the sort, with the offending results.</p>
  
  <p>Can someone verify that there is a common Chinese-English MT program that maps GAN to "fuck"? That would explain a lot, if it's true. The puzzle then would become why outraged customers have not forced a modification of the software... ]</p>
  
  <p>Posted by Mark Liberman at May 31, 2006 05:31 AM </p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-06T09:48:44.793Z
A better link: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005195.html
user23013
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-09T17:16:26.133Z
2015-02-09T17:16:26.133Z
Mou某
<p>These bad translations are actually quite rare nowadays as google translation gets "clever". However, "好事不出门，坏事传千里", rare things do get popular.</p>

<p>I don't think there is a hidden meaning behind this. The reason would be more of a question. It could be a bad joke or just someone who knows nothing about English and looked it up in a dictionary.</p>

<p>These translations can always give you a good laugh.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/jZYwK.jpg" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/jZYwK.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Maybe the following image can answer your question.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/X3YKo.jpg" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/X3YKo.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-04T03:20:26.040Z
I once saw a photo of a sign of a restaurant. On top of the sign was the name of the restaurant in Chinese. On the bottom was the name of the restaurant translated in English. The English read "Translation Error".
joehua
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-12T15:29:36.223Z
2015-10-12T15:39:06.447Z
2015-10-12T15:39:06.447Z
Madwyn
<p>This translation is just a mistake of English understanding.
干 in China has many meanings.</p>

<p>It could mean either:</p>

<ol>
<li>fuck</li>
<li>dry</li>
<li>do</li>
<li>damn</li>
<li>fight</li>
<li>work</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-12T08:24:40.630Z
2015-10-06T11:52:22.950Z
2015-10-06T11:52:22.950Z
James Yin
<p>In traditional Chinese, 乾 means "dry", 幹 means "to do", and has the slang meaning of "f**k". Both words are simplified to 干.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-09T18:25:25.870Z
No one, except very uneducated person, would mix 干 for 乾, or 干 for 幹. Since one is adjective and the other is verb, and one is tone-1, and the other is tone-4.
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-10T05:40:52.083Z
This is possibly because the owner of this sign misused the translating software that take 干 as 幹 and translate its meaning to English.
ChaoYang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-15T02:26:14.657Z
It might be given by a bad machine translator. It only happened with simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese differential the meanings with 乾, 幹, and 干.
OmniBus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-06T09:55:52.637Z
More specifically, the Kingsoft translator, in a version more than 10 years ago. I don't think it would be common for new signs.
user23013
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-09T17:10:07.683Z
2015-02-09T17:10:07.683Z
velut luna
<p>In the following famous sign which appeared in some supermarket in China:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/InzwKm.jpg" alt="chinglish - fuck-vegetables"></p>

<p>why 干菜类 was mistakenly translated to Fuck Vegetables instead of Dried Vegetables? Is there any hidden meaning in it?</p>

<p>Source:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://chinalert.com/2010/09/24/chinglish-fuck-vegetables/" rel="noreferrer">Chinglish: Fuck Vegetables</a> at Chinalert (a centralized collection of the best and worst about the Chinese)</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-09T14:50:18.337Z
干, when pronounced as gan4, means 'to do', and has a slang meaning of 'to fuck'
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-10T22:05:09.227Z
Because simplified Chinese was a bad idea that removed  semantic meaning & often replaced characters with nonsensical semi-related phonetic components? Otherwise this never would've been an issue.
mc01
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-12T19:29:47.533Z
Whoever made the sign has a lack of knowledge in the English language
Huangism
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-13T04:11:58.237Z
I didn't think it was done by mistake. :)
ʇolɐǝz ǝɥʇ qoq
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-29T03:48:35.437Z
Just something to explore further. In the Fujian dialect, "Kàn" (written as 姦) actually means "to fuck"
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-03T20:01:28.833Z
I spent time in Tianjin. Fascinating ! Loved it! Learned so much. I observed a sign that read “Taeking Life Insurance Company”! I laughed about it at the time and told my colleague - who asked me to bring the matter to the attention of our friend the Mayor- Cui. Which I did. I explained that it looked like a company providing insurance for suicide or murder! The next time I visited the following year - all of the signs in the province and city of Tianjin had been changed. In a city of 11 million people - I was very happy and proud that my observation had such an impact!!
Jen OKeefe
<translation><meaning>
Why 干菜类 was mistakenly translated to Fuck Vegetables?
# Why 干菜类 was mistakenly translated to Fuck Vegetables?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-02-09)

In the following famous sign which appeared in some supermarket in China:

![chinglish - fuck-vegetables](https://i.sstatic.net/InzwKm.jpg)

why 干菜类 was mistakenly translated to Fuck Vegetables instead of Dried Vegetables? Is there any hidden meaning in it?

Source:

* [Chinglish: Fuck Vegetables](http://chinalert.com/2010/09/24/chinglish-fuck-vegetables/) at Chinalert (a centralized collection of the best and worst about the Chinese)

**Tags:** translation, meaning

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 干, when pronounced as gan4, means 'to do', and has a slang meaning of 'to fuck'  
> **username_2**: Because simplified Chinese was a bad idea that removed  semantic meaning & often replaced characters with nonsensical semi-related phonetic components? Otherwise this never would've been an issue.  
> **username_3**: Whoever made the sign has a lack of knowledge in the English language  
> **username_4**: I didn't think it was done by mistake. :)  
> **username_5**: Just something to explore further. In the Fujian dialect, "Kàn" (written as 姦) actually means "to fuck"  
> **username_6**: I spent time in Tianjin. Fascinating ! Loved it! Learned so much. I observed a sign that read “Taeking Life Insurance Company”! I laughed about it at the time and told my colleague - who asked me to bring the matter to the attention of our friend the Mayor- Cui. Which I did. I explained that it looked like a company providing insurance for suicide or murder! The next time I visited the following year - all of the signs in the province and city of Tianjin had been changed. In a city of 11 million people - I was very happy and proud that my observation had such an impact!!  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_12 on 2015-02-09. Score: 29 | Accepted answer

In traditional Chinese, 乾 means "dry", 幹 means "to do", and has the slang meaning of "f\*\*k". Both words are simplified to 干.

> **Comments:**
> **username_13**: No one, except very uneducated person, would mix 干 for 乾, or 干 for 幹. Since one is adjective and the other is verb, and one is tone-1, and the other is tone-4.  
> **username_14**: This is possibly because the owner of this sign misused the translating software that take 干 as 幹 and translate its meaning to English.  
> **username_15**: It might be given by a bad machine translator. It only happened with simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese differential the meanings with 乾, 幹, and 干.  
> **username_8**: More specifically, the Kingsoft translator, in a version more than 10 years ago. I don't think it would be common for new signs.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2015-02-09. Score: 12

# [GAN: Whodunnit, and how, and why?](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003205.html)

> [Victor Mair sent in further analysis of a common but spectacular mistranslation, discussed in earlier LL posts: "[A less grand Chinglish](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/003202.html)" 5/30/2006, which dealt with a button labelled "dry fry" in Chinese and "fuck to fry" in English; and "[Engrish explained](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/002915.html)", which discussed a menu item reading "Hot and spicy garlic greens stir-fried with shredded dried tofu" in Chinese, but "Benumbed hot vegetables fries fuck silk" in English, 3/11/2006. Victor's note follows. ]
>
> The translation of GAN as "fuck" is fairly ubiquitous in China. There are complications, of course, since GAN1CHAO3 on the sign I wrote about must mean "dry fry," with GAN1 in the first tone, whereas GAN meaning "fuck" probably derives from GAN4 ("to do") in the 4th tone. This latter word, furthermore, is written with an entirely different character in the traditional script (幹), though GAN1 and GAN4 have both collapsed into the same three-stroke calendrical graph in the simplified script (干). Furthermore, the actual sign from which I took this example has an arrow next to the GAN1CHAO3 / FUCK TO FRY which seems to be pointing to a button that you're supposed to PUSH to start the frying. Still, if naughty people are intentionally producing these risque, nonsense translations, then the double entendre of GAN1/4 ("dry / fuck") must be taken into serious consideration.
>
> These sites show how widespread the mistranslation of GAN1/4 as "fuck" is:
>
> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiaming/70761148/>
>
> <http://www.cameraontheroad.com/?p=1010>
>
> <http://pangea.stanford.edu/~pvermees/chinglish/index.html> (select "Fuck the price" in the radio box).
>
> <http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P14329_0_6_0_C>
>
> Just google {[Chinglish fuck](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Chinglish%20fuck&btnG=Google%20Search)} and you'll get a lot of results.
>
> I am trying to make sense of how this phenomenon actually came about. It seems that the twenty or so different meanings of the three-stroke calendrical graph that is used to write GAN1/4 (a total of three distinct graphic forms in the traditional script -- [乾](http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=%E4%B9%BE&searchtype=trad&where=start), [幹](http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=%E5%B9%B9&searchtype=trad&where=start), [干](http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl?word=%E5%B9%B2&searchtype=trad&where=start) -- all reduced to one -- 干 -- in the simplified script) in Chinglish have all collapsed into the single meaning of "fuck". Wherever that graph occurs, Chinglish speakers will translate it as "fuck".
>
> This is an extremely bizarre situation, because:
>
> a. normal Chinese-English dictionaries do not even give this definition
>
> b. the widespread rendition of GAN1/4 as "fuck" in all sorts of situations where other translations are called for occurs on restaurant menus, official notices, and so forth, and it is not likely that the proprietors would intentionally want to insult or embarrass their patrons
>
> Who's telling the menu-makers and sign-painters to write "fuck" for GAN1/4? They probably don't even know English and probably don't know much Chinglish either. How did this get started? (Perhaps somebody was being intentionally mischievous.) And how did it become such a common phenomenon? That's the real mystery. How is this horrible mistranslation continuing to spread and not being caught by the tens of millions of Chinese who do speak good English?
>
> I'm deeply interested in the linguistic mechanics and the sociolinguistics of this baffling phenomenon. It is almost beyond belief that GAN1/4 as "fuck" proliferates when there are so many other good translations available in different contexts. You'd think that at least they'd write "do" everywhere, or that people who do know English would tell the proprietors to hurry up and change the offending word so as to avoid further embarrassment!
>
> [Guest post by Victor Mair.]
>
> [Update -- Brendan O'Kane wrote:
>
> Hi - long-time listener, first-time caller.
>
> I've been living in Beijing and working as a free-lance translator for some time now. It's pretty common for clients to take a text, hand it off to a (cheaper) Chinese translation company, and then pass it on to me to 'edit' - a lower-paid gig - and so I've seen quite a lot of this kind of thing. My guess, with the disclaimer that Prof. Mair has forgotten more than I'll ever know about Chinese, is that someone ran the Chinese 干炒 in the example in your blogpost, and the menu posted on [rahoi.com](http://rahol.com/), through a machine translation program, perhaps Jinshan Kuai Yi or something of the sort, with the offending results.
>
> Can someone verify that there is a common Chinese-English MT program that maps GAN to "fuck"? That would explain a lot, if it's true. The puzzle then would become why outraged customers have not forced a modification of the software... ]
>
> Posted by Mark Liberman at May 31, 2006 05:31 AM

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: A better link: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005195.html  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2015-10-12. Score: 7

These bad translations are actually quite rare nowadays as google translation gets "clever". However, "好事不出门，坏事传千里", rare things do get popular.

I don't think there is a hidden meaning behind this. The reason would be more of a question. It could be a bad joke or just someone who knows nothing about English and looked it up in a dictionary.

These translations can always give you a good laugh.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/jZYwK.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/jZYwK.jpg)

Maybe the following image can answer your question.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/X3YKo.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/X3YKo.jpg)

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: I once saw a photo of a sign of a restaurant. On top of the sign was the name of the restaurant in Chinese. On the bottom was the name of the restaurant translated in English. The English read "Translation Error".  

---

### Answer by username_11 on 2015-02-12. Score: 3

This translation is just a mistake of English understanding.
干 in China has many meanings.

It could mean either:

1. fuck
2. dry
3. do
4. damn
5. fight
6. work


---

