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Cake day: March 25th, 2026

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  • And another, closer to your example, that I have seen used wrong at least two times before. “Screw you” being used in the movie with the meaning of “fuck you” and the subtitle translating it with the word used for tightening a screw.

    The same applies with Japanese subs from English audio, what happens is that there are word inconsistencies for a single term. There was an episode of the same TV show I was watching and they translated “Marine” (as in a US Marine) using 3 words alltogther interchangably throughout:

    • 米兵 (US Troops)
    • 兵士 (Soldier)
    • 海兵隊員 (Marine)

    Only out of those 3 is the correct word choice based on visual context (the PoW’s are in fact in the corps) but the subtitles lazily used 兵士 referring to them as if they’re in the army (which is a seperate branch) as the USMC is under the Dept. of the Navy.

    The characters were having a conversation about rescuing 2 marines who are PoW in Afghanistan, during the second half. When they brought up the topic during the first scene: the correct word (海兵隊員) is used, however later on the translation decides to alternate between 米兵 & 兵士.

    Like, USE ONLY ONE WORD! It’s confusing as hell to read, especially if it serves as a key part of the episode’s plot (it’s literally within the synopsis), it was from Lie To Me (Season 2, Episode 8).