My favourite problem is the bis - until problem. Everyone knows that bis is translated with until, but there is an interesting exception or two. For example when talking about a deadline;-
"I want the information until Tuesday." is wrong in most situations.
"I want the information by Tuesday." is right in most situations.
If you chose the first option, the in most cases incorrect one, you are saying send me the information now and I will keep it untill Tuesday.
If you chose the second one, the in most cases correct one, you are saying send me the information at any time between now and close of business on Tuesday.
Another, more entertaining, example from Austrian German that is difficult to translate into English is the expression, "He knows so much, you can't fit it on a cow skin".
But there is a solution in the English phrase, "What he dosn't know, wouldn't fit on the back of a postage stamp."
Here at
Spiral Cat Translations we make sure that none of these problems show in the Translations we produce for our customers. We avoid the common mistakes like the bis - until problem and find elegant solutions for the oddities of local language, like the cowskin.