Below are twenty short German sentences of the kind people actually write in forums and chats. Every one of them contains a word that an English speaker will think they already understand.
I am going to read your answer out on camera next to other models' answers. What I need from you is not a translation — it is the thing that goes wrong when an English speaker translates it themselves.
Twenty in, twenty out, in the order given. Echo each id back exactly as written.
Echo the sentence into orig, character for character.
en is what a German reader understands, in natural English. Translate the marked word into what it actually means, not into the English word it resembles. If you leave an English-looking word standing in your en, you are asserting that an English reader will take it correctly — so only do that when it is true.
gets_lost carries the answer, and it has two jobs.
"" only if the sentence genuinely holds nothing beyond its words. Not every sentence here is a trap — some are exactly what they look like, and saying so is a correct answer. Padding an ordinary row is a worse mistake than leaving it empty.
confidence is high, medium or low, and I would rather have low than a confident invention. A wrong gets_lost marked high is the worst answer available here.
Do not invent. If you do not know a word, say so rather than deriving a plausible story from its parts.
Raw JSON, nothing else — no markdown fence, no preamble, no commentary afterwards. Exactly this shape:
{
"rows": [
{ "id": "...", "orig": "...", "en": "...", "gets_lost": "", "confidence": "high" }
]
}
Keep the keys in that order.
Each entry is an id line, then the sentence verbatim on the next line.
[1] id=HB01 Wir machen am Sonntag Public Viewing im Park, bringt Decken mit.
[2] id=HB02 Mein Rechner ist gestern abgestürzt, jetzt läuft er wieder.
[3] id=HB03 Ich tipp das schnell auf dem Klapprechner, Moment.
[4] id=HB04 Hab mir 'nen neuen Body Bag gekauft, passt perfekt aufs Rad.
[5] id=HB05 Mein Handy ist schon wieder leer, ich ruf dich später an.
[6] id=HB06 Hab ich im Weltnetz gelesen, steht da alles schwarz auf weiß.
[7] id=HB07 Bitte wenden Sie sich an den Fernsprecher im Erdgeschoss.
[8] id=HB08 Nach dem Shooting waren wir noch alle zusammen essen.
[9] id=HB09 Steht doch alles im Gesichtsbuch, guck da mal rein.
[10] id=HB10 Der Beamer im Konferenzraum ist schon wieder kaputt.
[11] id=HB11 Beim Treffen standen lauter Oldtimer auf dem Parkplatz.
[12] id=HB12 Er sitzt den ganzen Tag am Datensichtgerät.
[13] id=HB13 Zur Hochzeit geh ich im Smoking, das ist Vorschrift.
[14] id=HB14 Das hab ich neulich im Zwischennetz aufgeschnappt, haha.
[15] id=HB15 Sie hat wegen Mobbing im Büro gekündigt.
[16] id=HB16 Ich hab noch schnell ein Selbstlichtbildnis vor dem Dom gemacht.
[17] id=HB17 In der Kneipe steht noch ein alter Flipper.
[18] id=HB18 Ich bin diese Woche im Homeoffice, ruf mich da an.
[19] id=HB19 Sie hat sich ein neues Peeling für das Gesicht gekauft.
[20] id=HB20 Wir haben morgen früh ein Meeting mit dem Team.
{"rows":[{"id":"HB01","orig":"Wir machen am Sonntag Public Viewing im Park, bringt Decken mit.","en":"We’re having a public screening in the park on Sunday; bring blankets.","gets_lost":"In German, Public Viewing normally means watching a live event together on a large public screen, often sports. An American English reader might instead imagine a public viewing of a dead body. The German usage is established and unremarkable event vocabulary, not a deliberate joke.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB02","orig":"Mein Rechner ist gestern abgestürzt, jetzt läuft er wieder.","en":"My computer crashed yesterday; now it’s running again.","gets_lost":"Rechner here is a computer, not merely a calculator, so the naive version has someone’s calculator crashing and then running again. Rechner is an ordinary German alternative to Computer, especially in technical language and when referring to one’s machine; it is not conspicuously purist.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB03","orig":"Ich tipp das schnell auf dem Klapprechner, Moment.","en":"I’ll quickly type that on the laptop—one moment.","gets_lost":"Klapprechner means a laptop: literally a folding computer, not a special kind of calculator. It is understandable but much less usual than Laptop or Notebook; in this very casual sentence it sounds like playful or mildly purist avoidance of the English term.","confidence":"medium"},{"id":"HB04","orig":"Hab mir 'nen neuen Body Bag gekauft, passt perfekt aufs Rad.","en":"I bought a new crossbody bag; it’s perfect for cycling.","gets_lost":"German fashion and retail language uses Body Bag for a bag worn across the body. In English, a body bag is for carrying a corpse, producing the grim reading that the writer bought one to use on a bicycle. The German term is established marketing vocabulary and need not be a joke, though it can sound trend-driven or somewhat dated.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB05","orig":"Mein Handy ist schon wieder leer, ich ruf dich später an.","en":"My mobile phone has run out of charge again; I’ll call you later.","gets_lost":"Handy is the normal colloquial German noun for a mobile phone, not the adjective meaning convenient or useful. Leer says its battery is empty. The word is completely ordinary and reveals no special attitude or social type.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB06","orig":"Hab ich im Weltnetz gelesen, steht da alles schwarz auf weiß.","en":"I read it on the internet; it’s all there in black and white.","gets_lost":"Weltnetz means the internet or World Wide Web, not some separate worldwide network. It is conspicuous rather than normal everyday wording: it may be tongue-in-cheek mock-purism, but earnest use is also associated with anti-Anglicism and nationalist, including far-right, online milieus. This sentence alone does not establish which is intended.","confidence":"medium"},{"id":"HB07","orig":"Bitte wenden Sie sich an den Fernsprecher im Erdgeschoss.","en":"Please use the telephone on the ground floor.","gets_lost":"Fernsprecher is an old word for telephone, not a distant speaker or a person who speaks from afar. It belongs to dated administrative and official vocabulary; today it evokes an old notice, period setting or deliberately bureaucratic voice rather than ordinary conversation.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB08","orig":"Nach dem Shooting waren wir noch alle zusammen essen.","en":"After the photo shoot, we all went out to eat together.","gets_lost":"In German, an unqualified Shooting normally means a photo shoot. An English reader could take after the shooting as referring to gunfire or a shooting incident. In German photo, fashion and media contexts the word is an ordinary Anglicism, not black humor.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB09","orig":"Steht doch alles im Gesichtsbuch, guck da mal rein.","en":"It’s all on Facebook; take a look there.","gets_lost":"Gesichtsbuch is a literal German rendering of Facebook, not an ordinary book of faces. Germans normally retain the brand name, so this conspicuous translation is playful mock-Germanization, sometimes also expressing mild distance from the platform; it does not by itself identify a particular political group.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB10","orig":"Der Beamer im Konferenzraum ist schon wieder kaputt.","en":"The projector in the conference room is broken again.","gets_lost":"A German Beamer is a video or data projector. An English reader may think of a BMW, or of something that beams, rather than the conference-room projector. This is standard, unmarked everyday German usage.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB11","orig":"Beim Treffen standen lauter Oldtimer auf dem Parkplatz.","en":"There were vintage cars all over the parking lot at the gathering.","gets_lost":"German Oldtimer means a classic or vintage vehicle, not an elderly person. The naive English reading puts a crowd of old people standing in the parking lot. It is the normal German term for historic vehicles and is not joking or disparaging.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB12","orig":"Er sitzt den ganzen Tag am Datensichtgerät.","en":"He sits at a display terminal all day.","gets_lost":"Datensichtgerät is an older technical term for a screen or computer display terminal, not the usual modern name for an entire computer. It has a strongly dated technical or bureaucratic sound and is particularly reminiscent of older computing terminology, including East German usage; used today, it may be period-specific or mock-official rather than neutral.","confidence":"medium"},{"id":"HB13","orig":"Zur Hochzeit geh ich im Smoking, das ist Vorschrift.","en":"I’m wearing a tuxedo to the wedding; it’s required.","gets_lost":"German Smoking means a tuxedo or dinner suit, not the act of smoking. A literal English reading makes smoking itself sound like the required wedding attire or activity. Smoking is the normal German formalwear term and carries no comic intent.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB14","orig":"Das hab ich neulich im Zwischennetz aufgeschnappt, haha.","en":"I picked that up on the internet recently, haha.","gets_lost":"Zwischennetz is a deliberately literal rendering of Internet, with inter interpreted as zwischen and net as Netz. It is not the standard German term and could otherwise suggest an intermediate network. The explicit haha confirms that the writer is making a mock-purist language joke.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB15","orig":"Sie hat wegen Mobbing im Büro gekündigt.","en":"She resigned because of workplace bullying.","gets_lost":"German Mobbing means repeated bullying, ostracism or harassment, especially at work or school. English mobbing more readily suggests a crowd surrounding or attacking someone. The German use is standard and serious, not a dramatic way of saying that a literal mob appeared in the office.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB16","orig":"Ich hab noch schnell ein Selbstlichtbildnis vor dem Dom gemacht.","en":"I quickly took a selfie in front of the cathedral.","gets_lost":"Selbstlichtbildnis is an intentionally over-Germanized way of saying selfie, built with the old-fashioned photographic word Lichtbild and Bildnis, portrait. It is not normal everyday terminology; the elaborate compound amid casual chat language marks a deliberate mock-purist or archaizing joke.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB17","orig":"In der Kneipe steht noch ein alter Flipper.","en":"There’s still an old pinball machine in the pub.","gets_lost":"A German Flipper is a pinball machine, not an animal’s flipper and not the dolphin named Flipper. This is the ordinary German name for the machine, so the word choice is unremarkable.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB18","orig":"Ich bin diese Woche im Homeoffice, ruf mich da an.","en":"I’m working from home this week; call me there.","gets_lost":"Here Homeoffice means the work-from-home arrangement, not necessarily a dedicated office room and certainly not the British government department. This use became standard German workplace vocabulary and is neutral corporate language rather than a joke.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB19","orig":"Sie hat sich ein neues Peeling für das Gesicht gekauft.","en":"She bought a new facial exfoliant.","gets_lost":"German Peeling can mean an exfoliating cosmetic product or treatment. It does not mean a detached piece of skin or simply the act of something peeling. The word is ordinary German cosmetics vocabulary.","confidence":"high"},{"id":"HB20","orig":"Wir haben morgen früh ein Meeting mit dem Team.","en":"We have a meeting with the team tomorrow morning.","gets_lost":"","confidence":"high"}]}