{"id":1096,"date":"2016-11-03T16:30:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2016-11-03T16:36:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:36:49","slug":"misused-english-words-and-expressions-in-eu-publications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/misused-english-words-and-expressions-in-eu-publications\/","title":{"rendered":"Misused English Words and Expressions in EU Publications – Entry #1 – „actual“"},"content":{"rendered":"

I might be preaching to the choir\u00a0<\/em>(offene T\u00fcren einrennen) here, but have any of you ever read EU publications and been totally baffled by what you read?<\/p>\n

Here’s an example of what I mean:\u00a0„Evaluating such a unique scheme is a particular challenge for all actors involved. Evaluation modalities have gone through significant changes over recent years“<\/p>\n

An easier way to say this could<\/em> be: „Evaluating this unique scheme is challenging to all involved parties, especially as the evaluation procedure has changed significantly in recent years.“ Does it make more sense now?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there’s an invaluable resource out there, for free, in digital format. It’s (quite descriptively) called\u00a0Misused English Words & Expressions in EU Publications\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>and is\u00a0authored by Jeremy Gardner, who works for the EU Court of Auditors. His website and the 59-page-long .pdf glossary of the misused words and expressions are available at:\u00a0euenglish.webs.com<\/p>\n

I’ll be sharing some of the most useful (for non-EU-employed German speakers) entries from Mr. Gardner’s document, as well as adding a few exercises to each entry for you to try out. Leave your completed exercises, as well as any other thoughts about the\u00a0Misused Words\u00a0<\/em>list in the comments! I’ll get back to you ASAP!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here we go with:<\/p>\n

1) Actual<\/strong><\/p>\n

Explanation<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cActual\u201d is sometimes used to refer to something that is happening now. However, in English it means \u201creal\u201d or \u201cexisting\u201d. Sometimes, native speakers use the word informally to express surprise or give new (or more truthful) information, much like German speakers would use tats\u00e4chlich <\/em>or eigentlich<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Authentic Example: <\/em><\/p>\n

„This appropriation is intended to cover basic salaries of the staff, as listed in the attached table, based on the actual<\/em> regulations and on the probable adjustments“. =aktuell<\/em><\/p>\n

Alternatives:<\/em> Current, present.<\/p>\n

Further Examples of Correct Usage: \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

„Dr. Herrmann isn\u2019t in the office today. She\u2019s actually<\/em> in Cottbus, meeting with some project leaders.“\u00a0= tats\u00e4chlich<\/em><\/p>\n

„Could you stop doing that and focus on your actual<\/em> work instead?“\u00a0=eigentlich<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exercises: <\/em>fill in the blank with the correct word \u2013 actual(ly), current(ly), present(ly)<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. a) <\/em>We\u2019re all ___________ in the office. Nobody is on vacation.<\/li>\n
  2. b) <\/em>I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the ___________ problem. Henry just didn\u2019t want to go into it.<\/li>\n
  3. c)<\/em> I don\u2019t need to see the figures from the first quarter; I need the ___________ quarterly figures!<\/li>\n
  4. d) <\/em>Are you ___________ going to go to the Halloween party dressed as Donald Trump? You\u2019re absolutely crazy!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I might be preaching to the choir\u00a0(offene T\u00fcren einrennen) here, but have any of you ever read EU publications and been totally baffled by what you read? Here’s an example of what I mean:\u00a0„Evaluating such a unique scheme is a particular challenge for all actors involved. Evaluation modalities have gone through significant changes over recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33,21,34],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104,"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/1104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lingua-franca.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}