Pedro Carolino set out to write an English phrasebook for Portuguese travelers visiting England. The only problem was that he couldn’t speak English. Undeterred by this minor setback, Carolino decided to base his guide on a respected Portuguese–French phrasebook written by
José da Fonseca. He took the French translations of Portuguese, and used a French–English dictionary to translate
those to English.
The result was an unintentional comedy of literal translation, as English phrases like “the walls have ears” became “the walls have hearsay” (via the..." data-title="Книга English as She Is Spoke">