Man arrested after confusing Portuguese words for 'pomegranate' and 'grenade'(telegraph.co.uk)
telegraph.co.uk
Man arrested after confusing Portuguese words for 'pomegranate' and 'grenade'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/30/portugal-tourist-arrest-confuse-pomegranate-grenade-words/
13 comments
The Hebrew word for Pomegranate is Rimon.
The Hebrew word for grenade is Rimon.
The arrested individual was reported as being Azerbaijani with an Israeli passport.
The Hebrew word for grenade is Rimon.
The arrested individual was reported as being Azerbaijani with an Israeli passport.
Yes, although he was also reported to have translated from Russian to Portuguese. But now I'm more confused because apparently these words do differ in Russian, by a single vowel <а>: граната granata for the weapon and гранат granat for the fruit.
The Portuguese newspaper reported that the word he used was "rpahata" (a kind of clumsy visual transliteration from Cyrillic) and it says that "the spelling is the same in Russian" (which is apparently not quite true!). Maybe the reporters were guessing about this (just based on the news that the confusion involved a translation app) and it really was Hebrew-to-Portuguese?
It's also interesting that Hebrew (I guess in imitation of French) took the unmodified existing word for pomegranate and used it for grenade.
The Portuguese newspaper reported that the word he used was "rpahata" (a kind of clumsy visual transliteration from Cyrillic) and it says that "the spelling is the same in Russian" (which is apparently not quite true!). Maybe the reporters were guessing about this (just based on the news that the confusion involved a translation app) and it really was Hebrew-to-Portuguese?
It's also interesting that Hebrew (I guess in imitation of French) took the unmodified existing word for pomegranate and used it for grenade.
Kg would be interesting to know if the paper he gave the waiter has the full sentense or only the name of the "fruit".
Yeah. The original source is the Correio da Manhã at
https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/troca-de-roma-por-g...
which is mostly behind a paywall.
I'm sure there are some idiom confusions possible between different languages related to ordering/wanting something versus having that thing. Like in English one could order something with "I'll have ...". If you were translating "I'll have" into Portuguese in other contexts (like "I'll have an appointment at noon"), it could just be "tenho", not even necessarily "vou ter"!
(I don't mean to suggest that that's the exact problem here; for one thing, it was apparently Russian-to-Portuguese.)
https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/troca-de-roma-por-g...
which is mostly behind a paywall.
I'm sure there are some idiom confusions possible between different languages related to ordering/wanting something versus having that thing. Like in English one could order something with "I'll have ...". If you were translating "I'll have" into Portuguese in other contexts (like "I'll have an appointment at noon"), it could just be "tenho", not even necessarily "vou ter"!
(I don't mean to suggest that that's the exact problem here; for one thing, it was apparently Russian-to-Portuguese.)
Footage of the arrest - https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/homem-usa-tradutor-...
Un-paywalled story - https://archive.is/41EtL
Azerbaijani man speaking Russian, with an Israeli passport.
Who orders a pomegranate drink at a restaurant. The story is pretty sus.
Un-paywalled story - https://archive.is/41EtL
Azerbaijani man speaking Russian, with an Israeli passport.
Who orders a pomegranate drink at a restaurant. The story is pretty sus.
It's strange, but the page about ponergranate in Portuguese start with a reference about drink:
> A romã é o fruto da romãzeira (Punica granatum), comum no mediterrâneo oriental e médio oriente onde a polpa é usada para a preparação de aperitivos, sobremesa ou algumas vezes em bebida alcoólica.
autotranlation> Pomegranate is the fruit of the pomegranate tree (Punica granatum), common in the Eastern and Middle Eastern Mediterranean where the pulp is used to prepare appetizers, dessert or sometimes in alcoholic drinks.
The English and Spanish versions of Wikipedia have only references to the drink in the middle of the article, so it may be more popular in Portugal (or Azerbaijan). Still suspicious.
Here in Argentina we have drink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenadine You can buy the concentrated syrup and ilute it at home with water or carbonated water. It's not super popular, but you can buy a bottle in half of the supermarkets. I buy 1 or 2 per year.
Anyway, I don't remember a version that can be bought in a restaurant. OK, I just found one https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-1124864393-gaseosa-... but don't expect to find it in most restaurants here.
> A romã é o fruto da romãzeira (Punica granatum), comum no mediterrâneo oriental e médio oriente onde a polpa é usada para a preparação de aperitivos, sobremesa ou algumas vezes em bebida alcoólica.
autotranlation> Pomegranate is the fruit of the pomegranate tree (Punica granatum), common in the Eastern and Middle Eastern Mediterranean where the pulp is used to prepare appetizers, dessert or sometimes in alcoholic drinks.
The English and Spanish versions of Wikipedia have only references to the drink in the middle of the article, so it may be more popular in Portugal (or Azerbaijan). Still suspicious.
Here in Argentina we have drink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenadine You can buy the concentrated syrup and ilute it at home with water or carbonated water. It's not super popular, but you can buy a bottle in half of the supermarkets. I buy 1 or 2 per year.
Anyway, I don't remember a version that can be bought in a restaurant. OK, I just found one https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-1124864393-gaseosa-... but don't expect to find it in most restaurants here.
I think pomegranate juice is historically popular in Iran, so maybe also in Azerbaijan.
There's a pomegranate juice brand that's relatively common in U.S. supermarkets, but not in restaurants:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POM_Wonderful
I don't think I had ever seen pomegranate juice in a supermarket before this brand appeared (apparently in 2002). I think it's also used in some cocktails, so I wouldn't be surprised if bars had at least a little bit on hand.
There's a pomegranate juice brand that's relatively common in U.S. supermarkets, but not in restaurants:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POM_Wonderful
I don't think I had ever seen pomegranate juice in a supermarket before this brand appeared (apparently in 2002). I think it's also used in some cocktails, so I wouldn't be surprised if bars had at least a little bit on hand.
[deleted]
I find it more concerning that whoever was working there got scared enough to call the cops. Did the person get aggressive or?
I’ll take an Irish Car Bomb please.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/granada
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/granata
Portuguese is apparently the exception here in using it only for the weapon and not for the fruit. (My Portuguese is better than my Spanish, but I would have guessed, wrongly, that the fruit was "granada" in Portuguese, as it is in Spanish.)