Heute habe ich um halb acht den Hausmeister im Flur getroffen.
What is wrong with this translation? “Today I saw the housemaster on the floor at half eight”.
The first mistake is ‘housemaster’, which is a teacher. He is in charge of a ‘house’ in a private school.
The second false friend is ‘floor’, which is ‘Boden’. Flur is ‘corridor’ in an office building or hotel or ‘hall’ in a private home. Finally, in British English half eight in the morning is 8:30. So the translation is “I met the caretaker this morning at half (past) seven in the corridor”.
Deutsch English
Flur corridor / hall
halb acht half seven
Hausmeister caretaker / janitor
English Deutsch
floor Boden
half eight halb neun
housemaster Lehrer