Las errores de traducción son frecuentes. Resultan a menudo de traducciones no profesionales o de traduciones automáticas.
Aqui están algunos ejemplos de perlas de traducción que se encuentran en el Internet :

• The Miami T-shirt maker targeted the Spanish market with its shirts commemorating the Pope's visit: "I saw the Pope" (el Papa) became "I saw the potato" (la papa).
• The American milk supplier whose famous slogan 'Got milk?' translated to 'Are you lactating?' when it tried to expand the campaign to Mexico.
• An American airline had plenty of empty seats on its flights to South America when the promotion of its new leather seats ('fly in leather') translated into Spanish as 'fly naked'.
• A British stationery company tried to launch its non-leaking fountain pen in Spain with the angle that 'it won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you'. It made the common mistake of assuming that 'embarazar' means embarrassed. It actually means 'pregnant'.
• One US beer company assumed that its slogan 'turn it loose' would translate successfully into the Spanish language, where unfortunately it reads 'get diarrhoea'.