An Asda store in Wales attracted considerable attention on Twitter this week after it appeared to be offering shoppers free alcohol.
A sign in the Asda supermarket in Cwmbran was meant to guide shoppers to ‘alcohol-free’ beer. However, it had been wrongly translated in Welsh to ‘alcohol am ddim’, which means ‘free alcohol’. The correct Welsh translation for alcohol-free is ‘di-alcohol’.
Guto Aaron, one of the first to spot the sign, wrote on Twitter: “Get yourself to Asda, according to their dodgy Welsh translations they are giving away free alcohol.”
However, Asda later stressed that there would not be free alcohol available in its stores this Easter weekend and that it was changing the sign.
An Asda spokesperson said: “Mae’n ddrwg gennym [we are sorry]. We would like to thank our eagle-eyed customers for spotting this mistake. We hold our hands up and will be changing the signs in our Cwmbran store straight away.”
Get yourselves to Asda in Cwmbran (Translates as free alcohol rather than alcohol free) ? pic.twitter.com/QXwN8m797O
— David St.John Richards (@WelshLFCWarrior) 17 April 2019
NAM Implications:
- Well, so much for my Easter weekend in Cwmbran…
- BTW, our Gaelic word Crack was changed to Craic in 1990 – a need to differentiate good, clean fun from a dangerous new form of cocaine – and led to this spelling gaining popularity…
- Best stick to plain English for promotional purposes, methinks!
