History Main / GratuitousEnglish

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaVPCTXIBeE KOMINGU SUUN DAKUPO!]] [[note]][[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance Coming soon, kupo!]][[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFruitties'', a cartoon originating from Spain, somehow manages to do this within its own English dub. There are several songs that get reused often in the series, which are sung by the same Spanish singers for both the Spanish and English dubs. However, the English lyrics for some of the songs contain several instances of incorrect English. For example, the song "Roly, the Champion" contains these lyrics: "And to scare the vegetarans [sic], let us sing together song."

-->'''Male student:''' ''(in Cantonese)'' Hey, aren't you Yan-yan? I haven't seen you in so long?\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' are translated to Spanish for Latin America, but the musical interludes are not. Translating dialogues is one thing, but translation the lyrics of a song in a way that they remain true to the original lyrics and also fit well in the song is not an easy task (even in the music industry translated lyrics in CoverVersion songs are rare). As a result, the episodes make an odd jump from characters speaking in Spanish, to the same characters singing in English and with different voices (as the voice actors are not the same).

* ''Madama Butterfly'' throws off a few GratuitousEnglish phrases, most notably Pinkerton's toast to "America for ever!"

This is particularly common in Japanese media, as English is a standard subject in Japanese schools but very few people learn enough to become fluent. Thus, anybody in the audience will recognize random English phrases or text as ''being'' English, and might even recognize specific words, but they probably won't know enough to recognize (or care) whether the phrasing actually makes any sense.

This is particularly common in Japanese media, as English is a standard subject in Japanese schools but very few people learn enough to become fluent. Thus, anybody in the audience will recognize random English phrases or text as ''being'' English, and might even recognize specific words, but they probably won't know enough to recognize (or care) whether the phrasing ctually makes any sense.

* In ''ComicBook/AmericanBornChinese'', a new immigrant student from Taiwan first appears with a shirt that reads "Happy Robot".

* ''Animation/LavatoryLovestory'': This is a Russian cartoon but all the signs are in English. The sign above the rest room says "Lavatory", and the woman reads a newspaper called "Happy Woman" with headlines like "Bravo! Best!" Interestingly, this is averted at the end, with the sign in her booth that says "срочно требуется работник"—"Urgently required worker."

* In ''Literature/TheVampireCountess'' there is an Englishman among the conspirators who is described as being Welsh. At one point he says something in what Creator/PaulFeval calls a Cockney Accent. What Feval wrote was "Let us knock down the rascal". In his English translation ''Brian Stableford'' chose to simply replace this all together as "Flatten the bleeder".
* In ''Literature/TheYiddishPolicemensUnion'', the Jews of Sitka speak Yiddish as their primary language, but prefer to swear in American English.

* In the Japanese translations of the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, the names of the characters, which are usually combinations of nouns, verbs and adjectives, are left in English.

* In ''Literature/ConfessionsOfFelixKrull'' the protagonist gets to show off his English, but to a much lesser extent than his [[GratuitousFrench fluent French]].
* ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries''' newer books are marked on covers as being part of "Thorn Universe", the latter being written in English, despite the books being Polish and there existing a perfectly fitting Polish word.
* ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'', from the same author as ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries'', has the character named "Madame Butterfly", in English.

* The original book that inspired the film Film/EdgeOfTomorrow is called "Literature/AllYouNeedIsKill" in English even in Japan.
* ''{{Franchise/Metro}}'': Hunter uses the English word for his name, rather than the Russian охотник (okhotnik), for no apparent reason. When they first meet, Artyom comments on his name being weird.

* ''Madama Butterfly'' throws off a few GratuitousEnglish phrases, most notably Pinkerton's toast to "America for ever!"

* A ''Film/TheForceAwakens Stormtrooper™'' action figure has descriptions in three additional languages including German on its packaging, all of which leave the term "Stormtroopers" in English. This is egregious not just [[InconsistentDub because earlier localizations had generally translated it]] – the English word "stormtrooper" derives from German "Sturmtruppen" in the first place.

* WebAnimation/KizunaAI often peppers her speech with English phrases, many of which are spoken with proper grammar (although when it comes to reading and writing English, she has some difficulties).

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Parodied in episode 801, "Good Times with Weapons", with the fight-sequence song "Let's Fighting Love". However, the real joke is [[BilingualBonus in the Japanese lyrics]]. Since Trey Parker is fluent in Japanese, rather than being ForeignSoundingGibberish, it is actually...
-->''This song is kind of stupid\\
It doesn't make sense\\
The English is all fucked up\\
That's okay [we do it all the time!]\\
[Hey hey, let's go] fighting\\
The important thing is to [protect my balls]\\
I'm baaaad, [so let's fighting]\\
[Let's fighting love -- let's fighting love!]''
:: That phrase "Let's fighting" is an example of what is, tragically, a very common Engrish construction in Japan. The bowling episode of ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'' has a bunch of characters repeat the catchphrase "Let's bowling!" -- making it perhaps the only one that's ''more'' painful to watch subbed than dubbed, [[{{Macekre}} ShoPro]] and all.
%%* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in the "Mr. Sparkle" commercial.
* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'':
** Many characters have [[CallingYourAttacks attacks with English names]]. The original Italian also has other examples, such as Bloom (one of the Winx), and Icy (one of the Trix). Moreover, "Winx" is a pun on wings.[[note]]This is despite that the [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] version might [[{{Macekre}} claim]].[[/note]] Whether this is due to it being influenced by anime, or due to the creator's wife being Singaporean, is up for debate.
** Additionally, the first English version of show's first theme song, "Under the Sign of the Winx"[[note]]As heard in the "RAI English" version of the show in season 1.[[/note]] is clearly being sung by people didn't learn English as their first language. The song itself also seems to be a loose translation of the Italian lyrics as well ("If you desire, you can become, one of our bunch!"...). This also applies to the other songs as well in the first season. Season 2 and beyond improves this considerably, with the second version of "Under the Sign of the Winx" in particular.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' during the 'Mouseketeer' shorts which took place in France, Jerry was accompanied by a little gray French-speaking mouse named Tuff,[[note]]Essentially the same character as Nibbles.[[/note]] who occasionally threw English phrases into his speech. In one short, when giving a long-winded explanation in French as to why he ran from Tom, he ends it with "and besides that, I'm chicken!"
** He probably meant "chicken" as in "coward," a [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys French stereotype]].
* In a non-Japanese example, ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' gives us [[FunnyForeigner Swedish Skwisgaar and Norwegian Toki]], who both suffer from the same ignorance of the English language. They both have atrocious problems with putting excessive plurals at the end of words (whether or not they are nouns in the first place), frequently use "am" for ''any'' form of the word "be", and have a bad grasp on vocabulary in general.
-->'''Skwisgaar:''' Oh Toki, it's adorables. You really wants to takes more solos, but I am the lead guitarist. You know, why? Because I ams, hows do you says, way more gooders than you.

* The Japanese dub of the ''WesternAnimation/MagicAdventuresOfMumfie'' episode "The Chase is On" has Mumfie yell "Nice catch!" instead of "I've got it!".

* In the German version of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoons (the newer ones), an English word is inserted ''just'' for the rhyme: "Hallo ihr daheim - jetzt ist Popeye-''Time''!"
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': In the French dub[[note]]The series' original language is French[[/note]], the characters frequently use English words like "what" and "freeze" instead of the French words (the use of "stop" is kinda justified, since it's an English loanword, e.g. "On doit faire un stop !").

* In the Spanish dub of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' short "I'm Mad", Wakko's line "Gotta use the potty, better stop the car!" is translated into "Tengo que ir al baño para la potty", with the translators leaving the word "potty" in English rather than translating it as "orinal".[[note]]though this may be because it's also used as the Spanish word for "urinal".[[/note]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFruitties'', a cartoon originating from Spain, somehow manages to do this within its own English dub. There are several songs that get reused often in the series, which are sung by the same Spanish singers for both the Spanish and English dubs. However, the English lyrics for some of the songs contain several instances of incorrect English. For example, the song "Roly, the Champion" contains these lyrics: "And to scare the vegetarans [sic], let us sing together song."
* ''WesternAnimation/TheCrumpets'': The original French dub has the Crumpets' EvilAunt Harried randomly speaking English sentences and even occasionally the word "[[ForeignCussWord shit]]". In one episode, she instructs Caprice to speak English so she can attract a celebrity. The English dub made Harried randomly speak [[GratuitousItalian Italian]] instead, as well as teaching Caprice the Italian chic in that episode.
** The ''Teen Crumpets'' episodes have few songs with English lyrics, such as Damon Grobain's song in "L'ADN à Pa", the song that Cassandra sings in "Quasi Cassie", and the disco song apparently sung by Marylin in "Marilyn Blues".
* The French dub of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' uses this for the names of some of the heroes, villains, and [[CallingYourAttacks power names]]. As an example, there's Ladybug herself, who is referred to as "Ladybug" rather than "Coccinelle", and her "[[PowerOfCreation Lucky Charm]]" and "[[WorldHealingWave Miraculous Ladybug]]" powers are also spoken in English.

* ''PhineasAndFerb'': In "Elementary My Dear Stacy", the car parts salesman speaks with a thick Cockney accent that Stacy has to translate for Candace. In reality, he uses several made-up Cockney-sounding words ("bic", "bushies", "bangers", "harrish"), likely to sound even more foreign and unintelligible.

When the English is actually pretty good, it's SurprisinglyGoodEnglish. Compare BilingualDialogue for a more surreal linguistic experience, and BlindIdiotTranslation for the ''really'' bad version. See also GratuitousForeignLanguage and all its subtropes. When these works are translated into English, the Gratuitous English is [[KeepItForeign often changed]] into GratuitousSpanish or GratuitousFrench.

This is particularly common in Japanese media, as English is a standard subject in Japanese schools but very few people learn enough English to become fluent. Thus, anybody in the audience will recognize random English phrases or text as ''being'' English, and might even recognize the specific words. But they probably won't know enough to recognize (or care) whether the English actually makes any sense.

One thing of note, Japanese and other foreign languages have a lot of English loan words in established vocabulary. [[note]]In Japan, this is called ''gairaigo'' when the borrowed word is used with its original meaning. A separate term, ''wasei-eigo'', describes borrowings that have different meanings in Japanese than in the original language.[[/note]] Some of them sound like Engrish even. This can't be used as an example of Gratuitous English.

* [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1988/09/06 This]] ''ComicStrip/USAcres'' strip has Orson receiving a phone call from UsefulNotes/{{China}} after sneezing. Guess what's wrong with the message.

* The second film in the Chinese ''VideoGame/RocoKingdom'' series took a shot at officially translating its title into English, for whatever reason. The original Chinese title is ''Wish of the Holy Dragon''. What did they go for in the English title? ''The Desire of Dragon'' - note the lack of a "the" where one would typically expect it.

[[caption-width-right:336:Inexplicable shirts are privilege reserved for ''Samurai'' lords.[[note]][[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff and even ''Samurai'' lords loving American cars![[/note]]]]]]

A related issue is countless English works being translated to various language and in the process getting a CompletelyDifferentTitle... ''still'' in English.

* Parodied by Creator/ProZD in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1MYyjnITpQ When you only know the random English parts in a non-english song]]''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' during the 'Mouseketeer' shorts which took place in France, Jerry was accompanied by a little gray French-speaking mouse named Tuffy[[note]]Essentially the same character as Nibbles.[[/note]], who occasionally threw English phrases into his speech. In one short, when giving a long-winded explanation in French as to why he ran from Tom, he ends it with "and besides that, I'm chicken!"

* GratuitousSpanish tends to become this when subbed to a Spanish-speaking audience.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': "Eat... my... BOWLS!"

* Many move names you run across in Japanese wrestling are cool-but-meaningless English -- like Shingo Takagi's Last Falconry, Masato Tanaka's Complete Dust, and MEN's Teioh's Miracle Ecstasy, just to name a few.