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- Topic: French >
- "Une poubelle de bureau"
52 Comments
509
It's also called a wastepaper bin or basket in Australia and I suspect the rest of the Commonwealth.
I'm not sure I agree (I'm Australian) - It would have been called a "wastepaper bin" by my parents in the 90s, but paper is recycled these days. we call the small bins at work... wait for it... "bins". "office bin" and "desk bin", while both unnatural sounding, would be more likely to be used these days at my work than "wastepaper bin".
509
You're right about generally calling such items "bins" - I certainly do and we abbreviate things all the time - but I was thinking more of a specific type of bin which I presume a "desk bin" is. For example in our office we say recycling bin or waste paper bin to distinguish them from bins with another purpose and at home we say kitchen bin when we are talking about a bin with a specific use or in a particular room.
860
I said "an office basket" and was dinged for it, and where I may have misinterpreted "bureau" in this case as office and not desk, here in my part of the US we certainly say basket or wastebasket. To me trash bin is something larger and holding items that would never be found in an office or at a desk., think restaurant kitchen or outside a business. Just as there are many varieties of English--UK ,NZ AU, to mane a few,--the US has so many regional differences that one cannot say that something is unequivocally translated as this or that. And specific usage would tend to make me say one thing or another as each specific situation required. Just my two cents.
602
In Germany we would call a bin in an office also wastepaper bin, I was confused from this sentence as well.
We must keep a sense of humor.Sometimes, one has to laugh at the difficulties in translating a simple word into another language without coming up with some really weird expressions. The good thing is that we are learning some vocabulary and basic sentence structure and appreciating the combined knowledge of so many talented linguists.
115
A desk bin is NOT an acceptable term in British English. It's called a wastepaper basket or bin.
115
In the UK, we still refer to dustbin men, who come to collect our various general waste, dry recycling and compost bins fortnightly.
115
Well, that's just fine and dandy, but it's not a term any speaker of British English would use.
1857
I know. That’ s why I announced it. The standard answers have become boring so I always try new ones (and get many wrong). So I thought people may want to know. Thanks for your response.