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I bought a cup of americano at the Seven Eleven Japan. I found an English phrase written on the paper cup like below:

Seven Cafe
Delicious beverages and sweets are made fresh, with only the finest ingredients, to add satisfying moments to your day.

I feel somewhat weird about the above. For instance, 'be made fresh' is probably weird English.

I fixed grammatically incorrect expressions of this article. for the below thankful commentaries which correct the article, I archived what I modified.

  • a English phrase --> an English phrase
  • wroted --> written
  • some weird on --> some weird about
  • be make fresh --> be made fresh
10ants
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  • Where did you find "be make fresh"? It is not in your example. Anyway there is no support for thinking it is "weird English". – user3169 Jun 15 '15 at 05:47
  • BTW, it is "written", not "wroted". That is weird. – user3169 Jun 15 '15 at 05:49
  • @user3169 I thought "be make fresh" was weird expression, because I assumed that the verb, 'make' should take a noun. but now I think it was wrong. and it is apparently my careless mistakes, 'wrote' and 'be make fresh'. these two are same mistakes of tense. after this, I will take care about it. – 10ants Jun 15 '15 at 05:56
  • It's pretty common in Japan to find statements like that on products. The English used is not necessarily what a native would use. I've seen things like "With this cup we make happy your day" etc etc – DoneWithThis. Jun 15 '15 at 05:57
  • I do not mean to offend (I know you are trying to learn correct English.) However, I can tell from the way that you write, that you are not yet at the point in your learning where you can criticize the shop's English usage. The catchphrase is grammatically correct and makes sense. Your question, however, has these oddities: 1) "a English phrase" s/b "an English phrase" 2) "wroted" s/b "written" (this is not an error of wrong tense—there is not a word "wroted" in English) 3) "I feel some weird on the above" s/b "I feel somewhat weird about the above". – Brian Hitchcock Jun 15 '15 at 07:42
  • As for "be made fresh", it does not mean to "make to become fresh" something which was not fresh; it means to make your coffee when you order it, not ahead of time—or to bake fresh sweets every day, not to sell day-old stale ones. – Brian Hitchcock Jun 15 '15 at 07:44
  • Related: I punched him silly. I drove home drunk.; They served us our coffee black. They left empty-handed.; What is the last thing you ordered takeout? – Damkerng T. Jun 15 '15 at 08:43

1 Answers1

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"Be make fresh" is indeed ungrammatical, but there's nothing wrong with the slogan as written on the cup. They're saying that all their foods and drinks have the quality of having been freshly made. The shop workers make the foods and drinks fresh, and that's the way the foods and drinks still are.

This is an example of the perfect tense, which is frequently rather confusing to learners.

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Nathan Tuggy
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