Translation guide
How to express the idea of repeating someone else's mistake in Japanese, from casual warnings to formal advice.
He repeated his father's mistake.
Please don't repeat the same mistake.
An idiomatic expression meaning 'to repeat someone's failure' or 'to suffer the same fate'. Often used in warnings.
Be careful not to repeat his mistake.
Literally 'to step in the same rut', meaning to repeat the same failure. More literary and formal.
We must not repeat the same mistake.
The speaker is warning someone not to repeat a specific mistake that another person made.
A direct and natural way to say 'don't make the same mistake as ~'. Replace 〜 with the person's name or pronoun.
Don't make the same mistake I did.
Make sure you don't make the same mistake as him.
Similar to above, using 間違い (mistake/error) which can sound slightly less severe than 失敗 (failure).
The speaker admits they made the same mistake as someone else.
Expresses regret about having committed the same mistake. 〜 is the person whose mistake was repeated.
I ended up making the same mistake as him again.
Idiomatic way to say you repeated someone's failure, with a nuance of regret.
過ち (あやまち) is a formal or literary word for 'mistake' often with moral weight. 失敗 (しっぱい) is a common word for 'failure' or 'mistake' in practical matters. 間違い (まちがい) is a general word for 'error' or 'mistake'. For repeating someone's mistake, 過ち is common in set phrases, but 失敗 and 間違い are also natural depending on context.
Avoid directly translating 'repeat someone's mistake' as 誰かの間違いを繰り返す. While understandable, it sounds unnatural. Use the patterns with 同じ (same) and a person reference with と, or use idiomatic expressions like 二の舞を演じる.
Please don't repeat the same mistake.
I ended up repeating my senior's mistake.