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Calling this car Nevera (fridge) makes it a great addition to the unfortunate car names in Spanish, next to the Fiat Marea (makes-you-dizzy) and Mitsubishi Paje
by pxndxx 4y ago
Calling this car Nevera (fridge) makes it a great addition to the unfortunate car names in Spanish, next to the Fiat Marea (makes-you-dizzy) and Mitsubishi Pajero (wanker).
- onion2k 4y agoThe Vauxhall Nova ("no go") was pretty poorly named.
- mywittyname 4y agoI always got the impression this was more of a thing English speakers picked up on but not Spanish speakers. Kind of like how pillow could be seen as "pill" & "ow" (pill = unpleasant, ow = "that's painful"), which would be ironic to a person with rudimentary English skills, but just a normal word to a native speaker.
- samatman 4y agoA better example is therapist: in any other sentence you wouldn't notice what I'm getting at, the pun is there but the stress on the words is different. Dr. Pornestach, Therapist, it's possible to push the conjunction but we mostly don't. "No va" is just "it's not going", which is about as awkward a way to describe a non-working vehicle in Spanish as it is in English. If my Nova broke down, yes, I'd make the pun. Now, if they'd tried to sell the Chevy Es Chingado...
- mywittyname 4y agoOh, that's a really good one.
- bitwize 4y agoI'll take swords for $400, Alex.
- gnatman 4y agoToyota MR2 in french is pronounced Em Air Deux, very close to "merde" which means "shit".
- anticensor 4y agoMR2 in French is pronounced as emmerdeur, which means PITA. Just as good as a Vauxhall Nova.
- sbacic 4y agoNevera means "storm" or alternatively "squall" in Croatian, which is where the car got its name.
- zagrebian 4y agoNot just any storm. It’s a storm on the Croatian coast that comes suddenly and doesn’t last long. When pronouncing the word, the emphasis is on the second syllable: neh-VEH-rah Source: My Dalmatian father
- runnerup 4y agoTIL Dalmatia is a region in Croatia and the origin of the dog breed “Dalmatian”
- exhilaration 4y agoThank you for the explanation, my mind initially went to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_...
- bitL 4y agoIsn't that "Bora"?
- mejutoco 4y agoI will add the Nissan moco (snot, nasal mucus).
- tecleandor 4y agoThere's also: Toyota Premio (prize) Suzuki Alto (tall) Mazda Laputa (well, yeah, it's an island, but if you read it quickly it sounds like "the wh\*re") Lamborghini Reventón (It's the name for a bull, but it means puncture or tire blowout) AFAIK, the Laputa being a Kei Car hasn't been sold out of Japan, and the equivalent to the Premio has been the Avensis. I've seen Altos, and not much Lamborghinis :D
- kirenida 4y agoFord Kuga kuga means "plague" in bosnian/croatian/serbian/slovenian
- jansan 4y agoLong time ago a friend oof mine told me that Passat is a horrible choice for a car name, because it sounds like "Pas ça!" (=not that) in French. Can any native French speakers tell me if this really sounds awkward, or is it just a name like any other?
- 1983054105 4y agoI'm French and it doesn't sound weird because we (and the advertisements) have always pronounced the "t" at the end. On the other hand, the Audio "e-tron" changed its name in France because "étron" means excrement in French.
- carl_dr 4y agoAudi didn’t change the “e-tron” name in France, as you can see from the Audi homepage : https://www.audi.fr/fr/web/fr.html https://www.audi.fr/fr/web/fr.html
- neural_thing 4y agoIt also sounds like "to pee" in Russian
- heavenlyblue 4y agoMore like "to piss" rather than "to pee"
- toolslive 4y agoford nova (no va!)
- stardenburden 4y agowasnt that one chevrolet
- chasebank 4y agoThe classic business school case is Chevy's Nova. Literally means "No go" in Spanish. IIRC, it was a smashing success in US and Canada and a giant flop south of the border.
- paol 4y agoNova means new, not "no go", unless you are actively trying to make a joke and read "no" and "va" as separate words.
- kaladin-jasnah 4y agoI'm pretty sure "nuevo/a" is "new" in Spanish, not "nova."
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- pxmpxm 4y agoNo vamos, i thought?
- MagnumOpus 4y agoNova means new in Portuguese and in Latin...
- 1letterunixname 4y agoThat's the joke.
- comte7092 4y agoIf you are reading it, yes. If you say it out loud, it sounds like “no va”.
- vikingerik 4y agoThis is correct. It wouldn't be read as "no go" any more than you wouldn't buy a "notable" furniture set because it had no table.
- wazoox 4y agoHowever nothing beats in French the Audi e-tron, literally "turd". At least in the 00s Toyota prudently renamed the MR-2 ("shit") into simply "MR" to prevent problems.
- moffkalast 4y agoMaybe Ford Kuga, meaning "bubonic plague" in Slovenian.
- r00t4ccess 4y agoHonda Fita https://twitter.com/michal317/status/1554149869278953472?s=61&t=cnO1Odfxlhz8dUmcNa_X6Q https://twitter.com/michal317/status/1554149869278953472?s=6...
- narimiran 4y ago> Honda Fita Stretching a bit to fit a narrative? There was never Honda Fita. In USA, that's Honda Fit, and in Europe the same car is called Honda Jazz.
- fragmede 4y agoThe thread mentioned states that the name was changed to Jazz just before launch and that the problem with Fita was discovered pre-launch.
- Hamuko 4y agoThe worst part is that it's not just the name of a car, it's the entire EV sub-brand. So you have the Audi Turd, the Audi Q8 Turd, the Audi Q8 Turd Sportback the Audi Turd GT, and so on.
- wazoox 4y agoUnsurprisingly they don't seem to sell well in French-speaking countries :D
- glanzwulf 4y agoDoesn't beat Hyndaui Kona, they had to change the name in Portugal to Kauai, because Kona means "Pussy"
- shrx 4y agoAnother example is Ford Kuga - "kuga" means "plague" in slovenian.
- the_mitsuhiko 4y agoAlso since we're on the topic of weird meanings: Škoda which is a Czech brand also can be read as "damage" in the Czech language.
- voidmain0001 4y agoAdd the Chevy Nova (no va - doesn't go) to that list.
- rootusrootus 4y agoFWIW, that never happened, it's just an old wives tale.
- franciscop 4y agoOh don't forget about Mazda LaPuta.
- rob74 4y agoActually "marea" means "tide" in Italian and also Spanish - from which I guess the alternative Spanish meaning evolved: "tide" -> "sea" -> "seasick" -> "sick"?
- loloquwowndueo 4y ago“Marear” is a verb - to make dizzy or motion-sick. “Marea” is the third-person singular present form of the verb. “Mitsubishi marea” translated literally from Spanish as a full sentence and not as “make and model of a car “ is “Mitsubishi makes you dizzy”.
- zhrvoj 4y agoI'm an Adriatic sailor. Nevera -> fridge??? Stupid google translation, hilarious. Don't rely on this. English word in meteo world is "sudden storm", Italians say "Burrasca". It's not cyclone. Speciality of Adriatic sea, if you will sail there. It happens when we have lifting of warm and humid air, for example on a cold fronts. Cold air is denser and it goes under warm and humid air. Warm air lifts up. Every 100m you can count on -0.5 °C (Buys Baillot). And on some level under special condition (look for CAPE and LI), you will get monster cloud looking like anvil from distance, travels 20nm to the east, sucks the air up, and down on it's front. Italia, Croatia, oh we know.
- balfirevic 4y ago> I'm an Adriatic sailor. Nevera -> fridge??? Stupid google translation, hilarious. In Spanish.
- thedrbrian 4y agoDon't forget the Vauxhall Nova (no-go/not going)
- mshaler 4y agoNova (don't go) has entered the chat