Buick Mispronounces its Own SUV's Name

From Snopes:

Claim: The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish.

Status: False.

Brian Rodenborn

In news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com, Rich Clark spewed:

Actually, most of us Vermonters call it Mont-pe-cu-li-ar.

In news:3ffb2a08$0$43849$ snipped-for-privacy@news.twtelecom.net, C.R. Krieger spewed:

New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim.

In news:3ff9df60$0$40209$ snipped-for-privacy@news.twtelecom.net, C.R. Krieger spewed:

I remember it as Narragansett, a/k/a scuba tanks.

I thought it was peculiar to find such great Chinese restaurants there.

RichC

Thankfully, living in the U.S., I am oriented correctly ;-]

--Aardwolf.

Yo, dimbulb, its named for the mountain in the Pacific Northwest United States, Mt. Rainier, which is pronounced ray-NEER. Are you one of them European dorks that pronounces the Subaru Baja as bye-YA, instead of BAH-ha, like in the Mexican penninsula south of California?

RLM

Uh, we ain't nuttin' to be trowin' bricks eitha. A street in the River North is spelled Goethe. It should be pronounced Gert-ta, but we say Go- thee.

RLM (from Chicago)

That's because the voice saying Jag-you-are is British and that's how they say it. Usually after the Brit voice signs off, the American one comes on imploring you to visit you local Jaguar dealer, its pronounced Jag-waur. The ones I hate are snooty, faux-proper English Americans that pronounce it Jag-wire. Those are dorks I'd love to poke in the nose.

RLM (former Jag-waur owner)

Urban Legend.

Spanish Definition - Nova: Astron, Estrella cuyo brillo experimenta bruscas variaciones

English translation of the Spanish definition - Astron: Star whose brightness experiences abrupt variations

(Astron is an abbreviation for Astronomy)

Ed

How about "No va"?

No. It's Wooh-stuh.

There's a great little Irish pub/restaurant in Montpelier too. And a not-half-bad biker bar.

What some asshole American did when he put together two Spanish words to make up a tale that everybody knows is false.

Tried "Beauchamp" lately?

Go to this page:

Type "No va", select "Spanish to English", hit the translate button and see what comes up. Since I'm not sure you're smart enough to follow something this complicated, I'll just jump right to the answer for you: "it does not go".

Still confused?

Funny story: I used to be married to a guy with close relatives from the italian-speaking region of Switzerland. Nice folks. One Christmas, he got his grandparents a welcome mat. No ordinary mat - this one had "VA VIA" printed on it in large friendly letters. They died laughing when it was opened, and they proudly kept it on the porch for years. Since I didn't speak Italian, they told me the reason they laughed at it was because it said "go away". Snopes' debunking states (among other issues) that "nova" and "no va" are two different concepts in Spanish. It doesn't say what "nova" is. Does anyone know?

-- Sharon, Lurking As Usual To reply, replace spammersmustdie with jcwoman1963

Probably the same thing it means in every other Latin-based language: New.

DS

Same thing in Louisville.

There, they pronounce it "LOU-uh-vill", not "LOOee -vill".