tones
Tones deaf
I don't! But all French car names are awkward for English speakers who have no acquaintance with the language (Renolt, Pewjoe - mind you, Simca and Matra were OK, when they existed).
New new Top Gear
- Thread starter cutting42
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Stunsworth
pfm Member
The French seem to get it right.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Just watched it. There’s clearly much more potential chemistry between this trio than the last. I thought there was more warmth, and the set pieces were less contrived. I enjoyed it more than anything in the last couple of series. Promising start.
Pete MB&D
Pete Maddex, the one and only!
Seeker_UK
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
ISTR you need to pronounce the 'C' as 'Sh'
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
Exactomundo
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Maybe me as well ! How can you mispronounce it, leaving aside the particular French oe sound, Not sure how that would translate phonetically into English (oin?) Maybe, as above, it's a lemon but mispronounced by Limeys
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
cubastreet
Espresso Fiend
I guess it's only important to pronounce expensive cars properly, is it a class thing? Nobody outside Japan pronounces Toyota corolla correctly, even though it's the most common car in the world.
MikeMA
pfm Member
Even I know its pronounced "Toyo'a Cawowa" in Japanese.
jtrade
pfm Member
Agree - I thought it was even worse than the last series & turned it off.
As for “Porsche”, my opinion is that Clarkson & colleagues’ unsuccessful attempts to pronounce it as if speaking German - & suggesting that this is “correct” - is totally pretentious : a bit like someone saying they’re going to “Paree” or “Roma” for a trip.
I know two German racing drivers (one a Le Mans winner), both fluent English speakers, who always say Porsche the English way (“Porsch”) when speaking English, albeit with their German accents. As do my German ex-wife & her 911-owning German brother-in-law.
For several years in the mid-90s I had the pleasure of driving an early 911 C4 cabriolet (964 series) : nobody at the Surrey dealership where I bought it ever said “Porsch-er”, Clarkson-style.
Alex S
carbon based lifeform
Dacia are Romanian but owned by Renault group. Romanian is a Latin language. When I meet Romanians in the factories who have no English I speak to them in my bad Italian, they generally understand. I occasionally understand their replies in Italian.
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Apparently only the septics pronounce ‘Jag-warr’ correctly. That is, I believe, the correct, South American pronunciation of Jaguar. Who knew?
Suffolk Tony
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment.
I happen to know that the frequent mispronunciation of "Porsche" came about from a misunderstanding, when a punter at the dealers was asked "So you want to buy a Porsche, errr...?"
Stunsworth
pfm Member
Anyone mentioned the mispronunciation of Michelin yet?
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Your observation is infectious, Sue.
Ah, yes; I'd forgotten but presumably the 'c' is pronounced as 'ch' as in Italian, then. My lady dentist is Romanian (stress on first and third syllables, I understand) and she always negatively says " tch tch tch " when inspecting my teeth.
Back to thread subject matter, I read a resume of T.G.in yesterday's paper, which awarded it 4 stars (/5) in which it thought that this reincarnation was a welcome departure from the last three stilted series. It was fun, natural and blokish although Harris was the only boring one. It mentioned a more millennial tone. As I'm many decades away from being a millennial, maybe he has a point and that it's an age thing. Can't knock the visual aspect at any age, though.
Mullardman
Moderately extreme...
As in Conservative and Shite?