I don't remember this place, but the sign is a little strange. The smaller print says, "Company Les huiles du Monde." I would translate that as "Oils of the World Company." First of all, "company" is an English word. The equivalent in French would be société or even compagnie. However, I know that using foreign words (and often English) in advertising is common in France. Then there's the odd capitalization. Why is the major informational word, huiles (oils) in lower case? I think the article les (the plural form of "the") is capitalized because it's the first word of the company's name. But why is huiles not capitalized while monde is? I'm neither a language expert nor a marketing expert, but it all seems a little strange to me.
None of this is a big deal, of course. It's just one of those (many) things that makes you scratch your head when you're trying to learn another language.
Yup, scratch your head... kind of like the signs we see here in the U.S., that are trying to use French, but have an apostrophe where they need an accent (or don't even need one), or have the wrong gender... like, La salon d'Nails... that type of thing :)
ReplyDeleteIf the intent of the sign was to grab your attention, mission accomplished.
ReplyDeleteYour image of the week is funny!
ReplyDeleteI’d call that sign a big fail. In Andalusian dialect certain consonants are often dropped. There used to be a restaurant nearby called Abrevaero. I couldn't find the word anyway until I finally figured out it was Abravadero, which is a feeding trough. Often the people creating the signs or naming things spell them the way they pronounce them without even knowing it’s wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the type of post on which CHM would have had a view. Lesley
ReplyDeleteHeehee. I agree. CHM lives on...
Deletejudy, some of them can be hilarious!
ReplyDeletetravel, good angle!
evelyn, :) it was somewhere near CHM's place in the desert.
mitch, there's a lot of that going around.
lesley, agreed!