• HOME
  • Publications
  • BLOG
  • English Phonetics and Phonology
  • The English Pronouncing Dictionary
  • RESOURCES
  Peter Roach

CarGlass revisited

18/1/2022

6 Comments

 
​Back in 2015, I noted what I thought was an interesting difference between the English and French versions of an advert for a car windscreen replacement service. Here it is:
 
“Since this is the silly season, I will finish with a trivial cross-language observation I have made in France and the UK. There is a company that repairs car windscreens, called Autoglass in the UK and (I don’t know why) Carglass in France. They advertise on TV in both countries, and have a jingle that goes “Autoglass repair, Autoglass replace” in UK and “Carglass répare, Carglass remplace” in France. The English version is sung in 4/4 time, but in French this timing would make it necessary to give two beats to the vowel of “Car”. Since the vowel in “Car” isn’t long in French (which doesn’t distinguish long and short vowels) this wouldn’t be appropriate, so the French version is in 3/4 (Waltz) time, though otherwise identical. I think that is very sensitive of Autoglass/Carglass.”
Picture
I have just seen a joke on a French website which (for me) adds a postscript:

Roughly translated, it asks “Why should you eat some ice cream after an unhappy love affair?”.
Answer: “Because ice cream repairs, because ice cream replaces”
6 Comments
Seghir Benkouider
18/1/2022 05:54:16 pm

Happy new year to you dearest prof mr Peter. Merry Christmas. I hope you are well, and in good health. I think you still remember me. It's me Seghir from Algeria.Thanks so much for the great effort you are making in pronunciation area.May God be with you. I hope you can get in touch with me through my email,so I can make use of your information.

Reply
Seghir Benkouider
18/1/2022 06:34:35 pm

To me ,the French question :pourquoi faut il manger de la glace aprés chagrin d'amour which is in English ; why should we eat some ice cream after heartbreaking
The French joke :car glace répare:the word car is in English which means auto (véhicule )in French.and so is the word glace which means in English mirror.
The second phrase car glace remplace in English car it means for (because )and glace it means (Ice cream),and the word remplacé in English is replaces. So it
becomes
Because ice cream replaces.
Which is the answer to the question.
So after unhappy love affair;we had better eat some ice cream to make us forget the shock. Mr Seghir Algeria. My best wishes and regards to you.

Reply
Sidney Wood link
19/1/2022 03:38:44 pm

Seghir haas spelt out the French pun. "Car glass" might be the trade mark in the EU. They advertise frequently in Sweden too, with the same 3/4 jingle, but in English "car glass re/pair.../car glass re-/place../

Reply
Seghir Benkouider
19/1/2022 06:24:36 pm

The commercial advertisement is French. IT contains a joke which is in French :
Pourquoi faut il manger de la glace aprés chagrin d'amour . which is in English why should we eat some ice cream after broken love relationship. The two French responses .The first one is carglace répare
The word carglace is composed of two words ;the word car which is an English word that means (véhicule /auto mobile).
And the word glace is also means screen.
So carglace is translated to English which means windscreen so carglace répare in English windscreen repairs.
And the second one ;
Carglace remplace, which means in English :
Car that means for or because (which is the synonym of because) ,a out one the word glace which means in English icecream ,the word répare. It means in English repairs.
So the phrase becomes in English :
Because icecream replaces.so ,it becomes the answer to question above;which is a French joke.

Reply
P Roach
19/1/2022 06:39:54 pm

Thank you for your comment

Reply
Seghir Benkouider
19/1/2022 06:55:04 pm

Thanks a lot for your reply dear Prof Mr Peter.It is kind of you. I miss you so much. Thank God for you are Well. My best wishes and regards to you.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    A blog that discusses problems in Wikipedia's coverage of Phonetics

    Peter Roach

    Emeritus Professor of Phonetics,
    ​University of Reading, UK

    uArchives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2019
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.