Wednesday, December 24, 2008

accents are not optional in French

Spotted in a small-sized electronics store, over a display for radios of some sort:
BRAND NAME (the all caps is their idea, not mine)
UNE PERFORMANCE INEGALE
The original was probably in German, or perhaps in English. Either way, I'm guessing they were going for "Une performance inégalée", so they not only dropped a couple of accents (which we use, even on caps), but they left out the final "e" (dastardly past participles, they are!), which turns "Unparalleled performance" into "Uneven performance." Oops.

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