So there's some nameless boutique downtown that I walk by almost every time I go there. It sells a bunch of random clothes, whatever. One day, I noticed that a lot of the shirts randomly have the word "gonna" printed on them. After passing the store a few times, I realized it was some kind of brand (though I can't find anything online). So the shirts have words like "Trekking" printed really big in the middle, and in the bottom corner, they said "GONNA." Then some just say "GONNA" alone, usually in all caps like that.
Lots of Brazilian clothes (and restaurants, and billboards, and English schools...) use English incorrectly. This is nothing new. But this "gonna" one took me a while. One day, a new shirt in the store had "GONNA!" with an explanation point. And then I got it.
Some poor soul thought he was saying "vai!" when he made up his brand name. And I mean, he's not wrong. Except he's totally wrong.
I can't decide whether to take a picture or tell the employee or both or neither.
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hahaha Classic. What's funny is that when I spot one of these mistakes and tell people about it, they tell me we're in Brazil, so it's okay. I have to shut my "Americanized" mouth.
ReplyDeleteBuy me one! I would totally wear that shirt ;)
ReplyDeleteI always thought that someone was poorly translating Portuguese to Portuguese somewhere in SP and that's how they came up with these weird phrases on t-shirts in Brazil. I mean, what the heck is "Greenish"?
ReplyDeleteAnd I understand that we're in Brazil, but then why write in English?
Hey, the brand name wouldn't work here so at least it works somewhere. I wouldn't bother telling... no one'll care. But pictures are always good! :D
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm the only one, but "gonna" to me has always been English slang for "going to" (ex: "I'm gonna get you, sucka!")... so the brand makes sense to me.
ReplyDeleteAbram,
ReplyDeleteYou're right that "gonna" is the fast way to say and write "going to".
"Gonna" (well, technically, a combination of "be" + "gonna") is "vai", but "vai!" is not "gonna."
"Vai" has 2 uses in Portuguese. It can be "vai" to show the future, (ele vai te pegar!) which is "gonna." But when you use "vai!" as an impertative, a more informal version of "vá!", then it's not "gonna". It would be "go!". It makes no sense to a native English speaker to see the word "gonna" alone. It's as if you saw someone who wanted to say "falarei", but they only said "ei". It's just a grammar word.
Once a saw a shirt "Give me more Rope".
ReplyDeleteIt was a very cute t-shirt, excpet for the suicidal message.
Oh you are smart for figuring that one out! That is super cute!!!
ReplyDeleteI get why the English words, used incorrectly, are OK. I stopped finding language mistakes on signs, clothing, etc. funny/interesting/worth any thought a long time ago. There are websites dedicated to it, though, so I guess I'm in the minority.
ReplyDeleteI get why the English words, used incorrectly, are OK. I stopped finding language mistakes on signs, clothing, etc. funny/interesting/worth any thought a long time ago. There are websites dedicated to it, though, so I guess I'm in the minority.
ReplyDeleteLOL typical! These things REALLY annoy me, don't get me started on incorrectly placed apostrophes and plurals ending in 'ys' instead of 'ies' lol
ReplyDelete