Did i buy a fake ? Shell experts please shime in

Regional spelling?

It's been about 35 years since I took French in university, so it looked okay to me, LOL.

Do the Quebec or Belgian or other locations have spelling differences similar to US vs UK English?

A quick Google search of the word "synthès" turns up any number of articles with the word, as spelled, in the title, so perhaps it's a form of the word.

Or someone is confused by masculine vs feminine forms of words. We don't deal with that in English, but Latin based languages have that issue.

So perhaps not a misspelling but rather using the wrong form of the word?



I just bought this but am surprised at the spelling mistake on the jug. It should say "synthèse" and not "synthès" and "naturel" instead of "naturele". Is it indicative of a fake ? I bought it at Super U, a major supermarket here. Here's a pic from the Shell website as well.
View attachment 27664View attachment 27665View attachment 27666
 
Regional spelling?

It's been about 35 years since I took French in university, so it looked okay to me, LOL.

Do the Quebec or Belgian or other locations have spelling differences similar to US vs UK English?
They do, but not for these two words, AFAIK. Looks more like a E that "jumped" from one line to the other in this case :)

(also AFAIK synthès isn't a valid form in French, but maybe in Spanish or Portuguese, or Italian ?)
 
Sadly, spelling and grammar errors are more common than ever, which is surprising considering how much more people communicate through writing with texting and technology, these days. You can see it at its worst in the news media.

As an educator, we teach Habits of the Mind to our students. One of them is "Communicating with precision and accuracy." This is needed now more than ever, and it is important for students to realize that accuracy and precision are not just expected in the content, but in the communication itself, in the form of proper speech, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It is a worthy effort, I believe.

If I ran a company, I would be sorely embarrassed by something like this and some folks would be helped in a way that made sure it didn't happen again.
Dats far chur
 
Must be a fair number of scientific looking journals and articles that have this word mispelled in the title?

One such example I noted:

Les laboratoires d'hydraulique européens; étude de synthès.
Author
Györke, Olivier [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
French
Published/Created
Paris, UNESCO, 1971.
Description
132 p. illus. 28 cm.

They do, but not for these two words, AFAIK. Looks more like a E that "jumped" from one line to the other in this case :)

(also AFAIK synthès isn't a valid form in French, but maybe in Spanish or Portuguese, or Italian ?)
 
If I ran a company, I would be sorely embarrassed by something like this and some folks would be helped in a way that made sure it didn't happen again.
In most companies, any text, be it in a letter, for a product label, brochure, etc, should be checked by at least (1) other person if not a group of reviewers before it get approved and released. I see people ask/wonder why things in big companies take days or weeks instead of minutes and it's things like this as to why. Then if the text is in a different language, native speakers would be the one(s) checking it, not someone copy and pasting it into Google Translate. How something like that can slip through is just embarrassing.
 
Regional spelling?

Do the Quebec or Belgian or other locations have spelling differences similar to US vs UK English?
My understanding is that Quebec French is definitely different than France French. My co-workers speak French natively and while they can communicate with people in QC just fine, they describe QC French as almost "Shakespearean".
 
Hall : I think the difference between QC French and metropolitan French is greater than the difference between US vs UK. The spelling is the same and the official language is the same but the accent as well as the old french words mixed with some "frenchized" english words makes it very hard to understand in some cases for an untrained hear. I find it very exotic and love it but for someone from France it is quite hard to emulate. Old people where i live still speak "patois" which is a kind of local and old version of French and there are similarities with QC French.
 
. Old people where i live still speak "patois" which is a kind of local and old version of French and there are similarities with QC French.
Not that there's no Frenchies on this board but Where do you live then?

Back to the subject, seems to me that just the E jumped to the second line. Why/how, is another question.
 
The French established Quebec City in 1608 and they lost the battle to the English on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. I guess at that point they were more or less on their own in the further development of their language. Of course let’s not forget the Cajuns who emigrated down south and developed their own dialect. :)
 
Maybe more than a coincidence haha. Too bad it is too late to edit. Sorry about that.
Back to the topic, all the bottles are afflicted by the same spelling mistake, in every store.
 
I checked in three major stores and all the 5L jugs are the same. BTW, Shell always answers emails quite quickly but they didn't answer that one haha.
 
Maybe the jug was filled with crappy conventional and my engine being quieter now is just a placebo!
 
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