The Nova car never did well here… “No va” [does not go] did not inspire confidence.
January 2005. — Just found out yesterday why Mexicans say “Bueno” when they answer the phone rather than a version of “hello” — when phones were getting started here many decades ago, people would say “Bueno” (which means “good”) to indicate that the connection was good. And it stuck!
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Comment made by a reader on the old blog: I’ve heard that the Nova story is an old wives’ tales, since most Mexicans probably know that Nova means “new” like their words nueva, novedad, novedosa so the similarity to “no va” is just a curiosity, not taken literally. In fact, I seem to remember a type of Mexican gasoline called Nova years ago.
And I said: Old wives tale?? Oh well, it made a nice story…
Posted in Learn Spanish
