French Canadian Hertel Plus Commercial

This is an early-1990s French Canadian commercial for a cleaning product called Hetel Plus. The commercial continuously repeats “plus propre, plus vite”, cleaner, faster. Lots of cleaning vocabulary here: essuyer (to wipe), la tache (stain), rincer (to rinse) and much more.

Video text and translation

  • Plus propre, plus vite. C’est Hertel Plus.
    Cleaner, faster. It’s Hertel Plus.
  • Pour les taches de doigts de la p’tite Julie.
    For the stains on the fingers of little Julie.
  • Vaporisez et essuyez.
    Spray and wipe.
  • Hertel Plus est puissant et pas besoin de rincer.
    Hertel Plus is powerful and there’s no need to rinse.
  • Avec Hertel Plus, c’est plus propre plus vite, et biodégradable comme tous les produits RTR.
    With Hertel Plus it’s cleaner, faster and biodegradable like all the RTR products.
  • Plus propre, plus vite. C’est Hertel Plus.
    It’s cleaner and faster. It’s Hertel Plus.
  • Pour la saleté sur le barbecue, vaporisez et essuyez.
    For dirtiness on the barbecue, spray and wipe.
  • Hertel Plus veille à vous des pires travaux et pas besoin de rincer.
    Hertel Plus takes care of the worst jobs and no need to rinse.
  • Avec Hertel Plus, c’est plus propre plus vite.
    With Hertel Plus, it’s cleaner and faster.
  • Maintenant avec 200 millilitre en prime.
    Now with a bonus of 200 milliliters.

Vocabulary and grammar of interest

  • Propre (adj). means clean. When placed before a noun it means my own, e.g. ma propre voiture – my own car.
  • Une tache means a stain. With a circumflex accent, tâche (f.) means chore or task.
  • Puissant (adj) means powerful, related to the verb pouvoir (can, able)
  • Pas besoin de – This is short for il n’y pas besoin de, meaning there’s no need to.
  • la saleté – noun for dirtiness, related to the adjective sale (dirty) and verb salir (to make dirty).
  • essuyer – verb: to wipe, dry. Related to les essuie-glaces, windshield wipers.
  • veiller à faire quelque chose (verb): to make sure to do something, to be careful or ensure to do. This verb has lots of meanings.
  • En prime – means as a bonus or more.

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About David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language enthusiast. His head is swimming with words and sounds as he speaks over six languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private online lessons. When procrastinating working on his site, FrenchLearner.com, David enjoys his time skiing and hiking in Teton Valley, Idaho.