This is a car ad for the Nissan Pulsar NX from 1988. It’s pretty fun to see the man and woman’s style as well as the old style car phone. This ad is short but there’s a lot going on grammatically. There’s good use of how to say the year 1988, usage of the demonstrative pronoun “ceux” as well as the object pronoun y.
text and translation
- Lady: J’arrive tout de suite!
I’ll be there right away! - Narrator: Voici la nouvelle Nissan Pulsar NX mille neuf cent quatre-vingt huit. Maintenant plus puissant que jamais.
The new Nissan Pulsar NX 1988. Now more powerful than ever. - Pour ceux qui savent ce qu’ils veulent, et comment y arriver.
For those who know what they want and how to get there. - Nissan Pulsar NX concu pour répondre à vos besoins.
Nissan Pulsar NX, conceived to meet your needs. - Nissan, à la mesure de vos exigances.
Nisan, proportionate to your requirements.
vocabulary and grammar of interest
- J’arrive – translates to “I’m coming”, from the verb arriver (to arrive).
- tout de suite – expression for right away. The de is not pronounced at all.
- ceux – translates here to “those” but also translates to “the ones”. This is a demonstrative pronoun. Here’s an entire lesson on demonstrative pronouns.
- comment y arriver – how to get there. The “y” means there. Here’s an entire lesson the object pronoun y.
- mille neuf cent quatre-vingt huit – 1988. Getting the dates right in French is hard. Here’s an entire lesson on how to say the year in French.
- plus puissant que jamais – literally more powerful than never. However, jamais can also mean ever.
- répondre – means to answer or reply but here means to meet.
- concu – this is the past participle of the verb concevoir, which means to perceive, design, conceive or come up with.
- à la mesure de – expression that translates to equal to, the size as or proportionate to.
