Why Would Someone Choose PV NRT for a License Plate?

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The discussion centers around a humorous observation of a personalized Delaware license plate, "PV NRT," which leads to a conversation about the nerdiness of such plates. Participants share their thoughts on the cleverness of the plate and engage in a playful exchange about the meanings of other personalized plates, including a Washington plate "3EHKA." The conversation delves into the interpretation of the plate, suggesting it might reference a name in a non-Roman alphabet, specifically Cyrillic. Participants discuss the complexities of Cyrillic letters and their Roman counterparts, highlighting misunderstandings and clarifying pronunciations. The thread showcases a blend of humor, curiosity about personalized license plates, and a deeper dive into linguistic nuances.
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My wife an I went out to dinner today, and we saw this Delaware license plate on a car in the restaurant parking lot:

PV NRT

How nerdy can a person get? What a gas!

Chet
 
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What kind of car was it? An ideal one like a BMW?
 
Nice to see he's law-abiding.
 
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jtbell said:
What kind of car was it? An ideal one like a BMW?
Ha. Good one.

My mind was so blown, I didn't really notice what kind of car it was.

Chet
 
How nerdy can a person get?
By having the other tag ... PV KNT
 
dlgoff said:
By having the other tag ... PV KNT

NKT...NKT I've never seen it as KNT. Just like it's nRT not RnT!
 
Chestermiller said:
How nerdy can a person get?
Obviously more so than me; I had to Google to find out what the hell you were talking about. o:)
That is very clever.
 
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Under Pressure with David Bowie and Freddie Mercury is a classic.

Hg's vocals have a way of relieving the pressure.
 
Matterwave said:
NKT...NKT I've never seen it as KNT. Just like it's nRT not RnT!
Yea. Typo.
 
  • #10
A couple of years ago I saw a car whose WA license plate said '3EHKA'.

This was obviously (to me, at least) a personalized license plate. Can any of you figure out the meaning of this plate?
 
  • #11
Eureka?
 
  • #12
Mark44 said:
A couple of years ago I saw a car whose WA license plate said '3EHKA'.

This was obviously (to me, at least) a personalized license plate. Can any of you figure out the meaning of this plate?
I Googled it and got some hits, but I still don't know what it's supposed to be. Try Googling it, and see what you can figure out.

Chet
 
  • #13
Maylis said:
Eureka?
No, not even close.
 
  • #14
Chestermiller said:
I Googled it and got some hits, but I still don't know what it's supposed to be. Try Googling it, and see what you can figure out.

Chet
Here are a couple of hints: it was a personalized license plate for someone from a European country where they don't use a Roman alphabet.
 
  • #15
Russian - Zack ?
 
  • #16
Mark44 said:
it was a personalized license plate for someone from a European country where they don't use a Roman alphabet.
Oh, okay then. That's more sensible. Until you divulged that, all that I could think of was that it might be a misspelling of a really bad poker hand.
 
  • #17
Enigman said:
Russian - Zack ?
Not Russian, but you're on the right track. It's not Zack, but it does start with Z (as a Roman letter).

Another hint: The driver was almost certainly female.
 
  • #18
Danger said:
Oh, okay then. That's more sensible. Until you divulged that, all that I could think of was that it might be a misspelling of a really bad poker hand.
LOL!
 
  • #19
Mark44 said:
A couple of years ago I saw a car whose WA license plate said '3EHKA'.
In the Cyrillic alphabet, 'З' corresponds to Z in the Roman alphabet, and 'H' corresponds to N, so the driver's name was probably Zenka.

If I had to guess, I'd say that she was Serbian.
 
  • #20
H corresponds to G in cyrillic. For instance Harry is Garry in Russian or what kind of correspondence are we talking about?
 
  • #21
nuuskur said:
H corresponds to G in cyrillic.
No, it doesn't, although I understand what you're trying to say. Russian doesn't have an 'H' sound, and the closest they have is X, which is similar to the sound of "ch" in the German "ach" or Scottish "loch". Non-Russian words that begin with the letter H get transformed to start with G, with one example I've been told of being Gitler, of Third Reich infamy.

The Cyrillic letter H is pronounced the same as N in the Roman alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet, which is used in Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria and several other countries, is based in large part on the Greek alphabet, where H is uppercase "nu". Likewise, the Russian letter P is identical to the uppercase Greek letter "rho."
nuuskur said:
For instance Harry is Garry in Russian or what kind of correspondence are we talking about?
Letters that appear the same in both alphabets (Cyrillic and Roman) but are pronounced differently.
 
  • #22
And you got to love my 3 favourite Cyrillic letters: (although I don't know how to spell them in Roman letters so I'll try phonetic): svar biznyik, mach biznyik, and yuri. Although it seems peculiar at first svar biznyik is actually no more complicated as a letter than "double-you" English. (And in fact, they are modifiers as opposed to actual letters.)
 
  • #23
Danger said:
And you got to love my 3 favourite Cyrillic letters: (although I don't know how to spell them in Roman letters so I'll try phonetic): svar biznyik, mach biznyik, and yuri.
It took me a little while to figure out which letters you meant.
Transliterating the Russian names, they are
myakee znak (soft sign) - ь
tvyordee znak (hard sign) - ъ
yeri - ы
The first two aren't letters, per se. They modify the preceding consonant, as you say below. Many words, including virtually all verb infinitives, end with the soft sign. I don't remember ever seeing any words that used the hard sign, but then I'm not a native speaker.
The last one is a vowel.

For difficulty of pronunciation, I kind of like these two:
Щ and Ц
shch (as in rash choice) and ts (as in rats).
Danger said:
Although it seems peculiar at first svar biznyik is actually no more complicated as a letter than "double-you" English. (And in fact, they are modifiers as opposed to actual letters.)
 
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  • #24
Mark44 said:
shch (as in rash choice)
That's actually preferable to the way that I was taught: "church cheese". :eek:
I once sprained my tongue in an intense practise session of that damned thing.
 
  • #25
Saw this car at the University of Missouri St Louis (UMSL)

upload_2014-11-8_19-22-16.jpeg
 
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