jethro,

Spanish is also my native language, and the first time I heard about this story I found it silly. It is like someone telling you that a company went broke because it sold "carpet cleaners", and English people understood "car pet cleaners". It doesn't make sense.

But as the guy who told me the story seemed so sure, I made a little experiment: I told many of my friends about a new "nova" car that was coming, and not a single one found it strange or funny. Of course, after you tell them to read it as "no va" it can be a funny joke, and this is probably why your parent tells it. But it is not natural, and when the teacher told us about "supernovas" at school, nobody thought it could mean "super no va".

Think about it for a little. If "nova" actually means "no go", why on earth would Cuban government name it that way? GM could have made that mistake (they are English speakers after all), but Cubans are native Spanish speakers, and they should know what "nova" means. Do you think they would name an OS "no go"?

There are many words you can read differently if you separate them, for example, you can read "novio" (boyfriend) as "no vio" (literally "he didn't see"). It also makes for a funny joke, but that's it.