First Discovery Series Canadian mug – First typo

Here is the photo of the Niagara Falls mug, the first mug from the Discovery Series that will be sold in both the USA and Canada. There was one detail in the writing on the cover of the box that felt weird, the moment I looked at it. The grammatically correct French spelling for the word “Discovery” should be “Découverte”, with the accent on the first “e” rather than the second one. So yes, what you see is the first typo found in the new Discovery Series. I wonder how fast Starbucks is going to fix that and if other Canadian Discovery mugs have this typo.

Some experienced Starbucks collectors might remember a somewhat similar situation with Montréal and Québec mugs, where Starbucks had to release updated versions with the accents. Those, however, were the city and the province’s names, which actually have English spelling. That is not the case for the word “Découverte”, that’s a typo, no question about it.

One might think this is nothing, but in fact, accents are crucial in French spelling. They serve multiple purposes, including indicating pronunciation, differentiating between homonyms, and distinguishing the meaning of words. In French, there are several types of accents, such as the acute accent (é), grave accent (è), circumflex accent (ê), and diaeresis (ë), each of which modifies the pronunciation or meaning of the letter it accompanies. Omitting accents can lead to misunderstandings or alter the intended meaning of words, so correct usage is essential for clarity and accuracy in written French.

Interestingly enough, the bottom of the mug has it spelled right (see below), so it’s just the box.