What do the words in the attached picture mean?

[mxian]

Hi, I come across the following picture. It seems to advertise something for rent. I can't recognize the second character. The first character looks like 吉 but I doubt it because the upper part of the character in the picture looks like 土 (dirt), not 士 (Scholar). The last two characters seem to be 出租 (to rent). Hope you could help tell me what those words mean. Thank you very much.

[monto]

I see it is “吉星出租”。there is a car made by Changcheng (Great Wall) auto company called “金吉星”。

[skylee]

It is 吉屋出租 (vacant apartment/house/room for rent).

In describing an empty house/apartment, 吉(lucky) is used to replace the word 空 (vacant/empty) because the latter's pronunciation in Cantonese is the same as 凶 (unlucky/haunted).

[monto]

It is 吉屋出租 (vacant apartment/house/room for rent).

I agree with Skylee.

[mk063]

I think it could also be 吉夏出租 , meaning (lucky) summer rental, just my guess..

[mxian]

Because the bottom part of the second character looks more like 之 or 夊, I thought it might be 夏. The character 夏 means Summer. It can also mean "something at the center". For example, 華夏 = 中華. I hope language should be unambiguous. But in this case, 吉夏出租 is not as meaningful as 吉屋出租. So I'm willing to accept 屋 as the verdict (unless someone convinces me otherwise).

Thank you all for your kind help.

[mk063]

if it's 吉屋出租 , then it's the name of a movie called rent..lol.. check it out:

http://lib.verycd.com/2006/02/09/0000089006.html

mystery solved?

[mxian]

mk063

Great. It's settled!

Thanks.