.Quote:
Originally Posted by KukriKhan
It's the first ever English word that I had learned long before beginning to study it properly at middle-school. At that time it was such a trademark of the language for me! :laugh4:
.
Printable View
.Quote:
Originally Posted by KukriKhan
It's the first ever English word that I had learned long before beginning to study it properly at middle-school. At that time it was such a trademark of the language for me! :laugh4:
.
Don't other languages have words for "the" :dizzy2: ? English is the only language I really know, but in my Spanish class "the" could be "el" or "la" depending on whether the word was masculine or feminine.
Niggardly
Not quite what I thought it meant. :laugh4:
Harbor, neighbor without the -u-. :no:
An history, with a -n-.
.
Some do, some don't. Some only have indefinite articles (a/an stuff) while some have articles and genders etc. etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reenk Roink
Turkish doesn't have any. Formal Kurdish does (indefinite) but it's been fading away in common speech. (There are masculine and feminine genders though.) Arabic has ال for definite article and the -un ending for the indefinite, yet unpronounced. (Hebrew, I assume, would be similar.) Greek has ο/η/το depending on gender like German's der/die/das. Farsi, afaik, doesn't have any.
Thus ends the list of the languages I've had familiarity in varying degrees. :charge:
.
What is with the Europeans and Asians who are multi-lingual, and us cornfed midwesterners can barely speak normal English with our colloquialisms and what-not?
Dutch "de", which actually almost sounds the same. "het" is also a possible translation of "the" although "het" might also mean "it".Quote:
Originally Posted by Reenk Roink
In German there are "der", "die", "das", etc., depending on gender and declination of the accompanying word.
In French "le" or "la", etc., etc. It seems to me that at least most Germanic and Romance languages have equivalents of "the".
This is actually two words, but it seems so odd to me:
"Freedom Fries"
I mean, WTH is that???
.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reenk Roink
Mid-westerners? Normal English? :inquisitive:
:laugh4:
*dodges the Smith-Wesson bullets*
.
Only the continental Europeans...Quote:
Originally Posted by Reenk Roink
We British folk tend to stick to our native languages of English, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scots. Foreign is not that useful when most foreign folk speak English anyway...
All of the Romance Languages (based from Latin) are genderised. As in, depending on who you're talking about, everything is genderised according to that person. This includes the following languages - French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Asturian, Galician, Sardenyan, Italian, Sicilian, Neapolitan, Romansch, Romanian, Moldavian, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, Afro-Portuguese, and...all the other Romance languages which I have not listed here :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Reenk Roink
Knowing the language of the country you are in, and in some cases evenQuote:
Originally Posted by King Malcolm
knowing as much as to understand the language at a relatively basic level can
make a significant difference to your experience.
[When I say basics, I mean knowing more than would have you resorting to
shouting your English louder and enunciating as best you can until you receive a
desirable response.]
I used the word niggard to describe Coffi Annan in the backroom once, and I got double warning for it. :no:Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis IV the Fat
As for me:
______________________
Bone
matriculate
turkey
phenobarbital
ricrac
versicle
whilom
lorikeet
gametes
That's what the handy phrase handbook is for, so we don't have to go to the trouble of learning a new language.Quote:
Originally Posted by SSNeoperestroika
Heh. If you're only interested in finding out the bare essentials, then I suppose itQuote:
Originally Posted by King Malcolm
would do you fine. I'd tend to view learning as something more positive, in any
case.
deksel
You must mean masticate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaiser of Arabia
Ah, sorry. Major fricken typo on my part, yeah thats what I mean.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeonGod
Barnacle
*snicker*
"Google"...
EDIT: And how could I forget "frugal" ~D?
centrifugal, britches, lard
.
tidal wave :stare: How on earth am I supposed to translate this? :end: We have one and the same word for both tide and way. ~:mecry:
.
Would that have anything to do with Turkish languages being confined to Central Asia and the Mediterranean? Neither experience many tidal waves. It would be a bit akin to there not being a Zulu word for 'snow blizzard'. (I assume there isn't one, admittedly)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouzafphaerre
And can't you just use the Japanese word 'tsunami'? Most languages do.
.
tsunami is used as is.
As for the language, really much more of the words are imported than archaic ones. :yes: But your theory makes sense in general.
.
Pandiculate (i think thats how you spell it)
just ask someone if they pandiculate often and watch their reaction...
It means to yawn
connive
squiffy
stubble
buzzard
Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky f'tang-zoop-boing! Goodem-zoo-owli-zhiv!
Perambulator...
:book: :laugh4:
Yeah, had to look that one up the first time...Quote:
Originally Posted by Aragorn
How about this one: froward.
There's a line, again in the LotR, where Gandalf says of Eomer something to the effect of "Faithful heart may have forward tongue". Then I learned that in some editions it actually said 'froward', and that this was in fact a real word and probably even the correct version, as intended by Tolkien.
Quote:
fro·ward Pronunciation (frwrd, -rd)
adj.
Stubbornly contrary and disobedient; obstinate.
Got to agree with this, though there is a great deal of arrogance in the stance, saying that, I haven't learned any other langauges yet but in my defence I'm Glaswegian so English isn't exactly my first language :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by King Malcolm
pretty sure that 'froward' is the correct version! i misread it for years too. Tolkien uses some great words, like 'coomb' and 'sable'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sardo