Interesting Words (moved from Games)

Issacus Divus

H₃rḗǵs h₁n̥dʰéri diwsú

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Gæmleflodland
Lol.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
It's better than the sentence that went "I am trying to do!"
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
I mean, at least the English version. The Swahili version may have been idiomatic; I have no idea, obviously.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Now, having written an exercise book myself, I know how hard it can be to come up with sentences that are both simple and natural as well as suitable to illustrate a particular grammar point.
 

Issacus Divus

H₃rḗǵs h₁n̥dʰéri diwsú

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Gæmleflodland
*-hw is definitely one of my favorite things about Proto-Germanic.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
OMG OMG OMG this is an amazing one.

Dutch "hoeveelheid" means "amount" or "quantity".

But literally/semi-etymologically it is "howmuchhood".

Someone may tell me that quantity, from quantitas, is pretty much the same, but it isn't quite. Because quantus, unlike hoeveel, isn't a compound.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Oooh this is interesting too.
Duo31.PNG


Apparently, Dutch er, which means literally "there", can work like French en, which means literally "thence". That is, it can translate to "some/any (of it/them)" or "(a specified amount or number) of it/them".
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
Wow, Dutch rules. Makes me think of my old (literally) pal Gertrude. Would love to hear my girl P speaking that Nederlants one ' these days.
Pacifica dixit:
Apparently, Dutch er, which means literally "there", can work like French en, which means literally "thence". That is, it can translate to "some/any (of it/them)" or "(a specified amount or number) of it/them".
My instinct told me this is a chance syncretism of the old gen. plural pronoun, and it seems I'm right: but it's still cool!
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
I noticed that Polish also uses the construction of impersonal have (at least with the negative) & wondered what the German is/where they could've gotten it. I don't think Slavic does it generally, e.g.:

Nie ma ich. [not has of-them] 'They are not here. There's none.'

Isn't the French like Il y a 'There is' & Il n'y a pas de ___?
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Would love to hear my girl P speaking that Nederlants one ' these days.
That's not going to happen any time soon, unless you'd be content to hear me uttering a few simple sentences. I'm just having a bit of fun with Duolingo. The language I want to be studying seriously right now is still Arabic, but I haven't had much time or energy for it these days because I have quite a lot of work. When I take a break, I chill out with super-easy Duolingo. I started with the Arabic course, actually, but I did so rather too late, when I'd already learned more grammar than is included in the whole Duolingo course. It seemed to me like Duolingo could be a good way to just learn a few basics in a relaxed manner, though, and I thought why not do a bit of Dutch that way. Then since that was incredibly easy, I wanted to see what would happen with a language utterly alien to me, so I took Swahili too. That is indeed a bit harder, but still easy enough because, well, it's Duolingo, not anything advanced.
Isn't the French like Il y a 'There is' & Il n'y a pas de ___?
Yes. Literally "it (not) there has".
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
wondered what the German is
The German actually doesn't involve the verb "have"—at least, the expression that I know of doesn't. Maybe there's another, less usual one that I don't. The one I know is es gibt, literally "it gives".
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Milwaukee
unless you'd be content to hear me uttering a few simple sentences.
Very content, if those sentences had a certain... drift? :dynamite:
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Italian "calciatore" = (BE) "footballer"/(AE) "soccer player".
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Spanish "ubicar", meaning to position, place, locate, situate. I mean, that's like making "where" into a verb.
 
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