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Words that only exist in some languages | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5784 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 33 of 97 04 May 2010 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Lucky Charms made an excellent list for Japanese, but I would add:
どうも (doumo) - Though often used and translated as a casual "thanks" this word means a lot more than that, yet at the same time often means nothing at all. Don't know how else to respond to something? Use どうも. It's trump, a get-out-of-jail-free wild card. 元気 (genki) - The English words "energetic" and "spirited" sometimes fill the void, but still fail to capture the full meaning. Up there with "konnichiwa" as one of the first words people learn, it's also one of the first Japanese words to pop up as is in one's English because of it's unmatched utility.
Japanese has 聞き取る (kiki-toru) and 聞き分ける (kiki-wakeru). Though they are mostly used to mean "to catch (what somebody said)" and "to distinguish by sound," respectively, they both also have the meaning to "to understand by hearing." A related word, 読み取る (yomi-toru), is used to mean "to read and understand" / "to understand by reading." Edited by ericspinelli on 04 May 2010 at 7:09pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Marikki Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5496 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Spanish, Swedish Studies: German | Message 34 of 97 05 May 2010 at 2:48pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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In Finnish there is the word “jaksaa” for ”having enough strength (or energy) to do something”. It is so useful and frequently used word in Finnish that it seems odd to me that there isn’t any corresponding word in English. Even Swedish has “orka” which means exactly the same as “jaksaa”.
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| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5536 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 35 of 97 05 May 2010 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Is that really considered a separate verb in Korean? To me, it honestly looks no different than any of the other verb chains* I'm used to seeing regularly in Korean like 말해보다 (to tell/say + to try), 봐보다 (to look + to try), and 사오다 (to buy + to come). To my knowledge, the examples I gave aren't considered distinct verbs, though. *I have no idea if there is an actual name for this, but "verb chains" is what I've been calling them in the absence of a specific term. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5784 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 36 of 97 05 May 2010 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I believe they are called compound verbs. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5554 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 37 of 97 06 May 2010 at 12:41am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Finnish has it too. Tietää and tuntea. Tuntea is to know a person, and tietää can mean to know a fact or to know OF a person.. big difference there. "Mä tiedän hänet, mutta en TUNNE häntä." - "I know of her, but I don't know her know her." As for words that only exist in Finnish... "sisu" and "jaksaa" are already mentioned. "Mokoma" is intranslatable. I don't even know the definition. I only know when it is and when it is not used. Tiera - Snow that sticks to or flies off of the hoof of a horse in winter Tilsa - Snow that sticks to, for example, the hoof of a horse or the bottom of a ski I love those words. To the Finns here, do you know of any cognates for sellainen, semmonen, tällainen, tämmönen jne. in other languages?? Once again, I know how to use these, but now how to define them... you could roughly translate for example sellainen as "the kind of" but is used more like "the", I think. "Hän on sellainen suomea opiskeleva hullu." - He's a crazy guy who studies Finnish. "kokeilen kääntää tällasen käsikirjotuksen englannista suomehen." - I'll try my hand at translating this script from English into finnish. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6143 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 38 of 97 06 May 2010 at 12:47am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I have always wondered how the concept of definite and indefinite articles are taught to people whose native language does not have them... Personally I would really be lost trying to explain it. ("Well, um, 'the' makes something more specific... And, um...'a' or 'an' shows that something is more general. Does that make sense?")
Does anyone here know how this concept is taught? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6080 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 39 of 97 06 May 2010 at 3:04am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Norwegian has a distinction here: "Jeg kjenner han." "I know him." "Jeg vet det." "I know it." "Kjenner" also means "feel": "Kjenner du det?" "Do you feel it?" It can also be used as a sort of mix between feel/notices/etc: "Jeg kjenner jeg blir redd." Literally: "I feel I'm becoming scared." Would be used to state that you're afraid of something. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6143 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 40 of 97 06 May 2010 at 3:23am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
The same in Swedish: "Jag känner honom." - I know him. "Jag vet det." - I know it. "Känner du det?" - Do you feel it? etc. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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