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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 |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6147 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 49 of 97 19 May 2010 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I must note though, that many of these are not particularly common expressions. "To go AWOL" is the only one of those which I had actually heard and knew the meaning of. However, it's not very common to hear it at all. I have also heard "pimp" some, but never knew what it meant. All of the other words mentioned are the first time I've heard those words. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5528 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 50 of 97 19 May 2010 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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AWOL is the only one which I had not heard of. The others are somewhat common on colloquial internet speech... Edited by GREGORG4000 on 19 May 2010 at 7:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| misinterpreter Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5311 days ago 5 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Bengali* Studies: Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese | Message 51 of 97 19 May 2010 at 10:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Really? Bromance has been around the 90's. Pimp is a very common word in AAVE so I suppose it just depends on who you hang out with more often. Autotune and facepalm's popularity have been spread by the internet, so they're used mostly by younger people. I don't know whether c***block originated on the internet or somebody was a very clever rhymer, but I've heard people use the expression in speech many times. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| nogoodnik Senior Member United States Joined 5574 days ago 372 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, French | Message 52 of 97 20 May 2010 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yiddish also uses "friar" with the same meaning as Polish and Hebrew. I always thought it was borrowing from Russian, but I never looked it up or anything. How interesting... There is a word in Hebrew, תתחדש (tithadesh) which translates something like "congrats on getting a new thing; wear it out in good health" I was wondering if other languages have an equivalent word. Maybe Arabic? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5927 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 53 of 97 20 May 2010 at 1:15am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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There are two words (one is a phrase) in Spanish that I have trouble translating to any
other language. Pesado: Literally, "heavy" . It means someone who is a jerk. However, it really means something along the lines of someone who is unpleasant to be around. There is no English word that really carries the same sentiment for me. "El es tan pesado!" - He's such a jerk! "Esta pesado ahora." - She's acting like a jerk now. Caerse mal: Literally, "to fall badly". If someone "te cae mal", it means that you just don't like them. It's very hard to get the exact feeling of it right. It's connected to personality and how that personality relates to you. You can say that someone "te cae mal" just from looking at them. They might have that kind of face or attitude. "Me cae mal." - I don't like him/her/it. I don't have a good feeling about him/her/it. "Me gusto el concierto, pero el cantante me cayo mal." - I liked the concert, but I didn't have a good feeling about the singer/I didn't like the singer's personality. After looking at "me cae mal" for so long, it's starting to look like a phrase from Chinese or something. :P Oh, and it was already mentioned, but "ser" vs "estar". "Ser" is to be in the sense of "to exist". "Yo soy una persona" is like, "I am a person. I exist as a person." It's for things that are permanent or at least that last a long time. "Estar" is for states. "Estoy brava/bravo!" would be "I am angry!" You cannot say "Yo soy brava!" because that you are perpetually angry (plus, it sounds ungrammatical). It's interesting that death is conveyed through 'estar' rather than 'ser': "El esta muerto." Hmm... It's pretty rare that I can't translate something from Spanish to English. I usually have problem with English to Spanish. Things in other languages that are interesting... I don't know if this is common in the other Slavic languages, but the Russian verbs of motion confound me. Really. There is no such concept as "go". There is no general "go" concept. Instead, you "go by transport" or "go by foot". There is also "go by transport in one direction [not coming back]" and "go by transport in more than one direction [coming back is implied]". Of course, these verbs all have their perfective and imperfective forms. This means that for "to go by foot", you have four forms to choose from. While this means that you can say a lot with just a single verb ("I am going by foot and returning later", "He was going by transport and didn't return"), it is a huge pain for the learner. Perfective/imperfective, I can take. Unidirectional and multi- directional? Huge pain. Verbs of motion are a huge problem for me... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5540 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 54 of 97 21 May 2010 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I honestly can't recall ever hearing the word "pimp" used in that way. Maybe it's a regional thing. {shrug} 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| iknowchristalen Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5348 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Japanese | Message 55 of 97 21 May 2010 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I personally found in strange in the start of German to use the verb 'gehen'. Which is 'go' and 'walk'. Then you can specify that you are going by foot when necessary, But I think in English saying your walking has already covered the mode of transportation.
I really do think English does need a word like guten appetit or いただきます ,for before a meal though, in the informal sense i have heard people things like "dig in" or "enjoy" a lot. Bologna can't really be translated into German I have heard Lieberkase used though once you eat it you realize it just isn't the same. English needs a word for "Ihr" (you, pural) because you all takes to long to say and ya'll sounds uneducated. Also wish there was a male equivalent for malady, maman just sounds ghetto. In Japanese the word 足 means leg and foot, interesting... Edited by iknowchristalen on 21 May 2010 at 7:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Euphorion Hexaglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5345 days ago 106 posts - 147 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Czech, EnglishC2, GermanC1, SpanishC2, French | Message 56 of 97 22 May 2010 at 3:01pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, Czech and Slovak make this distinction, but to be correct, in Czech it is znát vs. vědět In Slovak it is: poznať vs. vedieť But to your topic question, for example in Spanish I miss a single word for "everywhere" and "nowhere". And here are some unique Slovak words your cant translate properly even to Czech: neúrekom - something like "lots of" podujatie - a special sort of event 1 person has voted this message useful |
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