thebard Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6043 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian
| Message 41 of 62 14 May 2008 at 11:08am | IP Logged |
Regarding "smoking", it's not an entirely incorrect usage, but rather a reference to "smoking jackets" which look a bit similar, and aren't really used any more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_jacket
"Mitin" in the sense of political rally is not wrong either. In the UK, we used to talk of political meetings, but the word has fallen out of common use. We still talk of "summit meetings" and "race meetings" which are larger scale events than a business meeting. Scroll down to the Spanish on this page and you'll see "Meeting (POL) = MitÃn."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/meeting
One that once confused me was the use of "bloc(k)" to refer to a pad of paper in Spanish, and apparently also in German (but don't quote me on that - a friend told me). Do they say a "block of paper" in the States?
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CrazyManAndy Groupie United States myspace.com/bobandbiRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6115 days ago 51 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 42 of 62 15 May 2008 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
thebard wrote:
Do they say a "block of paper" in the States? |
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I have never heard that expression before.
CMA
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showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6084 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch
| Message 45 of 62 02 June 2008 at 2:48pm | IP Logged |
I was on the bus in Nice last summer and a girl asked me "Tu vas faire du footing?" and I had no idea what she meant. I found out that "footing" is the French way of saying jogging. (at least I think)
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alfajuj Diglot Senior Member Taiwan Joined 6211 days ago 121 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Taiwanese, French
| Message 48 of 62 01 October 2008 at 2:13am | IP Logged |
Do you mean "static cling"? That's where static electricity makes one thing stick to another. Like you can rub on a balloon and make it stick to the wall or to someone's head.
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