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Tags: Afrikaans | Wanderlust | Brain | Teach Yourself | Finnish | Swedish | Vocabulary learning | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Pronunciation | Grammar | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5922 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 9 of 223 15 January 2009 at 3:33am | IP Logged | ||
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This week has been busier than I expected, so I was unable to post something about Spanish or Afrikaans on Tuesday or Wednesday. I was studying for my first test in my Spanish class and I knew I needed a better grasp on the conjugation of the verb "ser" (Eng. "to be"). I took the test Wednesday afternoon and I hope I passed, though I won't know until Wednesday the 21. I was right to make certain I really studied the conjugation of "ser"; and as I had expected, it came up a few times in the test questions. I'm really enjoying the class, it's a lab class that seems to be designed to encourage self-study and I may get the brief introduction to Spanish that I've wanted for a long time. I have already learned a few interesting, and useful words and phrases such as "no hay de qué" which corresponds to "you're welcome" in English (so does "de nada"), and "de quién" the singular form of "whose" used when inquiring about possession of an item; the plural is "de quienes". One thing I do want to remember is when to use accent marks as they are important in Spanish.
Now, as promised, here is a little information on diminuitives in Afrikaans. Diminuitives are occassionally found in English; parents may, especially when talking to small children, talk about "doggies","kitties", or "piggies" but other than that English does not often make use of diminuitives. In Afrikaans it is a different matter, diminuitives are very commonly used for actions as well as things, in fact the words used for "kitten" "puppy" and "piglet" are simply diminuitives forms of the root words "kat", "hond", and "vark" respectively, which then become "katjie", "hondjie" and "varkie". Usually a diminuitive is formed by adding "ie" to the end of a word so as shown above "vark" changes to "varkie". Though as I've already started to demonstrate, some words require the following suffixes to become diminuitives: "pie", "etjie", "tjie/djie/jie" or "kie". It's getting very late, so I will have to finish this explanation later. Mick Edited by mick33 on 17 January 2009 at 8:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6149 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 10 of 223 15 January 2009 at 6:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Though Afrikaans is not on my hitlist, I enjoy reading your log. If you haven't come across them already, the most common diminuitives in Spanish are -ito\-ita. The most famous of which is,
una mosca - a fly. un mosquito - a little fly. Edited by DaraghM on 15 January 2009 at 6:59am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5922 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 11 of 223 15 January 2009 at 10:58am | IP Logged | ||
Mick 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5922 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 12 of 223 16 January 2009 at 3:24pm | IP Logged | ||
1."ie" is usually used if word ends in f,g,k,p,s. Example "vark" - "varkie" 2. "pie" used if word has long vowel and ends with "m". Example "boom" - "boompie" (tree) 3. "etjie" used if word has short vowel and ends with b,m,n,r. Example. "man" - "mannetjie" 4. "jie/" used if word has long vowel and ends in either of following 3 letters n,d,t. Examples: "seun" - "seuntjie" (son or boy) "hond" - "hondjie" (dog) "kat" - "katjie (cat) 5. "kie/etjie" used if word ends in "ng" If "ng" is not emphasized, drop "g" then add "kie" Example: "piesang" - "piesankie" (banana) If "ng" is emphasized add "etjie" Example: "tang" - "tangetjie" (tong) The above are just a few examples. Some diminuitive forms may not be found in dictionaries, but are often encountered in spoken and written Afrikaans. To get more examples and to hear how to pronounce the diminuitives (some of them do have interesting pronunciations) click on thediminuitives page at http://www.openlanguages.net/afrikaans/. Lekker naweek Mick Edited by mick33 on 17 January 2009 at 3:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5922 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 13 of 223 21 January 2009 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had a somewhat eventful weekend and I only just remembered that I hadn't posted anything for this week yet. I still haven't got the results of my Spanish test, as I failed to mention that the test included a listening and speaking portion which I completed today. The teacher did say that she thinks I'm doing very well and that for the speaking portion I received 19 points out of 20 possible points which is great news. Later tonight, or maybe tomorrow, I will begin actually studying my Teach Yourself Afrikaans course, I've also learned many interesting words in both languages, and I may list them in my next post.
Mick Edited by mick33 on 21 January 2009 at 7:28pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Akbaboy Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5786 days ago 35 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Cantonese, Catalan, French Studies: Mandarin, Spanish, Dutch | Message 14 of 223 21 January 2009 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Your gettin' to it, Mick!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5922 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 15 of 223 24 January 2009 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just remembered I'm behind schedule for this week. I had guaranteed at least three posts a week and it's Saturday afternoon and I have only one post for this week. One reason for this is that my study schedule needs some further tweaking, I am determined to get good marks in my classes at school and learn more Afrikaans as well. Part of the trouble is that I'm also occasionally very tempted to study Finnish too, even though I know I do not have time to do so, I find the postpositions and 14 or 15 grammatical cases very fascinating rather than impenetrable. More importantly; my Anatomy and Physiology class is a little more challenging than I expected, and to get good marks I must devote more time to it than I had originally planned. I refuse to abandon my language studies, I will actually learn Spanish, and get my Afrikaans to a more usable level. My Spanish class is going rather well; the lab format seems to be good for me and the course material is laid out so that I've already learnt a little vocabulary and a little grammar and can form a few sentences in the present tense. There is definitely more conjugation of verbs in Spanish than Afrikaans and I will attempt to explain that later on today. I am also learning a new Afrikaans song Rivier by Gert Vlok Nel.
Mick Edited by mick33 on 18 June 2014 at 5:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5922 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 16 of 223 25 January 2009 at 3:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Afr: Ek het vergete my belofte aan 'n Afrikaans boodskappie om te geskryf. Ek het probeer omtrent hoe om werkwoorde te toegevoeg en flekteer in beide Afrikaans en Spaans om te geleer. Toevoeg en flekteer sal moeilike dinge om te verduidelik wees. Eerste, Spaans het sekerlik meer toevoeg van werkwoorde as Afrikaans, en beide tale flekteer. Spaans verbinding is gewoonlik redelik eenvoudig met alleen 'n paar ongereelde werkwoorde soos byvoorbeeld "ser". Spaans ook buig werkwoorde, maar ek kon nie die uitleg van dit verstaan nie. Afrikaans, in elk geval het nie baie werkwoorde verbimd nie, maar afrikaans werkwoorde kan verbuig wees, byvoorbeeld "skryf" kan om te "skrywe" of "skrewe" verander. Die verbuigings is nodig om uit te druk fynhede en skakerings. Ongelukkig ek moet meer oor verbuigings leer voor ek kan hulle verduideik.
Eng NOTE: The translation will be more of a summary, it's getting late and I'm tired. First I forgot to post a message in Afrikaans. I've been trying to learn about conjugation and inflection of verbs in Afrikaans and Spanish. Spanish conjugation is usually simple; with only a few irregular verbs like "ser" (to be). I couldn't understand what I read about how Spanish verbs inflect. Afrikaans has very little conjugation of verbs, but there are inflections, for example, "skryf" (to write) can be changed to "skrywe" or "skrewe". I still have more to learn about inflection. In short I think my idea of reading up on conjugation and inflection was a good idea, but it will take a while for me to learn enough about conjugation and inflection so I can understand and briefly explain these concepts. Also I think there may be some grammatical mistakes in my Afrikaans, but I'll worry about those on Monday or Tuesday. Lekker slaap & Buenas noches Mick Edited by mick33 on 14 April 2009 at 6:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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