Totally opposite concepts in languages. (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Totally opposite concepts in languages.
Tags: Meaning of words \| Multilingual \| Difficulty
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

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Captain Haddock
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
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Joined 6614 days ago
2282 posts - 2814 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek

Message 17 of 43

07 June 2010 at 4:53pm | IP Logged

I've noticed that a lot of people, especial Asians, never figure out that in English you use "no" to agree to a negative
question. Then again, English is a bit deficient since German and French give you a separate word for "yes" to
disagree with negative questions and English makes you work harder to answer in such a manner.

Sometimes the smallest things betray a very different linguistic point of view. In Japanese, familial terms can be
used for anyone, because they are used in relation to that person's family (or imagined family) rather than your
own. An older boy or younger man can be called nii-san, "older brother", even if he's not your older brother,
since the logic is he could be someone else's older brother, even if in reality he has no younger siblings. Or how in
Japanese, you cannot transpose your point of view onto someone else's for words like "come" and "go". In English,
you must assume the other person's point of view when telling them you're "coming". In Japanese, you must keep
your own point of view and tell them you're "going".
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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6285 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes

Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 18 of 43

07 June 2010 at 6:01pm | IP Logged

It's not conceptual so much as a matter of vocabulary, but there are a few pronouns which cause initial confusion between languages.

I first studied French at 9. Starting Dutch as an adult, I found 'je' quite confusing and disorienting at first: in French, it means "I", while in Dutch, it means "you".

Similarly, the German 'ich' means 'I', but the Polish 'ich' means them/their.

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Damasta
Newbie
United States
Joined 5440 days ago
5 posts - 6 votes

Message 19 of 43

09 June 2010 at 1:35am | IP Logged

Volte wrote:

It's not conceptual so much as a matter of vocabulary, but there are a
few pronouns which cause initial confusion between languages.

I first studied French at 9. Starting Dutch as an adult, I found 'je' quite confusing
and disorienting at first: in French, it means "I", while in Dutch, it means "you".

Similarly, the German 'ich' means 'I', but the Polish 'ich' means them/their.

Or how about in the same language(German), the pronoun "sie". It can mean she, it
(objects with feminine gender), you (formal, but becomes Sie), and they (plural
objects). In terms of verb conjugation sie is conjugated the same way as er (it,
masculine or he), das (it neuter) if it is singular feminine. However, plural (by
default feminine) sie is conjugated like polite you "Sie".

kaufen to buy
ich kaufe (I buy).................wir kaufen (we buy) 1st person

du kaufst (you buy informal)......Ihr kauft (you all buy) 2nd person
Sie kaufen (you buy formal)

er kauft (he/it buys)..............sie kaufen (they buy) 3rd person
es kauft (it buys)
sie kauft (she/it buys)
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mrhenrik
Triglot
Moderator
Norway
Joined 5925 days ago
482 posts - 658 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French
Personal Language Map

Message 20 of 43

09 June 2010 at 2:15am | IP Logged

English:
Half 10 = 10:30
Norwegian:
Halv 10 = 9:30

VERY confusing at first when trying to get to university lectures on time.

Also, English:
Last night.
Norwegian:
I natt (tonight)
..when talking about the night before. I had a dream last night = Jeg hadde en drøm i
natt (I had a dream tonight).
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clang
Groupie
United States
Joined 5185 days ago
54 posts - 82 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Italian

Message 21 of 43

09 June 2010 at 8:23am | IP Logged

In Russian, I was taught that among other things ещё means still or yet and that уже means already. However, in
certain constructions the words seem to mean almost the opposite to me.

Уже не сплю means "I'm no longer sleeping" and уже спал means "I already slept".
And while ещё не сплю means "I'm not sleeping yet", ещё сплю means "I'm still sleeping".

Clearly there are also differences created by using different tenses, but by gut reaction I expect ещё/ещё не and
уже/уже не to be pairs with opposite meanings, something like still/no longer and already/not yet.

(Correct my mistakes or confusion, please.)

Edited by clang on 09 June 2010 at 8:29am
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Derian
Triglot
Senior Member
PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5154 days ago
227 posts - 464 votes

Speaks: Polish*, English, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 22 of 43

09 June 2010 at 9:05am | IP Logged

mrhenrik wrote:

English:
Half 10 = 10:30
Norwegian:
Halv 10 = 9:30

Haha, this one is a classic. It's quite common that different languages use all of those 'past's, 'until's, 'after's and 'to's differently.

Just recently my friend, who spoke in the Silesian dialect (a southern dialect of Polish), confused me with saying what I thought was "A quarter to...", but in fact she meant "A quarter past...".
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Random review
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5629 days ago
781 posts - 1310 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German

Message 23 of 43

20 January 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged

Derian wrote:

The concept of forming an interrogative sentence by adding the 'ka' at the end of
the sentence is totally opposite to how we do it in Polish, where we add the particle
'czy' at the beginning of a sentence to make it into a question, e.g.:

To jest kot. --- This is a cat.
Czy to jest kot? -- Is this a cat?

[In colloquial speech we often don't even use 'czy', but we use intonation to express
interrogation. So, "To jest kot" with rising intonation is a question.]

Is this the origin of the use of "Tsi" at the start of yes/no questions in Yiddish?
Roughly how is "czy" pronounced in Polish?

Euphorion wrote:

Or in some parts of Spain they say la mar while el mar
is correct.

AFAIK La mar is also correct in the correct context e.g poetic language. I did
read somewhere that fishermen tend to use it, but don't know whether that's true or
not.

ellasevia wrote:

There is a similar problem in Greek, which always drives my friends crazy when I start
teaching them some basic words and phrases:

yes = ναι (ne); it sounds more like 'no'
no = όχι (ohi); it sounds sort-of like 'okay'

I don't find όχι difficult as it sounds nothing like "okay" to me (completely different
stress, completely different consonant, completely different final vowel and even the
initial vowel is actually somewhat different [in English "coat" and "cot" are not the
same]!); but I do find ναι difficult as it sounds very close (to my unrefined ear) to
"nah". :-(

mick33 wrote:

I have a less complicated example from Afrikaans. A common colloquial
expression you might hear, or read, is "ja-nee" which literally translates as"yes-no"
but usually means "yeah". After hearing "ja-nee" a few times I understand it, but at
first it was a little confusing.

Or the Brazilian use of "pois não" which I can't seem to help interpreting as meaning
"pues no".

Edited by Random review on 20 January 2013 at 12:34am
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embici
Triglot
Senior Member
CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, French
Studies: Greek

Message 24 of 43

20 January 2013 at 12:54am | IP Logged

In English, Mensa is the name of a society for people with very high IQs. I believe
someone who is a member is called a "Mensan."

In Latin America menso (m)/mensa (f) means fool or stupid.

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