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Mistakes in languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| HMS Senior Member England Joined 5107 days ago 143 posts - 256 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 8 25 May 2011 at 12:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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How do speakers of different languages perceive mistakes? Will I be understood?
I am trying to teach myself German. If I say "Die" instead of "das" how would it sound to a native German speaker? If I get a case wrong...etc..Could I still be understood? Could somebody please offer a comparable mistake in English...Is it the same as saying "a" apple instead of "an"? That's just for me and German though, I'd be interested to know how much leeway other languages give. Thankyou. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| LebensForm Senior Member Austria Joined 5050 days ago 212 posts - 264 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 8 25 May 2011 at 12:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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Ya, I'm also curious about the German thing, since I'm learning German as well. I hope to god they're not too picky about the cases... I seem to mess those up a lot :(
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| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6439 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 3 of 8 25 May 2011 at 1:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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For example, "The boy hit I", "Me book", "They goes to the shop", "He have to the shop gone". I get the impression from Germans that syntax is more important than correct agreement, and the correct article more than adjective agreement.
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| GRagazzo Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4961 days ago 115 posts - 168 votes Speaks: Italian, English* Studies: Spanish, Swedish, French | Message 4 of 8 25 May 2011 at 2:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well living in the United States I am normally exposed to people trying to speak English
who make a lot of mistakes, but I am still able to understand them. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 8 25 May 2011 at 3:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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Declan, huh?
HMS, it depends on the person you're talking to. Using the wrong article makes you stick out as much as a strong accent does, and people react differently to that. I think you can expect Germans to correct your most obvious mistakes, and when they aren't used to talking to learners they might go overboard in their corrections. Usually it can be understood what you mean, unless you make too many mistakes in a single sentence. There are a couple of words even native speakers can't agree on using the same article for, mostly loanwords. My mom says 'das E-Mail' and I say 'die E-Mail'. :) Grammatical gender is part of a word, just that it isn't always expressed and when, not always in the same way. I can't remember how exactly it is called, but a/an exists to make pronunciation easier. That is, a is actually the reduced form of an older word, but the reason why an still exists is that it is much easier to pronounce words beginning with a vowel correctly if the n is still there. Using the wrong gender for a word is more like saying "I'll have two waters." Water is an uncountable noun, so you have to measure it. In some cases it is acceptable to say something like "two beer" instead of "two cups/mugs/bottles/... of beer", but beers or waters would still be wrong. Being countable or uncountable (or being an entity as a countable noun and a concept as an uncountable noun) is something that is part of a word, and grammatical gender is the same. Not saying that it is supposed to make sense. Edited by Bao on 25 May 2011 at 3:12am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6439 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 6 of 8 25 May 2011 at 3:21am | IP Logged | |||||
And, I don't know whether you'd agree Bao, but I think that prononciation is a huge factor in comprehension. Even if you have all your agreement right but you say everything with a thick accent, it'll be tough to understand. On the other hand, minor grammatical errors are easier to gloss over if you say everything in a relatively clear accent (not necessarily perfect, sometimes it's nice to retain a trace of a foreign accent, but not a thick foreign accent either). Edited by Declan1991 on 25 May 2011 at 3:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5693 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 7 of 8 25 May 2011 at 3:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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"Two beers" is totally correct English, but I understand the point you're trying to make. A better example word might be "music" – "Those were beautiful musics" is clearly incorrect, because "music" is an uncountable noun and therefore should be treated like a singular noun.
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 8 25 May 2011 at 4:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, advice, music or flour would have made better examples.
(German interfering again. In German, the plural of those words would mean 'types of water (usually meaning schnapps)/types of beer. (= ) Declan, I still do not completely understand. Was your second sentence a statement not directly related to the examples you gave? Somehow, it seemed to me as if you were drawing a conclusion from those examples. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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