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Words that just feel awesome to say

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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
124 messages over 16 pages: 1 2 3 46 7 ... 5 ... 15 16 Next >>
Luai_lashire
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
luai-lashire.deviant
Joined 5829 days ago

384 posts - 560 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto
Studies: Japanese, French

 
 Message 33 of 124
15 December 2009 at 2:13am | IP Logged 
In Esperanto, I love the word polvosuĉilo- vacuum cleaner. It's just fun to say. And
diskturnilo always makes me laugh- it's literally a "disk turning tool", a record player.

My favorite Japanese word would have to be ちょっと, not because of it's meaning or
sound in particular, it's just so goddamn USEFUL and there's no equivalent in English. I
must say it five or six times a day and I only spend about an hour in the presence of other
people who know what it means each day anyway. I'm sure when I go to Japan I'll use it
even more.
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Sennin
Senior Member
Bulgaria
Joined 6035 days ago

1457 posts - 1759 votes 
5 sounds

 
 Message 34 of 124
15 December 2009 at 3:07am | IP Logged 
Quote:
Also, there are tons of fantastic words in (Old) Church Slavonic, like 'reché', as in 'reché Gospod'', 'razbojnik' - robber and 'tat' - thief. 'Plot' for flesh and the plural form 'chada' - children (sort of) are also nice. Most of these are used in modern Russian as well.


These words also exist in the modern Bulgarian language, except 'tat'.

My favourite English word is "abomination", for some strange reason. I'm probably influenced by Dune novels. I also like "betwixt" and "hitherto" but these two are archaic.
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geann.amore
Newbie
United States
Joined 5459 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes

 
 Message 35 of 124
15 December 2009 at 3:41am | IP Logged 
amazing....!-> nice to say it..really it is..
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Luai_lashire
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
luai-lashire.deviant
Joined 5829 days ago

384 posts - 560 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto
Studies: Japanese, French

 
 Message 36 of 124
15 December 2009 at 4:04am | IP Logged 
Ah, thought of my favorite Yiddish word- "plotz", it's absolutely my favorite thing to use
this word whenever I get the chance. "Potchke" isn't bad either.
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genini1
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5469 days ago

114 posts - 161 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 37 of 124
15 December 2009 at 4:19am | IP Logged 
I like the banal because there was this really effeminate guy in my class who kept pronouncing it b-anal rather then banal.
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pookiebear79
Groupie
United States
Joined 6031 days ago

76 posts - 142 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Dutch, French, Swedish, Italian

 
 Message 38 of 124
15 December 2009 at 4:52am | IP Logged 
Sennin wrote:
I also like "betwixt" and "hitherto" but these two are archaic.


Those are both really good ones.

In English I really like 'plethora' and use it perhaps more than I should, but I'm not one to shy away from words that are considered old fashioned, too formal, etc. I was a spelling bee nerd, read constantly (which added to my vocabulary in a natural way,) and liked to look through the dictionary for fun as a kid. Now I'm by no means a walking dictionary, but it's just an extension of my personality that I use words that can be considered formal, old fashioned, etc., rather than some sort of affectation (unlike some 'word of the day calendar' types who force these words unnaturally into their speech as a means to try to impress people.)
If I seem to talk 'weird', it's because I am, and I can't help it.

Another one I like is 'vulgar.' For me, it's a case of why exclaim 'omigosh, gross!' or 'oh, it's awful!' when you can put on a faux 'haughty, but restrained and dignified' tone and just say "It's vulgar." (Actually, that's directly influenced by one of my favorite movies, so it's been a favorite for a long time.)
I also like 'appalling' and 'pillock' (even though I know the origin of the latter isn't very nice.) Another slangy word I've grown fond of is 'overshare' in lieu of my beloved 'TMI' (too much information) because TMI has become too common and it's just not as fun anymore. But overshare almost fills the void for those times when someone tells you something awkwardly personal and/or vulgar in nature. ;)

(Naturally, I don't really act snobby to strangers and tell them something is vulgar, but I use it a lot when I'm speaking "family and friendspeak," which of course contains many expressions we don't actually say to strangers anyway because we have loads of weird slang and expressions that wouldn't really make sense to others without the whole backstory.)

In other languages, for some reason I seem to have a love of words related to peanuts and peanut derivatives.

I love the sound of the French word 'cacahuètes,' stemming from my very first French class (the prof was an extremely expressive, wonderfully eccentric Parisienne who made everything sound alive and interesting, LOL.)One day she brought in different foods and told us their names in French, and I always remembered 'les cacahuètes.' However, in all these years I never saw it written until I looked up the spelling just now, and I must say it's not so exciting in its written form. I think it's the 'caca' that's a bit off putting.

My other peanutty word that I like is the Dutch 'pindakaas.' Even though it's peanut butter, it literally reads as 'peanut cheese' which I find hilarious.

Those are the only foreign language favorites I can think of right on the spot, though I'm sure there are more.
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MegatronFilm
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
peligrosa.tumblr.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5939 days ago

130 posts - 275 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, French
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 39 of 124
15 December 2009 at 5:38am | IP Logged 
ymapazagain wrote:
My favourite Spanish word has always been "desafortunadamente." It just feels great to
say!


Similarly to this, I love to say Purtroppo in Italian.

Hmm, I haven't studied Italian in a long time. I need to get back to it sometime.
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staf250
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Belgium
emmerick.be
Joined 5698 days ago

352 posts - 414 votes 
Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German
Studies: Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 40 of 124
15 December 2009 at 11:28am | IP Logged 
Telling an Italian lady MY difficult and special Italian word "cucchiaino", little spoon, she told me her word,
awesome to say: "eucaristia". Because in Italian they speak out each letter: ee-uu-ka-ris-tii-aa :)


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