TAC My poor overwhelmed brain (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

TAC My poor overwhelmed brain
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

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mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5928 days ago
1335 posts - 1632 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

Message 89 of 223

14 April 2009 at 7:42pm | IP Logged

I'm back again, this time to list some Afrikaans vocabulary.

betrekking - post (I thought I had already learned this one, but it's not in any of my wordlists or notes) also could be relation, connection, relative, appertain
inmandjie - inbox (the context I learned this is for email, though I assume it can be used in other contexts)
vasberadenheid - fortitude, determination, resolve
onkundig - ignorant
oorblyfsel - relic
beleërde - beseiged
wingerd - vineyard
skermpie - screen, curtain
versag - extenuate, palliate, mollify
voetsool - sole of foot
wonde - wound (I think this refers to injury
kwesplek - bruises
wyk - district
krank - crazy
teëkom - meet, encounter

Mick

Edited by mick33 on 14 April 2009 at 7:49pm
1 person has voted this message useful

mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5928 days ago
1335 posts - 1632 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

Message 90 of 223

15 April 2009 at 7:19pm | IP Logged

mick33 wrote:

This week I will be learning about the present progressive tense in Spanish, which should be fun for me; as I often use the progressive tense in English. Afrikaans does not have a progressive tense which seemed unusual at first though I've since learned that many languages either never had or no longer use a progressive tense. I look forward to learning how this tense works in Spanish and knowing about it will probably help me write and speak more naturally.

Buenas noches
Mick

I've found out something intriguing about the present progressive tense and how it is used in Spanish. First, just so I don't get confused, I will briefly go over what is meant by the present progressive tense as I believe it is used in English where it is quite commonly used. I can write or say "I watch TV" but if I mean to express an action that I am currently engaged in, I would more likely add "ing" to the verb and say "I am watching TV" to express present tense action, but I could also be decribing something that occurs over an extending period of time or in the future. In Spanish, the present progressive usually expresses an action that is occuring while one is also speaking and is formed by using the present tense of "estar" and then the present participle which adds "ndo" to the root of another verb; thus "hablar" becomes "hablando" and "escribir" would become "escribiendo so I could say "Estoy escribiendo." because currently I am writing (or more accurately typing, but I'll have to look up the Spanish word for typing later).

Mick

Edited by mick33 on 07 February 2012 at 12:06am
1 person has voted this message useful

mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5928 days ago
1335 posts - 1632 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

Message 91 of 223

17 April 2009 at 11:21am | IP Logged

I just realized I've already posted more than three times this week, which is a good thing. I'm focusing on vocabulary, except for the previous post about Spanish grammar, and I've been thinking about Finnish words. I know that I've posted before about how Finnish is not an Indo-European language, but is a Uralic language and that although it seems very difficult at first it really is just different. One reason many people, even those who speak and/or study IE languages, might find Finnish difficult to learn is vocabulary. Why could the vocabulary be challenging? Well, initially I didn't find any words that resemble anything I've read or said in English, Afrikaans or Spanish. There is much shared vocabulary among the IE languages (though Farsi and Hindi might have less)and when I have occasionally attempted to read German, French or Swedish I will see words that look familiar even though I haven't studied these languages. To give one example, the word "university" which I think is a Latin cognate, corresponds to the words "universiteit" and "universidad" in Afrikaans and Spanish respectively, but in Finnish the corresponding word is "yliopisto" an entirely different word. However, there is actually some shared vocabulary between Finnish and IE languages, only the Finns sometimes disguise loanwords so well that they aren't easily spotted. However anyone reading this log will likely recognize "hotelli", "avokaado","bussi", "baari" and "tomaatti", also Swedes will recognize "appelsiini" which comes from "apelsin" and corresponds to "orange" (the fruit, not the color). Finnish also has the word "kuningas" which seems very close to "koning" (Afrikaans) or "king" because it is.

Another interesting aspect of Finnish is that names of some countries are also very unique. I have no trouble figuring out Intia, Englanti, or Meksiko; but what about Ruotsi, Venäjä, or Suomi? I had to look the last three up to discover that they refer to the countries I know as Sweden, Russia, and Finland.

I like learning vocabulary, that's why most of my posts this week have been about words, but I feel like I'm missing out on something really good if I ignore grammar so most likely I will try to write short messages in each of my target languages in my next few posts.

Mick

Edited by mick33 on 02 December 2009 at 10:01am
1 person has voted this message useful

Satoshi
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5827 days ago
215 posts - 224 votes

Speaks: Portuguese*, English
Studies: German, Japanese

Message 92 of 223

19 April 2009 at 10:28pm | IP Logged

mick33 wrote:

I just realized I've already posted more than three times this week, which is a good thing. I'm focusing on vocabulary, except for the previous post about Spanish grammar, and I've been thinking about Finnish words. I know that I've posted before about how Finnish is not an Indo-European language, but is a Uralic language and that although it seems very difficult at first it really is just different. One reason many people, even those who speak and/or study IE languages, might find Finnish difficult to learn is vocabulary. Why could the vocabulary be challenging? Well, initially I didn't find any words that resemble anything I've read or said in English, Afrikaans or Spanish. There is much shared vocabulary among the IE languages (though Farsi and Hindi might have less)and when I have occasionally attempted to read German, French or Swedish I will see words that look familiar even though I haven't studied these languages. To give one example, the word "universtiy" which I think is a Latin cognate, corresponds to the words "universiteit" and "universidad" in Afrikaans and Spanish respectively, but in Finnish the corresponding word is "yliopisto" a entirely different word. However, there is actually some shared vocabulary between Finnish and IE languages, only the Finns sometimes disguise loanwords so well that they aren't easily spotted. However anyone reading this log will likely recognize "hotelli", "avokaado","bussi", "baari" and "tomaatti", also Swedes will recognize "appelsiini" which comes from "apelsin" and corresponds to "orange" (the fruit, not the color). Finnish also has the word "kuningas" which seems very close to "koning" (Afrikaans) or "king" because it is.

Another intersesting aspect of Finnish is that names of some countries are also very unique. I have no trouble figuring out Intia, Englanti, or Meksiko; but what about Ruotsi, Venäjä, or Suomi? I had to look the last three up to discover that they refer to the countries I know as Sweden, Russia, and Finland.

I like learning vocabulary, that's why most of my posts this week have been about words, but I feel like I'm missing out on something really good if I ignore grammar so most likely I will try to write short messages in each of my target languages in my next few posts.

Mick

If understand how you feel. Learning Japanese poses a very interesting challenge because of that. Yliopisto is daigakusei.

Though I guess garaigo makes things easier for the Japanese learner.

Now I am curious: how far along are you with Finnish? Finnish is already the next langauage on my list and as such I have a lot of interest in how you are handling it.
2 persons have voted this message useful

Wilma
Triglot
Newbie
Zimbabwe
Joined 6165 days ago
16 posts - 18 votes
Speaks: Finnish*, Swedish, English
Studies: Spanish

Message 93 of 223

20 April 2009 at 6:01pm | IP Logged

Hei Mick!

I was happy to notice you are learning Finnish. I'm not a great expert on Finnish grammar although Finnish is my native language but I think I can help you with the -tta ending.

mick33 wrote:

The partitive case adds the followings endings: a/ä, ta/tä and sometimes tta/ttä. Oh no! I've run out of time again, I'll have to continue this post later.

Actually -tta and -ttä are not endings for the partitive case but for a case called abessive. Abessive case corresponds to the preposition "without". There is also an actual word for "without", "ilman". When the word "ilman" is used the noun is in partitive case and when "ilman" is not used the noun is in the abessive case. Abessive case is rarely used, you see it mostly in sayings and combined with nominal verb forms.

Here is an example which hopefully clarifies the use of abessive:

Partitive: Ilman kirjaa (Without a/the book)
Abessive: Kirjatta (book-without)

He/she went without saying anything:
Abessive is used:Hän lähti sanomatta mitään. (He/she went saying-without anything.)
Abessive is not used: Hän lähti ilman että hän sanoi mitään. (He/she went without that he said anything)

Oppimisen iloa toivottaa
Wilma
2 persons have voted this message useful

mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5928 days ago
1335 posts - 1632 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

Message 94 of 223

20 April 2009 at 7:25pm | IP Logged

Satoshi wrote:

mick33 wrote:

I just realized I've already posted more than three times this week, which is a good thing. I'm focusing on vocabulary, except for the previous post about Spanish grammar, and I've been thinking about Finnish words. I know that I've posted before about how Finnish is not an Indo-European language, but is a Uralic language and that although it seems very difficult at first it really is just different. One reason many people, even those who speak and/or study IE languages, might find Finnish difficult to learn is vocabulary. Why could the vocabulary be challenging? Well, initially I didn't find any words that resemble anything I've read or said in English, Afrikaans or Spanish. There is much shared vocabulary among the IE languages (though Farsi and Hindi might have less)and when I have occasionally attempted to read German, French or Swedish I will see words that look familiar even though I haven't studied these languages. To give one example, the word "university" which I think is a Latin cognate, corresponds to the words "universiteit" and "universidad" in Afrikaans and Spanish respectively, but in Finnish the corresponding word is "yliopisto" a entirely different word. However, there is actually some shared vocabulary between Finnish and IE languages, only the Finns sometimes disguise loanwords so well that they aren't easily spotted. However anyone reading this log will likely recognize "hotelli", "avokaado","bussi", "baari" and "tomaatti", also Swedes will recognize "appelsiini" which comes from "apelsin" and corresponds to "orange" (the fruit, not the color). Finnish also has the word "kuningas" which seems very close to "koning" (Afrikaans) or "king" because it is.

Another intersesting aspect of Finnish is that names of some countries are also very unique. I have no trouble figuring out Intia, Englanti, or Meksiko; but what about Ruotsi, Venäjä, or Suomi? I had to look the last three up to discover that they refer to the countries I know as Sweden, Russia, and Finland.

I like learning vocabulary, that's why most of my posts this week have been about words, but I feel like I'm missing out on something really good if I ignore grammar so most likely I will try to write short messages in each of my target languages in my next few posts.

Mick

I'm going fairly slow with Finnish, because I want to have a basic knowledge of certain grammar aspects such as the case endings before trying to read, write, or say very much. I think this is a good idea for me just so I get accustomed to the grammar, although I will start focusing more on writing this week. I plan to post something in Finnish next week once I've learned a little more vocabulary just because I'm anxious to actually use Finnish.

Edited by mick33 on 02 December 2009 at 10:02am
1 person has voted this message useful

mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5928 days ago
1335 posts - 1632 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

Message 95 of 223

20 April 2009 at 7:47pm | IP Logged

Wilma wrote:

Hei Mick!

I was happy to notice you are learning Finnish. I'm not a great expert on Finnish grammar although Finnish is my native language but I think I can help you with the -tta ending.

mick33 wrote:

The partitive case adds the followings endings: a/ä, ta/tä and sometimes tta/ttä. Oh no! I've run out of time again, I'll have to continue this post later.

I re-read the post you quoted and knew I had made a mistake but I could not figure out where I went wrong. Thank you very much for clearing up my confusion about the abessive and partitive cases, I must have misread my Finnish grammar book.

1 person has voted this message useful

mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5928 days ago
1335 posts - 1632 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

Message 96 of 223

22 April 2009 at 10:50am | IP Logged

AFR:Ek wonder, dalk sou ek nou hierdie joernal "Die swerflus kronieke" hernoem. Ja, ek studeer Afrikaans, Spaans, en Fins, maar ook ek is baie nuuskierig oor Sweeds. Ek weet nie hoe my skielik belangstel in Sweeds om te duidelik nie, miskien ek het geniet die welluidend klanke van Sweeds te geluister. Hoekom het ek nog nie enige Duits leer nie? Meer mense kan Duits praat, daarom Duits sou 'n beter keuse wees. Ek weet ek het geen tyd om Sweeds of Duits te studeer nie, maar ek moet sê dat albei tale is baie intriger. Ek moet my fokus handhaaf, en ignoreer swerflus, as ek sal my taal leer eindpaal bereik.

Maybe this log should be called "The wanderlust chronicles". I've become very curious about Swedish, and I don't know why. I also wonder why I'm not more interested in German, after all more people speak German. Swedish and German are intriguing but I must ignore wander wanderlust.

Goeie nag
Mick

4/22/09 EDIT: I really should do a better job of proofreading my posts. I edited a comment that, on second thought, is quite confusing and I want to more thoroughly explain myself. I seem to be taking a rather circuitous approach to learning Germanic languages; I started with Afrikaans solely because I like the language, then I figured it would make sense to flirt with Dutch, a few months ago I found Iversen's hyperliteral Danish-to-English tranlsations in his log fascinating enough to make me briefly study Danish (though I didn't get very far), and lately I've been flirting with Swedish. What's unusual is that, aside from attempting a translation of one of Fasulye's posts in Iversen's log last month, I have ignored German this year, yet I know that German and English are the most widely spoken Germanic languages (though English has strayed a bit from those roots) thus German is a more practical choice, I just find the other Germanic tongues more interesting right now, but I digress.

For my next post, I will focus on Afrikaans grammar. I don't think I can progress without getting a better understanding of how to write more complex sentences.

Mick

Edited by mick33 on 12 August 2009 at 2:00am

1 person has voted this message useful

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