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Object property expressions for persons. | ||
Tags: Language Trivia | Idiom | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5313 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 1 of 2 13 August 2010 at 11:13am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm interested to compare how the adjectives that describe the basic properties of physical objects (such as: hardness, weight, sharpness) are used to describe people or situations in different languages.
In English we use "hard" to express something is difficult. Whereas in Polish and German to express something is difficult, we use "heavy" (="ciężki"/"schwer"). In Polish we may say someone is hard (="twardy"), meaning he is 'tough'. In English, being "bright" means being smart. In Polish, we don't describe people as bright, but we use the opposite to describe someone is stupid - "ciemny" (=dark). In English "sharp" may mean 'intelligent', but we can also say "a sharp reply", meaning 'spiteful' or 'nasty'. Whereas in Polish, we use "sharp" (="ostry") to describe someone as 'strict', or something as 'severe'. e.g. ostry nauczyciel ('a sharp teacher' = a strict teacher) ostre zapalenie ('a sharp inflammation' = an accute inflammation) "Thick" in Polish we can use in expressions like: gruba pomyłka (=a thick mistake) - a big mistake, a howler grubo się mylić (=to be thickly mistaken) - to be hugely mistaken [As you can see, in English, the adjectives of size (big, huge) are used. And these are also used in Polish.] "Thin" and "weak" in Polish are used to say that someone is not good at something, or something is not good: Jesteś cieńki/słaby w koszykówkę. (=You are thin/weak at basketball) - You're not good at basketball. Ten film był cieńki/słaby. (=That film was thin/weak.) - It was a bad film. To express the same thing, in English, the adjective "poor" is used, isn't it? The adjectives for length: short/krótki, long/długi don't seem to be used in any figurative expressions in neither language. How does it look in your languages? Edited by Derian on 13 August 2010 at 7:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5863 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 2 of 2 14 August 2010 at 3:00am | IP Logged | ||
Weak in place of bad is actually used somewhat in United States English, particularly in California. "That movie was weak." Edited by Liface on 14 August 2010 at 3:00am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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