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What words do you always mix up? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5639 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 1 of 18 17 December 2008 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I hate words that look that same and can only be distinguished after being able to use them multiple times in context. For me, it is:
German: Kitzler - clit Kitzel - titillation Kittel - doctor's lab coat Luckily I've never mixed these up in speech before. I could imagine it would be embarassing. I've always wondered if non-native speakers mix up "greed" and "agreed". Edited by Liface on 17 December 2008 at 3:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jar-ptitsa Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5679 days ago 980 posts - 1006 votes Speaks: French*, Dutch, German | Message 2 of 18 17 December 2008 at 2:48pm | IP Logged | ||
No, I don't mix up those, but for me "used" is very complicated, for example: Used used to I am used etc....... therefore I avoid this constructions. About German, I made a *very* embarrassing mistake!!!!! I love birds, and I wanted to say : "ich liebe Vögel" (I love birds) but I said: "ich liebe vögeln" (I love sex) hahaha!!! I thought that the plural of Vogel = Vögeln, but it must not have the "n" 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6684 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 3 of 18 17 December 2008 at 3:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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About grammar mistakes: once I used a wrong past form of a German verb "schneien" (to snow). Instead of "geschneit" I said "geschnieen". The person I was speaking understood "geschrieen" (past form of verb "schreien" - to scream). The effect was incredibly funny :). It was a good lesson to me - correct past forms are obviously more important than I used to think ;).
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| Eimii Groupie United States Joined 5613 days ago 44 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Polish | Message 4 of 18 17 December 2008 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | ||
Classic. I did use one thing incorrectly that turned into a swear: I said in Russian "I have a Russian book." (Or something like that.) And I used the wrong verb (because to have isn't really a verb in Russian) and it meant "I f--- a Russian book." Also mixing up genders is embarrassing in general. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5639 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 5 of 18 17 December 2008 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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One more in German:
verhöhnen - to deride, lampoon versöhnen - to reconcile 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5609 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 6 of 18 19 December 2008 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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My parents used to travel a lot, and though my mom was fairly fluent in Italian (she's forgotten it all now) my dad
never got the hang of it. Once they were in a restaurant and he tried to order a pizza with meat (carne) and accidently ordered a pizza with dog (cane). The waitress was disturbed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| roy2005 Diglot Groupie Hong Kong Joined 6331 days ago 70 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, German | Message 7 of 18 21 December 2008 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
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In Spanish, I sometimes confuse words like:
lleva vs. llave viaje vs. vieja and forms of certain verbs, e.g. viendo (ver) vs. veniendo (venir) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zorrillo Pentaglot Groupie United States Joined 6165 days ago 41 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, French, Sign Language, Spanish, Polish Studies: Greek, Georgian, Indonesian | Message 8 of 18 21 December 2008 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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A lot of Polish words have given me problems. Sometimes I still mix up these three: Poduszka- pillow Podeszwa- sole Poszewka- pillowcase They contain many of the same letters, but in a different order. And what makes it worse is that my brain wants 'pillow' and 'pillowcase' to be similar, so I often think 'podeszwa' for 'pillowcase'. Unfortunately 'poszewka' is pillowcase, which is quite different, but still maddeningly close enough to completely confuse me. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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