|
 |
2nd language making more sense | ||
Tags: Usefulness | Foreign Languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5007 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 22 18 December 2011 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I find the French relative pronoun system a lot more logical than ours, once you get the hang of it - "qui" for the subject, "que" for the object, add a "ce" before and it's indefinite, and the others like "dont" etc.. Each word has one purpose. We can say "The man I met", "The man who I met", "The man whom I met", "The man that I met", or "The man which I met" but in French it's just the one option, l'homme que j'ai rencontré.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4856 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 18 of 22 18 December 2011 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
|
We were taught that we can't use which with animate nouns.
Russian spelling system isn't easy too. I don't like multiple negation in Russian. - Что ты не понимаешь7 - Ничего. - Ничего не понимаешь? The first answer can't be answered in one word if you understand everything. It's not obvious what to answer to a negative question. Usage of genetive in some languages is wider and can replace a lot of adjectives. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5145 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 19 of 22 18 December 2011 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Languages are not something put together in order to "make sense", and their arbitrariness and quirks are part of what makes learning different ones a pleasure.
They all however are subject to the same laws and principles of thought and communication, so the more of them you learn, the better equipped you are to approach additional ones, even if genetically unrelated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4549 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 20 of 22 24 December 2011 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Articles are complicated because every language uses them in a different way:
He is a professor. (English, with article) Ele é professor. (Portuguese, no article) Pronominal clitics are awkward, and they make look Spanish very stuffy: Me imagino! (Spanish) I imagine (to) myself (Eu) imagino! (Brazilian Portuguese) (I) imagine I can imagine that! (English) Tú te lo mereces (Spanish) You deserve it to yourself. Você merece (Brazilian Portuguese) You deserve You deserve it (English) You deserve it Dámelo! (Spanish) Give it to me Me de! (Portuguese) Give me! In Spanish I get the impression that spekers all do something to themselves and want to use IT with it all the time: Spain, a country to eat (well): España, un país para comerselo Spain, a country yo eat it to yourself it sounds so ackward, in Portuguese: Espanha, um país de comer (bem) would be more than sufficient. Also, indirect object: Estou mandando um abraço para ela (I am sending you my greetings) in Spanish would be: Estoy mandándole un abrazo a ella, with the redundant LE. It makes Spanish sentences so stuffy and long, so Spanish speakers have to speak so fast to compensate. Spoken Brazilian Portuguese as well as spoken Italian has reduced the number of demonstratives from 3 (este, esse, aquele; questo, codesto, quello) to two only: this (ese; questo) and that (aquele; quello). Two level difference is more than enough! Edited by Camundonguinho on 24 December 2011 at 4:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4549 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 21 of 22 24 December 2011 at 4:13pm | IP Logged | ||
|
On the other hand, I'm happy [Brazilian] Portuguese marks a difference between something continuous, temporary and permanent:
Eu faço. = I do it. Estou fazendo = I'm doing it. Tenho uma calça amarela. = I have a yellow pair of pants. (I own it) Estou com uma calça amarela. = I have a yellow pair of pants on me (right now). Tenho dor de cabeça. = I regularly have headaches. Estou com uma dor de cabeça = I have a headache (right now). Ela é louca. = She's crazy. Ela está louca. = She's being/acting crazy. 6 verbal forms is way too much, for example in Peninsular Spanish: voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van In Brazilian Portuguese: eu vou você vai ele/ela vai --- a gente vai ~ nós vamos vocês vão eles/elas vão Only 4 forms, and if you use A GENTE (comparable to ON in French) instead of NóS, you have only 3 verbal forms, this is more than enough! Edited by Camundonguinho on 24 December 2011 at 4:28pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tmp011007 Diglot Senior Member Congo Joined 5869 days ago 199 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 22 of 22 25 December 2011 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
just a couple of things: Me imagino! (Spanish) or "imagino" ("creo") Tú te lo mereces (Spanish) or "lo mereces" Estoy mandándole un abrazo a ella or "le mando un abrazo..." It makes Spanish sentences so stuffy and long, so Spanish speakers have to speak so fast to compensate. sometimes, but not really.. there are other reasons for the "machine gun" style 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
