Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5079 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish
| Message 25 of 33 25 August 2012 at 2:22am | IP Logged |
Danish: Hvordan at lære noget sprog
(Please feel free to correct my attempt!)
Edited by Kartof on 25 August 2012 at 2:23am
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Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5580 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
| Message 26 of 33 25 August 2012 at 7:24pm | IP Logged |
Esperanto: Kiel lerni iun ajn lingvon
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Butterworth Diglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 4899 days ago 7 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Czech*, EnglishC1 Studies: Japanese, Korean
| Message 27 of 33 25 August 2012 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
Czech: Jak se naučit jakýkoliv jazyk
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Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6716 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map
| Message 28 of 33 26 August 2012 at 3:12am | IP Logged |
Kartof wrote:
Danish: Hvordan at lære noget sprog |
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The problem is that we don't use a formula like "how to" in Danish. The nearest thing would be the clumsy sentence "Hvordan man kan lære ethvert/et hvilken som helst sprog", but in practice we would us an imperative "Lær et hvilken som helst sprog" or "om at lære ethvert sprog" (literally: about to learn any language) or "Sådan lærer man et hvilket som helst sprog".
The "any" of the original sentence can't be translated into "noget" in this context (it's meaning would be "some/a bit of language"). But "noget" would be just perfct in the corresponding negative sentence: "how NOT to learn any language" ---> "Hvordan man ikke lærer NOGET (som helst) sprog".
As I have illustrated above we can use both "ethvert" or "et hvilken som helst" in the positive sentences. The difference is that "ethvert" could be understood as "each and every" language, while "et hvilken som helst sprog" only can have the meaning "any language". The translation "et vilkårligt sprog" could also be used.
For shortness' sake I would probably go for "Sådan lærer man et vilkårligt sprog".
Edited by Iversen on 02 September 2012 at 9:01pm
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Asal Bilingual Heptaglot Newbie YugoslaviaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4429 days ago 25 posts - 35 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian*, SpanishC2, Latin, English, Persian, Macedonian Studies: Norwegian
| Message 29 of 33 23 October 2012 at 4:13pm | IP Logged |
Serbian - "Како научити било који језик"
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Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5079 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish
| Message 30 of 33 23 October 2012 at 11:46pm | IP Logged |
Iversen wrote:
Kartof wrote:
Danish: Hvordan at lære noget sprog |
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The problem is that we don't use a formula like "how to" in Danish. The nearest thing would be the clumsy
sentence "Hvordan man kan lære ethvert/et hvilken som helst sprog", but in practice we would us an imperative
"Lær et hvilken som helst sprog" or "om at lære ethvert sprog" (literally: about to learn any language) or "Sådan
lærer man et hvilket som helst sprog".
The "any" of the original sentence can't be translated into "noget" in this context (it's meaning would be "some/a
bit of language"). But "noget" would be just perfct in the corresponding negative sentence: "how NOT to learn any
language" ---> "Hvordan man ikke lærer NOGET (som helst) sprog".
As I have illustrated above we can use both "ethvert" or "et hvilken som helst" in the positive sentences. The
difference is that "ethvert" could be understood as "each and every" language, while "et hvilken som helst sprog"
only can have the meaning "any language". The translation "et vilkårligt sprog" could also be used.
For shortness' sake I would probably go for "Sådan lærer man et vilkårligt sprog". |
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Thank you for the thorough explanation! You also perfectly illustrated why I've hit a major roadblock with Danish.
So much of the meaning of Danish sentences lies in the positioning and use of prepositions and adverbs that don't
match correspondingly to English. It's so hard to get out of the English-thinking mindset, especially with a
language so closely related. Any tips as to how to approach this problem?
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montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4841 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 31 of 33 24 October 2012 at 12:39pm | IP Logged |
To Iversen & Kartof:
You've just made me notice the expression "et vilkårligt sprog", which I'm guessing is related to the German "eine willkürliche Sprache".
Translatable as "an arbitrary language" (in the sense of not being a specific one).
The German adjective happened to come above my radar the other day, and while reading this "vilkårligt" suddenly hit my eye.
Interesting that the Danish noun (sprog) is neuter, while the German one (Sprache) is feminine.
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languagenerd09 Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom youtube.com/user/Lan Joined 5113 days ago 174 posts - 267 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Thai
| Message 32 of 33 24 October 2012 at 10:20pm | IP Logged |
Galician
como aprender calquera idioma
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