Help your fluency in a nifty way

[Pole, the]

Minä haluan mennä Suomeen kuukauden aikana.
I want to go to Finland next month.

[linguoboy]

Què opines sobre la situació actual a Grècia?
What do you think about the current situation in Greece?

Lalala i loos di nidd!
Lalala I'm not listening!

[vampireshark]

Què opines sobre la situació actual a Grècia?
What do you think about the current situation in Greece?

Tout est foutu. La faiblesse actuelle de l'euro me plaît un peu parce que ça veut dire qu'un voyage en Europe serait moins cher et j'y démenagerai cet automne, mais... j'y démenagerai (pas en Grèce, mais dans l'espace de l'euro) et je crains que la Grèce n'ait fait rien pour résoudre ses problèmes. En quelques mois, je pense que la même scénario aura lieu encore.
It's not good at all. The current weakness of the Euro is good for me because it means travel to Europe is cheaper and I'm moving there this fall... but I'm moving there (not to Greece, but still in the Eurozone) and I fear Greece's done nothing to solve its problems. I think, in a few months, the same song and dance'll happen again.

[Pole, the]

Puhuuko kukaan täällä suomea?
Does anybody here speak Finnish?

[hwhatting]

Puhuuko kukaan täällä suomea?
Does anybody here speak Finnish?

Nie mówię po fińsku, ale wiem, że tutaj są ludzie, którzy mówią.
Ik spreek geen Fins, maar ik weet, dat hier lui zijn, die het spreken.
I don't speak Finnish, but I know that there are people here who do.

[linguoboy]

Puhuuko kukaan täällä suomea?
Does anybody here speak Finnish?

Paging Qwynegold!

(Wie sagt ich das auf Deutsch? LEO u.a. helfen dabei gar nicht.)

[hwhatting]

Paging Qwynegold!

(Wie sagt ich das auf Deutsch? LEO u.a. helfen dabei gar nicht.)

PONS says anpiepsen, but that doesn't sound right to me. If I remember this correctly from watching American TV Shows in my childhood (doctors with pagers were a constant feature in 70s and 80s Shows from the US, but rare in Germany), the verb to use is rufen or benachrichtigen, use of pager being implied.

[Pole, the]

Minä en ymmärtänyt koskaan, mikä ”pager” on.
I have never understood what a pager is.

[jal]

Ik spreek geen Fins, maar ik weet, dat hier lui zijn, die het spreken.

Dutch uses far less commas then German - written German always looks exhausting to me with all that interrupted speech... Also, "lui" is kinda oldfashioned, I'd just say "mensen", or - very colloquially - "gasten".

Und jetzt sollte ich selbtverständlich etwas auf Deutsch sagen, aber ich weiss nicht was ich sagen soll.
And now I should of course say something in German, but I don't know what.


JAL

[linguoboy]

Paging Qwynegold!

(Wie sagt ich das auf Deutsch? LEO u.a. helfen dabei gar nicht.)

PONS says anpiepsen, but that doesn't sound right to me. If I remember this correctly from watching American TV Shows in my childhood (doctors with pagers were a constant feature in 70s and 80s Shows from the US, but rare in Germany), the verb to use is rufen or benachrichtigen, use of pager being implied.

These are two slightly different uses. Before pagers were common, people were paged by means of public address systems. The standard formula is: "Paging [person]. Please report to [location]." Even now you will still hear this in airport terminals. Presumably, similarly formulas were used in other countries, but I'm having no luck discovering what any of them are.

[hwhatting]

Und jetzt sollte ich selbstverständlich etwas auf Deutsch sagen, aber ich weiß nicht, was ich sagen soll.
And now I should of course say something in German, but I don't know what.

Co powiedziałeś o przecinkach?
Wat heb je over komma's gezegd?
What did you say about commas?

[hwhatting]

These are two slightly different uses. Before pagers were common, people were paged by means of public address systems. The standard formula is: "Paging [person]. Please report to [location]." Even now you will still hear this in airport terminals. Presumably, similarly formulas were used in other countries, but I'm having no luck discovering what any of them are.

What you hear in a German airport or similar Location would be "Herr / Frau XYZ, bitte kommen Sie zu (Name of Point)" or "Herr / Frau XYZ, bitte melden Sie sich bei (Name of Point)." So no preposed word "paging". If it becomes very elaborate, you may here "Dringende Nachricht für Herrn / Frau XYZ." Or are you still talking about something different?

[finlay]

Paging Qwynegold!

(Wie sagt ich das auf Deutsch? LEO u.a. helfen dabei gar nicht.)

PONS says anpiepsen, but that doesn't sound right to me. If I remember this correctly from watching American TV Shows in my childhood (doctors with pagers were a constant feature in 70s and 80s Shows from the US, but rare in Germany), the verb to use is rufen or benachrichtigen, use of pager being implied.

These are two slightly different uses. Before pagers were common, people were paged by means of public address systems. The standard formula is: "Paging [person]. Please report to [location]." Even now you will still hear this in airport terminals. Presumably, similarly formulas were used in other countries, but I'm having no luck discovering what any of them are.

They don't say "paging" in the UK - it's usually something like "Staff announcement: (person) please contact (number)". In Japan it's something like 業務連絡いたします followed by I guess a similar "please contact" phrase, but I tend to tune them out. Perhaps I tend to go to stores now which have earphone radios instead of a public announcement system, as I haven't heard them in a while.

[Imralu]

Dutch uses far less commas then German - written German always looks exhausting to me with all that interrupted speech...

Die Kommas im Deutschen sind eher syntaktisch als prosodisch. Man muss nicht jedes Mal eine kleine Pause machen, wenn man ein Komma sieht. Sie helfen beim Lesen, weil man sehen kann, wo die Satzglieder anfangen und aufhören. Ich sage meiner Gruppe, die ich in Deutsch unterrichte, dass die Kommas im Grunde zeigen, wo man die Verben fallen lassen kann, die auf das Ende des Satzglieds warten.
The commas in German are more syntactical than prosodic. You don't have to make a little pause wherever you see a comma. They help with reading because you can see where the clauses begin and end. I tell the group I teach German to that the commas basically show the places where you can drop the verbs that are waiting for the end of the clause.

When I started learning German, I thought the subordinate clauses went somewhere inside the Satzklammer, meaning that sentences would get ridiculous. I remember being relieved to realise that I could "drop" the verbs that I felt like I was hanging on to basically every time I was going to hit a comma. A lot of English speakers learning German are the same. If German were as I feared it was, what I wrote above would be like this:

*Die Kommas im Deutschen sind eher syntaktisch als prosodisch. Man muss nicht jedes Mal, wenn man ein Komma sieht, eine kleine Pause machen. Sie helfen, weil man beim Lesen, die Stellen, wo die Satzglieder anfangen und aufhören, sehen kann. Ich sage meiner Gruppe, die ich in Deutsch unterrichte, dass die Kommas im Grunde die Stellen, wo man die Verben, die auf das Ende des Satzglieds warten, fallen lassen kann, zeigen.

Ugh. Horrible!

Wait. What the fuck is wrong with my "size" tags. I can't work out why they're not working! Is the board broken???

[Nannalu]

Dutch uses far less commas then German - written German always looks exhausting to me with all that interrupted speech...

Die Kommas im Deutschen sind eher syntaktisch als prosodisch. Man muss nicht jedes Mal eine kleine Pause machen, wenn man ein Komma sieht. Sie helfen beim Lesen, weil man sehen kann, wo die Satzglieder anfangen und aufhören. Ich sage meiner Gruppe, die ich in Deutsch unterrichte, dass die Kommas im Grunde zeigen, wo man die Verben fallen lassen kann, die auf das Ende des Satzglieds warten.
The commas in German are more syntactical than prosodic. You don't have to make a little pause wherever you see a comma. They help with reading because you can see where the clauses begin and end. I tell the group I teach German to that the commas basically show the places where you can drop the verbs that are waiting for the end of the clause.

When I started learning German, I thought the subordinate clauses went somewhere inside the Satzklammer, meaning that sentences would get ridiculous. I remember being relieved to realise that I could "drop" the verbs that I felt like I was hanging on to basically every time I was going to hit a comma. A lot of English speakers learning German are the same. If German were as I feared it was, what I wrote above would be like this:

*Die Kommas im Deutschen sind eher syntaktisch als prosodisch. Man muss nicht jedes Mal, wenn man ein Komma sieht, eine kleine Pause machen. Sie helfen, weil man beim Lesen, die Stellen, wo die Satzglieder anfangen und aufhören, sehen kann. Ich sage meiner Gruppe, die ich in Deutsch unterrichte, dass die Kommas im Grunde die Stellen, wo man die Verben, die auf das Ende des Satzglieds warten, fallen lassen kann, zeigen.

Ugh. Horrible!

Wait. What the fuck is wrong with my "size" tags. I can't work out why they're not working! Is the board broken???

You've only written the first part of the tag, missing the .

[Ziz]

הײַנט בין איך בײַ דער אַרבעט צום לעצטן מאָל. ס׳איז גאַנץ אַנטיקלימאַקטיש. מײַן שעף האָט מיר געזאָגט, "מיר פֿרייען זיך, אַז דו האָסט אונדז געהילפֿט מיטן פּראָיעקט." און איך האָב געענטפֿערט, "יאָ, ס׳איז געווען אַ גרויסע הנאה אויך בײַ מיר, און די געניטשאַפֿט וועט מיר הילפֿן מיט דער אונטערזוכונג." איצט וואַרט איך דאָ ביז דעם אַרבעט־שלוס.

Haynt bin ikh bay der arbet tsum letstn mol. S'iz gants antiklimaktish. Mayn shef hot mir gezogt, "mir freyen zikh, az du host undz gehilft mitn proyekt." Un ikh hob geentfert, "yo, s'iz geven a groyse hanoe oykh bay mir, un di genitshaft vet mir hilfn mit der unterzukhung." Itst vart ikh do biz dem arbetshlus.

היום אני בעבודה לפעם האחרונה. זה ממש משעמם. המנהלת אמרה לי, "אנחנו שמחים שעזרת לנו עם הפרויקט הזה." ואני הגבתי, "כן, נהניתי הרבה, והחוויה תעזור לי עם המחקר." עכשיו אני פשוט מחכה עד סוף היום.

Hayom ani baʻavoda lapaʻam haʼaḥarona. Ze mamaš mešaʻamem. Hamenahélet amra li, "anáḥnu śmeḥim šeʻazárta lánu ʻim haproyeḳṭ haze." Ṿeʼani hegávti, "ken, neheníti harbe, ṿehaḥaṿaya taʻazor li ʻim hameḥḳar." ʻAxšaṿ ani pašuṭ meḥake ʻad sof hayom.

Today, I'm at work for the last time. It's been rather anticlimactic. My boss said to me, "we're glad to have had your help with this project." And I said, "yeah, I enjoyed myself a lot, and the experience will come in handy for my research." Now I'm just waiting for the day to be over.

[hwhatting]

Co będziesz robił po tej pracy?
Wat ga je doen na die baan?
What will you do after that job?

[Ziz]

ס׳איז אַוודאי סקאַרבאָווע, אָבער איך פֿאָר קיין ישׂראל כּדי צו לערנען ענגליש. אין ווינטער האָב איך אַנטשיידט, אַז איך זאָל וואַרטן נאָך אַ יאָר איידער איך הייב אָן בײַ גרעד-סקול. איך וועל אויך אַרבעטן צוזאַמען מיט ייִדיש-רעדנדיקע אַלטיקערס, און דערנאָך וועלן מיר אָפּמאַכן אַ קליינע מעמואַר.

S'iz avade skarbove, ober ikh for keyn Yisroel kdey tsu lernen English. In vinter hob ikh antsheydt, az ikh zol vartn nokh a yor eyder ikh heyb on bay gradskul. Ikh vel oykh arbetn tsuzamen mit Yidish-redndike altikers, un dernokh veln mir opmakhn a kleyne memuar.
It's a cliché, sure, but I'm going to Israel to teach English. In winter I decided I was going to wait another year before starting grad school. I'll also be working with Yiddish-speaking elderly to make little memoirs.

[hwhatting]

Nie bój się stereotypów! To wygląda na bardzo dobry plan!
Wees niet bang voor clichés! Dit lijkt op een zeer goed plan!
Don't be afraid of clichés! This looks like a very good plan!

[Bristel]

Avui, vaig enviar el meu iPod a un distribuïdor per aconseguir una mica de diners.
Today I sent my iPod to a reseller to get some cash.

He comprat un iPhone renovat per substituir al meu mòbil també.
I bought a refurbished iPhone to substitute my cell phone as well.

Em preocupa que aquest iPhone serà defectuós com l'últim que em van enviar, però no vull tornar aquest mòbil també.
I worry that this iPhone will be defective like the last one they sent me, but I don't want to return this phone as well.

[Thry]

Sols hi ha una manera de saber-ho...
Only one way to know...

[Astraios]

איך בין אַרויס פון דער מאַלינע, כּדי צו זאָגן, אַז איך בין שוין אַן עולה געוואָרן. איך וואוין אין רמת גן, וואָס איז אַ קוואַרטאַל פון תּל אביב, מיט אַ בחור, וואָס האָט זיך פאַרליבט אין מיר אין פעברוּאַר. איך ליב אים נישט, אָבער ווען מ' שטייט צווישן צוויי פײַערן, קלייבט מען דעם בזולערן. איך צאָל אַזוי בלויז אַ טויזנטשקלדיקע דירהגעלט אַ חודש, וואָס וואָלט שטאַרק ערגער געווען, בין איך געהאַט פאַרזעסן מיט דעם בחור, וואָס ערשט האָב איך געוואוינט מיט אים. איך וואוין נאָר אַן עשרה מינוטן פונעם ים, וואו היינט האָב איך אַ האַלבנאַכטיקן שוואום געטאָן מיט די חברים אויף דער דתייםפלאַזשע, וואָס איז אַ קליינינקע סעקציע פלאַזשע מיט מחיצות אַרום, אַזוי ווי די דתיים קענען נאַקעט ווערן לכאורה מיט צניעות. אָבער בײַ מיר (און בײַ כּמה וכּמה דתיים) האָבן די מחיצות אַנדערע שימושים...

Ikh bin aroys fun der maline, kdey tsu zogn az ikh bin shoyn an oyle gevorn. Ikh voyn in Romes-Gan, vos iz a kvartal fun Tel-Aviv, mit a bokher, vos hot zikh farlibt in mir in februar. Ikh lib im nisht, ober ven m' shteyt tsvishn tsvey fayern, klaybt men dem bezoylern. Ikh tsol azoy bloyz a toyzntshekldike diregelt a khoydesh, vos volt shtark erger geven, bin ikh gehat farzesn mit dem bokher, vos ersht hob ikh gevoynt mit im. Ikh voyn nor an asore minutn funem yam, vu haynt hob ikh a halbnakhtikn shvum geton mit di khaveyrem af der Dosemplazhe, vos iz a kleyninke sektsye plazhe mit mekhitses arum, azoy vi di dosem kenen naket vern likhore mit tsnies. Ober bay mir (un bay kame vekame dosem) hobn di mekhitses andere shimushem...

I've come out of hiding to say that I've become an Israeli citizen. I live in Ramat-Gan, which is a neighborhood of Tel Aviv, with a guy, who fell in love with me in February. I'm not in love with him, but when one is caught between two bad options, one picks the cheaper. This way I'm only paying a thousand-shekel rent per month, which would be much worse had I stayed with the guy I first lived with. I live only ten minutes from the sea, where I had a midnight swim last night with my friends at the Religious Beach, which is a wee little section of beach with palisades dividing the men's from the women's side, so that religious people can get naked supposedly while preserving their modesty from the opposite sex. For us (and for not a few of the religious men) though the palisades have other uses...

[linguoboy]

WIE GAAAAAIIIL
HAWT

[Astraios]

וואָס פאַר אַ יאָ
Vos far a yo.
So much yes.

[Thry]

Genial que et vagi bé!
Glad you're doing fine !