Help your fluency in a nifty way

[jal]

Deze valse vriend heeft me aan het lachen gemaakt.

Welche falsche Freund?
Which false friend?

EDIT: And of course many thanks for all the corrections, hwhatting!


JAL

[jal]

Jal, waarom heeft het Nederlands twee verschillende woorden voor vliegvelden?

Ich denke, dass das hauptsächlich historisch ist. Ein "vliegveld" ist wörtlich ein Flugfeld, und war am Anfang nur ein Rasen von welche die Flügzeugen aufsteigten und auf welche sie wieder landeten. "luchthaven" scheint eine direkte Übersetzung von "airport", und muss ein späteres Wort sein.
I think it's mainly historical. A "vliegveld" is literally a "fly(ing) field", and was in the beginning just a lawn from which the airplanes could lift off en on which they landed again. "luchthaven" looks like a direct translation of "airport", and must be of a later date.


JAL

[hwhatting]

Это такой старый фильм, что я забыл, что в нём происходит.
It is such an old film that I had forgotten what is happening in it.

Мы должны учиться английскому языку

I don't quite understand your construction.

учиться means "to learn", the object of learning is either a noun in the dative case (like in the sentence above) or an infinitive (e.g. учиться плавать "to learn to swim").

Ten fałszywy przyjaciel rozśmieszył mię.
This false friend made me laugh.

I haven't heard this word but reading some stylistic or dated texts, actually everybody uses mnie; I wonder where you could get that from.

Oh, I didn't know that it is obsolescent. Is cię still in everyday use?

Welcher falsche Freund?
Which false friend?

gekocht (Dutch: "bought", German: "cooked"),

Ich denke, dass das hauptsächlich historisch ist. Ein "vliegveld" ist wörtlich ein Flugfeld, und war am Anfang nur ein Rasen, von welchem*1) die Flugzeugen aufstiegen und auf welchem*1) sie wieder landeten. "luchthaven" scheint eine direkte Übersetzung von "airport" zu sein, und muss ein späteres Wort sein.
I think it's mainly historical. A "vliegveld" is literally a "fly(ing) field", and was in the beginning just a lawn from which the airplanes could lift off en on which they landed again. "luchthaven" looks like a direct translation of "airport", and must be of a later date.

*1) welcher as relative pronoun is very formal, criticized by some as typical for legalese and bureaucratese. You can't go wrong with using der (here: von dem, auf dem), and you could also replace them by von wo, wo, which is a bit more colloquial.

It's interesting that Naïda (my interlocutor) corrected me immediately.

Co poprawiała?
Qu'est-ce qu' elle a corrigé?
Wat heeft ze gecorrigeerd?
What did she correct?

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

учиться means "to learn", the object of learning is either a noun in the dative case (like in the sentence above) or an infinitive (e.g. учиться плавать "to learn to swim").

Я изучился моей учительницей, что это должно быть «я учу язык», даже, когда я учусь.
J'ai été enseigné que ce devrait être « я учу язык » même quand je l'apprends.
I was taught it should be "я учу язык" (lit. I teach a language) even if I learn it.

Oh, I didn't know that it is obsolescent. Is cię still in everyday use?

It has always been used, much more frequently than ciebie.
Remind us, how old are you so that whole my life is only a part of yours?

It's interesting that Naïda (my interlocutor) corrected me immediately.

Co poprawiała?
Qu'est-ce qu' elle a corrigé?
Wat heeft ze gecorrigeerd?
What did she correct?

Эту ошибку с временем.
Cet erreur avec le temps.
This error with the time.

[Travis B.]

Jal, waarom heeft het Nederlands twee verschillende woorden voor vliegvelden?

Ich denke, dass das hauptsächlich historisch ist. Ein "vliegveld" ist wörtlich ein Flugfeld, und war am Anfang nur ein Rasen von welche die Flügzeugen aufsteigten und auf welche sie wieder landeten. "luchthaven" scheint eine direkte Übersetzung von "airport", und muss ein späteres Wort sein.
I think it's mainly historical. A "vliegveld" is literally a "fly(ing) field", and was in the beginning just a lawn from which the airplanes could lift off en on which they landed again. "luchthaven" looks like a direct translation of "airport", and must be of a later date.

Das klingt wie "airfield" gegen "airport" auf Englisch.
That sounds like "airfield" versus "airport" in English.

[jal]

That sounds like "airfield" versus "airport" in English.

Genau, außer dass "vliegveld" das häufige Wort ist (zu mindestens umgangssprachlich).
Indeed, except that "vliegveld" is the common word (at least colloquially).


JAL

[hwhatting]

учиться means "to learn", the object of learning is either a noun in the dative case (like in the sentence above) or an infinitive (e.g. учиться плавать "to learn to swim").

Я изучился моей учительницей, что это должно быть «я учу язык», даже, когда я учусь.
I was taught it should be "я учу язык" (lit. I teach a language) even if I learn it.

Maybe I shouldn't have marked it red - я учу язык is a possible construction, I was just taught to avoid it because it's ambiguous between "teach" and "learn".

Remind us, how old are you so that whole my life is only a part of yours?

I'm 51. I started learning Polish 30 years ago, but I have little practice using it actively outside of the ZBB. Maybe mię was obsolescent even back then, but nobody told me.

Genau, außer dass "vliegveld" das häufigere Wort ist (zu mindestens umgangssprachlich)*1).
Indeed, except that "vliegveld" is the common word (at least colloquially).

*1) Officially, there are only mindestens and zumindest (both are possible here). But zumindestens has become so frequent in colloquial speech that I assume at one point Duden will give in and admit it to the literary standard.
Zaraz pójdę do domu.
Je vais chez soi maintenant.
Nu ga ik naar huis.
I'll go home now.

[Ziz]

The whole thing about airports is very similar to Hebrew. The official word for 'airport' is נמל תעופה namal te‘ufa, which is 'flying-port', but colloquially everyone says שדה תעופה śde te‘ufa, which is 'flying-field'.

Interestingly, the commonly used abbreviation for Ben Gurion Airport, the only serious airport in Israel, is נתב"ג natbag, but there are even people who don't know what the נ n stands for (my boyfriend among them).

Escribo algo en español para que nadie me grite.
I am writing something in Spanish so nobody yells at me.

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

Remind us, how old are you so that whole my life is only a part of yours?

I'm 51. I started learning Polish 30 years ago, but I have little practice using it actively outside of the ZBB. Maybe mię was obsolescent even back then, but nobody told me.

Я б тебе сказал.
Je te le dirais.
I'd tell you.

Je vais chez soi maintenant.
I'll go home now.

Shouldn't that be moi? (Finally I start knowing something more than other person!)

Я недавно нашёл один фильм на ютубе, в котором один мужчина сказал, что он признал, что он по-настоящему знает немецкий язык, когда ему стали сниться сны на этом языке.
J'ai dernièrement trouvé un film dans YouTube auquel un homme a dit qu'il avait admis qu'il avait vraiment connu l'allemande quand il avait commencé rêvé en cette langue.
I've recently found a video on YouTube in which a man said he had admitted he had really known German when he had started dreaming in this language.
У вас есть такие сны?
Est-ce que vous avez de ces rêves ?
Do you have such dreams?

[linguoboy]

I wonder if/whether it has ever snowed on Malta

It is such an old film that I had forgotten what is happenings in it.

I haven't heardcome across this word butexcept while reading some stylistic or dated texts, actually everybody uses mnie; I wonder where you could gethave gotten that from.

It has always been used, much more frequently than ciebie.
Remind us, how old are you so that whole my life is only a part of yours?

I started learning Polish 30 years ago, but I have little practice using it actively outside of the ZBB. Maybe mię was obsolescent even back then, but nobody told me.

I'd tellwould have told you.

I've recently found a video on YouTube in which a man said he had admitted he had really knownew German when he had started dreaming in thisthe language.

"Admitted" is an odd choice here, since it's most often used with things you'd rather not mention, e.g. admit to a crime, admit that you love me. "Realised" sounds more idiomatic in this context.

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

It is such an old film that I had forgotten what is happenings in it.

So you use present simple to describe films but present progressive for pictures?

I've recently found a video on YouTube in which a man said he had admitted he had really knownew German when he had started dreaming in thisthe language.

Can't I use past perfect in case the previousness of the given action is obvious?

If the answers to both questions are "yes", I'll have some interesting information to share with my teacher.

[Ziz]

You use present simple as a kind of narrative tense, not just for movies but also in books. But yeah, if you were to show me a picture and say "the man buys a shirt" rather than "the man is buying a shirt," it would sound weird to me.

What do you mean if it's obvious? Past perfect is used only when two past events are somehow connected, and the anteriority of one to the other is relevant.

Ex. "I had already seen that movie, so I didn't want to pay to see it again."

In your sentence, "had admitted" sounds weird because it sounds like he was reporting at the time of filming about some admission he had made to someone else at an earlier time, when really the saying and the admitting are the same action.

In a different context, you could say: "He said he had admitted his crime to the police a few hours ago."

I always tell my students to err on the side of simplicity when talking about the past. In American English, at least, you can get away in most cases with the past simple ("I saw that movie already so I didn't want to pay for it again." or "He said he admitted his crime a few hours ago.") At worst, using the past simple in place of a fancier perfect sounds inelegant, but not actually wrong.

[linguoboy]

It is such an old film that I had forgotten what is happenings in it.

So you use present simple to describe films but present progressive for pictures?

A picture captures a particular instant in time so any actions depicted are perpetually in progress. But a film is, as Ziz says, a narrative, with its own dynamic internal structure.

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

I don't wanna junk this thread so I'll try to clarify this in just one post: he said during his talk that some years before he had been to Germany for a year long exchange programme and at that time he hadhadlearnt learnt German language and had started dreaming in it so he could then describe this experience to more people.
I'd just like to know how you say this what I wanted to share with others - maybe there will be at least one person who'll pay attention to these monolingual posts and will find this piece of information useful.

[Viktor77]

(Finally I'm beginning to start knowing something more than someone else other person!)*

J'ai dernièrement récemment trouvé un film sur dans YouTube où auquel un homme a dit qu'il avait admis qu'il avait vraiment su parler connu l'allemande quand il avait commencé à rêver dans en cette langue.[/b]

Est-ce que vous avez ce genre de de ces rêves ?[/b]

*Though to be honest the whole sentence needs rewriting.

Ziz, t'inquiète! Écris en français si tu veux! Tu parles très bien français! Faut pas cesser quoi!**

Ziz, don't worry! Write in French if you want! You speak French very well! No need to stop!

**Ziz, ne t'inquiète pas! Écris en français si tu veux! Tu parles très bien français! Il ne faut pas cesser!**

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

*Though to be honest the whole sentence needs rewriting.

The holidays erase most of my memory .
Meh, why is hwhatting the only one who tries to write in Polish? I'm being corrected more than I'm correcting. It's a bit sad.

[jal]

Meh, why is hwhatting the only one who tries to write in Polish?

Ponieważ ja movię tylko trochę po Polsku.
Because I only speak a little Polish.


JAL

[hwhatting]

Je vais chez soi maintenant.
I'll go home now.

Shouldn't that be moi? (Finally I start knowing something more than other person!)

You're right. My brain has become Slavicized...

Do you have such dreams?

Tak, czasami mam sny na językach obcych.
Oui, parfois j'ai des songes en langues étrangères.
Ja, af en toe heb ik dromen in vreemde talen.
Yes, sometimes I have dreams in foreign languages.

[Awilum]

*1) üben is more like doing exercises (e.g. from a taxt book), while "speak in order to practice" is praktizieren.

What? A doctor praktiziert (practices [medicine]), but praktizieren in German never has the meaning of practicing to learn something. "Wir praktizieren Deutsch" would sound completely weird to a native speaker and probably would even only be understood at all, if he made the connection that it was a mistranslation of "to practice" or a similar foreign verb.

You might argue that adding a qualifying "zu sprechen" as in "Wir üben Deutsch zu sprechen" might make it sound more naturally, but "Wir üben Deutsch" still wouldn't be considered wrong.

[jal]

"Wir praktizieren Deutsch" would sound completely weird to a native speaker

May I inform you, Awilum with the 5 posts, that hwhatting is a native speaker of German, and has been so for about 50 years. It's not good practice to come to a board and directly start out being smug an' all.

Ja, af en toe heb ik dromen* in vreemde talen**.

*Probably better "droom ik", though "heb ik dromen" isn't bad per se (I just find it more idiomatic to have "droom ik" when followed by "in <some language>".
**Though "vreemde talen" is pretty common in all kinds of usages meaning "foreign languages" (e.g. "onderwijs in vreemde talen"), "vreemd" can also mean "strange", and at first I read it "in strange languages" :). To avoid this reading, you could say "andere talen" or "buitenlandse talen" (though this would exclude "foreign" languages spoken in your own country).

Keine Zeit für mehr...
No time for more...


JAL

[ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪]

Ponieważ ja mówię tylko trochę po polsku.
Because I only speak a little Polish.

Thank you very much! A little time of laughter about your orthography changed my mood immediately.

Do you have such dreams?

Tak, czasami mam sny na w językach obcych.
Yes, sometimes I have dreams in foreign languages.

[jal]

Thank you very much! A little time of laughter about your orthography changed my mood immediately.

Proszę bardzo
You're welcome.


JAL

[Imralu]

Niliandika sana, lakini nilichoandika kikapotea.
I wrote a lot, but what I wrote got lost.

Nipo kiwanja cha ndege nikiungojea mama na ndugu yangu.
I'm at the airport waiting for my mum and my younger brother.

Watakuweko huku kwa mwezi mmoja.
They're going to be here for a month.

[linguoboy]

I don't wanna junk this thread so I'll try to clarify this in just one post: he said during his talk that some years before he had been to Germany for a year-long exchange programme and at that time he hadhadlearnt learnt German language and had started dreaming in it so he could then describe this experience to more people.
I'd just like to know how you say this what I wanted to share with others - maybe there will be at least one person who'll pay attention to these monolingual posts and will find this piece of information useful.

Ziz and I told you how to say it: Use the simple past when narrating a past occurrence like this.

[hwhatting]

What? A doctor praktiziert (practices [medicine]), but praktizieren in German never has the meaning of practicing to learn something. "Wir praktizieren Deutsch" would sound completely weird to a native speaker and probably would even only be understood at all, if he made the connection that it was a mistranslation of "to practice" or a similar foreign verb.

You might argue that adding a qualifying "zu sprechen" as in "Wir üben Deutsch zu sprechen" might make it sound more naturally, but "Wir üben Deutsch" still wouldn't be considered wrong.

As Jal said, I am a native speaker. Maybe you're too, who knows, but one thing I've learnt in discussing usage here on the ZBB is that even native speakers can have very different opinions about what usage is admissible and what's not. In any case, if you look you'll find that sein Englisch / Französisch / X praktizieren (X = insert language of choice here) is a quite common usage. And I didn't say üben is wrong, I just said it sounds more like doing exercises than like speaking in order to practice.
(And BTW, wir üben Deutsch zu sprechen sounds to me even more like doing something in a school environment or in some other kind of formal set-up, than simply practicing by speaking.)

Niliandika sana, lakini nilichoandika kikapotea.
I wrote a lot, but what I wrote got lost.

To słowo wygląda jak zapożyczenie z Arabskiego.
Ce mot a l'apparence d'un emprunt de l'arabe.
Dit woord ziet er uit als een leenwoord uit het Arabisch.
This word looks like a loan from Arabic.