Help your fluency in a nifty way

Discussion of natural languages, or language in general.
hwhatting
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by hwhatting »

linguoboy wrote:Es heißt Wir müssen über Kevin reden. Es handelt von der*1) Mutter eines jugendlichen Amokläufers*2). Eine erschütternde Lektüre.
The title is We need to talk about Kevin. It's about the mother of a school shooter. A harrowing read.
*1) sich handeln um isn't used when it's about the content or plot of stories, films, etc.
*2) I'd use the genitive here, due to considerations of register (talking about highbrow literature) and style (avoiding the repetition of von.)

Przypominam, że czytałem recenzję tej książki, ale nigdy nie czytałem samej książki. Mogę wytrzymywać "przerażające" tylko w bardzo ograniczonych dozach.
Je me souviens que j'ai lu une recension de de livre, mais je n'ai jamais lu le livre lui-même; je peux supporter "déchirant" seulement à doses très limitées.
Ik herinner, dat ik een recensie van dit boek gelezen heb, maar ik heb nooit het boek hetzelf gelezen; ik kan "ontstellend" alleen in begrensde doses uithouden.

I remember reading a review of that book, but I never read the book itself; I can stand "harrowing" only in very limited doses.

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Ryusenshi
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by Ryusenshi »

Various remarks about French use...
ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:Eh bien, je pense que ce sujet est considéré neutre. Tu pourrais commencer par parler d'un sujet émotionnel mais je ne sais pas comment la conversation se développera.
It's commencer par if you mean "start with doing X"; and commencer à if you mean "start doing X".

Dire is used with a more precise complement: here parler is better. The distinction between dire and parler pretty much mirrors say/talk in English.
finlay wrote:Moi, j'ai joué seulement à Civ II. Il y a très longtemps, mais quand on a changé à Mac OS X, beaucoup de jeux vidéos sont devenus inutilisables, y compris Civ II. C'était horrible, vraiment. Ils font toujours ça, putain ! Par exemple, récemment à cause de l'update de 32-bit à 64-bit, beaucoup des appli de l'iPhone sont aussi devenues inutilisables.
- Jouer is tricky. It's jouer un rôle (to play a role), but jouer à un jeu (to play a game), and jouer d'un instrument (to play an instrument).
- devenir uses être as its auxiliary. Also, the adjective agrees with the subject even after a copular verb.
- Toujours ils font ça: this isn't necessarily wrong, but it sounds a bit... stilted, and very jarring when the following word is putain.
ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:Moi-même, j'aime le Civ IV, j'y jouais beaucoup quand j'étais petit
Same mistake as above: it's jouer à for a game, so when the complement is replaced by a pronoun, it's y instead of le.
hwhatting wrote:Je me souviens que j'ai lu une recension de de livre, mais je n'ai jamais lu le livre lui-même; je peux supporter "déchirant" seulement à doses très limitées.
- Weird, I have never heard recension with this meaning before, though some research shows me that it exists. Chronique or critique would be more natural for me for translating "review".
- The second part I've marked sounds unnatural. I wouldn't use a bare adjective here, and would add some noun (un style déchirant, le genre "déchirant", un livre déchirant), or change the sentence around.
Last edited by Ryusenshi on Wed Nov 22, 2017 5:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Qwynegold
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by Qwynegold »

hwhatting wrote:I'm currently playing Civ 5, but my brother has Civ 6 and I have played it on his computer. I want to play all civilizations in Civ 5 before I move on to Civ 6.
ハハ、いいなあ。私は『シヴ4』も持っているが、まだし始めなかったよ。他のゲームを終えたいんだ。
Haha, ii naa. Watashi wa "Shivu 4" mo motte iru ga, mada shihajimenakatta yo. Hokano geemu wo oetain da.
Haha, nice. I also have Civ 4, but I haven't started playing it yet. I want to finish other games first.
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jal
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by jal »

hwhatting wrote:Separating da and von like this is colloquial, don't do it if you ever write official letters in German.
Danke! So it would be "Ich hatte noch nie davon gehört"?
hwhatting wrote:Ik heb geen tijd om het uit te checken.
"uitchecken" is fine but pretty colloquial as well. Use "te bekijken" or "uitproberen" or the like for a slightly more formal approach.
hwhatting wrote:Ik herinner me,* dat ik een recensie van dit boek gelezen heb, maar ik heb het boek hetzelf nooit gelezen**; ik kan "ontstellend"*** alleen in beperkte doses uithouden^.
*"zich herinneren" is a reflexive verb; not always commas in Dutch :)
**here the Dutch aversion against repetition kicks in for me (twice "gelezen"). In speech this wouldn't be noticeable probably, but in writing it would look odd, and in need for some creative rephrasing.
***I don't know the word "harrowing" very much, so I don't know whether this is an apt translation. Google gives "hartverscheurend" and "vreselijk"/"verschrikkelijk", which are close enough.
^I'd use "aankunnen" (or "kunnen hebben") i/o "kunnen uithouden", and "doses" is pretty formal, so I'd use something like "hoeveelheden" or "mate": "ik kan "ontstellend" alleen in beperkte mate aan".

Ich habe seit lange Zeit nur wissenschaftliche Buchen gelesen.*
I've been reading just scientific books for a long time.

*Is it possible to use the perfective with "seit"? "Ich lese seit lange Zeit ..." sounds more like there's a reason to it.


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finlay
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by finlay »

昨日は新しい薬をもらってた。今日、飲んだとたん、酸逆流した。じゃ、やめちゃおうなぁ
I got new medicine yesterday. Today, it's giving me acid reflux mere moments after taking it... time to stop taking it i think.

…そして、あの医者にもやめちゃおうと思ってる〜彼は、俺の住んだ吉祥寺にいて、俺はちょっと遠く、日野に住んでいるんだ。近くにいるやつの方がいいんだろう
... Also I'm thinking I should probably stop going to that doctor. I should probably find one more nearby - this guy is in Kichijoji, where I used to live, but now I'm further out in Hino.

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ »

hwhatting wrote:Przypominam, że czytałem recenzję tej książki, ale nigdy nie czytałem samej książki. Mogę wytrzymywać "przerażające" tylko w bardzo ograniczonych dozach/dawkach.
I remember reading a review of that book, but I never read the book itself; I can stand "harrowing" only in very limited doses.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by saying that, but that doesn't sound correct.
hwhatting wrote:Nie mam czasu, żeby to sprawdzać.
I don't have time to check it out.
Przecinki! :)
Znex wrote:Me kamau gar tchatchepaha i Civ shpilen. Feteder hi mange Crusader Kings un Total War.
Ich liebe nicht wirklich die Civ Spiele. Ich ziehe selbst Crusader Kings und Total War vor.
I don't really like the Civ games. I prefer Crusader Kings and Total War myself.
Est-ce que tu aimes les autres jeux du Paradox ? J'aime aussi Hearts of Iron IV.
Do you like other games of the Paradox? I like also Hearts of Iron IV.
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by linguoboy »

jal wrote:"spelen" are games like the Olympics (so more like tournaments), "spellen" are games like chess and Civ.
FFS.
jal wrote:Ich habe seit lange Zeit nur wissenschaftliche Buchen gelesen.*
Bei mir ist das genau umgekehrt. Heutzutage lese ich fast ausschließend nur Belletristik.
It's just the opposite with me. Nowadays I read fiction almost exclusively.

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by jal »

linguoboy wrote:FFS.
Wikipedia has a slightly different explanation.
linguoboy wrote:It's just the opposite with me. Nowadays I read fiction almost exclusively.
Ich habe leider viel zu wenig Zeit für Lesen...
Unfortunately I have too little time for reading...


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Pole, the
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by Pole, the »

ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:
hwhatting wrote:Przypominam, że czytałem recenzję tej książki, ale nigdy nie czytałem samej książki. Mogę wytrzymywać "przerażające" tylko w bardzo ograniczonych dozach/dawkach.
I remember reading a review of that book, but I never read the book itself; I can stand "harrowing" only in very limited doses.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by saying that, but that doesn't sound correct.
Probably it should've been „przerażające” książki?

(Also, Polish quote marks.)
The conlanger formerly known as “the conlanger formerly known as Pole, the”.

If we don't study the mistakes of the future we're doomed to repeat them for the first time.

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by hwhatting »

jal wrote:
hwhatting wrote:Separating da and von like this is colloquial, don't do it if you ever write official letters in German.
Danke! So it would be "Ich hatte noch nie davon gehört"?
Yes.
jal wrote:Ich habe seit langer Zeit nur wissenschaftliche Bücher gelesen.*
I've been reading just scientific books for a long time.
*Is it possible to use the perfective with "seit"? "Ich lese seit lange Zeit ..." sounds more like there's a reason to it.
Yes, that's totally fine.
jal wrote:Ich habe leider viel zu wenig Zeit zum Lesen...
Unfortunately I have too little time for reading...
Pole, the wrote:
ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:
hwhatting wrote:Przypominam, że czytałem recenzję tej książki, ale nigdy nie czytałem samej książki. Mogę wytrzymywać "przerażające" tylko w bardzo ograniczonych dozach/dawkach.
I remember reading a review of that book, but I never read the book itself; I can stand "harrowing" only in very limited doses.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by saying that, but that doesn't sound correct.
Probably it should've been „przerażające” książki?
What I meant was what I did in English - putting a term into quotation marks as a kind of meta-reference, meaning "anything harrowing". That also works in German, but from your reactions I see that it doesn't work in Polish (or, for that matter, in French or Dutch).

Co znaczy FFS?
Qu’est-ce que FFS signifie?
Wat betekent FFS?

What does FFS mean?

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by Vijay »

"For fuck's sake."

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

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Vijay wrote:"For fuck's sake."
Das erste Google Hit :)
The first Google hit :)


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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by Ryusenshi »

hwhatting wrote:What I meant was what I did in English - putting a term into quotation marks as a kind of meta-reference, meaning "anything harrowing". That also works in German, but from your reactions I see that it doesn't work in Polish (or, for that matter, in French or Dutch).
Actually, now that I think about it, your sentence gets better by just adding an article before the adjective:
je peux supporter le "déchirant" seulement à doses très limitées.
It's still somewhat unusual, but no longer "wrong".

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ »

hwhatting wrote:What I meant was what I did in English - putting a term into quotation marks as a kind of meta-reference, meaning "anything harrowing". That also works in German, but from your reactions I see that it doesn't work in Polish (or, for that matter, in French or Dutch.
Well, you can't quite talk about a thing and describe it with an adjective without telling before what that thing is. My dumb and ad hoc explanation is because it is simply too ambiguous and so we "require" the opposite construction.
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by Znex »

ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:
Znex wrote:Me kamau gar tchatchepaha i Civ shpilen. Feteder hi mange Crusader Kings un Total War.
Ich liebe nicht wirklich die Civ Spiele. Ich ziehe selbst Crusader Kings und Total War vor.
I don't really like the Civ games. I prefer Crusader Kings and Total War myself.
Est-ce que tu aimes les autres jeux du Paradox ? J'aime aussi Hearts of Iron IV.
Do you like other games of the Paradox? I like also Hearts of Iron IV.
Ich habe dem nicht noch gespielen; ich sterbe weiter, wenn ich Crusader Kings II spiele. :o
I haven't played them yet; I keep dying when I play Crusader Kings II.

Das, und ich hatte keine Zeit vor kurzem zu spielen.
That, and I haven't had time to play recently.
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by hwhatting »

Znex wrote:Ich habe sie nicht noch nicht gespielt; ich sterbe immer, wenn ich Crusader Kings II spiele. :o
I haven't played them yet; I keep dying when I play Crusader Kings II.

Das*1), und ich hatte in der letzten Zeit keine Zeit vor kurzem zu spielen.
That, and I haven't had time to play recently.
*1) I don't know whether this has become idiomatic in German - calques of English constructions can enter colloquial German quickly and as I'm not visiting German speaking internet discussions often, I may have missed that. But the usual thing to say would be something like Das ist das eine, und...
jal wrote:
Vijay wrote:"For fuck's sake."
Der erste Google Hit :)
The first Google hit :)
Dlaczego mnie nie pochodziło na myśl guglać to?
Pourquoi je n'ai pas pensé à googler ça?
Waarom heb ik niet daraan gedacht, dat te googelen?

Why didn't I think of googling that?

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by jal »

hwhatting wrote:Der erste Google Hit
Gibt es algemeine Regeln, was für einen Artikel ein Englisches Lehnwort erhaltet?
Are there general rules what article an English loan gets?
Waarom heb ik er niet daraan gedacht, om dat* te googelen?
*I'd say "het".
Genau. Google ist deine Freund!
Indeed. Google is your friend!


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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by hwhatting »

Genau. Google ist deine Freund!
Indeed. Google is your friend!
jal wrote:Gibt es allgemeine Regeln, was für einen Artikel ein englisches Lehnwort erhältet?
Are there general rules what article an English loan gets?
Yes, in a way. Persons and animates with clearly identifiable sex / gender are easy - loans designing males are male, females are female. But for everything else, it's complicated. There are some semantic classes where loans always get sorted into one gender - e.g., dances and music styles are generally male (der Twist, der Rap, der Hip-Hop), games and sports are often neuter (das Curling, das Tennis, das Backgammon, das Monopoly); sometimes a loan takes on the gender of the corresponding German word (that's probably why it's der Hit < der Schlag; I've seen female Quest, probably due to words like Aufgabe und Mission.). Words with suffixes (often latinate or of French origin, but also agentive -er), that are associated with a certain gender in German receive that gender (e.g. die Gentrifikation, der Computer, der Scanner). As you see, the rules are fuzzy; in most cases it's probably easier to look the word up in a dictionary than to guess correctly.

Preferuję systemy rosyjski i polski, gdzie na ogół można wywodzić rodzaj słowa na podstawie jego końcówki w liczbie pojedynczej mianownika.
I prefer the Russian and Polish system, where you mostly can guess the gender of a word based on ending in the nominative singular.

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ »

hwhatting wrote:Preferuję systemy rosyjski i polski, gdzie na ogół można wywodzić(?)/wywnioskować rodzaj słowa na podstawie jego końcówki w liczbie pojedynczej mianownika mianowniku liczby pojedynczej.
It is comprehesible, but it sounds very, ummm, high register or German :-D. Either way that is unnatural.

Je ne sais quoi je pourrais écrire. C'est l'automne tard, que je n'aime pas - il est très froid.
I don't know what I could write. It's late winter, which I don't like - it is very cold.
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by hwhatting »

ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote: It's late winter
Gdzie jesteś?
Gdje si?
Kur tu esi?
Où es-tu?
Dove sei?
Donde estás?
Waar ben jij?
Hvor er du?
کجایی؟
Neredesin?
Сен қайдасың?
Qaerdasan?
أين أنت؟
Dimana kau?

Where are you?

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ »

Dans le Bateau.
In the Boat. (See if anyone gets it)
C'est une erreur, j'ai voulu écrire « late autumn », il est encore novembre.
It's a mistake, I wanted to write "late autumn", it is still November.
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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

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ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:Je ne sais quoi je pourrais écrire. C'est la fin de l'automne, que je n'aime pas - il fait très froid.
Cuando quieres hablar del tiempo, tenes que utilizar faire. Il est très froid significa que alguién, o algo, es frío.
When you want to talk about the weather, you have to use faire. Il est très froid means that a particular person or object is cold to touch.

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

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ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:Dans le Bateau.
In the Boat. (See if anyone gets it)
Ja nie rozumiem.
Moi, je ne le comprends pas.
Ik versta het niet.

I don't get it.

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by linguoboy »

I au nit.
Ná mise.
Jo tampoc.
Me neither.

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Re: Help your fluency in a nifty way

Post by Vijay »

ˈd̪ʲɛ.gɔ kɾuˑl̪ wrote:Dans le Bateau.
In the Boat. (See if anyone gets it)
ബെർലിനാണോ?
[bɛrlɪnaːˈɳoː]?
Is it Berlin?

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