zompist bboard

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George Corley
Producer and Moderating Host,

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If you were eager to learn how it might be to buy what surely would have turned out to be those sixteen cows I think I may have discussed with you (if indeed it was you whomwith I had that conversation), I'm afraid I shouldn't be able to help you.

Some nice suggestions here. I miss doch too.
"Y'all", however, is an abomination. We should all go back to "thou".

One thing I miss in English and German is the distinction between different types of grandparents. A Swedish example:
jag besökte min morfar
"I visited my grandfather-on-my-mother's-side"

Another annoying thing about English is the lack of good native abbreviations. For example, "for example". German has z.B. for zum Beispiel, Swedish has t.ex. for till exempel. So English could easily use "f.e.". But I've never seen anything other than "e.g.". Why do you suddenly need to switch to Latin when writing abbreviations?

But the word that I miss the most is, taking the example from Swedish, dygn, meaning "24 hours". Just like for example "week" can mean either specifically from Monday to Sunday (or wherever you count the beginning of the new week) or any period of seven days, dygn can also be either from midnight to midnight or any period of 24 hours.
My German friends tell me that there doesn't seem to be a German word for it either.
Apparently, the "official" English word for it is "nychtemeron". But when did you last say that?

Does Swedish have a word for grandfather in general?

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Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:

Some Finnish words I miss:

hän - he or she. It's really annoying having to write he/she or s/he when speaking about a hypothetical person.
vinkua - a verb similar to cry, as in to make a sound. You can use this word for both pets, for example the sound a cat makes that is different from meowing, as well as small children, for example like the way kids in malls whine when they want their mother to buy some toy they saw.

EDIT: two other words:
gubbe (Swedish), ukko (Finnish) - old man. This is a word often used by middleaged men. Many fairytales begin with "once upon a time there was an old man and old woman". It can also be used by men or humans in general, for example the little men in the traffic lights are referred to as the green "gubbe" and the red "gubbe".
gumma - old woman. This is the female counterpart of gubbe. In Finnish it's called akka, but that can be a rude word. Oh yeah, English also lacks a counterpart to Swedish kärring and Finnish akka, meaning like an old bitchy woman.

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My most recent quiz:

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لا يرقىء الله عيني من بكى حجراً
ولا شفى وجد من يصبو إلى وتدِ
("May God never dry the tears of those who cry over stones, nor ease the love-pangs of those who yearn for tent-pegs.") - Abu Nawas

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My most recent quiz:

I miss friolenta, which is an adjective in spanish meaning to get cold easily.

You would say " Ella es muy friolenta." She gets cold very easily.

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.: Seduce my mind and you can have my body, find my soul and I'm yours forever:.

I miss an adjective equivalent of "of course". Czech has an adjective samozřejmý, from which the adverb samozřejmě meaning "of course" is derived. Is it possible say "of course" with nouns in English?

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"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."