We swedes love creating verbs. We do it with all manner of nouns, and even have a word for it (though I don't think it's recognised by SAOL). "Verba." Which is in itself, if you paid attention, a noun turned into a verb.
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What are some things we dont have words for in english?
- Thread starter LookAtMeGo
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We swedes love creating verbs. We do it with all manner of nouns, and even have a word for it (though I don't think it's recognised by SAOL). "Verba." Which is in itself, if you paid attention, a noun turned into a verb.
You might not see why you'd need two because it's probably not typically relevant where you're from. Family dynamics are sometimes different in various cultures. For example, Ancient Greek allowed a lot of specificity in terms of referring to relatives, largely due to traditions of inheritance and distinctions between the mother/father side, making such distinctions important at the time.
Yup. And I mean, if you looked at any language with that 'why is it necessary' mindset you could remove a lot of words.
Never heard of it...and I love it. It kind of describes the feeling I get when I watch Lana del Reys video "High by the Beach"
It is this strong melancholic weird longing...for something I haven't experienced...or I time I never lived.
Usually German words have a rather close Dutch translation, but not with Sehnsucht.
The french word "dépaysement", the closest I could find is "fish out of water"
Also "flâner", closest would be "wandering around".
"empêchement", when you can't make it at an meeting or appointment. Wait, no real word also for "Rendez-vous" ? Seems like there are different words in english for specific cases (like date) but you can use this one for all in french.
"Spleen", describes the sensation that comes from a profound feeling of dissatisfaction and discouragement (from Baudelaire).
"Sortable", to qualify one person you can go out with without feeling embarrassed.
Also "flâner", closest would be "wandering around".
"empêchement", when you can't make it at an meeting or appointment. Wait, no real word also for "Rendez-vous" ? Seems like there are different words in english for specific cases (like date) but you can use this one for all in french.
"Spleen", describes the sensation that comes from a profound feeling of dissatisfaction and discouragement (from Baudelaire).
"Sortable", to qualify one person you can go out with without feeling embarrassed.
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Yeah I like sehnsucht. Its fascinatimg how a simple word in another language can mean something or represent a feeling you've never really been able to describe in your native language.
Just knowing that a word does exist for it makes it seem more "real" if that makes any sense..
I wish I knew more languages.
Just knowing that a word does exist for it makes it seem more "real" if that makes any sense..
I wish I knew more languages.
It's "Silverware" and I'm a little annoyed the folks who quoted you didn't know that.I don't think English has a word that describes all of these together? In Norwegian we call them "bestikk".
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Silverware includes more than just a fork, knife and spoon.
No, silverware includes all household silver like candleholders etc.
Like mentioned previously 'cutlery' is the translation of 'bestikk'
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Silverware is the fancy stuff you keep locked away and only bust out to impress the uppity Joneses. It might be that in the US it started meaning the same thing, but something like Bestikk has the meaning of a different, banal form of cutlery.
yeah, and other languages also often have words for, example, the "middle" child, or the "youngest", etcetera.
I guess we Dutch don't really care, as long as it is "gezellig" :P
No. Day translates as dag. Døgn would be used where in English you talk about 24/48/72/96/etc. hours.
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I hereby declare this as also an english word now
Interesting
Japanese - shikatanai - means basically it can't be helped. It's used a lot in times where it can be helped, but sometimes there's literally nothing you could have done to stop something happening.
Japanese - yoroshiku onegaishimasu - it's used in so many contexts and situations there isn't really even a literal translation, but I love it as it encompasses so much stuff.
Hentai means pervert in English. If you're calling someone a hentai you're calling them a pervert. The English adopted usage of that word to describe erotic anime is wrong.
H (Ecchi) - is harder to translate but it's as you say used to describe anything mildly erotic or lewd.
Japanese - yoroshiku onegaishimasu - it's used in so many contexts and situations there isn't really even a literal translation, but I love it as it encompasses so much stuff.
Hentai means pervert in English. If you're calling someone a hentai you're calling them a pervert. The English adopted usage of that word to describe erotic anime is wrong.
H (Ecchi) - is harder to translate but it's as you say used to describe anything mildly erotic or lewd.
I've airways said "the other day." Is that not as common as I think?
Adding to the above, you have all your favorite lazy translation catchphrases, shikatanai being one, but also omatase (kept you waiting) specific words when leaving or coming home, itadakimasu before eating, and others im too lazy to think of atm, I'm a hundred years too early to be posting this (even though that ones not just one word.
And yeah, yoroshiku onegaishimasu means a lot of things, most of the time it's "nice to meet you," like that one time in Persona 5 when it should've been translated that way, but they decided to be literal and make it "take care of me" which had me banging my head.
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Well as a non-uppity Jones, silverware has only ever meant spoons, forks and butterknives that go into the silverware drawer after cleaning the dishes/emptying the dishwasher.
But I guess that's just an evolution of a word that technically means what you all were saying. But STILL lol.
But I guess that's just an evolution of a word that technically means what you all were saying. But STILL lol.
Lmao. I think he refers to what we call an 'etmaal' in Dutch, which means exactly 24 hours or a 'natural day'.
Kind of hard to explain, the difference being 'day' (dag) can also mean the time when the sun is up, while 'etmaal' always means 24 hours.
Not if you look at our history: invaded by the Romans, invaded by the French, Nordic settlers, and so on.
All languages do that, and especially if cultures interact with each other.
This is kind of the thing. If something becomes relevant in English it gets its own word, usually on loan. It's why English is such a godsawful mess. Our farm animals are Anglo-Saxon (cow, sheep, etc) but our meat is French (beef, mutton). Our homes are German, unless they're a domicile in which case they're Latin. To entertain ourselves we can go Japanese for Karaoke, go French for the theatre, a mix of Latin and Greek for Television, or go Dutch and end up on a booze cruise.
Want to go to sleep? Well put on some pyjamas (Indian) or a mix of German and Norwegian for nightclothes!
We've stolen from Russian (the blindly loyal bureaucrat - an apparatchik), Spanish (Mosquito, Mustang), Italian (Hey presto, a soprano prima-donna!), even African words (Hey, a chimpanzee on Safari playing a banjo!).
The English languages steals and bastardises words from basically everywhere then adds them to compounds, verbs them, mutates them some more, and then 4 centuries later gives a historian a headache because there really shouldn't be a common root to two words...but there is so they have to deal with it. About the only word we think might be an English original is "dog" which just appears with no real etymology.
Better than asking what words are missing in English is to ask what the English language hasn't stolen yet.
As a post-script I do think we need a word for the emotion felt when raising up a mug of tea, only to find one has already finished it. Sadness doesn't quite cover that one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nychthemeron? I'll assume it's not a very common word, though. Or does it only count as Greek?
on the other hand, many languages have to thank english for the word "Timing"
I speak daily a ton of Spanish and German and BOTH languages are in urgent need of a word of their own for that one
"ja das war ein perfektes Timing" or " como que el timing no fue el correcto", people just got tired of finding a single word that explains exactly that.
I speak daily a ton of Spanish and German and BOTH languages are in urgent need of a word of their own for that one
"ja das war ein perfektes Timing" or " como que el timing no fue el correcto", people just got tired of finding a single word that explains exactly that.
spanish has tons of terms for extended family that just get lumped into "cousin, uncle, or aunt" in english.
I suppose daylight/time is the shorter period of the day which is 24 hrs, it's a bit sloppy though.
Like my Dutch compatriate said already; swaffelen seems the compareable term for us.
That's so Finnish.:D
Gezellig.
EDIT: beaten to hell and back.
I suppose Honne and Tatemae in Japanese. While we do have "fake politeness", it's not as institutionalised nor consistent as Japanese.
EDIT: beaten to hell and back.
I suppose Honne and Tatemae in Japanese. While we do have "fake politeness", it's not as institutionalised nor consistent as Japanese.
Not really. The definition of "olla" is weirdly specific and narrow. It can only be used describing the action of putting the actual head of the penis, the "ollon" against something. Not slapping the penis around willy-nilly in that whimsical dutch fashion we all know and love. This is swedish precision work at its finest.
Incidentally, "ekollon" means acorn in swedish, oak-ollon. So that's kind of fun.
Lmao. The Dutch word for dickhead is 'Eikel' which is the same word we use for an acorn hahaha
We also have the verb 'eikelen' which sort of means being annoying...being a dickhead.
This is my favorite so far, especially the inclusion of underpants in the definition lol
Weltschmerz
"The kind of feeling experienced by someone who believes that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind"
"The kind of feeling experienced by someone who believes that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind"
The English localiser's nightmare. Though I'd argue we can use the word "classic" similarly, at least in a sarcastic, colloquial sense. "Psh, classic Yosuke-kun."
Translator's note: 'Sasuga' is a Japanese word encapsulating the meaning of "That's just the kind of thing/conduct/action one would expect from this particular person/in this kind of situation".
There is the german word "Muss" which would be literally translated as "Must" or "have to" but is also used in a different context that doesn't have a proper translation in english (i think)
Muss is the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and you'd rather die than go to work but you go anyways because you gotta pay rent.
Muss is the feeling when you're piss soaked in rain but continue onwards because your car broke down.
Muss is the feeling of dread whenever you do something unpleasant you don't wanna do at all, but have to continue doing.
Muss is the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and you'd rather die than go to work but you go anyways because you gotta pay rent.
Muss is the feeling when you're piss soaked in rain but continue onwards because your car broke down.
Muss is the feeling of dread whenever you do something unpleasant you don't wanna do at all, but have to continue doing.
There's a theory in linguistics called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which basically claims that our language affects how our brain works and how we think. It has sbee discredited since, and I don't think any modern linguistics believe it any longer. If you're interested in this, there should be some reading that doesn't get too far into the weeds of linguistic theory available on Google, especially after Arrival (because the movie hinges on the concept). Just be careful because it will spoil the movie for you. The hypothesis is covered in most Ling 101 classes, I'd imagine.
I think the modern explanation though would be that we do feel or experience these things but simply have not found an eloquent way of articulating them. There are concepts distinct to a certain culture, of course, and English also borrows and co-opts and remixes words and phrases from other languages all the time.
Day has a lot of meanings, though...and the distinction between a day (a period of 24 hours), and the day (the daytime/light hours). An exception being if the the is the definite article (which is pure context) in which case it CAN mean the 24 hour period again but is usually referring less to the time/light, and more a general imminence or proximity of something important e.g. "Today's the day"
It's weird that English doesn't have a good word for someone who works under someone else. "He is my manager. I am his ________." In Japanese it's "buka". It's usually translated as "subordinate", but no one says that in real life. I usually hear people say "employee" but you're not an employee of the manager, you're an employee of the company.
I would call these utensils.
I don't think English has a word that describes all of these together? In Norwegian we call them "bestikk".
I would call these utensils.
Yall* need to read The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd. They used place names (which are useful words that are otherwise uselessly hanging around on road signs) to describe a great many common things that were previously un-named. You can read an incomplete version here: http://lib.ru/ADAMS/liff.txt
Some genuinely useful ones:
I use this one all the time.
"Don't worry, I'll cover the Bodmin. Someone else can leave the tip though."
And some funny ones
And so on. The definitions fit the word sounds very well :)
* Drop the apostrophe! The Campaign for the Second Person Plural Pronoun will not rest!
Some genuinely useful ones:
I use this one all the time.
"Don't worry, I'll cover the Bodmin. Someone else can leave the tip though."
And some funny ones
And so on. The definitions fit the word sounds very well :)
* Drop the apostrophe! The Campaign for the Second Person Plural Pronoun will not rest!
I've worked a few places where the manager thinks they're separate from the staff.
This isn't unique to the English language. Not sure why you write about it like it is.
We do in Swedish.
Far = father
Mor = mother
Farfar = father's father
Farmor = father's mother
Morfar = mother's father
Mormor = mother's mother
Like 99.999999% of US households do not have silver candleholders or any other form of household silver, and when they say silverware they are referring to (usually non-silver) knives, forks, and spoons.
However, if you are allergic to descriptive linguistics, then I think the term you want is "flatware". "Cutlery" is a less precise word because it is also used to describe knives used in food preparation, whereas flatware is only used to describe the knives / spoons / forks used in eating.