Amusing language barriers and your favorite words

[The_root_of_all_evil]

frankly most of the people ... and frankly most of them don't know how to speak the language themselves all that good.

Irony or Deliberate? Only you can decide.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Irony or Deliberate? Only you can decide.

a bit of both and a lack of coffee, only on my second timmies of the day, don't drink tea here cause the barbarians here can't brew a good cup of earl grey

also i think i have the bad habit of doing a few things at once too

 

[Piemaster]

Potassium permanganate and manganese to name a couple.
Also aa deserves a mention as it doesn't even sound like a proper word. But it is. It's a type of lava I believe.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Also aa deserves a mention as it doesn't even sound like a proper word. But it is. It's a type of lava I believe.

a'a it's also a bike by my favorite bike company kona or used to be at least, and yes it is a type of lava, i think the word is hawaiian

then we could also add

Hummu Hummu Nuku Nuku Apua'a, which is also one of their old bikes, the name sticker took up the whole top cross bar, it was kinda funny

 

[ayoama]

I love procrastinate, pretentious and definitely (which half of the English-speaking internet population cannot spell, a fact that never ceases to be amusing).

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak. I agree with you when it comes to learning how to write it, but we only have like two or three verb forms (I run, you run, he runs, we run, they run) as opposed to spanish, which has like six. Our adjectives don't change form when describing singular and plural nouns (the nice girl, the nice girls), like they do in a lot of romance languages. And finally, our inflection doesn't really affect the meaning of words, like it does in chinese.

I agree. I'm Italian and I've studied both French and, obviously, English. I found English to be quite easy to pick up, especially when compared to French; Italian and French may have the same roots, but the sheer amount of verb forms and all those accents make everything harder (Italian has the same "problems", but it's more forgiving on the accents).

 

[cleverlymadeup]

English is a bugger of a language, but personally I reckon German is a bloody nightmare to try and learn. All the verbs and whatnot change depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine or neutral. And there's all those -chs everywhere, meaning whenever I try and speak it I sound like I have a sponge lodged in the back of my throat.

actually i've been able to pick up german pretty easily, been doing some "learn the lang on cd" type stuff but the lessons show the stuff that english and german share, cause english does have a strong teutonic root to it

but yes there's some oddities to it and not even counting the slang, like to say "will you come have a drink with me?" you say "will you drink with me come?" at least i think that's how it literally translates

but english is way more complex and subtle with its rules, not even starting in on the homonyms and contractions or the fact that this is a sentence in english

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

and you can even increase the amount of times you use the word up to 9 times i think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

 

[ThaBenMan]

They don't have pretzel sticks in sweden?

 

[werepossum]

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak.

Of course English is easy; we Americans wouldn't speak it if it weren't.

 

[Necrohydra]

Really? I'd think it's actually pretty easy to learn to speak.

Of course English is easy; we Americans wouldn't speak it if it weren't.

Hey, now, I only speak two languages: English and Bad English!

 

[stompy]

Me, my favourite word would have to be procrastinate:
Procrastinate: postpone or delay needlessly

Why? 'Cos that one word could pretty much sum me up, as a person. I'm lazy to a fault, but give me work, and I'll eventually do it. Consider procrastination (hell, it even sounds funny) my sin (actually, wouldn't be considered sloth?).

- A procrastinator

 

[Ultrajoe]

being the loyal escapist (escaper? escapee?) i am trying to track down the song 'Kempt' by the australian comedy band Tripod as i think it is right on topic with this particular thread

but i cant...

Because they have never made a music video or played it live

so poot

feel free to look it up yourself, i really do recommend it if you'd like an intelligent play on words.

now that i've gone and written this now i really cant leave without a link

[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHIu2ErqgbQ&feature=related[/link] there, its tripod, watch it

well, this was a waste of time.

 

[AnGeL.SLayer]

lol personally I love it when people elaborate upon simple things. I tend to notice that Americans do this a lot. For example, I've heard many Americans use the phrase "Ice Hockey" or "Tuna Fish". This makes me giggle. I know that tuna is a fish, so why say it? Why do you need to through the "ice" on there? I can gather that it tends to be on ice, being a canuck and all

That's funny I never really realized we did that to be honest. Just always accepted that it was tuna fish..oddly enough when we go tuna fishing we just say tuna. hehe ^_^


Also I think the word 'shuck' is highly amusing and fun to say. It means to peel off or to strip off. In America we most commonly use it when saying, "gotta go shuck the corn before dinner." or something along those lines. Amusing...No I'm not a redneck. hehe


^_^

 

[Ultrajoe]

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

thats a sentence in english

thats right, common sense once again falters in the cold light of logic

ooh, thats a good quote, i'm writing that one down

 

[Fire Daemon]

I believe their are 22 single letter words in the english language. Whatever they are, they are my favourite words.

 

[Raikone]

I have a Korean friend and I always end up explaining all the sexual terms.

 

[Singing Gremlin]

I once had to explain to a guy why his refusal to spell "come" properly was resulting in profanity filtering. That was interesting. I also had a lovely Scottish mate on EvE called Lacktale from whom I would adopt many phrases and repeat loudly while giggling, much to his chargrin.

"och, weeshed!"
"shuttup you!"
hehehehe

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

I had to try and explain what a sieve was to my french flatmate who's usually got a fantastic vocabulary. It felt like a little bit of a Fawlty Towers moment when she handed me a bottle of Cif instead.

Speaking of Cif, why'd they have to change the name? Jif was a much better one, in my opinion. Just sounds better. Jif. Jif jif jif jif jif. Jif off. To jif. To be jiffed. Jif and the beanstalk. The meaning of jif....

Shutting up now.

EDIT: Apologies for this, I've been up most the night trying to get an essay done and my brain's starting to turn into something resembling jelly.

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

I once had to explain to a guy why his refusal to spell "come" properly was resulting in profanity filtering. That was interesting. I also had a lovely Scottish mate on EvE called Lacktale from whom I would adopt many phrases and repeat loudly while giggling, much to his chargrin.

"och, weeshed!"
"shuttup you!"
hehehehe

Haud your wheesht you afore I gie you a boot in the bahookie, baw-bag!

Scottish slang is awesome.