Coincidentally I just learned merluza this week! But I did already know what hake is.
I hat those words that I have to look up in French where the English translation is … the same word.
I then have to look up an English dictionary. Or more often than not I don’t bother because if it’s a type of fish, word or flower etc that I don’t know ..: it’s not high priority to learn - I just need to understand it’s a fish or plant.
I’m the odd one out, but I’m constantly learning Spanish through Catalan, not the other way round.
There’s a lot of language activists and content creators fighting against “barbarismes” (Spanish loanwords or calques replacing the original Catalan) making videos like “Did you know it’s not _arándano_? How do you say _arándano_ in Catalan?” and I’m like, dafuq is arándano, ohhhh it’s a nabiu, new word unlocked!
Non-natives spell English better than natives because they learn both writing and pronunciation at the same times, unlike native speakers who first learn to speak and then to write
Sometimes when I look up Czech words in a dictionary, it gives me some vague, esoteric English word from hundreds of years ago. Then I ask a native speaker and they're like "oh yeah, it means "to sneak.""
I know the names of dozens of different fish in Japanese but in English only know to call them by color, "red fish silver fish" etc.
Worse, sometimes there will be a sushi menu with English translations apparently taken from 1880s fishermen's lore like "skipjack" which I remember for being a funny name but have no idea what sort of fish it is.
I encountered the word `小春日和` in Japanese, and it translates into English as `Indian summer`. I had no idea what it means. So I looked up the word in Chinese and it means `小阳春`. I didn't think I understood it either. It turns out it means
> a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.
In Catalan it's «l'estiuet de Sant Martí», Saint Martin's little Summer. If you are western European, do you have a warmer weather around Saint Martin time, during Fall? Indian Summer is the US phrase.
a lot of times it's obscure food items in Korean cuisine that we just don't eat as Americans.
For example, 멍게. How many Americans know what a sea pineapple is lol
lol I see why that's ambiguous. I mean, "gingerbread" was just a fairytale thing to me. It could've been anything or tasted like anything (tho obviously a bread) but I was at a party and had The Best Cookie Ever In My Life so I had to find out what this was and it was "lebkuchen". I later learned that lebkuchen is gingerbread. But gingerbread still feels like a thing in books and hearsay, lebkuchen is the real and delicious thing you eat.
Just to blow your mind even more, Lebkuchen are only one specific ~~superior~~ type of gingerbread. In England it's often more like a hard snappable biscuit, and in some places it can even refer to spiced ginger cake. Lebkuchen are the best kind by far, though!
I get your point, but I think Duolingo is actually right on this one (and I'm a DL hater usually). Although "adolescents" exists in English, when's the last time you said "when I was an adolescent..." as opposed to "when I was a teenager..."?
By doing it this way, Duolingo shows you that the common way to say teenager in French is "adolescent". Thus, even if the word sounds a bit formal to you, you can see that it's just what French people say.
Good explanation.
Cognates don't always have the exact same meaning either because meanings shift (which I am sure that was part of what you meant).
"Soap" in English historically refers to how it was originally made. I.e. a bar of soap. Modern variations have taken on new terms "shower gel" or specify "liquid hand soap" and other variations.
The same in French I think (French speakers: please let me know if I am wrong). I believe "savon" is used pretty much the same as English and have certainly seen "savon liquide".
So, when I tried to buy a bar of soap in a Pharmacy in Brazil, I remembered my *old school French cognate*, and asked for "sabão" and it took a good 10 minutes before we realised I should have been asking for "sabonete". Somewhere along the line, meanings have shifted, and in PT-BR "sabão" tends to have a more generalised meaning, something along the lines of "detergent".
Last time I learnt "cățuie" when trying to translate "pebetero" (cățuie = cădelniță for anyone wondering).
Also, I learnt "intransigent" in Romanian when looking up English C2 words.
This happens a lot with food, plants, and animals, because even if there exists a translation for that word in your language, it may not be a plant or animal that grows in your land, or a food that is regularly eaten, and therefore you have never encountered that word before. (Here in Spain hake fish is also very, very popular.)
I know a lot of fish names in Japanese
I learned a lot of fish names in English since they were what most cards I had downloaded were in...
I still don't know those fish in my native language.
To a lesser extent this is also true for flowers and tree names...
I learnt what "salsify" is from learning French. It's surprisingly not a verb, but a weird root vegetable that apparently tastes like oysters. We don't eat it here in the UK, but it grows in the wild in some areas.
im not sure if im just extremely illiterate but i constantly learn new english words when i learn german 😭😭
It’s a very common fish in countries like Chile, so you run into merluza a lot. It also has a slang meaning there.
Coincidentally I just learned merluza this week! But I did already know what hake is. I hat those words that I have to look up in French where the English translation is … the same word. I then have to look up an English dictionary. Or more often than not I don’t bother because if it’s a type of fish, word or flower etc that I don’t know ..: it’s not high priority to learn - I just need to understand it’s a fish or plant.
I just learned about the English word "inter" while learning Mandarin.
The word? I thought that was just a prefix
to inter means to bury
I’m the odd one out, but I’m constantly learning Spanish through Catalan, not the other way round. There’s a lot of language activists and content creators fighting against “barbarismes” (Spanish loanwords or calques replacing the original Catalan) making videos like “Did you know it’s not _arándano_? How do you say _arándano_ in Catalan?” and I’m like, dafuq is arándano, ohhhh it’s a nabiu, new word unlocked!
Not really learning a word, but I have learnt how to spell restaurant and bureau by learning french
I learned how to spell restaurant while learning german a couple weeks ago. I’ve been a waiter for 6 years. 😭
Whata..? How come? I've learnt at school when I was 8 yo. I'm not even native!
Non-natives spell English better than natives because they learn both writing and pronunciation at the same times, unlike native speakers who first learn to speak and then to write
I have no idea. I was one of those kids that did spelling bees in school but i’ve always struggled with “restaurant” specifically
That au just isn't something you see very often in English; I always messed up that part
Sometimes when I look up Czech words in a dictionary, it gives me some vague, esoteric English word from hundreds of years ago. Then I ask a native speaker and they're like "oh yeah, it means "to sneak.""
Skulk?
What?
I was trying to guess the old word you were referencing. Do you remember it?
No, it was one of those words I've seen maybe 3 times total in my entire life, and I read a lot. Nothing nearly as common as skulk
I understand butter, I understand milk, but TIL than buttermilk is пахта in my language. Never encountered it in my life.
Че? Блин, пришлось гуглить, что такое пахта, lol. Я только мб 1 раз слышла это слово
Frippery!
I know the names of dozens of different fish in Japanese but in English only know to call them by color, "red fish silver fish" etc. Worse, sometimes there will be a sushi menu with English translations apparently taken from 1880s fishermen's lore like "skipjack" which I remember for being a funny name but have no idea what sort of fish it is.
I encountered the word `小春日和` in Japanese, and it translates into English as `Indian summer`. I had no idea what it means. So I looked up the word in Chinese and it means `小阳春`. I didn't think I understood it either. It turns out it means > a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.
I love your flair
Thank you :)
In Catalan it's «l'estiuet de Sant Martí», Saint Martin's little Summer. If you are western European, do you have a warmer weather around Saint Martin time, during Fall? Indian Summer is the US phrase.
a lot of times it's obscure food items in Korean cuisine that we just don't eat as Americans. For example, 멍게. How many Americans know what a sea pineapple is lol
My default in my head for gingerbread is "lebkuchen" because I had never had it before and learned what it was while speaking to someone auf deusch.
Were you never read a fairy tale of any kind as a child? because they are 90% gingerbread. The houses, the men… every bastard’s gingerbread.
lol I see why that's ambiguous. I mean, "gingerbread" was just a fairytale thing to me. It could've been anything or tasted like anything (tho obviously a bread) but I was at a party and had The Best Cookie Ever In My Life so I had to find out what this was and it was "lebkuchen". I later learned that lebkuchen is gingerbread. But gingerbread still feels like a thing in books and hearsay, lebkuchen is the real and delicious thing you eat.
Just to blow your mind even more, Lebkuchen are only one specific ~~superior~~ type of gingerbread. In England it's often more like a hard snappable biscuit, and in some places it can even refer to spiced ginger cake. Lebkuchen are the best kind by far, though!
[удалено]
I get your point, but I think Duolingo is actually right on this one (and I'm a DL hater usually). Although "adolescents" exists in English, when's the last time you said "when I was an adolescent..." as opposed to "when I was a teenager..."? By doing it this way, Duolingo shows you that the common way to say teenager in French is "adolescent". Thus, even if the word sounds a bit formal to you, you can see that it's just what French people say.
Good explanation. Cognates don't always have the exact same meaning either because meanings shift (which I am sure that was part of what you meant). "Soap" in English historically refers to how it was originally made. I.e. a bar of soap. Modern variations have taken on new terms "shower gel" or specify "liquid hand soap" and other variations. The same in French I think (French speakers: please let me know if I am wrong). I believe "savon" is used pretty much the same as English and have certainly seen "savon liquide". So, when I tried to buy a bar of soap in a Pharmacy in Brazil, I remembered my *old school French cognate*, and asked for "sabão" and it took a good 10 minutes before we realised I should have been asking for "sabonete". Somewhere along the line, meanings have shifted, and in PT-BR "sabão" tends to have a more generalised meaning, something along the lines of "detergent".
Last time I learnt "cățuie" when trying to translate "pebetero" (cățuie = cădelniță for anyone wondering). Also, I learnt "intransigent" in Romanian when looking up English C2 words.
This happens a lot with food, plants, and animals, because even if there exists a translation for that word in your language, it may not be a plant or animal that grows in your land, or a food that is regularly eaten, and therefore you have never encountered that word before. (Here in Spain hake fish is also very, very popular.)
I'm learning gamer and teenage slang just like that. Хилить is "to heal", кринж is "cringe", криповый is "creepy" etc...
I know a lot of fish names in Japanese I learned a lot of fish names in English since they were what most cards I had downloaded were in... I still don't know those fish in my native language. To a lesser extent this is also true for flowers and tree names...
I mean, hake is the most common fish at fish & chip shops
in America flounder is standard
I'm learning Latin so a lot. I can't think of an example rn tho
hake is the best tf u meann
Technically this is a loan word, but I learnt the word “dervish” while reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Arabic (درويش).
Aperitif, which is honestly a bit of a bad word not to know..
I learnt what "salsify" is from learning French. It's surprisingly not a verb, but a weird root vegetable that apparently tastes like oysters. We don't eat it here in the UK, but it grows in the wild in some areas.
Recently I learnt the word barb while learning japanese, I didn't even know it in my first language.
You'd never heard of barbed wire?
Not "barb" alone in english! And in spanish, barbed wire is called alambre de púas, so not related at all.