Learn something about English

[Deleted]

For a start, here is an example of seven words that were invented by mistake.

[fgrsk8r1970]

OK everybody tells me how difficult German is (I wouldn't know, it's my mother tongue LOL) But the more I look into English, the more I am surprised how easy I thought it is when I started learning it in school.

Here are a few fun Heteronyms (words that are spelled the same but are pronounced differently)

Excuse; Please excuse me while I think of an excuse.
Polish; Tell the Polish cleaners to polish the floor.
Minute; The button was so minute that it was a minute before I found it.
Wind; Hopefully the wind will be strong enough to wind the windmill.
Record; It's the referee's job to record the new world record.

Here is a full list of fun: rinkworks.com/words/heteronyms.shtml

[Deleted]

Yes, I am always amazed when people say that English is so easy to learn.

[nutraxfornerves]

They missed dord and derring-do

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Nutrax

The plural of anecdote is not data.

[htmb]

Is it my imagination, or do Brits (and perhaps other English speakers) use the word "whilst" a good bit? Americans use the word "while," and would never think of saying whilst. Is this a more formal way of speaking, or is it commonly used?

[nutraxfornerves]

"Whilst" is a dead giveaway that the person is a speaker of British English. I find it really useful when I'm trying to figure out the country of a poster.

Here is Michael Quinion's take on it.

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Nutrax

The plural of anecdote is not data.

[htmb]

Thanks, so much for your thoughts and the link, Nutrax. Nice explanation. Whilst I have always believed it was a British form of speech, I was not sure.

[bixaorellana]

[Deleted]

That's a fascinating video, but if I were to make a criticism of it, I would have liked to know when they were joking about certain things and when they were completely serious.

[htmb]

Joking? All completely serious....

[tod2]

I thoroughly enjoyed the video and must congratulate the artist who sketched it all!

[rikita]

as for the first link - the thing about pea and cherry originally having ended in -s ... i think the opposite happened with the german word "keks" (meaning cookie or biscuit) - afaik it comes from english "cake", but it seems it was the plural form "cakes" which then in german got turned into a singular word "keks", the plural of which now is "kekse".

[Deleted]

The French often make amazing mistakes about which English words are plural or singular.

-- un jeans
-- un pins

... for example

[bixaorellana]

Well, strictly speaking jeans could be considered singular, ditto pants. Who knows why English continues to refer to a pair of jeans or pants or scissors.

How is a family referred to in French? English: the Smiths. Spanish: Los Smith.

[Deleted]

An "s" is never added to a family name in French -- les Kennedy, les Obama...

[lagatta]

I believe it is the same in all Romance languages, but someone may find an exception... It is certainly the same in Italian.

As for cookie, it derives from the Dutch koekje, meaning "little cake". These West Germanic words, including Keks, are closely related.

[Deleted]

"un cookies" -- another French aberration!

[kerouac2]

A historian/linguist found it pertinent to explain the origin of the world "isolation" today on television.

Obviously, islands are at the heart of this. Latin insula (island) and then insulatus (made into an island) before developing the Italian isolato followed by the French isolé. The English language used the French word until about 1750 before developing isolate/isolated.

And of course this goes back to the times when ships would arrive in port from a long voyage with most or all of the sailors sick (the ones who had not already died of course). They would be put on a nearby island to determine if they lived or died after 40 days ("quarantine" -- French word still in use in English but missing an A - quarantaine).

I don't think there is an English word for it, but these 14-day coronovirus isolation periods have resurrected a disused French word -- quatorzaine.  I suppose that in English you have to say "fourteen day quarantine," which is linguistically atrocious.

[bixaorellana]

The Brits could say "fortnight-tine".

[mickthecactus]

Mar 26, 2020 7:57:00 GMT bixaorellana said:

The Brits could say "fortnight-tine".

We could. But we won’t.

[bixaorellana]

Americans, of which Kerouac used to be one, might say "two week quarantine".

[bjd]

Great minds, Bixa, great minds...

I was going to mention a two week quarantine, then realized that Canadians were talking about 14 days. In France, 2 weeks is usually called 15 days.

[onlyMark]

Mar 26, 2020 11:58:58 GMT bjd said:

In France, 2 weeks is usually called 15 days.

Why?

[kerouac2]

For the same reason that one week is called 8 days.

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Okay, I looked it up. It dates back to Roman times. The Romans considered one week to be one fourth of a month, so a week could actually be 7, 8 or 9 days.

[onlyMark]

Noted.

Then soon forgotten probably.

[bixaorellana]

Mar 26, 2020 11:58:58 GMT bjd said:

In France, 2 weeks is usually called 15 days.

Aquí también, Bjd. And one week is ocho días.

Mar 26, 2020 12:24:30 GMT kerouac2 said:

The Romans considered one week to be one fourth of a month, so a week could actually be 7, 8 or 9 days.

I am glad to know this, as I always assumed it was because Mexicans (& the French) compulsively included the day from which they were counting, i.e., next Thursday, which to me counts as a week/7 days away, in Mexico today is included as well, so 8 days.

Mar 26, 2020 5:39:29 GMT kerouac2 said:

this goes back to the times when ships would arrive in port from a long voyage with most or all of the sailors sick (the ones who had not already died of course). They would be put on a nearby island to determine if they lived or died after 40 days ("quarantine"

Long ago, in this thread about Lent, another 40-day period we're in right now, I included this nugget about the Spanish word for Lent: From the Latin “quadragésimo” to Spanish, as in "el cuadragésimo día antes de la pascua” -- the 40th day before Easter, or Lent in English.

And to get back to English ~

“Lent” comes to us from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “springtime” (lencten) and both are related to the German word “lenz” meaning “spring.” The root word for lenz is the same as that for the word “long” (lang). Etymologists feel there is a link between this word and the fact that springtime is when the days grow longer in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that, by the 11th century, the word “Lent” “had taken on the Christian usage it has today” and its use as a generic term for “spring” was disappearing. The dictionary adds that “Lenten” is “the earliest English word currently recorded in the OED for the season between winter and summer.” source

[mickthecactus]

The things you learn here! This is better than University!

[lagatta]

In Dutch, Lente still means Springtime, (while it is Frühling in German). I'm still a bit confused when having to deal with all those very similar West Germanic languages.

[onlyMark]

A little known fact is that those that observe lent are called lentils.

[questa]

Those that adhere to the left of the pot are red lentils while green lentils keep singing "Molly Malone".The yellow ones are too scared to do anything noteworthy.