Pen the Mind

Oliver | 22 | School of Applied Arts| First year Processing of fine metal

[meichenxi]

Searching for langblrs + lingblrs

Hello everyone!! I feel like my dash is completely empty of LANGUAGE, so if you’re a langblr for any of the following languages please like or preferably reblog (to reach more people) and I’ll follow you. I mainly post Mandarin (intermediate) and some German (advanced). 

- lingblr (linguistics). PLEASE OH GOD MY DASH HAS NO LINGUISTICS CONTENT AT ALL. Especially sociolinguistics, indigenous and minority languages, morphology, typology, historical linguistics. PARADIGMS.

- Mandarin (+ Literary Chinese, + other Chinese languages like Cantonese, Taiwanese etc). Please help me not learn alone lmao.

- Japanese

- German

- French

- Spanish (+ potentially Italian and Catalan)

- Dutch

- Norwegian

- Icelandic

- Hindi

- Tibetan 

- Latin / Greek (both modern and ancient)

- Old Norse / Old English. PLEASE WHERE ARE YOU.

- Thai 

- Korean

- Basque

- also blogs that post primarily in German, Chinese, French, Spanish, Norwegian or Dutch. 

I’m not learning all of these languages, but either a) have learnt some in the past from A-level to ‘good morning’, or b) want to learn them in the future. Basically, if you are any kind of langblr vaguely related to any of those languages (I’m so desperate lmao, literally ‘language’ is fine, if you make posts about Turkish or Swahili or Arabic or any language I’m not learning I’m going to lap them up), PLEASE LIKE OR REBLOG. I’m loooooonely. 

[a-demigod-witch]

For French learners: So, I’ve found THIS: It’s a complete book that I’ve found for beginners, which includes: Grammar, exercises, and also vocabulary! Download and Enjoy! (Bonus Points: Print it.) Note: I took a screenshot of the contents for you. Click on the pictures above for a clearer image, better quality. Here’s the Link to download it.

[languagesenrose]

French Future Review notes, green themed.

[vangoghs-other-ear]

Les Gros Mots

Swears in French

swear level 1: Mom uses these (shoot, darn ect.)

zut- Interjection

Zut ! J’ai oublie mes clés ! / Shoot! I forgot my keys!

sacré- adjective (literally means holy) (old fasioned, quaint)

Ce sacré moustique ! / This darn mosquito!

Sacrebleu- literally no one says this

Mon dieu-  used like ‘oh my god’ in English

Nom de dieu- used like ‘oh my god’ in English

mince- when used as an adjective it means thin, when used as an interjection in means something like ‘man’ or ‘geez’. 

Oh mince, il pleut. / Aw man, it’s raining.

La vache- lit. the cow, used as an interjection kinda like fudge in english

Swear level 2: Can be said in front of mom (damn, shit)

Merde: shit, can be a noun or an interjection

Con- stupid, asshole (can be a noun or an adjective)

Chier: to shit, a verb

Un merdier: a situation that is shit, a mess, a cluster fuck

l’élection de 2016 était un merdier / the 2016 election was a mess

Bon sang: lit. ‘Good blood’. used like holy shit.

Fumier- manure, used like jerk or dick

un fumier un jour, un fumier toujours. / Once a jerk, always a jerk.

Firme ta gueule/ta gueule- Shut up, lit. close your snout.

gueule- used kinda like ‘your ass’ in american english. literally it means mouth, but its usually used for animals so it becomes insulting when applied towards humans.

Je vais casser la gueule ! / I’m gonna kick your ass!

Dégueulasse/dégueu- the vulgar form of gross

j'en ai marre- i’m sick of/fed up with it

Swear level 3: Maybe if you have a cool mom (fuck, ass)

emerdeur/deuse- shit-stirrer 

baiser- used to mean to kiss, now means to fuck or to kiss depending on context

Merdasse- more vulgar form of shit

chiant(e)- so annoying lit. a thing that is shitty  

faire des conneries- to fuck up, to do stupid shit

Dégueulasse/dégueu- gross

Bordel- mess, lit. a brothel

Connard/connase- bastard, jerk, asshole

Cul-  ass (as in the body part)

ça me fait chier- This is boring me to death lit. this makes me shit myself

Abruti(e)- dumb ass

Salaud- (male) jack ass

Salope- dirty woman, whore

Saloper- verb meaning to screw someone over

Saloperie- fuckery, fucked up shit

Putain- Used as often and in about as many ways as we use fuck. Means whore in medieval french.

Putain ! Je me suis cogné le putain d’orteil ! / Fuck! I stubbed my fucking toe!

Pute- the ho’ to putain’s whore, still used like whore/ho

Fils d’un pute- Son of a whore (an insult)

Pétasse- slut

Chienne- bitch (like in english lit female dog)

Garce- bitch (reclaimed by gay guys)

Enfoiré(e)- dumbass lit. having to do with diarrhea

Enflure- douchebag, asshole. lit. swelling

Chatte- Pussy (the body part)

bite- dick (the body part)

Branler- to jerk off

Branleur- wanker

Se Casser- to go fuck off lit. to break yourself

Niquer- to fuck

Nique ta mère-  go fuck your mom 

Enculer-  to fuck up the ass

Combos

[Putain de] + [insult swear]

Putain de salope ! / fucking bitch!

Dégueulasse/dégueu- gross

[bordel de] + [anything you want]

assez avec ce bordel de merde / enough with this fucking shit

For more fun you can stack putain and bordel onto the same word

Putain/enculé(e) de ta race- means something like ‘ you are the worst representative of your type’ (apparently its not racist, but it makes me feel weird)

[lovelengua]

I haven’t seen this language app mentioned around here so I thought I’d share it with you all.

Duoreading is a really useful (+free) reading resource for language learning. It has several books available including Harry Potter, The Little Prince & Alice in Wonderland, with parallel text so you can read in your target language with your native language alongside it. It also lets you highlight individual words and translates them. It has English, Russian, German, Spanish, French & Italian available.

[chaoticum]

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison 

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think 

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites. 

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

[pompadourpink]

Hi! Yours is actually the best langblr in existence. I have been studing French for quite some time now and it would be a great help if you could recommend some reading material. Thanks!

Aw shucks, thanks darling! Here’s some stuff:

Books:

Children’s books

Short stories

Graphic novels/comics

Poems

Fairy tales

Classic literature by century (2/2 is still in progress)

Free ebooks websites (I like Wikisource)

If ya queer

If ya black

If ya female

My personal favourites

Online, not books:

Social media

Subreddits

Fanfictions

News

MOOCS

Hope this helps! x

[museenkuss]

So as a continuation of this post I made in frustration about how anglo-centric most “must-read” book lists are, I went and found a few lists with a focus on non-English speaking authors (sorted by number of books listed):

8 Must-Read Foreign Books Translated Into English (Babbel)

The non-western books that every student should read (The Guardian)

10 best translated fiction (Independent - has suggestions regarding editions + prices)

49 Incredible Books From 49 Different Countries (Huffpost - has amazon links to all the books, which is great to find the editions but please please please support your local bookstores!!!!)

100 Must-Read Classics in Translation (BookRead - Amazon links again. Most bookstores will offer to order books for you if they don’t have them, please utilise their services and support local shops whenever possible!)

All these lists have reviews and feature books from a wide range of countries. I haven’t read every single review but I browsed the lists to make sure they wouldn’t all just name the same books and they don’t!!

I hope you’ll find inspiring new reads on those lists! :)

[galactic-ghst]

need to follow more people

reblog/like if you post about:

study

bullet journal 

books

aesthetics

I really need to get more people in my dash. thanks

mutuals signal boost pls

[twitterlols]

[willowgast]

google drive of a level revision resources

howdy! some folks i know have started to pool our revision resources into a google drive to help people resitting exams in october + year 12s who have been affected by lockdown and learning from home. subjects so far include:

french

german

biology

chemistry

classics

geography

history

maths / further maths

philosophy

physics

politics

psychology

sociology

spanish

and more on the way! link is here. go on and smash your exams you funky legends

*feel free to reblog with other resources/google drives/etc! i’m doing my best to pool as many resources as possible*

edit: in the event that anyone is applying for maths at cambridge, or you need to complete the STEP exams for another reason (i don’t know i’m sorry i’m not a maths student) - here is a google drive of past papers and mark schemes for STEP revision

[coralstudiies]

oh my god

[futurefrenchprof]

Ways to be informal

19/3/2019

Other than “tu” and other small things, your formal education probably isn’t preparing you for informal situations within the realm of languages. And while it may not seem super important, you might just make a friend in your TL and start speaking to them like you would the Queen. That’s why I’m offering you this (very) limited list of ways to make your speech informal. AND I highly encourage others to reblog this and add their own thoughts. Without further delay, let’s jump into this shit.

Tu vs Vous

This has been beat to death so I won’t bore you too much. When appropriate, switch from Vous conjugations to Tu.

Prepositions

While your French prof probably said you can’t end your sentences with prepositions, you actually can (*notice: limitations apply). You can change your sentence from “Tu viens avec moi ?” to “Tu viens avec ?” and it changes the formality slightly. Another example is “tu es pour cette nouvelle règle ?” to “tu es pour ?” (The stipulation being that someone must have previously mentioned this “règle” of which you speak).

Annoyance

Instead of “ça m’énerve” use “ça me fait chier” or “c’est chiant”.

Filler words

Honestly, a little of this goes a long way. Words like “quoi,” “ben” “euh,” and “genre” can make you seem like you know what you’re talking about. So you can use “quoi” at the end of the sentence to just dangle without having a real meaning: “elle m’a dit ça mais elle a fait qqch d’autre. C’est chiant quoi.” “Ben” and “euh” function like “uhm” in English. “Genre” means “like” so you could say “il est genre euh un fuckboy.”

Bref & ‘Fin

“Bref” means “in short” or the way less formal version of that. So you could say “George a fait ça et ça et ça. Bref, il est con.” 

Drop the “ne”

In a formal setting, you might use both the “ne” and “pas” to negate a sentence but in an informal setting, drop that “ne.” Ex: J’ai pas mangé.

Close the Gap

If a verb starts with a vowel, combine “tu” and the verb. Ex: Oui, il a menti. T’as eu raison. 

Question inversion

If you want to be fancy and formal, you can invert the subject and verb for questions. However, if you are trying to be informal, DON’T DO THAT. “As-tu mangé ?” is weird so just say “t’as mangé ?”

Ça vs Cela

Please don’t say “cela” in informal settings (or most settings in general). It’s more for writing. “Cela te plaît ?” sounds forced whereas “ça te plaît ?”

Pronunciation

This is a multiple-part suggestion so let’s number these.

If an un-accented “e” is between two (but no more than two) consonants sounds, drop that “e.” Ex: “Rapidement” > “rapid-ment”

Il(s) becomes “y” (especially when followed by a consonant-sound). 

“Puis” and “parce que” get shortened to “pis” (don’t pronounce “s”) and “pas que” (pronounce “s”)

As I said above, I want this to an open discussion so please include your own thoughts and observations. 

À+ !

[a-bit-of-lit-blog]

i love reading, especially 20th century (1901-2000) books! so here’s a little masterpost on some of the books that i’ve read and have yet to read. enjoy!

HIGHSCHOOL/COLLEGE NOVELS (most of these are also critically acclaimed novels)

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

1984 by George Orwell

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

FORGOTTEN FICTION

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

The Stranger by Albert Camus

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

LITERARY FICTION/CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway 

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Ulysses by James Joyce

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

SERIES

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

OTHER RESOURCES:

19th Century Novels Masterpost

20th Century Novels Masterpost

21st Century Novels Masterpost

Rory Gilmore’s Reading List

Series Masterpost

[stdyngs]

what’s up! i know there are more than a couple latin students in the community and as someone who, like, really throws herself into studying latin + associated roman things (i want to be a classicist so) there are a couple (more than a couple) of resources i’ve come across that really help!

history & culture:

fordham ancient history sourcebook

the latin library (bunch of classical latin texts)

whole bunch of links to various latin texts (there’s some medieval christian stuff in here too)

the perseus project (more classical texts but with english translations)

the ancient history encyclopedia

bunch more links to roman history (and medieval history!) resources

classical art research centre

greek and roman female authors 

this lets you figure out how much time and money it took to get from one place to another in the roman world and it’s my favorite

FREE D OWNLOADS OF THE ENTIRE CLASSICAL LOEB LIBRARY? (for those who don’t know: loebs are books with the latin text placed side-by-side with an english translation) holy shit guys this is a big deal

curious about virgil?

another good classics post with a lot of resources

oxford list of classical resources

the language:

reliable, searchable latin dictionary

another one that gives context and specific usage info for the words

a LOT of latin dictionaries mostly in pdf format

absolute need to know latin vocab

online resources for cambridge latin courses (caecilius est in horto. that one)

bunch of grammar resources/pdf textbooks

wheelock’s latin pdf download (honestly this textbook is my favorite)

free downloads of a bunch of other textbooks

grammar reference charts

create customized vocab for your textbooks and ancient texts holy shit

videos in latin

have fun! may the force be with you!

[revesdefrance]

French Youtube + Netflix

True Crime

Sonya Lwu - L'une de mes chaînes préférées. Elle parle de crime, de disparitions, de psychologie, de paranormal et plus.

Liv - L'une des premières chaînes youtube que j'ai regardé. Ses vidéos sont similaire à celui de Sonya Lwu, seules ses vidéos sont plus courtes.

Victoria Charlton - Elle parle de crime, de disparitions, de psychologie et de paranormal comme les autres mais avec un accent québécois!

McSkyz - Une chaîne comme les autres! Je pense qu'il énonce bien.

Faites Entrer l’accusé - Bon, c'est une émission de télévision mais je la regarde occasionnellement sur Youtube. Elle s'agit de crimes en France.

News/Documentaries

HugoDécrypte - J'aime beaucoup ses vidéos « actus du jour » Il parle des nouvelles et des événements qui se déroulent dans le monde entier.

BrutDocs - J'ai d'abord commencé à regarder leurs vidéos sur snapchat. Cette chaîne propose beaucoup de vidéos différentes et elles sont toutes intéressantes.

Other

Greg Guillotin (comedy) - Je vais seulement vous dire de regarder ses vidéos « le pire stagiaire » vraiment trop drôle

Les Revues du Monde (history) - Cette chaîne s'agit d'histoire, d'anthropologie et d'événements mystérieux.

Netflix

La Mante - Une célèbre tueuse en série qui a terrorisé la France il y a 25 ans sort de l’isolement pour traquer son imitateur. Elle accepte de travailler avec le policier qui l'avait arrêtée avec une seule condition : elle ne travaille qu'avec son fils éloigné qui est devenu policier

Criminal France - Dans une salle d'interrogatoire, les enquêteurs français se livrent à des jeux psychologiques avec leurs suspects accusés pour trouver les réponses dont ils ont besoin pour résoudre leurs affaires.

Grégory - Une mini-série documentaire sur l'histoire de Grégory Villemin et la vie de sa famille après son meurtre.

Mytho - Dans une banlieue pavillonnaire, au sein d'une famille nombreuse, une mère, débordée par sa famille et son travail, va mentir auprès de son entourage, en s'inventant une tumeur au sein.

Plan Cœur - Deux ans après une rupture, Elsa est toujours déprimée alors ses meilleures amies engagent un gigolo pour qu'elle puisse oublier son ex. Mais rien ne s'est passé comme ses amis l'avaient prévu.

Zone Blanche - Un inspecteur de police enquête sur une série de meurtres dans une ville où le taux d'homicides est six fois plus élevé que dans le reste du pays. (J'ai aimé cette série mais ils m'ont perdu dans la 2e saison :/)

Divines (film) - Dans la banlieue de Paris, une adolescente qui veut sa part de pouvoir et de succès devient la coursière d'un dealer. Lorsqu'elle rencontre un danseur, une autre possibilité l’offre une vie nouvelle et dangereuse.

Le Dîner Presque Parfait - Cinq personnes de la même ville invitent à tour de rôle les quatre autres à dîner chez elles. À la fin de la soirée , les quatre invités notent sur dix l'hôte de la soirée sur sa cuisine, l'animation proposée et la décoration de la table. Celui qui obtient la meilleure moyenne gagne 1 000 euros. *** pas sur netflix ***

Il est évident que j'aime un certain genre mdr. Si vous avez regardé quelque chose sur cette liste, dites-moi ce que vous avez pensé!!

[readingloveswounds]

In case you wondered about the state of French memes during this trying time.

[lang0weilig]

German Adjectives: A Guide

So, German adjectives are a mess. The amount of information on a declension table is overwhelming at first, but there’s a way to make it easier.

When to decline an adjective

German adjectives can have three different functions in a sentence:

predicative: when they stand alone in the predicate, i.e., they are on its own after the verb. Der Mann ist nett.

adverbial: when they’re used to indicate the way something happens. Die Frau fährt schnell.

attributive: when they describe a noun. Das kleine Kind isst einen Apfel.

Only attributive adjectives get declined (i.e., get different endings depending on gender, case and number), the others stay in their standard forms.

Declining

The declension of adjectives depends on gender, number, case and, surprisingly, the article it goes with. There’s three different declensions.

1. The weak declension:

This one is used with the definite article (der, die, das) and with other determiners that get declined similarly.

2. The strong declension:

The strong declension goes when there’s no article.

3. The mixed declension:

This one is used after the definite article (ein, eine; kein, keine) and possesive pronouns (mein, seine, unserem, etc.)

You might be thinking: “How the FUCK am I supposed to learn all of these endings and the rules to use them?” I feel you, I was there. Look for the patterns here, though.

Each gender/number and case has its own special endings, which come from the definite article (der, die, das). These endings are what marks the gender and case. When that’s already marked, we don’t need to put it again, so we add the ending -en, which we’ll call the unmarked ending. Let’s look at some examples:

der weißen Katze

The ending for the feminine in the dative and genitive cases is -er, which is already present in the der. so the adjective weiß gets the -en. If we were to take the article away, though, we would have to find a way to give that information, so we add it to the end of the adjective:

weißer Katze

Let’s look at these special endings more closely.

Masculine

Nominative: -er

Accusative: -en

Dative: -em

Genitive: -es

Keep in mind that masculine nouns take the -(e)s ending in the genitive, which means that you don’t need to add it to the adjective. In the following table I highlighted the special endings so you can see how it works:

*I said before that the unmarked ending is -en, so it should say der netten Mann, which is why I marked it with an asterisk, since it’s an exception to our “rule”.

Feminine

Nominative and accusative: -e

Dative and genitive: -er

The table:

*Same exception as in the masculine.

Neuter

Nominative and accusative: -es

Dative: -em

Genitive: -es

Neuter nouns, like masculine ones, also take this -(e)s ending, so, again, we don’t need to add it to the adjective:

*Exceptions.

Plural

Nominative and accusative: -e

Dative: -en

Genitive: -er

Plural nouns get an -(e)n in the dative:

Once I realized this pattern, adjective declension stopped being this nonsensical table that I had to learn and it was easier for me to do it on the go. Hope this helps y’all too!