can i be fluent already?

Oliwia | 19 | Poland | lesbian | Polish, Silesian (native), English, Arabic, Spanish, Russian | Will start in the future: Hebrew, Finnish, Lithuanian | Main blog: @ninetyminutesofsuffering | Feel free to ask any questions!

[camembertkin-deactivated2020120]

EMERGENCY please help me pay rent

so I need 2000 pounds to pay for my rent for my student accommodation for the next term, I am studying at Cardiff Metropolitan University and even if I drop out I still will be required to pay I fled to the UK because of prosecution of lgbt people in Poland rn and for better education but instead may just end up poor and in a lot of debt I’m a Polish international student so it’s been even harder for me to find a job on top of covid19, Cardiff has gone into lockdown this week and I don’t think I’ll be able to get employed in time to pay  I will soon not have enough money for food I tried to set up a go fund me but it required me to have a British bank account and national insurance number, neither of which I can pay for currently I suffer from severe generalised anxiety disorder and have been having panic attacks everyday, please boost this, I’m alone in a foreign country and my parents can’t afford to help me, I have never been in a worse situation  I need to pay for it by January, please, please, please boost this my pa/pal is mruzyok

[camembertkin-deactivated2020120]

paypal.me/mruzyok

[glumblr]

Arabic Essential Grammar #4

Hello again! Sorry it’s been 2 weeks but I am *almost* done with my summer school woo!

ANYWAYS today’s topic was requested by somebody, but I can’t find who, so if you’re reading this, this is for YOU. 

Today we are looking at - 

Inna (إن) and Kaana (كان) and their sisters!

Sisters? in Grammar? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??

Don’t worry! I will do my best to explain. To understand this, you’ll need to know how cases work in Arabic, so go check out my post on this to get a basic understanding on the function of each case  and how it is represented. 

Okay, so what are Inna (إن) and Kaana (كان)?

They represent categories of words which affect the case of what follows them.  Yes, these are their “sisters”. So Inna and her sisters all follow one rule, and Kaana and her sisters follow another. Think of it as two different households, each having their own way of life  and their schedule. 

In grammatical terms, this “way of life” and “daily schedule” refers to the word order and the case of the different components of the sentence they’re in. 

These two households are important, since the words that fall into the categories are very common and necessary to have a nice written command of Arabic. 

Now before we get into the nitty gritty, make sure you have a good idea of what the subject ( المبتدا) and the predicate (الخبر) is in an Arabic nominal sentence. ( my post here introduces the concept quite succinctly!) . These are the two components whose cases are affected by Inna and Kaana!

Okay let’s go!

إن و أخواتها  - Inna and her sisters

Here are Inna and her sisters + their meanings - (note the shadda ّ  for some of them) 

 - إنّ - indeed ( inna)

- أنّ - that ( e.g. I heard that) (anna)

- كأنّ - as if, (ka’anna) 

- لكنّ - but (lakinna)

- ليت - i wish (layt)

- ّلعل - perhaps / i hope (la3alla) ( in comparison to “layt” which is wishful, “la3alla” implies something is more likely to occur)

- لأنّ - because (li’anna) 

now these are all used at the beginning of a sentence to have the desired meaning. However these have a catch  - whenever you use these, the subject of the sentence becomes mansuub (accusative) and the predicate becomes marfu’3 ( nominative). 

example sentence :المطرُ غزيرٌ - the rain is heavy - (al maṭaru ġazīrun) - both are in the nominative. 

- with Inna and akhwaatu-ha, this changes to - 

ليت المطرَ غزيرٌ - (layt al maṭara ġazīrun) I wish the rain was heavy - Here , the subject ( al maṭara)  is in the accusative as opposed to the nominative and the predicate remains in the nominative. 

This is the case, regardless if you wanted to say “ indeed the rain is heavy” or “as if the rain was heavy” or “ I heard that it was going to rain”. 

Why not give those sentences a try!! 

Okay now

كان و أخواتها - Kaana and her sisters

Kaana has a much bigger household lol - i have only included the most commonly used of her siblings. 

- كان - (past tense indicatior e.g. عندي = “i have” but كان عندي = “i had” ) (kaana)

- أصبح = to become (asbaḥa) 

- ظلّ - to stay, to remain (ẓalla)

- ليس - (negation indicator  - ليس عندي = “i don’t have”) (laysa)

- ما برح - ( indication of continuity) (maa bariḥa)

- مازال - to stay, remain ( sth that is continous to the present e.g. “has remained”) ( maa zaala) 

note - kaana and her sisters CONJUGATE to match their subject e.g. if you use ليس in the past tense first person singular, it will become لستُ ( i’m thinking of covering past tense conjugations next week! it’s a big one!) 

The catch when using these is the opposite to inna wa akhwaatu-ha - the subject of the sentence becomes marfu’3 ( nominative)  and the predicate becomes mansuub (accusative).

 so using the same example sentence , let’s use kaana wa akhwaatu-ha!

كان المطرُ غزيرً - (kaana maṭaru ġazīran) - the rain was heavy. 

Again, the same goes for everything else in kaana’s family. 

the end?? 

Okay, that about explains inna and kaana! It’s easier once you get your head around it. no I don’t know why it exists either. 

I know that some bits I have left quite vague ( like what the heck is an indication of continuity and how does negation work) but I’ve done that on purpose, because honestly those all belong their own posts and I want to focus on one topic at a time, to avoid getting you ( and myself!) all muddled~ 

Of course, you can explore any of the topics you want online - don’t feel like you have to wait for me! 

For books, I recommend the Routledge Arabic Grammar and the Modern Literary Arabic  by David Cowan ( old but gold!) - please try to buy them secondhand from somewhere other than amazon! let’s not support terrible working conditions! Even better - buy it local - support a charity! or your local bookshop, they definitely need it right now! 

also recommend Arabic.desert-sky.com for fantastic blog posts that are much more to the point than mine!

Thank you for reading! Please let me know of any glaring mistakes , suggestions and requests! I will do them allllll

and of course, if you have any questions dm me!

[russianwave]

Resource Recommendation: Yandex Translate

I know this is probably well known, but just in the off chance you don’t know: Yandex Translate is a really good resource! You can of course translate text, websites, images, and documents. But there’s also a lot of other neat features:

If you make an account (or use the app) you can save your favourite translations and have a really easily accessible custom phrasebook. Additionally, the history translations go back pretty far.

BUT there’s also community collections. You can subscribe to these handy vocabulary collections based around specific topics. A lot of them are used by Russians for learning English, but you can get a lot of use out of them too.

Not only does it provide you with the translation, but it provides you with dictionary definitions as well as synonyms, antonyms, and cognates. You can also easily compare the translation with Google Translate and Bing Translate.

It also provides you with a whole bunch of example sentences taking from real material [books, articles, etc] as well as showing the word in different contexts. If you hover over the book icon it also shows you the source, so if you like an example sentence you can check out the actual book.

There’s a ‘Popular Translations’ section, so you can look up the kind of thing people are translating most often. This can be a good way to find commonly used vocabulary. 

In fact, it even lets you look up the 1,000 most popular translations from Russian into English. So this can be a really good way to develop your vocabulary and get exposure to a lot of example sentences.

[nordic-language-love]

Do you have any Norsk book recommendations?

Assuming you mean textbooks rather than literature:

Mysteriet Av Nils is one of the best textbooks I’ve ever used. You get a story to follow, topic-specific vocab lists and clear grammar explanations. You can also get each chapter in audio form free on their website.

Once you’re at an A2 level, Norwegian Tutor is fantastic for improving your grammar and helping you to expand topic-specific vocab

I’ve also used Complete Norwegian, which is okay. Again, you get a story to follow along with and accompanying audio files, but I found it was a little slow and they only give you the vocab provided in the text, which wasn’t always immediately useful. But if you use it alongside Duolingo or Memrise or something then it’s still a good resource.

Another book I have is Norwegian Verbs and Essential Grammar, which again is good for topping up grammar, but for me Norwegian Tutor and Mysteriet Av Nils have better explanations (I also don’t think it had any exercises in it, but it’s been ages since I used it so I could be wrong).

I also just had a look on Amazon and there are several short stories/fairy tales for beginners that were never available when I first started learning so maybe give those a try? I think @an-aussie-learning-norwegian might have read a few of that sort.

If you’re after literature, I can recommend Naiv. Super by Erlend Loe if you’re A2/B1+. Other than that I’m not really sure; I’ve read a graphic novel (Reisen til Jotundalen by Malin Falch - gorgeous artwork and quite easy to understand) and a kids book (Den Siste Magiker by Sigbjørn Motstue - it’s no Harry Potter but I still found it enjoyable enough) that were actually by Norwegian authors, as well as a couple of books I’d already read in English or have an English copy of to refer to (pro tip: you can find all the Harry Potter books for free right here.)

[an-aussie-learning-norwegian]

I found quite a few kids books in Norwegian on Amazon, and also Book Depository. I enjoy them a lot. The stories are cute, and the language is clear and simple, which is great for helping build my confidence! My goal is to get good enough to read Harry Potter one day.

I’m actually reading Norwegian Verbs and Essential Grammer right now, and there are no exercises, but it’s good for clarifying some of the rules that Duolingo introduces but doesn’t go into a lot of detail about.

I think I’ll be doing The Mystery of Nils next, I’ve had so many good recommendations about it.

@nordic-language-love it makes me happy that I have the reference books you recommended. You were the first Norwegian language blog I followed and I’ve got some really good tips from you. Your Norwegian is so good, hopefully if I keep going I can get to that level one day. At least I seem to be using the right resources so far!!

[nordic-language-love]

Thanks for the addition!

[escapetoluna]

How to learn a language when you don’t know where to start:

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

Get your writing corrected

[prepolyglot-moved]

Langblr Activation Challenge

Week 2: Promote other langblrs

I found people who follow me or I follow them, as well as people who were in the langblr tag. You should check them out! This is also a week late but I had to move back home and this last week has been weird so I’m sure y’all can forgive me.

@frenchiecarls

@cadalengua

@cozylangblr

@august-viv-langblr

@bergerlanguages

@pai-seh

@your-casual-langblr

@learning-to-think

@flersprogede-blomster

@iprobablyspeakyourlanguage

@kjaerekrake

[your-casual-langblr]

thank you sm!!! 💜💜

[your-casual-langblr]

hi everyone! any (eastern) armenian learners here? i'd gladly welcome ANY resources 💜

[official-lithuania]

winter vocabulary in Lithuanian:

žiema (f, noun) - winter sniegas (m, noun) - snow šaltis (m, noun) - cold snaigė (f, noun) - snowflake varveklis (m, noun) - icicle ledas (m, noun) - ice šarma (f, noun), šerkšnas (m, noun) - hoarfrost šiaurė (f, noun) - North šiaurinis vėjas (m, adj; noun) - Northern wind lytis (f, noun) - icefloe pūga (f, noun) - blizzard šiaurės pašvaistė (f, noun) - aurora borealis

sniego senis (m, noun) - snowman sniego gniūžtė (m; f noun) - snowball pačiūžos (f, noun) - ice skates rogutės (f, noun) - sled slidinėjimas (m, noun) - skiing sniego karas (m, noun) - snow fight ledo čiuožykla (m; f noun) - ice rink slidės (f, noun) - skis

Kalėdos (f, noun) - Yule/Christmas gruodis (m, noun) - December sausis (m, noun) - January vasaris (m, noun) - February Kalėdų senelis (f; m noun) - Santa Claus Kalėdų eglutė (f, noun) - Yule/Christmas tree kūčiukai (m, noun) - Lithuanian Christmas Eve cookies Kūčios (f, noun) - Christmas Eve Nauji metai (m, adj; noun) - New Year Žiemos saulėgrįža (f, noun) - Winter solstice Pusiaužiemis (m, noun) - Midwinter Užgavėnės (f, noun) - the time before Lent

Photo: Audrius Drobnys

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

How to Improve your Confidence

1. Be willing to fail more often - as that means you’re taking on more challenges, and being prepared to try, learn and grow.

2. Keep track of improvements, positive changes, successes, growth and accomplishments.

3. Don’t compare yourself to other people. The only person you’re competing against is yourself. Also, we have an unhelpful tendency to compare our struggles with other peoples’ successes and high points.

4. Work on your posture and your fitness levels as they affect our appearance, and how we feel about ourselves.

5. Don’t just hang out with people you are comfortable with. Also, gravitate towards those who are new or different.

6. We’re influenced by those that we spend time with. So, make friends with people who seem warm and confident.

7. Be a true friend to yourself – and shut off the commentary that is negative, attacking and lacking in compassion.

8. Commit to practicing these different skills – as they’ll take root in time, and change the way you act and feel.

[mapsontheweb]

Hungarian language and its two closest relatives: Khanty and Mansi

[hazelsmazecave]

The whole Finno-Ugric map is pretty great:

[tulegyszerueletu-deactivated202]

Ez tök menő. Kis taktikai érzékkel elfoglalhatnánk Moszkvát

[hazelsmazecave]

[spraakhexe2]

swedish winter vocabulary ❄

vinter {en}: winter snö {en}: snow snöflinga {en}: snowflake snögubbe {en}: snowman släde {en}: sleigh present {en}: present jultomten: santa claus, father christmas jul: christmas julgran {en}: christmas tree omslagspapper {ett}: wrapping paper fest {en}: party december: december januari: january februari: february is {en}: ice frost {en}: frost att frysa: to freeze, to be cold iskallt: ice cold, bitter cold kallt: cold förfrysning, frostskada, kylskada: frostbite frusen: frozen snöig: snowy isig: icy ren {en}: reindeer älg {en}: moose äggtoddy: eggnog vinterkläder: winter clothes skidåkning: skiing snöbollskastning: snowball throwing snöskottning: snow shoveling god jul: merry christmas gott nytt år: happy new year vintertid {en}: wintertime julmat {en}: christmas food flanell: flannel öppen spis {en}: fireplace

[amillionlanguages]

2+ Months of Language Learning Prompts!

Sometimes it can be tricky to know what to learn if you are teaching yourself a language. Here are some ideas for what you can focus on learning each day for the first two months of learning a new language! I formatted it so there is the general topic for the day and then in parentheses are some ideas to get you started but you can definitely learn a lot more than what I’ve written down! These are just to help generate some ideas!

This definitely would move pretty quickly if you covered all this material in 2 months so you could definitely spend more time on each topic if you need! This would require quite a bit of time each day in order to learn it all. This could totally work for a 4 or 6-month challenge where you spend 2 or 3 days on each of the topics I listed if you don’t have enough time to cover each topic in just one day!

Polite phrases (thank you, please, yes/no, you’re welcome, I’m sorry)

Introductory phrases (hi, my name is, I’m from, I speak, how are you?)

Pronouns (I, you, he, she, they, we)

Basic people vocab (girl, boy, man, woman, person, child)

Basic verbs in present tense (to eat, to drink, to walk, to read, to write, to say)

Sentence structure (how to form some basic sentences)

Negative sentences (I do not __)

Question words (who, what, where, when, why, how, how to form questions)

Numbers (0-20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 1,000, 1,000,000)

Time (hour, minute, half hour, reading the time)

Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert, appetizer)

Basic foods (apple, banana, rice, bread, pasta, carrot, soup, water)

More foods (beef, pork, fruit, vegetable, juice, coffee, tea, chocolate, cake)

Kitchen (stove, oven, kitchen, fridge, table, chair, bake, boil)

Eating supplies (knife, spoon, fork, plate, bowl, cup, glass)

More verbs (to make, to have, to see, to like, to go, to be able to, to want, to need)

Family (father, mother, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, cousin, grandmother, grandfather, parents, grandparents)

Transportation (car, train, plane, bus, bicycle, airport, train station)

City locations (apartment, building, restaurant, movie theater, market, hotel, bank)

Directions (north, south, east, west, right, left)

Adjectives (good, bad, smart, delicious, nice, fun)

More verbs (to give, to send, to wake up, to cry, to love, to hate, to laugh)

Colors (red, yellow, blue, green, purple, black, white, brown)

Emotions (happy, sad, calm, angry)

Physical descriptions (tall, short, blonde, brunette, redhead, eye color)

Body parts (arm, leg, hand, finger, foot, toe, face, eye, mouth, nose, ears)

Descriptors (rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, expensive, inexpensive)

Basic clothing (shirt, pants, dress, skirt, jacket, sweater, skirt, shorts)

Accessories (belt, hat, wallet, gloves, sunglasses, purse, watch)

More verbs (to keep, to smile, to run, to drive, to wear, to remember)

Animals (cat, dog, horse, cow, bear, pig, chicken, duck, fish)

More animals (turtle, sheep, fox, mouse, lion, deer)

Months (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)

Seasons (fall, winter, spring, summer)

Weather (sunny, cloudy, hot, cold, snowing, raining)

States of being (I’m hungry, I’m tired, I’m thirsty)

House (bedroom, living room, bathroom, stairs)

Furniture (bed, lamp, couch, door, window)

Electronics (phone, TV, computer, camera, radio, headphones)

Nature (tree, flower, plant, animal, grass, animal, outside, sky, sun, moon, clouds)

More verbs (to teach, to learn, to understand, to know, to listen, to hear)

School (classroom, elementary school, high school, college, student, class, grade, homework, test)

School subjects (math, science, English, art, music, chemistry, biology, physics)

School supplies (book, pencil, pen, paper, notebook, folder, backpack, calculator)

Classroom features (student desk, teacher desk, whiteboard, chalk, clock, bell)

Jobs (teacher, scientist, doctor, artist, dancer, musician)

More jobs (surgeon, manager, engineer, architect, lawyer, dentist, writer)

More verbs (to buy, to sell, to work, to ask, to answer, to dance, to leave, to come)

Comparisons (less than, more than, same, __er than)

Languages (French, German, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, English, Japanese)

Countries (France, Germany, China, Russia, Spain, Mexico, United States, Japan)

Religion (church, temple, mosque, to pray, Judaism, Christianity, Islam)

Past tense (I was, he ran, she wrote)

Hobbies (shopping, sports, soccer, chess, fishing, gardening, photography)

More verbs (to describe, to sleep, to find, to wish, to enter, to feel, to think)

Art (paint, draw, painting, gallery, frame, brush)

Morning routine (to wake up, to brush teeth, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, soap)

Future tense (I will run, he will write)

TV + internet (online, internet, to watch TV, TV show, movie, documentary, cartoon)

More verbs (to look for, to stay, to touch, to meet, to show, to rent, to wash, to play)

[geschiedenis-en-talen]

You will not believe the amount of times I’ve read an English word and thought of a pronunciation and then continued to pronounce the word that way in my head for years only to discover that it has a completely different pronunciation and I would’ve made a fool of myself if I had ever pronounced that word out loud

[nordic-language-love]

it’s okay native speakers have exactly the same experience

[randomslasher]

It’s a phenomenon unofficially known as “reader’s accent” and it’s very common! Because English has so many words (in fact considered to be the language with the greatest number of words) lots of people, and in particular those who read a lot as children, will encounter a word in writing long before they hear it spoken. They’ll develop the idea of what the word will sound like in their head, and only realize when they hear it spoken that their idea was different than the common pronunciation. 

I’ve even had it where I’ve known words as spoken words, and I’ve known words as written words, and it’s taken me a significant amount of time to realize that they were the same word. One example I can think of is the word indictment. I always thought “indictment” was pronounced “in-dict-ment,” and it was only when all these police indictments started happening on the news (with the news crawls below the words being spoken) that I realized it was “in-DITE-ment.” 

So yeah, never feel bad for discovering that a word in English is pronounced differently than you would’ve expected. English has had influence from SO many other languages over the centuries as it developed, and as a result, many of our pronunciation “guidelines” are borrowed from the languages the words originally came from. It’s massively inconsistent, and it’s one of the reasons that learning English as a second language is so difficult. 

As my favorite poster in the campus writing center used to proclaim: 

“English: A language that lurks in dark alleyways, beats up other languages, and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.” 

[mikkeneko]

it wasn’t until an adult that I realized that colonel and spoken word “kernal” were the same word

[wishful-polyglot-deactivated202]

My family gets a kick about the number of words that I mispronounce… I’m a native English speaker and a pretty good reader, yet I make a fool out of myself pretty often. 🤦

[languagessi-deactivated20210423]

Langblr Follow Train (January 2020)

Let’s start a langblr follow train to find new langblrs/lingblrs to follow and befriend! 🚂 1. Only langblrs (blogs about languages) and lingblrs (blogs about linguistics), please!  2. Reblog this post before 31.1.2020! 3. Follow some blogs that have reblogged this post! 4. Make new friends!

[somalang]

chinese question words

吗 - ma - question particle

几 -  jǐ? - how many?

什么 -  shénme? - what?

哪里/儿 -  nǎlǐ/ nǎr? - where?

谁 -  shéi? - who?

多少 (多少钱) - duōshǎo (duōshǎo qián) - how much (how much is it?)

哪个 -  nǎ gè? -  which?

怎么 -  zěnme? - how?

什么时候 - shénme shíhou? - when? 

为什么 - wèi shén me? – why (lit. for what)

多久 - duō jiǔ? - how long (ago)?

几点? -  jǐ diǎn - how long? (lit. how many hours)

[langsandlit]

Fun fact: the Italian words uccidere “to kill” and occidente “West” are cognate and share the same kad-/ked- Indo-European root, one meaning to “to cut into pieces, to kill” and the other “to fall, to plummet, to die”. 

While uccidere (from occīdere) refers to the literal act of killing something or someone, occidente (from occĭdere) “West” refers figuratively to the death, namely the fall, of the sun that’s dying at the horizon.

[languagethatwespeak]

Vocabulary: Russian in classroom

Книга - Book

Ручка - Pen

Тетрадь - notebook

Карандаш - pencil

Ластик - eraser

Занятие - Class

Ученик - student

Учительница - teacher

Бумага - paper

Класс - classroom

Школа - School

Словарь - dictionary

Стул - chair

Доска - blackboard

Домашняя работа - homework

Учебник - textbook

Тест - test

Маркерная доста - whiteboard

Стол - table

Мел - Chalk

Викторина - quiz

Парта - School desk

Вопрос - question

Задача - problem

Лекция - Lecture