Languages, words

[wispfox]

English has insufficient words. Even considering how many words there are (mostly synonyms), there are not enough.

For those who know Spanish:

Why are 'conocer' and 'saber' both 'to know' in English? Hello, _really_ different meanings! ('To be aquainted with someone' and 'to have knowledge about something/one')

Or... 'ser' and 'estar', being 'to be'? ('to be, on a permanent basis' - like, for example, 'I am myself', or 'to be, on a temporary basis' - like, 'I am well')

Or... 'picante' and 'caliente', as 'hot'? (spicy hot vs temperature hot - seriously, I tend to try to use 'picante' _all the time_. But not everyone knows Spanish)


Why do we say that we _are_ hungry, rather than (as in Spanish) we have hunger? (or cold, or hot, or sleepy, or thirsty, or...)

I _do_ use 'have' that way often enough, because that makes more sense in my head. If y'all ever wondered why my grammar is so strange, combine not thinking in words, and knowing two different languages, where my brain often tries to pick the grammar that is closest to how I think or the ideas came out of my head. :)

Comments

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, consider the usage distinction between por and para sometime. That was my personal nemesis in high school Spanish. Por and para are both used roughly the way we use "for" in English, but have distinctions that always seemed confusing and arbitrary to me.

For the most part, though, I agree with you -- there's a lot about Spanish spelling and grammar that makes much more sense than English.

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

True, learning those fine distinctions can be quite difficult, but can produce worthwhile insight.

And the same thing happens with sounds too... the classic example being Japanese speakers learning "r" and "l", but also "l" "ll", "r" "rr" in Spanish.