Differences between English and your native language

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Cool Breeze

#489153 Sat, 15 Mar 08 08:35 AM

There are thousands of languages. It would be interesting to see examples of differences between English and your native language. I don't mean you should provide a complete list of them in one post, just some examples at a time. Your examples may be about vocabulary, morphology, grammar, syntax or anything really.

I'll begin by giving a couple of examples of how verbose English sometimes is compared with Finnish:

Hän maalasi talonsa. = He painted his house.

Hän maalautti talonsa. = He had his house painted.

Hän maalautteli taloaan. = He had his house painted frequently. (Finnish: 3 words, English: 6 words)

There is a verb for to paint: maalata;

to have [something] painted: maalauttaa

and to have [something] painted frequently: maalautella

and all of these behave grammatically like any other verb. In English one can manage with just one verb, to paint in all these situations.

The same is true about to fix, to have [something] fixed and to have [something] fixed frequently and so on.

Cheers

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (2,461)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Verbs, Grammar, Vocabulary, Morphology

Kooyeen

#489282 Sat, 15 Mar 08 05:38 PM

Hi CB,
I wouldn't know where to start! English grammar is pretty different from Italian grammar. However, there are a lot of similar words (one example: government - governo), and several similar structures and idioms. The problem is that there are also several false friends, and lots of features that are very confusing because they wouldn't make sense in Italian.

One example is prepositions: on the net, on a pc, in a movie, in a dictionary, in a newspaper... in Italian you could use either "in" or "on" (nel, nella, etc / sul, sulla, etc.), and no one would notice (I hope so, lol). I always have to be careful to use the right prepositions in English, in Italian I pick one at random, lol.

Then there are tricky words like "any" and "some", which in Italian are both "del, delle, etc.", so you don't have to choose. The same is true of "few" and "little" (=un po'), and for "already" and "yet" (=già)... and many other things I don't remember right now.

And there are a lot more tricky things, like negative questions (we use negative questions to sound "casual" and "polite", but in English they sound completely different), genderless pronouns (in Italian it's so simple, it just depends whether the noun is masculine or feminine, so death is a "she", and hate is a "he"), etc.

Anyway, don't think Italian is simple... it's really a mess. And there are a lot of regional differences, REALLY a lot. Just think that I hardly ever speak Italian, so I wouldn't say my Italian is very good at all. Stick out tongue

Kooyeen

Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005

Italy

Senior Member (3,660)

*Parental Advisory* Explicit Posts

Nouns, Prepositions, Grammar, Idioms, Negatives, Pronouns, English grammar

Cool Breeze

#490320 Tue, 18 Mar 08 04:27 PM

There are no articles in Finnish (a, an, the). However, it is possible to use a word that corresponds to the English indefinite and definite articles in meaning. Sometimes the difference manifests itself in the form of the noun. Here is an example:

I bought books. = Ostin kirjoja.

I bought the books. = Ostin kirjat.

Cool Breeze

Nouns, Articles, Definite articles

CalifJim

#490896 Thu, 20 Mar 08 03:58 AM

I speak American English, and, in contrast to "English", I never use the words shall, may, ought, or whom. Smile

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (15,689)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Whom, American English

Cool Breeze

#490941 Thu, 20 Mar 08 08:21 AM

CalifJim
I speak American English, and, in contrast to "English", I never use the words shall, may, ought, or whom.

Jim, I understand what you mean, of course, but if you had been Elvis Presley, you would have had to use some of those words in the recording studio: Smile

"Is your heart filled with pain? Shall I come back again? Tell me, dear, are you lonesome tonight?" - Are You Lonesome Tonight

"I am yours and you are mine, come what may." - Come What May