3 ms·
> with the English proclivity for coining idiomatic verb phrases English does love idioms, and though they can be frustrating, the time to learn them in any la
by justifier 10y ago
> with the English proclivity for coining idiomatic verb phrases
English does love idioms, and though they can be frustrating, the time to learn them in any language always pays off..an idiom
Idioms are a huge factor in changing a language and keeping it new, and often are born of rebellion and subversion
Idioms and puns used to feel insular to me so I began collecting international versions of them
Nomihodai is a Japanese idiom that means 'all you can eat', but speak it aloud to a Spanish speaker and now you are using the Spanish idiom 'no me jodas' meaning 'don't fuck with me'
English's biggest annoyance, or strength?, is it's abundance of propositions.. look up the French word 'de'(o) in you fr-en dictionary
(o) https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/de#French https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/de#French
- jcranmer 10y agoI did look it up. de wasn't nearly so bad, managing only a few inches of space. «faire» was the worst of the French words I could think up, squeezing out around a page. The problem with English prepositions is that much of their usage isn't really analyzable as prepositions. "to put", "to put up", and "to put up with" are all effectively three different verbs, and those prepositions are usually better analyzed as particles. However, grade school English grammar tends to be derived from attempts to analyze English according to traditional Greek grammar, which turns out to work poorly in practice (and hence, everything you learned in English class is probably wrong).