4 ms·

There must be a thousand false friends though. As a guy struggling through German, there are too many words that sound the same but mean different things, like

There must be a thousand false friends though. As a guy struggling through German, there are too many words that sound the same but mean different things, like 'fast', 'bald', and others (I cannot immediately think of)

dahart 6y ago
I really enjoy finding how some of these cognates are connected, it opens up meanings and interpretations of words in English that I didn’t realize were there. It does make learning German a little frustrating though. I get this constant expectation that it should be easier because the languages are so close together, but the closeness makes a lot of things ironically harder. It seemed easier to grasp the word order in Japanese, for example, than German.
- twic 6y ago
  I get a perhaps similar kick out of reading proto-indo-european word lists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary English "heart" is in French, "coeur", and in Greek, "kardia". Unrelated? No! In Proto-Indo-European we think it was "k̂erd"! Soften the leading k, stop voicing the final d, jiggle the vowel, and you get "heart". Lose the final d and you get "coeur". Jiggle the vowel, add a trailing vowel for streamlining, and you get "kardia". Better yet, soften the leading k and you get "hṛd", the Sanskrit word. Add a trailing vowel, and you get "hŕday", the Hindi word in use today (or so wiktionary tells me).
  - dahart 6y ago
    This is pretty awesome, thanks for the link! Not having studied many languages, I was recently surprised to find out how many English cognates there are in languages like Persian... I had no idea it came from proto-indo-european.
082349872349872 6y ago
Gift. (anglophones transferring to germanophone chemistry labs may think, at first, that the local industry is very generous)
- schoen 6y ago
  Interestingly, its meaning in German once matched the meaning in English, but later shifted to a very specific kind of "giving". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gift#Etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gift#Etymology
  - stevula 6y ago
    Via the medicinal sense of "dose"
- kryptiskt 6y ago
  In Swedish "gift" means both "poison" and "married".
deltron3030 6y ago
Nach einem gecanceltem Flug downloadete ein TV Showmaster sich eine App und trampte mit seinem Handy durch die City, stieg in einen stylischen Youngtimer und drehte sich nen Joint.
- tetris11 6y ago
  ProTip: Do not read German texts in a misguided attempt to improve your spoken German. Different beasts altogether.
duskwuff 6y ago
"Fast" is an interesting word in English -- it has a diverse (or is it "dyuers"?) set of meanings surrounding both "rapid", "secure" (i.e. "stand fast" or "fast asleep"), and "abstain" ("fasting"). Its relative, "quick", has some weird historical attachments as well -- it can mean both "rapid" and "alive" (as in "quicksand" or the "quick" of a nail).
- cyberdrunk 6y ago
  > Its relative, "quick", has some weird historical attachments as well -- it can mean both "rapid" and "alive" (as in "quicksand" or the "quick" of a nail). Likely also "quicksilver"?
- _emacsomancer_ 6y ago
  "fast on the heels of" gives you an idea of how to connect the senses
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > "secure" (i.e. "stand fast" or "fast asleep") The most common example of this sense today would be "fasten".

dahart 6y ago

I really enjoy finding how some of these cognates are connected, it opens up meanings and interpretations of words in English that I didn’t realize were there. It does make learning German a little frustrating though. I get this constant expectation that it should be easier because the languages are so close together, but the closeness makes a lot of things ironically harder. It seemed easier to grasp the word order in Japanese, for example, than German.

twic 6y ago
I get a perhaps similar kick out of reading proto-indo-european word lists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary English "heart" is in French, "coeur", and in Greek, "kardia". Unrelated? No! In Proto-Indo-European we think it was "k̂erd"! Soften the leading k, stop voicing the final d, jiggle the vowel, and you get "heart". Lose the final d and you get "coeur". Jiggle the vowel, add a trailing vowel for streamlining, and you get "kardia". Better yet, soften the leading k and you get "hṛd", the Sanskrit word. Add a trailing vowel, and you get "hŕday", the Hindi word in use today (or so wiktionary tells me).
- dahart 6y ago
  This is pretty awesome, thanks for the link! Not having studied many languages, I was recently surprised to find out how many English cognates there are in languages like Persian... I had no idea it came from proto-indo-european.

082349872349872 6y ago

Gift. (anglophones transferring to germanophone chemistry labs may think, at first, that the local industry is very generous)

schoen 6y ago
Interestingly, its meaning in German once matched the meaning in English, but later shifted to a very specific kind of "giving". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gift#Etymology https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gift#Etymology
- stevula 6y ago
  Via the medicinal sense of "dose"
kryptiskt 6y ago
In Swedish "gift" means both "poison" and "married".

deltron3030 6y ago

Nach einem gecanceltem Flug downloadete ein TV Showmaster sich eine App und trampte mit seinem Handy durch die City, stieg in einen stylischen Youngtimer und drehte sich nen Joint.

tetris11 6y ago
ProTip: Do not read German texts in a misguided attempt to improve your spoken German. Different beasts altogether.

duskwuff 6y ago

"Fast" is an interesting word in English -- it has a diverse (or is it "dyuers"?) set of meanings surrounding both "rapid", "secure" (i.e. "stand fast" or "fast asleep"), and "abstain" ("fasting"). Its relative, "quick", has some weird historical attachments as well -- it can mean both "rapid" and "alive" (as in "quicksand" or the "quick" of a nail).

cyberdrunk 6y ago
> Its relative, "quick", has some weird historical attachments as well -- it can mean both "rapid" and "alive" (as in "quicksand" or the "quick" of a nail). Likely also "quicksilver"?
_emacsomancer_ 6y ago
"fast on the heels of" gives you an idea of how to connect the senses
thaumasiotes 6y ago
> "secure" (i.e. "stand fast" or "fast asleep") The most common example of this sense today would be "fasten".