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I'm a Spanish speaker and find it interesting that Swedish has dedicated (compound) words to refer to a person's maternal grandfather/grandmother/uncle/aunt (mo

I'm a Spanish speaker and find it interesting that Swedish has dedicated (compound) words to refer to a person's maternal grandfather/grandmother/uncle/aunt (morfar/mormor/morbror/moster) and paternal ones (farfar/farmor/farbror/faster). In Spanish, for aunt we just have tía, to say something like moster we would say something like tía del lado de mi mamá or tía materna.

jamal-kumar 4y ago
Also in Spanish the distinction between 'Amigo' and 'Compañero' or 'Compa' - 'Amigo' is what people think of as 'friend' in english but it's really more like a friendly acquaintance while 'compa' is much, much closer to how 'Friend' is used in English. Single-word distinctions in familiarity even stretches out to that level of interaction. I think that's the whole language in a lot of ways, though, like you just have a larger dictionary in Spanish because you can modify or combine words in ways that avoid you having to say stuff like "my sister in law, like yeah my brother's wife". That's literally how many more syllables you have to say in English just to say what's said in one word in Spanish, the verbosity is just way higher. I think this leads English speakers to perceive Spanish as a 'fast' language (and some dialects certainly are) but I chalk it up to being able to say more with less words. This is also the case in every other language I've learned compared to English (Japanese, German - Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher anyone? ... and now Russian).
- bombcar 4y ago
  Spanish also lets you distinguish between carro nuevo and nuevo carro - being a brand new car vs a car that is new to you. Even there I had to throw in "brand" to make it clear the distinction.
throwawaymaths 4y ago
Ok, I'm dying to ask this. Is it strange that `casado` (side note, I mentally translate it as: "shacked up (with)") takes estar (instead of ser, like your profession does? Though I figure back in the middle ages your profession really was permanent)
- LaLaLand122 4y ago
  I guess it isn't, because it's just a transitory state until you "eres (ser) viudo"? :-p
- eddd-ddde 4y ago
  I think is just as common to 'ser casado' as it is to 'estar casado' depends on who you ask
- dariosalvi78 4y ago
  both are used, as this [1] points out, the "estar" vs "ser" depends on what aspect you want to highlight. "estoy casado" highlights the fact that you weren't before, and "soy casado" highlights the fact that you are now. [1] https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/229597/soy-casado-o-estoy-casado https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/229597/soy-casado-o-esto...
rdedev 4y ago
It's the same for many indian languages too. "Acchamma" stands for paternal grandmother in my mother tounge. "Acchan" stands for dad and "Amma" is mom so the combination of those two is dad's mother. Similarly "ammamma" is maternal grandmother
dariosalvi78 4y ago
and actually doesn't have a work for generic "grandparent"

jamal-kumar 4y ago

Also in Spanish the distinction between 'Amigo' and 'Compañero' or 'Compa' - 'Amigo' is what people think of as 'friend' in english but it's really more like a friendly acquaintance while 'compa' is much, much closer to how 'Friend' is used in English. Single-word distinctions in familiarity even stretches out to that level of interaction. I think that's the whole language in a lot of ways, though, like you just have a larger dictionary in Spanish because you can modify or combine words in ways that avoid you having to say stuff like "my sister in law, like yeah my brother's wife". That's literally how many more syllables you have to say in English just to say what's said in one word in Spanish, the verbosity is just way higher. I think this leads English speakers to perceive Spanish as a 'fast' language (and some dialects certainly are) but I chalk it up to being able to say more with less words. This is also the case in every other language I've learned compared to English (Japanese, German - Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher anyone? ... and now Russian).

bombcar 4y ago
Spanish also lets you distinguish between carro nuevo and nuevo carro - being a brand new car vs a car that is new to you. Even there I had to throw in "brand" to make it clear the distinction.

throwawaymaths 4y ago

Ok, I'm dying to ask this. Is it strange that `casado` (side note, I mentally translate it as: "shacked up (with)") takes estar (instead of ser, like your profession does? Though I figure back in the middle ages your profession really was permanent)

LaLaLand122 4y ago
I guess it isn't, because it's just a transitory state until you "eres (ser) viudo"? :-p
eddd-ddde 4y ago
I think is just as common to 'ser casado' as it is to 'estar casado' depends on who you ask
dariosalvi78 4y ago
both are used, as this [1] points out, the "estar" vs "ser" depends on what aspect you want to highlight. "estoy casado" highlights the fact that you weren't before, and "soy casado" highlights the fact that you are now. [1] https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/229597/soy-casado-o-estoy-casado https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/229597/soy-casado-o-esto...

rdedev 4y ago

It's the same for many indian languages too. "Acchamma" stands for paternal grandmother in my mother tounge. "Acchan" stands for dad and "Amma" is mom so the combination of those two is dad's mother. Similarly "ammamma" is maternal grandmother

dariosalvi78 4y ago

and actually doesn't have a work for generic "grandparent"