5 ms·

I wish I could remember. Words in German can be long as they are composed of other words. It was along the lines of thunder and lightning and terrible storms b

I wish I could remember. Words in German can be long as they are composed of other words. It was along the lines of thunder and lightning and terrible storms blight you! But I think there was a bit more to it than that. EDIT; and the teacher may have made the entire thing up of course! Loved his lessons.

vincent-manis 1y ago
Untergrundbahnhofzeitschriftsplatz: Subway station newspaper stand
- chrisweekly 1y ago
  The root primitives are so easy to discern and interpret: under,ground, train,yard time,writing place
  - nothrabannosir 1y ago
    (Bahn is more like track, not train)
    - scns 1y ago
      Sorry to be a pedant but bahnhof means train station
      - Izkata 1y ago
        ..and then "autobahn" would be..?
        detaro 1y ago
        almost as if word meanings were dependent on context ("railway" would probably have been a more accurate than "train", but going "actually it means track" is just not helpful in this context)
        Izkata 1y ago
        I think you missed the comment that was doing a complete breakdown of the components. If anything by your argument it's more relevant because it shows the breakdown can sometimes be misleading.
        detaro 1y ago
        no, I didn't.
cubefox 1y ago
By the way, English also has compound nouns, only they are sometimes written with spaces and sometimes without. Sometimes even with dashes. E.g. compare "coalmine" and "file name". Compound nouns can get arbitrarily long too, e.g. "file name length limit history blog post introduction".
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  And they work as swears too. Goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch etc.
  - cubefox 1y ago
    Though I believe that's technically not a compound noun. (Fun fact: "compound noun" is a compound noun.)
- sib 1y ago
  While English has compound nouns, they are different in that they are not (generally) single words. For example, the lovely and memorable Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft would be translated into something like "Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Maintenance Building of the Danube Steamboat Shipping Company"
  - philwelch 1y ago
    It just takes longer to standardize them but English absolutely has compound single words. Examples include “folklore”, “pancake”, “manslaughter”, “oatmeal”, “pocketknife”, and “gunman”.
    - TulliusCicero 1y ago
      Right, they're just typically limited to two subwords.
      - sib 1y ago
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

vincent-manis 1y ago

Untergrundbahnhofzeitschriftsplatz: Subway station newspaper stand

chrisweekly 1y ago
The root primitives are so easy to discern and interpret: under,ground, train,yard time,writing place
- nothrabannosir 1y ago
  (Bahn is more like track, not train)
  - scns 1y ago
    Sorry to be a pedant but bahnhof means train station
    - Izkata 1y ago
      ..and then "autobahn" would be..?
      - detaro 1y ago
        almost as if word meanings were dependent on context ("railway" would probably have been a more accurate than "train", but going "actually it means track" is just not helpful in this context)
        Izkata 1y ago
        I think you missed the comment that was doing a complete breakdown of the components. If anything by your argument it's more relevant because it shows the breakdown can sometimes be misleading.
        detaro 1y ago
        no, I didn't.

cubefox 1y ago

By the way, English also has compound nouns, only they are sometimes written with spaces and sometimes without. Sometimes even with dashes. E.g. compare "coalmine" and "file name". Compound nouns can get arbitrarily long too, e.g. "file name length limit history blog post introduction".

SoftTalker 1y ago
And they work as swears too. Goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch etc.
- cubefox 1y ago
  Though I believe that's technically not a compound noun. (Fun fact: "compound noun" is a compound noun.)
sib 1y ago
While English has compound nouns, they are different in that they are not (generally) single words. For example, the lovely and memorable Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft would be translated into something like "Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Maintenance Building of the Danube Steamboat Shipping Company"
- philwelch 1y ago
  It just takes longer to standardize them but English absolutely has compound single words. Examples include “folklore”, “pancake”, “manslaughter”, “oatmeal”, “pocketknife”, and “gunman”.
  - TulliusCicero 1y ago
    Right, they're just typically limited to two subwords.
    - sib 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]