Learning New Words

by compound complex 33 Replies latest jw friends

  • GrreatTeacher
    GrreatTeacher

    I love the word 'subitize' because it sounds so formal for such an easy skill-- to be able to know the quantity just by looking briefly at a pattern.

    So, when you roll a die, and you see a dot in each corner and one in the middle, you know by the pattern that it's the number five. ⚄ You have just successfully subitized!

    Congratulations to all you subitizers out there who didn't know you held that title!

  • Nathan Natas
    Nathan Natas

    I can hardly wait until you meet your "Uncleclockwise" - you'll be gobsmacked!

  • nancy drew
    nancy drew

    As a child, Kurt reveled in schadenfreude until that fateful day when his life became a bildungsroman after a serious accident during a fahrvergnugen excursion.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Thanks, mes amis, for scion, quagmire, donnybrook, subitize, Uncleclockwise, and the German words . . . BRILLIANT!

  • Diogenesister
    Diogenesister

    I love the literal-ness of German..."feets fingers" is a funny one, I would always laugh when my Greek-German friend would say that. Geman is a wonderful swear language too. Such a pleasure to speak.

    I only know how to say one thing in Arabic ( or it may be Berber). Its pronounced "Ub shell-a Hobs" with a very harsh ach sound at the beginning of "hobs " it means "how much is the bread?"

    Counter clockwise makes far more sense but I've always said "anti-clockwise"being a Brit.

    Only one American pronunciation drives ME nuts ...LEGOS!!! IT's LEGO.

    Its funny because WE put an incorrect "S" on the end of " MATHS" Like you put an incorrect "S"on LEGO.

  • Diogenesister
    Diogenesister

    ERINACEOUS

    my nickname as a kid was "Mrs.Tiggywinkle" I think because I resembled the hedgehog in the 70s film of the Beatrix Potter ballet. So I learnt this word because it means pertaining to, or having the characteristics, of a hedgehog!

    Also Cofty may be interested in a word I learned a few months previously. A "DOODLE SACK" was the old Scotts word for a bagpipe.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Thanks, Diogenesister!

    You mean the blocks, plural, are called LEGO? Like we wouldn't say sheeps? I would never have thought, yet I have always wondered why "you" say maths!

  • smiddy3
    smiddy3

    Am I on the same page with these examples ?

    Americans say "pick up trucks " (I think) Aussies say "Ute`s short for utility trucks

    In Queensland ,OZ they used to say ports while Victorians said school bags. As well as Qld`s saying meridian strips while Vic`s would say nature strips

    How about USA using the word Diner where we in OZ would use the word Cafe or restaurant and the words Drug Store as against pharmacy

    Or have I lost the plot?

  • Onager
    Onager

    I'm mad about moths. In French, moths are called Papillon de nuit which is butterflies of the night.

    I was using Google translate to translate a German website about moths once and it translated the word for caterpillar into "Crawler vehicle", which I have called them ever since!

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    I only know how to say one thing in Arabic ( or it may be Berber). Its pronounced "Ub shell-a Hobs" with a very harsh ach sound at the beginning of "hobs " it means "how much is the bread?" - that's interesting.

    Khubz is definitely Arabic for bread. I've learnt that kam means 'how many' and bikam means 'how much' ... so 'how much is the bread?' would be bikam al-khubz? according to what I've learnt.

    There are many types of Arabic - I'm learning Modern Standard Arabic (al-fusha), with some emphasis on informal speech. Arabs don't usually speak this variety. They usually speak dialect.

    Al-fusha is used in politics, in newspapers, and when Arabs wish to communicate with other Arabs who speak an unintelligible dialect. E.g. if an Iraqi and a Moroccan talked to each other, they'd likely both switch to al-fusha.

    It's also used in well-known phrases such as Allahu akbar and as-salaamu 3alaykum.

    Did you learn your Arabic phrase during a trip to Morocco or Tunisia perhaps?

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