#Language learning

[lrninglnguage]

“Y” vs. “E” in Spanish

I just learned (quite literally) that the word "e" exists in Spanish like in Portuguese (meaning "and") and I was a little surprised because I thought Spanish only used "y". But although they are used for the same reasons (as connectives) they have different uses.

You see, you generally really use "y" to connect words. However, there is an exception! When the word that follows starts with an "i" sound, then we use "e", even if the word starts with a "h" (which is silent in Spanish). For example:

Padre e hijo

Español e inglés

Julieta dijo que su hermano es sucio e inmoral.

Él era donante de pulmón e hígado.

But why does this happen? Well, since the conjugation "y" is pronounced like “i”, if we used it with another word that also starts with an "i", then it would sound awkward or unclear, because the sounds would merge like “iinmoral” ou “iígado”. So we use "E".

But! There's an exception to the exception: if the word start with an “hia”, “hie” ou “hio”, we use the conjugation "y". Some examples:

La piedra está limpia y hialina.

Es un tiempo de fuego y hielo.

Atropina y hioscina son alcaloides.

Note: In “tú y yo,” we use “y” because “yo” starts with a “y” sound, not an “i” sound.

[i-wanna-study]

Old study space — from the time I was preparing for my final exams in March. (Pt.1)

[silveramaryllis]

If anyone is looking to improve their language skills, cannot recommend translating a novel enough. I've been translating one slowly (7/148 chapters lol), and I can tell I'm getting quicker at recognizing new vocab and grammar structures! Also, you get a fun little story to keep you motivated

[gemsofgreece]

Hey sorry if this is a weird question but I'm learning Greek rn (mostly through Duolingo and self-study) and I was wondering if you had any suggestions of where to watch tv and movies in Greek? I don't have an ear for the language yet and would like to change that. (If you have any suggestions of what to watch I'd appreciate that too!) Ευχαριστώ!

Hello! It's not a weird question at all, there have actually been several people asking this!

What I have recommended in all these cases is ERTFLIX, the ott streaming and on demand platform of the Greek state tv. It is totally for free. The only requirement for people abroad is to make an account, also for free.

ERTFLIX streams the following channels: ERTNEWS, ERT1 (the major of the state channels), ERT2, ERT3, ERTSPORTS-1, -2, -3, ERTkids, ERTMUSIC, ERTWORLD (the international satellite Greek channel), ΒΟΥΛΗTV (the tv channel of the Hellenic parliament), RIK SAT (the international satellite tv channel of Cyprus) and the Greek broadcasting of the European channel Euronews. It also has the foreign TV channels DW and TV5 MONDE. It also has eleven radio stations (for all music tastes and sports).

Their On Demand service is even better. ERTFLIX features a large number of original ERT Greek series and old and newer Greek movies. It also has a wide selection of famous and less known foreign movies which have Greek subtitles (we don't do dubbing in live action movies in Greece, we hate it). Totally stuff you would pay for in other OTT platforms. There are also numerous documentaries, both Greek and foreign ones with Greek subtitles. ERTFLIX also broadcasts for free Greek history documentaries made by COSMOTE History Channel which is from a subscription Greek OTT platform. Honestly, ERTFLIX rocks.

ERTFLIX also keeps a large archive of the state media's old documentaries, shows, interviews, recorded concerts, movies etc, some going decades back.

My personal recs from ERT Greek series are: Έρημη Χώρα, Καρτ Ποστάλ and Αγάπη Παράνομη (the last one has some very heavy themes, don't watch if you want something more lighthearted).

The platform's menu is available in both Greek and English.

Here's where you can find ERTFLIX:

I am aware I always sound like I am the creator of ERTFLIX or something XD but I am sorry I just love it and it provides for free stuff others would charge for. Given that it is the state's channels, they also incline towards what you'd call "quality content" and I think this is particularly helpful for one who seeks to improve in the language through the consumption of this content. But it also has some more mainstream options like thrillers and blockbusters, just not as many as the wordy dramas, so to speak.)

I think this is where you should start. Why go to paid platforms when the free one is just as good, if not better, actually? I could also...ehm... make you aware of the existence of the site Greek-Movies, which has every single Greek movie, series, show, theater and documentary under the sun but it's all in Greek and like it happens with most... you know.. sailors of the Caribbean sites... you have to know what you're looking for otherwise you'll get lost. Check it out though.

Also, watch on youtube the show Eisai to tairi mou (You're My Soulmate). It's a fantastic rom-com series and the person who uploaded it, George, has added perfect English subtitles. He has done a very professional work. George has also his own website, where he offers subscriptions for watching famous Greek shows and some movies with his added English subtitles. If you are willing to pay a fee for it but are unsure of the quality, I can guarantee for the accuracy of his subtitles and for the fact that he has chosen the best of the best Greek series there are. Below I add the first episode of the series that is available for free in its entirety (30 episodes) on YouTube. In George's youtube page you will find more information about how to access his other projects.

My recommendation is to start with ERTFLIX and this free show on YouTube and when you see you develop an ear for it and liking it you can move on to paid content or the more targeted searches in the sailor site! Have fun!

*If you are interested in it, check out for Greek Radio apps, Greek audiobooks and podcasts (I always recommend the LIFO podcasts), you can find them in all the places where you find your podcasts. But maybe those are for when you get a little more advanced in the language.

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[beelearnsfinnish]

[19.06.25, thursday]

been slacking with the posts but i'm happy to say that i've been up to date with my lessons, my homework for them, and trying to get back little by little to consuming content.

on today's class we went over various little grammar points, and did some speaking, which i always feel like its my weakest point (i know it's normal but wanna practice so i can improve!)

also bought my (one-way, for now) plane ticket for Finland, for the end of August. i'm more excited that terrified, but i think it's just cause im not processing the fact that im going there for longer than just a one-week vacation off work. don't think it'll become real until the very end, but can't wait for it to arrive :)

[bairenalenko]

So I've been learning German for the last 5 months but yesterday was the first time I got to use it in person, which of course was terrifying but very empowering.

I ran into a couple and what I imagined were their parents on the street and they asked me for some directions. I could tell from their accents that they might be German. I was EXTREMELY hesitant to bring it up but I had just completed an hour study session so I was in the mindset to speak which boosted my confidence. After I answered their questions I gathered my courage and asked where they were from and they confirmed it. I said I just started to do some self-study and they went straight into very simple German.

After the greetings I was able to ask them if they were on vacation, their relationship to each other (yes it was the wife's parents and they were visiting the couple), if they had kids (it was Father's Day), and that no I didn't have any, etc.

Just very simple stuff but I managed to say that it was my first time speaking with anyone in German. They told me I did very well especially since it was first and complimented me on my accent. They thanked me for the directions and conversation and then I completely blanked on how to say "You're welcome" 😅

Who knows how badly I actually butchered the conversation cuz I don't even know the past tense yet but hey, I understood them and they understood me in a language that didn't make any sense to me just months ago so definitely progress!

It's been almost 4 years since I've really put some effort at studying a language but things like this definitely fuel the fire. Why did I ever stop? 🤔 Oh yeah I had no free time during my move and adding the gym post work took the slot I used to use for studying. I'm glad I was able to find a place to sneak it in now.

Now if only I could start learning the languages I actually want to learn.

[miaj-verdaj-pensoj]

Perhaps a better translation would be//Eble pli bona traduko estus:

Esperanto: mi estas tre grava, tre parolebla lingvo.

ankaŭ Esperanto: la vorto por io eta estas mal+granda(malgranda).

esperanto: i am a very serious, very speakable language

also esperanto: the word for small is opposite-big

[ecceagnesdarling]

One of my favorite things about language learning is when people say idiomatics in the wrong language. Yes, I'm not crashing out, I'm putting fire in the playground. Because I've already got to the end of the well. And you know what? The medicine for a madman is a madman and a half, so I might as well just kick the bucket. Beautiful

[littlemizzlinguistics]

As an English-as-a-second language teacher, I would never ever ever tell my students that TikTok English isn’t a valid and legitimate use of the language. I tell them that it’s a register of English that has appropriate contexts and inappropriate context, and “here’s how you say ‘no wait, let him cook’” in formal, standard English, or “this phrase that you’re asking me about means this but it should only be used with friends in informal context, there’s a time and a place for TikTok English”, but I’d never tell them not to use it or that it’s not valid.

Today’s internet idioms might be next decade’s “perfectly fine in a business email” idioms and I’m not going to stop my students from learning and embracing all aspects of the language. My job is to teach them the appropriate contexts for different things, and to ready them to use English in different contexts and to be able to use it to their benefits. It’s not to be the arbiter of what parts of the language are “real” or “not real” or to say that they MUST only use certain dialects. That would be doing them a disservice and not fully preparing them for the increasingly English-speaking, rapidly-changing world they’re about to face.

Shakespeare was once written for the unwashed masses who spared a little coin to go see a play in a register of their language that made sense to them. Now it’s the height of sophistication. I’m not here to make those decisions. I’m just here to teach my students to move through the world and to know how to use the language in different situations. I’m not so arrogant as to say “that’s not REAL English” because obviously that’s not true. People are using it, so it’s real English.

I’m here to say stuff like “it’s rizz with your friends, that’s fine. But let’s stick to “style” in your essays for now”

[orion-my-rion]

i cannot keep quiet about this anymore.

if you're seeing this, check the reblogs or my "languages" tag for an addition!!

if you're in the US or Canada and interested in learning a language using a free app please get a library card and download MANGO. it's very good and extremely free with a library card (there are many public libraries and universities using the service, so make an account and use the search feature here to find out if there's one near you).

mango currently has 72 available languages and dialects (that's right! different courses for french or canadian french! spanish or latam spanish!). it's set up basically like an audiobook with text. the idea is that the narrator explains the words while you read, and you repeat after them or say the translation out loud when prompted. there's a daily review where you go through flashcards. you can also use the flashcards at your leisure and create your own. at the end of each chapter there's a listening comprehension quiz and a reading comprehension quiz. i cannot emphasize how effective this all is. and it's free with a card.

if you're not in the US or Canada and/or looking for something more like duolingo (don't use duolingo btw tldr they fired translators and replaced them with "ai"), then try BUSUU! it only has 14 languages atm but the lessons are really descriptive and effective. it also has a feature where you can correct other people's open-ended speaking/typing exercises. you set your fluent languages, and exercises by people learning those languages will appear in your feed for you to correct. you can even add others as friends! and, much like duolingo, it has a streak and leaderboard system for you to strive for, minus the guilt-tripping owl.

busuu is free (you watch ads to unlock lessons and they're all skippable after like five seconds), although it also has paid premium/plus versions (i don't use the paid version—the language courses are available for free, and the ad system is Really unobtrusive).

so that's my wisdom for the day. mango and busuu. please check them out :)

[crabtrain]

I will add, the Murderbot Diaries are also great in translation, except the German translation made the WRONG choice of pronoun (sie!!!!! When "es" is right there!!!!!)

I know a lot of people read Harry Potter in different languages to practice/read something familiar and fun. I’m pleased to announce three languages later that The Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik fills this niche nicely, for those folks who want fun (murder) magic school vibes! pros: you’ll know a lot of good vocab for mass destruction and murder, and vocab about systemic injustice

also excellent are Becky Chamber’s The Wayfarer Series, which are gentler and more space opera vs fantasy.

Pros: you’ll know a lot of good space exploration and alien description vocabulary!

cons for both series: there’s a lot of made up words in both books, so unless you have great memory (and they didn’t change the word in translation), you might spend some time being like “is this language X, or in universe?”

[haru-dipthong]

Did you know that the english word “star” and the japanese word 星（ほし）don’t actually mean the same thing?

Language does not simply name pre-existing categories; categories do not exist in 'the world'

— Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners

I read this quote a few years ago, but I don’t think I truly understood it until one day, when I was looking at the wikipedia article for “star” and I thought to check the Japanese article, see if I could get some Japanese reading practice in. I was surprised to find that the article was not titled 「星」, but 「恒星」, a word I’d never seen before. I’d always learnt that 星 was the direct translation for “star” (I knew the japanese also contained meanings the english didn’t, like “dot” or “bullseye”, but I thought these were just auxiliary definitions in addition to the direct translation of “star” as in "a celestial body made of hydrogen and helium plasma").

To try and clear things up for myself, I searched japanese wikipedia for 星. It was a disambiguation page, with the main links pointing to the articles for 天体 (astronomical object) and スター（記号）(star symbol). There was no article just called 「星」.

It’s an easy difference to miss, because in everyday conversation, 星 and star are equivalent. They both describe the shining lights in the night sky. They both describe this symbol: ★. They even both describe those enormous celestial objects made of plasma.

But they are different - different enough to not share a wikipedia article. 星 is used to describe any kind of celestial body, especially if it appears shiny and bright in the night sky. “Star” can be used this way too (like Venus being called the “morning star”), but it’s generally considered inaccurate to use the word like this, whereas there is no such inaccuracy with 星. You can say “oh that’s not actually a star, it’s a planet”, but you CAN’T say 「実はそれは星ではなく惑星だよ」 (TL: that’s not actually a hoshi, it’s a planet). A planet IS a 星.

星 is a very common word, essentially equivalent to “star”, but its meaning is closer to “celestial body”. I haven’t looked into the etymology/history but it’s almost like both english and japanese started out with a simple, common word for the lights in the sky - star/星 , but as we found out more about what these lights actually were, english doubled down on using the common word for the specific scientific concept, while japanese kept the common word generic and instead came up with a new word for the more specific concept. If this is actually what happened, I’d guess that kanji probably had something to do with it - 星 as a component kanji exists inside the word for planet, 惑星, and in the word for comet, 彗星, and in the scientific word for “star”, 恒星, so it makes sense that it would indicate a more general concept when used standalone.

This discovery helped me understand that quote - categories don’t exist in the world, we are the ones who create them. I thought that the concept of “star” was something that would be consistent across all languages, but it’s not, because the concept of “star” is not pre-existing. Each language had to decide how to name each of those similar star-like concepts (the ★ symbol, hot balls of gas, twinkling lights in the sky, planets, comets, etc), and obviously not every language is going to group those concepts under the same words with the same nuance.

Knowing this, one might be tempted to say that 恒星（こうせい） is the direct translation for “star”. But this isn’t true either. In most of the contexts that the word “star” is used in english, the equivalent japanese will be simply 星. Despite the meanings not lining up exactly, 星 will still be the best translation for “star” most of the time. This is the art of translation - knowing when the particulars are less important than the vibe or feel of a word. For any word, there will never be an exact perfect translation with all the same nuances and meanings. Translation is about finding the best solution to an unsolvable problem. That's why I love it.

[thespanishgarden]

Grammar Notebook - How To Say “Make Sure…” In Spanish

In Spanish, you are going to use the verb “asegurarse” to “make sure [of something]”. Let’s take a look at some examples:

• Please make sure to lock the door.

• Por favor, asegúrese de cerrar la puerta con la llave.

• I want to make sure she is alright.

• Quiero asegurarme que esté bien.

As always, feel free to write down your own sentences.

[Gif not mine]

[mtg-player1]

How many languages do you know at least little bit of?

Remake of an older poll (link here)

Like last time I am using a strict definition of language and a loose definition of being able to speak/knowing the language.

Details:

Sign languages count, conlangs count, super similar languages only counts one & dialects of the same language usually won't count (unless you can make multiple sentences in both that someone who only spoke the other couldn't understand), for Norwegian being able to write both bokmål & nynorsk only counts as one

You need to know more than 30 words and be able to construct at least one sentence for it to count. it has to be at least one of the following: writing/signing/speaking/whistling, it doesn't have to be multiple.

(and for people with "sampling bias" concerns, this is not supposed to represent society as a whole)

Poll:

It's super cool if you put the languages in tags

@aromantisk-fagforening