Written by R'Vannith on 18.02.2012 at 17:14

I have a question which doesn't relate to a language in particular, is it easy to learn a language when left to your own devices? I ask because multilingualism seems to be more common these days and feel kind of.. I don't know, backward with just one language.

I'd love to learn but I'm not particularly interested in forking out the money for lessons or whatever. Has anyone who's learnt a language on their own had much success with it?

Well, if you ask anyone from a non-English speaking country who's mastered English quite well, they'll tell you it doesn't have much to do with school at first, and good communicating skills on a language that is not your mother tongue can't be learned at school anyway... so yeah, for a big part of it you don't need classes. I'd suggest picking a really well-known language, the kind you can find plenty of info on online. And if you get stuck along the way, you can ask for classes then.

However, if you're not absolutely in love with some language, learning it will be a chore, so if you don't have an idea what to pick now, don't start on it just yet.

Written by R'Vannith on 18.02.2012 at 17:14

Has anyone who's learnt a language on their own had much success with it?

Possibly not the answer you are looking for but i kind of learned english on my own. Of course I was taught in school but I have never felt I gained very much from that aside from the basics.

I played lots of video games (I need to understand the storyline, ok?), watched lots of movies with hungarian audio but english subtitles (language teachers might want to do it vica versa but srsly, I fail to see what use it is to do that when you cannot even make out the individual words they say due to pronounciation and accent and w/e, I had contact with loads of people from other countries via the internet who all use english there, and over time I learnt to speak the language rather well, compared to what is the norm in my surroundings.

Probably easier to do with english than with most other languages since on the interwebz you are flooded with english but should be possible with others too to a degree.

Written by R'Vannith on 18.02.2012 at 17:14

I have a question which doesn't relate to a language in particular, is it easy to learn a language when left to your own devices? I ask because multilingualism seems to be more common these days and feel kind of.. I don't know, backward with just one language.

I'd love to learn but I'm not particularly interested in forking out the money for lessons or whatever. Has anyone who's learnt a language on their own had much success with it?

Depends on the language. I speak Russian and it was also a compulsory subject at school but I can't say I learnt much at school. I picked the language up because I use it in everyday situations (30% of the Estonian population are Russian-speakers which means you will have lots of opportunities to use the language on a daily basis.) Of course, I must say that my literary Russian sucks. I can't read their poetry nor literature. Also, my grammar is a disaster. But I can speak a fairly fine broken Estonian-Russian patois...
English... grandfather was an aussie and my grandmother occasionally spoke in English with me even before the school. English never was a big challenge at school. The teachers and other students did kill my accent tho... Compulsory received pronunciation. Most students later started speaking with a US accent...

I have a good experience with German. I never learnt it at school but as it was necessary for me to know it because of my job, I just took some beginner level study books from the library, bought a grammar rules compilation and studied on my own. Several months later I went straight to the intermediate class at my university (yes, I skipped the beginner levels because beginner levels are boring "do you have a cat? Yes! What colour is she? White." these things can be studied at home you know...), I completed the course and got an A.

So, yes, it's completely possible. You've got to practice constantly tho. Find some pals who are native speakers. Read stuff in the language (news, wikipedia entries, etc) If you don't have any practice, you won't have much success. I can say, I've forgotten all the German I learnt. I can understand it, I can dig what's written (more or less) but... ich spreche keine Deutsch. I'm bad at conversational level. That's why you need to speak it constantly.

For English speakers Spanish, French and German should be the easiest picks. They're all very similar to each other and they're all global languages. You can try Italian as well if you like. Italian is relatively easy.

Written by Ernis on 18.02.2012 at 23:16
Several months later I went straight to the intermediate class at my university (yes, I skipped the beginner levels because beginner levels are boring "do you have a cat? Yes! What colour is she? White." these things can be studied at home you know...), I completed the course and got an A.

I'm taking a course in German at my university now (beginner level) and I totally agree with you. I've had two lectures and so far I've learned like five new sentences... it's less than I learned from songs by Rammstein.

Written by Ragana on 19.02.2012 at 01:49

Written by Ernis on 18.02.2012 at 23:16
Several months later I went straight to the intermediate class at my university (yes, I skipped the beginner levels because beginner levels are boring "do you have a cat? Yes! What colour is she? White." these things can be studied at home you know...), I completed the course and got an A.

I'm taking a course in German at my university now (beginner level) and I totally agree with you. I've had two lectures and so far I've learned like five new sentences... it's less than I learned from songs by Rammstein.

Yep, beginners courses are a waste of time. I have to admit that even in the intermediate group I often felt that the tempo was too slow because many students just didn't dig the grammar. Come on... the grammar's rather logic. It's the same grammar that French, Spanish, Italian and English have. There are just some particularities but otherwise it's all the same. Which is not a surprise because in the end all the indogermanic languages are derived from one language. By the way, you have the honour of speaking a language that is very close to the "default" language. Only Lithuanian is closer to the original.

Just saw a video of a girl teaching Estonian via her youtube channel. Good God, this was horrible. I hope nobody studies Estonian by watching those videos because I didn't understand a single word.

At least now I know that the sentence "See on nii lärmakas" will probably pronounced as "Ceeya nee lamarcas" if the US will turn Estonia into Puerto Estonia, US English will replace Estonian as a national language and the only native speakers will survive in isolated areas. You know... like Ireland. They don't understand a single word if you use the original pronunciation.

Because of that I have just one question to all English speakers. Why do they have to pronounce all the words in all the languages as if they were in English? Why can't they say "grazie"? Why do they always distort it into "gray see yey" or "grah tzee yey" while it's just "grazie"! Seriously... English speakers... please stop applying the pronunciation rules of English to other languages.

Yeah, I know that. Lithuanian is also better preserved. in Latvian there are many words that have been replaced with words that originate from German or Russian languages or just newer words which is why both languages are not as similar as it might seem.

and I also agree with you about pronouncing words in other languages by using English pronunciation of letters. I totally get that it may be difficult, but why I must learn English or German the right way (in German - "z" pronouncing as Latvian "c", and English "c" pronouncing as Latvian "s"?) whereas others don't bother to learn how to spell my name correctly? it has only four letters and yet they always end up calling me Daisy.

Written by vezzy on 18.02.2012 at 18:34

On the other hand, if you're a native English speaker, you already know the global language, so... I mean, it shouldn't be too hard to learn a European language by your own devices if you're dedicated.

Yeah I've always thought that having English as my first (and as yet only) language, it couldn't be too much of a stretch to give European languages a try. They are the particular one's i'm interested in as well.

Written by Milena on 18.02.2012 at 19:57

so if you don't have an idea what to pick now, don't start on it just yet.

That's the thing yeah, i'm kind of thinking ahead for my studies (medieval history) which will hopefully take me to Europe. But I'm not sure of the particulars of what or where I want to study yet. So while I know that whichever part of Europe I end up wanting to study in knowing at least a basic level of the local language would be helpful, just not sure which local language that is yet.

Written by Uldreth on 18.02.2012 at 20:25

I played lots of video games (I need to understand the storyline, ok?), watched lots of movies with hungarian audio but english subtitles (language teachers might want to do it vica versa but srsly, I fail to see what use it is to do that when you cannot even make out the individual words they say due to pronounciation and accent and w/e, I had contact with loads of people from other countries via the internet who all use english there, and over time I learnt to speak the language rather well, compared to what is the norm in my surroundings.

That sounds like a good way to aid the process of learning a language, I may as well entertain myself with movies and such while I go about it. Thanks for the advice!

Written by Ernis on 18.02.2012 at 23:16

So, yes, it's completely possible. You've got to practice constantly tho. Find some pals who are native speakers. Read stuff in the language (news, wikipedia entries, etc) If you don't have any practice, you won't have much success. I can say, I've forgotten all the German I learnt. I can understand it, I can dig what's written (more or less) but... ich spreche keine Deutsch. I'm bad at conversational level. That's why you need to speak it constantly.

The likelihood is not only will I need to understand the language I choose to learn at a basic conversational and literary level, but, depending on the specific language I may need to learn it's more dated forms. With my studies I'll probably need to learn, outside of Latin which I'm going to have a crack at soon, older forms of the vernacular language wherever I end up in Europe.

I suppose why I asked whether it was easy to learn by myself is that I would like to get some basics under my belt before I get to my destination, wherever that might be.
I guess when I move into an environment in which the language is used frequently that would greatly speed up any learning I could do on my own prior to having made the move.

Written by R'Vannith on 19.02.2012 at 15:57

That's the thing yeah, i'm kind of thinking ahead for my studies (medieval history) which will hopefully take me to Europe. But I'm not sure of the particulars of what or where I want to study yet. So while I know that whichever part of Europe I end up wanting to study in knowing at least a basic level of the local language would be helpful, just not sure which local language that is yet.

If you want to study medieval history then bear in mind the following. German is inevitable. If you want to study medieval history, you won't do anything without German. Not only German but you will also have to learn to understand texts in related languages (such as Old High German and Low German) because, as you may imagine already, you need to work on historical sources which are not in English, nor are they in modern standard German but they are in some historical language. You don't have to learn to speak it but you have to be able to understand it. It's feasible, btw.

Latin is also inevitable. Latin was the global language before German and French took over (let's remember that English has been a global language only since the two world wars... because of the US) and Latin had a profound influence on every single European and non-European language. It is slightly complicated to learn at first but the thing is that you don't have to speak it. You just have to understand it. After having studied Latin, every European language is going to be easy.

Latin and German are the most important languages in the field of medieval history of Eastern and Central Europe. Speaking of the history of the Western Europe, you've got to deal a lot with French (and also Italian). Doesn't really matter which one you learn because in the medieval era these two languages were still so similar that you can understand texts in both. French is more global tho, so it's better to pick French.

All in all... these languages are all very close...

Latin (classical): Quod hodie edisti?
English: What have you eaten today?
Latin (colloquial): Quod habes tu hodie esum?
German: Was hast du heute gegessen?
Latin (colloquial): Quod habs tu hodi manducatu?
Random medieval romance: Qu'has tu hogi mandcat?
French: Qu'as tu mangé aujourd'hui? (it was "Qu'has tu mandgiat al diurno d'hodgi" or something in the middle ages)
Italian: Cosa hai mangiato oggi? (look above and compare)
Spanish: Qué has comido hoy? (used to be "Quod has tu comesum hodie?")

As you can see... it's basically like learning the dialects of one single language. The pronunciation and orthography vary more or less depending on the particular language and period but you can understand everything...

What/quod/was/qué
Eat/edere (com-edere)/essen is synonymous with manducare/mangiare/manger that actually means "to chew" and was used in slang instead of "ed/eat"
Have/habere/haben/aveir-avoir/avere/haber
You/thou/du/tu
Today/heute/hodie/hui/hoje/hoy/oggi (originally "hiu tagu"/"hoc die" which means "on this day")

Written by Ragana on 19.02.2012 at 03:50

they always end up calling me Daisy.

I heard a conversation between a Slovenian called Matic and a Canadian. The Canadian refused to pronounce his name the normal way (m a t i c= matits, and for the English speakers out there, "mah tits") The Canadian pronounced it like "automatic" without the "auto-"
When we tried to convince her that her conception was wrong she exclaimed "WHY do you foreigners have to have such a fucked-up pronunciation and spelling system?!" Says who, bub?

About the Latvian language. It's become a mixture of Estonian and Baltic with lots of loans from German, Russian, Latin and Greek. Lithuanian has retained more of the original language.

Medus is mead. In the original language it was "médhus" but in German you have "Met", Russian "mjod", English "mead", Sanskrit "madhu" etc
You see that Lithuanian and Latvian are the only ones to have retained the original pronunciation of the word in more or less untouched version. Other languages usually dropped the s from the beginning, had a vowel or consonant shift etc. The word also means honey but that's because English and German started to make a difference between the solid product and the drink.

Written by R'Vannith on 19.02.2012 at 15:57

The likelihood is not only will I need to understand the language I choose to learn at a basic conversational and literary level, but, depending on the specific language I may need to learn it's more dated forms. With my studies I'll probably need to learn, outside of Latin which I'm going to have a crack at soon, older forms of the vernacular language wherever I end up in Europe.

I suppose why I asked whether it was easy to learn by myself is that I would like to get some basics under my belt before I get to my destination, wherever that might be.
I guess when I move into an environment in which the language is used frequently that would greatly speed up any learning I could do on my own prior to having made the move.

out of my own experience I would advise you to stay away from latin unless you're going to actively try to find resemblances in any other romance languages you might study in the future (thus implying you'll have motivation to learn at least 2 languages from scratch, which would be unbelievably hard without exposure, believe me).

better to just dive straight into spanish/italian/portuguese/whatever because you'll pick up real phrases a lot more quickly, and imo speaking a language is about being understood and understanding others. for the non-linguist there's no need to go too in depth about what's the historical relationship between this and that. out of the romance languages, Italian is the closest to latin, but portuguese and french are just too heavily influenced to find any significant mutual intelligibility between them.

If you want latin, check this out:

Paene continue scripseram ex quo sextum annum gerebam, sed nunquam antea ulla notio tam me excitaverat. Simpliciter sedebam et cogitabam, quattuor per horas (hamaxosticho morato), et omnia singula in cerebro bulliebant, et ille macer puer capillis nigris et perspicillis, qui se magum esse nesciebat, semper verior mihi fiebat.

I know Romanian and Spanish at fluency, understand written French and Italian, but I can only pick up bits and pieces from this text (if I didn't know from which latin wikipedia page I took this text be sure even I would be baffled). So yeah, there's no need to learn latin if you don't plan on becoming a mini-Tolkien.. just go straight with the actual language people are speaking and with a bit of work you'll start learning.

Written by Valentin B on 20.02.2012 at 23:12

So yeah, there's no need to learn latin if you don't plan on becoming a mini-Tolkien.. just go straight with the actual language people are speaking and with a bit of work you'll start learning.

The bloke said he was considering studying medieval history. You ain't going to do much without Latin there. My bro had to work with texts in 16th century Low German (which isn't German. In fact, they say that knowing Swedish helps a lot if you need to read a text in this language.) Not only do you have to be able to understand the text but also bear in mind that they didn't always use "Times New Roman" font and that means that you also have to sniff some palaeography. It's inevitable. And, btw, we're far from being mini-Tolkiens. That was a research paper. It wasn't even a bachelor's thesis.

Latin itself, by the way, isn't technically a Romance language. Romance languages derive from vulgar Latin which is quite different from the literary language (such as saying "I chew(manduco)" instead of "ego edo/ich esse/I eat". Grammar and vocabulary-wise Latin is closer to other "old" European languages such as Germanic and Slavonic languages. I'm not saying you need to be fluent in it. Having at least a vague idea of Latin grammar will be of immense help while learning all other related languages (yep, not just Romance but any other related language be it German, Persian or some other.) However, if your work/study field doesn't require any of it and you just want to know a foreign language just for the fun of it, then it's another case. But if you're gonna study history, you won't do much with just the knowledge of three or four modern languages. But you weren't studying history anyway, I assume.

Postscriptum: out of Romance languages Sardinian is considered to be the closest to Latin, not Italian. They even have retained the K sound. 10 is dèghe like decem (it's pronounced "dekem"... dekem - tekhun - tehn - ten - zehn) and 100 is still kentu like centum (yep, it's kentum not tschentum not sentum nor tsentum)...

Written by Ernis on 21.02.2012 at 01:06

The bloke said he was considering studying medieval history. You ain't going to do much without Latin there. My bro had to work with texts in 16th century Low German (which isn't German. [...]

ah I get it now.. all I read from him before that was the following paragraph: "I have a question which doesn't relate to a language in particular, is it easy to learn a language when left to your own devices? I ask because multilingualism seems to be more common these days and feel kind of.. I don't know, backward with just one language.

I'd love to learn but I'm not particularly interested in forking out the money for lessons or whatever. Has anyone who's learnt a language on their own had much success with it?"

but anyway yeah in that case latin would be useful.

but in any case (this is for R'Vannith) trying to learn a language without any exposure in day to day life is really hard, you'll need a lot of motivation. to get this exposure you need to watch (download) movies in your target language, TV shows, read news sites, put some of the programs in your computer in the target language, you could even get google chrome and set it up to translate every internet page from english to whatever language you want (this might be "too extreme" for the begginner though)

Written by Valentin B on 21.02.2012 at 01:18

but anyway yeah in that case latin would be useful.

Indeed it is. Can't say I'm fluent in Latin myself. I've forgotten all the subtleties of Latin grammar. Latin grammar isn't actually hard because it's very logic and if you just memorise the template, you will be able to derive all the rest on your own. The problem is that it has tenses and forms and structures that have disappeared in the newer languages. However, having studied it, the grammar of German, for example, seems a lot less complex. I remember quite a lot of fellow students were battling with it. It's just like bench pressing 80 kg feels a lot easier after having done the previous set with 90 kg and 70 kg will feel even lighter.

Written by Valentin B on 21.02.2012 at 01:18

but in any case (this is for R'Vannith) trying to learn a language without any exposure in day to day life is really hard, you'll need a lot of motivation. to get this exposure you need to watch (download) movies in your target language, TV shows, read news sites, put some of the programs in your computer in the target language, you could even get google chrome and set it up to translate every internet page from english to whatever language you want (this might be "too extreme" for the begginner though)

Yeah I thought as much, becoming fluent in a language would require a fair bit of exposure. The ways of aiding the process you've mentioned there are what I was looking for, they will be really helpful I would imagine once I start trying to learn a language. Thanks for the advice!

Written by Ernis on 19.02.2012 at 17:35

If you want to study medieval history then bear in mind the following. German is inevitable. If you want to study medieval history, you won't do anything without German. Not only German but you will also have to learn to understand texts in related languages (such as Old High German and Low German) because, as you may imagine already, you need to work on historical sources which are not in English, nor are they in modern standard German but they are in some historical language. You don't have to learn to speak it but you have to be able to understand it. It's feasible, btw.

Latin is also inevitable. Latin was the global language before German and French took over (let's remember that English has been a global language only since the two world wars... because of the US) and Latin had a profound influence on every single European and non-European language. It is slightly complicated to learn at first but the thing is that you don't have to speak it. You just have to understand it. After having studied Latin, every European language is going to be easy.

Latin and German are the most important languages in the field of medieval history of Eastern and Central Europe. Speaking of the history of the Western Europe, you've got to deal a lot with French (and also Italian). Doesn't really matter which one you learn because in the medieval era these two languages were still so similar that you can understand texts in both. French is more global tho, so it's better to pick French.

Thanks for your advice too Ernis, I did picture German and French as two major candidates for which language I should learn, or perhaps Spanish. That's if I chose to make my stay in mainland Europe of course, I may end up in the UK for all I know just yet, and that would require backtracking in my own language to the 'Old' kind.

Latin is essential wherever I go, yeah, so that's a given. Even if I chose another area of interest, like Scandinavia for example, Latin went pretty much everywhere.

If I were to go with Italian I have a relative with a degree in the language so that would be a big plus.

Whichever one I choose it's going to make it a lot easier if I have at least some grasp on the modern form of the language.

Written by R'Vannith on 21.02.2012 at 13:52

I may end up in the UK for all I know just yet, and that would require backtracking in my own language to the 'Old' kind.

So you only speak strine or what? In any case, UK English is still closer to Australian English than, let's say US English... Australia even uses the correct spelling.

Written by Ernis on 21.02.2012 at 21:47

Written by R'Vannith on 21.02.2012 at 13:52

I may end up in the UK for all I know just yet, and that would require backtracking in my own language to the 'Old' kind.

So you only speak strine or what? In any case, UK English is still closer to Australian English than, let's say US English... Australia even uses the correct spelling.

Crikey! No I meant Old English/Anglo-Saxon for my medieval studies.

Written by R'Vannith on 22.02.2012 at 06:07

Crikey! No I meant Old English/Anglo-Saxon for my medieval studies.

Oh yes, that of course is gonna be considerably more difficult to master. Buttered saul wright few, I reckon, can't be mah charter than strine. There's an interesting fact, Tolkien was a professor of Old English.

I need help!!!!!!!, what does exactly it means " that person is in control of you" ? it means that one controls you or you control that one ?... answer me soon please. Thanks in advance

Written by FOOCK Nam on 01.10.2012 at 22:26

I need help!!!!!!!, what does exactly it means " that person is in control of you" ? it means that one controls you or you control that one ?... answer me soon please. Thanks in advance

The first; one controls you.

It means that somebody else is controlling you. Not the other way around.

Thanks guys, so appreciate and have a nice day

Written by Ankläger on 01.10.2012 at 22:31

Written by FOOCK Nam on 01.10.2012 at 22:26

I need help!!!!!!!, what does exactly it means " that person is in control of you" ? it means that one controls you or you control that one ?... answer me soon please. Thanks in advance

The first; one controls you.

Written by Pazu on 01.10.2012 at 22:32

It means that somebody else is controlling you. Not the other way around.

Thank you a lot , have a very nice day

Hey guys, so sorry I would like to need your help another time (and could be many more in-following ).

I wonder what it means by "he is in dread of his enemies" , means he fears his enemies or his enemies fear him ? Thanks guys in advance

Written by FOOCK Nam on 09.10.2012 at 20:11

Hey guys, so sorry I would like to need your help another time (and could be many more in-following ).

I wonder what it means by "he is in dread of his enemies" , means he fears his enemies or his enemies fear him ? Thanks guys in advance

he fears them...but i think that this means more like "his destiny is in hands of his enemies and he is afraid of it"...yeah that would be good interpretation although native english speaking people might have other interpretations....

Written by ANGEL REAPER on 16.10.2012 at 22:47

Written by FOOCK Nam on 09.10.2012 at 20:11

Hey guys, so sorry I would like to need your help another time (and could be many more in-following ).

I wonder what it means by "he is in dread of his enemies" , means he fears his enemies or his enemies fear him ? Thanks guys in advance

he fears them...but i think that this means more like "his destiny is in hands of his enemies and he is afraid of it"...yeah that would be good interpretation although native english speaking people might have other interpretations....

Thanks man, it's very elaborateness answer. I have one more source having same such answer. It is definite meaning "he fears them",

Until now my english is still fucked up on about of these stuff that i still have been not understanding and how to use:
- when to use and the exact meaning of "have verb past" eg have been, have done etc..
- when to use and the exact meaning of "had verb past" eg had been, had done..
- when to use and the exact meaning of "would verb" eg would be, would do.. etc..
-when to use and the exact meaning of "would have verb past" eg would have been, would have done,..

if i understand all those stuff mentioned, my english will be perfect.. i heard one guy told me you understand and feel and using it naturally from and by your subconscious.. those stuff are hardest in english imo, and stuff like verb with preposition is too wide to remember all..alright.

Here is a conjugation table for you. This sort of layout really helped me with German conjugations and tenses.
http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/have.html

Written by Ernis on 19.02.2012 at 17:35

Written by R'Vannith on 19.02.2012 at 15:57

That's the thing yeah, i'm kind of thinking ahead for my studies (medieval history) which will hopefully take me to Europe. But I'm not sure of the particulars of what or where I want to study yet. So while I know that whichever part of Europe I end up wanting to study in knowing at least a basic level of the local language would be helpful, just not sure which local language that is yet.

If you want to study medieval history then bear in mind the following. German is inevitable. If you want to study medieval history, you won't do anything without German. Not only German but you will also have to learn to understand texts in related languages (such as Old High German and Low German) because, as you may imagine already, you need to work on historical sources which are not in English, nor are they in modern standard German but they are in some historical language. You don't have to learn to speak it but you have to be able to understand it. It's feasible, btw.

Latin is also inevitable. Latin was the global language before German and French took over (let's remember that English has been a global language only since the two world wars... because of the US) and Latin had a profound influence on every single European and non-European language. It is slightly complicated to learn at first but the thing is that you don't have to speak it. You just have to understand it. After having studied Latin, every European language is going to be easy.

Latin and German are the most important languages in the field of medieval history of Eastern and Central Europe. Speaking of the history of the Western Europe, you've got to deal a lot with French (and also Italian). Doesn't really matter which one you learn because in the medieval era these two languages were still so similar that you can understand texts in both. French is more global tho, so it's better to pick French.

All in all... these languages are all very close...

Latin (classical): Quod hodie edisti?
English: What have you eaten today?
Latin (colloquial): Quod habes tu hodie esum?
German: Was hast du heute gegessen?
Latin (colloquial): Quod habs tu hodi manducatu?
Random medieval romance: Qu'has tu hogi mandcat?
French: Qu'as tu mangé aujourd'hui? (it was "Qu'has tu mandgiat al diurno d'hodgi" or something in the middle ages)
Italian: Cosa hai mangiato oggi? (look above and compare)
Spanish: Qué has comido hoy? (used to be "Quod has tu comesum hodie?")

As you can see... it's basically like learning the dialects of one single language. The pronunciation and orthography vary more or less depending on the particular language and period but you can understand everything...

What/quod/was/qué
Eat/edere (com-edere)/essen is synonymous with manducare/mangiare/manger that actually means "to chew" and was used in slang instead of "ed/eat"
Have/habere/haben/aveir-avoir/avere/haber
You/thou/du/tu
Today/heute/hodie/hui/hoje/hoy/oggi (originally "hiu tagu"/"hoc die" which means "on this day")

I took German classes in high school and continued to study it after I graduated (although I'm a little rusty now). In the USA, German is considered a useless language to learn because there aren't many German speakers here. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how much better I understood my own English language after learning German, because English is basically Low (Anglo Saxon) German mixed with Norman French. Our more vulgar words are generally German (usually the exact German word, but with different spelling), whereas our more noble words are of French origin. It also helped me to understand the evolution of English grammar and syntax. To this day, I'm very happy with my choice to learn German as opposed to Spanish, which is considered the most useful language in the USA, because I feel that it gave me a very secure command of my language which also happens to be the international language of science, business, etc. Seriously, guys, if your mother tongue is not an Indo-European or Germanic language, I recommend picking up some German grammar books, as German is a more organized language gramatically speaking, and also reading a history of the English language. For those of you who are intermediate-to-advanced English speakers, I highly recommend picking up a dual language version (German-English) of Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust.

Written by Mercyful_Kate on 02.02.2015 at 19:20

Here is a conjugation table for you. This sort of layout really helped me with German conjugations and tenses.
http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/have.html

hi, thanks for the help. i think i still dont understand the way of verb tenses even after reading the verbix, but ill try more.. the verb tenses i mean when put in the context, eg when you tell a story there is past, there are past perfect.. etc which i still dont get how to use...

i totally agree that when learning other language, you will understand your own mother tongue better. learning language really boost you brain of brainstorming,.. cuz i think every language have their own subconscious, each race has each own its subconscious which fucked up producing their own mindset, way of thinking, then forming culture. prooficially, the way i learn english and having becoming has totally changed my mind.. i can think in english and with all i read of english article, not studying, but lots of english article about culture, music, martial arts, movie, etc it all has boost my mindset and brain and helping me to survive, besides betterment of my english language.. i know my english is still bit of fucked up but im sure by time more it will be native like perfect.

yea what i mean is language studying will boost your thinking and psychology.. so what do you think ?

Well, here's an example:

Last Christmas I had the worst nightmare ever. (Past tense; an incident happened.) I had had bad dreams before (plusquamperfect or whatever in English: something had already happened before the past moment that the past tense refers to), but this was something else. Ever since I have gone to bed with my teddy-bear. (Perfect tense, implying action that is continual and after the past tense event.)

This is not a hard-and-fast rule in English, but often the past tense (was) and the plusquamperfect/past perfect (had been) go together as two levels of time, as do that present tense (is) and the perfect tense (has been):

I am happier than ever, although I have been quite happy before.

I was happier than ever, although I had been quite happy before.

You can also mix past and perfect tense as in my first example:
Although I was happier than ever before, I have been even happier since.

But really, you can use them all; see:
I had never been happy before, but last Christmas I was finally happy for the first time. I have been happy a few times since, but right now I am sad.

You see the different levels of time involved?

When you write fiction or other narrative, you often/traditionally use the past tense to narrate what happened, and the plusquamperfect/past perfect to refer to stuff before that time. Present and perfect tense can serve as a tool to step out of the story, address the audience or comment on the narrator's person/act of narrating: "I have not been able to recount these events since that horrible night, but finally I am ready to put it in writing." This is only one option, of course, and plenty of prose is narrated in the present tense. "I reach for the door, my and trembling. Slowly, I peek inside - I have never been as terrified." Generally, you want to make a decision and stick with it logically.

It is also often the custom in academic writing about the past (history) to use the past tense, but I use the present tense when I analyse texts that still exist. Like "Thomas More was a big dick but he had spine. In his work Bid Dickery, he argues that the pope's dick is bigger than the king's."

Written by FOOCK Nam on 04.02.2015 at 03:01

just quote

I have a question but before I must ask, are you a native Vietnamese speaker or do you just live in Vietnam ?