Dear anyone,
Your duolingo forum registration isn't automaticaly transferred to duome forum so in order to join duome forums you need to register with your existing or any other username and email; in any case it's advised that you choose a new password for the forum.
~ Duome Team

Things one may have thought were universal...

User avatar
Davey944676
Great Britain

Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Davey944676 »

Scurrying around online, usually searching for some completely unrelated detail, I often find mildly surprising things. Some are at least potentially useful for future reference, and some are just interesting.

For example, I recently found that the "bishop" in chess is called "goniec" (messenger) in Polish, and it's called "слон" (elephant) in Russian and Ukrainian....those might feasibly be handy to know for online chess.

Does anybody have other examples like that? Any completely different terms for exactly the same thing in another language? Anything that made you go, "Well, I didn't know that..." ?, or even "How on earth did I not already know that?" :)

🇬🇧 British Native....Learning Polish 🇵🇱, Russian 🇷🇺, Romanian 🇷🇴, Ukrainian 🇺🇦, French 🇫🇷, Welsh :wales:

Deleted User 1929

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Deleted User 1929 »

Davey944676 wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:36 am

For example, I recently found that the "bishop" in chess is called "goniec" (messenger) in Polish, and it's called "слон" (elephant) in Russian and Ukrainian....those might feasibly be handy to know for online chess.

Well in Arabic it’s called “Fil” (elephant) too and in German “Läufer” (runner).

Davey944676 wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:36 am

Does anybody have other examples like that? Any completely different terms for exactly the same thing in another language? Anything that made you go, "Well, I didn't know that..." ?, or even "How on earth did I not already know that?" :)

I was actually surprised to know that the numbers which are used in English and many other languages (1,2,3,4….) are Arabic and the numbers used in Arabic (١،٢،٣،٤….) are Indian. 😅

User avatar
Dana_Dany Danuta
Poland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Dana_Dany Danuta »

Davey, może kiedyś zechcesz odwiedzić piękną Pragę, a język polski już znasz, więc musisz uważać na znaczenia niektórych słów w obu językach, bo można się pomylić! :(

I would like to present the linguistic traps that every Pole who goes to the Czech Republic can meet (and vice versa :)

Czech - Polish

Code: Select all

čerstvý - świeży
nápad - pomysł
sklep - piwnica
pivnice - piwiarnia
láska - miłość
záchod - ubikacja
zákon - ustawa, prawo
květen - maj
jahoda - truskawka
borůvka - jagoda
divák - widz
byt - mieszkanie
kolej - akademik
odchody - odjazdy
zákazník - klient
denne - codzienne
pokuta - mandat, grzywna
toast - tost
stan - namiot
statek - gospodarstwo rolne
kolo - rower
oprava - naprawa
rozpustný - rozpuszczalny

Davey, I think it would be good to start learning Czech because it is really worth knowing! hehe ;)

Native language: 🇵🇱 Duolingo levels

Be smart and write poems. :D

User avatar
Davey944676
Great Britain

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Davey944676 »

lama.03 wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:44 am

Well in Arabic it’s called “Fil” (elephant) too and in German “Läufer” (runner).

And if you look at the wiktionary page (and the picture) of the Russian version of the Polish word for messenger, that "гоне́ц" ties in nicely with the German "Läufer".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/гонец#Russian

Sweet! :)

🇬🇧 British Native....Learning Polish 🇵🇱, Russian 🇷🇺, Romanian 🇷🇴, Ukrainian 🇺🇦, French 🇫🇷, Welsh :wales:

User avatar
Davey944676
Great Britain

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Davey944676 »

Dana_Dany Danuta wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:47 pm

Czech - Polish
toast - tost

Well, I now know at least one Czech word which I will never forget - "toast". hehe :)

Thanks, Danuta. I will have a quick look at the Czech duolingo course later. Just to see broadly how similar or otherwise it is to Polish. But I will not look too deep at the moment because I may start getting things confused..or my head might explode! :)

🇬🇧 British Native....Learning Polish 🇵🇱, Russian 🇷🇺, Romanian 🇷🇴, Ukrainian 🇺🇦, French 🇫🇷, Welsh :wales:

User avatar
Dana_Dany Danuta
Poland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Dana_Dany Danuta »

Polski Hetman ( inaczej Królowa, Dama, Damka ) po niemiecku będzie "Dame" i po francusku, też "Dame"
Mogę powiedzieć, że nasza "Dama" i te 2 "Dame" - francuska i niemiecka brzmią podobnie!

Cóż mogę dodać jeszcze, że polski "Koń" ( inaczej "Skoczek", "Konik" ) idealnie pasuje do rosyjskiego konia: "Конь". :)

Native language: 🇵🇱 Duolingo levels

Be smart and write poems. :D

User avatar
Stasia
Poland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Stasia »

Davey944676 wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:55 pm
lama.03 wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:44 am

Well in Arabic it’s called “Fil” (elephant) too and in German “Läufer” (runner).

And if you look at the wiktionary page (and the picture) of the Russian version of the Polish word for messenger, that "гоне́ц" ties in nicely with the German "Läufer".

I grew up in Kraków knowing it as a Laufer. When you said "goniec" I looked at the screen with a blank stare, and I've been playing chess since childhood! :)

Polish Wikipedia agrees:

Goniec, potocznie laufer (niem. Läufer)[1] – figura w szachach.

Native: :poland:; Fluent: :es:, :us:; Getting there: Image; Intermediate: :fr:; Beginner: :ukraine:

User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by LICA98 »

apparently punctuation marks aren't universal, like for example in Greek they use ; (the semicolon) to mean ? 😱 also in Chinese and Japanese they use a different type of period 。︀

User avatar
Corinnebelle

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Corinnebelle »

Well music for example. Different parts of the world have different notes and scales. Different sounds of what is considered classical. Our Western music is considered out of tune to an Eastern ear.

🇺🇸 L1 🇮🇱 Advanced beginner Duolingo levels

Languages without borders, languages bridging gaps, the Red Cross are my heroes.

User avatar
EranBarLev
Israel

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by EranBarLev »

LICA98 wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 5:06 am

apparently punctuation marks aren't universal, like for example in Greek they use ; (the semicolon) to mean ? 😱 also in Chinese and Japanese they use a different type of period 。︀

Spanish has an inverted question mark ¿ and an inverted exclamation mark ¡
Arabic has an inverted comma ، an inverted semicolon ؛ and an inverted question mark ؟

🇮🇱N 🇬🇧C1 🇪🇸B2 🇵🇹B1 🇫🇷B1 🇸🇦A1 🇷🇺A1

User avatar
MoniqueMaRie
Germany

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by MoniqueMaRie »

Corinnebelle wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:01 pm

Well music for example. Different parts of the world have different notes and scales. Different sounds of what is considered classical. Our Western music is considered out of tune to an Eastern ear.

...and vice versa...

Native :de: / using :uk: / learning :fr: :cn: :it: / once learnt Image / trying to understand at least a bit :poland:

User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by LICA98 »

EranBarLev wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 3:43 am
LICA98 wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 5:06 am

apparently punctuation marks aren't universal, like for example in Greek they use ; (the semicolon) to mean ? 😱 also in Chinese and Japanese they use a different type of period 。︀

Spanish has an inverted question mark ¿ and an inverted exclamation mark ¡
Arabic has an inverted comma ، an inverted semicolon ؛ and an inverted question mark ؟

well Arabic is written from right to left so it wouldn't be surprising that the punctuation is inverted as well

User avatar
EranBarLev
Israel

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by EranBarLev »

LICA98 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:41 am

well Arabic is written from right to left so it wouldn't be surprising that the punctuation is inverted as well

Well, Hebrew too is written from right to left, but the punctuation is the same as in English.

🇮🇱N 🇬🇧C1 🇪🇸B2 🇵🇹B1 🇫🇷B1 🇸🇦A1 🇷🇺A1

User avatar
Stasia
Poland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Stasia »

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

Native: :poland:; Fluent: :es:, :us:; Getting there: Image; Intermediate: :fr:; Beginner: :ukraine:

Deleted User 1929

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Deleted User 1929 »

Stasia wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:16 pm

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

User avatar
Stasia
Poland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Stasia »

lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm
Stasia wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:16 pm

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

In Poland we use the same as Germany. :geek:

Native: :poland:; Fluent: :es:, :us:; Getting there: Image; Intermediate: :fr:; Beginner: :ukraine:

wayfarer

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by wayfarer »

Stasia wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:16 pm

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

Yes that's one where it is easy to make mistakes. I've been caught out on that a few times. In the UK we use a point for decimels and a comma for thousands: 6.5 and 6,500. In some other countries it's the opposite way round: 6,5 and 6.500.

The latter just looks and feels wrong to me, even objectively. But I assume that's just familiarity.

lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

In the UK we use the same as you do in Syria: "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication, when writing by hand.

But on a computer we tend to use / for division and * for multiplication

User avatar
Drymice

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Drymice »

lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm
Stasia wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:16 pm

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

I don't rly know what's used in the us. I've seen of × and ÷, but I've also seen · and /. People usually use × and ÷. In my experience, people who use · and / aren't as consistent, usually b/c they're working with decimals or fractions.

I'm as dry as a mouse.

User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by LICA98 »

lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm
Stasia wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:16 pm

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

in Finland it's also : and •

btw one interesting thing is that in Finland I was taught in school that when you're multiplying negatives you can never have a negative sign next to the •, like you have to write 2•(-3) instead of 2•-3 but when I moved to the USA there apparently it's totally fine to write 2•-3 🤔 another math thing that stood out is that when writing decimals you can leave out the leading zero, like .56 instead of 0.56 (in FI we'd always write 0,56)

User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by LICA98 »

another thing is addresses:
in Finland we write the street first and then the building number whereas in the USA it's the opposite

also building numbers in Finland (and in general in Europe) are based on how many buildings there are on the street, so usually they start at 1 and go up to several hundred at most, whereas in the USA it's common to have 5 digit building numbers (apparently this is because most cities have numbered streets and the first part of the building is the number of the street perpendicular to the street the building is on, and then the last part is the building number)

apparently you can also have the same building share different numbers if it's split into different apartments, like our building has 4 different apartments and they all have different numbers (in Finland we usually just have 1 number for the building and then use letters to separate the apartments (or if it's a multi-story building we use letters for staircases and then numbers for apartments, e.g. 12 B 35))

User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by LICA98 »

EranBarLev wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 6:35 am
LICA98 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:41 am

well Arabic is written from right to left so it wouldn't be surprising that the punctuation is inverted as well

Well, Hebrew too is written from right to left, but the punctuation is the same as in English.

wait so Hebrew words are read from right to left but sentences go from left to right? 😱

User avatar
EranBarLev
Israel

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by EranBarLev »

LICA98 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:06 pm

wait so Hebrew words are read from right to left but sentences go from left to right? 😱

Everything in Hebrew is right to left except numbers.

🇮🇱N 🇬🇧C1 🇪🇸B2 🇵🇹B1 🇫🇷B1 🇸🇦A1 🇷🇺A1

User avatar
Corinnebelle

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Corinnebelle »

[mention]LICA98[/mention]

The sentences have the question mark at the end even though it looks like it belongs to an English sentence

Like this:

מה את זה? אלה משקיים.

🇺🇸 L1 🇮🇱 Advanced beginner Duolingo levels

Languages without borders, languages bridging gaps, the Red Cross are my heroes.

User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by LICA98 »

Corinnebelle wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:42 am

@LICA98

The sentences have the question mark at the end even though it looks like it belongs to an English sentence

Like this:

מה את זה? אלה משקיים.

ok that makes sense, I just went to look at the duome sentence discussions and they had the question mark at the end so I got confused :? apparently that's just a duome bug

User avatar
Davey944676
Great Britain

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Davey944676 »

Stasia wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 4:06 pm

...]I grew up in Kraków knowing it as a Laufer. When you said "goniec" I looked at the screen with a blank stare, and I've been playing chess since childhood! :)

I suppose the difference is similar to "rook" and "castle" in English terms? Colloquial? Regional, even?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_(chess)

Most people I grew up with would call the rook a castle, and some might not have even known that the "proper" term was rook. I think I only randomly discovered the term "rook" after I had already played chess for quite a while as a kid. :)

🇬🇧 British Native....Learning Polish 🇵🇱, Russian 🇷🇺, Romanian 🇷🇴, Ukrainian 🇺🇦, French 🇫🇷, Welsh :wales:

TammiP
United States of America

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by TammiP »

lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm
Stasia wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:16 pm

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

USA uses the same as Syria.

User avatar
LICA98
Finland

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by LICA98 »

TammiP wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:27 am
lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm
Stasia wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:16 pm

In some countries you use a decimal comma, in others you use a period:

Six and a half = 6.5 = 6,5

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

USA uses the same as Syria.

well I was taught • and : at school so both must be used

TammiP
United States of America

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by TammiP »

LICA98 wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 7:10 am
TammiP wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:27 am
lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

USA uses the same as Syria.

well I was taught • and : at school so both must be used

Didn't know both were used. In my part of Texas it was always the same.

ElmerRamone
United States of America

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by ElmerRamone »

In the US, the ground floor is considered the first floor, unlike in the UK, where the first floor is up one flight. Who knew?

User avatar
Corinnebelle

Re: Things one may have thought were universal...

Post by Corinnebelle »

lama.03 wrote: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:24 pm

You’ve just reminded me of something similar.

In Syria we use this "÷" for division and this “x” for multiplication.
But when I came to Germany I noticed that they use this “:” for division and this “•” for multiplication.

So now I’m curious about what other countries use.

I'm used to using : for ratios. What do Germans use for ratios?

🇺🇸 L1 🇮🇱 Advanced beginner Duolingo levels

Languages without borders, languages bridging gaps, the Red Cross are my heroes.

Post Reply

Return to “Random Thoughts”