What's your favorite word in your target language?

[Chrisinom]

Hi, my favorite Ukrainian word is "сорочка" = "shirt" in English, and in my Polish language it reminds me of the word "sroczka" - diminutive of "sroka" = magpie and it sounds so nice that I liked it right away! hehe

I would like to add that "сорочка" and "sroczka" - they rhyme nicely!

.... and in Swedish I like the word "och" = "and" in English, and in Polish "och" - it's delight, surprise and reminds me of this song:

• Och Karol 2 - Natalia Kukulska - Wierność jest nudna

Cheers!

"Och also exists in the Scottish dialect in "Och aye", which is "oh yeah" in American English. According to the Urban dictionary, it is not really used anymore except as a joke term or amongst older Scots. When I lievd at the west coast back in 1971/72, it was used a lot. There are some versions of the folk song "The world must be comin' tae an end, och aye", but all the versions I heard pronounce "Oh aye", probably because British and American speakers can't pronounce the ch ( which is very similar to the Swiss ch) properly. There used to be a test phrase for British speakers that sounds like "Ets a broa brecht moonlecht necht tenecht" (It's a beautiful bright moonlight night tonight)

[Chrisinom]

"Och like Loch are unpronounceable by Americans and Canadians who say Ock and Lock. (bastardisation of two lovely words) shivers) (Urban Dictionary). By the way: Whenever you come across an English word that is spelled with a" gh' (pronounced as ch by the Scots) , you can almost bet that there is a German correspondent with "ch": night - Nacht, light - Licht, knight - Knecht (different meaning but same origin), bright - Brecht (in names like Ruprecht, Bert Brecht). (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/776 ... lish-words

[Dana_Dany Danuta]

Hi, [mention]Chrisinom[/mention], thank you very much for these interesting explanations.

Yes, I think so too, that British and American speakers can't pronounce "ch" correctly and instead "Och aye" they pronounce "Oh aye"

... and this test sentence "Ets a broa brecht moonlecht necht tenecht"(It's a beautiful bright moonlight night tonight) is very nice - it contains four "ch" and it was good gymnastics for the tongue! hehe

[Explorer]

སེམས་པ་ཤོར
(semspashor) = to fall in love

[Deleted User 1929]

སེམས་པ་ཤོར
(semspashor) = to fall in love

The alphabet looks so interesting. Which language is it?

[Explorer]

སེམས་པ་ཤོར
(semspashor) = to fall in love

The alphabet looks so interesting. Which language is it?

It's Tibetan and its unique writing system.

One of the most interesting things about the Tibetan script is that it is traditionally written in circles, representing the eternal cycle of life.

Beautiful, isn't it?

[EranBarLev]

One of the most interesting things about the Tibetan script is that it is traditionally written in circles, representing the eternal cycle of life.

Does that mean sentences have no beginning and no end? How do you know where to start reading?

[Explorer]

One of the most interesting things about the Tibetan script is that it is traditionally written in circles, representing the eternal cycle of life.

Does that mean sentences have no beginning and no end? How do you know where to start reading?

It has punctuation marks as any other language. But they do not write like that on a daily basis. Circular writing is mostly used to represent mantras and such.

[Steve579062]

намагаючись in Ukrainian. It reminds me that I am trying.

Another favourite is l'sinista from Italian because I'm left-handed.

[Chrisinom]

So you should add "mancino" to your list of favorite words because that's left-handed in Italian. Roberto Mancini is the name of the coach of the Italian soccer team.

[John238922]

I think my favorite words in Spanish are

La lavenderia and la ferreteria

which obviously mean

The lavender shop and the ferret shop

[Corinnebelle]

I think my favorite words in Spanish are

La lavenderia and la ferreteria

which obviously mean

The lavender shop and the ferret shop

Do you like ferrets? Or just the sound of the word? I love lavender.

[gmads]

I think my favorite words in Spanish are

La lavenderia and la ferreteria

which obviously mean

the lavender shop and the ferret shop

Regarding the words in Spanish, the first one would be "lavandería," that is, where clothes are washed.

I am not so sure about the "obviously" remark because I don't think they translate into that

• la lavandería → the laundry service
• la ferretería → the hardware store

Going the other way round:

• the lavender shop → la tienda de lavanda
• the ferret shop → la tienda de hurones
  
  

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Not related, but the word "ferret" reminded me of the song, Raspberry beret

[Deleted User 114]

So far into learning Italian, my favorite word is caramella, meaning candy. I like how the word seems to float around. (Not sure if that’s a good description )

[John238922]

I am not so sure about the "obviously" remark

Sigh, the gentle irony font 'obviously not working.

[John238922]

Do you like ferrets? Or just the sound of the word? I love lavender.

Not particularly, but I like the idea of a ferret shop:

• a shop for ferrets?

• a shop run by ferrets?

• a shop selling ferrets?

Simples!

[gmads]

I am not so sure about the "obviously" remark

Sigh, the gentle irony font 'obviously not working.

Oops!! Hahaha!

Obviously... it was not working

[Corinnebelle]

[mention]gmads[/mention] What is the root for ferretería? A furrier?

A ferret shop is lot more interesting than the hardware!

[John238922]

@gmads What is the root for ferretería?

Ironmongery, ironmonger

[uralicnomad]

Mine couldn't be easier to choose

Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

[gmads]

@gmads What is the root for ferretería? A furrier?

It comes from Latin: ferrum = fierro (iron) + the suffix "-ería" to denote a place where something is sold or a service is given (e.g. panadería: where bread is sold; lavandería). So a ferretería is a place where metal objects are sold, like tools, nails, etc.

A closely related term is that of tlapalería (hardware store).

A furrier would be a peletero (the one who works with skins), and a furriery would be a peletería.

A ferret shop is lot more interesting than the hardware!

At least more hairy!

[Corinnebelle]

[mention]gmads[/mention] In the old days, didn't the nails come from the blacksmith? I suppose they had a different name?

[gmads]

@gmads In the old days, didn't the nails come from the blacksmith? I suppose they had a different name?

Quite some time ago! Imagine having to go jumping around, here and there, to get everything one needed.

Who knows? They probably were named differently. We have to investigate a bit

Something very striking for those who visit Mexico City are the street criers who go around with their loudspeakers announcing what they are buying or selling. The following is one of the most famous: the girl who announces, "se compraaa: colchones, tambores, refrigeradores, estufas, lavadoras, microondas, o algo de fierro viejo que vendaaan!"

• Sonido Fierro viejo que vendan

[John238922]

Wow, we're really delving around in some very old fashioned occupational words.

A blacksmith makes nails as a craft, and maybe sells them.

An ironmonger buys nails wholesale, and sells them retail.

[John238922]

@gmads What is the root for ferretería? A furrier?

.
A closely related term is that of tlapalería (hardware store).

So, in 19th Century English a colourman.

Cf Sherlock Holmes The Retired Colourman

[Corinnebelle]

Wow, we're really delving around in some very old fashioned occupational words.

A blacksmith makes nails as a craft, and maybe sells them.

An ironmonger buys nails wholesale, and sells them retail.

When did nails become wholesale items?

[Davey944676]

When did nails become wholesale items?

Only had a quick search, but just going by that it seems that there were factories specialising in making nails with machines as early as the 1590s.

https://inspectapedia.com/interiors/Nai ... re_Age.php

[John238922]

Wow, we're really delving around in some very old fashioned occupational words.

A blacksmith makes nails as a craft, and maybe sells them.

An ironmonger buys nails wholesale, and sells them retail.

When did nails become wholesale items?

[mention]Corinnebelle[/mention] you seem to be using wholesale in a very restricted way that I'm not familiar with.

My understanding of wholesale is

selling of goods in large quantities and at low prices, typically to be sold on by retailers at a profit.

In other words, any supply of goods to a retailer who sells to consumers.

How are you defining it?

[PtolemysXX]

My favorite word in Hebrew is “wine” [yain] because of the way it is written in Hebrew alphabet:

יין

The first time I saw it I did not realize it was actually a word…

My favorite word in Arabic is “Libya”, also because the way it is written:

ليبيا

One can read it backwards and forwards…

My favorite word in Chinese is “turtle” (gūi) written in the traditional character set:

龜

(Make sure to use a magnifying glass to examine it.) This character is a “radical” i.e. it is a carrier of meaning or sound to other complex characters but cannot be decomposed itself into smaller pieces. I learned once how to write it, only to forget it the next day. If someone is interested in writing the "turtle" radical here is an animated guide:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_213

So far it was all about writing.

My favorite words in Czech (that’s the language I currently learn on Duolingo) are all three- or four letter words spelled without vowels. Examples: vlk (wolf), prst (finger). Try to pronounce them…

My favorite words in Polish are żółw (turtle) and łódź (boat). Why? Because of the spelling and pronunciation: if you drop the diacritics and pronounce the words that way, they will become unintelligible to a native speaker. In particular, the latter word – łódź - happens to be the name of the third largest city in Poland. It is being notoriously misspelled. I feel sorry for the citizens of Łódź (= Łodzianie).

And finally one of my other favorite words is the name of the Greek god Zeus. Even though it is spelled the same way in languages like English, German, Dutch or Polish, its pronunciation is so different that it is really hard to catch in a conversation without previous training…

[gmads]

In general terms I just like how the Italian language sounds…

In particular I think I like the final accented "a", the double consonants like "gg", the "sb" or the "gl" sounds, the "-ibile" endings… among many others… for example I like words like affacciati, felicità, gelosia, innamorare, irraggiungibile, laggiù, lontananza, niente, piangeva, rifioriranno, sbagliare, sceglie, tenerezza, zingaro. I find matita to be a very funny word.

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  ㆍitaliano ㆍgenerale