The "I just don't get it thread".
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Prufrock wrote:The Academie Francaise is who! I want that job.Harry Genshaw wrote:Foreigners assigning a gender to a word. When something new like the internet came along, who decides whether it should be Le internet or La internet?
Also, for reasons I've never quite understood, whilst "internet" is masculine (obviously) you hardly ever see it with an article. It's just "internet".
Also, fyi, French for "WiFi" is still "WiFi", but it's pronounced "le wiffy". Always got a giggle from me.
and the welsh for microwave is...
popty ping!
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Indeed it is. "Oven that goes 'ping'.thebish wrote:and the welsh for microwave is...Prufrock wrote:The Academie Francaise is who! I want that job.Harry Genshaw wrote:Foreigners assigning a gender to a word. When something new like the internet came along, who decides whether it should be Le internet or La internet?
Also, for reasons I've never quite understood, whilst "internet" is masculine (obviously) you hardly ever see it with an article. It's just "internet".
Also, fyi, French for "WiFi" is still "WiFi", but it's pronounced "le wiffy". Always got a giggle from me.
popty ping!
And for ironing board .... bwrd smoothio.
Makes you so proud.
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
"I understand you are a very good footballer" ... "I try".
"I understand you are a very good footballer" ... "I try".
Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
^ and the french for "walkie talkie" is...
talkie walkie!
talkie walkie!
- Bruce Rioja
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Ah, but that's nothing when compared to to the legendary line from 20 Pints by the Macc Lads -
"Hey you, you poof, you fecking c*nt,
Get off that pint, it's mine."
"Hey you, you poof, you fecking c*nt,
Get off that pint, it's mine."
May the bridges I burn light your way
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Ambulance = Ambiwlansbobo the clown wrote:Indeed it is. "Oven that goes 'ping'.thebish wrote:and the welsh for microwave is...Prufrock wrote:The Academie Francaise is who! I want that job.Harry Genshaw wrote:Foreigners assigning a gender to a word. When something new like the internet came along, who decides whether it should be Le internet or La internet?
Also, for reasons I've never quite understood, whilst "internet" is masculine (obviously) you hardly ever see it with an article. It's just "internet".
Also, fyi, French for "WiFi" is still "WiFi", but it's pronounced "le wiffy". Always got a giggle from me.
popty ping!
And for ironing board .... bwrd smoothio.
Makes you so proud.
That's just plain lazy that is.
Hope is what keeps us going.
Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
My youngest used to say underbrella, which seemed reasonable to me.
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Isn't it confusing when like, water bottles, taps, sinks, swimming pools etc are all called paragua?TANGODANCER wrote:I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
The para bit comes from the verb parar, to stop. Hence windscreen is parabrisas, literally stop-breeze.TANGODANCER wrote:I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Actually, L.G.M, I've always known "para" ( in order to) as an altaernative to por , the basic "for". Thus para in the umbrella form actually means in order to combat sun, rain etc. Spanish can be a bit baffling at times because, "Hay un banco por aqui" means "Is there a bank around here?" . You get used to it after a while.Little Green Man wrote:The para bit comes from the verb parar, to stop. Hence windscreen is parabrisas, literally stop-breeze.TANGODANCER wrote:I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Tap..=grifo, sink =lavabo, swimming pool is piscina....Beefheart wrote:Isn't it confusing when like, water bottles, taps, sinks, swimming pools etc are all called paragua?TANGODANCER wrote:I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
I don't understand why people bother to learn Spanish just so that they can do stuff like ordering a table for four in Spanish. If I was a Spanish restaurant owner and four people walked in I reckon that I'd know what they were after whether they spoke the lingo or not.
May the bridges I burn light your way
Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
a love spanish simplicity: swimming pool = piscina = (literally) "piss in it"TANGODANCER wrote:swimming pool is piscina....Beefheart wrote:Isn't it confusing when like, water bottles, taps, sinks, swimming pools etc are all called paragua?TANGODANCER wrote:I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
I once used every Spanish word I know in a cafe on Lanzarote in one sentence! I was pleased as punch.Bruce Rioja wrote:I don't understand why people bother to learn Spanish just so that they can do stuff like ordering a table for four in Spanish. If I was a Spanish restaurant owner and four people walked in I reckon that I'd know what they were after whether they spoke the lingo or not.
"Uno vino tinto y dos cafe con leche, por favour."
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
I'm not surprised you stopped using it - what a fck up that was. One wine and two coffees? Surely the wrong way round altogether?
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Quite so, except pisar means to tread or step. I'll admit that the first time a saw a sign saying "No pisa a la hieba" ( Don't walk on the grass) I got it totally wrong and had a good laugh.thebish wrote:a love spanish simplicity: swimming pool = piscina = (literally) "piss in it"TANGODANCER wrote:swimming pool is piscina....Beefheart wrote:Isn't it confusing when like, water bottles, taps, sinks, swimming pools etc are all called paragua?TANGODANCER wrote:I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Me too - "Dos cerveza por favor".clapton is god wrote:I once used every Spanish word I know in a cafe on Lanzarote in one sentence! I was pleased as punch.Bruce Rioja wrote:I don't understand why people bother to learn Spanish just so that they can do stuff like ordering a table for four in Spanish. If I was a Spanish restaurant owner and four people walked in I reckon that I'd know what they were after whether they spoke the lingo or not.
"Uno vino tinto y dos cafe con leche, por favour."
May the bridges I burn light your way
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
Now that's the right way round - bravo, Brucie!Bruce Rioja wrote:Me too - "Dos cerveza por favor".clapton is god wrote:I once used every Spanish word I know in a cafe on Lanzarote in one sentence! I was pleased as punch.Bruce Rioja wrote:I don't understand why people bother to learn Spanish just so that they can do stuff like ordering a table for four in Spanish. If I was a Spanish restaurant owner and four people walked in I reckon that I'd know what they were after whether they spoke the lingo or not.
"Uno vino tinto y dos cafe con leche, por favour."
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
I doubt I'll ever get a better laugh at the Spanish language then the two international truckers who came into a cafe in Nerja one morning and ordered "Dos eggos and baconos Manuel" from a bemused waiter. I kid you not.
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?
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Re: The "I just don't get it thread".
LGM is correct here - the Spanish and French took it from the Italian and Latin. The sense of the prefix 'para' is 'protection from' - so parachute is protection from falling (chute is French for fall). Parabrisas is protection from wind (in English we use screen as the protecting term). Por is a different root.TANGODANCER wrote:Actually, L.G.M, I've always known "para" ( in order to) as an altaernative to por , the basic "for". Thus para in the umbrella form actually means in order to combat sun, rain etc. Spanish can be a bit baffling at times because, "Hay un banco por aqui" means "Is there a bank around here?" . You get used to it after a while.Little Green Man wrote:The para bit comes from the verb parar, to stop. Hence windscreen is parabrisas, literally stop-breeze.TANGODANCER wrote:I like the simplicity of some Spanish descriptions. They say "Parasol" ( our sun umbrella) because it means, "for sun". and Paragua (umbrella) because it means "for water" . Simple.
Last edited by Montreal Wanderer on Mon Dec 07, 2015 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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