Words that just won't stick

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linguoboy
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Words that just won't stick

Postby linguoboy » 2015-07-13, 17:14

This post from Saim stirred vague memories of an old thread dedicated to words which we just have no luck remembering despite having seen and/or heard them dozens or even hundreds of times, but sifting through two years of topics turned up nothing, so I'm creating a new one.

[flag=]de[/flag] Argwohn As with most longer German words, my first response is to try to break this one down into meaningful parts. But that's a nonstarter here, since despite appearances the second element is related to Wahn, not Wohn-, and the whole compound has evolved independently of its elements for so many centuries.

[flag=]ca[/flag] esment I think it's not just the lack of obvious cognates which makes this word hard to remember. The fact that it isn't used outside of certain verbal phrases (e.g. prendre esment de, parar esment, venir a esment) might contribute to the problem of associating a fixed definition with it.
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby linguoboy » 2015-07-26, 4:04

[flag=]es[/flag] abanico Oddly, this is actually cognate with English (via Latin vannus) but the connexion isn't at all obvious to me. Catalan ventall and French éventail both helpfully contain the element for "wind" (and resemble each other), but abanico is so strange to me I keep on trying to insert an l (i.e. *albanico) is if this were some crazy Arabic word or contained a reference to Albania.
Last edited by linguoboy on 2015-07-27, 3:49, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby eskandar » 2015-07-26, 16:39

Spanish: cobijo Every time this word comes up in my Anki flashcards, I think it's a body part for some reason and get it wrong. Hopefully now that I've written it here I'll stop having the issue.
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Michael » 2015-07-29, 2:08

I used to have trouble remembering the spelling of تطبیقی, ie I'd spell it as طتبیقی.
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby dEhiN » 2015-07-29, 5:12

[flag=]fr[/flag] autant / autant que For the life of me I cannot seem to remember what these two mean. I neither remember the English translation, nor the concept either of them refers to. I have to look it up every time!
Native: (en-ca)
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Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Bubulus » 2015-08-11, 16:46

Latin nī fallor 'unless I'm wrong, as far as I know'. There's this guy I sometimes talk to and he uses this expression often, which makes the fact I never remember what it means even worse.

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Liootas » 2015-08-12, 19:37

[flag=]fr[/flag] intéressant Of course I do remember the meaning and the word but the spelling just kills me... I often think it's written interréssant, interresant or interesant. In the end, I give up and look up at the dictionary... :mrgreen:
[flag=]lt[/flag] native
[flag=]en[/flag] B2/C1
[flag=]fr[/flag] B2
[flag=]es[/flag] A2/B1
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Bubulus » 2015-08-12, 19:43

The Latin word for "to be" was esse (compare with Italian essere). Intéressant comes from attaching the prefix inter- (commonly used in English) to the Latin verb esse. Perhaps this can help your remember the spelling?

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Liootas » 2015-08-12, 20:00

Serafín wrote:The Latin word for "to be" was esse (compare with Italian essere). Intéressant comes from attaching the prefix inter- (commonly used in English) to the Latin verb esse. Perhaps this can help your remember the spelling?


Wow, that's awesome! Thanks a bunch :D
/
Oh là là, c'est genial ! Mille mercis :D
/
O geras, kaip įdomiai! Žiauriai ačiū :D
[flag=]lt[/flag] native
[flag=]en[/flag] B2/C1
[flag=]fr[/flag] B2
[flag=]es[/flag] A2/B1
Picked up some [flag=]eo[/flag] and [flag=]ru[/flag]
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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby dEhiN » 2015-08-13, 16:23

Liootas wrote:Oh là là, c'est genial ! Mille mercis :D

On peut dire "mille mercis"? Je dis habituellement "merci beaucoup".

Switching to English...for intéressant, I don't have trouble remembering it's one "r" and two "s", but I always forget which "e" takes the accent. I think it's because I pronounce it as *interéssant, which I now know is a mispronunciation!
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Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Liootas » 2015-08-13, 17:25

dEhiN wrote:
Liootas wrote:Oh là là, c'est genial ! Mille mercis :D

On peut dire "mille mercis"? Je dis habituellement "merci beaucoup".


Merci beaucoup, merci bien - thank you very much
Mille mercis - thanks a million, thanks a lot, thanks a bunch
Un grand merci - a big thanks
etc. :)

When you'll be fed up with merci bcp, try some other phrases ;)
[flag=]lt[/flag] native
[flag=]en[/flag] B2/C1
[flag=]fr[/flag] B2
[flag=]es[/flag] A2/B1
Picked up some [flag=]eo[/flag] and [flag=]ru[/flag]
Interested in linguistics and conlangs:)

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby dEhiN » 2015-08-14, 1:48

Liootas wrote:
dEhiN wrote:
Liootas wrote:Oh là là, c'est genial ! Mille mercis :D

On peut dire "mille mercis"? Je dis habituellement "merci beaucoup".


Merci beaucoup, merci bien - thank you very much
Mille mercis - thanks a million, thanks a lot, thanks a bunch
Un grand merci - a big thanks
etc. :)

When you'll be fed up with merci bcp, try some other phrases ;)

Merci beaucoup! :D Aussi, en anglais on dit "when you are/become fed up..."; on doit utiliser le présent, pas le futur.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-08-14, 2:57

dEhiN wrote:
Liootas wrote:
dEhiN wrote:
Liootas wrote:Oh là là, c'est genial ! Mille mercis :D

On peut dire "mille mercis"? Je dis habituellement "merci beaucoup".


Merci beaucoup, merci bien - thank you very much
Mille mercis - thanks a million, thanks a lot, thanks a bunch
Un grand merci - a big thanks
etc. :)

When you'll be fed up with merci bcp, try some other phrases ;)

Merci beaucoup! :D Aussi, en anglais on dit "when you are/become fed up..."; on doit utiliser le présent, pas le futur.

On peut aussi dire "when you get fed up..." Moi, je crois que je dis plus souvent "once you get fed up" ("once you are fed up" et "once you become fed up" sont possibles aussi).

Koko

Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Koko » 2015-08-14, 4:40

Mi suona strano a dire "Once […]" in un caso come questo. Mi ricorda che tu pensi diversamente da me alla frase "exact same" :lol:

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Dormouse559 » 2015-08-14, 5:12

Liootas wrote:Mille mercis
I learned another form of this: "merci mille fois"
N'hésite pas à corriger mes erreurs.

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Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-08-14, 16:31

Koko wrote:Mi suona strano a dire "Once […]" in un caso come questo. Mi ricorda che tu pensi diversamente da me alla frase "exact same" :lol:

Io parlo diversamente da te. Period. ;) (In realtà, tu parli diversamente dagli altri su UniLang...:twisted: :lol:).

Koko

Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Koko » 2015-08-14, 17:49

vijayjohn wrote:
Koko wrote:Mi suona strano a dire "Once […]" in un caso come questo. Mi ricorda che tu pensi diversamente da me alla frase "exact same" :lol:

Io parlo diversamente da te. Period. ;) (In realtà, tu parli diversamente dagli altri su UniLang...:twisted: :lol:).

U wot m9?? Parlo nello stesso modo degli altri canadesi qua. Forse non ce ne[*] pronuncio certe parole…

[*]voi capite che significa "the same as them," vero?

IpseDixit

Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby IpseDixit » 2015-08-15, 9:27

Koko wrote:voi capite che significa "the same as them," vero?


Ehm... no.

Koko

Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby Koko » 2015-08-15, 9:36

Allora come lo direi in italiano? Perché pensavo di dover sostituire "nello stesso modo" con "ci", e poi "degli altri" con "ne"…

IpseDixit

Re: Words that just won't stick

Postby IpseDixit » 2015-08-15, 9:40

Forse non pronuncio certe parole come loro.


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