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Dormouse559
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby Dormouse559 » 2016-03-25, 19:18

French is the same way, which makes "Write an extended passage with no E's" an interesting challenge in both languages.
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby OldBoring » 2016-04-09, 9:49

If this Discussion Group is equivalent to a Random language, but concerning English language, I'ma post this:

http://qz.com/618702/being-a-native-eng ... f-english/

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-04-09, 16:25

Oh wow, that looks like an interesting article! :o Thanks for sharing!

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby linguoboy » 2016-04-09, 16:58

This group has been really useful for me to practice speaking to a more international audience than I usually do. There are so many quirks of native speech you just don't think about until someone stumbles over them.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby OldBoring » 2016-04-10, 3:59

I think “stumble over” is also an idiom that a non-native is less likely to use, but I'm glad I'm learning it can be used this way.

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby linguoboy » 2016-04-10, 4:34

OldBoring wrote:I think “stumble over” is also an idiom that a non-native is less likely to use, but I'm glad I'm learning it can be used this way.

And I used it quite consciously with that in mind!

(In general, I find non-natives do better with non-phrasal verbs. This is even somewhat true of speakers of other Germanic languages, since there are so many false friends.)
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-04-13, 6:04

My mom has been living here in the US for most of her life, yet when we watch Wheel of Fortune together, she often has trouble understanding the puzzle solutions (especially when they have to do with aspects of American culture she's just not familiar with, and this probably has a lot to do with the fact that most of her friends (especially the ones she talks to the most) are fellow Malayalees) or making out what Pat Sajak is saying. In particular, when they announce that someone won a Prize Puzzle and he tells them where they get to go as a reward, she immediately goes "where?" and then I repeat it for her (which is not actually necessary because they usually write it out on the screen right after that, too).

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby france-eesti » 2016-04-22, 17:17

Hi, sorry for interrupting in the group :D just I have no thread and I don't think one entire thread is necessary for this question :D

Okay, this is just for my culture... But see, in French we have lots of words to speak about money
(fric, pognon, flouze, blé, oseille...)
I'd like to know if the same phenomenon happens in English too.
I'm open to all sorts (British, Irish, American... Jamaican?) :P

The only one I know right now is dosh!

Thank you for your help in slang :D
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby Dormouse559 » 2016-04-22, 17:30

france-eesti wrote:Hi, sorry for interrupting in the group :D just I have no thread and I don't think one entire thread is necessary for this question :D
It's just a general thread; ask all the questions you want. :) Here are some words I can think of, starting with general terms for physical money, then some more specific ones. In my dialect, "cash" and "buck(s)" are fairly neutral, if slangy. The others tend to be used jokingly.

cash
cash money
dough
cashola
(of dollars) bucks
(of a $1 bill) a buck
(of a $100 bill) a Benjamin
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby uzferry » 2016-04-22, 17:56

How about green/greens? Not sure of this one, but in Lithuanian dubbing/subbing of American movies, "bucks" is often translated as "žali" (greens).
Also, Eminem has thought me "dead presidents". "Grand" (as in a grand, two grands... etc, meaning thousand) also seems to be common amongst rappers :)

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby france-eesti » 2016-04-22, 18:06

uzferry wrote: "Grand" (as in a grand, two grands... etc, meaning thousand) also seems to be common amongst rappers :)


I've seen it often in books too :D
as well as "a tenner", "a fiver" but I don't think we're into slang anymore, just informal, I guess? :wink:
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby Dormouse559 » 2016-04-22, 18:21

uzferry wrote:How about green/greens?
"Green", yes, as an uncountable noun. "Greens", no.

uzferry wrote:Also, Eminem has taught me "dead presidents".
To me, that's a rare one. I'd understand it in the context of money, but I'd reserve it for poetry, rap included, or very specific joking contexts.

uzferry wrote:"Grand" (as in a grand, two grands... etc, meaning thousand) also seems to be common amongst rappers :)
That's common, but "grand" doesn't have a distinct plural. So it's "two grand, three grand … fifty grand".
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby johnklepac » 2016-04-26, 2:19

uzferry wrote:Also, Eminem has thought me "dead presidents". "Grand" (as in a grand, two grands... etc, meaning thousand) also seems to be common amongst rappers :)

I've never heard "dead presidents" used in an actual conversation, although it's certainly a creative phrase and I wouldn't mind if it caught on. You sometimes hear "benjamins" for $100 bills, and (jovially) "Hamiltons" for $10s in a certain Lonely Island song.

There are more rare slang terms than just what Dormouse mentioned (although those are used too), though, like:
green
greenbacks
paper
stacks
bling-bling
bread
cheddar
moolah

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby france-eesti » 2016-05-14, 18:55

thank you so much :mrgreen:
Now, I kind of have the same questions about policemen :para:
(please don't think I am weird - though you're allowed to think I'm a nerd :angelic:
Do you have slang words for "policemen" other than "cops" ?

(Just because we have a few of them in French : flic, keufs, poulets, condés)... :twisted:
Thanks a lot :yep:
(fr) Native - (en) Fluentish - (pt) Fluentish when I was younger - (hu) Can sustain a conversation with a patient and kind magyar or order some beer and lecsó in Budapest - (it) On Duolingo ma posso ordinare uno Spritz ed antipasti in un ristorante :blush:

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby Dormouse559 » 2016-05-14, 20:13

france-eesti wrote:Do you have slang words for "policemen" other than "cops" ?
I can't think of a lot myself. Here's what I came up with; the associations I have with them are in parentheses.

copper(s) (dated)
the feds (FBI only)
pig(s) (pejorative, somewhat dated)
the po-po (jocular)
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby Car » 2016-05-14, 23:51

Dormouse559 wrote:
france-eesti wrote:Do you have slang words for "policemen" other than "cops" ?
I can't think of a lot myself. Here's what I came up with; the associations I have with them are in parentheses.

copper(s) (dated)
the feds (FBI only)
pig(s) (pejorative, somewhat dated)
the po-po (jocular)

"Copper" isn't dated in the UK, but very much in use there. In the UK, they also use "the Old Bill" for the police, but not policemen. There's also "bobby" for a policeman, but I'm not sure how much that still is in use nowadays.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Re: Discussion Group

Postby linguoboy » 2016-05-16, 20:14

Dormouse559 wrote:copper(s) (dated)
the feds (FBI only)
pig(s) (pejorative, somewhat dated)
the po-po (jocular)

Oddly I can think of more for UK English than American English.

Another possibly dated expression is "boys in blue" or just "blues", from the colour of their uniforms.

In Chicago, we often refer to them as "Chicago's finest". (This is irony, as no one thinks that the finest people we have here work for the police department.)
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby france-eesti » 2016-05-16, 20:22

Thanks for your answers, this is very enlightening! :D
about "copper", is it "copper" like the "Cu" Atom? But I guess it comes from "cop" 8-)
Thanks anyway :wink:
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby linguoboy » 2016-05-16, 20:32

france-eesti wrote:Thanks for your answers, this is very enlightening! :D
about "copper", is it "copper" like the "Cu" Atom? But I guess it comes from "cop" 8-)

The verb? Yes, it does.

There's a popular explanation that it's related to the copper buttons of Victorian police uniforms, but that appears to be discredited.
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Re: Discussion Group

Postby linguoboy » 2016-05-17, 16:48

This may be more of an Indian English question than a generic English question per se, but the other night I was passing the local jamatkhana and overheard part of an argument. A woman yelled at an older man, "I respect you as an elder but don't put the finger!" I don't know any idiomatic interpretation for put the finger in English, so the sentence makes no sense to me. Can anyone help?
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons


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