Skip Navigation

196 @lemmy.world

Like the wind... @sh.itjust.works

2w ago

The rule

66 comments

Slavic languages: You guys have articles?
- Finnic as well

- Japanese: you guys have plurals?
  
  Japanese: just say the word twice.
- Any slavic language afaik.
  
  The Eastern South Slavic languages (namely Bulgarian and Macedonian) are distinct from all the other Slavic languages in that they do have definite articles (and don't use grammatical cases)
- Damn, beat me to it!
- I was gonna say that for Chinese but I ain't got a nice gif like that.
  Also no plural.

What really fucks with me is akkusativ suffixes
If dein grampa isn't the first and foremost noun in a sentence then it has to be deinen grampa but if it's a feminine word the the rule doesn't matter
Meine Oma Liebt deine Oma.
Mein Opa Liebt deine Oma.
Mein Opa Liebt deinen Opa.
Meine Oma Liebt deinen Opa.
I want to be good at this but that shit makes no sense, Hans. And why the fuck does a Library have a gender?!
EDIT: Liebt not Liebst in this context
- Just a minor correction: instead of "Liebst" it must be "liebt" since it's 3rd person singular:
  ich liebe
  du liebst
  er/sie/es liebt
  
  Thank you for catching that, I appreciate the input.
- It's not gender like in humans or in animals. Nobody thinks of the library as a woman, that would be absurd. It's a purely grammatical concept.
  
  Grammatical gender will never make sense to me, and I suspect that's because it actually just doesn't make sense.
- Note that "liebt" should not be capitalized here because it's a verb.
  
  Oh yeah I forgot German uses capitalization for uses other than emphasis or punctuation. In English, they don't change capitalization based on context of subject/verb.
- Because the subject is in Nominativ and the object is in Akusativ here.
  
  Has anybody so far just considered not doing any of that anymore?
- Don't worry, Dativ will come and double fuck you too

I fucking love German grammar!!!! It's awesome. The Futur 2 and Plusquamperfekt are my favourite. We have some funky letters like ß (<- look at this guy :) ) and weird sounds like the CH and SCH. There is this one grammar "rule" that I don't like. Because there is no real rule. You just have to know. It's about the "connecting s". So in some compound words you sometimes put an s between the two words to connect them. But there is not really a way to know when to do it. It's Rind + Fleisch = Rindlfeisch but Rind + Leder = Rindsleder with an S.
Thank you all for coming to my tedtalk.
- I love how we can stick two words together and bam it's a new word. Rucksackriemenquerverbindunsgträger
  
  Compound words are great because there's no ambiguity about where noun groups start and end. English has compound words too, but german are the undisputed champions of compound words.

In Persian we don't even have "the". If it's indefinite we use the equivalent of "a". If it's definite we don't use anything.
- That sounds... efficient
  In Russian there aren't any articles, and no concept of definite/indefinite. Hence the cliché accent in English leaving out all of the "the" and "a/an"
  
  I have guessed the lack of articles in Russian from the cliché! By the way, how many cases does Russian have?

Also English: Random pronunciation without working rules.
- Blame the Norman French.
  
  Also include Gaelic languages like Irish and Scottish influencing English. I remember making a Portuguese colleague pronounce the words "bough", "lough" and "tough". It was funny and a realisation that the English language is just as non-sensical as any languages. Millennia of language mixing made any attempts to make sense of any language rules farcical but in amusing way.
  
  nooo Why did the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, have to Invade in 1066? It could have been so much simpler …
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings

That's why "the" is such a common word in English. If you have a toddler, teach them to read (recognize) the word "the." Then sit down together with a book, reading aloud with your finger running under the words, and pausing to let them read all the "the"s. It'll help them get the connection between print and speech, even if they're still working on the alphabet. And they'll feel powerful.
As a lesson in English, you can explain that even though there's no t, h, or e sound in it, it's pronounced "the" because whenever t and h are together we say (long exaggerated th sound), and it's such an old and common word that we got lazy about saying "ee" and now we just say "uh."
- I taught my daughter to read during covid when the schools were closed. ‘The’ was the first word she learned to read, and I did exactly what you suggest, pausing for her to read it. It really helped. When my workshop reopened I made her a silver badge of the word ‘the’ to celebrate.

This really fucked me up in German class
- Ha, try the modal verbs! Or Konjunktiv 1. Partizip is also a favourite
  
  Plusquamperfekt! Futur II!

Meanwhile Danish turns the indefinite article into a definite suffix. Like:
A house: "et hus"
\ The house: "huset"
\ Houses: "huse"
\ The houses: "husene"
- Don't most (if not all) Nordic languages do that?
  Also, I can't help but share: https://youtu.be/s-mOy8VUEBk
  
  Scandinavian, yes, nordic, well, I don't think they do it in Finnish? Not sure about Icelandic.
  
  English can be confusing too-- just look how many homophones we have! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNTM9iM1eVw

Which psychopath decided to put the cases in German in the wrong order?
It's:
Fall (Nominativ)
Fall (Genitiv)
Fall (Dativ)
Fall (Akkusativ)

!linguistics_humor@sh.itjust.works

German:
Singular: der, die, das
Plural: die

Singular male, female, neuter, Plural male, female, neuter
Nominative: ο, η, το, οι, οι, τα
Genitive: του, της, του, των, των, των
Accusative: τον, την, το, τους, τις, τα
Callitive: (no article)
- dual plural is ripe for a comeback

Und jetzt machen wir die unbestimmten Artikel.
- Und den Plural auch nicht jeweils vergessen

Welcome to Germany!
The girl/girls/girl's/girls':
Das Mädchen (singular, nominative, neuter article)
Die Mädchen (plural, nominative, feminine article)
Des Mädchens (singular, genitive, masculine article)
Der Mädchen (plural, genitive, masculine article)

It’s a weird contrast between Germanic language German and Germanic language English
I wonder if it comes from Gaelic languages
- Germanic language Dutch only has "de" and "het"
  
  We should absolutely steal it. All the different articles serve no linguistic purpose at all. You could literally just use "de" and "en" in German today, and it'd be perfectly understandable.
  
  Good Neder
  that’s awesome

"a", "an", "the" Not just "the".
- The meme only covers definite articles.
- If you wanna add that, put all the German einer, eine, einen, eines, einem, etc. into the mix
- At best you could say there's "the" (pronounced thee) and "the" (pronounced "thuh"), like le vs l'

66 comments