Search This Blog

Popular Posts

Labels

Showing posts with label when. Show all posts
Showing posts with label when. Show all posts

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Brazilian/Portuguese words to recognize on signs and in everyday speech - more than 20 useful words

 

Flag of Brazil

When I was on holiday in Madeira the first word I recognized on a sign was Jardim, like jardin in French and garden in English, jand g sounding similar, as in the English word garage where we add an e to soften the g to a j sound. Encouraged by this easy word, I started checking my dictionary for easy to recognize and read words which I might see on street signs, shop signs, menus, or hear or want to say in a hotel or restaurant. My search was easy and fun.

Later, I started learning Spanish on duolingo, then Portuguese.

Portuguese - English

a partir de  - from
barco - boat (Both start with the letter b. Both include the vowels o and a, although in reverse order. Sounds like embark.)
beber - drink (Like imbibe)
boa - good
bom dia - good day/morning
isto - this (both words contain the letter t i and s, is is in the same order
minha - mine (the first three letters are the same)
navio - ship
onde - where
por favor - please (Same as the Spanish, and like the English for a favour, or do me a favour)
porta - door/port
porto - harbour
porque - why
quando - when
que horas - what time
quem - who
torre - tower
tu - you (same as the French)

English - Portuguese

boat - barco
door - porta
from - a partir de
good - boa
good day - bom dia
good morning - bom dia
good afternoon
good evening
good night
harbour - porto
her - ela
him - ele
him, her, it - ele, ela, isto
them - eles
this - isto
please - por favor
port - porta
ship - navio (as in navigate)
tower - torre (the same as the Spanish)
what time - que horas
when - quando (like the song, quando, quando, quando, when when when)
where - onde
who - quem
why - porque
you - tu

Useful Websites
translate google

-ends-

Please share links to your favourite blog posts

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Easy Hebrew: Four question words in Hebrew and One in Chinese

 


An advertisement for a Hebrew course offered to teach four words in Hebrew. It worked very well.

I learned two of the four words. The first word I noticed was ma? That means what. 

The Chinese question word, MA, goes on the end of a sentence and turns a statement into a question. Ma in Chinese could be translated into Eglish as really, or is that so.

The Hebrew wrod matai sound like what time, ma - tie. Matai in Hebrew is when.

The two words I had more trouble with were the words for why, lama, and how, eich. 

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

https://lp.rosenhebrewschool.com/lp-rosen-modern-hebrew-ask-in-hebrew-22-en.html

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

Friday, September 4, 2020

How To Read German When Travelling and Travelling Around The Internet. Also Swiss, Austrian and French areas which speak German




I just tried to credit a photographer with a German name (Petermueller12) for his photo. His first name must be Peter.

I knew that the English surname Miller translates into Muller with an accent above the U in German. I did not know the spelling mueller but guessed it was a variation or dialect.

Wikipedia says this:
The German word Müller means "miller" (as a profession). It is the most common family surname in Germany, Switzerland, and the French départements of Bas-Rhin and Moselle (with the spelling Müller, Mueller or Muller) and is the fifth most common surname in Austria (see List of most common surnames in Europe).

I thought that the most common name must be the translation of the British most common name, Smith, which becomes Schmidt. Never mind. I now know two easy to remember words and surnames in German. Words which make surnames. Surnames which remind you of words.

I linked back to his page but got a German message. It started:

Diese Benutzerseite existiert noch nicht.

Nicht is not. It was clearly saying this page no longer exists. I looked at the words and tried to decipher them. At school I learned French and Latin and have never learned German, although I completed the Duolingo German first course on my laptop and mobile phone. The Duolingo course is free.

Today, from the text  I could easily recogninize these words:




German - English
bitte - please
diese - this
Du - you (Like tu in French. If it helps, think f the phrase Do you? Du is German for you.)
existiert - exist
kannst - can
Kontakt - contact
kurz - short
mit - with
mueller - miller/surname Miller
neu - new (The first two letters of both English and German are the same. U and w (double u) are similar.)
Smith - Schmidt
und - and
wenn - when/if




English - German
and - und
can - kannst
contact - Kontakt
exist - existiert
miller - mueller / Müller
new - neu
please - bitte
short - kurz
smith (as in black smith)  Smith - Schmidt
This - diese (sounds a bit like like these)
when/if - wenn
with - mit
you - du

I first translated the entire paragraph from German into English to get whole sentences which made sense.

German Grammar
German sentences, as well as Japanese sentences, end with the verb or doing word or action word. Tha last word in a sentence is English as well  is most memorable and should be the word for emphasis.

English sentences are structured noun (subject), verb, object, for short SVO. German and Japanese and other languages are structured Subject Oject, Verb (for short SOV).

I am compiling this post in my coffee breaks from work and will come back later. You, too, come back later to see more.

Angela Lansbury
Aspiring polyglot.

Benutzer:Petermueller12

Diese Benutzerseite existiert noch nicht.
Wikipedia stellt jedem angemeldeten Benutzer eine Benutzerseite zur Verfügung, um sich kurz vorzustellen.
  • Wenn du Benutzer Petermueller12 bist und dich angemeldet hast, dann kannst du diese Seite über den Reiter „Erstellen“ neu anlegen.
  • Um Kontakt mit Petermueller12 aufzunehmen, schreibe eine Nachricht auf der Benutzerdiskussionsseite.
Falls du diese Seite bereits gerade erstellt hast, kann es sein, dass die Aktualisierung der Datenbank verzögert wurde. Bitte erstelle die Seite nicht nochmals neu, sondern warte ein bisschen und lade diese Seite erneut.

I received this translation from Google and made a list of the individual words English to German and German to English.

This user page does not yet exist.

Wikipedia provides every registered user with a user page to introduce themselves briefly.

If you are user Petermueller12 and have logged in, you can create a new page using the "Create" tab.
To get in contact with Petermueller12, write a message on the user discussion page.
If you've just created this page, the database update may have been delayed. Please do not create the page again, but wait a little and reload this page.


Then I took the time and trouble to translate word by word, simply starting a new line after each German word.


Useful Websites
translate google
duolingo.com

About the Author
Angela Lansbury Aspiring polyglot. Travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Friday, August 25, 2017

More Welsh Words: When? Going? Drink? Beer?

Problem
How do I recognize everyday Welsh words, vocabulary and verbs? Look for letters in common and make up phrases and sentences.

Answers
Pryd - when (My memory trigger - You PRoD him and ask when; PRYD Please, Richard, are You Drinking - When?)
m y n d - going (do you mynd, MiND out, move yourself, look where you are GOING and weNDing your way)
aros - waiting (AROund so long ROSes would grow)
yma - here - You are HERE in My Arms
rosari - rosary
yfed - drink (Why are you fed up with eating? Drink!)
cwrw - beer (look for the double letters CoR - OO, the crew are drinking BeeR)

WELSH - ENGLISH
aros - waiting
cwrw - beer
mynd - going
pryd - when
rosari - rosary
yfed - drink
yma - here

ENGLISH - WELSH
beer - cwrw
drink - yfed
going - mynd
here - yma
rosary - rosari
waiting - ros
when - pryd

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.
I have other posts and languages and destinations such as Wales. Please share links with your favourite posts.