906
Language is hard (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 63 points 11 months ago

Merriam-Webster lists 7 adjective forms, 2 adverb forms, 3 noun forms, and 3 verb forms. That's definitely a lot of definitions for a word.

[-] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago

English is a fine language

[-] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

You say that, but I think it's rather thick

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Thick like sexual?

"Damn English you thicker than a bowl of oatmeal" thick?

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I'm trying to be a comprehensible language but my definitions are dummy thicc and keep making things convoluted

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Try get, put, run, or go. Those in my second language I'm constantly translating wrong because of how many different definition for those words there are. 'Put' has to be over 100 different definitions.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

According to QI, "set" has the most definitions

[-] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Once you set up this set of objects on the set, we'll be all set for the Set festival and the band can play its set.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

You were really set on correcting him

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

It's been a pet peeve of mine that autocorrect defaults "its" to "it's." Someone should change its programming.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Or at least something you could set.

[-] [email protected] 53 points 11 months ago

"But your honor, I parked my car there because the sign said 'fine for parking.' "

[-] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

That's why the police complimented you with "parking fine"

[-] [email protected] 35 points 11 months ago

English isn't a language, it's a mistake

[-] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago

And you ask your girlfriend how she's feeling and she says "fine", buckle up.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

James D. Nicoll

[-] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

Counterpoint: fine dining is labeled as such, because you pay a fine (needlessly higher prices) for average food.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

English is fucking weird. Take for example: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

This is a perfectly fine sentence,. I am not sure I am fine with it.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

A much quoted comment and yet I don't get it the only meaning for the word Buffalo that I know is of an animal.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Buffalo = The city

buffalo = the animal, or the verb meaning "to bully"

The sentence is therefore roughly equivalent to "Buffalo animals that Buffalo animals bully, bully Buffalo animals."

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

You can also describe how a woman looks without even changing the words.

How does she look?

"She's fine"

SHE'S FINE!!!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Let's eat grandpa

[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

This is absolutely from a stand-up comedian. I've heard this before. Anyone remember who it was?

[-] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

It reminds me a lot of this Finnish comedian talking about learning the different uses of the word "ass" in English.

Ass Is the Most Complicated Word in the English Language

[-] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Dang. Beat me to the link.

I'm glad others know about Ismo though. =)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I instantly thought of this bit!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I can't claim it was him, but I read it in Carlin's voice

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Either him or Seinfeld? Feels like the stand-up bit at the beginning of one of the early episodes.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

"Fine, I will pay that fine fine."

[-] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

This is fine 🔥

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

What a fine comment this is

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, Emotional.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I used this for years without telling my wife it was from a movie. She was not happy with me when she eventually saw it for the first time

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Look at that fine woman with her fine hair. I wonder if she's feeling fine today. Maybe I should take her out for fine dining.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

The food aspect is mainly a problem of the US "awesomeness" bullshit. Nothing can ever simply be fine, it has to be awesome.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

This is by no means unique to the US. It's also a cliche of Bavaria in Germany but seriously, it's a common force in language change. I blanc the term but it's a cycle.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

It's also a cliche of Bavaria in Germany

Sorry, what? Since when? That'd be news to me.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Well in Frankonian which is in Bavaria we have a running joke about the highest possible praise you can get for anything. "Bassd scho!" (in German passt schon) which is literally translated to alright.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I was referring to "Baiern", not "Bayern". Donno how to make the difference in English

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

There is no difference between Baiern and Bayern. It's just an old way of writing. Bayern is correct today.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

There actually is. Bayern is the state (including Franconia and parts of Swabia) while Baiern is the dialect group (reaching into Austria and excluding aforementioned regions)

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Are you trying to say that only American culture has fine dining?

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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
906 points (98.5% liked)

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