• AmyAye@nord.pub
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    9 hours ago

    Just a side note, maybe they learned with Duolingo, because Duo is super bad about this shit and it annoys me. It will spend 100 lessons pushing "Smøren as butter, the suddenly start using it as “lubrication” and using the proper word for Butter.

    Spanish has this a lot.

    And you might also wonder, “how do you know if you are learning it.” Sometimes it’s really obvious based on the word clearly relating to a root word. Like recently where I am, it’s pushing “anticuado” as “outdated”. Except that is obviously “Antiquated”. Which has a very very similar meaning, but it’s a different word. Though this translator app is almost as bad because it’s telling me outdated is “Obsoleto”, which once again, is similar but not the same, and clearly “obsolete”. The app also suggests “obliguado” which seems most likely the actual correct match, but only because I don’t see an obvious similar English word there.

    Sorry, I am just ranting on a meme.

    But also when teaching languages, I wish these systems were much more precise. Don’t give me similar words or synonyms, don’t slightly rearrange the sentence structure in the translation, make it as close as possible. I am trying to learn Spanish, not “learn how to translate the spirit of the meaning.”

      • AmyAye@nord.pub
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        2 hours ago

        I mean, yes but also anciana would kind of be the feminine word for “ancient/old person.” Ancient feels a bit derogatory like “really old” but that comes down to cultural differences than grammar.

    • Aeder@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Like recently where I am, it’s pushing “anticuado” as “outdated”. Except that is obviously “Antiquated”.

      Don’t rely on word similarity without checking dictionaries, otherwise you will end up like people who think “bizarro” means “bizarre”. False friends are a thing.

      “obliguado” doesn’t seem like a real Spanish word to me, and the RAE dictionaries seem to agree with me.

      Also it’s very common for certain words to have no equivalent translation with the same root, so you will have to settle for “words used in the target language in this situation” even if they don’t quite get the nuances across.

      • CalypsoGirl@lemmy.today
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        7 hours ago

        A couple of my favorite false cognates in Spanish are:

        pregunta = question

        embarazada = pregnant

        avergonzada = embarrassed

        (I included that last one because I’ve never actually known how to say embarrassed in Spanish, and now I know.)

        • Aeder@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          The “embarazada”/“embarrassed” mix-up is really common and it always elicits the same confused reaction from people who hear it for the first time.

      • furry toaster@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 hours ago

        another thing is that, sometimes the etymological equivalent even if not a false cognate, may still carry very different semantics and connotations

        • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 hours ago

          Yes, exactly. Even true translations can carry different connotations, and that’s part of what makes translation interesting, that even simple sentences can lose some implied meaning in a direct, correct translation.

      • AmyAye@nord.pub
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        8 hours ago

        The Bizzaro thing is a good point, but also knowing the actual meaning, it seems the English equivalent would be “Brazen”. Which is similar in structure and meaning.

        • Aeder@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          “brazen” is closer to “osado” or “audaz” in meaning. “bizarría” (noun) and “bizarro” (adjective) are used in old texts and patriotic songs and implies honorable or generous bravery, such as that of a liberator.

      • AmyAye@nord.pub
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        2 hours ago

        Is it though? I am trying to learn the language and the nuance is important. I do not want to learn to translate the language. I don’t want every conversation to bounce off my head saying “what is that in English, ok, then I would reply this, and what would that be in Spanish?”

        I just want to learn it like it’s its own language, because it is.

        I don’t want to see “Manzana” and think “Apple”, I want to see “manzana” and think “fruta redonda y roja”.

    • hraegsvelmir@ani.social
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      7 hours ago

      Here I am just wondering what the hell the right word is for butter, now. It’s smør in my Norwegian-English dictionary and that was what I saw it as in shops when I was in Oslo this spring. I suspect it’s less that the word for butter is entirely wrong, and more that it means lubrication in this context with the verb “å kjøre”, which means “to drive.”

      I guess “Vi har sluppet opp for smør,” would be closer to the right way, but my Norwegian still sucks, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I picked the wrong option out of verbs listed under “run out” in the old Engelsk-Norsk Blå Ordbok, or even if I’m completely wrong.

      • AmyAye@nord.pub
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        5 hours ago

        No idea honestly. I did some Norwegian for a bit but not enough to learn what Butter is.

          • AmyAye@nord.pub
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            2 hours ago

            “We keep ordering butter but they keep sending lubricant, soon the country’s butter supply will run out! What do we do???”

            (Pretend this is in Norwegian).

    • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      My bigger issue is that learning the basics is not fucking structured or explained at all. I know when I started that it never explains definite and indefinite word forms and just expects you to somehow fucking realise how they work.

      • AmyAye@nord.pub
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        5 hours ago

        Yeah, the whole verbs thing still feels like just vibes and guessing and I am, in theory like B1 or B2 in Spanish now and I have been doing Duo for like a Decade (not just Spanish, some Japanese, Norwegian, and Chess).

        • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          Yeah pretty much it could be more if it was structured to at least explain the basics and then the way it usually works would just be for learning new words. But it’s all like that and you just have to figure out rules by yourself

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      9 hours ago

      A single 250 g (8.8 oz) pack of imported Lurpak butter cost NOK 300 (€39; £32; $50) by mid-December 2011.

      …Do Norwegians know that other forms of fat are available?

    • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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      17 hours ago

      Tine, which produced 90 percent of Norwegian butter at the time and was both the largest dairy cooperative in the country and the market regulator

      Ah, the wonders of self-regulation. That is how an entire country runs out of butter.

      • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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        12 hours ago

        Heavy rains during the summer affected the grazing of cows and reduced milk production during the summer months by about 20 million litres (5.3 million US gallons)

        I’m not sure how they could have prevented this

        • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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          6 hours ago

          They had high tariffs on butter to protect local suppliers … 90% of those local suppliers were part of the same co-op that ran the regulatory body which made decisions on tariffs.

          Yeah, a supply/demand shock is what triggered the gun … but what loaded the gun and provided the ammunition was a self-regulating industry setting protectionist policies for themselves.

          • Soggy@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            Protectionism is only bad when the US does it. When Europe does it it’s beautiful DOP perfection.

      • FreddiesLantern@leminal.space
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        16 hours ago

        I dunno man, running out of butter once doesn’t seem that bad in comparison to whatever the fuck we have going on now globally. (And are about to)

    • arudesalad@piefed.ca
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      10 hours ago

      A single 250 g (8.8 oz) pack of imported Lurpak butter cost NOK 300 (€39; £32; $50)

      That sounds quite reasonable for lurpak

  • BooBees@fedinsfw.app
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    21 hours ago

    Someone apparently doesn’t know their own culture’s history, specifically how St Ventepølse literally drove all the lubricants out of Norway