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Daniel
Fan
Germany
103 Posts |
 Posted - 28 Aug 2004 : 19:12:33
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From what I have experienced, norwegian is much more closer to german than english.
Well, but I should write something about the cases in german... I did a little research. This seems to be a thing that makes learning the language a bit difficult? Greek and Latin had cases, but in the most indoeuropean languages (the ones which developed from the two mentioned) they have disappeared. German is kind of archaic and still has 4 cases. ;-)
Take for example this sentence (it is using all the cases):
"Die Frau gibt ihrem Bruder den Hut ihres Mannes."
(nominative) (dative) (accusative) (genitive)
It means something like (with strange word order...):
"The woman gives to her brother the hat of her husband."
It doesn't seem so handy but languages with cases don't need so many prepositions. In this example nominative indicates the subject of the sentence. Dative is kind of the recipient (the guy who is given the hat). The direct object is in accusative. And the genitive has something to do with possession. Of course, when writing "The woman gives her husband's hat to her brother." you're actually also using a genitive.
The problem now is that you have to learn something like this for every noun...
Singular Plural
Nominative Hut Hüte
Genitive Hutes Hüte
Dativ Hut Hüten
Accusative Hut Hüte
(of course you will discover a common scheme to build these forms sooner or later)
Normally verbs and prepositions specify which case has to be used. Using the same preposition with different cases you can express different things:
auf der Kiste (dative) on the box (situation)
auf die Kiste (accusative) onto the box (activity)
Adjectives, articles and pronouns change too when being used in different cases. As for the articles, this is another long story...
(someone should explain grammatical gender here since I read many (non-european-)languages don't have this at all and for those speakers it seems strange not-living things like books or houses actually having a gender!)
PS: If you're happy about cases, you should learn finnish. I read they have 15 cases, so have fun :-) |
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Superfan
Fan
Iran
658 Posts |
Posted - 29 Aug 2004 : 01:44:00
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Arabic....... :-S
I hate that language...Persian is much better
in persian Cthere are alot of shared english words...
Phone/Television/Computer/... are all the same in pronounce but in thier own characters...
but for Arabic,
...i dont wanna think about it...they can't pronounce Pepsi/Computer & Play Station...so i don't like it...
one more thing...
Arabic has the same characters that Arabic does exept that Persian has 4 extra characters: ("G as in golf" / "p as in Pepsi" / "Ch as in cherry" / " another character that does not exist in English"
Overall Persian is much easier than arabic...but arabic rules for a few reasons:
(1) The Holy book (For Islamic religion "Quoran" is written in arabic...
(2) All the prophets & Guides for Islam spoke in Arabic
Overall Arabic is an older language...
In Irans History there's aspot where even Iranian were starting to turn over 2 arabic so a poet named "Ferdowsi" recieved 5000 gold coins from the king of that time to make a poem book to relive the Persian Language...
and he did it (I admit he did an excellent job...Its a huge book about a hero named "Rostam" which is taken as an sign of Iran and in diffrent wars...its a really nice book)
PS many ppl think Ferdowsi did that book for Iran itself...
Anyways thats how the Persian Language survived all these years...
One more thing...nevermind about Arabic...(We have to take that Language at school and I almost failed)
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Marko
Staff Lene.it / Moderator
Italy
949 Posts |
Posted - 29 Aug 2004 : 11:24:35
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Thank you Helios and Superfan. We're clearing the origin of a lot of world's languages 
Returning to German, it's really not easy for a foreign student use in the right way all those cases (and there's to consider also singular and plural, as Daniel did). Only if you read a lot and have many conversations in German, it will become more natural. Yes, I think that reading newspapers or books in a foreign language is always the best way to learn it. Obviously you need to know the most important words, verbs and grammatical rules before.
Cannot control this... this thing called Lene |
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Helios Rietberg
Fan
Malaysia
710 Posts |
Posted - 29 Aug 2004 : 12:30:54
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 I think i had better not look at German for a while. Let me settle my head on these cases that Daniel mentioned first... it's still spinning, after all those hours in front of my piano...
Reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol.
The path of access leads to the Tower of Wisdom.
I just want you to know who i am...
Comme le monde est grand. |
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norskelgen
Fan
France
130 Posts |
Posted - 30 Aug 2004 : 17:25:10
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hola !!! que tal?
i'm back from barcelona(thta's why i choose to answer this topic!!!!)!!!
well,u didn't get too lazy by posting,i'll have long hours of reading to fill in my lack!!!!
well,for my part,i speak freench(i'm very happy to be born french,coz i don't have to learn it as a foreign laguage!!!then it's easier!!!ahahha),english,spanish and norwegian....
french and spanish are very close..especially the catalan(the regional language of barcelona surroundings,catalunya)... they got this little ç that u got so much pain to do !! ahhah çççççççççççççççççççççççççççç !!!!! for those who don't know it,it sounds like a "s"...
and norwegian is really funny..i think it's a mix of english and german(grammar is english,vocabulary german..) like the verb "â arbeide" which is the same in german...(it means "to work")
but still there is some french words in norwegian speaking!!! :
french / norwegian // english translation
parapluie / paraply("y" in norwegian is a kind of u with a i sound inside) // umbrella
douche / dusj // shower
champignon / sjanpinjong / mushroom
and so and so ... for me,the language the more close to norwegian (out of swedish and danish,which are quite similar) is dutch(especially in west cost of norway,where they are not rolling the "r" like in oslo,but something more glutural like the "j" in spanish(la jota)
but what i really have to add to this topic,it's that i know one language which have none similarities with its europeans brothers, the hungarian !!! even polish,tchec or slovak are not close to this language..the only common roots that the hungarian has with an other country is ... Finland !!! yes,it's the same root !!! but put a finnish and an hungarian together,they won't be able to speak together...while a french can do his business with an italian or a spanish!!!
ok,this post is a bit long,but that's my revenge for all that u posted during the last 7 days !!!
hasta lluego !!!
I cry my tears
But they're not for you
Playing a game
I know you've done too |
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Helios Rietberg
Fan
Malaysia
710 Posts |
Posted - 30 Aug 2004 : 18:18:16
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Hola Norskelgen! Como esta?
Bonjour, Norskelgen! Ca va? (Sorry, can't put the hook like i normally can in Microsoft Word!)
I've got one question though. Which is correct/more suitable?
Ont été tes vacances?
Comment étaient tes vacances?
I'd really like to know! 
About all those languages... it seems you're learning a large bunch of them! Hungarian, Finnish... where'd you get those?
Was Spain nice? I've always wanted to go... my top three countries to visit are probably
1. Spain! 
2. Greece...
3. Norway (don't we all want to see Lene's homeland?)
And i'm pretty envious of you!
Did you go wine tasting? I've heard that there's a pretty neat place for that -- La Vinya del Senyor. Or the harbour? Or the Sardana? Okay, maybe i'm getting a bit over-excited, but hey, it's giving you a chance to post! Anyway, hope you had a brilliant time!
Reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol.
The path of access leads to the Tower of Wisdom.
I just want you to know who i am...
Comme le monde est grand. |
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norskelgen
Fan
France
130 Posts |
Posted - 31 Aug 2004 : 17:28:48
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hola!!!
yes,spain was nice..but no as nice as norway!!it's different ..very different yes!!!
the right ways to say it is :
comment se sont passées tes vacances?
tes vacances ont-elles été bonnes?
yes,tasting spanish wine!!!but still,we have so many wines in france !! i drank a lot of sangria instead!!!and manzana too!!!
we were very close to the Marina,in Barceloneta district!!it was cool,and the beach at 100 meters!!ahahha
and i don't speak finnish or hungarian!!no:!!!! it's just that i have a large knowledge on europeans civilasations and i'm really keen on!! the past is the key to enter the present and the future!
I cry my tears
But they're not for you
Playing a game
I know you've done too |
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Helios Rietberg
Fan
Malaysia
710 Posts |
Posted - 31 Aug 2004 : 18:08:35
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Spain sounds amazing! And you must be quite a historian, to have all that knowledge on European civilisations! Btw, the past is the key to enter the present and the future is a lovely, philosophical sentence. Reminds me of something like Socrates... 
Reality is an illusion that occurs due to the lack of alcohol.
The path of access leads to the Tower of Wisdom.
I just want you to know who i am...
Comme le monde est grand. |
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Movie and Language
