Non-English English words
- Thread starter Hutschi
- Start date
¿Qué parte de España conoces que no se usa la palabra "christmas" para "tarjetas navideñas"? (que también puede usarse, claro está). Me parece un uso muy extendido por todo el territorio. (Extendida la palabra, no las tarjetas en sí que ya casi ni existen).
Pues yo en el Diario de Almería veo artículos como Cientos de niños dibujan en el Concurso de Christmas de Huércal-Olvera o La Alcazaba organiza un concurso de christmas entre los escolares. Si quieres, puedes buscarlos tú mismo en internet.
Perdona que lo diga, pero eso está escrito; en todo mi tiempo, nunca la he oído hablada la expresión. (Y además, eso, como dicen mis amigos, son pijadas de los ayuntamientos)
Sí, claro, pero digo yo que quien la ha escrito también la usará oralmente. Dicho esto, estoy pensando que yo creo que solo la he escuchado en medios de comunicación, pero sí que me consta que por aquí hay quien la dice porque también se hacen concursos de Christmas.
Pues será verdad. Aunque también hay instancias de gente usando “Spanglish” en los periódicos locales. Todavía tengo que conocer a alguien que use un “christmas”. De todas formas, ya he aprendido... ¡Otra pijada más!
In the Spanish-English part of the forum, learners of English sometimes write, "Lo escuché en un listening".
We don't say "a listening" in English
We don't say "a listening" in English
That's true! It's amazing, isn't it?
Quite true. I have seen lots of people at B1 exams doing “un listening”. Literally just shortening a “listening exercise”. There are also “un reading” and “un writing”.
As an ELT teacher, I say that occasionally; to mean a listening exercise.
True, but I don’t think you say use it when speaking in other languages: Je l'ai entendu dans “un listening”
It's ESL jargon, used by people in the language teaching profession, but not to be learned by anyone else. It's convenient, quick and to the point to say a listening, a speaking, a writing, a reading. J'ai fait un listening avec mes élèves. Otherwise, it's une écoute, une activité de production orale, un travail écrit, une lecture. A bit clumsy.
Hmm, I often speak franglish, a dialect of Franglais. I couldn’t be sure I never uttered such a mix of words. I certainly wouldn’t like to hear it from one of my students. Do as I do, not as I say.True, but I don’t think you say use it when speaking in other languages: Je l'ai entendu dans “un listening”
That should have been implanted at my school. All my friends now say “a listening”, and “a writing”, even in their native languages.
We also do that when referring to English exams, e.g. First Certificate in English (Cambridge).
I always find it rather odd when a thread that is more than 10 years old gets dug out. There is a word for that in German - "Grabschändung" - you can look it up.
I hope at least - since I keep getting notifications - that someone may come up with some words that didn't exist or were not used in a certain meaning back when the thread was started. I could think of a whole lot, but none that give no meaning in English.
I hope at least - since I keep getting notifications - that someone may come up with some words that didn't exist or were not used in a certain meaning back when the thread was started. I could think of a whole lot, but none that give no meaning in English.
German sometimes uses "Oldtimer" with objects, particularly cars, but in English "oldtimer / old-timer / old timer" describes a person.
I think that since in Spanish adjectives more often than not precede the noun, sometimes Spanish speakers choose the first word when "shortening" a multiple-word English expression.
I'm thinking for example of that famous British rock group, "Los Rolling."
Didn't Angela Merkel get in trouble at some point for using the English word "shitstorm"? (Apparently the word has been adopted in German, but isn't perceived as vulgar.)
That was 2011, What English Profanity Could Germans Not Live Without Last Year? by all accounts.
Wikileaks, gave Germans the anglicisme « leaken ». English term unlikely to be understood by any English speaking person without some explanation. I would be intrigued to know, honestly.
Wikileaks, gave Germans the anglicisme « leaken ».
English term unlikely to be understood by any English speaking person without some explanation. I would be intrigued to know, honestly.
leaken = to leakWikileaks, gave Germans the anglicisme « leaken ».
German adds the suffix "-en" to infinitives.
Interestingly I can't think of a single major sport that has been gallicized. Football (or le soccer in Canada), baseball, rugby, football "américain", cricket are all known as such, even softball has kept its original name. The only slight change I know of is rugby league which is known as rugby à XIII in French.
You’re right. Rugby Union becomes Rugby à XV and the Union, (RFU, IRFU, etc..) is a Fédération here. FFR
The jury is still out, in Canada on that decision. Canada Rugby (tout court)
The jury is still out, in Canada on that decision. Canada Rugby (tout court)
Boxe?
Anglaise ou française?
Anglaise.
Boxing, true, but boxing has a French set of rules too so it's somewhat of an exception. What we call boxing (Marquess of Queensbury rules), the French call "boxe anglaise".
And I guess natation and athlétisme aren't the sort of sports that you were thinking about, are they?
@Circunflejo, you're right, I wasn't clear. I was thinking of major sports that originated outside France in the modern era. Natation and athlétisme have French names. And so do many others. But I don't think I've missed out any major sports that were codified in the 19th century or thereafter, but I might be wrong. Bodybuilding for example can be referred to as "culturisme" but I think most people would refer to "le bodybuilding".
English "manager" (Rus. менеджер "ménedzher") has got a pretty wild semantic shift in Russian. By the moment it's widely used to describe employees who simply work with customers (especially by phone) and manage pretty much nothing. Sometimes "managers" even happened to personally sell their merchandise in suburban trains (which is, strictly speaking, illegal).
So it’s just a satirical usage of the word manager then. Nice.
In Urdu, the English word 'committee' exists with it usual meanings but the most common meaning it has is most unusual.
Committee: refers to an informal mutual aid society, of let us say eight members, all bound to one another by ties of friendship or kinship. The members pay in an agreed amount each month and each month one of the members becomes the recipient of all the incoming monies. The tenure of the committee lasts in accordance with the number of committee members (here eight). Whether a member collects the incoming monies or not he or she keeps paying in until the end of the tenure of the committee. Each committee member only collects the incoming monies once. So how is the recipient of each month's incoming monies determined. Either by lot or by predetermined order. All this is done without any paper work of any kind.
I am sure the Committees developed as an informal banking system.
Committee: refers to an informal mutual aid society, of let us say eight members, all bound to one another by ties of friendship or kinship. The members pay in an agreed amount each month and each month one of the members becomes the recipient of all the incoming monies. The tenure of the committee lasts in accordance with the number of committee members (here eight). Whether a member collects the incoming monies or not he or she keeps paying in until the end of the tenure of the committee. Each committee member only collects the incoming monies once. So how is the recipient of each month's incoming monies determined. Either by lot or by predetermined order. All this is done without any paper work of any kind.
I am sure the Committees developed as an informal banking system.
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This is such an interesting thread. In today's Chinese slang, "H" means sex, and "low" is used to describe someone uncultured or having poor tastes in fashion.
And what about speakerine for announcer ? (although speakerines don't exist any more on French TV...)
speakerine? J'adore,merci!
Demolition derbies in the US are different from stock car racing in the US. Cars in a demolition derby are ordinary cars somewhat modified to survive impacts. The point of a demolition derby is to crash into another car and cause a wreck. It's not a race; cars are driven quite slowly (at least they were many years ago when I went to such events). It's a contest to see which will be the last car to be able to hit another car.
Right that's what Sepia meant.
stock car racing (EU) = demolition derby (US)
stock car racing (US) = Tourenwagenrennen/touring car racing (is probably the closet equviavlent)
On the other hand, there isn't much "stock" in professional stock car racing in the US anymore either.
Thanks. I added an extra illogical step to Sepia's logic.
Yes indeed stock car racing ain't what it used to be.
Yes indeed stock car racing ain't what it used to be.
In Brazil home office refers to what I would generally call remote work or working from home.
Not in Spain (or so I think). Teletrabajo is well alive here.
Is home office supposed to mean teletrabajo? I would take home office to mean literally what it says it is.
In the context of this current pandemic, I find French people are using home office to mean télétravail. However it didn’t used to mean “working from home” in that sense. A self employed person could (and still can I believe) make deductions by justifying having a home office.
Very different from regular staff staying home a couple of days a week. Télétravail vs. Home Office : quelles différences, quelles conséquences ?
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When I have heard home office I have always understood it as taking a room and turning it into an office you can work out of. Getting a desk, a book shelf, a computer, a scanner, wifi..... Maybe I have always misunderstood people then.
Nope, your understanding is correct. The link suggests that télétravail, as distinct from “home office”, is a contractual relationship which alllows over 14% of the workforce to work from home at least once a week. The misunderstandings start when francophones use the term willy nilly to mean what they think they thought it meant. The confusion comes for the fact travail à domicile is regulated by the code the travail, while travail à la maison isn’t (an informal agreement with your employer). A nuance which may only become apparent when you have an “accident de travail” while working from home.
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Italian has adopted a fake anglicism to refer to work from home, which is smart working. I think no other non-English speaking country uses it (let alone English-speaking countries).
If you can read Italian, here's an interesting article on why the expression makes little or no sense: Terminologia etc. » » Lavorare da casa non è smart working!
If you can read Italian, here's an interesting article on why the expression makes little or no sense: Terminologia etc. » » Lavorare da casa non è smart working!
In Italy, a 'lift' is a lift-boy .
Mio cugino fa il lift in un albergo = my cousin works as a lift-boy in a hotel.
.Mio cugino fa il lift in un albergo = my cousin works as a lift-boy in a hotel.