for those of you who know english, plus another language -- LiveWire Teen Forums

Quote: from 4est at 12:58 pm on July 6, 2009

Quote: from katkatkat at 9:52 am on July 6, 2009
Quote: from 4est at 12:49 pm on July 6, 2009
Quote: from katkatkat at 9:37 am on July 6, 2009
Quote: from 4est at 12:34 pm on July 6, 2009
Quote: from katkatkat at 9:26 am on July 6, 2009
Quote: from 4est at 12:26 pm on July 6, 2009
Quote: from katkatkat at 9:25 am on July 6, 2009
Quote: from 4est at 12:24 pm on July 6, 2009
I think you're nitpicking a complex and satisfactory language.

it was just an observation. and believe it or not, it happens with more than just window and door

Are you able to communicate in English when you need to, successfully, without frequently encountering an object or emotion which has no word to adequately describe it?

many times, no.
Then you're either a dumbass with a small vocabulary or a very deep complex individual who will never find a partner who will truly understand them.

thank you for giving me two very insulting options.
i wasn't "hating on" your language or anything of the sort. it is a valid observation. no, i do not have a small vocabulary. in fact, i knew english before french, and can be very precise and succinct in english with some subjects. others though take different words-- ones the english vocabulary doesn't quite get into.
unless you have experienced this first hand, i'm not sure you could really understand what i'm talking about.
I can guarantee you that there is an adequate string of words in the English language to describe whatever you're feeling.

i never said there wasn't. i said sometimes, there are things in french, and spanish also, come to think of it, that don't match up properly in another language. it happens far more frequently going from french to english than it does going from english to french, and it isn't that there isn't an adequate string of words to describe what's going on. it's that the words, many times, because english isn't as succinct as french is, come in bundles of six or seven- especially as far as emotions go- when in french there is often one simple word to describe it.
window and door were the two most blatant and simple examples.
One could argue that by using the 'bundle of six or seven words' there is more malleability to the description, providing for a better description and conveyance of the circumstance. Perhaps in a situation where there is one word in french that would require a sentence (or several) in English, the person describing the event (or object, emotion, etc) in English would end up providing a more detailed and exact representation, whereas the person describing using one word in French would be generalized by the limited description of that word.
Coles notes: Perhaps by requiring longer descriptions, English is more precise.

the words of which i'm speaking are most succinct, and just as descriptive in the original language. that's what i'm saying.

let's get out of french for a second. look at this portugese word:

saudade (Portuguese) - roughly, "sorrowful longing". Depending on context, can have the sense of homesickness, yearning for someone, fond remembrance, melancholy and fond memories of gone-by days, lost love, and a general feeling of unhappiness.

More generally, a combination of feelings for something or someone that is not there, with you: missing, longing for, remembrance, a closeness that is no longer there. The absence may be permanent or temporary. Applicable in contexts from romantic to sentimental to physical. One can feel saudades of his/her homeland, when living abroad; saudades of a deceased person; saudades of a situation, a time, a toy, a feeling. One nuance: it is a positive-valued concept.

i hardly think that that's more precise than the original word.

-------
�te maintenant tes souliers
et chausse � ton pied quelques pelotes de nu�es
car ici d�sormais est la demeure d'un ciel

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