Let's learn some languages!

[Kicker]

quatre-vingt-dix

Oh yeah, when I learned the numbers in school I just thought: "WTF"
I just say: Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf
When we played bingo, we sat there and she said a number and everybody looked like that:

 

[Yamarus]

I think it's pretty nonsensical too, but it stems from the Celtic habit of counting in base 20. The Swiss have it right: septante, huitante, nonante. Much more logical. I don't know why Belgian French has septante/nonante but uses quatre-vingt.

 

[Israeliboy]

HEBREW

The Persons
Ani (I)
At (You, female) Ata (You, male)
Hu/He (He/She)
Ana'chnu (We)
Atem (You, plural male) Aten (You, plural female)
Am (They, male) En (They, female)

Hebrew have 3 simple times: Past, Present and Future.

I'm flying to London!
Past - Ani tasti le'london
Present - Ani tas le'london
Future - Ani Ya'tus le'london

The most complicated thing for people who study Hebrew is for sure, the changing of the verbs in the different tenses + suit them to the persons.
Example:

Past
Ani tasti le'london - I flew to London
Hu tas le'london - He flew to London
He tasa le'london - She flew to London
En tasu le'london - They (female plural) flew to London
At tast le'london - You (female) flew to London
Ata tasta le'london - You (male) flew to London
Atem tastem le'london - You (male plural) flew to London
Aten tasten le'london - You (female plural) flew to London
Ana'chnu tasnu le'london - We flew to London
Am tasu le'london - They (male plural) flew to London

Present:
Ani tas le'london - I'm flying to London
Hu tas le'london - He is flying to London
He tasa le'london - She is flying to London
En tasot le'london - They (female plural) are flying to London
At tasa le'london - You (female) are flying to London
Ata tas le'london - You (male) are flying to London
Atem tasim le'london - You (male plural) are flying to London
Aten tasot le'london - You (female plural) are flying to London
Ana'chnu tasim le'london - We are flying to London
Am tasim le'london - They (male plural) are flying to London

Future:
Ani ya'tus le'london - I will fly to London
Hu ya'tus le'london - He will fly to London
He ta'tus le'london - She will fly to London
En ya'tusu le'london - They (female plural) will fly to London
At ta'tusi le'london - You (female) will fly to London
Ata ta'tus le'london - You (male) will fly to London
Atem ta'tusu le'london - You (male plural) will fly to London
Aten ta'tusna le'london - You (female plural) will fly to London
Ana'chnu na'tus le'london - We will fly to London
Am ya'tusu le'london - They (male plural) will fly to London

As you can see, the verb change A LOT + In other verbs, all the form can be changed, for example:
Ana'chnu Ne'lech le'sham (we will go there). In the examples I gave above, I wrote "Ana'chnu Na'tus" (we will fly). Put attention to the Ne and the Na


And now for the Hebrew Alphabet:

א - A
ב - B
ג - G
ד - D
ה - A
ו - V
ז - Z
ח - Ch
ט - T
י - Y/I
כ - C
ל - L
מ - M
ס - S
ע - A
פ - P
צ - Tz
ק - K
ר - R
ש - Sh
ת - T

Alef, beit, gimel, da'let, hey, vav, za'in, ch'et, tet, yud, cha'f, lamed, mem, nun, sa'mech, a'yin, pei, tzadik, kuf, resh, shin, taf.

For the numbers.
1 - Echad
2 - Shta'him
3 - Sha'losh
4 - Arba
5 - Ha'mesh
6 - Shesh
7 - She'va
8 - Shmone
9 - Te'sha
10 - E'ser
11 - Echad esre
12 - Shteim esre
13 - Shlosh esre
14 - Arba esre
15 - Ha'mesh esre
.
.
.
20 - Esrim
21 - Esrim ve'echad
.
.
.
30 - Shlosim
.
.
100 - Me'a
1000 - Elef
1000000 - Milion

The vowels:
I won't teach them cause they r a lot and very complicated But in Hebrew we use "dots" as vowels, let's have an example:

וַיִּקַץ שְׁלֹמֹה, וְהִנֵּה חֲלוֹם; וַיָּבוֹא יְרוּשָׁלִַם וַיַּעֲמֹד לִפְנֵי אֲרוֹן בְּרִית-אֲדֹנָי, וַיַּעַל עֹלוֹת וַיַּעַשׂ שְׁלָמִים, וַיַּעַשׂ מִשְׁתֶּה, לְכָל-עֲבָדָיו.

In daily life, we don't use those "dots" as we know the words.
Let's have better example:

אוּ = U
אוֹ= O

If you need any help, ask me!

 

[Quent91]

I think it's pretty nonsensical too, but it stems from the Celtic habit of counting in base 20. The Swiss have it right: septante, huitante, nonante. Much more logical. I don't know why Belgian French has septante/nonante but uses quatre-vingt.

I'm belgian but I prefer the French way (soixante-dix,...)

 

[Stargazer]

SWEDISH

The Persons
Jag (I)
Du (You)
Han/Hon/Den/Det (He/She/It)
Vi (We)
Ni (You)
De (They)

The Articles
In Swedish there are no articles, but endings or suffixes as they're called. And the suffixes vary depending on the noun (no general rule really) and if the word is singular or plural.

-n (singular)
-en (singular)
-t (singular)
-et (singular)

-na (plural)
-a (plural)
-en (plural)


And there are also 2 indefinite articles:
en (common nouns)
ett (neuter nouns)

How on earth do you make sense of this? Well, let me give you a few examples.

Let's use the word en stol which means a chair:

Stol (singular, indefinite)
Stolen (singular, definite suffix)
Stolar (plural, indefinite)
Stolarna (plural, definite suffix)


Let's use en blomma which means a flower:

Blomma (singular, indefinite)
Blomman (singular, definite suffix)
Blommor (plural, indefinite)
Blommorna (plural, definite suffix)


Let's use ett hus which means a house:

Hus (singular, indefinite)
Huset (singular, definite suffix)
Hus (plural, indefinite)
Husen (plural, definite suffix)

Note how the "en" nouns follow a different pattern than the "ett" nouns.

If you're adding an adjective before the noun, you must then add a separate definite article before the adjective, while keeping the definite suffix! The articles are den for common nouns, det for neuter nouns and de in plural form regardless of noun. Example:

Den röda blomman (The red flower)
Det stora huset (The large house)
De små stolarna (The small chairs)


The capitalization
Capitalization occurs:
- At the Beginning of a sentence
- Names of people, countries and places

However, capitalization does NOT occur:
- Languages, nationalities, months, holidays, seasons etc

Example:

Jag är från Sverige, jag är svensk och jag talar svenska.
(I am from Sweden, I am Swedish and I speak Swedish).


How do you conjugate the verbs?
FINALLY an area where Swedish is quite simple. "Really, is it true?" you might ask, but it's true. Because the verbs don't change depending on the pronoun. It's all the same. Example:

Sjunga (Sing)
Jag sjunger
Du sjunger
Han/Hon/Den/Det sjunger
Vi sjunger
Ni sjunger
De sjunger

Gå (Walk)
Jag går
Du går
Han/Hon/Den/Det går
Vi går
Ni går
De går

Stänga (Shut)
Jag stänger
Du stänger
Han/Hon/Den/Det stänger
Vi stänger
Ni stänger
De stänger

Let's do some tenses of regular and irregular verbs (again, it's the same for all pronouns):

Sjunga (irregular)
Sjung! (imperative)
Sjunger (present)
Sjöng (past)
Sjungit (supine)

Gå (irregular)
Gå! (imperative)
Går (present)
Gick (past)
Gått (supine)

Stänga (regular)
Stäng! (imperative)
Stänger (present)
Stängde (past)
Stängt (supine)


Words
Nouns:
Ett träd - a tree
En pojke - a boy
En flicka - a girl
En anka - a duck
En hund - a dog
En katt - a cat
Ett hus - a house
Ett fönster - a window
En sång - a song
En sten - a stone
En kniv - a knife
Ett land - a country
En stad - a town

Verbs:
Leka - play (games where you pretend; children's games)
Spela - play (sports you play, card/board games you play)
Skriva - write
Sjunga - sing
Lukta - smell
Dansa - dance
Göra - make
Höra - hear
Försöka - try
Förstå - understand
Tala/prata - talk
Skratta - laugh

Adjectives:
Bra - good
Dålig - bad
Söt/fin - pretty (both mean pretty in the English sense)
Vacker - beautiful
Ful - ugly
Stor - big
Liten - small
Högljudd - loud
Tyst - quiet

Colors:
Röd - red
Blå - blue
Gul - yellow
Grön - green
Svart - black
Vit - White
Brun - brown
Lila - purple
Rosa - pink
Orange - orange

Prepositions:
Med - with
Utan - without
Efter - after
Före - before
Under - under
Över - over
Framför - in front of
Bakom - behind
Runt - around
Mellan - between

Months:
Januari
Februari
Mars
April
Maj
Juni
Juli
Augusti
September
Oktober
November
December

Days:
Måndag
Tisdag
Onsdag
Torsdag
Fredag
Lördag
Söndag

Numbers:
1 En/Ett
2 Två
3 Tre
4 Fyra
5 Fem
6 Sex
7 Sju
8 Åtta
9 Nio
10 Tio
11 Elva
12 Tolv
13 Tretton
14 Fjorton
15 Femton
16 Sexton
17 Sjutton
18 Arton
19 Nitton
20 Tjugo


Useful words and sentences:
Hej (Hi, Hey, Hello)
Hej då (Bye)
Hur mår du? (How are you?)
Jag mår bra (I'm fine)
Vad heter du? (What's your name?)
Jag heter ... (My name is ...)
Var kommer du ifrån? (Where do you come from?)
Jag kommer ifrån ... (I come from ...)
Talar du svenska? (Do you speak Swedish)
Ja, jag talar svenska (Yes, I speak Swedish)
Nej, jag talar inte svenska (No, I do not speak Swedish)
Jag älskar dig (I love you)
Jag älskar ... (I love ...)
Jag hatar ... (I hate ...)
Jag tycker om ... (I like ...)
Hur i helvete kan man förstå svensk grammatik? (How the hell can one understand Swedish grammar?)
Svenska är ett svårt språk (Swedish is a difficult language)
Jag ger upp (I give up)
Christer Björkman borde sluta leka melodifestivalsdiktator! (Christer Björkman should stop playing Melodifestivalen dictator!)
Åh titta! Ett litet troll gömmer sig under stenen! (Oh look! A little troll is hiding under the rock!)
En öl, tack! (One beer, please!)
En öl till, tack! (One more beer, please!)

Many words in Swedish are also called and spelled the same, but mean completely different things. So you can get funny sentences like this:

Far, får får får? Nej, får får lamm.
(Father, do sheep get sheep? No, sheep get lamb).

 

[vatroslav_cro]

Croatian

Croatian alphabet is written in Latin script. Like many other Slavic languages, it uses 30 letters (our alphabet is called "abeceda"):

Aa, Bb, Cc, Čč, Ćć, Dd, Dždž, Đđ, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Ljlj, Mm, Nn, Njnj, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Šš, Tt, Uu, Vv, Zz, Žž.

Pronounciation (spelling): a, be, ce, če (che), će (tje) de, dže, đe e, ef, ge, ha, i, jot (je), ka, el, elj, em, en, enj, o, pe, er, es, eš, te, u, ve, ze, že.


There is no confusion about spelling of the words in Croatian, because every word is spelled the same way it is written.


Personal pronouns (Osobne zamjenice):

I (Ja)
You (Ti)
He/she/it (On/ona/ono)

We (Mi)
You (Vi)
They (Oni/one/ona)


The Articles (Članovi)

Three definite articles for the 3 genders - rod (masculine -
muški, feminine - ženski and neutral - srednji):


Singular (Jednina):

masculine : ovaj, taj
femininе : ova, ta
neutral : ovo, to

Plural (Množina):

ovi, ti
ove, te
ova, ta

No indefinite articles.

Here is how it goes :

This man - ovaj čovjek (masculine)
This house - ova kuća (feminine)
This child - ovo dijete (neutrum)


The capitalization

When do you write big first letter?

-at the beginning of a sentence
-when the word is a name (personal names, geographical names etc.)


Infinitive in Croatian consists two suffixes: "ti" and "ći":

hodati (to walk)
govoriti (to speak)
činiti (to do)
ići (to go)
doći (to come)
prijeći (to cross), etc.


Conjugation of the verbs:

Example: the verb "to speak" (govoriti)

Singular:

I speak (Ja govorim)
You speak (Ti govoriš)
He/she/it speaks (On/ona/ono govori)

Plural:

We speak (Mi govorimo)
You speak (Vi govorite)
They speak (Oni/one/ona govore)

Of course, Croatian uses also a past tense (Perfekt) and a future tense (Futur):

In the past and future tense we use the auxilliary verb ("sam, si, je, smo ,ste, su" - past tense and "ću ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će" - future tense)

Example: "to sit" (sjediti)

Past tense (Perfekt or prošlo vrijeme),

Singular:

Ja sam sjedio
Ti si sjedio
On/ona/ono je sjedio/la/lo

Plural:

Mi smo sjedili
Vi ste sjedili
Oni/one/ona su sjedili/le/la.


Future tense (Futur or buduće vrijeme)

Singular:

Ja ću sjediti
Ti ćeš sjediti
On/ona/ono će sjediti

Plural:

Mi ćemo sjediti
Vi ćete sjediti
Oni/one/ona će sjediti.

There are seven inflection degrees in Croatian: nominativ - (nominative), genitiv (genitive), dativ (dative), akuzativ (acusative), vokativ (vocative), lokativ (locative), instrumental

Adjectives (Pridjevi)

Good - dobar
Bad - loš
Pretty -lijep
Beautiful - krasan or sjajan
Ugly - ružan
Big - velik
Small - mali, malen
Loud - glasan, bučan
Quiet - tih



Prepositions (Prijedlozi)

With - S, sa
Without - bez
After - poslije, nakon
Before - prije
Under - ispod
Over -preko, iznad
In front of - ispred
Behind - iza
Around - okolo
Between - između


Colours (Boje)

Red - crven(a) ,(o)
Blue - plav
Yellow - žut
Green - zelen
Black - crn
White - bijel
Brown - smeđ
Pink - ružičast
Orange - narandžast
Gray - siv


Months of a year (mjeseci u godini):

Siječanj - january
Veljača - february
Ožujak - march
Travanj - april
Svibanj - may
Lipanj - june
Srpanj - july
Kolovoz - august
Rujan - september
Listopad - october
Studeni - november
Prosinac - december

Days in the week (dani u tjednu)

Ponedjeljak - monday
Utorak - tuesday
Srijeda - wednesday
Četvrtak - thursday
Petak - friday
Subota - saturday
Nedjelja - sunday


Brojevi - Numbers

1- jedan
2- dva
3- tri
4- četiri
5- pet
6- šest
7- sedam
8- osam
9- devet
10-deset
11-jedanaest
12-dvanaest
13-trinaest
14-četrnaest
15-petnaest
16-šesnaest
17-sedamnaest
18-osamnaest
19-devetnaest
20-dvadeset
21-dvadeset jedan
30-trideset
40-četrdeset
50-pedeset
60-šezdeset
70-sedamdeset
80-osamdeset
90-devedeset
100-sto(stotina)
200-dvjesto(dvjesta)
300-tristo(trista)
400-četiristo (četiri stotine)
500-petsto (pet stotina)
600-šesto (šest stotina)
700-sedamsto (sedam stotina)
800-osamsto (osam stotina)
900-devetsto (devet stotina)
1000-tisuću
10000-deset tisuća
100000- sto tisuća
1000000-milijun
1000000000-milijarda

 

[Nikoreindeer1973]

En alletiders ide!

 

[handeyener]

SPANISH!!!!!!

ARTICLES:

I - yo
YOU- Tú
HE/SHE- Él/Ella
WE- Nosotros
YOU- Ustedes/ Usted (formal)
THEY - Ellos

Greetings!!!
Hello- Hola
How are you?- ¿Cómo estás?, ¿Cómo está usted? (formal)
Fine, thanks- Bien, gracias
So so- Más o menos
Bad- mal
My name is...- Me llamo.....
I am a student- Soy estudiante
I can speak spanish... Puedo hablar español
I cannot speak spanish... No puedo hablar español
I speak a little spanish- Hablo poco español

Vocabulary:
Dog- perro
Cat- gato
House- casa
Mother- Mamá
Father. Papá
School- escuela
Door- Puerta
Car- Coche
Book- Libro
Socks- calcetines
Food- comida

Next time ill put more!!

 

[apasionata]

Danish please, because I Denmark!

 

[Kicker]

Spanish ftw!

 

[dezbee2008]

I was taking Spanish class this semester and it really helped.

Esta clase es buena - Did I get it right, Spanish-speaking people?

 

[ParadiseES]

^ Perfecto!

 

[nofuxCZ]

Croatian
Months of a year (mjeseci u godini):

Srpanj - july
Listopad - october
[/B]

Now that's confusing we have Srpen in Czech but it means august. We also have Listopad but it means November I guess leaves fall a month earlier in Croatia

 

[Yamarus]

Now that's confusing we have Srpen in Czech but it means august. We also have Listopad but it means November I guess leaves fall a month earlier in Croatia

Maybe something to do with the Julian/Gregorian calenders? I dunno, just a wild guess.

 

[mariusz_pol]

In Polish Listopad means also November. I see Croatian is quite similar to Polish

 

[nofuxCZ]

Maybe something to do with the Julian/Gregorian calenders? I dunno, just a wild guess.

Maybe I have no idea

In Polish Listopad means also November. I see Croatian is quite similar to Polish

And you have kwiecień for April, but in Czech we have květen and it means May

 

[nekoisneko]

maybe I should make "Bahasa Indonesia" section someday.

very interesting thread.

 

[Verjamem]

In a few days, I will explain the Polish language

 

[wyq614]

::na 汉语！Chinese、han'yu

The Persons
我/wo (I)
你/ni (You)
他/她/它 (He/She/It) all pronounced as "ta"
我们/women (We) DON'T pronounce as the English word "women"!
你们/nimen (You)
她们/tamen (They)
您/nin (Gij) (You polite form),
widely used in northern China, in the South people don't often use it, but it doesn't mean that southerners are less polite than northerners


The Articles
There are no gender for nouns in Chinese language. You don't have to be confused memorizing if a noun is masculine or femenine.

A noun won't change when it is found in plural
一间房子/yi jian fangzi (a house)
两间房子/liang jian fangzi (two houses)
...

In Chinese, there are no conjugations for the verbs:

我读书/wo du shu (I read a book)
他读书/ta du shu (He reads a book)

Deminutive forms
There are no deminutive forms. People tend to express the sense of deminutive by only adding a “小”/xiao (means little, small) in front of the noun (even people's names) I have to compare this with Spanish.

胡安/hu'an = Juan
小胡安/xiao hu'an = Juancito


Numbers

一/yi - One
二/er - Two
三/san - Three
四/si - Four
五/wu - Five
六/liu - Six
七/qi - Seven
八/ba - Eight
九/jiu - Nine
十/shi - Ten
十一/shiyi - Eleven
十二/shi'er - Twelve
十三/shisan - Thirteen
二十三/ershisan - Twenty-three
三十四/sanshisi - Thirty-four

For something like first/second, you just have to put a single character “第”/di in front of the number, e.g.

一/yi = one
第一/第一 = first
四/si = four
第四/disi = fourth

Tenses ??

You don't have to change the form of a verb to show the different tenses, nor are there conjugations of verbs according to the tenses, however, in Chinese there are adverbs that indicate the tense of the verb it modifies.

他说话/ta shuohua = He talks.
他在说话/ta zai shuohua = He is talking
他说过话/ta shuo guo hua = He has talked.
他刚才说了话/ta gangcai shuo le hua = He talked just now.

In fact, Chinese language is grammatically very easy. The main challenge to learn Chinese for a foreigner is not grammar, but Chinese character reading and handwriting!

 

[DanielLuis]

I'll make a soon