hey! ive been active here before, but never really introduced myself, so here you go!
basics
im enfys seren toive, 20, german native, university student (studying finnish and scandinavian studies along with dapping into some other stuff in the general studies field)
languages im learning
are finnish, swedish, danish, and esperanto! along with some slight dabbing into some other languages
i want to
become a translator/interpreter once im finished with university!
hello hello! if youre focusing on any of the languages im studying, feel free to lmk! i need to follow more blogs
der/dieBi/Pan/A/Homosexuelle- the bi/pan/homosexual (i know h*m*sexual is considered a slur by some in english, but i am not sure about how it is in german. i personally would be uncomfortable with it, so ask people first before you apply it to them)
dieEhe für alle - the same-sex/gender marriage (lit. marriage for everyone)
diePolyamorie- the polyamory
diePolygamie- the polygamy
dieBeziehung - the relationship
dieHormone- the hormones
dieGeschlechtsangleichung- i dont know how to translate this one, but it can be used both for taking hormones and the surgeries transgender people can get, basically it means aligning your social/biological gender/sex to your actual one
dasÖstrogen - the estrogen
dasTestosteron - the testosterone
dieHormontherapie- the hormone replacement therapy
adjectives
schwul- gay (onlyto be used by men in my experience)
lesbisch- lesbian
bi/pan/a/homosexuell- bi/pan/a/homosexual
transgender- transgender
transgeschlechtlich- transgender
transsexuell- transsexual (also considered outdated and misleading by most germans)
LGBT- LGBT
out- out
stolz- proud
nicht-binär/nichtbinär- nonbinary (i think its the same as in english, where whether you use the - or not depends on personal preference)
queer- queer (in german this is not really considered as much of a slur as it is in english and often used as an umbrella term, however there arepeople uncomfortable with it)
verbs
lieben- to love
feiern- to celebrate
sich outen - to come out
jemandenouten- to out someone
NOTE: most aces and aros also call themselves ace or aro in german, there arent any extra terms for that
diePralinen- the chocolates (a box of chocolates, mainly)
ein hoffnungsloser Romantiker - a hopeless romantic (m)
einehoffnungslose Romantikerin - a hopeless romantic (f)
dasDate- the date (romantic meeting)
derFlirt- the flirt (is mainly used to refer to a person you are flirting with)
dasKino- the cinema
derHeiratsantrag- the (marriage) proposal
dieVerlobung- the engagement
dieHochzeit- the wedding (ceremony)
dieEhe- the marriage
adjectives
romantisch- romantic
süß- cute, sweet (can be used to describe foods and people)
heiß- hot (for weather and people)
perfekt- perfect
atemlos- breathless, out of breath
verliebt- in love
verbs
lieben- to love
flirten- to flirt
mitjemandemausgehen- to go out with someone
jemandendaten- do date someone
einen Liebesbrief schreiben- to write a love letter
jemandenausführen- to invite someone out (this has a rather formal connotation, you wouldn’t say “ich führe dich zum Döneressen aus”, however “ich führe dich zum Dinner aus” is very much okay. things like the cinema probably depend on the person)
There are two kinds of objects in Finnish, partitiiviobjektitandtotaaliobjektit
partitive objects occur if the sentence is negative, irresultative, after numbers other than 1, if the word is an ainesana or if you are talking about an undecided amount of something they are, as the name says, in partitive (either singular or plural)
totaaliobjektit occur if you are talking about a specific thing rather than the thing in general (luen kirjettä vs luen kirjeen - i read any letter vs i read the letter (in one sitting)) totaaliobjektit can either look like the genetiivi yksikkö or like the nominatiivi monikko, and pronouns take a certain form if they are a totaaliobjekti (the akkusatiivi)
Some prepositions alwaystake the partitiivi following them. Some of them are
monta
pari
vähän
puoli
paljon
ennen
NOTE: The difference between monta and paljon is that paljon can occur with both ainesanat andother words, whereas monta can neveroccur with ainesanat. So you can say paljon ruokaa (ruoka = ainesana) and paljon omenoita, but you cannot say monta ruokaa, only monta omenaa, which is the same as paljon omenoita. So monta + partitive singular is the same as paljon + partitive plural
Ainesanat are, easily explained, words that cannot be counted or arent usually counted. My Finnish teacher called them substance words, because they describe a substance rather than the single parts of which said substance is made up of
examples would be hiekka (sand), ruoka (food), maito (milk), and also things like omena (apple).
the difference between, for example, paljon omenaa and paljon omenoita is that in the first sentence, you treat apple as a substance (eg. there is a lot of apple in the cake), and in the second you treat apples as countable pieces (eg. i have to buy a lot of apples)
some words are only ever ainesanat, whereas others can be both ainesanat and totaaliobjektit. generally, if you wouldn’t count the thing you are referring to you use partitive singular, as the word is an ainesana then
The partitive occurs after numbers (that arent 1), after negative sentences, after certain words, after so called ainesanat, if the amount is undeterminedand if an action is irresultative.
NOTE 2: The partitive can be formed with either the nominative form or the stemof the word, you have to learn it with each word
NOTE 3: There are some negative sentences which do nottake the partitive (words that don’t follow in partitive after possessive constructions: nälkä, jano, kiire, kuuma, kylmä, hiki, hyvä/huono olo)
Here the infinitive marker is -ta/-tä, if the vowel before the marker is an i. The t stays, but is followed by -se- and the personal ending.
häiritä
häiritsen - häiritsemme
häiritset - häiritsette
häiritsee - häiritsevät
tarvita
tarvitsen - tarvitsemme
tarvitset - tarvitsette
tarvitsee - tarvitsevat
lukita
lukitsen - lukitsemme
lukitset - lukitsette
lukitsee - lukitsevat
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
Here the infinitive marker is -ta/-tä, if the vowel in front is any vowel other than i. The t is removed, thus resulting in two vowels following after each other. The personal ending is added after both vowels
tavata
tapaan - tapaamme
tapaat - tapaatte
tapaa - tapaavat
juoruta
juoruan - juoruamme
juoruat - juoruatte
juoruaa - juoruavat
hypätä
hyppään - hyppäämme
hyppäät - hyppäätte
hyppää- hyppäävät
määrätä
määrään - määräämme
määräät- määräätte
määrää - hyppäävät
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
ends in KK+a/ä, K+a/ä is the infinitive marker, meaning that the first K belongs to the stem; to form the present tense, K+a/ä is removed and an e is added after the stem and then the personal endingfollows
mennä
menen - menemme
menet - menette
menee - menevät
kävellä
kävelen - kävelemme
kävelet - kävelette
kävelee - kävelevät
urheilla
urheilen - urheilemme
urheilet - urheilette
urheilee - urheilevat
purra
puren - puremme
puret - purette
puree - purevat
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
NOTE 2: K stands for consonant, thus KK stands for two of the same consonant following after each other
with tehdä/nähdä, which belong to verbityyppi 2, the forms are built slightly differently. for one, the h disappears, and for two, the 3rd ps. singular/plural are in strong form (seeastevaihtelu), and they dotake the -V ending. other than that, though, they are conjugated like the rest of group 2 verbs
tehdä
teen - teemme
teet - teette
tekee - tekevät
nähdä
näen - näemme
näet - näette
näkee - näkevät
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
ends in -da/-dä, which is the infinitive marker; the infinitive marker disappears and instead the personal ending is added (see here)
example:
syödä
syön - syömme
syöt - syötte
syö - syövät
löydä
löyn - löymme
löyt - löytte
löy - löyvät
saada
saan - saamme
saat - saatte
saa - saavat
voida
voin - voimme
voit - voitte
voi - voivat
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
NOTE 2: in this group of verbs, the ending -V is notadded to the 3rd ps. singular, except for in tehdäandnähdä, which are formed slightly differently than the rest (see here)
Do you know these times when you’re sitting in front of your textbook, trying to learn these boring af vocabs you’ve seen 1000 times but still can’t remember and just wish to do something different (or hoping that the world explodes so you can at least stop)?
Well, there are more ways to learn a language and I think because we just learned how we “should” learn a language at school, we’re limited in creativity. Thanks to school it’s hard to think outside of this “textbook, vocab lists, tests, etc.” stuff but there are ENDLESS things you can do to learn a language.
Remember: everything you do in your native language, you can try to do in your target language!
This is for all the people who are tired and exhausted, who are thinking about quitting or don’t have fun with their target language anymore.
DON’T YOU DARE TO GIVE UP! YOU’VE COME SO FAR!
_____________________________________________
Examples for different ways of learning a language:
write a diary
summarise an article about a topic you like (cooking, fitness, etc.)
listen to a podcast/radio
listen to music (while reading the lyrics)
try to sing along with music
read out loud while reading a book/magazine/blog/etc.
watch movies/series/videos
record videos in your target language or about how studying is going (progress, problems, etc.)
write a blog (well hello there :))
use apps that make it more fun (duolingo, memrise, lingodeer)
chat with native speakers
actually talk to native speakers ( I know what a crazy idea)
read websites about things you’re interested in
use social media only available in your target language
change the language of your smartphone
change the language of your pc
change the language of your life
play games in your target language (like not necessarily for learning it, I mean just playing a normal game IN your target language)
take online lessons with teachers that make you forget you’re learning
do a challenge! (I love this one so much)
find a learning group
be active in forums (no matter about language learning or a forum in your target language)
find a language exchange partner. (You should, seriously.)
watch lessons on youtube
read a (children-)book (with audio)
talk to yourself
think in your target language (a fun way is to tell a story about your life while it’s happening like “I went down the road with a stranger always behind me, who could it be? What does he want? It got quiet… too quiet. I tried to keep calm but was it really a coincidence? All in the middle of nowhere?” I know I’m bad at this but I hope you get what I mean, think of it like reading a book.)
learn vocabs with pictures, type in the word you want to know and ONLY look for pictures, try to feel the word. If you google for “strawberry” (in your target language and don’t know what it means) look at the pictures, the colours, how could it smell? Make a sentence with the new word. When was the last time you ate it? How was it?
Write a story/book online or just for yourself.
Make a mindmap
Use a topic jar (a jar where you put in notes with different topics on it, you take one every day and write/talk about it)
use social media to find groups interested in learning a new language or your target language
translate texts and act like you’re a famous translator who’s the only person on earth who can translate your target language (for example if you’re reading articles about historical stuff, act like you’re the only one who can find out what happened back then and the whole world is counting on you!)
try to solve random online tests
listen to a song/audiobook/whatever and write down what you hear
search for words you want to learn and build up (funny!) sentences with them or even whole stories
read comics/mangas/etc.
search for receipts in your target language and pray to god you’re doing it right… if not, well you won’t forget the vocab again. Win-win situation. :p
search for language learning groups near your living place and actually meet them (stay safe and check everything before)
listen to children songs (I still remember the first children song I learned in English lessons… like… 11 years ago in 5th grade) these songs are supposed to stick… *cough* head shoulders knees and toes knees and toes *cough* sorry where was I?
connect with language learners over Skype (useful groups of course like German trying to learn French, Frenchman trying to learn Turkish, Turk trying to learn German)
write a list (you know… like I do right know so I don’t forget English)
describe things you see (more fun with a partner)
teach your target language to others
listen to audio while sleeping
take notes in your target language (I don’t mean for grammar rules or something like that, I mean notes you would take in your native language anyway)
write a letter (so much better than an e-mail)
write an e-mail (who has time for letters)
learn rimes
learn jokes (it’s also useful for social interaction)
talk to your pets (at least if they listen to you, if I start to talk to my cat she starts yelling into my face)
translate songs and learn the vocab of it so you have more fun listening to it later
think about a topic and write down every word you can think of and then translate them into your target language
That’s a question I asked myself many times. So I spent a lot of time on blogs and websites telling me that you can’t name an exactly number. Of course you can’t but I was just searching for an “around this” number. Everyone knows that there is no magical number like 1000 and then you’ll speak your target language but with 999 you wouldn’t. I just wanted “around this” numbers to be motivated, to have a goal, to have a direction I can keep in mind. It was a pain in the ass to get an answer to this. And I want to share it with you guys, so you don’t have to waste your time on several blogs and giant textwalls to get just a little bit closer to this answer. Don’t forget these are just “around this” numbers and it’s very(!) important that you also use them and SPEAK your target language. _______________________________________ 100 most common words make up 50% of conversations.
300 most common words make up 65% of conversations.
2.000 most common words make up 90% of conversations. _______________________________________ What are the different levels of a language?
A1: 500 words A2: 1.000 words
B1: 2.000 words B2: 4.000 words
C1: 8.000 words C2: 16.000 words _______________________________________
And here a little bit detailed:
250 words - without these words, you can’t make a sentence.
750 words - is needed for everyday conversations.
2.500 words - will allow you to say most things you want, but sometimes in an awkward way.
5.000 words - is an active vocabulary of a (not high educated) native speaker.
10.000 words - is an active vocabulary of a (high educated) native speaker.
20.000 words - is needed in your passive vocabulary to fully understand work of literature by a notable author.
Day 4 / 365 days of productivity and language learning. ☕
20. Nov. 2017
I had trouble with my internet the past days and don’t know which productivity day I have now… so I’m using a date on my post from now on haha. I’m not the best Studyblr or Langblr so far.^^ This is a Bujo entry I made yesterday. It’s a to do list for this week. Like studying Korean, making a Tumblr post, new vocabs, meditation and stuff like that. Sorry for the chaos but… you know… I’m a chaotic person. ^^ I hope everyone is having a productive day while studying or language learning or whatever. :)
Do you know these times when you’re sitting in front of your textbook, trying to learn these boring af vocabs you’ve seen 1000 times but still can’t remember and just wish to do something different (or hoping that the world explodes so you can at least stop)?
Well, there are more ways to learn a language and I think because we just learned how we “should” learn a language at school, we’re limited in creativity. Thanks to school it’s hard to think outside of this “textbook, vocab lists, tests, etc.” stuff but there are ENDLESS things you can do to learn a language. Remember: everything you do in your native language, you can try to do in your target language!
This is for all the people who are tired and exhausted, who are thinking about quitting or don’t have fun with their target language anymore. DON’T YOU DARE TO GIVE UP! YOU’VE COME SO FAR!
_____________________________________________
Examples for different ways of learning a language:
write a diary
summarise an article about a topic you like (cooking, fitness, etc.)
listen to a podcast/radio
listen to music (while reading the lyrics)
try to sing along with music
read out loud while reading a book/magazine/blog/etc.
watch movies/series/videos
record videos in your target language or about how studying is going (progress, problems, etc.)
write a blog (well hello there :))
use apps that make it more fun (duolingo, memrise, lingodeer)
chat with native speakers
actually talk to native speakers ( I know what a crazy idea)
read websites about things you’re interested in
use social media only available in your target language
change the language of your smartphone
change the language of your pc
change the language of your life
play games in your target language (like not necessarily for learning it, I mean just playing a normal game IN your target language)
take online lessons with teachers that make you forget you’re learning
do a challenge! (I love this one so much)
find a learning group
be active in forums (no matter about language learning or a forum in your target language)
find a language exchange partner. (You should, seriously.)
watch lessons on youtube
read a (children-)book (with audio)
talk to yourself
think in your target language (a fun way is to tell a story about your life while it’s happening like “I went down the road with a stranger always behind me, who could it be? What does he want? It got quite… too quite. I tried to keep calm but was it really a coincidence? All in the middle of nowhere?” I know I’m bad at this but I hope you get what I mean, think of it like reading a book.)
learn vocabs with pictures, type in the word you want to know and ONLY look for pictures, try to feel the word. If you google for “strawberry” (in your target language and don’t know what it means) look at the pictures, the colours, how could it smell? Make a sentence with the new word. When was the last time you ate it? How was it?
Write a story/book online or just for yourself.
Make a mindmap
Use a topic jar (a jar where you put in notes with different topics on it, you take one every day and write/talk about it)
use social media to find groups interested in learning a new language or your target language
translate texts and act like you’re a famous translator who’s the only person on earth who can translate your target language (for example if you’re reading articles about historical stuff, act like you’re the only one who can find out what happened back then and the whole world is counting on you!)
try to solve random online tests
listen to a song/audiobook/whatever and write down what you hear
search for words you want to learn and build up (funny!) sentences with them or even whole stories
read comics/mangas/etc.
search for receipts in your target language and pray to god you’re doing it right… if not, well you won’t forget the vocab again. Win-win situation. :p
search for language learning groups near your living place and actually meet them (stay safe and check everything before)
listen to children songs (I still remember the first children song I learned in English lessons… like… 11 years ago in 5th grade) these songs are supposed to stick… *cough* head shoulders knees and toes knees and toes *cough* sorry where was I?
connect with language learners over Skype (useful groups of course like German trying to learn French, Frenchman trying to learn Turkish, Turk trying to learn German)
write a list (you know… like I do right know so I don’t forget English)
describe things you see (more fun with a partner)
teach your target language to others
listen to audio while sleeping
take notes in your target language (I don’t mean for grammar rules or something like that, I mean notes you would take in your native language anyway)
write a letter (so much better than an e-mail)
write an e-mail (who has time for letters)
learn rimes
learn jokes (it’s also useful for social interaction)
talk to your pets (at least if they listen to you, if I start to talk to my cat she starts yelling into my face)
translate songs and learn the vocab of it so you have more fun listening to it later
think about a topic and write down every word you can think of and then translate them into your target language
So a friend wanted to practice German with me and started to speak in the polite form.
I told him that it’s not necessary to use it with me because 1. we’re about the same age and 2. we’re talking over the internet.
He asked me what the second thing has to do with it. I told him that I would use the polite form to speak with a 50 years old in real-life but not if he is messaging me over the internet.
Then he asked what I’m talking about, because I once sent him a screenshot of a weird old men. And I used the polite form while talking to him.
The thing is, this 50 years old man tried to hit on me and I was using the polite form to make clear (for him), how much older he is. So he would stop with this bullshit. But he was like all the other old men who try to hit on me and said “oh you don’t need to use the polite form with me, we’re basically around the same age”. Sorry b*tch, we’re what? I’m 22. Even if you double my age I’m still younger!
I kept using the polite form, which makes them angry every single time because it basically means “You’re so much older, don’t even dream of sleeping with me. It’s disgusting.”
And I think it’s really funny how you can use a polite form to be rude af and make people angry by using it with them.
Before I start I want to mention a few things about this post.
The easiest language will always be the one you like learning, because if you have fun, it’s not really hard. Also, if you are motivated you will learn much faster.
This post will show you how long it will take to learn a language based on their difficulty. That just means, how DIFFERENT it is to the English language. More different = “harder”. It does NOT take into account if you are interested in a language or not. The condition of these groups are that your interest in these languages are ALL THE SAME!
The numbers I will give you are “just around this”numbers.
Based on which other languages you already speak, some languages will be easier (means faster) for you.
There are many factors that can change the pace of your language learning journey. (I will also make a post about this topic soon)
So first we will take a look at the groups. Which language are the easiest and hardest for English speakers?
_________________________
Group 1 (575-600 hours): the easiest languages because they are very similar to English. This are languages like Italian, Spanish, French, etc.
Group 2 (750 hours): still similar to English. In this group is just one language. German. (I guess because our articles are a pain in the ass. Seriously, I have friends that came here 10 years ago, don’t even have an accent anymore but still switch up some articles.)
Group 3 (900 hours): different to English. In this group are languages like Indonesian or Swahili.
Group 4 (1100 hours): significant differences to English. In this group are languages like Bulgarian, Croatian, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian and many more.
Group 5 (2200 hours): very different to English. In this group are languages like Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
I made a post about many more languages, so if your target languages is not mentioned here, you can look it up on my other post here.
_________________________
And why did I tell you about these groups? Because the thing we care about are the hours it takes to learn a language from one of these groups!
But that’s not all, we also care about the amount of words you have to learn to be fluent in a language. I also made a post about this, so if you want to know more about how many words you need to be conversational, fluent, etc. or if you are A1, A2, B1, etc. then you can check it out here.
So based on this post we want a vocabulary of 5.000 words. You also have to keep in mind to study listening, speaking, reading and writing to cover everything up. If you just learn a language from a textbook you probably won’t understand native speakers at all and you will also won’t find words when it comes to speaking it. The following numbers are for people who want to be fluent. Like REAL fluent like a (low educated) native speaker.
