linguistics
Every language learner who has delved into the morphological depths of German struggles with a linguistic jungle of random articles ready to put you to shame whenever you have to choose among a handful of declensions in a conversation. But there’s one thing German is great for: inventing words! Can you add any to the list? :D
If something isn’t good to begin with, there’s not much one can do to improve it.
Literal translations – Dutch: A monkey may wear a gold ring, but it stays an ugly thing. | Spanish: The money may dress in silk, but it stays a monkey. | German: One can’t cut a diamond out of a pebble. | Irish: Dress a goat in silk, but it still remains a goat. | Romanian: One can’t make a whip out of shit. | Russian: One can’t make candy out of shit. | Finnish: Many cakes may look beautiful on the outside, but be shitty in the inside. | French: One cannot make a race-horse from a donkey. | Turkish: You may put a golden packsaddle on a donkey, but the donkey is always a donkey.
English had its Great Vowel Shift and left us trembling with its devious phonology, Finnish has given us headaches for ages with its many cases, German wanted to drive us insane with its convoluted syntax and trennbare Verben… but we avenged ourselves by creating the subjunctive mood in order to mess around with Spanish learners. ¡No hay problema! We’ve got you covered with The Adventurer’s Map for Spanish Learners.
I want to read the Spanish version of this wonderful map!
