Search found 31 matches

by WonderingSpaniard
Tue May 31, 2005 5:13 pm
Forum: Grammar
Topic: subjunctive
Replies: 11
Views: 26831

Let's face it, BD, they talked really funny back there in 1886! I enjoyed much more Dickens's first half of the century... XD But I must admit, too, that I swore never again to read Shakespeare in Spanish after seeing all those " thou call st thyself my friend"... :D However, well, who kn...
by WonderingSpaniard
Tue May 31, 2005 5:00 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: It couldn't be otherwise... Chinese translation!
Replies: 13
Views: 32131

It couldn't be otherwise... Chinese translation!

What does the following mean? I know the meaning of the characters separatedly, but they don't conform any logical signification for me put together thus: 她念高三。 So... She studies high/tall three? What on earth is that supposed to say? That she is in third course? Is 高 related at all with 年级?? I'm in...
by WonderingSpaniard
Tue May 31, 2005 4:49 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: Chinese characters
Replies: 11
Views: 25016

Chinese characters

Well, I'm afraid I can only give a description of how they looks like, for I don't know its pronunciation and I cannot find them in the dictionaries available to me (rather bad). On the first there are three little "mouths" (口), encircled by a "wrapping" such as in 国 but without ...
by WonderingSpaniard
Tue May 31, 2005 4:18 pm
Forum: Grammar
Topic: subjunctive
Replies: 11
Views: 26831

Well, I don't know for sure, but this could be yet another dissimilarity between the verb "to be" and others. However, I didn't know that particular rule of the English subjunctive. It does sound correct to me to put the negation after the verb, as it doesn't putting it before. Try to see ...
by WonderingSpaniard
Tue May 31, 2005 4:08 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: Chinese word order
Replies: 2
Views: 9255

Chinese word order

My task consists of translating some simple phrases into Chinese.I have problems with one of them, for I don't know whether I must use the qualifier 得 or not.

I think my mum is too weak:

我觉得我妈妈弱得太。

or either:

我觉得我妈妈太弱。

Are they right?

Thanks a lot!

WS.
by WonderingSpaniard
Tue May 31, 2005 3:16 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: Complicated arab word
Replies: 5
Views: 14153

Oh, sorry!! I haven't paid much attention to this forum lately. Well, the root is fa d ala in second form meaning "to prefer"/"to like", wquinette did come very close! The "faa" at the beginning, as I discovered soon after I post, is merely a particle meaning "and&...
by WonderingSpaniard
Sun May 08, 2005 6:54 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: Complicated arab word
Replies: 5
Views: 14153

Complicated arab word

Could anyone tell me the meaning of this arab word? "faa[sup]c[/sup]ufaddlu I haven't been able to find it in my dictionary. Indeed, I leave a door open for a possible missprint... It does have a curious shape.




Thank you!!
by WonderingSpaniard
Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:09 am
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Honesty Pot
Replies: 8
Views: 19064

Thanks uncronopio!! Your example fits perfectly!

Garzo, yours is also a very illustrative one, although I didn't quite understand the meaning of your first phrase...Quid dixit?

Regards,

WS.
by WonderingSpaniard
Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:31 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Honesty Pot
Replies: 8
Views: 19064

The thing is supposed to be next to a coffe-machine...What I doubt is whether this is a dispenser with a coin slot and no change return dish incorporated so that you have to honestly pick the correct amount up from the "honesty pot" or some more classical gear with that "honesty pot&q...
by WonderingSpaniard
Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:23 pm
Forum: Idioms
Topic: Getting into hot water
Replies: 8
Views: 34019

Thank you!!! That's from a newspaper headline I must translate. Given the amount of double-sense I could spot in the body, I thought it very likely that those words meant something else, too... I should have come to it by myself I think. Notwithstanding, my Spanish-shapen mind relates hot water with...
by WonderingSpaniard
Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:23 pm
Forum: Idioms
Topic: Getting into hot water
Replies: 8
Views: 34019

Getting into hot water

Does that phrase belong to or form itself some kind of English idiom?? If so, what's it's meaning and, when necessary, how is it completed?

Thanks a lot!!

Regards,

WS.
by WonderingSpaniard
Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:21 pm
Forum: Res Diversae
Topic: Honesty Pot
Replies: 8
Views: 19064

Honesty Pot

Well, I didn't know where to post this... Recently I came across that term. In my dictionary it reads, under the epigraph Honesty box : vessel where money is laid down for purchased items when no shopkeeper can collect it. Now, here: "[I've been to] offices where a cuppa cost 7p (with an 'hones...
by WonderingSpaniard
Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:29 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: Optimus learnibus lingua Latina este?
Replies: 68
Views: 150087

Henri: Larry, I may have become disoriented in the media whirlpool, but it is my understanding that violence in schools is no less prevalent in societies in which weapons control is less, shall we say, rigorous. Am I deceived ? Violence might be equally "prevalent"... The difference simply...
by WonderingSpaniard
Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:15 pm
Forum: Languages of the World
Topic: common waters
Replies: 7
Views: 17336

Mais regarde ce qu'il dit!! I have a theory that the French language is a bastard language Comment oses-tu? :P More seriously, I don't think French is to be considered a mongrel language. Taking English as an example of a truly mongrel tongue, we see that huge amounts of vocabulary came in from Old ...
by WonderingSpaniard
Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:41 pm
Forum: Grammar
Topic: History of Grammar
Replies: 14
Views: 30063

Garzo: The feminine gender seems to have developed out of the inanimate collective plural! This has struck me. Which could be, if you know of any, the relationship between that fact and the way Arabic expresses the same inanimate plural? I feel there must be something... I mean, constructing inanima...

Go to advanced search