Let's share highly specific and unhelpful example sentences

General discussion about learning languages
nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby nooj » Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:13 am

StringerBell wrote:The thing is, constant warnings are unnerving for anyone aspiring to be an overlord.

È che gli avvertimenti continui sono snervanti per chiunque aspiri al titolo di sovrano.

Those poor aspiring overlords.


Scusa, ma credo che si tratti qui di un falso amico, snervante vuol dire una cosa che stanca.

Weird sentences can be very useful for me, because it helps me push the boundaries of what I know about the language. No bit of language is extraneous, homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto -> homo sum: linguae nihil a me alienum puto.

I'm not likely to need to know about the aerodynamics of flying fish, but being able to talk about that might help me to explain how a frisbee works, or a boomerang, and that's something that I plausibly might want to talk about.
0 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

User avatar
reineke
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3570
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:34 pm
Languages: Fox (C4)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6979
x 6554

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby reineke » Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:23 pm

unnerve, enervate, unman, emasculate mean to deprive of strength or vigor and the capacity for effective action. unnerve implies marked often temporary loss of courage, self-control, or power to act.

Merriam-Webster

snervante agg. [part. pass. di snervare]. - 1. [che serve a recidere i nervi]. 2. (fig.) a. [che fiacca il sistema nervoso e toglie la capacità di reagire] ≈ defatigante, estenuante, logorante, (non com.) sdirenante, sfibrante. b. [che toglie l'energia fisica: un caldo s.]

Treccani

The sentences are helpful.
1 x

StringerBell
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2018 3:30 am
Languages: English (n)
Italian
x 3289

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby StringerBell » Mon Nov 12, 2018 2:54 pm

It was probably a bad idea, scaling that high-rise, but I was involved with this knockout redhead at the time.
Last edited by StringerBell on Sun Mar 31, 2019 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
3 x
Season 4 Lucifer Italian transcripts I created: https://learnanylanguage.fandom.com/wik ... ranscripts

Cainntear
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3469
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:04 am
Location: Scotland
Languages: English(N)
Advanced: French,Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Intermediate: Italian, Catalan, Corsican
Basic: Welsh
Dabbling: Polish, Russian etc
x 8666
Contact:

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby Cainntear » Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:38 pm

tommus wrote:For example, a very useful sentence to show a word in a context that can be remembered could be something like:

shovel: The man used a shovel to dig a hole in the ground.

That would be pretty misleading though, as you would typically use a spade for that, not a shovel. ;-)
1 x

StringerBell
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2018 3:30 am
Languages: English (n)
Italian
x 3289

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby StringerBell » Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:23 pm

nooj wrote:Scusa, ma credo che si tratti qui di un falso amico, snervante vuol dire una cosa che stanca.


Good catch! My husband confirmed this. Reverso Context generally works pretty well, but I guess sometimes mistakes like this slip in.
1 x
Season 4 Lucifer Italian transcripts I created: https://learnanylanguage.fandom.com/wik ... ranscripts

User avatar
reineke
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3570
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:34 pm
Languages: Fox (C4)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6979
x 6554

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby reineke » Tue Nov 13, 2018 12:52 am

StringerBell wrote:
nooj wrote:Scusa, ma credo che si tratti qui di un falso amico, snervante vuol dire una cosa che stanca.


Good catch! My husband confirmed this. Reverso Context generally works pretty well, but I guess sometimes mistakes like this slip in.


I don't see a translation error here. Snervante works well in this sentence. Your husband is of course also correct.

snervante

a enervating, nerve-racking, unnerving, harrowing, draining
un’esperienza snervante a harrowing/an unnerving experience; lavoro snervante nerve-racking work
fa un caldo snervante this heat is enervating/draining; quest’attesa è snervante this wait is nerve-racking.

Fernando Picchi, Grande Dizionario di Inglese

unnerve

verb transitive
Word forms: unˈnerved or unˈnerving
1.
to cause to lose one's courage, self-confidence, etc.
2.
to make feel weak, nervous, etc.

collinsdictionary.com

Word Origin & History
1620s, "to destroy the strength of," from un- (2) + nerve. Meaning "to deprive of courage" is recorded from 1704.

The biggest problem with reverso is that the translation sometimes does not match the original.
0 x

StringerBell
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2018 3:30 am
Languages: English (n)
Italian
x 3289

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby StringerBell » Tue Nov 13, 2018 5:05 pm

Well, now we know not to put the baby's head in the guillotine.
9 x
Season 4 Lucifer Italian transcripts I created: https://learnanylanguage.fandom.com/wik ... ranscripts

StringerBell
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2018 3:30 am
Languages: English (n)
Italian
x 3289

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby StringerBell » Sat Mar 30, 2019 3:51 pm

"I know I am prone to making the occasional casual reference to your sister being a... Well, a wire-haired man-goblin."
0 x
Season 4 Lucifer Italian transcripts I created: https://learnanylanguage.fandom.com/wik ... ranscripts

User avatar
Tristano
Blue Belt
Posts: 640
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 7:11 am
Location: The Netherlands
Languages: Native: Italian
Speaks: English, Dutch, French, Spanish
Understands but not yet speaks: Romanian
Studies: German
Can't wait to put his hands on: Scandinavian languages, Slavic languages, Turkish, Arabic and other stuff
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5141
x 1015

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby Tristano » Sat Mar 30, 2019 6:48 pm

StringerBell wrote:Maybe one day I will need to say:

If you're Alec Guinness and you've been in a box in a Japanese prison for six months, yes, you need to stretch your legs, but after 30 miles in a car, you don't.

Se fossi rimasto sei mesi dentro la cella di una prigione giapponese come Alec Guinnes, allora avresti bisogno di sgranchirti le gambe, ma non dopo 50 km in macchina.


Correzione: se tu fossi Alec Guinness e fossi rimasto in una prigione giapponese, sì, avresti avuto bisogno di sgranchirti le gambe, ma dopo 30 miglia in macchina no.
0 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17566

Re: Don't know what to call this thread...highly specific and unhelpful sentences?

Postby Cavesa » Sun Mar 31, 2019 12:20 pm

Schadenfruede wrote:This isn't a sentence, but while looking up some unfamilar words while extensively reading a German fantasy book I learned the words for:

High treason(useful for plot)
Dungeon(also good)
Swordfighting terms(check)
And...the term for "longitudinal axis"(don't see myself needing that one too often...)


and why didn't you add the German terms? (and the name of the book of course) :-)
1 x


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: themethod and 2 guests