• yata@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    For instance, you can chop a tree down. Once you’re done, you can chop a tree up.

    Imagine the confusion this causes lol.

    This is an absolutely minor thing, and it is also a phenomenon which occurs in basically all other languages.

    • Gork@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Minor, yes, but there are quite a few of them.

      • Break a leg

      • It’s raining cats and dogs

      • Bite the bullet

      • Piece of cake

      • Hold your horses

      • Spill the beans

      • Hit the nail on the head

      • Let the cat out of the bag

      • It costs an arm and a leg

      • Can’t have your cake and eat it too

      • ByteJunk
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        1 year ago

        These are just idioms, all languages have their own.

        Learning English has it’s snags, but it’s not a hard language. That’s a good thing btw.

        • margaritox@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          There are no objectively “hard” or “easy” languages. What makes certain languages “hard” is their difference from one’s native language.

          • ByteJunk
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            1 year ago

            Ah, we disagree my friend. I think languages can be easier or harder based on other criteria too, and not only familiarity.

            Suppose an alien, the kind from outer space, crashes on earth and now needs to learn a language to communicate with humans.

            It’s not a stretch to consider that all human languages are so far removed from his own as to be considered equally hard to learn if looking only at familiarity. In this scenario, surely there are features of individual languages that make them harder to learn - stuff like gendered articles as mentioned before, as there’s no logic to them and have to memorized.

            • margaritox@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I understand your point and opinion, but I think that, for us humans, it has more to do with similarity to our native language.

      • uberrice@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Idioms. Present in all languages.

        Example from Japanese, transliterated:

        Rain falls, the ground hardens.

        So, is the meaning instantly obvious to you?