Re:German expressions that don’t exist in English
by jgwil2 on Monday December 30, 2019 @12:42PM
(#21915158)
This is an entirely subjective judgment on your part that you are advancing as though it were a matter of fact. Have you considered the possibility that you know English least well of your three languages, and that you are therefore better able to express yourself in the other two? Also, please provide a source for your "fact" that some languages are inherently more "expressive" than others (whatever that means).
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Re:German expressions that don’t exist in English
by missosoup on Monday December 30, 2019 @06:29PM
(#21917636)
I provided a trivial and concrete example: мат. English is inherently incapable of expressing мат.
And English being my strongest language, I'd say no, I don't think it's because I know it least well of the three.
Perhaps this is just something that doesn't make sense to people who only know one language, but it self-evident to multilinguals.
If you want a source, click TFA - a list of German expressions that don't exist in English. The discussion here on whether or not it's a great list, but no one disagrees there are phrases that don't exist in English.
Re:German expressions that don’t exist in English
by goto11 on Wednesday January 01, 2020 @08:31AM
(#21927925)
But that goes both ways. If we accept that "urspung" does not translate directly to "origin", then obviously "origin" does not translate directly to "ursprung" either. So I don't see how this proves one language is more expressive than another?
Unless you can somehow prove that any English word or phrase have a direct German translation but not vice-versa.