Homonym abuse should be a crime

[Akka]

yeah, I know, my bad I couldn't even come up with a single french word that uses an accent, actually, which is why I just wrote "frénch"

Man, half our words have accent, you mustn't have looked very hard
"touché" or "coup d'état" are already used in english language, and the very motto of the country is filled with them : "liberté, égalité, fraternité". Shame on you !

 

[yung.carl.jung]

it was late at night and I was in an elevated mental state. still, though, the german language has so many words from french that it's really embarrassing I couldn't come up with one. touché is even something that is pretty commonly said here.

a few other french words that are semi-common: cheslong (I love the sound of this), portemonnaie, avance, resentiment, balkon, bredullie (my fav) (this is how we spell them in German, sorry )

 

[tjs282]

a few other french words that are semi-common: cheslong (I love the sound of this), portemonnaie, avance, resentiment, balkon, bredullie (my fav) (this is how we spell them in German, sorry )

And also, "pommes"...

(Manchmal mit Ketchup, manchmal Mayo, aber immer mit 2 Silben!)

Spoiler Translation :

Sometimes with ketchup, sometimes mayonnaise, but always with 2 syllables!

But while I recognise the French words whose spellings haven't been too badly ge-Deutscht, and I'm guessing 'cheslong' = 'chaise longue', I've no idea what 'bredullie' is supposed to mean...

*rummage*

Is it this?

 

[Akka]

a few other french words that are semi-common: cheslong (I love the sound of this), portemonnaie, avance, resentiment, balkon, bredullie (my fav) (this is how we spell them in German, sorry )

Holy cow, the "cheslong" and "bredullie" one left me scratching my head until I googled them up. How can you murder "chaise-longue" and "bredouille" like that, you barbarians

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Holy cow, the "cheslong" and "bredullie" one left me scratching my head until I googled them up. How can you murder "chaise-longue" and "bredouille" like that, you barbarians

we pronounce them almost exactly the same, it just makes more sense to spell them like that. they read very naturally.

And also, "pommes"...

(Manchmal mit Ketchup, manchmal Mayo, aber immer mit 2 Silben!)

Spoiler Translation :

Sometimes with ketchup, sometimes mayonnaise, but always with 2 syllables!

But while I recognise the French words whose spellings haven't been too badly ge-Deutscht, and I'm guessing 'cheslong' = 'chaise longue', I've no idea what 'bredullie' is supposed to mean...

*rummage*

Is it this?

bredoullie* is an awkward or bad situation you find yourself in

 

[Arakhor]

Nice to see that other languages get murdered, rather than just English.

 

[Silurian]

Nice to see that other languages get murdered, rather than just English.

We take our language from everywhere and so there are no rules that make sense.
It does mean that we are the best but we are also stupid when we argue about changes,

 

[GoodSarmatian]

you know what pisses me off? what really drives me over the edge? when people use the wrong apostrophe.
kevin´s tattoo studio

Ah, the infamous idiot's apostrophe.
I've even seen it used for plural's.

I think this is actually not wrong.
The apostrophe is in this case a sign that a letter has been left out. Should be correct, as far as I know (although there should be a space after the "geht", since these are 2 words).

I hope so, 'cause I use it constantly.

Tonal language mang

When we learned that wǎn means late half the class was snickering because tài means too or extreme.
Taiwan = Too late. Get it ? Our Chinese teacher didn't get it because tài wǎn and Táiwān sound so completely different to her that she didn't make the connection until we pointed it out.

Still, Mandarin has only a bit over 400 syllables and four tones (five if you count the very rarely used neutral tone). That means that the language is full of real homophones, even for native speakers.

 

[tjs282]

we pronounce them almost exactly the same, it just makes more sense to spell them like that

If you're saying them German-fashion with all letters spoken, then 'Cheslong' would kind of work as equivalent to the French pronunciation, but 'Bredullie' wouldn't, because the French '-ille' is more like a diphthong than a consonant. A semi*-cultured Brit (such as myself, ha ha) trying to say 'bredouille' the French way might just about manage 'breh-doo-ee' — a less-cultured Brit might settle for 'bred-wee' (yummy).

So if you want to apply German phonetic rules, you'd have to lobby for a spelling change, if you wanted to make the German version of the word sound more similar to the French original: 'Breduie' might work (or possibly 'Bredüie' — I despair of ever getting the hang of the Umlaut-Vokale...).

*EDITED for honesty

 

[Akka]

Oh, I just remember another mix-up that drives me mad :
then and than
Yeah, I'm especially annoyed by all the mix-up that show the person doesn't understand the difference between words and just go on a (bad) hearing approximation.

A cultured Brit (such as myself, ha ha) trying to say 'bredouille' the French way might just about manage 'breh-doo-ee' — a less-cultured Brit might settle for 'bred-wee' (yummy).

That's still missing the [j] sound though.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Wye yes, I probably wood.

Eye wood two.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

If you're saying them German-fashion with all letters spoken, then 'Cheslong' would kind of work as equivalent to the French pronunciation, but 'Bredullie' wouldn't, because the French '-ille' is more like a diphthong than a consonant. A cultured Brit (such as myself, ha ha) trying to say 'bredouille' the French way might just about manage 'breh-doo-ee' — a less-cultured Brit might settle for 'bred-wee' (yummy).

So if you want to apply German phonetic rules, you'd have to lobby for a spelling change, if you wanted to make the German version of the word sound more similar to the French original: 'Breduie' might work (or possibly 'Bredüie' — I despair of ever getting the hang of the Umlaut-Vokale...).

fully agreed. bredullie, depending on what part of Germany we are talking about, gets butchered the worst while cheslong sounds very close to the french original

 

[tjs282]

That's still missing the [j] sound though.

Yeah, see, that's what I mean: I said 'cultured' -- but I probably should have been more honest and stuck with 'semi-cultured'...

 

[Broken_Erika]

Yeah, see, that's what I mean: I said 'cultured' -- but I probably should have been more honest and stuck with 'semi-cultured'...

Semi-Cultured. Quasi-Cultured. The Diet Coke of Cultured. Just one Calorie. Not Cultured Enough!

 

[tjs282]

Semi-Cultured. Quasi-Cultured. The Diet Coke of Cultured. Just one Calorie. Not Cultured Enough!

Just don't call me "Mister"...

 

[ArchGhost]

Drat! It grinds my gears that it took me so long to come up with what should have been my instant response to the thread:

Hey Tim, would you make it a capitol offense?

None of you other clowns beat me to it, though, so there's that.

I do that one all the time, though as it's almost always in reference to said first city in civ, it seems to be less heinous than it could be.

Capital (no stress on case) = head. The way it's used implies an orphaned word if the speaker isn't careful: Washington, D.C. is the capital (city) of the USA.
capitol = legislative building
Capitol = specific capitol (i.e. THE Capitol in D.C.)

the way I use it I've not really referring to one or the other, but both at once? Your first and most important city, with the capitol in it

Whether I use it correctly in a specific scenario or not, it drives me nuts to see people referring to things like "Capital Hill" though you could use either! It just seems odd somehow to refer to it in such an indirect manner.

Edit:
The difference between "have" and "got" should be a lot more understandable among the populace than something harder like obtain/attain or adverse/averse.

 

[cardgame]

capitol is obsolete tbh, let's roll it all up into capital.

 

[Silurian]

Why did the USA decide to call a group of government buildings after a temple in rome and a hill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitoline_Hill

 

[metatron]

Holy cow, the "cheslong" and "bredullie" one left me scratching my head until I googled them up. How can you murder "chaise-longue" and "bredouille" like that, you barbarians

I don't know what YCJ is up to but i can't find a dictionary that recognises his germanised spelling of bredouille; google isn't having any of it either.
We just capitalise it, because noun; that's it.

I've no idea what 'bredullie' is supposed to mean...

*rummage*

Is it this?

(Disclaimer: I'm presuming you're British and English is your native language, my apologies if that is not the case and you just happened to not know or recognise the word or something).

Yes, except in German we use it in the abstract. One is in a/the Bredouille.
Which is a tough spot or a pickle.

How can you murder "chaise-longue" and "bredouille" like that, you barbarians

We do the reverse of what the Anglospherians do. They conserve spelling and butcher the pronounciation.
We try to preserve pronounciation as best we can and eventually, usually with 20 to 200 years delay, fix the spelling because nobody gets it and a germanised spelling has crept its way through the working class anyway.

Here are some more for the titulation of your crawling skin:

Plädoyer, Plüsch, Büro, Etikette and Etikett, Nische, Frisör, Emaille*, Galosche, Maskottchen, Mätresse, Dekollete, Debakel, Retusche, Kabel, Kautschuk, Möbel, Paket...​

*Yes we made that more French just so people get how they are supposed to pronounce it.

Nice to see that other languages get murdered, rather than just English.

You are the language-murderes in chief!
You're just viciously stalking innocent German/Dutch/Yiddish/Afrikaans words to drag them to your dungeon and do unspeakable things to them!

 

[Kyriakos]

The thread is about homophones, surely; not homonyms.

Anyway, "nomina numina". After all, all words are carcases of meaning.