linguaholic

What are you referring to when talking about the "Chinese alphabet", Baburra? Are you talking about the Kangxi Radicals? If you don't, I really do not understand your meaning here *.*

I have heard about LingQ several times now. I just had a quick look and I do have to say that I am not impressed about it. First of all, the design of the website is quite boring. Secondly (on the german website of lingQ, I just read some testimonials and I found at least 3 mistakes in three very short testimonials. This kind of thing does not really speak for the quality of a website if you ask me....but well, maybe I am wrong :=)

Thank you Sidney! The badges are just the beginning. I will try to find new ways to make this forum as enjoyable as possible. The most important thing will still be the content, though:=)

Dear Denis Hard You are completely right. It is indeed a big problem that useful information gets lost under all that posts that have been done already (almost 20'000 posts now). At least we got a neat search function, which enables us to find precious information again about a certain topic/keyword. Moreover, me, as an administrator, I have the possibility to make posts sticky; ...sticky posts remain at the top at all times. I used this function several times in all kind of different subforums on linguaholic.com, especially for threads with lots of links (online resources for language learning for different languages). However, I do agree that a special sub-forum for the most precious information/links would be a great addition to www.linguaholic.com and I will definitely try to integrate something like this very soon. Please have a look at those posts here: http://linguaholic.com/chinese-links/study-chinese-links/ http://linguaholic.com/study-russian/useful-links-for-russian-language-learners/ http://linguaholic.com/japanese-links/study-japanese-links/ http://linguaholic.com/german-language-general-discussion-thread/study-links-german-updated-**-january-2014-**/ It would be great to have this kind of information in a separate forum. Don't you agree? There are, of course, also different kind of threads/information, where it would make sense to have them in a separate subforum (for quick/easier access).

Numbers in Finnish: // Count from 1 to 20 in Finnish Let's have a look at how to count properly in Finnish (from 0 to 20) and from 1st to 20th (Ordinal Numbers): 0 nolla 1 yksi 2 kaksi 3 kolme 4 neljä 5 viisi 6 kuusi 7 seitsemän 8 kahdeksän 9 yhdeksän 10 kymmenen 11 yksitoista 12 kaksitoista 13 kolmetoista 14 neljätoista 15 viisitoistä 16 kuusitoista 17 seitsemäntoista 18 kahdeksantoista 19 yhdeksäntoista 20 kaksikymmentä

:shy: Oh... I am sorry about that. Hmm...it might be still useful to know these kind of words, so if somebody "throws them at your face", you know what's going on.... :grin:

How to use the conjunction However I really like to use the conjunction "However". However, I am not always sure about the correct usage of it :=) I am pretty sure that it is very common to put "However" at the beginning of a sentence and then you put a comma, but what about using However in the middle of a sentence or maybe even in the end? Is this possible and if it is, is it grammatically correct?

Hey there! As Andre-nunes mentioned, it is really cool to see some people from Ghana joining the forums! I also think that French is an official language of Ghana. Please let us know whether that is true or not :grin: Have fun in the forums!

Hey all Could somebody please explain when you need to use "must" and when you should use "have to". A lot of europeans (or maybe only Germans) are struggling with this! Why? Must problably because we have a verb called "müssen" in German and it is in some ways similiar to "must", but not identical.

Links to online German language resources German Online Dictionaries: http://deu.hablaa.com/deutsch-englisch/ (German-English, English-German and many more) http://dict.leo.org (one of the most famous German dictionaries) http://de.pons.eu/übersetzung (Solid german dictionary) http://www.linguee.de (state-of-the-art dictionary/translation tool, highly recommended!) http://www.dict.cc (German-English, English-German & many more ) http://dwb.uni-trier.de/de/ (digital version of the famous dictionary of the Grimm brothers...very interesting, unidirectional (Thesaurus, lots of etymological information) Complete online German courses (grammar, vocabulary, audio, syntax, writing) http://www.deutsch-lernen.com (decent resource, free basic information, lessons need registration) http://www.german-online.net (Some free information and lessons, more lessons-->need to become a member) http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/ (Solid information about the German language, FREE) http://german.about.com/library/anfang/blanfang_inhalt.htm ( (Solid information about the German language, FREE) http://learngerman.elanguageschool.net http://www.deutschakademie.de/online-deutschkurs/english/ (Free, -->need to register to access the lessons) http://www.populearn.com (free for a couple of minutes..not sure about the quality of this resource..already spotted some mistakes after 30 seconds) http://www.deutsched.com (Free of charge, design is a little bit outdated, but content is ok) http://leicht-deutsch-lernen.com (need to sign up, page looks a little bit suspicious to me...) http://www.yesgerman.com/ (20+ German lessons, Free, Blog-Style) http://learn-german-easily.com (20+ German lessons, all free) http://www.germanlanguageguide.com/german/culture/germanfood.asp (basic info about various topics/subjects) German phrases / words / vocabulary http://www.smartphrase.com/German/ge_general_words_phr.shtml (Some useful phrases translated from English to German, different subjects, such as school, shopping, numbers, etc...) http://www.linguanaut.com/english_german.htm http://learngermanphrases.com (German Phrases and Expressions, free) http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/resources/german/ (Pimsleur approach to learning German and some useful links to german websites and some useful info about the language itself) http://www.languagesoftware.net/rocket-german-review.html (short review about the Rocket German Software) http://www.germanprofessor.org/lessons/ (Some basic info about german and some reviews about "German dictionary resources") http://www.howtolearngerman.de/german-for-beginners/ (Some good infos about HOW to learn german --> some useful links to other resources as well) http://www.canoo.net (German Grammar and Online Dictionary, highly recommended and definitely one of the best homepages out there to learn German) http://faculty.acu.edu/~goebeld/public_html/maerchen/maermenu.htm (fairytale translations English-German) http://www.german-flashcards.com (need to sign up, free basic account) http://www.reisen-deutschland.net/ (Some good info about nice travel destinations within Germany) Information about studying in Germany http://www.studying-in-germany.org http://studygermany.mawista.com

If you are interested in studying Finnish, you will definitely want to have some nice online resources at your fingertips. Here you go. Enjoy. Study Finnish // Online Resources Dictionaries: http://www.fincd.com (English-Finnish, Finnish-English) http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-finnish/# (English-Finnish, Finnish-English) http://hablaa.com/english-finnish/ (English-Finnish, Finnish-English and many more) Other useful online resources: http://www.verbix.com/languages/finnish.shtml (Finnish Online Verb Conjugator) http://users.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sisallysen.html (Finnish Grammar, in English and in German) http://donnerwetter.kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/FinnishForForeigners/ch1-en/ch1-22-adjekt.htm (Finnish words and Finnish Grammar) http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/finnish-cases.html (Finnish Grammar, Finnish cases) http://learnfinnish.hostoi.com/grammar2.html (Finnish Grammar / Declensions, cases) http://www.speakfinnish.co.uk (Useful vocabulary and phrases) http://www.101languages.net/finnish/ (All kind of information about the Finnish language) http://www.unilang.org/course.php?res=65 (some basic information/notions on the Finnish Language) Resources about one specific aspect/topic of the Finnish language: http://people.uta.fi/~km56049/finnish/timexp.html (Time Expressions in Finnish) http://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-finnish/en/fin/ (Counting in Finnish) http://papunet.net/selko/uutiset/?kat=1 (News in Finnish, simplified)

Most of the language spoken in Europe are somehow related to each other and do, therefore, belong to the same Indo-European family of languages. The Finnish language is quite exceptional, as it belongs to the Finno-Ugrian language family, just like Estonian and Hungarian. Therefore, the Finnish language differs greatly in structure and vocabulary from most of the other languages spoken in Europe. However, this does not necessarily mean that Finnish is harder to learn than other European languages, it is just different and has its own peculiarities. Now, I would like to explain some of the characteristics/differences of the Finnish language in comparison to other (european) languages: Finnish has no articles and does NOT differentiate between genders In the Finnish language, there are no articles, so unlike in German for instance, where you differentiate between the masculine, feminine and neutral gender (Der, Die, Das), Finnish has no grammatical gender. Some examples (German, English, Finnish): Das Auto // The car, a car // Finnish: auto German: Er, Sie // English: he, she // Finnish: hän German: Der Löffel // English: the spoon, a spoon // Finnish: lusikka German: Die Gabel // English: a fork, the fork // Finnish: haarukka German: das Messer // English: a knife, the knife // Finnish: veitsi Finnish largely depends on postpositions, not on prepositions English: in a, the car // auto+ssa English: in my car // auto + ssa + ni English: in (the) cars // auto + i + ssa English: you speak // puhu + t English: do you speak // puhu + t + ko English: you spoke // puhu + i + t Some more postpositions (postpositions in Finnish are in bold): English: with Lisa // Liisan kansaa English: after Lisa // Liisan jälkeen English: in front of Lisa // Lisan edessä English: behind Lisa // Lisan takana And finally also a couple of prepositions (comparable to English prepositions): English: without Lisa // ilman Liisan English: before Lisa // ennen Liisa Please note that most of those explanations and examples are taken from the book: "From start to Finnish" from 2003, written by Leila White.

Sure, I understand. What languages would you like to learn then? I can help you with German and French. If you need some help, please let me know and I will be glad to help you out :=)

Dear Storyteller First of all I would like to say that I am happy to see you posting again here in the forums. Secondly, I would like to let you know that there is already a thread about Chineasy here. You might wanna have a look: http://linguaholic.com/chinese-links/chineasy/ I would love to launch a project like that in the near future. They have been pretty lucky and they got quite a lot of money through crowd funding...that's really amazing :grin:

You are welcome. Make sure to dowload the Pleco Dictionary (iphone app). It is the most basic/crucial app there is on the market when it comes to the study of Chinese. If you want a fun game to learn some Mandarin Chinese, you could download the Mindsnacks Chinese Edition. It is not for free, but it is good fun :=)

Hey Jubvman Welcome to linguaholic.com There are plenty of online resources for studying Chinese Mandarin. You might want to consult the link list I did some couple of weeks ago. You will find the best online resources for studying Chinese. Here is the link: http://linguaholic.com/chinese-links/study-chinese-links/

I completely agree myepicdemise. By the way, welcome to linguaholic.com! I really really like your avatar (animated gif). Definitely one of the best avatars I have ever seen. :grin:

Dear MrFreshh I am really happy to see another Finnish native speaker here on www.linguaholic.com. We probably got around 3 or 4 Finnish native speakers now here in the forums. I am really interested in the Finnish language, as I regulary go on holidays there. I started some threads in the Finnish section. Maybe you could have a look at them, that would be great. The links are: http://linguaholic.com/study-finnish/finnish-for-beginners-countries-and-nationalities/ http://linguaholic.com/study-finnish/how-to-introduce-yourself-in-finnish/ Kiitos!

That's a great thread. It is indeed very popular to learn some swear words in every language that you come across. As far as Russian goes, I found this list here with Swear words: http://www.waytorussia.net/WhatIsRussia/Russian/SwearWords.html What do you think about this list? Are those swear words accurate and up-to-date?

Finnish for Beginners // Names of Countries and Nationalities // Basics Today we are going to learn how to say countries in Finnish. The most important thing about naming countries in Finnish are the suffixes. The suffixes for country names in Finnish is usually either ["lainen"] or ["läinen"]. Finnish derives nationality names from simpler entities, mainly being shorter words, generally names of countries. Now how can we now whether we are going to use lainen or läinen as the suffix for our country names? The form with a (lainen) is used if the word to which the suffix is added to contains one of the following vowels, namely a, o, or u (thus tanska | lainen, puola | lainen) and the form with ä is used elsewhere (thus belgia | lainen for Belgium (in Finnish, the country name is Belgia) and englanti | lainen for England (in Finnish the country name is Englanti). If the country name to which the suffixes are added does NOT contain one of the vowels mentioned above (namely a, o, u) and therefore usually contains the vowel i, then you will have to use the suffix ["läinen"]. Having this in mind, we get the following country names. Finnland --> Suomi --> suomalainen (exception, the i from Suomi changes to an a here!) Sweden --> Ruotsi --> ruotsalainen (exception, the i from Ruotsi changes to an a here!) Russia --> Venäjä --> venäläinen (exception) England --> Englanti --> Englantilainen (regular) USA --> Amerikka --> Amerikkalainen (regular) Canada --> Kanada --> Kanadalainen (regular) Switzerland --> Sveitsi --> Sveitsliläinen (regular) As you can see, there are quite some exceptions, but for most of the countries you can stick to the above-mentioned rules.

Basic overview about how to introduce yourself in Finnish As in almost any other language, you introduce yourself by saying your name. In Finnish, it is polite to preface your name with a greeting. Let me provide some of those possible greetings that go along with your introduction: Hyvää huomenta! --> means good morning, so obviously you will use this greeting in the morning Hyvää päivää! --> is said throughout the day, and means "Good day" Hyvää iltaa! --> means "Good evening", therefore said in the evening Usually, you also throw in the phrase "Hauska tustustua" which stands for Pleased to meet you / Nice to meet you. You should offer a "shake hands" as well at this point. So, in conclusion, a dialogue could look like this: Speaker 1: ULLA: Hyvää päivää. Mä olen Ulla Ojala. Speaker 2: HANNU: Hyvää päivää. Hannu Rajaniemi. Hauska tutustua. Speaker 1: ULLA: Hey, good day. My name is Ulla Ojala / I’m Irma Ojala. Speaker 2: HANNU: Good day. I'm Hannu Rajaniemi. Pleased to meet you. / Nice to meet you. If the same dialogue would be happening in the evening, the dialogue would go like this: Speaker 1: ULLA: Hyvää iltaa!. Mä olen Ulla Ojala. Speaker 2: HANNU: Hyvää iltaa! Hannu Rajaniemi. Hauska tutustua. Speaker 1: ULLA: Hey, good evening. My name is Ulla Ojala / I’m Irma Ojala. Speaker 2: HANNU: Good evening. I'm Hannu Rajaniemi. Pleased to meet you. / Nice to meet you. In a less formal context, the introduction usually looks slighty different: Speaker 1: ULLA: Moi (Hei). Mä olen Masa. Speaker 2: HANNU: Moi (Hei). Hannu. Speaker 1: ULLA Hi, there . I am Ulla. Speaker 2: HANNU Hi. I am Hannu. The surnames are usually dropped in this rather informal context. Instead of using "Moi", you can also use "Hei" (see the variant in the brackets). That's how you introduce yourself in Finnish. Pretty easy, isn't it? In the next post we will see some possible follow ups to this kind of introducing yourself in Finnish.

That's really an interesting fact about Russian. I didn't know that before. I am following your Russian lessons and I hope I can pick up the basics! This lesson has been fairly simple, I am sure it is getting much more complicated soon :wacky:

Thank you for your answer, Daimashin. That's good to know. I might have to watch more Sports in the future :=)

Dear all Please note that we already have several threads going on about the exact same topic. Here is the most current/active one. http://linguaholic.com/general-discussion/the-world's-most-difficult-language-your-opinion/ Please do not continue to talk in this thread here (post it in the thread I just provided). Thank you for your understanding.

Some useful Japanese vocabulary for a "restaurant visit".