littlebelgianwriter

One of my friends consistently writes dosen't instead of doesn't. She is a native speaker of English and has completed full secondary education, and some form of tertiary education, so I do not really understand how that came about. When I first noticed, I pointed it out to her but she remained adamant: in her view, it is the right way to spell doesn't ... She is a speaker of Caribbean English. Could that be the reason?

My mother tongue is Dutch. From 1 to 10: één, twee, drie, vier, vijf, zes, zeven, acht, negen, tien. From 10 to 20: elf, twaalf, dertien, veertien, vijftien, zestien, zeventien, achttien, negentien, twintig. Basically, elf and twaalf are seperate words much like eleven and twelve in English. From 13 onwards, you put a word that resembles 3, 4, 5 and so on, in front of 'tien' (10) and the other numbers are formed. The same goes for 20: twintig and then, eenentwintig, tweeëntwintig, drieëntwintig, vierentwintig for 21, 22,23, 24 and so on. From 100 it works in reverse: 101 is honderd en één. From 200 it becomes: tweehonderd (two hundred) This is to give you some idea.

Yes, I also am convinced that animals have languages and use some form of language in order to communicate with each other. My cats for instance are very communicative. When I first had them I thought that meow was nothing more than meow. However, there are many kinds of meowing that cats use on different occasions and for different purposes. Some people have tried to list the different sounds cat make and when I observe my cats I am certain that they have developed some sort of language that they use in order to communicate. Has anyone here tried to learn or understand the language used by their pets?

That is really interesting indeed. I will look into that topic later on! Both Greek and Albanian stand a little bit alone. It is also interesting to see how many speakers there are for every language. I sort of knew that Finnish and Hungarian were related to one another, however, I had no idea that Estonian was related to Finnish too. I thought that language was related to Swedish and the other Germanic languages. Seems that I thought wrong!

I currently use Duolingo to study basic Spanish. Mostly I use the app for Ipad, and I like the way Duolingo works for me. I must say that I previously have tried to learn Spanish in a class and I liked that too, but there were not enough pupils/ students to continue. That was a long time ago, by the way. I stumbled upon Duolingo because one of my friends was trying to learn French using the app. I like it because you are sort of emersed in the language and you pick up words, grammar and pronunciation as you go along. It does not really feel like studying at all. That is why I like it.

I have not really tried to learn a fictional language. I wanted to at one point. That was when I first got a copy of Tolkien's the Hobbit. Since the names on the map in the book were all in a fictitious language, it seemed kind of strange to me. I figured it must be the language the Hobbits spoke in. It did not make much sense to me, so at that time I really wanted to figure it out and therefore I wondered whether I should learn that language.

Hello, I am littlebelgianwriter. Obviously, I am from Belgium. I joined this forum because I am a linguaholic in the true sense of the word. I seem to be addicted to languages. I would like to learn as many languages as possible and be able to use them on a daily basis or at least have some basic knowledge of them. Currently, I am fluent in Dutch, English, French and German. Additionally, I have got basic knowledge of Turkish, Serbo - Croat, Latin and Old Greek. And ... I am learning Spanish.

I am in the same country as Jeroen030. I formally started to learn a second language at the same age as he did. Moreover, I call French my paternal language because my dad was raised in French, and my parents wanted to make sure that I learned French properly. I recall being taught French by my parents at the tender age of three. I am aware of the fact that this is exceptional, but now I know that it would have been better if my dad would have spoken French to me an my mother Dutch. You are never too young to learn a second language.

People will do that sometimes. But there is a difference between knowing a language and being able to translate a language into another. Translating is an additional and different skill. It is very well possible that a native speaker is not able to translate and certainly not on the spot like your friends are asking you to do.

I am both weary and wary of Google Translate. I only use it as a last resort and for stand alone words only. When a word has multiple meanings, it always seems to chose the least appropriate. Sometimes common meanings are not even listed. In terms of grammar and sentence structure it is insufficient. Seriously? At times, Google Translate needs to be translated in order to be understood.