Give examples of words that English is missing

american nic   Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:05 pm GMT
Yes, Adam, although I'm sure the English are very intelligent, French and Spanish speakers are not so dumb, in fact, as to not be able to distinguish those different ideas. They simply don't have different words for them in their languages.
Sander   Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:12 pm GMT
=>The French cannot distinguish between "house" and "home", and "mind" and "brain."<=

No,

house:maison
home:à la maison

mind:esprit
brain:cerveau
Sander   Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:19 pm GMT
but anyhow, that's not the topic, the topic is about :

"Give examples of words that ENGLISH is missing"

And English misses many things...
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:21 pm GMT
**And English misses many things...**

Well, "hiraeth" just for starters.
Deborah   Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:04 am GMT
Sander,

<< house:maison
home:à la maison>>

"à la maison" means "at home", not "home", right?
Sander   Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:06 am GMT
Deborah,

I'm not sure but I think it does.
The Swede   Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:41 am GMT
I started this topic because I wanted that people should become concious about the weaknesses in the English language. I hoped that we also could/can discuss weaknesses that other languages have. So I hope a French native speaker can comment if it´s possible in French to distinguish house and home. I have already said that it´s a bit boring that we only discuss the English language all the time, so why not talk about other languages weaknesses? The problem is that many feels safer when they discuss English than for example Fench, German or whatever, and it´s because that they speak a better English than other non native languages. Their aren´t much of the English native speakers who speaks another language good enough so they neither can nor dare to criticize weaknesses in other languages.
Sander   Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:56 am GMT
I heard German hasn't got a word for laughter ;-)
Geoff_One   Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:55 pm GMT
'"The day before yesterday" in English - A made up word.'

The analysis follows.

Some Background:

Antedate = Prior date.

Diatomic = Consisting of two atoms.

Therefore:

Dianteday = The day before yesterday;

And;

Trianteday = The day before the day before yesterday.

Etc.
Geoff_One   Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:30 pm GMT
In English:

You (Singular) = thou, thee

You (Plural) = you
Sander   Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:38 pm GMT
=>In English:

You (Singular) = thou, thee

You (Plural) = you <=

No, this is archaic.
Geoff_One   Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:14 pm GMT
You (Singular) = thou

Whether it is archaic or not, depends upon one's perspective.
"Thou" seems perfectly natural to me, to use as you (singular).
Sander   Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:34 pm GMT
Geoff_One,

Well excuse me for saying this but that case you're a morron.

Becaus that isn't used anymore.Don't make your language more than it is.
Travis   Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:34 pm GMT
Geoff_One, you are a fucking idiot - not only is "thou"/"thee"/"thy"/"thine" not used natively in today English, at least North American English that is, but also at least the vast majority of dialects of modern English lack the proper inflectional verb endings in the present tense for the verb to actually properly agree with "thou" as a subject. Not only is it not used natively in speech today in the vast majority of English dialects, but also "you" has come to be singular *by default*, to the point that new second person plural forms have been innovated in many English dialects, especially North American English dialects, such as "you guys", "you all", "y'all", and "youse", which have supplanted "you" alone for the second person plural in informal speech. On another note, as for "antedate", "dianteday", "trianteday", I think you just made up said terms, especially the latter two.
american nic   Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:13 pm GMT
Don't forget 'ye'.