this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
421 points (100.0% liked)
196
16484 readers
2173 users here now
Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.
Rule: You must post before you leave.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Prepositions are probably one of the parts of speech that is the hardest to translate in any language.
I learned Swedish as a second language, and it feels like "at", "for", and "on" are completely randomly interchanged, even though each word has a direct translation and both Swedish and English are Germanic languages at their core. There are multiple forms of "to" in Swedish too.
The "usage notes" section for the Swedish word for "On" is an experience lol
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/p%C3%A5#Usage_notes
Luckily, they're also the most forgiving part at any speech of mistranslate.
It’s no wonder doctors in linguistics dip into philosophy as often as they do, incredible minds to know enough languages to study them. Polyglots are cool