The crowd = la folla (sing.)
The group = il gruppo (sing.)
One person = una persona
Two persons = due persone (plur.)
The people (plur.) = la gente (sing.)
I really think the best way to learn the grammar of another language is to forget about your own and learn from scratch. You can almost never just translate something you would say in your language and expect it to make sense in another. At least that is how I do it. Watch, listen and learn.
Absolutely. When I speak English, I should enter in a âmental stateâ different from what Iâm used to. I should not translate from Italian.
I donât think thatâs something you can force for the most part. Itâs just something that happens automatically once you reach a certain level of proficiency.
I do think you can shortcut it somewhat, for example by using dictionaries in your target language as quickly as possible rather than those that go from one language to another. But thatâs basically just an extension of listening and reading plenty. Itâs more of a âcheatâ for reading and thinking more in that language, connecting words with each other etc.
That is good advice, because when you have words defined to you rather than translated you understand them on another level without looking back to your own language too much. You don´t translate, you understand. Afterall getting words defined for you was also how you learned your own language.
Actually, yes. âLe gentiâ indicates that thereâs some distinctiveness in the groups. If you say, like, ânorthern peopleâ like âla gente del nordâ youâre referring to all northeners together, but if you say âle genti del nordâ it sounds more like ânorthern populationsâ.
Anyway, this âgente / peopleâ gave my friends problems in German, because âdie Leuteâ is always plural.
Is it true that after âI would likeâ or âI likeâ the verb must be in the -ing form instead of the infinity one?
Um, no? Not unless you have any specific examples in mind, anyway.
I like playing Thimbleweed Park
I like to play Thimbleweed Park
Which one is right?
Both.
As @milanfahrnholz said, both. But for Brits there might be a slight difference in meaning.
- I like playing Thimbleweed Park. I enjoy the game.
- I like to play Thimbleweed Park right now, not Monkey Island.
NB For American speakers like me theyâre equal.
Interestingly, âI enjoy to play TWPâ isnât a possible sentence.
âWhat do you do in your free time?â
âI like playing / I like to play Thimbleweed Park.â
As a statement on its own, the first one does convey the meaning âI enjoy the gameâ, and not only âI enjoy doing this activityâ.
Yep, instead you would say âI enjoy playing TWPâ.
After reading this post from @tasse-tee, I wonder if the saying âa needle in a haystackâ is also common in other languages? In Germany we have âDie Nadel im Heuhaufenâ with the exact same meaning (and some adventure games have a puzzle with a needle in a haystack, btw). Is it very common around the world?
In italian yes, itâs the same meaning (un ago in un pagliaio)
I wonder how the expression âI canât waitâ is literally translated in other langauges.
In italian, we usually say two expressions:
- I canât see the hour (non vedo lâora)
- I canât stay in my skin any further (non sto piĂš nella pelle)
The meaning is the same: I want a certain event to happen immediately.
So, how do you translate âI canât waitâ in your mother language?
The literally translation in German would be: âIch kann nicht warten.â But that means that you have to go and canât stay (here) any longer.
If you are waiting (excited) for something then you could translate âI canât waitâ with âIch kann es kaum erwartenâ (âI can hardly await itâ).
So the German expression is close to the English one.
Dutch is exactly the same.
Ik kan niet wachten (omâŚ) = I canât wait (toâŚ).
âŚbecause that is the correct spelling in English?
and yeah, she speaks half-German too!
mmmm I have the feeling we are getting a bit off-topic
perhaps we should split this discussion to the Official language thread, before @Calypso punishes usâŚ
Gee, I wonder how I know that?