Well, I can’t think of an English example from the top of my head, but in German the words for Pear and (light) bulb are the same. So there are some exotic use cases.
We have plenty of homographs as well, “lead,” “bow,” etc but every once in a while I’m struck by just how massive the vocabulary of English is compared to… well, every other language.
This is giving me stress daymares about Spanish in high school.
Still, it’s an interesting point you make.
But then again, with definitive articles you have a bunch of things that are not supposed to convey gender conveying gender. Like a toaster… It would suck to have to remember the gender of a toaster, or, well toasters in general.
It’s “der Toaster” which makes it masculine. On the other hand, a girl (“das Mädchen”) is neuter. The grammatical gender is somewhat arbitrary and does not follow any “real” rules.
As a German you somehow “feel” if the correct article is used, though.
It’s less about magical feelings but rules that native speakers know but aren’t aware of. Toaster is clearly male because nouns constructed from verb+er are always male.
Also “male gender” is kinda misleading, it’s basically a mistake early linguistics made because it was so centered around Indo-European languages. The modern term is noun class, and Indo-European languages share the trait that they have three noun classes, one containing the word for “woman”, the other the one for “man”, and another the word for “thing”. That’s where the names come from: Bridges aren’t female in German they simply share a noun class with women.
And girl is neuter in German because all diminutives are. “Deern” is definitely female.
Embarrassingly for someone whose native language is german, I often use the masculine when the neuter should have been used, because they feel the same to me. I never was taught any formal grammar in german, though, so that might play a role.
German has different words, too. Even multiple one depending on accuracy
die Birne -> the pear
die Glühbirne -> “glowing pear”, the light bulb, coming from the shape of the bulb, common, but even Germans see that its dumb
die Glühlampe -> “the glowing lamp”, coming from the literally glowing filament that is used to produce light, the usual term
das Leuchtmittel -> “the thing that shines”, no direct translation, closest would be “lamp”, to describe, well, a thing that shines, independent of what is used to produce the light, usually used in technical documentation/environment
German also has multiple other terms to describe a lot of different light bulb shapes and types. Germans can even make up completely new types of light bulbs due to the heavy use of compound words, and every other German can understand that on the fly without further explanation.
Let me just imagine some.
das Bootshausseitenflutlicht -> a floodlight at the side of a boat house
die Dreiecksleuchte -> a lamp or light bulb in the shape of a triangle
das Hinterhausnachtlicht -> a night light for a part of a tenement house accessible only through a courtyard
That’s really cool. For whatever it’s worth I was joking. I’ve always admired German and almost elected to learn it in highschool, but socio-geographically(an off the cuff word combination in English), learning Spanish made more sense, as there are many Spanish speakers. But I digress; thank you for explaining such a neat feature of your language to me. I also must admit that the English word is not totally dissimilar in origin; a light-bulb glows in a lamp, but an onion is a bulb in the ground, so it isn’t too different from glowpears.
That English has more words than other languages is a myth. Idk why but it keeps getting perpetuated so i guess people just believe it to be true.
Whats more is that its kinda difficult to even narrow down what a word is in a single language, and even more so to find a definition that fits all of them.
Impressively the babbel article manages to include other commons myths like implying english is some kind of mix language rather than a germanic one when it says “This is largely due to invasions of England by the Vikings and then the Normans” about why English supposedly has more words than other languages. This type of incorporation of loanwords is common in almost all big languages.
It argues based on dictionaries and effectively debunks why you can’t (for comparison I’d like to add that the SAOB of the Swedish Academy lists circa 500k words).
There’s nothing in this article that says English has the most words other than “So, while English is a clear contender for having the most words and German and Turkish have a large capacity for infinite combinations, all languages end up influencing others.” Still, there’s no justification for the “clear contender” bit other than the Oxford dictionary having more words than Larousse and Littré.
Feels to me like the article just reinforces the notion (and reality) that you can’t even make comparisons like that.
Nevermind the fact that this idea is a well known myth in linguistics and arguing against it is kind of like arguing against flat earth theory.
So that the mindless automaton delivering your groceries doesn’t unexpectedly give you tomatoes for your sundae, in a future expansion to dish-based orders.
I’ve yet to create a type error that didn’t correspond to me thinking about something wrong.
The joke is that almost everyone calls them vegetables because the botanic categorisation of parts of plants is niche jargon that is not useful in everyday life, whereas the culinary categorisation is useful, and so your shopping list correcting you is worse than unnecessary.
But that’s not what TypeScript does. The joke in the meme doesn’t really even make sense.
A better analogy would be you have a basket that’s explicitly labeled “Fruit” and TypeScript complains if you try to put laundry detergent in it because you said it’s supposed to be a basket of fruit.
This meme was clearly made by someone who doesn’t use or understand TypeScript.
This meme was clearly made by someone who doesn’t use or understand TypeScript.
It was made by someone who doesn’t understand types, period.
Curious if it’s the same wizard who was explaining that Linus doesn’t understand programming because he has opinions on arm vs Intel architecture. EVERYONE programs in JavaScript anyways and my JavaScript always works on arm. Has Linus lost the plot?
Aren’t fruits subsets of vegetables? Without looking it up I thought that vegetables were the edible part of the plant and fruits are edible reproductive parts of the plant. I could be totally off on that though.
Yea, you’re totally correct. This whole confusion comes from a Supreme Court case that involved tariffs though… Basically, tomatoes are a staple good and should be taxed like a regular vegetable and not receive the elevated fruit tax.
It varies by language since the meaning of fruit and vegetable are language specific but that’s universal for English. A fruit is an edible portion of a plant that contains seeds and a vegetable is an edible portion of a plant, so… all fruits are vegetables.
Ok but like, why draw the line at Massachusetts? Lol. If I make a wrong turn and end up in New Hampshire am I going to have to reevaluate my fruits and vegetables?
Am I missing the joke? Tomatoes are fruits.
Intelligence is knowing Tomatoes are fruits.
Wisdom is knowing not to put them in a fruit salad.
Greek salad would like a word… the only things that aren’t a fruit in Greek salad are the onions and feta.
A Greek salad is not a fruit salad, it is a…Greek salad.
salad Greek extends Fruit
{ fruit* Tomato }
I think that one might be intelligence too, sorry @xmunk@sh.itjust.works.
Pragmatism is putting tomatoes with the vegetables because of taste, which is one of the most important parts of food.
Legalism is declaring in 1893 that it is a vegetable for tax purposes, because fuck you, pay taxes.
Well, that depends on definition. But the joke is why on earth would you want to write types on your shopping list? Like this:
Etc.
Why not? If a shop is having a sale on fruits only then I would like to sort out all the fruits quickly.
Well, I can’t think of an English example from the top of my head, but in German the words for Pear and (light) bulb are the same. So there are some exotic use cases.
We have plenty of homographs as well, “lead,” “bow,” etc but every once in a while I’m struck by just how massive the vocabulary of English is compared to… well, every other language.
English doesn’t even has definite articles.
Biggest English W
As a german I agree, even if I never have to think about it
This is giving me stress daymares about Spanish in high school.
Still, it’s an interesting point you make.
But then again, with definitive articles you have a bunch of things that are not supposed to convey gender conveying gender. Like a toaster… It would suck to have to remember the gender of a toaster, or, well toasters in general.
It’s “der Toaster” which makes it masculine. On the other hand, a girl (“das Mädchen”) is neuter. The grammatical gender is somewhat arbitrary and does not follow any “real” rules.
As a German you somehow “feel” if the correct article is used, though.
Yeah, fuck that. English is bs enough.
Edit: yeah, that “feeling” is knowing it so well, you don’t totally understand it, and also means it’s hard to convey
It’s less about magical feelings but rules that native speakers know but aren’t aware of. Toaster is clearly male because nouns constructed from verb+er are always male.
Also “male gender” is kinda misleading, it’s basically a mistake early linguistics made because it was so centered around Indo-European languages. The modern term is noun class, and Indo-European languages share the trait that they have three noun classes, one containing the word for “woman”, the other the one for “man”, and another the word for “thing”. That’s where the names come from: Bridges aren’t female in German they simply share a noun class with women.
And girl is neuter in German because all diminutives are. “Deern” is definitely female.
Embarrassingly for someone whose native language is german, I often use the masculine when the neuter should have been used, because they feel the same to me. I never was taught any formal grammar in german, though, so that might play a role.
We got diff’ernt words fer lightbulb and pear though, I tell ya hwat.
German has different words, too. Even multiple one depending on accuracy
German also has multiple other terms to describe a lot of different light bulb shapes and types. Germans can even make up completely new types of light bulbs due to the heavy use of compound words, and every other German can understand that on the fly without further explanation.
Let me just imagine some.
That’s really cool. For whatever it’s worth I was joking. I’ve always admired German and almost elected to learn it in highschool, but socio-geographically(an off the cuff word combination in English), learning Spanish made more sense, as there are many Spanish speakers. But I digress; thank you for explaining such a neat feature of your language to me. I also must admit that the English word is not totally dissimilar in origin; a light-bulb glows in a lamp, but an onion is a bulb in the ground, so it isn’t too different from glowpears.
That English has more words than other languages is a myth. Idk why but it keeps getting perpetuated so i guess people just believe it to be true.
Whats more is that its kinda difficult to even narrow down what a word is in a single language, and even more so to find a definition that fits all of them.
No it isn’t?
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/language-most-words
Impressively the babbel article manages to include other commons myths like implying english is some kind of mix language rather than a germanic one when it says “This is largely due to invasions of England by the Vikings and then the Normans” about why English supposedly has more words than other languages. This type of incorporation of loanwords is common in almost all big languages.
It argues based on dictionaries and effectively debunks why you can’t (for comparison I’d like to add that the SAOB of the Swedish Academy lists circa 500k words).
There’s nothing in this article that says English has the most words other than “So, while English is a clear contender for having the most words and German and Turkish have a large capacity for infinite combinations, all languages end up influencing others.” Still, there’s no justification for the “clear contender” bit other than the Oxford dictionary having more words than Larousse and Littré.
Feels to me like the article just reinforces the notion (and reality) that you can’t even make comparisons like that.
Nevermind the fact that this idea is a well known myth in linguistics and arguing against it is kind of like arguing against flat earth theory.
You don’t really know what you’re talking about
lol ok
To be conformant with PEP-8.
deleted by creator
So that the mindless automaton delivering your groceries doesn’t unexpectedly give you tomatoes for your sundae, in a future expansion to dish-based orders.
I’ve yet to create a type error that didn’t correspond to me thinking about something wrong.
The joke is that almost everyone calls them vegetables because the botanic categorisation of parts of plants is niche jargon that is not useful in everyday life, whereas the culinary categorisation is useful, and so your shopping list correcting you is worse than unnecessary.
But that’s not what TypeScript does. The joke in the meme doesn’t really even make sense.
A better analogy would be you have a basket that’s explicitly labeled “Fruit” and TypeScript complains if you try to put laundry detergent in it because you said it’s supposed to be a basket of fruit.
This meme was clearly made by someone who doesn’t use or understand TypeScript.
It was made by someone who doesn’t understand types, period.
Curious if it’s the same wizard who was explaining that Linus doesn’t understand programming because he has opinions on arm vs Intel architecture. EVERYONE programs in JavaScript anyways and my JavaScript always works on arm. Has Linus lost the plot?
Yeah most likely.
As a proud Massachusettsan, tomatoes are definitely vegetables.
(Technically, tomatoes are both fruits and vegetables)
Aren’t fruits subsets of vegetables? Without looking it up I thought that vegetables were the edible part of the plant and fruits are edible reproductive parts of the plant. I could be totally off on that though.
Yea, you’re totally correct. This whole confusion comes from a Supreme Court case that involved tariffs though… Basically, tomatoes are a staple good and should be taxed like a regular vegetable and not receive the elevated fruit tax.
i.e. Americans ruining english for the rest of the world (see also 7th day nutjobs), thanks guys…
Does this vary from place to place?
It varies by language since the meaning of fruit and vegetable are language specific but that’s universal for English. A fruit is an edible portion of a plant that contains seeds and a vegetable is an edible portion of a plant, so… all fruits are vegetables.
Ok but like, why draw the line at Massachusetts? Lol. If I make a wrong turn and end up in New Hampshire am I going to have to reevaluate my fruits and vegetables?
Oh, Massachusetts was behind them being classified as a vegetable but not a fruit for tax reasons.