Re: TECH: Official languages of the list

On Wednesday 18 August 2004 16:41, Trebor Jung wrote:

 > Mon Français est horrible, mais je vais essayer traduire
 > la lettre de Carsten :) Je ne parle pas un mot
 > d'Allemand; je ne peux pas essayer traduire la lettre
 > d'Andreas :(

Hehe, not bad, really! But have you never heard of the
conditionel? Well, you're younger than me and perhaps I
have had French for one or two years longer than you.
However, the conditionel I is formed by future+imparfait
and is used for "maybe" statements*. Of course, there are
irregular forms in the future tense. IIRC 'faire' => 'fer-',
'falloir' => 'faudr-'. I noticed that I forgot that there
also is a 'ce qui' and 'ce que', so this may have caused
additional confusion. *sigh* French can be so difficult,
but it's still easier to speak than to write IMO.

I'll translate myself so that you see what I *intended* (but
partly failed) to say:

 > Hello!
 >
 > Because you others are writing in other language, I try to
 > write the whole letter

(I meant email, but don't know what that is in French -- un
email?)

 > in French.
 >
 > On Thu, 17th August 2004 23:35, Andreas Johansson wrote:
 > [...]
 > Unfortunately, I cannot speak enough Swedish to understand
 > it

(meaning "that")

 > (actually, I don't know a single
 > word!) :-(
 > [...]
 > I should excuse your mistakes, but ...*

(It itched me to correct you ...)

 > In fact, I just wanted to know if it is true that there
 > are other official languages than English here. And if
 > that is true, which other official languages are here
 > (should have been "which other official languages are
 > there" / "quelles autres langues officielles il y a"). I
 > have read it somewhere

(AFAIK Someone mentioned somewhere that Dutch is also one of
the officially recognized languages here --- maybe it was
even The Lord of Instrumentality himself who said that,
welcoming a new Dutch member?)

 > Now, please let's change back to English! That would make
 > it easier for everyone to understand what you write.

("que vous écrivez" should have been "ce que vous écrivez")

 > And, Trebor, don't take everything they write here too
 > serious. That English is no official language here was
 > just a joke (I hope that this means "joke").

("sévère" means "severe", but what means "serious"?
"Sérieux" maybe? As for the "mot d'esprit", this was what
my 30 years old French dictionary said for "Witz", which
means "joke" in English.)

 > Excuse my French please, I knwo that it's full of
mistakes! Correct me if you want ...

--------------------------------------------------

On Wednesday 18 August 2004 16:12, Andreas Johansson wrote:

 > _Entwicklen_ must be the wrong correction - I meant there
 > is a risk the discussion will not stick to English.
 >
 > Why did you drop the definite article in the first bit?
 > Doesn't that change the meaning?

Oh. I see. Yes, you're right. And that *would* change the
meaning. I didn't understand that you refered to this
particular discussion. I thougth you meant the discussions
during the last weeks. My mistake, I'm sorry.

--------------------------------------------------

On Wednesday 18 August 2004 17:51, Roger Mills wrote:

 > "Benang" ini sdh terlalu panjang. Menurut pendapat saya,
 > lebih baik saja kalau ber-cakap2 tentang hal2 mengenai
 > bahasa2 buatan kita.

Cool, looks like Indonesian. What does that mean?

--------------------------------------------------

Others writing in Spanish:

 > [...]

I guess I should take a Spanish course one day ... In the US
you learn it in (high-)school like we learn English and
French or Latin, right?

--------------------------------------------------

Cheers,
     Carsten Becker


BTW, I found a mistake in my sig recently: it must be
"caparei", not "capanaris", since "the essential, the
important" is inanimate. Thus, the ending must be "-lei",
not "-aris". "Lei" is assimilated to "rei" because
["kapAn.lEi)] wouldn't be as nice to pronounce as
["kapa4Ei)], which is a little easier IMO.

*) cf. "je voudrais" (I'd like), "on pourrait" (one could)
I hope this won't mix up your text-to-speech program,
Trebor:
     Future: infinitif + rai, ras, ra, rons, rez, ront
     Imparfait: infinitif + ais, ais, ait, ions, iez, aient

--
Eri silveváng aibannama padangin.
Nivaie evaenain eri ming silvoieváng caparei.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

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