Language Trainers Blog

When talking German there some little words and phrases that it’s useful to know to make your German sound fluent and native-like. These include words you can use in place of words you can’t remember, like thing and whatchumacalit in English, and also when you can’t think of what to say next or want to express your feelings without going into detail. These expressions are best used with people you know well and shouldn’t be used with strangers or in formal contexts.

Words to use express annoyance or frustration include Verdammt nochmal! (Damn!),  Mann! (Man!), Mist! (Dung!) or Schriebenkleister! (Window paste!) – a mild expletive like Sugar!

If you want to attract a friend’s attention when they’re deliberately ignoring you, you could say Hallo! Jemand zu Hause? (Hello! Anyone home?) while knocking on their head.

Aha! indicates that you’ve just understood something, Hä? that you don’t understand, Oh! or Iihh! that you’re surprised by something, and Nein! indicates disbelieve. If you can’t think of what to say, Hmm! shows that you’re thinking, and Also can also be used in the same way.

The equivalent of Phew!, as in “Phew, that was close!” (when you’ve just had a narrow escape from an uncomfortable or dangerous situation) is Puhh!, and if you see someone heading into such a situation and want to warn them, you could say He! (Watch out!) or Holla! (Be careful!)

To show your appreciation of something, especially food, you could say Lecker! (Delicious!), but if it doesn’t agree with you, the thing to say is Igitt! (Yuck!).

If someone is being slow and you want to hurry them up, you can say Dalli, dalli!

When meeting people for the first time, Russians usually shake hands, make eye contact and use the appropriate greeting for the time of day. Handshakes tend to be very firm, especially between men. Close male friends often greet each other with a pat on the back and a hug, while close female friends kiss each other on the check three times, starting on the left.

Russians have three names – a personal one, a patronymic (a version of their father’s name), and a surname or family name. All three names are used in formal situations, two names might be used in less formal situations, and the personal name is used between family and close friends.

When eating out it is normal for people on their own to join a table of strangers, so if you’re eating on your own, don’t be surprised if other people join you.

If you’re invited to a meal in a Russian home, don’t forget to take a small gift. Men usually take flowers, though not yellow ones. It’s polite to protest when offered a gift in Russia. The person giving the gift will then say that it’s only a small thing and offer it again, and the recipient will accept it. Try to arrive on time or not more than 15 minutes late and make sure you take off your shoes when entering the house. It’s a good idea to dress smartly, which shows respect for your hosts and to offer to help with the preparation of the meal, or the cleaning up afterwards. As with gifts, your hosts may turn down your offers of help at first.

Normally the oldest person or guest of honour is served first and you don’t start eating until invited to do so. It’s fine to mop up sauce with bread, and men usually pour drinks for women sitting next to them. If you leave a bit of food on your place you’re showing that you have been amply catered for.

False friends or false cognates are words that sound and/or look the same in two languages but different meaning. English has many words borrowed from Italian, including pizza, pasta and volcano, and there are many other words that are similar in the two languages, including decidere (to decide), idea, importante (important) and persona (person). However not all Italian words that look and/or sound familar mean the same as their equivalents in English.

The following Italian words look and/or sound like English words but have different meanings:

• Annoiato = bored (annoyed = infastidito)
• Argomento = topic, subject of a discussion (argument = ragionamento)
• Attualmente = at the moment (actually = in realtà)
• Bravo = clever (brave = coraggioso)
• Camera = room (camera = macchina fotografica)
• Cantina = cellar (canteen = mensa)
• Caldo = hot (cold = freddo)
• Corpo = body (corpse = cadavere)
• Educato = polite (educated = instruito)
• Editore = publisher (editor = redattore)
• Fattoria = farm (factory = fabbrica)
• Fabbrica = factory (fabric = tessuto)
• Orso = bear (horse = cavallo)
• Mare = sea (mare = giumenta)
• Morbido = soft (morbid = morboso)
• Parente = relative, relation (parent = genitore)
• Pretendere = to claim (to pretend = fingere)
• Preservativo = condom (preservative = conservante)
• Sale = salt (sale = vendita)
• Stormo = flock (storm = temporale)
• Tasto = key (taste = gusto)
• Veste = dress (vest = canottiera, maglietta, giubbotto)
• Voluble = fickle (voluable = loquace)

If you’re learning Italian, it’s useful to learn not just ordinary words, but also the interjections Italian speakers use frequently, especially in informal conversations. They can be used to get someone’s attention, to show that you’re not sure about something, to give you time to think what you’re going to say next, and for many of purposes.

These interjections are often accompanied by gestures, shrugs and other body languages, which you can pick up by watch Italians talking amongst themselves.

Starting a sentence with Beh! shows you’re a bit hesitant about saying something, while Mah! indicates that you don’t know. Saying Boh! and shrugging shows that you don’t know and don’t care about something.

If you hurt yourself, the thing to cry in Italian is Aiah! This is equivalaent to Ouch! in English.

Tsh! – a tutting sound or the sound you make sucking through your teeth means No! Not to be confused with the teeth sucking sound that English-speaking mechanics make before telling you that something’s going to cost a lot of money.

Be careful with Mmmmm! which doesn’t show your appreciation for food or other things, as in English, but indicates that you don’t really believe what someone’s saying.

Allora is the equivalent of well, so, let’s see, as in “So, what are you waiting for?” or “So, what’s going on?” or “Well, are you ready yet?”.

When you look at written English it’s easy to identify the words as they have spaces between them. In the case of hyphenated compounds, such as mother-in-law, some people would count them individually as single words, others as a single unit. In other written languages it isn’t always easy to recognise where one word ends and the next begins, especially languages like Thai which only have spaces at the end of sentences. In Chinese each syllable is written with a separate character and there are no spaces between them. Chinese words may consist of one, two or more syllables and one of the challenges of reading Chinese is learning where the word boundaries are.

In spoken language there are usually no spaces between words, except when people want to really emphasise something. Instead words run into one another in a continuous stream of sound. Yet when you listen to your native language, and any other languages you know, you can hear individual words. You perform this amazing feat mainly by recognising individual words in the stream, which tells you that there are other words on either side of them. When you hear unfamiliar words or names, you may have to ask for them to be repeated, perhaps several times, so that you can process them.

When you listen to a language you’re learning you may be able to pick out nothing at all, or only odd words at first. Names of famous people and places and international words like internet and telephone might spring out at you. As you learn more of the language you’ll be able pick out more words, until eventually you can distinguish and understand almost all of them. This will probably take quite a long time, and you’ll have to listen to the language frequently, but it is definitely worth the effort if you want to become really proficient in the language.

To some people the idea of reading a dictionary for fun might sound a bit strange, but it is a useful thing to do when you’re learning a foreign language, and can even help to increase your vocabulary in your native language.

When I look up a word in a bilingual dictionary I usually start in the English>Foreign section, then cross check the words given there in the Foreign>English section. As there may be several foreign equivalents for the word in your language, it’s a good idea to find out which one best fits the meaning you want to convey. The example sentences, if there are any, can also help pin point the relevant word.

After I’ve found the word I need, I might put it into Google, either on its own or as part of a sentence, to get an idea of how commonly-used it is. This is also a good way to check if your word order and grammar are any good. You might not get any results for a long sentence, but you might for shorts ones and fragments of sentences.

Another thing I like to do is to find the roots of words that appear to made up of two or more parts, which interesting, helps me to remember the words, and is also a good way to learn new words. Often when I find the roots, I’ll also have a look at other words that share the same roots. For example, in German the word for rhinoceros is Nashorn, which comes from Nase (nose) and Horn (horn). The word Nase appears in many phrases and quite a few compounds, e.g. durch die Nase reden – to talk through the nose; pro Nase – per head; alle Naslang – all the time, again and again; näseln – to speak through one’s nose, and Naselöcher machen – to make eyes (at sb).

You probably won’t remember all the words you find, but some might stick, especially the ones that make you laugh. If you can find ways to slip them into your conversations or writing, you’re more likely to remember them.

There are many words and phrases that Spanish speakers throw into their conversations which don’t necessarily have any particular meaning or have a context-dependent meaning. They can also have other functions such as giving the speaker time to think what to say next, indicating agreement, disagreement, pleasure, etc. If you’re learning Spanish it’s a good idea to try to learn when to use these interjections in order to sound more like a native speaker.

The most commonly-used interjection is perhaps claro, which means light (in color), clear, evident, weak, thin (watered down) or frank. It is also used to express agreement and can be translated as “of course”, “obviously”, “evidently”,  “sure” or “yes”.

• ¿Me reconoces? ¡Claro que sí! (Do you recognize me? Of course!)
• ¡Claro que no puedes! (Of course you can’t!)
• ¡Claro que no! (Of course not!)
• ¿Salimos? ¡Claro! (Are we leaving? Sure!)

Other interjections include:

• ¿De veras? – Really?
• ¿En serio? ¿De verdad?- Are you serious?
• ¡No inventes! ¡No estés jugando! – You’re kidding/joking!
• ¡Ay! ¡Caramba! ¡Caray! – annoyance/dismay – Good grief!
• ¡Ah qué bueno! – How good!
• ¿Eh? – What?
• ¡Ea! – Come on! Hurry up!
• ¡Cuidado! – Be careful! Watch out!
• ¡Ojalá! – I hope so, Let’s hope so, God willing
• ¡Bah! – disdain/disbelief
• ¡Ajá! ¡Ajalá! ¡Hurra! ¡Vaya! – approval
• ¡Oiga! ¡Oigan! ¡Oye! – disapproval

When meetings Spanish people for the first time you usually shake hands. Men who know each other well greet one another with an embrace and a pat on the shoulder, while women kiss each other on the cheeks starting on the left. In formal situations you usually address people with Don or Doña plus their first name.

If you are invited to dinner at someone’s home, you usually take a gift, such as chocolates, cakes, wine or flowers for the hostess. If the family has children, small gifts for them will be appreciated. You normally don’t sit down until invited to do so and don’t begin eating until the hostess starts. Most types of food, including fruit, are eaten with utensils rather than with your fingers.

If you’re doing business in Spain, it pays to establish relationships as the Spanish prefer working with people they know and trust. They also prefer dealing with people in person rather than on the phone or by email, fax or letter. Don’t be modest about your qualifications, experience and achievements as people are likely to take what you say at face value. Try to avoid arguments if possible as Spanish people tend to avoid admitting they’re wrong in public.

When talking to people in Spain, you may find that they quite often interrupt you. They’re not being rude, but just have a different way of doing conversations. Conversely, if you waiting for them to stop speaking before taking your turn in the conversation, you might find it difficult to get a word in edgeways, and they might think that you have little to say.

If you feel a strong emotional connection with a language you’re learning, it helps a lot with your motivation. The connection might be with the language itself, the people who speak it, a country where it’s spoken, or some aspect of the culture associated with it, such as literature, food, music, etc.

Many language learners find it difficult to maintain their motivation to learn and their enthusiasm for their chosen foreign language(s). As a result, they might find it difficult to keep studying a language regularly over the long period of time needed to become proficient in it.

However if you fall in love with the language and/or the associated culture, you will probably want to spend as much time with it as possible and will find ways to overcome any challenges you’re faced with. When learning vocabulary it helps if you can find ways to connect the words with your experiences so that you’ll feel more attached to them.

I feel a strong emotional connection to Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, for example, and this stems to a large extent from my liking for traditional music and songs from Wales, Ireland and Scotland.  In fact I started listen to songs in Irish and Scottish Gaelic long before I began studying the languages.

According to a presentation I went to today, some people seem to have an innate talent for languages, especially for acquiring a native or near-native ability to pronounce foreign languages. This doesn’t mean that people who lack this talent or only have it to some extent can’t learn languages, but only that they will probably speak them with a foreign accent. There are people who can read, write and understand foreign languages at a native level, but who speak them with a strong foreign accent. This phenomenon is called the ‘Joseph Conrad Effect’ after the famous author who wrote in impeccable English but spoke it with a strong Polish accent.

Learning to speak a foreign language without any trace of a foreign accent is very difficult and few adults manage to do so, with the exception of some people with a talent for languages, and children, who seem to be very good at  acquiring native pronunciation of foreign languages

Pronunciation is not just about pronouncing individual sounds and words, but also learn the intonation, pitch, rhythm and stress patterns. English speakers use quite a wide pitch range, or in other words their voices can do up and down quite a lot. In contrast German speakers tend to have a narrower pitch range and some things in English that would involve your voice going up or down quite a lot might be indicated in other ways in German.

Extensive listening to the language you’re learning can help you to learn how to understand and pronounce them accurately. It also helps it you learn about phonetics and phonology, as then you’ll know what to do with your tongue, teeth, lips, etc. when pronouncing various sounds.