this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2025
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[–] kartoffelsaft@programming.dev 46 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I've seen tons of people over the years say japanese has dozens, perhaps hundreds, of counting systems, with the strong implication that it's this super exotic trait. Don't get me wrong that japanese doesn't have some super interesting features as a language, but english has literally the same system:

  • one, two, three, ...
  • twins, triplets, quadruplets, ...
  • bicycle, tricycle, quadrocycle, ...
  • first, second, third, ...
  • single, double, triple, ...
  • nullary, unary, binary, ternary, ...
  • primary, secondary, tertiary, ...
  • etc.
[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago
  • mono-

  • di-

  • tri-

[–] Soulg@ani.social 4 points 1 month ago

While correct about English, Japanese is still different in that you use different counters for different objects qs opposed to what you listed, which they do also have some analogues of as well. Different counter for flat things, cylindrical things, large things, small things, small animals... But at least they have the generic counter that I just use if I'm not 100% positive and it works well enough.

[–] bisby@lemmy.world 45 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It blew my mind when I learned that "venidos" meant "come"... And bienvenidos literally meant "well come", like it is good that you have came here.

And then I finally realized what welcome meant. 🤯

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Willkommen!

[–] fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 2 months ago

Venir is come. Venidos is a cast form of the verb, something like a past these for the second person (you plural), it would be bienvenido for a single person. In any case yeah, the equivalence to Welcome is correct.

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[–] threeonefour@piefed.ca 42 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The French don't have a word for entrepreneur

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 29 points 2 months ago

Because of woke

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[–] bigboismith@lemmy.world 36 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The Swedish word for vegetable is "Green thing"

[–] sniggleboots@europe.pub 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Buddy have I got news for you about oranges!

:^)

[–] Tagger@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Orange the color was named after the fruit. So they probably joking

[–] sniggleboots@europe.pub 6 points 2 months ago

it's true, I was!

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 18 points 2 months ago

I mean, calling vegetables "greens" isn't terribly odd in English either.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 2 months ago

In Arabic it's green things. Creativity!

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 36 points 2 months ago (2 children)

English doesn't have a single word for "government official who has been giving kickbacks to a company and therefore upon retirement gets a sinecure position in that company" but Japanese does.

https://jisho.org/search/amakudari

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 months ago

Corrupt, regulatory capture or SEC employeecomes to mind lol

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I quite like 転勤族, or tenkinzoku, myself. "person who moves a lot for their job; family who moves a lot for the primary breadwinner's job"

https://jisho.org/search/tenkinzoku

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 2 months ago

Goodbye was derived from "God be with ye"

[–] HotDog7@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

In German the word for alone is Allein as in "all one". It blew my mind that it's the same in English.

In Ukrainian the word for Trident is Trizub, literally "three tooth". Again, it blew me away that it's the same in English.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

English doesn't have a word for people with orange hair.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Redhead was from when red was used to describe both red and orange.

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[–] klemptor@startrek.website 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

English also doesn't have a word for overcooked steak

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[–] twinnie@feddit.uk 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

“Everybody” is a weird way of saying all the people. The French say “all the world”, which is also weird.

[–] Bonsoir@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

"Monde" is both the word "world" and a synonym for "a group of persons". The second meaning is an older formula for people you are used to or people who work for you.
-> "Je connais mon monde" == "I know my people"

[–] ConstantPain@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Portuguese too (todo mundo)

[–] bent 5 points 2 months ago

In Norwegian it's all together (alle sammen).

[–] Two9A@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This came up in the latest episode of Tom Scott's Reverse Trivia: they got onto the topic of princes, and Tom had the sudden realisation of where "principality" comes from.

And Gary then dropped "duchy": region granted to a duke.

Words have histories, we often forget it.

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[–] Linkalee@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

My favorite is that in French, you don't ask "How old are you?" "I'm 50 years old," you ask "What age do you have?" "I have 50 years."

It's like you've aged like a fine wine, versus being old and past your prime.

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[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

How do you explain skibidi?

[–] Psaldorn@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Short for skibidibidibidibidoop.

Don't make me resurrect the skatman

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

the skatman

Ba pa BEE ba ba bada boo...

[–] usernameusername@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Originally comes from this song

Then it was used by this belly dance guy which I imagine is what popularized it as a meme

Then skibidi toilet came along, using a mashup with this other song


(Also as a little fun fact, the original song actually says shtibidi, not skibidi)

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Wow, didn't actually expect an answer.

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[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

English doesn't have a word for soutan/sautan (fellow wife).

[–] ConstantPain@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

A concubine is not wife.

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

In Irish, there is no word for yes.

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