i am fascinated by how english native speakers confuse you're with your but non native dont usually have problems.
in spanish is normal to change the prounouns (le la los la) grammar rules depending of the region of spain making talking with people a little confusing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%ADsmo
english speakers commonly say "the anglosphere" when the actual correct terminology is "Hell"
Using google translate or alternatively an idiot, for translations - looking directly at you British Rail.
Example, copied from my old tweet -
“In the case of an emergency please pull red cord for assistance”
Your sign says - Os diwgeyd unryw argyfwng tynnwch ary linyn coch er mean. Cal Cymru.
It should say - Os digwydd unrhyw argyfwng tynnwch ar y llinyn coch er mwyn cael cymorth.
Literally hire a welsh proof reader from fiver, it isn’t expensive or much more work and is definitely cheaper than replacing a sign (though it’s been three years and they haven’t done that to be fair).
I’ve seen so many easy mistakes that change the meaning of the whole sentence because they legit just copy pasted into google translate rather than do it properly. Context matters.
This shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does, but “no entry” signs that now read “all entries” because they just google translated it could genuinely be an issue.
So many native English speakers say could of instead of could have, it drives me insane
Not a mistake but greek is gendered so hard that even the word for nobody has 3 different genders and it's very weird.
Also non-native speakers and especially english speakers consistently mess up every letter completely and it's kind of funny. I don't know what the fancy scientific terms are but the most obvious one is how no one pronounces gamma or delta right.
"Supposably" and "Supposedly" being conflated - it used to bother me when I was a classist lib because I thought it wasn't a word, but apparently the meanings are "as can be supposed" and "allegedly" respectively, but I think it's just people doing the thing where words change meaning.
Reverse false friends that native Spanish speakers that are fluent in English as a second language make all the time, such as:
- to mean bizarre, instead of "estrafalario" or "estrambótico" we use "bizarro" which actually means brave,
- to mean constipated, instead of using "estreñido" we use "constipado" which actually means to have a clogged nose,
- to mean assume, instead of "suponer" we use "asumir" which actually means accept,
- to mean argument, instead of "discusión" we use "argumento" which actually means plot or point,
- and then to mean discussion, instead of "debate" we use "discusión" which actually means argument,
- instead of "mil millones" we use "billón" which actually means trillion,
In software there are many more, like "librería" instead of "biblioteca and and "soportar" instead of "tener apoyo" o "mantener".
You may call me a prescriptivist but all of these have caused me trouble in real life.
Isn't the "mil millones" thing less because of speaking English as a second language and more because of the short system spreading in certain Spanish speaking countries? Much of my family doesn't speak much English at all but when I brought it up they all thought "mil millones" was the same as "un billón". I guess it's kind of the same sort of thing as confusing "asumir" and "presumir".
That's why I said you may call me a prescriptivist :P
"Bizarro" is also much more widely understood as bizarre than as brave by most people I know and is no longer confined to those that know English as a second language. The thing is, if you talk using these neologisms to people that are less exposed to American culture, like older people, or those from rural areas or countries where Internet access is not widespread like Bolivia, you will almost certainly be misunderstood, while nobody will be confused if you use the "appropriate" words instead of ingleñol.
You're probably right. I'm in Puerto Rico where mayo culture has completely permeated even the rural areas so you could totally spanglish your way through anything here.
Oh yeah I think Puerto Rico is the only Spanish-speaking place that officially uses the short count :agony-deep: .
In Swedish all compound words are supposed to be written without spaces, like in German, but many people struggle with this for some reason. (For example, in English "flagpole" is written as one word but phrases such as "error message" would also be written together in Swedish.) The problem is that the Swedish meaning changes if the words are seperated, so "felmeddelande" means "error message" but "fel [space] meddelande" would mean something like "this message is the wrong one". I don't think it ever causes too much problems in communications but it makes texts much more akward to read, though it can also be a good source of humor.
not rly a mistake but in russian adjectives agree with nouns in gender. Take любой (any). It can be любой (default, masculine), любая (feminine) or любое (neuter). Adjectives also agree in case, of which Russian has six. When the masculine adjective is declined in the genitive or accusative cases (also when the neuter is declined in the genitive), it takes on the ending -ого, so любого. Or transliterated using latin "lyubogo". However the г there is not pronounced like hard g. It is pronounced like v or в in cyrillic. This is done for easier flow and so it doesnt sound awkward. It is technically a mistake but when it's long been established can you rly call it a mistake at this point?
ps there are also colloquial misspellings like spelling words as they're pronounced, for example раён - act. spelling район (neighborhood, district), канешно - конечно (of course, certainly). I would say this is akin to english textspeak like h8 or gotchu or inb4
I don't know if it's interesting, but explaining English language prepositions to non-native speakers is challenging. It's one of the harder things with mastering the language.
