lungo vs. long

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I am struggling to understand why a native English speaker can understand the word long, but not the Italian word for long, lungo. Both words share the same meaning, so where does the difference lie?
Long is an easy word.

Riprovevole vs. Reprehensible
Again both the same meaning. Is there a difference because with reprehensible we can describe it with words we are familiar with? Do we not know words in other languages because we are not exposed to them as often?

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@mister kitten,

mister kitten;169806 wrote:

Again both the same word. Is there a difference because with reprehensible we can describe it with words we are familiar with? Do we not know words in other languages because we are not exposed to them as often?

I think it's that simple. I learned a bit of German and read certain phrases as with what I considered the proper emotion, and it was great. I felt it. But I suppose it takes exposure exposure exposure. Personally, if "lungo" was sprinkled among English words in a likely context, I think I would take it for "long."

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@mister kitten,

You can make a guess at a foreign word, for example lungo for long, if you have some context in which to do it, but until you learn the language, it remains a guess. Many French words, for example, closely resemble English since the words derive from a common source, e.g. Latin, or are borrowed from one another; but the French word "car" does not mean automobile.

Knowing a foreign language means: being able to translate the foreign word into a word in English (and that you understand the English word in the first place). Know it well means: being able to understand and translate the nuances of one language to another. This explains why many are able to translate French newspapers, but few French poetry, into English.

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@jgweed,

I think pronunciation is also a crucial factor, some words can be spelt extremely similar in both languages, however when they are pronounced they sound very different, for example lungo is very recognizable to the English spelling of lungo, however when lungo is pronounced in english it is not so recognizable to the way it is pronounced in Italian.

Personally, being able to speak a latin language makes it extremely easy to understand other latin languages as they are all very similar. I would say that Italian is more similar and comprehensible to spanish as they share similar pronunciation, and french shares more with portuguese in pronunciation.

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@Soul Brother,

mister kitten;169806 wrote:

I am struggling to understand why a native English speaker can understand the word long, but not the Italian word for long, lungo. Both words share the same meaning, so where does the difference lie?
Long is an easy word.

Riprovevole vs. Reprehensible
Again both the same word. Is there a difference because with reprehensible we can describe it with words we are familiar with? Do we not know words in other languages because we are not exposed to them as often?

Ciao Mister Kitten, come stai?

One thing I think would be an interesting example for you is the verb "to drink." In Italian, the word (as you know) is "bere," but in its irregular form it takes on the "bev-" form. Conjugated in the present tense, you get bevo, bevi, beve, beviamo, bevete, bevono. What I was told as to why you have bere (besides the obvious weirdness of a straight conjugation like "bo" or something like that)in the irregular form beve, etc. is that it is an indirect carry over from archaic Italian, as in pre Dante Alighieri Italian. And if you think about it, why would we really need "bere" if most of the conjugations have the bev- in it anyway. It almost seems like an added level of redundancy. Although I suppose the -ere denotation is sorta important? but then not so much more important than completely changing the whole damn thing around in conjugation anyways. That may be a "why the difference" for me! LOL!

But I see where you are coming from though. You have bicicletta to bicycle, automatica to automatic, ricco to rich, etc. And yet we have "il computer" in l'italiano. What's the deal there? The same goes for modern electronics like ipod and that kind of stuff.

My thoughts on the matter are in the ease of use. The word "chat" for example translates to "chiacchierata." Definitely not the shortened form I would be looking for, especially since I could just say "parlare." As an anime lover, I also notice that there are a lot of English words in their vocabulary because (I would imagine) it would be damn near impossible to say it in Japanese. My favorite is baseballeru (phonetically romanized of course LOL!), which romanized (from kanji) is "Yaky'u." And yet I hear "baseballeru" or "basubal" all the time. Does not seem very difficult to me, but it may be a tongue twister in Japanese.

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@mister kitten,

mister kitten;169806 wrote:

I am struggling to understand why a native English speaker can understand the word long, but not the Italian word for long, lungo. Both words share the same meaning, so where does the difference lie?
Long is an easy word.

Riprovevole vs. Reprehensible
Again both the same word. Is there a difference because with reprehensible we can describe it with words we are familiar with? Do we not know words in other languages because we are not exposed to them as often?

They are patently not the same word. They may look the same to some. Why would you say they are? Why would not a native English speaker think that "lungo" means "lung" in English. Indeed, it looks at least as much like "lung" as it does, "long". Maybe more so, in fact!

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@kennethamy,

kennethamy;170023 wrote:

They are patently not the same word. They may look the same to some. Why would you say they are? Why would not a native English speaker think that "lungo" means "lung" in English. Indeed, it looks at least as much like "lung" as it does, "long". Maybe more so, in fact!

The words mean the same idea, but they are not the same in pronunciation/spelling (most of the time).

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@mister kitten,

mister kitten;170098 wrote:

The words mean the same idea, but they are not the same in pronunciation/spelling (most of the time).

So why your question?

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@kennethamy,

kennethamy;170110 wrote:

So why your question?

I didn't start with a question specifically about words and their meaning; I started with a question: why is it difficult to learn words of the same meaning?

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@mister kitten,

mister kitten;170146 wrote:

I didn't start with a question specifically about words and their meaning; I started with a question: why is it difficult to learn words of the same meaning?

As for instance?

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@mister kitten,

mister kitten;169806 wrote:

I am struggling to understand why a native English speaker can understand the word long, but not the Italian word for long, lungo. Both words share the same meaning, so where does the difference lie?
Long is an easy word.

Riprovevole vs. Reprehensible
Again both the same meaning. Is there a difference because with reprehensible we can describe it with words we are familiar with? Do we not know words in other languages because we are not exposed to them as often?

Suppose the meaning of X is Y?
Don ` t we have to ask the meaning of Y?
Don` t we start an infinite regress when we as the meaning of X, is Y, and the meaning of Y is Z....etc?
If we stop the regress, then we reach a conclusion that meaning must be atomic.

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@kennethamy,

kennethamy;170187 wrote:

As for instance?

I gave two examples-go to the op.

Words such as avocational (I don't know what it means). We can understand that word and use it in a sentence if we wanted, but some word in another language, like 'edificio' (building..not the verb), we would have trouble with...why?

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@mister kitten,

Isn't having trouble with a definition the same with words in English or Italian, and isn't the solution the same in both cases?

We come across a word we don't know, perhaps we read it for the first time, perhaps we only have a very vague knowledge of its meaning (from guessing when we have seen it before) but it now becomes important to know more about its meaning (s).

Initially, we learn words in a foreign language by making a table of words on the right and its equivalent on the left, always remembering that on both sides the words are not precisely the same but similar, and that both have all sorts of shades of meaning depending on the context.

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@mister kitten,

mister kitten;169806 wrote:

I am struggling to understand why a native English speaker can understand the word long, but not the Italian word for long, lungo. Both words share the same meaning, so where does the difference lie?
Long is an easy word.

Riprovevole vs. Reprehensible
Again both the same meaning. Is there a difference because with reprehensible we can describe it with words we are familiar with? Do we not know words in other languages because we are not exposed to them as often?

The difference is in how the meaning of "long" is triggered. The meaning is only triggered by certain symbols and phrases we have learned. For example, if you know sign language then the meaning of "long" can be triggered by some arm movements.

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lungo vs. long

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