Foreign Language Bar of Cosmos

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I am a guy whose first language is not English. Sometimes I feel hard to understand what an English word means exactly even resorting to dictionary or machine. So, I start this thread to learn English. Any help will be appreciated.

Liqiang Chen
Sept 3, 2020
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Yesterday, I encountered an English word “damn”. In a reply, someone said “…so damn many…”. Did he mean “many, many…”?
Anyone can help? Thanks.

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@htam9876,

It's being used as an intensifier. Damn is a mild (these days) curse word. So yes, your interpretation fits.

1 Reply

@jespah,

Thank you. I understand it exactly now.
Your avatar is very lovely "doggy"...Actually, I don't know if there is the word "doggy" in English. I know the word "piggy" and want to use it as my avatar, but I don't know how to do.

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@htam9876,

Oh, thank you! And doggy definitely works. We use that word. Smile

You can go to Gravatar.com and upload an avatar image there. Associate it with the email you're using on Able2know and that should do it.

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@htam9876,

At the beginning of the movie Star Wars Episode 7, BB8 saw the spaceships of the First Order descending and rushed to the resistance and shouted: “**^#*&@!~”. Of course, I am sure no one would understand what it said. Then, the soldier of the resistance said: “We got company”. I am a bit puzzled. “Company” should be something like “corporation limited”. But what he meant should be “somebody is coming”…
Anyone can help? Thanks.

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@htam9876,

Company has more than one meaning, it can mean a firm, a limited company, but more often it means not being on your own.

Company is often seen as a good thing as in the phrase ‘Two’s company, three’s a crowd,” meaning two people in love don’t want a third party getting in the way.

In short, “We’ve got company,” just means that you’ve been joined by one or more others. In a conflict situation it usually refers to the enemy.

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@izzythepush,

Thank you. I understand more about it now.
Seems that the word “company” originally means “be joined by one or more others”. And later, in modern society, people use it to denote “a firm”.

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@htam9876,

Exactly, lots of words in English have more than one meaning.

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@htam9876,

Piggy guesses that what BB8 said was "他江门地方黑恶势力钟永康集团及新会一中九一四班谁谁全宇宙打靶啦！"

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@izzythepush,

Yes. But the worst thing might be that sometimes those different meanings seem have no relationship at all. Below is an example:
The word “lie” means “the gesture of sleeping”. And it also means “say something fake”. But what’s the relationship between “the gesture of sleeping” and “say something fake”? More fun, actually, people often say something true in dream.

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@htam9876,

The meanings may come from two different roots. English is a mishmash of languages, notably, Anglo Saxon, Norse, French and Latin.

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@izzythepush,

Yes. Any language is mishmash. The Japanese often directly use Chinese characters. One example is “外务省”, which means foreign ministry. But in Chinese, “省” means “province”, not “ministry”.
………………………………..
By the way, piggy saw a word “notably” in your post. Does it mean “namely”? Actually, I seldom see British or Americans use the word “namely”.

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@htam9876,

It means mainly, there are other languages, but those four make up most of it.

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@izzythepush,

Thank you. Piggy got it.
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Do you know what the word "de" or "die" means in French / German? It is obvious not the word "dead" in English.

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@htam9876,

I think die means the in German. De means of, it’s often shortened to d’

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@jespah,

Thank you for your help. Piggy appears in able2know.

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@htam9876,

In German "die" is an article (feminine). In English you only have "the" as article, in German there are three: die - feminine, der- masculine, das - neuter.

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@izzythepush,

Thank you. English seems “the” simplest western language.

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@CalamityJane,

Thank you. Piggy got it.
In German, “the” has three situations:
Die female rabbit;
Der male rabbit;
Das rabbit.
Bounce…

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@htam9876,

Piggy saw the term of “…the very premise” in a reply. What does it mean exactly in English? Anyone can help? Thanks.

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