Farmyard School
 

Learn something new every day.

Current topic: german animal names and their literal meaning

bat
Fledermaus (flutter mouse)

butterfly
Schmetterling (one who smashes)

firefly
Glühwürmchen (little glowing worm)

guinea pig
Meerschweinchen (little sea pig)

turtle
Schildkröte (shield toad)

platypus
Schnabeltier (beak animal)

porcupine
Stachelschwein (spike pig)

raccoon
Waschbär (washing bear)

seal
Seehund (lake dog)

sloth
Faultier (lazy animal)

slug
Nacktschnecke (naked snail)

squirrel
Eichhörnchen (oak croissant)

What does the butterfly smash?

Burglars. Germans have watch butterflies instead of watch dogs.

Their dogs are what they use to keep the beds warm at night, or to guide tipsy friends home.

All of these sounds about right, but I can't seem to follow butterfly, guinea pig, and oak croissant. XDD

Some more to enjoy:

armadillo
Gürteltier (belt animal)

mole
Maulwurf (mouth throw)

rhinoceros
Nashorn (nose horn)

skunk
Stinktier (stinking animal)

squid
Tintenfisch (ink fish)

I have just found the armadillos. I was freaking out when i saw them

"Little sea pig"? Oh dear, sounds as though guineas went in the stew pot at sea...

Some less weird German animal names: yes, they also exist

Katze (cat, female)
Kater (cat, male)
Hund (dog)
Maus (mouse)
Pferd (horse)
Affe (monkey)

"D-Don't forget 'spinne'... it means 'spider'."

That's right! You're a brilliant student, Koprina.

Today we're learning the names of Trisphee's event items. Because there's a whole lot of them, and wouldn't it be cool if you're able to recall them all?

https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/947003.png Küken
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/918835.png Spinne (as our lovely Koprina here already mentioned)
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/918784.png Ratte
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/947033.png Hahn
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/947015.png Henne
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/918750.png Gans
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/947114.png ... *blinks* ... *deep breath* Lamahorn
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/947060.png Ferkel or Schwein, if you'd rather learn the adult form
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/945161.png Schlange
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/946961.png Kuh
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/947141.png We already learned this. Who remembers?
https://trisphee.com/forums/avatar/947123.png Drache or Lindwurm, if you really want to impress others with your random knowledge

Um. How is "Pferd" for horse less weird?

Because it doesn't translate to something silly like oak croissant. But speaking of translations, be the first person to match the different horse names with their right language and win 20 berries.

___ 1) Dutch _________________________ a) arklys
___ 2) Finnish _______________________ b) caballo
___ 3) Japanese ______________________ c) ceffyl
___ 4) Latvian _______________________ d) hest
___ 5) Lithuanian ____________________ e) hevonen
___ 6) Norwegian _____________________ f) paard
___ 7) Spanish _______________________ g) uma
___ 8) Welsh _________________________ h) zirgs

-Takes notes-

I like Schildkröte/shield toad for turtle. It makes them sound weirder and cuter.

1) Dutch f
2) Finnish _e__
3) Japanese __g_
4) Latvian h
5) Lithuanian a_
6) Norwegian d
7) Spanish _b__
8) Welsh c_


Jerry is a Nacktschnecke

Aaaaaaaand you're correct, student! 1+

Your berries coming right up to you as a delicious smoothie - I mean, trade.

"Eichhörnchen"...hm. I can't remember what video I was watching that involved attempts that pronouncing this.

Random fact of the day: There's a word we use in Austria to jokingly test Germans' pronounciation skills.

Oachkatzlschwoaf means tail of a squirrel and for most folks it's tough to pronounce.

I still have a bit of a hard time with the German "ch" sound.

Sounds one doesn't encounter in their native language are always hard. I remember when learning Russian in school there was one that's basically "schtsch".

I'm still learning basic Russian pronunciation, haha...

I guess I'm lucky in that growing up speaking Mandarin at home and English everywhere else has given me a pretty good grasp on different, non-Romance-language phonetics and grammar.

That's probably true.

I sometimes wish I had been raised in a bilingual household, same as I always wanted a private tutor. Maybe that's why I'm learning so many different "useless" things on my own now, like languages I may not even need for travel. *cough* Klingon *cough*

That's like, seven consonants in a row, man!!!
Mandarin sounds so complicated. I mean, Japanese is a walk in the park compared to it.

To be fair Japanese is a walk in the park compared with most languages, at least as far as grammar is concerned. Same as English. And if you're looking for something with an easy vocabulary instead, have a look at Toki Pona.

Hm. To me, Mandarin's not hard -- it's the written Chinese that's a pain in the arse.

I've never learned Mandarin, so I can't really say much about its difficulty.

A friend was trying to teach me the four tonalitiesor something and I was like... what. ha is different from... ha? |D Say it again pls.

Oh, yeah, the tonalities...hm. They're interesting. Having grown up w Mandarin, it's pretty hard for me to understand why exactly people have issues with it, but then again, Mandarin/Chinese in general just doesn't really have tenses and such, so that probably lowers the chance of confusion with context.

...I'm trying to pick up some Taiwanese, but, uh... that dialect's got seven (?!) tonalities.

Teach me all the languages!

I took Spanish all through high school, but barely have retained it since there's not really a large Hispanic population here to keep me using it. I mainly just remember a few random words and phrases.

I really do want to learn Japanese, but have been....mainly just lazy and haven't worked on learning it at all.

I'm from Cali and learned Spanish, but went to PA for college, soooo.

Seven? Welp, I hope China doesn`t rule the world while i`m alive xD

Go Kaderin! Ganbatte!

I've spent about 98% of my life in Montana. Not a huge language diversity at all around here.
But I can insult your house. XD
Su casa es mi baño.
Lol

I mean, they don't speak Taiwanese in China, haha...

wait, won`t Taiwan be part of their world domination |D I know Taiwan is a separate place but yeah... my geography is just above those of the folks who once asked me why seasons here were swapped.

....Wait what? Now I'm just confused ^^;

I know Taiwan is kinda separate from mainland China
but how separate is it
Puerto Rico/US separate
or Scottland/England
or y'know

Legitimately-different-country separate.

oh wow D:
so I shouldn't call my taiwanese friend Chinese |D

To confuse you even more, Taiwan is also known as the Republic of China - NOT to be confused with the People's Republic of China. Sounds like straight out of a Monty Python sketch, no?