A Coffee Break with Mark - 11 July 2022
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2022
- Monday morning thoughts from Mark and the Coffee Break team including:
- Language learning and tennis
- Coming up this week
- German episode 3.18 - reflexive verbs with the dative
- Italian episode 3.18 - irregular plurals
- French Magazine 2.07 - impressionist painters
- Spanish Magazine 4.07 - a sporting event in Asturias
- the origins of the word "early"
- Mark's favourite English word
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Here's the link to the tennis article too:
coffeebreaklanguages.com/2019...
My wife and I have been touching up on our Spanish. The podcasts are a great length. I can listen to one episode on my way to work and another on my way back home.
Apologies if you need sunglasses to watch this video - that polo shirt is very bright 😎🤣
Hahahaha. It’s a great color, Mark!
Haha, it's a lovely colour that suits you though :)
I believe it's chartreuse! And that word comes from an alcoholic beverage by that name which has that bright green color. Chartreuse is in itself a fun word!
I love the word I love the word “codswallop” which I remember my grandmother saying all the time, and I still use it today.
Scurryfunge is my favourite English word! Perfectly describes the quick house clean you do before an unplanned guest arrives 😂
From my admiration of Jane Austin- untoward is my favorite word. Grateful for the work of the Italian team- nearly at the end of season 1!
Juxtaposition is my favorite English word. You have inspired me to research its roots. Thanks for another great start to the week, Mark
I like the word indubitably. It’s a little tricky to say but it feels good when you get it right
I have always loved the word "flabbergast", it's just such a fun word to say.
I've always liked the word "twilight". Oxford Reference definition - "The period of intermediate illumination before sunrise and after sunset, when the sky is not completely dark." I've always thought this was a word infused with magic. It was my grandfather's nickname for me as a child.
Mark, these Monday morning videos are simply genius! The screen format captures your passion for language perfectly and your enthusiasm is in itself motivational! 😂 I’ve just recently become a Wordle-holic so I’m off to check out Quardle before starting my Spanish tasks! 😄 I have many favourite words in English, but discombobulated is up there!
Juanita here, in California. So nice to wake up each Monday to a chat about one of my favorite things, language, so thanks Mark! Erstwhile, “the most early,” very cool. Weirdly I have no favorite words in English, my native tongue, but must shout out for “idraulici,” the loveliest word I know in Italian.
Love these videos, that history of those words is fascinating. I love learning the etymology of words, especially of those that have made their way from Irish in to the English language.
If I have to choose only one favorite English word, I will go with “defenestrate.” We have adapted it in our household to refer to the act of putting/letting the cats outside - no, we don’t actually toss them out a window!
Beyond its political roots, it has also come to mean switching from Microsoft (Windows) to a different operating system.
In English, I'm partial to kerfuffle. But French is so much more fun. Favorite word in French? Fauteuil. So amusing to say!
My favorite "english" word is actually North American: "Lagniappe"
So that Coffee Break Mark doesn't HAVE TO look it up, here is author Mark Twain's description of this kindly word in his book Life on the Mississippi (1883):
"We picked up one excellent word, a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word-'lagniappe'.... It is Spanish-so they said."
Per Merriam Webster:
Twain encapsulates the history of lagniappe quite nicely. English speakers learned the word from French-speaking Louisianians, but they in turn had adapted it from the American Spanish word la ñapa. (What Twain didn't know is that the Spanish word is from Quechua, from the word yapa, meaning "something added.")
When I was in college we played a game called Fictionary. Basically you find a word in the dictionary, and come up with three fake definitions and the real one. One word was Xanthic. I'll never forget the meaning.
For some reason when I learned the word ‘bivouac’ I thought it was very funny to say! Ha ha
I’ve been learning French with Duolingo, Coffee Break Podcasts, and French speaking TV shows on Netflix for the past half year. I’m hoping to reach a B1 level in the next three months 😬
The first word that came to mind is ‘flibbertigibbet’, which apparently means ‘a frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person’. It’s origin is onomatopoeic. I’m sure I used to get called that as a child!
Loving the video form of the email, keep them coming! This video was so interesting and my favourite English word is either 'Welsh' or 'Ace'. They're just fun words to say and I just like the way 'Ace' looks written
Wonderful Mark! I'm adding this to my etymology notebook. Also will now include the adverb info when i teach poetry and syntax. I have too many beloved words to choose one (though "incarnadine" just sprung to mind.) (Did you post a link to that tennis and language learning piece? I don't see it)
My favorite English word is Flocculate. It refers to things, when dissolved in solution, coming together and settling out. Think of how when you add lime juice to milk, and it curdles. The curdling is because of the milk fat and protein settling out. This is because of how those globules start to clump. That clumping is called flocculation. It is such a fun word to say, and I believe it is incredibly underused.
Plethora is my favourite English word. I'm learning Italian with Coffee Break but I haven't got a favourite yet!
It's actually Greek!! 🙂🥰
@@daphnekapsambelis8790 I did wonder where it originated - I should have guessed. It's a lovely word to say. Does all Greek sound so nice? Should I switch from trying to learn Latin to Greek 🤔💭
@@claretopping9581 Matbe stuck to Latin as it’ll help with the Italian, but learn Greek next! And listen to a Greek song to hear the sound of it - I think it’s beautiful but I’m prejudiced! 🥰
Morning Mark. I too do Wordle and Quordle every morning and occasionally SEDORDLE (16 words) . I gave up on GLOBLE - a geography type similar puzzle. Occasionally I'll do Parla e Verba in italiano . I have to say when I did this morning's Quordle I didn't consider going down the root of any of the words but found what you said very interesting. Now to 'gen' up on ci e ne ready for my adult education Zoom class this evening. Buona giornata!
I’ve been looking in vain for Italian word games, but I can’t find Parla e Verba anywhere. Could you post a link, please?
French words are generally more fun than English words. But I'm not voting for 'Je me demande' when clearly 'I wonder' is more fun. So I'm going for wonder. Although discombobulate rates highly too.
I love discovering the root of words, and the differences in the different languages, such as the adverbial endings -ly/-ment. I also love comparing them with how things are expressed in other languages… someone mentioned “je me demande” vs “I wonder” … I find it fascinating that in French (and in German, ich frage mich) the idea of “wondering” is rendered as “I ask myself” and I like that construction. So, rather than a favourite English word, my favourite thing about English is when I find a connection or contrast with other languages. I wish I knew where to look to find out more about that side of language.
Same story in Spanish, me pregunto....I wonder (I ask myself). Language is really fascinating. 😎
I'm a fan of "stuff" - it just covers such a wonderful range of descriptions... and I doesn't really work in Spanish (even when I try to explain it) - it's the language equivalent to a Swiss Army Knife ;-)
I love the word "gobsmacked," but it's a word borrowed/learned from British TV shows and not native to North America (I'm Canadian). I'll choose the word "subsumed" as my favourite.
"Able was I ere I saw Elba"