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Words with different connotations
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Posted by: Bart9000

Hello All,

I just stumbled across this site the other day.

Wanted to mention something interesting I happened to notice.

I once told a pretty girl from Ukraine that she was "silly'. She went from playful/affectionate to blanching/offended in half a heartbeat. Fortunately (I'm not exactly the "sensitive type"), I caught it, and asked what the matter was.

It turns out that the word means something to the effect of "fool', with a highly negative connotation. I assured her that in US English, there it means "playful" or "childlike". And things were good again.

I have also been told that "Dear" has highly intimate connotations, and that "Beautiful" describes only supermodels, not normal girls who are only "attractive".

Does anyone have any more of these?

By the way, I am some degree of a low level Prague expert. Prague is a gorgeous, romantic, SAFE place to meet a FSU girl (I don't think ViSA should be a problem, and I'm suspect rail or bus travel to there isn't particularly expensive-anyone with more knowledge can correct me if I am wrong). If anyone needs information about the city, let me know.

Posted by: ConnerVT

sil·ly (sĭl'ē)
adj., -li·er, -li·est.
1. Exhibiting a lack of wisdom or good sense; foolish. See synonyms at foolish.
2. Lacking seriousness or responsibleness; frivolous: indulged in silly word play; silly pet names for each other.
3. Semiconscious; dazed: knocked silly by the impact.

Amazing how many words we think we know their meanings, when as a native speaker we don't. It has been fun to relearn English again, with two students (wife and son) in the house.

It's usually the everyday words that stump me, and I find myself reaching for the English dictionary.

Posted by: Chrismc

Yes it is funny to learn English again and what words DO actually mean rather than what we think they mean after a lifetime of speaking the language.

They also use words that we would use very little in everyday life eg 'capricious' is a word I have found they use a lot, but I personally would not use very often in everyday conversation if at all.

They also use words differently eg 'love' in the West this tends to be overused, a FSU lady will say it but usually when she does she means 'In Love' with you.... but it all adds to the spice of life and the fun you have along the way.

Chris

Posted by: Bart9000

(and I could well be mistaken), I think she was taking offence at the most similar Russian word "see-lay" (probably has a latin root in common)or something to that effect.

I today caught my Russian Internet "girlfriend" "writing" a letter identical to the previous day's, appearently part of some kind of "assembley line" operation.

Posted by: ConnerVT

Well, my wife explained the her reasoning by giving me the definition I posted above.

Posted by: compucowboy

I think that you will find that rather than the cultural connotations that we have with many words, they will take the literal dictionary meaning, which would be far from what we had intended.

Posted by: Bart9000

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConnerVT

Well, my wife explained the her reasoning by giving me the definition I posted above.

Like I said, I could be mistaken. Possibly "see-lay" was "silly" with her accent.

Posted by: Stas

This is indeed a very interesting topic. Many Russians who speak just little English believe that "it's OK" means smth like "it's great!", "it's brilliant!", - smth much better than what it actually means.
Once a Russian-speaking British girl wanted to say "wonderful" in Russian, and as "wonder" is "chudo" she picked up "prichudlivyi", which in fact sounds as "weird".

Posted by: bleushkva

Chinese does that a lot more though. One sentence could have two different meanings. She could have just called you a fool, because she wasn't interested.

Posted by: bleushkva

I call my friend a teddy bear, because he said he didn't like me, because the words are the same.