• TIMMAY@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    have you ever learnt grammar or not to make wild assumptions that generalize something as varied or complex as human language? cuz that’s not how it works

    • wieson@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Ok. For the girl being a russian (or at least Slavic) speaker and learning English, I can’t for the life of me imagine how she could have mixed up cat and dog. Which she didn’t, she knew the difference. But oop shortly thought about correcting her. And comment op said, it was plausible.

      I see no way how that would be plausible. Girl is speaking in a broken way, but she is speaking, not having loose vocab here and there. Cat and dog are one of the first words to learn typically. I don’t know why, it just seems that way.

      Also cat in russian is koshka, making it very easy to remember (same starting sound and they just feel similar).

      So really, I see no way how someone who is already speaking a language (brokenly) would honestly mix up cat and dog. Mixing up refrigerator and laundromat - fine, I’ll believe it, but not those two.

      • TechLich@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I think the idea is that he thought she was confused by what he had said.

        “What are they called?” meaning “what are the words for them?” Not “what are their names?” Like he was quizzing her on her English or something.

        He was a about to correct her like “no no, I meant what are their names?”

        • wieson@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Ok, I see our misunderstanding. But I think if he wanted to correct her in the way you think, he would have had that thought three lines earlier.