English has many compound nouns. They can be open (ice cream), closed (classroom) or hyphenated (self-esteem). Compound nouns usually consist of two nouns but other combinations are possible. Here is a list of closed compound nouns:
blueberry
breakfast
grandparents
highway
inside
outdoors
snowball
sunrise
teammate
underwater
takeover
waterfall
Here is the structure of the respective compound nouns:
blue (A) + berry (N)
break (V) + fast (N)
grand (A) + parents (N)
high (A) + way (N)
in (P) + side (N)
out (P) + doors (N)
snow (N) + ball (N)
sun (N) + rise (V)
team (N) + mate (N)
under (P) + water (N)
take (V) + over (P)
water (N) + fall (N)
Many compound nouns combine two nouns into one. This is the case with compounds such as snowball. However, as the list demonstrates, compound nouns also consist of adjectives, verbs and prepositions.
Many compounds describe berries. Red currants and black currants are also berries, though they do not have the word berry in their name. Here is a list of different berries:
blackberry
blueberry
boysenberry
cranberry
elderberry
gooseberry
lingonberry
loganberry
raspberry
strawberry
The blackberry and blueberry are identified by their colour. The words elderberry, gooseberry and strawberry are not identified by colour, but they consist of free morphemes. This does not appear to be the case with cranberry, but the morpheme cran is derived from crane.
The boysenberry, a hybrid of the blackberry and the raspberry, was bred by Charles Boysen. Another hybrid, the loganberry, was bred by James Harvey Logan. It is also a hybrid of the blackberry and the raspberry. Both fruits have the characteristics of blackberries and raspberries. However, loganberries taste more similar to raspberries than do boysenberries.
The lingonberry is similar to the cranberry but is smaller in size. The morpheme lingon is the word for lingonberry in Swedish. Another berry is the raspberry, but the origin of the morpheme rasp is unclear. It might come from the Old English word rasp, which means rough.
The names of many berries are compound nouns in English. Certain names have clear origins such as blackberry, blueberry and strawberry. In the case of raspberry, the origin is not clear.
The points of the compass can be divided into four cardinal directions: north, south, west and east. These can be further divided into four ordinal directions: northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. However, in Finnish the ordinal directions are not expressed with combinations of the cardinal directions. They are expressed with completely different words.
Here are the points of the compass in Finnish:
north pohjoinen
south etelä
west länsi
east itä
northwest luode
northeast koillinen
southwest lounas
southeast kaakko
In Finnish the ordinal directions are very different from the cardinal ones. They are not compounds. Another language with separate words for both cardinal and ordinal directions is Estonian, a language closely related to Finnish.
Affixes morphemes are added to a word to create a new word. Though English uses more suffixes than prefixes, both are common. The four most common prefixes in English are -dis, -in, -re and -un. The most common suffixes are -ed, -ing, -ly and -s.
Here are words with the four most common prefixes:
Here are words with the four most common suffixes:
cooked, finished, washed
driving, giving, sleeping
carefully, friendly, quickly
books, chairs, tables, boxes, bushes, speeches
The prefix -in also has the variants -il, -im and -ir. Likewise, the suffix -s also has the variant -es. Words with the suffix -ing can be nouns and verbs. In "I am sleeping", we have a verb, but in "Sleeping well is important for health", we have a noun. Many English words consist of prefixes and suffixes.
The Danish language is known for the glottal stop. However, many southern dialects do not use it. Another feature which distinguishes Danish dialects is intonation.
The glottal stop is used in most of the country. In the dialects of Lolland, Falster and Bornholm it is not. It is not used in the southern parts of Jutland, Funen or Zealand either.
The glottal stop varies in its use around the country. In Copenhagen, the glottal stop is used in mandag (Monday) and søndag (Sunday), but not in lørdag (Saturday). In Jutland, this is the opposite. The glottal stop is used with lørdag (Saturday) but not with mandag (Monday) or søndag (Sunday).
Another difference in the varieties of Danish spoken is intonation. People from Copenhagen pronounce the end of words with rising intonation, but people from Jutland use falling. For example, people from Copenhagen pronounce Danmark (Denmark) with a low tone on the first syllable and rising tone on the second. In Jutland, however, people pronounce the first syllable with a high tone and the second with a falling tone.
The dialects of Denmark can be distinguished in many ways. Two are the use of the glottal stop and intionation. The two main Danish dialects are those of Copenhagen and Jutland.
The French singer and actress Charlotte Gainsbourg is very talented. One of her sings is L'un Part, L'autre Reste which means One Leaves, One Stays. It is a beautiful song with a long instrumental prelude. Here are the French lyrics followed by my translation:
Italian is a Romance language with many beautiful words. Here are my ten favourite words:
arcobaleno (rainbow)
albero (tree)
azzurro (blue)
farfalla (butterfly)
fiume (river)
lucciola (firefly)
mela (apple)
specchio (mirror)
stella (star)
zuppa (soup)
Every word on the list has at least two syllables and ends with a vowel. This is not surprising because most Italian words end with a vowel and they usually consist of two or more syllables. Many of the words on the list differ from those in other Romance languages.
Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese have many differences. They include spelling, grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Here are ten words which differ in the two varieties with the Brazilian word on the left and the Portuguese word on the right:
banheiro casa de banho (bathroom)
camião caminhão (truck)
geladeira frigorífico (fridge)
gramado relvado (lawn)
grampeador agrafador (stapler)
marrom castanho (brown)
meias peúgas (socks)
ônibus autocarro (bus)
sorvete gelado (ice cream)
trem comboio (train)
xícara chávena (cup)
Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese share many similarities. However, they also have significant differences. The list illustrates ten words which differ in the two varieties.
