Knowledge of a language means being able to communicate – being able to say things and being able to understand what other people are saying. For example, if you can say a few words in English, it doesn’t mean you can speak it fluently, but at least you can say something. Your ability to communicate will get better as your vocabulary gets larger. So how many words do you need to speak a foreign language? Most everyday conversations involve words…
The famous, over 150-year-old Oxford English Dictionary includes 600 000 English words. Of course, only a fraction of them are in active use nowadays. In practice, the vocabulary of a native English speaker consists of about 20 000–35 000 words. In contrast, the vocabulary of a student of English as a foreign language usually consists of about 2 500–9 000 words. Does that sound like a lot? In daily speech – at home, at work, and when travelling – you luckily need to be…
Cultures and languages are constantly changing and interacting with each other. On the level of language, the interaction can be seen in loanwords, which are found in every language in the world. A loanword is a word borrowed from another language that has not been translated to the target language. It also has its own special meaning, usually not found in the target language’s own, original vocabulary. In some cases, loanwords are spelled or pronounced a bit differently in the…
The stand-up comedian Ismo Leikola thinks the most important word in Finnish is ”no niin”. Depending on your intonation, it can mean anything from ”exactly” to ”dinner is served” – you could almost hold a conversation saying nothing but ”no niin”. Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration – but Ismo is right about one thing, and that’s the importance of small filler words in conversation and language learning. Have you ever paid attention to how many extra little…
SISU = Determination, perseverance. It means Finnish people don’t give in, and as the saying goes, “go through even a grey rock”. Sisu is also the name of a popular candy that tastes like salmiakki, salty licorice. ÄITIYSPAKKAUS = Finnish parents put their newborns in a cardboard “maternity box”. This useful Finnish invention that is usually used as the first bed for the baby has even gained attention abroad. The box is available for every expecting mum free of charge, and it…
It’s nearly time to wrap up the year 2018, so now is a good time to stop and reflect on all the great things we have achieved together during the past year. That’s why we put together this blog post, compiling the most popular languages of 2018, the most read blog posts and all the other good stuff. Most popular languages to learn in 2018 English 47% Spanish 14% Finnish 12% Swedish 8% German 5% New in WordDive in 2018 WordDive 4.0 mobile app The…
