English thread. Why not?

[Apeirogon]

Why "piece of cake" means "very very easy"?

[cs89]

I think the screw word is an equivocal word.
The first definition is a part of machine and the right tool to work with is the screwdriver. I learned this at those Minecraft mod videos where that tool featured from some Minecraft mods in many forms.
The second definition is not precisely a nice saying, rather an obscene manifestation. I heard from an Angry Video Game Nerd episode, where James Rolfe scolded those video game developers' ascendants where he discovered so many glitch and bug. That sentence "Screw Yourself!" would mean equally like "F*ck yourself!".
For a user who not speaking in English commonly the words may mean something else on a surprising way than he/she got to it on their mother language.

[Kinsie]

what

[cs89]

what

I mean someone would not bugging me If I write down some words and expressions wrong.

[Kinsie]

what

I mean someone would not bugging me If I write down some words and expressions wrong.

Your username suggests you're roughly 29 years old, and you just said you first learned of the concept of screwdrivers through a Youtube video of a Minecraft mod.

[cs89]

what

I mean someone would not bugging me If I write down some words and expressions wrong.

Your username suggests you're roughly 29 years old, and you just said you first learned of the concept of screwdrivers through a Youtube video of a Minecraft mod.

Yes, that's right, I didn't learn english language until the beginning of my middle school period.
In primary school I have participated in German language courses and it was useful to me while I did not notice that I am better off with the English language knowledge.

[Ravick]

Why "piece of cake" means "very very easy"?

My guess is because it is a very easy to eat meal. I'm basing this guess at the equivalent expression in Portuguese: "mamão com açúcar", witch literal translation is "papaya with sugar". Papaya and sugar is a meal very easy to deal with.

"Piece of cake" is many times translated to Portuguese as "mamão com açúcar", by the way. But, anyway, it was just a guess.

_____


@lil'devil, thanks for answering.

[Mysyk]

Not only you have to know basic grammar there are other stuff. As If it isn't bad enough there are idioms, slang terms, different styles of speech and pronunciation. Let alone British and American English. Is your vocabulary vast enough?

[Reactor]

This is not really an English question, but it does have to do with English pronounciation. So I guess it's good to go.
So! In video games, German people always speak English with a "z" accent...like "ze" for "the" or "zis" for "this". The question is: do German people really speak English like this, or it's just a stereotype?

[Trance]

I think it used to be true, at least in some cases. I've watched a number of old historical documentaries (one that comes to mind is The World At War, a 1973 British documentary series on WW2), and they would on occasion have interview segments where a German who was there would give their account, in English. Some Germans who had had extensive experience speaking English -- mainly those who had lived in some English-speaking country for a while -- had less obvious German accents without "th -> z" happening, while others with a much thicker German accent did.

I haven't heard that many Germans speaking English in recent years so I don't know if that phenomenon still exists, but if not, it could be due to something that has happened both here in the US as well as the UK, where accents have changed since those earlier days. The average German accent might have shifted over time so as not to cause "th -> z" when one attempts English.

[Enjay]

Are there many words with a "th" sound in German? If not, that might explain the relative difficulty of making the sound when speaking in a language that uses it. I have a German friend who has been in the UK for many years and there is a slight hint of that in her accent. Her accent, as a whole, isn't particularly strong but you can tell that she's not from the UK and best guess would probably say German if you didn't already know.

[Gez]

Different languages have different sounds. The English "th" sounds /θ/ (example: think) and /ð/ (example: the) do not exist in German. Or French, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Hebrew, etc.

Inversely, English does not feature many sounds that exist in other languages.

[lil'devil]

Many learners of English have problems with pronouncing 'th' sounds. I speak English very well, but still often fail to pronounce 'th' as in 'think', ending up pronouncing it as 'f'.

[Ravick]

Same here. Actually, the "th" thing is one of the most difficult subjects to teach to native Portuguese speakers in English lessons.

[lil'devil]

Wow, I've just realized that the majority of English words (at least in RP accent) have stress on the first syllable, even many loanwords. I've never noticed that before. This really makes things easier. My native Russian has stresses all over the place.