Sunday, April 26, 2009

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT THE WORD "TICK"?


I like the fact that some words in any language can´t have an accurate translation into other languages. That happens for example with the Galician word "enxebre"...
Something enxebre is ... traditional... ? well, yes, it is, but... it means something else ... you can´t get the inner meaning unless you are a native speaker or you can have a very good example of the word in a very specific context.

Other words are easier to translate but you would need more than one word to do it. As an example, " a tick" or " to tick". In English, when you listen to those words , you just do the action but when my students ask me what they mean I have to say: "to tick is to write this sign". And I draw it on the blackboard. You can´t use just one word to translate it. If you look it up in the dictionary it says: tick: marca... but... what kind of "marca"?

I have always liked this sign: "listen and tick", "tick the words you hear", "tick or cross"... That´s why I dedicate this post to one of my favourite English signs :)

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