Language desk
< July 21	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 23 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 22[edit]

Learning French.[edit]

Could anyone recommend materials (books, websites, CDs, etc) useful for learning French? It's for someone who only speaks English. Preferably, it would allow you to see how words are written and pronounced (many CDs don't come with written words, and vice verca), and start from a very basic, simple area before getting more advanced.

One of the sister projects to Wikipedia, Wikibooks, has a French book you might find useful --iamajpeg 12:43, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I highly recommend using French in Action. It's a combined video, audio, and literal program. You can purchase the books and CDs off of amazon.com. The DVDs are very expensive, but you can get the videos for free by recording them on your local PBS station or watching them streamed on the official website. I'm using it now, and it's by far the best language-learning program I've ever seen. It has you thinking in French from the start, and it never compares French words to English ones. It starts out with the basics and makes sure you understand them. If you have the motivation to get through the 52 lessons, you'll certainly gain a solid understanding of the French language.--El aprendelenguas 02:53, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Once you're past raw beginner status, try some Franco-Belgian comics. I think Asterix and Tintin contributed a lot to my knowledge of French. —Tamfang 17:50, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

meaning[edit]

behove

wikt:behove. Please search Wiktionary for this kind of thing in the future. -Elmer Clark 10:21, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Or an actual dictionary. Tesseran 22:06, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Actual" dictionary?? Perhaps you ought to try an "actual" encyclopedia instead of this one :P -Elmer Clark 05:57, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

origine of one word[edit]

the word xnoybis was used by Giacinto Scelsi for one violin composition. Is now used by musical groups (for instance Goldflesh). The question is: where does this word come from? Does it have a meaning in some language? pellegrg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pellegrg (talk • contribs)

Looks better in Greek letters: "χνούβις" Seems to be an obscure, perhaps inauthentic, theonym. Haukur 16:26, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wait, scratch that. This is probably what you're looking for: [1] Haukur 16:29, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Error or not?[edit]

Is the phrase "delicious restaurants" incorrect, or is it a metaphor of some sort? (One would expect instead "restaurants with delicious food", unless the locale were made of something edible, or the speaker were a termite.) Is it a form of metonomy? I'd appreciate some guidance here. Thanks Bielle 20:22, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In Korean we say 맛있는 집 (tasty house) to mean 맛있는 음식을 하는 가게 (shop with tasty food). It can be shortened further to 맛집 (taste house) and everyone will understand. This doesn't really answer your question, but I wanted to point out that similar phrases exist in other languages as well. --Kjoonlee 20:34, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The phrase sounds fine to me. I'd say that the default reading involves metonymy: the restaurant stands in for the food that is served there. It's probably possible to have a metaphorical reading as well, using "delicious" to mean something like "delightful" as in "delicious irony". Mike Dillon 20:49, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds odd (unless they're made of wood and you're a beaver). Clarityfiend 21:59, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How does "expensive restaurants" sound to you? Does it make you think that the restaurants are expensive, or that the food they serve is expensive? What about "expensive cities"? Mike Dillon 22:13, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like there are about 49,000 hits for this phrase on Google: "delicious restaurants". Whether or not it is "correct", I think the intended meaning generally involves metonymy. Mike Dillon 22:13, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all for your input. Bielle 02:47, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How to correctly spell and definition[edit]

I'm wondering how I can correctly spell the word "Aderondex", I've tried googling it and I just find people who use that as a username and also people who say things like "not sure how to spell it".

Can someone please tell me how it's actually spelled and also what it means? Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.202.141.121 (talk • contribs) 23:58, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

The Adirondacks are some mountains in the United States of America - hope this answers your question! DuncanHill 00:01, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]