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Get or have
ca, kivuye
Ubutumwa 18
ururimi: English
Alkanadi (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Rusama 2015 08:33:40
Do you want to get the cucumbers?
What they meant was:
Do you want to have the cucumbers?
It was an offer, not a request.
Natural languages are so tough. This is why Esperanto will win in the end.
Hound_of_God (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Rusama 2015 10:45:08
You have to get something before you have something.
Even though it was an offer, you would still have to get the cucumbers for you to have them, by your friend giving them to you or some other way.
If you want to have them, then you also need to want to get them. It is logical.
So no,not so tough, I think.
Alkanadi (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Rusama 2015 14:37:15
Hound_of_God:Even though it was an offer, you would still have to get the cucumbers for you to have them, by your friend giving them to you or some other way.My friend was holding a salad and they wanted me to have the cucumbers in the salad because they don't like them. I don't think you can say "get" in this situation.
It is like me asking "do you want to get the car keys" yet they are in my pocket. "Get" denotes retrieval. "Have" denotes offering.
Just my opinion. I think these issues are so tough for foreigners.
JamesB84 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Rusama 2015 15:09:13
Alkanadi:Yesterday, my friend asked:Because of the many different meanings of the verb "to get", not to mention phrasal verbs, there are some uses where, as a native speaker of English, I don't know what the real words are. Like "Go get a bag." Do I use "kolekti" here, or something else?
Do you want to get the cucumbers?
What they meant was:
Do you want to have the cucumbers?
It was an offer, not a request.
Natural languages are so tough. This is why Esperanto will win in the end.
Some that I can think of:
To get something = kompreni
To get something = kolekti
To get to know = ekkoni
To get someone = voki
To get someone = ekkapti aux kapti
k.t.p.
Does anyone have any others?
Tempodivalse (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Rusama 2015 15:09:20
Did you get the parcel? -> Did you obtain/retrieve the parcel?
He wanted me to help out. -> He wanted me to assist.
English is highly idiomatic, to the extent that most anglophones don't even realise. I observe this when I see beginning Esperantists try to "speak English with Esperanto words" and the result is almost meaningless. It is a challenge to divorce oneself from these idiomatic connections.
nrweber (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Rusama 2015 15:52:10
If I was trying to say this I would say "Do you want cucumbers?" or "Do you want cucumbers in your salad?"
eshapard (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 6 Ruheshi 2015 05:37:54
Alkanadi:Get doesn't necessarily denote retrieval; that's one meaning out of many.Hound_of_God:Even though it was an offer, you would still have to get the cucumbers for you to have them, by your friend giving them to you or some other way.My friend was holding a salad and they wanted me to have the cucumbers in the salad because they don't like them. I don't think you can say "get" in this situation.
It is like me asking "do you want to get the car keys" yet they are in my pocket. "Get" denotes retrieval. "Have" denotes offering.
Just my opinion. I think these issues are so tough for foreigners.
It can mean to receive. What your friend said was fine. She meant would you like to receive cucumbers.
Cf You can get unsolicited advice without having to retrieve it.
Scratch (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 6 Ruheshi 2015 10:30:17
I get tired after a long day. I got mad when he poked me. I will get sleepy if you sing to me.
yyaann (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 6 Ruheshi 2015 14:08:47
JamesB84:To get something = kompreni
To get something = kolekti
To get to know = ekkoni
To get someone = voki
To get someone = ekkapti aux kapti
k.t.p.
Scratch:Get is often used as another to say that one becomes or became or will become some descriptive trait.As an English learner none of these meanings are new to me. However I can have a hard time telling which use belongs to which register. I recently lost points in an exam for using "could get wary" instead of "could become wary" (admitedly the rest of my essay was much more formal in register so it probably was a poor choice of word on my part).
I get tired after a long day. I got mad when he poked me. I will get sleepy if you sing to me.
Another thing I will probably need a lot more input on to get right is, well, all these darn subtle nuances. Until a few days ago I thought only "my contract with this company" was correct but now I've read "my contract at this company" is also acceptable and would be understood as meaning that I will specifically work in the company's premises as opposed to working for them but not necessarily in their property. Then I realised there is kind of the same nuance in French with "mon contrat chez cette entreprise" vs "mon contrat avec cette entreprise". But the thing is what is possible in your language can't be taken as a reliable clue to what works in another. So yeah, it's been a bit of a struggle to learn English so far, though also enjoyable.
Tempodivalse:English is highly idiomatic, to the extent that most anglophones don't even realise. I observe this when I see beginning Esperantists try to "speak English with Esperanto words" and the result is almost meaningless. It is a challenge to divorce oneself from these idiomatic connections.I don't know what it is about English that makes it so influential on the way we speak other languages but I even have to pay attention not to let it tinker with the way I speak my native tongue. Save for a few expressions here and there this has hardly ever happened with other languages I'm learning. Not to that extent anyway. This may have a lot to do with its idiomatic nature as you say.
orthohawk (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 6 Ruheshi 2015 15:16:43
Alkanadi:Thee is correct; "get" in this instance was not the word to use. When I'm in this situation I usually ask "does thee want my cucumbers?"Hound_of_God:Even though it was an offer, you would still have to get the cucumbers for you to have them, by your friend giving them to you or some other way.My friend was holding a salad and they wanted me to have the cucumbers in the salad because they don't like them. I don't think you can say "get" in this situation.
It is like me asking "do you want to get the car keys" yet they are in my pocket. "Get" denotes retrieval. "Have" denotes offering.
Just my opinion. I think these issues are so tough for foreigners.