Aportes: 13
Idioma: English
sublimestyle (Mostrar perfil) 17 de febrero de 2011 23:15:12
La sandviĉo ne estas freŝa.
La sandviĉo estas malfreŝa.
I read on a previous post that mal gives a stronger meaning. On this same post the author gave a link to a website that showed the difference, but I am still somewhat of a beginner so I could not understand most of it.
T0dd (Mostrar perfil) 17 de febrero de 2011 23:55:47
NEFRESXA means simply not fresh.
MALFRESXA means stale.
There's a bit of daylight between the two concepts.
erinja (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 01:22:30
In fact the meanings are different, so sometimes the "mal" word could be very different in meaning from the "ne" word, and sometimes they might be nearly the same.
Mal means "opposite". Every time you see "mal", think to yourself, "opposite".
Ne simply means "not". "Not" is a different meaning than "opposite".
seka = dry
malseka = wet[=opposite of s]wet[/s]dry]
ne seka = not dry (not dry, but not necessarily soaking wet either, this could range anywhere from a teeny bit damp to sopping wet)
Yet in some cases, if it's a very black and white type situation, mal- and ne could have the same meaning. To "malvenki" (to lose, opposite of win) is pretty much the same as "ne venki" (not to win), right? If you didn't win, then by default you lost. [I am assuming that you played; someone who merely watched a race without participating can't really be said to have won or lost or not won, or anything of the sort] Here the difference is in emphasis, not degree.
When someone is talking and they say "male", they don't mean "bad", they mean "opposite".
So you can imagine the following conversations:
A: Do Johano estas tre malfeliĉa, ĉu?
[So John is very unhappy, is that so?]
B: Male, li estas tre feliĉa!
[The opposite, he is very happy!]
A: Ĉu ĉi tiu strato iras norden al Novjorko?
[Does this street go northward to New York?]
B: Ne, Novjorko estas en la mala direkto! Ĉi tiu strato iras suden al Vaŝingtono.
[No, New York is in the opposite direction! This street goes southward to Washington]
sublimestyle (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 02:25:33
danielcg (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 04:54:29
I hope this example helps clear the confusion.
Regards,
Daniel
darkweasel (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 06:14:27
danielcg:I am a man, so I am "not a woman", however I would not think it correct to state that I am "the opposite of a woman".Actually malino as an age- and species-neutral word for "male being" does exist.
erinja (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 13:51:33
But I think danielcg's point is valid, you could say it about anything that he is not.
He is also not a rock, but you couldn't say that he is the opposite of a rock (which doesn't really make sense)
jchthys (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 17:37:50
[LISTO]
Malŝlosebla means 'able to be unlocked'
Neŝlosebla means 'not able to be locked'[/list]
qwertz (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 18:15:09
erinja:But that could make sense at some tales and saga figures, isn't?
He is also not a rock, but you couldn't say that he is the opposite of a rock (which doesn't really make sense)
erinja (Mostrar perfil) 18 de febrero de 2011 18:29:18
qwertz:No.erinja:But that could make sense at some tales and saga figures, isn't?
He is also not a rock, but you couldn't say that he is the opposite of a rock (which doesn't really make sense)
You can't put "mal" on any word in Esperanto. Mal- only makes sense if the word has a logical opposite. There is no such thing as the logical opposite of a rock.