讯息： 13
语言: English
sublimestyle (显示个人资料) 2011年2月17日下午11:15:12
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.
erinja (显示个人资料) 2011年2月18日上午1:22:30
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]
erinja (显示个人资料) 2011年2月18日下午1:51:33
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)
qwertz (显示个人资料) 2011年2月18日下午6:15:09
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 (显示个人资料) 2011年2月18日下午6:29:18
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.