Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Today we're talking about the pronouns in 9 languages.
There are various pronouns we know.
English
In English, there are only 7 kinds of pronouns:
‘I’ (first person singular),
‘you’ (second person singular and plural),
‘she’ (feminine third person singular),
‘he’ (masculine third person singular),
‘it’ (thing),
‘we’ (first person plural), and
‘they’ (third person plural).
‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’, and ‘they’ have the same conjugation for any verb
other than ‘be’. If you don’t need google translate to read my blog, of course
you already know this. But I’ll explain anyway, just for comparison.
‘I’ has the different conjugation only for the verb ‘be’, which is ‘am’,
while ‘you’, ‘we’, and ‘they’ use ‘are’.
‘He’, ‘she’, and ‘it’ always have different conjugation for any verb.
Their ‘be’ conjugation is ‘is’. And for any other verb, we simply put an ‘s’ at
the end of the word. Pretty easy.
For example:
I/you/we/they eat.
She/he/it eats.
Even though English has 7 kinds of pronouns, it only has 2 groups of
conjugation: I, you, we, they group, and she, he, it group. Only for ‘to be’ it
has 3 groups, where the ‘I’ has different conjugation.
Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia):
In my mother language, Indonesia, we have 13 kinds of pronouns:
‘aku’ (first person singular, informal),
‘saya’ (first person singular, formal),
‘kamu’ (second person singular, informal),
‘Engkau’ (second person singular, refers to God),
‘anda’ (second person singular, formal),
‘dia’ (third person singular, only can be used to refer human, can be
used as an object),
‘ia’ (third person singular, can be used to refer object/non-human
noun, can’t be used as an object),
‘beliau’ (third person singular, formal),
‘Dia’ (third person singular, refers to God),
‘kita’ (first person plural that means ‘you and me’),
‘kami’ (first person plural that means ‘he/she/they and me’),
‘kalian’ (second person plural), and
‘mereka’ (third person plural).
A lot! Right? Look at that, we have formal form for almost every
pronoun, we have different forms for first person plural, and we even have
special pronouns for God. Pretty cool, huh? I haven’t even mentioned the common
slang, and some archaic pronouns like ‘dikau’, ‘daku’, or ‘hamba’.
So, we, Indonesians, have a lot of pronouns for sure. But, the good
news is we don’t have any conjugation.
When you wanna say ‘I eat’,
you say ‘Saya/aku makan’.
When you wanna say ‘She eats’,
you say ‘Dia makan’.
No matter if it’s first, second, third person, even God, present, past,
future, infinitive, ‘to eat’ is and
will always be ‘makan’ in
indonesian.
Indonesian word for ‘to be’
is ‘adalah’ for literally any
pronoun, in any type of sentence. The other word is ‘ialah’. But in Indonesian,
the ‘to be’ is very rarely necessarily used. Even if it wouldn’t be wrong, but
it would sound weird for Indonesian ears when you use the ‘to be’ before the
adjectives.
When you want to say ‘I am
smart’, or ‘I am beautiful’, you
don’t say ‘Saya adalah pintar’ or
‘Saya adalah cantik’. You just say ‘Saya pintar’ or ‘Saya cantik’.
Oh, and I gotta add here that we don’t have feminine or masculine form
for pronouns or any other word, including God. We don’t refer God as a man or woman. So, guess who’s closer to gender
equality! Lol.
And if you ever read any Indonesian text where ‘anda’ (you singular
formal) is written with capital first letter A (Anda), it is wrong. We only have the capital first letter for the
pronouns that refer to God. As any other word, ‘anda’ is only written with
capital first letter if it is the first word in a phrase. This is a common
mistake that many people keep doing for decades, most probably because of the
second person singular formal form of Dutch, ‘U’ use capital letter. The Dutch
has once colonized Indonesia before we kicked them away on 1949
(nationalistically speaking). So some old Indonesian people still speak Dutch
and probably gave some influence in daily Indonesian language.
Okay, there we’ve talked about the English and Indonesian pronouns. Now
let’s start talking about the pronouns in these seven languages:
Italian (italiano):
In italian, there are 12 kinds of pronouns, 4 of them are very rarely
used.
‘io’ (first person singular),
‘tu’ (second person singular),
‘Lei’ (second person singular formal),
‘lei’ (feminine third person singular),
‘lui’ (masculine third person singular),
‘essa’ (feminine ‘it’, archaic and rarely used),
‘esso’ (masculine ‘it’, archaic and rarely used),
‘noi’ (first person plural),
‘voi’ (second person plural),
‘loro’ (third person plural),
‘esse’ (‘they’ for feminine things, archaic and rarely used), and
‘essi’ (‘they’ for masculine things, archaic and rarely used).
Spanish (Español):
Meanwhile, Spanish has 12 kinds of pronouns. It has the feminine and
masculine form for almost every category. It even has masculine and feminine
form for first and second person plural. The pronouns are:
‘yo’ (first person singular),
‘tú’ (second person singular), in certain country ‘vos’ is used
instead, and uses the same conjugation with ‘vosotros’ and ‘vosotras’,
‘Usted’ (second person singular formal),
‘ella’ (feminine third person singular),
‘él’ (masculine third person singular),
‘nosotras’ (feminine first person plural),
‘nosotros’ (masculine or mixed first person plural),
‘vosotras’ (feminine second person plural),
‘vosotros’ (masculine or mixed second person plural),
‘Ustedes’ (second person plural), used in Latin America
‘ellas’ (feminine third person plural), and
‘ellos’ (masculine third person plural).
Portuguese (Português):
Portuguese has 10 pronouns:
‘eu’ (first person singular),
‘tu’ (second person singular, only used in Portugal),
‘você’ (second person singular, more common to use in Brazil),
‘ela’ (feminine third person singular),
‘ele’ (masculine third person singular),
‘nós’ (first person plural),
‘vós’ (second person plural, used in Portugal),
‘vocês’ (second person plural, used in Brazil),
‘elas’ (feminine third person plural), and
‘eles’ (masculine or mixed third person plural).
Just like Spanish, Portuguese is also spoken widely in two continents:
Europe and Latin America. If you notice, both Spanish and Portuguese that are
spoken in Europe use different conjugations for 6 different pronouns. But
Spanish and Portuguese that are spoken in Latin America use the same
conjugation for second and third person plural.
French (Français):
French has 9 kinds of pronoun:
‘je’ (first person singular),
‘tu’ (second person singular),
‘vous’ (second person singular formal),
‘elle’ (feminine third person/thing singular),
‘il’ (masculine third person/thing singular),
‘nous’ (first person plural),
‘vous’ (second person plural),
‘elles’ (feminine third person/thing plural), and
‘ils’ (masculine third person/thing plural.
Or maybe I should just say only 8 pronouns. Because basically, French
uses the same pronoun and conjugation for the formal second person singular and
second person plural. So the pronouns are basically just je, tu, elle, il,
nous, vous, elles, and ils.
Dutch (Nederlands):
Dutch only has 9 pronouns. Like English, Dutch also has specific
pronoun for ‘thing’. Te pronouns are:
‘ik’ (first person singular),
‘jij’/‘je’ (second person singular),
‘U’ (second person singular formal),
‘zij’/’ze’ (feminine third person singular),
‘hij’/’he’ (masculine third person singular),
‘het’ (singular thing, like ‘it’ in English),
‘wij’/’we’ (first person plural),
‘jullie’ (second person plural), and
‘zij’/’ze’ (third person plural).
‘U’ uses the same conjugation with ‘jij’/’je’. But ‘U’ is very rarely
used in modern Dutch.
Another thing you need to know is Dutch has the same pronoun for
feminine third person singular and third person plural. But they have different
conjugations. Let’s take ‘to be’ for example:
She is = zij is
They are = zij zijn
Yeah, it’s a bit annoying for me somehow. Lol! But just wait until you
see German pronouns!
German (Deutsch):
Like Dutch, German also has 9 pronouns, and just like English and
Dutch, also has specific pronoun for ‘thing’.
‘ich’ (first person singular),
‘du’ (second person singular),
‘Sie’ (second person singular formal),
‘sie’ (feminine third person singular),
‘er’ (masculine third person singular),
‘es’ (singular thing, like ‘it’ in English and ‘het’ in Dutch),
‘wir’ (first person plural),
‘ihr’ (second person plural), and
‘sie’ (third person plural).
See? They have ‘Sie’, ‘sie’, and ‘sie’! Like… what the…
You can tell the difference between ‘sie’ (she) and ‘sie/Sie’ (they/you
formal) by the different conjugations they are using.
She is = sie ist
You (formal)/they are = Sie/sie sind
But the difference between ‘Sie’ (formal you) and ‘sie’ (they) is only
the capital used in the first letter of ‘Sie’ in the ‘formal you’ when we use
written language.
Greek (Ελληνικά):
And finally, the pronouns in Greek are:
‘εγώ’, pronounced ‘égo’ (first person singular),
‘εσύ’, pronounced ‘ésy’ (second person singular),
‘εσείς’, pronounced ‘ésis’ (second person singular formal),
‘αυτή’, pronounced ‘avti’ (feminine third person/thing singular),
‘αυτός’, pronounced ‘avtos’ (masculine third person/thing singular),
‘αυτό’, pronounced ‘avto’ (neuter third person/thing singular),
‘εμείς’, pronounced ‘émis’ (first person plural),
‘εσείς’, pronounced ‘ésis’ (second person plural), and
‘αυτοί’, pronounced ‘avti’ (third person/thing plural).
Yes, both ‘αυτή’ (she) and ‘αυτοί’ (they) are pronounced ‘avti’. You
can only tell the difference in written language. But they use different
conjugations, so you can also tell the difference in oral language.
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French have the similar pronouns. ‘Io’, ‘yo’, ‘eu’, and ‘je’ sound almost the same. They all have the same ‘tu’ for a second person singular pronoun. Also the rest of the pronouns and the conjugation rules and grouping are almost the same.
Dutch have a lot of similarities with German and English. ‘Ik’ and
‘Ich’ are similar to ‘I’. ‘Zij’, ‘Sie’, and ‘She’, ‘Hij’ and ‘He’, ‘Het’ and
‘It’, ‘Zij’ and ‘They’, ‘Wij’, ‘Wir’, and ‘We’. English, in general, have
similarities with German and French because it’s the assimilation between both.
As a person who learns all of those languages, I sometimes mix the French
‘je’ and Dutch ‘je’, or the Spanish ‘yo’ and the English ‘you’, or the
Portuguese ‘ele’ and the French ‘elle’. So, when I mix French and Dutch, for
example, when I had to translate ‘Je mange
du pain’, I sometimes forgot that I was reading a French phrase, and
translated it to ‘You eat some bread’ instead of ‘I eat some bread’. In another
time, I could translate ‘Je bent groot’
to ‘I am big’ instead of ‘You are big’.
Okay. I guess that's it for today. In the next post we're gonna talk about conjugation. See you!
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