Languages and linguistics for linguaphiles, polyglots, language lovers and language geeks!
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International Versions of Popular Reality and Game Show Franchises

 
The Apprentice in Brazilian Portuguese
 
Do you like Reality TV? Why not practice listening to a foreign language at the same time. You can use these sites to find the names of popular television shows produced in other languages. Simply open one of the lists below and find the foreign language name of the show in the foreign language and then paste it into Amazon, Google or YouTube.

International Versions of:
The Apprentice
Family Feud
Idol
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Amazing Race
Wheel of Fortune
Jeopardy
The Voice
Big Brother
The Bachelor
Dancing with the Stars
The Biggest Loser
Fear Factor
Project Runway
Top Chef
Survivor
Deal or No Deal
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Undercover Boss
Top Model
The Weakest Link
Kitchen Nightmares
Cash Cab
Don't Forget the Lyrics
The Price is Right
Supermarket Sweep
Got Talent
So You Think You Can Dance?
Wife Swap
Temptation Island
Supernanny
The Mole
Wipeout

Click Here for More Foreign Language TV Shows

Ten Truly Bizarre Language Memes and Myths: Did a mental health clinic really request Klingon interpreters? Was German almost the official language of the U.S.? Are some languages primitive and is French more logical?


1) Klingon Interpreters Wanted for Mental Health Clinic: http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/klingon.asp


2)   John Kennedy and the Jelly Doughnut Misconception: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner


3) Cinderella's Slippers Made of Fur not Glass: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002886.html

4) German Was Almost the Official Language of the United States: http://www.watzmann.net/scg/german-by-one-vote.html


5) Typoglycemia: The Order of Letters Doesn't Matter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia

6) Some Languages are Primitive: http://books.google.com/books?id=oore9h_L48EC&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=%22primitive+people+speak


7) The Chinese Have An Alphabet: http://eastasiastudent.net/china/chinese-alphabet-nonsense/

8) French is a Logical Language: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002587.html

9) Spanish is Fast, but Mandarin is Slow: http://www.adn.com/article/language-study-japanese-spanish-fastest-spoken-tongues

10) Eskimos Have Fifty Words for Snow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow/

 

Four Difficult Concepts of the Russian Language Made Just a Little Easier



Russian Vowel Reduction
Vowel Reduction in Russian
Russian Vowel Reduction
Rules of Reading Russian: Vowel Reduction
Russian Lessons with Olga - Stressed and Unstressed Vowels
Russian for Everyone: Vowel Reduction

Russian Verbs of Motion
Verbs of Motion: Russian Grammar
Russian Verbs of Going
Russian Motion Verbs: A Video Introduction
Verbs of Motion with Prefixes
Russian Verbs of Motion Introduction
Introduction to Verbs of Motion for Beginning Students
All You Ever Wanted to Know About Russian Verbs of Motion
The Main Difficulties When Studying Russian Verbs of Motion
Tolstoy Grammar Reference: Verbs of Motion
Prefixed Verbs of Motion
Language Hacking: Russian Verbs of Motion
Verbal Prefixes on Verbs of Motion

Russian Perfective and Imperfective Verbs
Aspects of Russian Verbs
Russian for Everyone: Verbal Aspect
The Fundamentals of Russian Verbal Aspect
Russian Verb Aspect Tutorial
The Magical Aspects of Russian Verb Construction
Russian Verbs: Perfective and Imperfective Aspects
Verbal Aspect in Russian: A Video Introduction
Russian Verb Aspect Rules
Russian Aspect Pairs
Aspect in Russian Verbs
Russian for Beginners: Verb Aspect
Imperfective and Perfective Verb Aspect Test

Russian Noun and Adjective Cases:
Russian Noun Case System
Those Agreeable Russian Adjectives
Russian Noun Declension
Russian Adjective Declension
Videos: Russian Noun Cases
Russian Cases: A Trick to Learn Them



Notes of a Wordhunter: An Experimental English - Russian Dictionary of Prickly Words & Phrases

Russian Swearing: 104 Swearing Russian Verbs Conjugated in All Tenses with Examples
Russian Motion Verbs for Intermediate Students










Modern Russian Civilisation: Learn Russian with Russian Celebrities









750 Russian Verbs and Their Uses


A Comprehensive Russian Grammar








Taking the Confusion out of the Bewildering Concept of Arabic Verb Forms

Click to Enlarge

Anyone who has ever studied Arabic can tell you that the most difficult part is the verb system. There are sound verbs (the Arabic version of "regular" verbs) that are easy enough and textbooks generally provide sufficient details and full conjugation lists for them. However, there are also hollow verbs, weak verbs, "defective" verbs, geminate (or double) verbs, assimilated verbs, hamzated verbs and passive verbs. If all that is not enough to scare you away, each of these different types of verbs can come in one or more of nine different forms or "measures" and you have to learn them all if you ever want to get anywhere with Arabic.

Here are a few links to help you better understand Arabic verb forms or measures

Introduction to the 10 Arabic Verb Forms
10 Sentence Model Story Illustrating the 10 Measures
The Arabic Verb Forms
Arabic Verb Forms Interactive Sound Chart
Arabic Grammar - Verb Forms
The Meaning of the Ten Measures
Wikipedia Arabic Verb Forms
Meaning of Arabic Verb Forms
Form II Verbs
Form III Verbs
Form IV Verbs
Form V and VI Verbs
Form VII and VIII Verbs
Form IX and X Verbs



Arabic Verbs and Essentials of Grammar









Practice Makes Perfect: Arabic Verb Tenses









See also:
Easy Way to Learn Colloquial Arabic Verbs
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Arabic Dialects or Varieties (But Were Too Overwhelmed to Ask)

Five Simple Mnemonics for Spanish Learners

1) Este, ese, esta, esas… This, these, those… Get them confused?
Just remember the simple phrase "this and these have t's". The Spanish words for this/these (este, esta, estes, estas) contain the letter "t" while the Spanish words for that/those (ese, esa, eses, esas) have no t's.

2) You can learn some of the irregular command verbs with the sentence "Vin Diesel has ten weapons, eh?" This can help you remember Ven / Di / Sal / Haz / Ten / Ve / Pon / Sé.

3) Sixty and seventy sound alike?
Try associating 60 (sesenta) with 6 (seis) and 70 (setenta) with 7 (siete).
Just remove the letter "i" in each case (seis = ses = sesenta / siete = sete = setenta)

4) You can use the acronym WEIRDO to remember which situations require the subjunctive tense in Spanish. W.E.I.R.D.O. stands for Wants or Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal Expressions, Recommendations, Doubt/Denial, and is used after the word Ojalá. Another suggestion is WEDDING where the letters stand for Will, Emotion, Desire, Doubt, Impersonal expressions, Negative and Generalized Characteristics.

5) For Spanish gender, you can try the mnemonic used by a lot of Spanish teachers: "Guys are LONERS and girls like DIJON mustard" to remember that words ending in l, o, n, e, r and s tend to be masculine and words ending in d, i, a and -sión are feminine. Of course, there are always exceptions (such as el día and la mano), but it's a start.





The Joy (and Pain) of Language Grammar and Vocabulary Notebooks





Note: This list will be periodically updated to add new resources



Please feel free to make recommendations for additions to this list!

Danish, Swedish and Norwegian: What's the Difference?



The "Wa" and "Ga" Particles in Japanese. What's the Big Deal?




Note: This list will be periodically updated to add new resources


Please feel free to make recommendations for additions to this list!