• idiomaddict@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    It’s way easier for people who don’t speak a Romance language to tell when a Latin thing is widespread though. I imagine Italian has a lot more of latin phrasery hanging around.

    I speak German as a second language, and at one point, I wanted to say “time flies,” but I didn’t know if you’d say “the time flies,” so I went with “tempus fugit.” I immediately got a flash of understanding of all the people I’ve met who used eloquent and academic phrasing interspersed with spotty control of the language we’re speaking. I tend to use a Latin derived word for any missing vocabulary I need, but that always sounds clunky af.