[Multilingual Monday] I, like, like it!
I find the English verb "to like" (as in, "I like bacon") to be fascinating, because there are few languages that have a direct correspondence. That is to say, in order to state the same idea as "I like," more often than not one will have to use more idiomatic phrases.
My first experience of learning about such things was Spanish gustar, "to please." This verb has to be used to say "I like _____". Me gustan los osos, "I like the bears," is literally "the bears please me," and several other verbs in Spanish use this construction (like atraer, "attract", and encantar, "thrill", giving sentences as me atrae mucho, "He's very hot (he atracts me a lot)" and me encanta, literally "it thrills me"). It used to confuse me back then, but now the "I didn't do anything so I'm therefore not the subject of the verb" concept is one that's fairly logical to me.
More idiomatic is Hebrew with מוצא חן בעיני, motse xen be'enay, which literally means "it finds favour in my eyes". With the last word, העיניים, eynayim, conjugating with attached pronouns to indicate who likes said item, and מוצא, motse, conjugating to the gender and number of the item liked.
Of course, one can always just use "to love" and make it easier in both of these languages, but depending on circumstances (particularly in Spanish) it sounds odd and unnatural, or perhaps just a bit over-the-top.
I want to hear your stories about "liking" in other languages!
My first experience of learning about such things was Spanish gustar, "to please." This verb has to be used to say "I like _____". Me gustan los osos, "I like the bears," is literally "the bears please me," and several other verbs in Spanish use this construction (like atraer, "attract", and encantar, "thrill", giving sentences as me atrae mucho, "He's very hot (he atracts me a lot)" and me encanta, literally "it thrills me"). It used to confuse me back then, but now the "I didn't do anything so I'm therefore not the subject of the verb" concept is one that's fairly logical to me.
More idiomatic is Hebrew with מוצא חן בעיני, motse xen be'enay, which literally means "it finds favour in my eyes". With the last word, העיניים, eynayim, conjugating with attached pronouns to indicate who likes said item, and מוצא, motse, conjugating to the gender and number of the item liked.
Of course, one can always just use "to love" and make it easier in both of these languages, but depending on circumstances (particularly in Spanish) it sounds odd and unnatural, or perhaps just a bit over-the-top.
I want to hear your stories about "liking" in other languages!