52 Comments
I am having kids immediately and forcing them to have kids as soon as they biologically can so that I can say this sentence to someone. Barnbarn is such a fun word omg. Why cant English be this fabulous?
you have to force them aswell to make barnbarnsbarn! However, your gammelgammelfarmor is probably gone already by that. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2327889/Släktträd%20%282%29.pdf
omfG IM SCREAMINg HElp
MAYBE I CAN ADOPT DOGGIES AND HAVE BARNBARNSBARNBARN AFTER A WHILEEEee
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You'll need a barn to put all those barnbarn in! (And plenty of bonbons to feed them :)
I've been one of five living generations twice, but now we are back on four. Future will tell if mitt barnbarn (now just 11) becomes a mother while my parents are still around. If so they'll get barnbarnsbarnbarn. :-)
i have been laughing so hard at this word because gammel means coloquially that is something rotting in german!! (vergammelt = rotten) swedish is a nice language, thanks for commenting this!
sorry, it was not my dropbox, i just linked to it, so i have no new link for y'al
What in the world I live in Sweden and hear Swedish everyday trust me it's more fabulous in it's own ways.
So would great-grandchild be "barnbarnbarn"? That's a semi-serious question because of the other thread that talked about the word for "great-grandfather" (farfarfar, LOL).
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You would need an 's' in between: barnbarnsbarn. Also farfarsfar and so on.
Barnbarn sounds like the Bulgarian- French word for candy: Bonbon... How appropriate and easy to remember :) Lots of grandparents would agree !
I can help but LOL every time I found a word like barnbarn or mormor or event farbror in the course. It just make soo much sense that you can help but laugh. I wonder... why we do not see something like this in more languages?
JA!.. For many grandparents their grandchildren are walking "bonbons. So sweet full of surprises and wonderful things. By the way... What kind of "Bonbon" would you be for your grandparents? I think I would be a dark chocolate covered one with a sweet coconut paste and some brandy extract on it... Uff.. that is something just a grandparent will love ;-)
I actually typed in bonbon for my answer instead of barnbarn... "huh, haven't heard that one yet on duo..." :)
I never expected to find repetitive syllable in Germanic languages. They are very common in Bantu languages: "majimaji" means "watery", i.e. "A watery soup". "kichinichini" means "undercover" or "surreptitious". "motomoto" means the same as "moto" which is "hot", but when you say "motomoto" it is hyperbolic, exaggerated or insisted.
Barnbarn is entirely gender-neutral. If you wanted to be specific, you could use sonson, dotterdotter, sondotter or dotterson. Their uses are rare but perfectly normal.
When is started learning Swedish I had no idea it'd make me giggle like a 5-year-old hoooly moly this is great
if great grandchild is barnbarnsbarn then why isn't grandchild barnsbarn?
The little -s- will ususally show up between the second and third parts of a compound word with at least three words in it.
I seem to remember reading that farmorsmor is the great grandmother on your paternal grandmother's side, for instance ...
So, is it a s between every second and third repeated word with words like barnbarn. ( for ex. would great great great grandchild be barnbarnsbarnbarnsbarn? Lol)
You can specify through sonson, sondotter, dotterdotter, dotterson, but it's usually clear through context. For instance, if you say "he's my grandchild" then it's obvious you're talking about a grandson, so there's no need to clarify.
"Du är mina barnbarn" would be "You are my grandchildren" or is there a special word for that?
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It would be 'Ni är mina barnbarn' instead of 'du' because it's plural. 'Barnbarn' doesn't change because it's an ett-word.
So Barnbarn refers to a single grandchild, grandchild (ren) being barbarnen?? I'd this correct?
Not quite. Remember that barn is a typical ett-word:
- barn = child
- barnet = the child
- barn = children
- barnen = the children
Now, barnbarn works the exact same way but with an extra barn- in front.
I never really thought about it until now, but how come in English I have to say "You are my grandchild." over "You is my grandchild". It doesn't actually make any sense!
Trivia: "You" was originally used only as a plural pronoun. "Thou" and "thee" were the second-person singular pronouns in early modern English.
You can always do it in New Jersey or New York.
"YOU'S MY KID!"
"YOU'S GOT A LOTTA NERVE!"
(LOL)
Yes, but the verb "to be" is conjugated for the subject "you." In English, the conjugation of "to be" in the present tense is I am, you are, he/she/it is, we are, they are.
