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- "A borboleta escreve um livro…
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The butterfly writes a whole book and I barely got the sentence right...put me in my place.
Exhibit A: Butterfly telling someone to write an autobiography of its life
You laugh because a butterfly writes a book, but remember that a owl is saying if you are wrong or not.
Chapter 1: I hope I don't get stepped on today. Chapter 2: I hope I don't get stepped on today. Chapter 3: I hate birds. Chapter 4: I hate lizards. Chapter 5: If I die, will the effect cause a hurricane? Chapter 6 It's like I was a pupa only yesterday Chapter 7: No ever suspects me Chapter 8: Well now I'm in a jar
THE END
Write like a butterfly, read like a bee, anyone.? I guess you can call this rope and nope.! Get it.? Cause no likes bees so theyll say no... Ill stop...i have no life.
Why on earth is the word for 'butterfly' the same as the word for 'turnstile'?
I would imagine it's because a turnstile moves like a butterflys wings. Most languages use imaginative metaphors like that.
Now that I know what a turnstile is, I have to say we call it "catraca" in Brazil. I've never heard of "borboleta" to mean a turnstile. But maybe it's a regional thing or it's used in Portugal. But "catraca" is certainly the most used here.
Even the wikipedia page for it doesn't mention "borboleta" as one of the options to call it: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catraca
I believe Rio de Janeiro uses mostly "roleta" for turnstyles.
The closest thing I can imagine for "borboleta" is these kinds of screw/nuts, that are called "borboleta":
By the way:
- Screw = parafuso
- Nut = porca
- Washer = arruela
- Screwdriver = chave de fenda (chave phillips, if "cross-shaped")
- Thread = rosca
- Bolt = pino
Thanks for the useful word list (I'm pretty sure "Splash" should be "Washer" though). We call the thing in the photo a "wingnut".
By the way, the "borboleta" meaning turnstile question was explored here too: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/1956383 and judging by the comments it must be a regional thing.
They make it that way so it's not hard for you since that simple and random stuff they add to the sentences is what you have already learned... it doesn't need a meaning, it's just so you get more practice on the past mixing it with the present stuff :) you see?
Technically correct, but in English VS Romance languages, romance langauges use the "to be + gerund" to indicate "at this moment, in the now" (except you, French, you devil!!); whereas the present tense has more a general meaning. English however, uses its present tense form to indicate a habitual action, or as a narrative (i write books, i go to the store on tuesdays; as a narrative: I go into the room. I look around. I see the man.) to indicate an ongoing action, either in the moment or as a general action, english MUST use the "to be + gerund" construction ("Yes, i'm eating dinner right now." "He's watching TV."). In all my linguistic studies, the most used translation of "Je mange du pain//Como pan//Como pão/Mangio pane" would be in English "I'm eating bread." "I eat bread" would be an answer to the question "What do you eat with your soup?" "I eat bread." As far as i understand it, using "Estou/Estoy comiendo" comes across as "Can't you see i'm in the middle of eating and don't want to be disturbed"...native speakers can you give an opinion on this subtle nuance?
I don't want to say you're wrong on your argument but to me the difference between "Ela escreve" and "Ela está escrevendo" is exactly the same difference between "She writes" and "She is writing". One is an habitual or narrated action and the other is an ongoing action. Even with the other latin languages I disagree with the way you translate "I eat bread/I'm eating bread". How exactly would be the answer to "What do you eat with your soup?" in French/Spanish/Italian? It would have to be "Je mange du pain/Como pan/Mangio pane"
Furthermore, you could use the present tense in English to describe an ongoing action: "What does she do now? - She writes a book" but it would sound excessively lyric/poetic. It sounds exactly the same in Portuguese. I recognize the difference is subtle, but it's the same subtle difference as in English.
Yes, the answer to "what do you eat with your soup" is indeed "je mange/como/mangio". Romance languages simply do not use the present progressive in the way English does; any introductory course taught at the college level spells this out specifically very early on to make the point that "je mange/como/mangio" is both "i eat" and "i am eating". The translation depends on the nuance of meaning that you wish to convey in English. I find the example you use in the second paragraph to have two issues:: "What does she do now?" has an implication that she did something differently before e.g. "She quit her job, what does she do now?" If you want to discuss an action in progress, you must indicate this with the present progressive: "What is she doing now?" (emphasis only for tense indication). Secondly, the response "She writes a book" carries a strange implication of completeness that does not fit the question being posed. e.g. "She writes a book (every day)/(a day)"; the reason for this is that a book is only written once and once written, is written forever, but you can eat soup every meal for the rest of your life and still not finish eating soup. More abstractly, to write and to eat are examples of different classes of verbs; each class has distinct syntactic and semantic rules that they follow. I think the answer "she writes books" holds the correct nuance that you seek to convey here, as one can be writing many books at once with no need to have completed any of them. In general,excluding poetry, music lyrics, or archaic styles of speech, English present progressive is the tense most similar semantically and conceptually to Romance simple present. SOURCES: Natively Bilingual in English & French; BA in Romance Language Linguistics; however, i'm happy to cite my sources if you are patient enough to wait for the answer as i do work full time and would have to do some digging in my college texts for some citations.
