From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY

rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish. On the other hand it does have microphone exercises (I may end up getting a microphone for my desktop machine for this, they are helpful for proprioception development for the language), which Duolingo Irish doesnrCOt. Still slow progress, but progress in a way that works for my life.

WouldnrCOt it be nice if they made the Latin course a bit more comprehensive! --
rCyAs I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stoutrCO
(C. Moore)
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


Affedersiniz, meant to post the below to alt.usage.english, follow-ups set.

Ar an seacht|| l|i is fiche de m|! Feabhra, scr|!obh Aidan Kehoe:

rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY

rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish. On the other hand it does have microphone exercises (I may end up getting a microphone for my desktop machine for this, they are helpful for proprioception development for the language), which Duolingo Irish doesnrCOt. Still slow progress, but progress in a way that works for my life.

WouldnrCOt it be nice if they made the Latin course a bit more comprehensive!

--
rCyAs I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stoutrCO
(C. Moore)
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 27/02/2026 07:28, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY

rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY

Do Turkish horses usually eat meat?

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish. On the other hand it does have microphone exercises (I may end up getting a microphone for my desktop machine for this, they are helpful for proprioception development for the language), which Duolingo Irish doesnrCOt. Still slow progress, but progress in a way that works for my life.

WouldnrCOt it be nice if they made the Latin course a bit more comprehensive!

I abandoned the Duolingo Turkish course a couple of years back, because
I found the learning curve too steep. Their build-up is not gentle
enough and I myself out of my depth very quickly - despite having the
rudiments of the language from an early age.
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


Ar an seacht|| l|i is fiche de m|! Feabhra, scr|!obh occam:

On 27/02/2026 07:28, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY

rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY

Do Turkish horses usually eat meat?

Not to my knowledge!

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish. On the other hand it does have microphone exercises (I may end up getting a microphone for my desktop machine for this, they are helpful for proprioception development for the language), which Duolingo Irish doesnrCOt. Still slow progress, but progress in a way that works for my life.

WouldnrCOt it be nice if they made the Latin course a bit more comprehensive!

I abandoned the Duolingo Turkish course a couple of years back, because
I found the learning curve too steep. Their build-up is not gentle
enough and I myself out of my depth very quickly - despite having the rudiments of the language from an early age.

IrCOm reasonably happy with that aspect of it, but part of my attitude is that getting things wrong is a good sign, in that it means IrCOm being exposed to something I donrCOt know. I still get angry at myself for getting things wrong that I should be getting right, of course.
--
rCyAs I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stoutrCO
(C. Moore)
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 27/02/26 17:28, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY

rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY

Because its hovercraft is full of eels.

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish. On
the other hand it does have microphone exercises (I may end up
getting a microphone for my desktop machine for this, they are
helpful for proprioception development for the language), which
Duolingo Irish doesnrCOt. Still slow progress, but progress in a way
that works for my life.

WouldnrCOt it be nice if they made the Latin course a bit more
comprehensive!

What I would like from Duolingo is an option to restart at, say, unit 2,
and then repeat it multiple times until I have absorbed the lesson. As it
is, I feel lost a lot of the time. I get good scores, but that's mainly
because I have the skill of eliminating the stupid possibilities. (So
maybe I would do even worse in Turkish.)

I have a manila folder containing about 2,000 irish words and their
meanings. These are the words that I have supposedly "learnt". If I
really knew 2,000 words of a language, I would be close to native
speaker fluency. Actually, I can tell you the meanings of only a few
dozen of those words, because I didn't get enough drill in the early stages.
--
Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Peter Moylan hat am 28.02.2026 um 07:20 geschrieben:

What I would like from Duolingo is an option to restart at, say, unit 2,
and then repeat it multiple times until I have absorbed the lesson. As it
is, I feel lost a lot of the time. I get good scores, but that's mainly because I have the skill of eliminating the stupid possibilities. (So
maybe I would do even worse in Turkish.)

Partial solution: when you have finished a section, you can go back to
any part of a unit and repeat it once to reach Legendary level.
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english


Ar an t-ocht|| l|i is fiche de m|! Feabhra, scr|!obh Peter Moylan:

On 27/02/26 17:28, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY

rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY

Because its hovercraft is full of eels.

Its nipples are nonetheless exploding with delight!

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish. On
the other hand it does have microphone exercises (I may end up
getting a microphone for my desktop machine for this, they are
helpful for proprioception development for the language), which
Duolingo Irish doesnrCOt. Still slow progress, but progress in a way
that works for my life.

WouldnrCOt it be nice if they made the Latin course a bit more comprehensive!

What I would like from Duolingo is an option to restart at, say, unit 2,
and then repeat it multiple times until I have absorbed the lesson. As it is, I feel lost a lot of the time. I get good scores, but that's mainly because I have the skill of eliminating the stupid possibilities. (So
maybe I would do even worse in Turkish.)

I have a manila folder containing about 2,000 irish words and their meanings. These are the words that I have supposedly "learnt". If I
really knew 2,000 words of a language, I would be close to native
speaker fluency. Actually, I can tell you the meanings of only a few
dozen of those words, because I didn't get enough drill in the early stages.

I suspect the majority of people doing the Irish course are in my position, not yours, which is not fair on you (since IrCOm sure it adjusts what is shown taking
into account the average progression rate).

Have you ever used Anki? You can drill separately with that, giving spaced repetition. When I had more time I would do 40 minutes of Anki a day; it was very helpful for languages (and for studying for exams in medicine).
--
rCyAs I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stoutrCO
(C. Moore)
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

Le 28/02/2026 |a 07:41, Aidan Kehoe a |-crit :

Ar an t-ocht|| l|i is fiche de m|! Feabhra, scr|!obh Peter Moylan:
> On 27/02/26 17:28, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
> >
> > rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY
> >
> > rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY
>
> Because its hovercraft is full of eels.

Its nipples are nonetheless exploding with delight!

Those sound like messages broadcast to the Resistance during WW2 -
"Yvette likes large carrots" etc. (perhaps we'd better not dwell on that
one):

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Fran%C3%A7ais_parlent_aux_Fran%C3%A7ais>

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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 28/02/26 18:19, Silvano wrote:

Peter Moylan hat am 28.02.2026 um 07:20 geschrieben:

What I would like from Duolingo is an option to restart at, say,
unit 2, and then repeat it multiple times until I have absorbed the
lesson. As it is, I feel lost a lot of the time. I get good scores,
but that's mainly because I have the skill of eliminating the
stupid possibilities. (So maybe I would do even worse in Turkish.)

Partial solution: when you have finished a section, you can go back
to any part of a unit and repeat it once to reach Legendary level.

Thanks. I've tried going backwards in the past, but it kept jumping me
forwards again.I didn't realise tha the end of a section is a special case.
--
Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On 28/02/26 18:41, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

Ar an t-ocht|| l|i is fiche de m|! Feabhra, scr|!obh Peter Moylan:

On 27/02/26 17:28, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

rCLAt bug|+n et yemiyoruz.rCY

rCLThe horse is not eating meat today.rCY

Because its hovercraft is full of eels.

Its nipples are nonetheless exploding with delight!

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish.
On the other hand it does have microphone exercises (I may end
up getting a microphone for my desktop machine for this, they
are helpful for proprioception development for the language),
which Duolingo Irish doesnrCOt. Still slow progress, but progress
in a way that works for my life.

WouldnrCOt it be nice if they made the Latin course a bit more
comprehensive!

What I would like from Duolingo is an option to restart at, say,
unit 2, and then repeat it multiple times until I have absorbed the
lesson. As it is, I feel lost a lot of the time. I get good scores,
but that's mainly because I have the skill of eliminating the
stupid possibilities. (So maybe I would do even worse in Turkish.)

I have a manila folder containing about 2,000 irish words and
their meanings. These are the words that I have supposedly
"learnt". If I really knew 2,000 words of a language, I would be
close to native speaker fluency. Actually, I can tell you the
meanings of only a few dozen of those words, because I didn't get
enough drill in the early stages.

I suspect the majority of people doing the Irish course are in my
position, not yours, which is not fair on you (since IrCOm sure it
adjusts what is shown taking into account the average progression
rate).

I hadn't thought of that. I've met a number of Irish people who studied
(as distinct from learnt) Irish at school, and then forgot it all. I
suppose they would bounce back faster than I do.

I'm reminded of the fact that my six years of French at school didn't
leave me fluent in French. I could read a book, but not carry on a conversation. Time spent in Belgium didn't help a lot, because every
time I stumbled on a word everyone switched to English. But once I took
the immersion route (three months workiing in Paris, alone), my mastery
of the language suddenly leapt ahead.

Have you ever used Anki? You can drill separately with that, giving
spaced repetition. When I had more time I would do 40 minutes of Anki
a day; it was very helpful for languages (and for studying for exams
in medicine).

I hadn't heard of Anki, but I've made a note to check it out.

I do have a drill program that I wrote myself. It presents words or
phrases in an approximately random order and asks for a translation. I
say "approximately random" because I keep the list roughly sorted by
success rate, and my random number generator has a bias towards the top
of the list. Words I always get right gradually drifft downwards and
eventually fall off the bottom of the list. When I make mistakes, those
words show up more frequently.

A good idea, but I don't use it often enough.
--
Peter Moylan peter@pmoylan.org http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW
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From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 10:41:35 +1100, Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org>
wrote:

On 28/02/26 18:41, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

Ar an t-ocht. lb is fiche de m0 Feabhra, scr0obh Peter Moylan:

On 27/02/26 17:28, Aidan Kehoe wrote:

oAt bugnn et yemiyoruz.o

oThe horse is not eating meat today.o

Because its hovercraft is full of eels.

Its nipples are nonetheless exploding with delight!

Duolingo Turkish is a bit heavier on these than Duolingo Irish.

I'm reminded of the fact that my six years of French at school didn't
leave me fluent in French. I could read a book, but not carry on a >conversation. Time spent in Belgium didn't help a lot, because every
time I stumbled on a word everyone switched to English. But once I took
the immersion route (three months workiing in Paris, alone), my mastery
of the language suddenly leapt ahead.

When my brother moved to Denmark in 1969 he was determined to learn
Danish. Having a Danish wife helped*, but his biggest problem was
that when he'd try to speak Danish to a Dane, the Dane would want to
practice his/her English and try to convert the conversation to
English.

In Copenhagen in 1969 (according to my brother), many -but not most -
people spoke English, but fluent conversational English was the
exception.

My brother says he is now fluent and accentless in Danish, but when he
says that in front of his wife she'll arch an eyebrow.

*She wasn't the wife in 1969, but they did live together almost from
the beginning. They married later.

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