this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

When my mom's best friend started to develop ... I'm not sure, but some kind of age related disorder that caused her to forget words ... She would just use "tree" in place of the word she couldn't remember.

She expressed this to her friend group and they all just extrapolated the actual word intended and went with it.

[–] GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 6 points 8 hours ago

I mean, this really does happen. It's only really seen as pretentious in the English-speaking world because so few native English speakers learn foreign languages to a high level.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

How do you spell ocurance?

Me recently…

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 hours ago

Just insert a random word from a language your conversational partner doesn't speak.

As an Estonian, I offer the following interesting sounding options: türa, jäääär, ajukääbik, kaksteist kuud, sõlmenditolgend

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

I do that for my own native language - Portuguese - because some words I only learned or mostly used when I was living abroad or from sources in other languages so the word that pops in my mind isn't in Portuguese (generally its in English but sometimes in other languages).

This is especially so for technical words and often used words which are close in both languages but not exactly the same.

So this actually can happen when you're multilingual (and is weird as fuck, IMHO) and I do have the feeling that for some people who don't know me well, me saying "I don't remember this word in Portuguese" can come out as me being pretentious and showing off my language skills (especially if the word I remember is in a language other than English, since around here and for my generation knowing English isn't really unusual) when for me it's almost the opposite and I actually feel that I'm supposed to know it.

[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

no, because you should say the word in your native language anyways.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 hours ago

you have missed the point. you don't need to know any other languages to use this approach.

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 1 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Some people don't have one

[–] EldenLord@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

Prayers going out to all the people without a native language 🕊️🙏

[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 0 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

what??

how would that work???, living alone in the jungle until adulthood and only then learning?

or is a shit americans say kind of thing?

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

not sure what OP meant, but it reminded me of the forced assimilation of peoples in a colonial setting, where a potential scenario is that

  • the grandparents speak their native language fluently, and the dominating language almost not at all
  • the parents speak both the native and the dominating language, but badly
  • the kids speak the dominating language fluently, and the native language almost not at all

So in that case the parents can be seen as not having a proper native language, because they have two languages they can sorta make work, but can't fully express nuance and complex thought in either.

[–] starchylemming@lemmy.world 57 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

being multilingual doesn't help

i forgot the whole concept of what i forgot

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The point isn't to be multilingual, though. It's to lie about being multilingual because you forgot a word in the only language you speak.

It's so random, too. I'll forget the word in languages that I'm fluent in, but remember it in Japanese or French or something else that I only studied a little bit of.

I end up having to describe the concept I'm trying to recall and hope that whoever I'm talking to can put the pieces together to help me find what word I'm looking for. Brains are weird.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 27 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

"I can't think of the human phrase for that"

[–] starchylemming@lemmy.world 15 points 14 hours ago

still buffering. please stand by

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Depending of tone and context, they might think you're both.

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 3 points 13 hours ago

They are correct for once.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 4 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Or people will just think you're illiterate in two languages.

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Nah, anybody i know already knows I don't word good.

[–] kali_fornication@lemmy.world 22 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

why use fancy word when good word do trick?

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 15 hours ago
[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 22 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

I am multilingual and that is frequently an issue I have ... with my native language. Which often forces me to make a decision on whether it's fine to just use the English word (plus using an English word in the middle of a non-English sentence trips me up), which the recipient might or might not understand.

[–] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 10 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

The same happens to me often. Luckily for me, both Gen Z and people in corporate environments like to insert random English words in my native language, so depending on the context it might come up as pretentious corporate or "Howdy fellow kids", but at least not like I'm a complete idiot.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 18 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

TBH I'd rather look like an idiot than a pretentious corporate.

[–] kaulquappus@feddit.org 7 points 12 hours ago

insert meme

You use the English word because you're a pretentious idiot

I use the English word because I forgot

We are not the same

[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago

In Hong Kong, mixing a moderate number of English words into speech is considered an indicator of good education. There is, however, a very specific way to do it, and doing it wrong will instead cause the opposite effect.

This effect is so strong that many English words have been actually absorbed into Cantonese as loan words and displaced their native equivalents.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Skill issue, I mix in english without noticing

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 5 points 13 hours ago

I'm living in Sweden but only speak English still. When I'm in a group everyone switches to English but if I don't talk for a while they start slowly mixing back in Swedish words. There's a sweet spot with Swedlish that to me sounds like a bunch of giggly people a drink or two in trying to see how far they can get away with mispronouncing words while still being understandable

[–] hydroxycotton@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] HowAbt2day@futurology.today 2 points 10 hours ago
[–] ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 7 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

What if I forgot the word in several languages?

[–] kamen@lemmy.world 9 points 13 hours ago

It means you're byelingual.

[–] kaulquappus@feddit.org 3 points 12 hours ago

"Sorry, I forgot the English, Finnish and Arabic word. I can offer you Urdu, Basque and Polish, if you're interested."

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 6 points 15 hours ago

I always remember it in whichever language is least understood by others in the moment

[–] gray@lemmy.ml 1 points 14 hours ago

works if your white