Just a couple of thoughts I've mulled over while comparing Spanish to English...
In Spanish they say... "tengo [insert age here]," meaning I HAVE [23
years], not I AM [23 years]. To me, that seems to make age less of a
defining characteristic. No? Yes, I have these years, here they are. Not
I am these years like I am someone's sister or I am a sociologist, etc
Then, they usually say "te quiero" for I love you. Te quiero would
literally mean I want you. So, they want those that they love romantically, which is a
bit of a different connotation then the English, I love you. In
English, to say I want you is more along the lines of lust, which is a
different thing altogether from love... at least from a language
standpoint.
There are many others, but these are two rather obvious ones that
have accosted my brain as of late. Maybe I will update with more. You
know, one of the Scandinavian languages has like 30 words for rain...
because there are that many different kinds of rain. Language is crazy
really.
