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Mark1975
2 may 2018

  • Polaco
  • Ruso
  • Inglés (UK)
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¿Cuál es la diferencia entre to dye y to stain ?Puedes dar oraciones como ejemplo.

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SouthernCalifornian
2 may 2018

  • Inglés (US)

They both refer to changing the color or appearance of something.

Generally speaking, in almost every case, if you dye something, then you wanted the thing to change color.

I dyed my hair blonde last week.
Do you like tie-dye shirts?

A stain usually happens by accident.
I spilled my coffee and stained my shirt.
I dropped the bowl of spaghetti and stained the carpet.

Staining something is almost always unwanted. However, you can intentionally stain your deck. If you have finished building a wooden deck in your yard /garden, you might then stain it. It is similar to painting. But the staining is a treatment for the wood. It seals the wood/lumber and protects it from rain /water damage. It makes the deck (shed or whatever you built) look darker but you can still see the natural grain of the wood

Mark1975
2 may 2018

  • Polaco
thank you, that was fully clear to me when it comes to any unwated dirty marks but I had some doubts about any intentional changes of colors. good to know it chiefly refers to the wood treatment. thank you once moe
SouthernCalifornian
2 may 2018

  • Inglés (US)

@Mark1975 I'm glad you found my explanation helpful :) I teach English in Poland and now I'm trying to learn your native language (and it isn't easy ;)

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Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
nice to hear this. I would also be very happy to find myself one day being able to help you too. ask about abything you wish to. believe me I sometimes have the same feeling when it goes about English. there are many more synonyms I am often confused about wondering which one I should use, e.g. goal, aim, objective etc. as we call them as a "cel" it is always hard to choose the most correct one. I like your language very much and although I have been dealing with it for years in my business life, I still work hard on improving my skills in this field
SouthernCalifornian
3 may 2018

  • Inglés (US)

English does have a rather large lexicon with a plethora of synonyms. Lots of synonyms having so many subtleties and nuances that adult native speakers often need a thesaurus as much or more than a dictionary. Your English is a thousand times better than my Polish. But then I'm barely above a beginner level at the moment.

I think Polish sounds very cool and the grammar is fascinating if not overwhelmingly complex at times.

Tonight I got confused by przyjaciel and znajomy.

I could be wrong but I don't think that the difference is grammatical /having to do with cases. Can you help me understand how to properly use these words?

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Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
hello again. thx for your next response. I agree in many cases it is almost impossible for foreigners to "feel" all the differences between very close synonyms. in the example you gave the difference is however very explicit I would say. Przyjaciel is simply a friend, so someone you are indeed in a closer personal relationship with. You can even call your classmate like this if you really like this person very much and have known him/her for a fairly long time. Znajomy is just an acquaintance so a person you know, meet sometimes e.g. on the street and say hello to but no-one you can call your friend
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SouthernCalifornian
3 may 2018

  • Inglés (US)

Hmmm.... ok, thanks for explaining that. Americans are very flexible using the word friend. We use "acquaintance" only if we're striving for accuracy.

So what if you occasionally, randomly meet them in pubs in a group of people but not really anywhere else. how often must you drink beer /vodka with them before they go from znajomy to przyjaciel ?

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Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
Well, I know in contrast to Polish this word "przyjaciel" is often abused in American though of course on the other hand I am aware this is a normal, natural language and it is quite common to call almost anyone you know your friend. In Polish this however does not function in this way. Przyjaciel almost always carries a stronger emotional expression emphasizing closer relations. It is someone who helps you in tough moments of your life, you can rely on etc. People you meet in pubs randomly are simply your acquaintances, you can call them your mates as well, your co-workers are your colleagues but not your friends. Besides, a friend has always rather quite formal context.
Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
thx for your another like. Feel free to send any other possible dilemnas you may have. Regards. Marek from Lodz
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Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
one more remark. in Polish the most common word for someone who is not your friend but you know well and meet quite often is "kolega". i think it is as popular as a friend in AmE. use it also for your job mates. i think (rather feel) it is a mate Polish equivalent
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SouthernCalifornian
3 may 2018

  • Inglés (US)

@Mark1975
ah, "kolega", thanks very much. I will use this word. We say it as "colleague". I just looked it up to see the plural of it. I think I am fortunate to say, in my bad Polish grammar,

Ja mam wiele dobrze koledzy.

I know the concord/grammar is all wrong, but would I be understood? I really need to increase my vocabulary so I can speak basic thoughts, and I don't have the time or space in my brain to learn a dozen word forms for a single noun. I hope to pick up many noun cases /declensions in the future. Right now, I just want to learn enough of the basic /standard /normal /nominative /mianownikowy forms so that most Polish people can understand me.

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Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
sure, you would be fully uderstood. the sentence meaning is obvious, just the declination is a little bit incorrect. you can say - mam wielu/dużo dobrych kolegów for male mates or mam wiele/dużo dobrych koleżanek for female mates ☺
Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
by the way, is colleague a common word for your mates, a direct synonym od mate or only the term referring exclusively to workmates? according to Longman it is exclusively someone you work with
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SouthernCalifornian
3 may 2018

  • Inglés (US)
Good question. The word forms are very similar - kolega and colleague. But we tend to use "colleague" much more narrowly, to mean one of a group of people who work together. I think "co-worker" is used more often and has a ring of less familiarity to it. I would guess that white collar workers tend to use colleague, while blue collar workers tend to use co-worker. But it is not precisely defined that way. In American English, we generally don't use the word "mate" unless we refer to sexual coupling. (such as soulmate) We really don't use the lone word "mate" very much in the USA. It is most often paired with the word "room". Your "roommate" lives with you and helps to pay the rent. Often a roommate is a friend, but not necessarily. It can be simply a living /financial arrangement. "Mate /mates" is more of a UK word. I hear my British friends use it all the time. We have a lot of synonyms for "friend" in American English, but most of them are rarely used, perhaps because we seem to think such words sound awkward in common situations. You are correct in that we throw around the word "friend" pretty loosely. Which is why we often say things like; real friend, old friend, close friend, good friend, true friend, best friend, one of my best friends, - if we want to describe somebody special in our lives. I think "buddy" is a term we often use that can mean something similar to "mate". A buddy from work is not a "przyjaciel" but they are more familiar and more liked by you than just any co-worker. You can also have drinking buddies, fishing buddies, golf buddies, poker buddies, etc. However, friend is the most common word in American English, almost used as a synonym for any relationship that isn't family. (Unless you dislike the person, of course) In my ears, now living in Europe, I hear "mate" as strictly British English and I translate it as "buddy". For those that play sports in the USA, "teammate" can mean the relationship is very strong, maybe stronger than a friendship, or it can just mean the technical definition of someone who simply plays on the same team as you.

Good question. The word forms are very similar - kolega and colleague. But we tend to use "colleague" much more narrowly, to mean one of a group of people who work together. I think "co-worker" is used more often and has a ring of less familiarity to it. I would guess that white collar workers tend to use colleague, while blue collar workers tend to use co-worker. But it is not precisely defined that way.

In American English, we generally don't use the word "mate" unless we refer to sexual coupling. (such as soulmate) We really don't use the lone word "mate" very much in the USA. It is most often paired with the word "room". Your "roommate" lives with you and helps to pay the rent. Often a roommate is a friend, but not necessarily. It can be simply a living /financial arrangement.
"Mate /mates" is more of a UK word. I hear my British friends use it all the time.

We have a lot of synonyms for "friend" in American English, but most of them are rarely used, perhaps because we seem to think such words sound awkward in common situations. You are correct in that we throw around the word "friend" pretty loosely. Which is why we often say things like; real friend, old friend, close friend, good friend, true friend, best friend, one of my best friends, - if we want to describe somebody special in our lives.

I think "buddy" is a term we often use that can mean something similar to "mate". A buddy from work is not a "przyjaciel" but they are more familiar and more liked by you than just any co-worker. You can also have drinking buddies, fishing buddies, golf buddies, poker buddies, etc. However, friend is the most common word in American English, almost used as a synonym for any relationship that isn't family. (Unless you dislike the person, of course)

In my ears, now living in Europe, I hear "mate" as strictly British English and I translate it as "buddy".

For those that play sports in the USA, "teammate" can mean the relationship is very strong, maybe stronger than a friendship, or it can just mean the technical definition of someone who simply plays on the same team as you.

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Mark1975
3 may 2018

  • Polaco
thx for this precious lesson of AmE. is the term fellow from the same group as buddy and mate or it has a completely different meaning?
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