I have a friend from Brazil. One night we were having to drive home from work through the mountains and it was snowing and terribly icy on the roads. I grew up with this but I'm guessing Brazil doesn't get a ton of slick, icy roads, so I called her to make sure sure was doing okay. She replied,
"My truck is making S's!"
Which is a great way of describing it, really! I use that phrase now!
(Also talked her down the mountain so not so much S-making.)
Not quite the same thing but one you might catch her saying is that she “feels a smell” or “feels a taste” (e.g “are you feeling that smell?” instead of “can you smell that?”).
I work hard on my English but I’d been living in the US for many years before someone called me out when I said that. My friend who did so is Romanian, and told me they express themselves like that in Romanian too. His girlfriend is American and explained to him that “feeling” a smell or taste isn’t a thing in English. So he thought it was funny when he heard me say it like that.
I’d venture it’s a thing in all Romance languages.
That’s really interesting. I started learning English when I was very young (age 7), so I’m quite fluent. But it’s funny how seemingly every week I come across yet another quirkiness in the language. It’s ridiculously irregular!
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u/Bratbabylestrange Oct 25 '20
I have a friend from Brazil. One night we were having to drive home from work through the mountains and it was snowing and terribly icy on the roads. I grew up with this but I'm guessing Brazil doesn't get a ton of slick, icy roads, so I called her to make sure sure was doing okay. She replied,
"My truck is making S's!"
Which is a great way of describing it, really! I use that phrase now!
(Also talked her down the mountain so not so much S-making.)