this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Probably more to do with English having every word seperated while many other languages combining them into one word. Like if you would combine "snow on the ground" in one word as "groundsnow". That makes it a lot easier to get to 50.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 7 points 6 days ago

This is it. English writes components of a noun compound with spaces in between until it has been around for a very long time. Other languages (German, famously) don't. But it's the exact same word-forming process.

There's no difference between the English "mobile phone" and German "Mobiltelefon" except spelling (and of course, nobody uses either any more). So, if you are an English speaker and you marvel at a language's (like German's) ability to just jam words together to make new ones - rejoice! English has that ability too!

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 week ago

He’s proven to be a dipshit and possibly way worse than that, but Stephen Pinker pointed out in the Language Instinct that if you think there aren’t just as many words in English for snow, you’ve never talked to a skier or snowboarder.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean, that word is eight letters, and you only have seven tiles in your hand.

We don't have the entire context. The game could have been ridiculous. Like, the lady could have started with "A", then the guy made it "AN", and then the third guy made the eight letter word. But I think the author intended to imply that he went first and plonked down that entire word.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Interestingly, no one has any tiles after that one word.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

That's how he used 8 tiles! He stole all of their tiles and is hiding them in his parka. He must be a hugely talented thief to take their tiles without them noticing.