The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1911-05-18
VERBAL PITFALLS,
Traps That Await English Speak
ing Tourists In Portugal.
THERE ARE NO TOES THERE.

But, Then, One Has Twenty Fingers
to Make Up the Loss, Fingers of the
Hand and Fingers of the Foot-oddi-
ties of the Verb "to Walk"
The Englishman or American in
Portugal who thinks in his own Ian
guage and tries to speak in the Ian
guage of the country he is visiting is
a great smile producer.
For instance. you never marry any
body in Portugal unless-strange para
dox-you happen to be priest. You
marry with" your beloved Maria, and
the priest marries you both. In the
same way you never dream about any
body, but always with them.
When the landlady at your boarding
house is ladling out your soup you
call out, Arrive" You are telling
her to arrive at the stopping point-in
other words. that you don't want more
than she has put out When you see
a child that you want to fondle at the
other side of the room you say to her,
ARRIVE here" And the child prompt
ly arrives"
In England when we speak of walk
ing we refer to a certain use of the
legs. But the Portuguese verb ito
walk has many more Specifications,
In Portugal not only do the people
walk. but also the carts and cars walk.
the trains walk, balloon walks, and
a boat walks. Stranger still, the
hands of a clock walk round the face!
A clock, by the way, never goes; 1t
works
Unless you are very intimate or very
rude you never say to your fair part
ner at dinner, "Will you have some
bread%' etc. You inquire, "Will your
excellency have some bread" or, "Will
the lady have some bread?' the lady
meaning not some other lady, but your
fair partner herself.
In spite of winter you are never cold
in Portugal unless you are a corpse.
You are with" cold. In the same
way you are occasionally with heat,
with" headache, with" hunger or
"with" thirst. When you have occa.
sion to discuss the weather you say,
at makes cold" at makes fog"
etc. On your way home from an en-
tertainment you tell your companion
that it makes" dark
If speaking of her husband a wife
says he is a tame" man. She merely
means that he is a man of peace and
justice.
The word "hOuse" means more than
with us. Your buttons share your own
privilege of living in house. The
buttonholes are called houses of
the buttons" The squares on a chess
board are also "houses." You don't
say, I'm going to shave" You say.
"Tm going to do the beard" Neither
do you say on the way to the bar
ber's, "I'm going to get my hair cut"
but you say, "Tm going to cut my
hair"
When you are in Portugal you have
twenty fingers, but no toes. II you
want to make a distinction you
say fingers Of the hand" or
fingers of the foot" Instead of
telling the servant to set the table
you tell her to put" it. When you
go to the theater you assist" You
don't mean by that that you come
on" nor even that you do little scene
shifting. You mean that you are there.
Residents in flats who mediate TAX
ing holiday in Portugal will be re-
70 hnoF hot T1o
piano there. They merely touch" it.
Neither do they ring bells. They
touch" them also. But they play"
stones, meaning that they throw
them, and a ship at sea plays" when
it pitches and tosses.
Be careful how you tell your land
lady that you intend to dine out or
she may think, with a shrug of the
shoulders, that you intend dining
"Outside'-i. e. in the garden. In an
swer to the kind inquiries of your
friends don't say that you are we'll;
say that you are good" Be careful
in your use of words Some words
similar in form are widely different in
meaning, as an American missionary
once discovered to his cost when
preaching in Brazil, once a Portuguese
colony. His subject was THE Prodi-
gal Son." and he gravely informed his
hearers that when the young man re-
turned home his father killed for him
the fatted beetle! But he had merely
made mistake in one solitary vowel.
A sleeping" bridge means a bridge
that is immovable mot a drawbridge).
Stagnant water also sleeps" So do
trucks or trains that wait anywhere
during the night. When they laugh in
Portugal they unite themselves to
laugh" and when they cry they "un-
make themselves in tears" A persist
emily unfortunate man says, 81 am so
unlucky that if l fell on my back l
should break my nose" London An
swers.