English has too many words for animals

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• weariedfae@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Easy! A turtle is flippy flips and a tortoise is clompy clomps.

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• Dyskolos@lemmy.zip ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Simple. One can be thrown into water and it’ll be OK. The other…not so much.

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  • hakunawazo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    So an ordinary witch test?

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  • phx@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    That’s how I remember it. Cursed Reddit post…

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• whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  One has a flat head the other has a plus sign head like the difference between crocodiles and alligators or ravens and writing desks

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• nightlily@leminal.space ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  German: that toad looking thing has a shield on it

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  • Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Dutch as well, schildpad literally translates to shielded toad.

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    • humanspiral@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      French: Was tortured.

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  • MissesAutumnRains@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Det är samma för sköldpaddor.

    But also my Swedish is terrible, so that might be completely wrong.

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• osanna@lemmy.vg ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I always thought turtles mostly live in the water and tortoises mostly lived on land.

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  • WaterSword@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Image

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    • nyctre@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The good ol’ “All tortoises are turtles but not all turtles are tortoises”

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  • tanisnikana@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    True, in British English! American English doesn’t differentiate.

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    • osanna@lemmy.vg ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Well, it’s fine for the Americans to be wrong again :)

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• Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This is your reminder that taxonomically fish and trees do not exist.

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  • LORDSMEGMA@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Wat

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    • monsdar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Fish belong to the family of clouds (i.e. floating), trees belong to the same group as rocks (see sudowoodo)

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• BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Tortoises are Turtles, but not all Turtles are Tortoises.

  This isn’t an English thing, this is a taxonomy thing. It should be the same in any language, just with different words used.

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  • menas@lemmy.wtf ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Both are translated “tortue” in french However to be fair, it could be specified “Tortue marine” and “Tortue terrestre”

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    • ptu@sopuli.xyz ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      But tortoise sounds like a French word

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• danda@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  A turtle lives in water, a tortoise lives on land. A turtle’s not a tortoise, it’s not hard to understand.

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  • zerofk@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Wait wait wait. Have we been lied to? Are Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, and Leonardo tortoises?

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  • esc@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    But they are turtles, like every crow is a bird.

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    • Klear@quokk.au ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      And every jackdaw is a crow!

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  • blinfabian@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    in dutch theyre called landschildpad and zeeschildpad (landshelltoad and seashelltoad)

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    • JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      But zeeschildpad doesn’t include things like box turtles that live near bodies of water but not all the time, right? I guess here in Belgium we just use “schildpad” for everything.

      It also sounds cooler to translate it to shield-toad lol

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    • gnutrino@programming.dev ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Shelltoad is a fantastic name for them

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  • Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Tuuuurtle turtle-urtle-urtle, turtle urtle urtle urtle. GAH, IT’S NOT A TORTOISE

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  • renzev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Most humans live above ground level, you sound like your live in your mother’s basement. Doesn’t make you a different species, does it?

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    • MasterNerd@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      So you’re just admitting you don’t understand taxonomy

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• meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Simple!

  Turtle: pretty chill dude cruising the East Australian Current Tortoise: teaching Pandas Kung-Fu

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  • gnutrino@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Damn kids, in my day turtles lived in the sewer eating pizza and doing ninjutsu.

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    • meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Those clearly were tortoises though :D

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• Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The biggest difference is that turtles live in and around water, while tortises are entirely land based.

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  • WoodScientist@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Not to be confused with the rare tortups, which spends nearly their entire life in flight.

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• ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This is like the hare and rabbit thing… (what are the differences?)

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  • ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    One is fluffy, the other is forced to listen to the dark echoes of the void

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  • Actionschnils@feddit.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    As far as I know, they are totally diferent species, that coincidentally look alike. The European hares closest relative is the roe deer(?)

    But Im not a biologist. Probably someone with real knowledge can say something about it

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    • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      No real biologist, but no. They are 2 different, but closely related species - certainly closer than deer!

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• vatlark@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  English: owl

  German: Eule, Uhu, Kauz

  French: Hibou, Chouette

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• Digit@lemmy.wtf ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  flippers and feet.

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  • Agent641@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Distant muffled sound of Diogenes frantically strapping scuba flippers onto a Galapagos tortoise

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• MrFinnbean@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Would be simpler just to call them turtles and landturtles.

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  • WoodScientist@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    How about “dry shelly boys” and “wet shelly boys?”

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  • renzev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    What about mine turtles?

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• FishFace@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Tortoises are land animals. Simple.

  Frogs and toads might be a better one - there’s no systematic difference except toads are ugly.

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• WoodScientist@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This title sentence works multiple ways. My cat is unable to speak English, because it has far too many words beyond the word meow.

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• fartsparkles@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  All tortoises are turtles (but not all turtles are tortoises) from a biology point of view. Tortoises specifically being exclusively land-based members of the turtle (Testudines) order. So there is a difference.

  And “spring” doesn’t really have different meanings - as per the root of the word, it always means some variant of “to burst forth”. There’s lots of different definitions for the word but they’re all rooted in the same place, from an etymology point of view.

  The season bursting forth from the winter darkness and cold, the metal coil as it bursts forth when released from compression, the source of water as it bursts forth from the ground, bursting forth someone out of jail, etc.

  Homographs are the real problem - when two different words, over time, become spelled the same.

  Sow, lead, close, bear. All have multiple etymologies where different words eventually became spelled the same. Those are the worst!

  English is a truly crazy mashup of Latin, Greek, French, German, Celtic, Norse and more.

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• Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  not as much as for plants, the non-scientific names.

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• luthis@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  They are waaaaaay different what are you talking about…

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• samus12345@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  A tortoise is a kind of turtle, just like a toad is a kind of frog.

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  • lauha@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Just like birds are kind of a dinosaurs

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    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yes!

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• Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  My box turtle mostly lives on soil, although he enjoys a paddle and soak in his water. But the main difference from a tortoise is that he’s omnivorous, needing protein like bugs, whereas they are herbivores.

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  • Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Fun fact, Eastern box turtles are illegal to keep as pets in Ohio if captured in the wild.

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    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Mine was raised from the egg of a non wild turtle by someone else who found themselves unable to care for it and asked me to give it a home.

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• HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  One is an animal and the other a military formation, duh.

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• notabot@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  If you think “spring” is bad, go check hiw many different meanings there are for the word “set”.

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  • renzev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    “off” is one my favourites. The alarm went OFF so we had to turn it OFF. It means the opposite of itself.

    “Sanction” is another example. Your actions were not sanctioned by us, so as retaliation we’re introducing sanctions against you.

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    • notabot@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      You can cleave something apart, but the halves might cleave together.

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    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      As we run the run of the route in rehearsal, I run the company’s schedule so the show runs on time, the engine runs and the lights run off backup power while the road runs north along a river that runs high and the dye might run in the rain, and as the contract runs a year and a rumor runs through town, I run for office to keep the operation running smoothly, avoid a run on supplies, keep late cues from running over, prevent us from running out of time or letting costs run up, run through notes and run them by the team, run tests and run the numbers, run lines until they run together, run a tight ship so nothing runs afoul of the rules, run risks we can afford, run hot when we must, and keep the whole run unbroken.

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    • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I’ve always liked that “flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing.

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    • gnutrino@programming.dev ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It means the opposite of itself.

      Fun fact: there’s a word for words like that, they’re called contronyms.

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• dumbass@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Well a tortoise could never become a ninja.

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• ccunning@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  🤓🪤
  The pedant trap has been set…

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  • harmbugler@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The trap has been springed

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    • restingOface@quokk.au ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Springed has sprung

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• Entropy_Pyre@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The spring comment is valid.

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• regdog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  If you don’t know the difference between turtle and tortoise then you are a monkey

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  • qualia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Apes evolved from dry-nosed monkeys, so despite the popular wisdom, according to monophyly we are monkeys. Similarly humans are fish. The confusion arises because most people still group species by common characteristics (a grade) rather than common descent (a clade). Also known as Linnean vs phylogenetics.

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    • regdog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I was just trying to set up a monkey/ape joke

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  • renzev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    No I’m a primate it’s totally different

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  • Lumidaub@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’m perfectly fine with that in my native language.

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• then_three_more@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Turtle mostly sea living

  Tortoise land living

  Terrapin er not sure, water based and evil?

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  • Agent641@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Terrapins move well on land and water, they have webbed clawed feets, mostly they live on fresh water.

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