this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2025
694 points (96.4% liked)

Lemmy Be Wholesome

9933 readers
894 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy Be Wholesome. This is the polar opposite of LemmeShitpost. Here you can post wholesome memes, palate cleanser and good vibes.

The home to heal your soul. No bleak-posting!

Rules:


1. Be Respectful


Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...


2. No Illegal Content


Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means: -No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...


3. No Spam


Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...


4. No Porn/ExplicitContent


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...


5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...


6. No NSFW Content


-Content shouldn't be NSFW

-Refrain from posting triggering content, if the content might be triggering try putting it behind NSFW tags.


7. Content should be Wholesome, we accept cute cats, kittens, puppies, dogs and anything, everything that restores your faith in humanity!


Content that isn't wholesome will be removed.

...


8. Reposting of Reddit content is permitted, try to credit the OC.


-Please consider crediting the OC when reposting content. A name of the user or a link to the original post is sufficient.

...

  1. No politics. So no mentioning government officials etc

Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

  1. !dadforaminute@lemmy.world

  2. !mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world)

  3. !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world)

  4. !nostupidquestions@lemmy.world)

  5. !youshouldknow@lemmy.world)

...

Reach out to @LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone for inclusion on the sidebar.

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules.~~___~~___

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 1 points 17 minutes ago

So, like an enema ?

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 hours ago

This is quite romantic, and I agree that we should be aware of our emotions as temporary, as clouds in the sky. However, the Irish language has not prevented the Irish people from having some of the highest rates of anxiety on Earth https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/anxiety-disorders-prevalence

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

This is one of those things where it's not that deep.

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Actually language plays a big part in our mental state, language processing is shown to play a huge role in the development and perception of our emotional states.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I'm aware.

People underestimate our ability to compensate for shortcomings of language. At the end of the day, you have to choose a way to say it.

[–] Lojcs@piefed.social 5 points 4 hours ago

Does "This car is fast" mean the car is the abstract concept of having higher velocity? Does it mean the car is permanently moving fast or it has not and will not stop?

[–] tabarnaski@sh.itjust.works 51 points 10 hours ago (5 children)

"I am sad" doesn't at all mean that sadness is my defining characteristic. It usually means sadness is a temporary state.

Non-linguists trying themselves at linguistics always often come up with pseudo facts like this.

[–] buttnugget@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

I mostly agree with you, but I do find it interesting how some languages and therefore cultures account for things like this. I saw a Sunn M’Cheaux video about it and it was super interesting!

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 45 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

You obviously know nothing about language. When I say "I'm here", what I am saying is that I now and forever identify as the grocery store parking lot we decided to meet at. And when I say "I'm running", I am saying that I have become the very concept of speed.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 8 hours ago

I. Am. Speed.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

For normal people yes, for people who lack emotional regulation, "I am sad" can be an identity because you might get stuck in it for years at a time. Decades.

I think the author here is speaking to those people more than just your average joe who could care less about the distinction between state and characteristic because they understand the difference already.

[–] fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 8 hours ago

It would be more correct to say "I feel sad", but colloquially "I am sad" is used for the same thing.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 6 points 10 hours ago

Translating, conjugating and undestanding "To Be" is always fraught with peril. :)

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 18 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

| English | French | Literal French | Spanish | Literal Spanish | Japanese | (Sorta) Literal Japanese | |


|


|


|


|


|


|


| | I'm hungry | J'ai faim | I have hunger | Tengo hambre O Estoy hambriento/a | I have hunger OR I am (temporarily) hungry | Onaka ga suita | Regarding stomach: empty | | I'm angry | Je suis fâché | I am angry | Estoy enojado/a | I am (temporarily) angry | Watashi wa okotte imasu | Regarding me: angry is | | I'm cold | J'ai froid | I have cold | Tengo frio | I have cold | Samui OR Samuidesu | Cold OR It's cold | | I'm scared | J'ai peur | I have fear | Estoy asustado/a | I am (temporarily) scared | Kowai OR Watashi wa kowaidesu | Scary OR Regarding me: scared/scary is | | I'm brave | Je suis courageux | I'm brave (courageous) | Soy valiente | I am (permanently) brave | Watashi wa yūkan'na | Regarding me: brave |

Languages are fun. French switches between "I have" and "I am" for these sorts of things. Spanish mostly uses "I am" but it has two versions of "I am", one that's used generally for more permanent states of things, one that's used for more temporary states. As a result, "I'm scared but I'm brave" uses one for the temporary condition of being scared, but one for the more permanent condition of being brave.

Japanese has its own whole system that is so different from English that it's hard to directly translate. In japanese "wa" marks the topic of a sentence, and can often be omitted if it's obvious. So you could just say "cold" or "brave" if it's obvious you're talking about yourself, or you can say "Watashi wa" which sort-of translates as "regarding me" or "about me". The particle "wa" is something used in Japanese to mark the topic of a sentence. Japanese doesn't have verb-person agreement, so there's no "I am", "you are", "he is". There's instead something vaguely like "regarding me: is" If you wanted to tell someone they were brave you'd change the topic of the sentence to them and say "Anata wa yūkan'na".

Japanese also uses the same word for "scary" and "scared" so you need contextual clues or other words to differentiate between "I am scared" vs. "I am scary". There's a different Japanese particle "ga" that is similar but has a narrower focus. Instead of the whole sentence being about something, it's just the previous word. So, I'm hungry becomes "my stomach is empty" but more literally: "specifically regarding stomach: empty".

None of this really makes any logical sense. Languages are weird, and the things that are the most commonly said are the weirdest. What does "I am hungry" really mean, that I am the very definition of hunger? That whole condition changes when you eat a sandwich? What does "I have fear" mean? I have it in a basket? Does "I feel fear" mean that I can sense its texture with my fingers? In English we mostly "are" things like hunger or fear. But, for some reason it's "I have a feeling" Now it's like the other European languages where feelings are something you have, not something you are.

[–] ChanchoManco@lemmy.zip 3 points 7 hours ago

This guy languages.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

How about German? Being the other main language behind the drunk hodgepodge that is English, it's worth looking into that

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

Yeah, I ran out of columns. I looked at it and it's somewhere between English and one of the Romance languages.

I'm scared but I'm brave is "Ich habe Angst, aber ich bin mutig" -> I have fear but I am brave

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

German also mixes it a fair bit. Following merc's table in order:

  1. hungry - ich habe Hunger / ich bin hungrig
  2. angry - ich bin böse / ich bin wütend
  3. cold - mir ist kalt
  4. scared - ich habe Angst
  5. brave - ich bin mutig

#4 uses haben (to have) + noun; #2 and #5 use sein (to be) + adjective.

For #1 you'll typically see the noun + haben. Adjective + sein is perfectly viable, but a bit less common, and I feel like it leans towards metaphoric usage; e.g. «ich bin hungrig nach Liebe», literally "I'm hungry for love".

#3 uses the dative instead, it's roughly "it's cold for me". If you use "ich bin kalt", you'll convey that your temperature is low, not that you're feeling cold.

Being the other main language behind the drunk hodgepodge that is English

That's inaccurate.

To keep it short, the situation between English, Dutch and German is a lot like the situation between Romance languages: they have a common origin (West Germanic), one isn't from the other. And while English got bits and bobs of vocab due to Norse and Norman influence, vocab is rather superficial, and most oddities of the language were born in the islands.

This table is a good example. English is basically adjectivising almost everything physiological and emotional, while both German and the Romance languages would use a mix of adjectives and nouns instead. (With the Romance languages typically preferring nouns, but that isn't a hard rule.)

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Do you know German? The "I am cold" one is interesting to me. "Mir" is German for "me" or "to me" roughly, right? So, would a rough literal translation be something like "to me it is cold"?

I tried to learn some German at some point, but I didn't manage to learn enough to get comfortable with the various cases.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 2 hours ago

I know some German but I'm not proficient with it.

It's easier to analyse the sentence by including the subject, typically omitted: "es ist mir kalt" = "it is me cold", or "it's cold to me". It's a lot like saying "that's blue to me", you know? Like, it isn't like you are cold or blue, it's something else, but you're experiencing it. (It's a dative of relation, in both languages.)

“Mir” is German for “me” or “to me” roughly, right?

Roughly, yes. But that gets messy, there's no good equivalent.

Think on it this way: you have a bunch of situations where you'd use the first person, right? English arbitrarily splits those situations between "me" and "I"; German does it between "ich", "mich", and "mir".

That German dative is used in situations like:

  • if a verb demands two objects, one gets the dative; e.g. "er gibt mir das Buch" (he gives me the book).
  • if the preposition demands it; e.g. "er spricht mit mir" = "he speaks with me"
  • if you got a dative of relation (like the above), or benefaction (something done for another person), etc.

I tried to learn some German at some point, but I didn’t manage to learn enough to get comfortable with the various cases.

I got to thank Latin for that - by the time I started studying German, the cases felt intuitive.

But... really, when you're dealing with Indo-European languages, you're going to experience at least some grammatical hell: adpositions (English), cases (Latin), a mix of both (German), but never "neither".


Speaking on Latin, it just clicked me it does something else than the languages you listed - those states/emotions get handled primarily by the verb:

  • hungry - esurio (verb, "I'm hungry")
  • angry - irascor (verb, "I'm angry")
  • cold - frigeo (verb, "I'm chilly/cold")
  • scared - timeo (verb, "I fear/have fear")
  • brave - fortis (adjective, "strong"); animosus (adjective, roughly "adamant", "stubborn", "angry")
[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

We need an "iam14andthisisdeep" on Lemmy.

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I’m unfortunately closer to “iam40andthisisdeep”

[–] LadyButterfly@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

Stay wholesome please

[–] hogmomma@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I've seen a recent uptick in deepish thoughts. This is a prime example of that.

But, hey, if it gets you through...

[–] nialv7@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

lol no? we say "i am sad", not "i am sadness". that'd be weird.

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 40 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (8 children)

Spanish is somewhat similar. Scared isn’t something you are, it’s something you have (tengo miedo, lit. ‘I have fear’). Emotions are also ‘put on you’ instead of making you a certain way. Ex: me puso feliz translates as ‘it made me happy,’ but literally is ‘it put happiness on me.’

[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 17 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

Also, Spanish has two main verbs for "to be". There's "ser", which is used for things that are inherent (e.g.: "Yo soy de Mexico" means "I am from Mexico"). But then there's also "estar", which is used for the current state of things, or a temporary status (e.g.: "Yo estoy enfermo" means "I am sick (in my current state)").

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

"ser" is a cognate of "essence", "estar" of "state" :D

[–] maccentric@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 hours ago

This little nugget would have come in handy when I was learning Spanish

[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 4 points 10 hours ago

Ahh. I knew about "estar" but I never knew that about "ser". Very good to know!

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] MrQuallzin@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

German (if I'm remembering right from my high school language class days), does the same thing as well. It's not 'I am hungry', it's 'I have hunger'.

(If there's any actual German readers/speakers and I misspoke, I apologize. This was almost 15 years ago at this point!)

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 11 hours ago

Native speaker of German here: Both "ich bin hungrig" (I am hungry) and "ich habe Hunger" (I have hunger) are valid German. The latter is more common though, the adjective "hungrig" is more often used as an attributive adjective.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 7 hours ago

sapir-whorf, annoyingly, strikes again

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 24 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah we have that in English, too. We use the word “feel”. 🙄

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 19 points 14 hours ago (7 children)

The things English does with the word "feel" should be illegal.

You don't get to use the same word for having profound internal emotions AND to rub your grubby hands on things. That's just not right.

[–] wfh@piefed.zip 1 points 7 hours ago

French is even weirder with "sentir".

For feelings, french usually uses a reflexive form: "je me sens triste" (I feel sad). That's the easy part.

Now the real fun is that you can say stuff like "je sens tes pieds", and it could mean "I can feel (touch) your feet" or "I can smell your feet", or even both at the same time.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 4 points 11 hours ago

Well I might feel if you put your grubby hands on my things

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

How do I get the sadness and anxiety offa me?!

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

have you tried, like, not being sad?

[–] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Even beyond just emotions, in Portuguese the "be" verb can be translated into two different verbs: "ser" and "estar". They are two complete separate things - so separate that English classes kinda turned the "to be" verb into a meme due to how long it takes to teach Portuguese speakers to use it and understand what it means in each sentence.

"Ser": to be someone who is something. Usually more permanent, but not necessarily.

"Estar": to be in the state of something. Usually more temporary, but also applies to permanent states.

Some examples showing how the meaning of some expressions change depending on which verb you use:

You are sick "Ser": you are a sick (twisted/evil) person. "Estar": you have caught some sickness.

You are sad "Ser": life has made you sad in general. "Estar": you're feeling sad right now.

You are beautiful: "Ser": you are a beautiful person. "Estar": you are looking great today.

You're good at this: "Ser": literal, you're good at this. "Estar": implies being good is not the default but you have reached the point of being good at this.

**you're funny drunk": "Ser": when you're drunk you are funny. "Estar": you are drunk now and this time you turned out to be funny while drunk. Or, in this point of your life you're funny when you're drunk.

it's cold there: "Ser": that is a cold place. "Estar": that place is cold right now.

it's cold there now "Ser": it's like saying that winters in that place used to be mild but nowadays winter there can get pretty cold "Estar": that place is cold right now.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] MudMan@fedia.io 10 points 14 hours ago

See, you start reading too much into grammar this way and then you learn about how Spanish uses their "to be" equivalent and have a massive existential crisis.

load more comments
view more: next ›