Fun things about Latvian Language! 

You can say : es milu savu zemi- I love my country. But in general, yes you are right. And when we say it, we mean it.

Your soft letter pronunciation was really good. About love, I think latvians in general don't throw that word around too often

Keep posting language videos. There are not enough Latvian instructional videos online for English speakers. It's interesting to hear about the sparks of insight you get as you learn yourself.

Im polish, but im fascinated by this baltic country, its sea, nature and rusty metal music :)

We use double negatives to put emphasis on the negative, so they aren't really double negatives. In fact, we use triple and even quadruple negatives. For example, "Es nevienam neko neteikšu" would sound weird in English ("I'm won't say nothing to no one") but actually just means that the person saying that makes a strong promise to not talk about the subject to anyone. The Russian language also uses double negatives, so it isn't exclusive to Latvian. Another fun fact: due to grammar differences we have to adapt person names from other languages to Latvian pronunciation. In English and many other languages person's name doesn't indicate its gender, unlike Latvian names that use inflection to indicate word properties. For example, your name Ellie would be Ellija in Latvian, and its ending would change accordingly in a sentence. For example "a gift for Ellie" would be "dāvana Elijai" in Latvian. I hear that Latvian is very difficult to learn to foreigners due to all the grammar differences. Keep up the good work!

As a latvian, i never understood, how in englesh they use word 'love' so much, for everything. It makes me feel like word Love isn't cherished much in englesh. I mean. It should be used for someone really close, someone you love as being. Someone, that is part of your life. You can't say you love everything you pass by, it's just so weird. Of course, i have that one, favorite mug. But i never said i love it. I admire how comfortable it is and how much i like it.

Actually a fun video. (I am Latvian BTW) Also true about not saying you love items,but the language is evolving and many young people have strarted to say "es mīlu sportu" for an example which is wrong, but in the influence of English they have accepted it to be fine, so I predict in the future that will be the norm.

Yeah “ Es mīlu - I love” is very powerful and meaningful in Latvian so generally Latvians don’t throw this word or sentence around at all !

Relaksējoš video.❤ Paldies!

Cake is celebration, and if you eat cake every day/celebrate every day, the cake is no more a cake. In shorter terms love is cake, and its special to us and we Latvians never low ball that word, by using it too often. but its a tradition/culture thing. remember - grammar/linguistics serve for the understanding of each other, not the other way around! And You made perfect conclusions

Greetings, what makes your presentations so effective is your mannerism. Most of us can relate to experiences learning a new language. You present your knowledge in way we can understand. You are more like a friend - rather than a teacher. Thanks for the clarifications - it really helps.

What a beautiful woman. Omg. To my ears, the soft K is derived from T, and soft G is derived from D. The letter names also follow the pattern. Kah, but Tjeh like Teh. Latvians don't "love" anything, some people don't even love their chilren (wouldn't say it).

1:56 - what you trying to say here is that the writing is more phonetical in Latvian, which means that you spell and read it very close to how you pronounce it.

This is actually very helpful. My partner is trying to learn Latvian and he is having such a hard time with the soft letters, especially '' ķ '' so instead of kaķis ( cat) he says kakis ( which kinda reminds of the word caca :D ) I have to giggle every time, bless him he tries. And the '' I love you'' is used only about people or pets , that is true. It's more reserved for precious emotions. If the English language uses the words love and like interchangeably, we separate the meanings. Which is logical because how can you have the same feeling towards your mom or boyfriend as for a hat or cup.

I found it quite nice, i am currently trying to learn latvian as an English speaker and struggling with those same sounds..and the 'r' 😅at times it feels totally hopeless so it's reassuring to hear that frustration is normal

Well done, you pronouncing soft sounds so well!

Latvian language didn't develope from Lithuanian language. Both have common origin, but developed differently as time past.

"It sounds as its supposed to" and then o - uo comes.

I live in the US and my husband is from Switzerland and I tell him how love and hate are very strong feelings and they should be sprinkled over everything. (The joke is that Latvians don’t have strong feelings about everything so we would waste those words). I avoid saying love and hate in English as much as possible because of my beliefs that those should be reserved for actually strong feelings. Yet since I’m in America and I speak English occasionally I slip and say I love/hate something. It’s weird. Also things are exaggerated in English. In stead of saying “that was bad” you’d say “that was SO bad” or instead of saying “that hurt” you’d say “that was so painful”. Like, chill

"nothing is impossible" is a double negative and makes sense :D

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Thats kindna true, in latvian we don't say I love- Es milu'for a thing. Mostly we do say I like-man patīk, or if we REAAALY like something, we also say- Ed dievinu, which translates to something to what in english would be- I absolutely love it :D if that makes sense. I lived in London for 12 years and first year when I lived there, it was also interesting to see how different the english was from what we learned in the school. Saying that... all my English peers in uni and after at work saying how much they *LOVE* something was weird for me.. as we really don't throw that word around for nothing: D you are doing great and your pronunciation on those more difficult letters is perfect. Well done! Can I ask, which school or courses you take for latvian language? My sister's Boyfriend is also british and he is trying to find a decent latvian language course. :)

I really enjoy listening to your videos, you must be really busy with your little baby now?

❤

Really interesting look to Latvian language from aside. Double negatives, yes. When long long ago I thought about this, the illogicality was very clear. But... that's Latvian.😀 About love, there is difference between grammar lows and their application. As I know a lot of Latvians use love when speak about objects and things.😀

I've been learning Latvian for about 15 months now. It's hard, but fun. How are you coping with conjugations and also declension tables?

Try to say "Šķērsiela" 3 times fast. Great documentaries as well. The language blows me away. I love it. And basically (I was told) you just have to enunciate everything when you read it. Also, Latvians let the end of the word kind of fall off the face of the Earth. But, for those interested. The very intro basic is that every single word has emphasis on the first syllable, even if the long ā ē ī diacritical is later in the word. Oh yeah and I love ššsssss..... not ļ so much haha

Quit my A1 Latvian class when it got dark and class went online last year. Now dating a Latvian and want to try again. Even though I have no idea what it means, Latvian sounds beautiful and like a song when I hear it

Not sure if it will be of any help, but there are some games in Latvian, if ones is looking for an alternative to reading books.

Great pronunciation! :) You really can say for a thing that you love it, like a cup, but it would be a bit of a jargon and you really really really have to like it, kind of. And now about the most important thing :) Latvian language didn't derive from Lithuanian, please don't tell it to Latvians anymore (kidding) :)) It is kind of the same as if we say English did derive from German language. In a few words, there were looooots of pagan Baltic tribes, who were happily fighting and robbing each other, in the 13th-+ century almost all of them were christianised-colonised-conquered-etc by those who later become Northern Germans (Low Germanic people - Low Saxons namely, in Estonian and Finnish languages German still means Saxon), some of these tribes in the west became germanised and disappeared like Prussians, some of them in the east became Latvians and were heavily influenced by Germans, including the language, grammar, vocabulary, national traditions, songs, national cuisine, especially in the cities etc. Some of the Baltic tribes preserved the independence and later became Lithuanians and later became one big and powerful state and later united with Poland etc. Latvian Baltic Germans lived in Latvia and Estonia until December 1939, when thousands of them were repatriated to Germany of that day. In a few words :) You will like so much the history of the region, if you study it a little bit :) By the way, English King to be, Henry IV, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, went on a crusade (on German side) to Lithuania in the late 14th century and stayed there for quite a few months.

The fact is - even Latvians make huge grammar mistakes and don't even notice it. I hate when I see that in somewhere in internet comments Latvians write ''nau'' instead of ''nav'' - yeah that word sound like ''nau'' but actually when we write it must be ''nav'' - like - Nav ko dzert (Have nothing to drink)! The only word in Latvian when after ''I'' you must write ''s'' is ''Istaba'' (room) - all other words we use ''z'' after ''i'' like - iztulkot (translate), izlikties (pretend), izkapts (scythe), izdzīvot (survive) and many other words!

Visneiedomājamākais šaursliežu dzelzceļš :)

Double negatives - is not just in Latvian. There's no equivalent to "anywhere", "anything" etc, so what else would they use then?

That is so cool! Tas ir tik forši! Thank you for your language description and comparison! We don't have much vitamin D or Sun, that's why people are concerned.. Actually I wonder how you can live there. the English seem much more buoyant. It's the way I see it.

Sveika :) Sveiciens no Kuldīgas :) Jau noskatījos pāris jūsu video un domāju, ka šim kanālam ''būs aršana'', tā kā no šī brīža esmu jūsu abonents (Paldies RU-vid algoritmam :) ) Un man ir viens jautājums - kādas bija jūsu domas pirmo reizi dzirdot latviešu valodu un pēc kā tā izklausījās? Now the same thing in english so u don't have to use Google Translator or smth :D - Hey there :) Greetings from Kuldiga :) I already watched some of ur videos and I think that this channel will be a thing (literal translation - will have a ploughing, which means it will be a success), so from this moment I'm ur subscriber (thanks to RU-vid algorithm) :) And I have one question - What was ur first though hearing latvian language for first time and how was it sound like?

There is a crazy thing about the letter O in latvian. It's not written long even if it's pronounced and no symbol for so called round Ocas in egg ola and the name Olga. How tha hell should you know when to do what. Doesn't make any sense!

eu, eu uztais vidār latvisk! :)