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.
So do other romance languages. In Spanish the “siento” word has a very similar meaning and is used very similarly. It applies to both of your examples.
You can’t use “sentir” for touching things. I mean, you can try, but you’d sound like a creep. Come to think of it, Spanish doesn’t really have a word for perceiving things by touch. They just say… well, touch. They have a specific different thing to reference feeling around (a tientas).
It can technically mean “hear” in it and a few other romance languages, though. Not as weird, I’d argue.
That’s a completely valid sentence, you can and do use sentir. However I think I understood what you meant, you meant that english uses feel as a verb to describe the action of touching things, not to describe how things feel to the touch. Gotcha.
A tientas is used as a descriptor when you are trying to feel something without light, yeah.
Also, I’m from Spain, you really don’t need to lecture me on how we talk 😅.
I mean, that’s a bit of an anglicism, though? It’s not strictly incorrect, maybe, and you’ll hear it in some dialects, but it sounds weird. For one thing it’s more ambiguous. It sounds like you’re saying the surface itself is feeling a bit rough today. I’d go a looong way out of my way to not say it that way. “Es rugosa al tacto” sounds more natural.
But yeah, in English feeling is specifically the verb used to express that you’re touching something or perceiving something by touch. In romance languages it tends to default to hearing before it does touch.
Yeah we have that in English, too. We use the word “feel”. 🙄
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.
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.
Well I might feel if you put your grubby hands on my things
So do other romance languages. In Spanish the “siento” word has a very similar meaning and is used very similarly. It applies to both of your examples.
I feel like there’s no issue with the use :)
You can’t use “sentir” for touching things. I mean, you can try, but you’d sound like a creep. Come to think of it, Spanish doesn’t really have a word for perceiving things by touch. They just say… well, touch. They have a specific different thing to reference feeling around (a tientas).
It can technically mean “hear” in it and a few other romance languages, though. Not as weird, I’d argue.
“esta superficie se siente rugosa”.
That’s a completely valid sentence, you can and do use sentir. However I think I understood what you meant, you meant that english uses feel as a verb to describe the action of touching things, not to describe how things feel to the touch. Gotcha.
A tientas is used as a descriptor when you are trying to feel something without light, yeah.
Also, I’m from Spain, you really don’t need to lecture me on how we talk 😅.
I mean, that’s a bit of an anglicism, though? It’s not strictly incorrect, maybe, and you’ll hear it in some dialects, but it sounds weird. For one thing it’s more ambiguous. It sounds like you’re saying the surface itself is feeling a bit rough today. I’d go a looong way out of my way to not say it that way. “Es rugosa al tacto” sounds more natural.
But yeah, in English feeling is specifically the verb used to express that you’re touching something or perceiving something by touch. In romance languages it tends to default to hearing before it does touch.