2y ago

Your lips don't touch when you say the word touch, but do touch when you say separate

My 8 year old son told me this randomly after getting out of the shower this morning.

15 comments

...and if you're reading this, you just tried it.
- T o u c h
  S e p a r a t e
- How do you know??
  
  Your Webcam is on. I can't believe all the other stuff you're doing...
This reminds me of an expression in Spanish
"Todo junto se escribe separado y separado se escribe todo junto"
Which I just discovered is the same on English lol :
"All together is written separately and separately is written all together"
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/altogether-or-all-together
  Seems it depends on context.
  
  Regular Noam Chomsky over here
In french, "ça touche pas ça touche, ça touche ça touche pas" is a common riddle. You ask the person to guess what "it" is in "'it doesn't touch' touches, 'it touches' doesn't" (of course this doesn't work in English but it does in french due to the usage of 'pas' for 'doesn't'). They may then ask you if various things touch or not. The game may go on for several hours as the guesser tries to guess objects, animals, concepts before they get that it is about whether or not your lips touch.
A common occurence is the guesser gives up, and whatever phrase they use to indicate that is just interpreted as another guess by the riddler: "I give up! -'I give up' touches."
Hyphenated. Non-hypenated. The irony.
Aahh. Genius!!
Not like this in Persian! Seperate is jodaa in Persian (جدا), and touch can be translated to tamaas (تماس).
The meaning of words has nothing to do with how they’re formed. Big brain.
definitely weird, and when I say turtle my lips don't become a turtle. why not??
Now it'd be cool if Vsauce spawns here explaining how you can't truly touch something.
- Hey Vsauce, Michael here. What does it mean to be touched by something? In 1890, a poet named Rene Bomier said that to touch is to feel the world around you. But what if the world touched you back?
  Cue transition music

15 comments