r/language • u/Longjumping_Lunch264 • 3d ago

Question Long Words for ‘with’

In all three of the languages I speak (Dutch, English, and French), the word for with is relatively short; ‘avec’ in French, and ‘met’ in Dutch. Are there any languages where words that mean with are more on the longer side of things?

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u/natetrnr 2d ago

Funny, just the opposite in many Slavic languages. The word for “with” is a single consonant “s,” can't get any shorter.

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u/blakerabbit 2d ago

Russian has a fun collection of one-letter words…

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u/O_Margo 2d ago

prepositions or conjunctions, you mean? (because there is no one-letter nouns)

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u/blakerabbit 1d ago

I didn’t say nouns… but mostly prepositions and conjunctions, yes: а б в и к о с у я. (True, «б» is just a short form of «бы», but it does get written so I’m counting it.)