How Language Shapes the Way We Think | Lera Boroditsky @TED #ted #tedtalks

If you ask German and Spanish speakers

to, say, describe a bridge,

"bridge" happens to be  grammatically feminine in German,

grammatically masculine in Spanish --

German speakers are more likely to say

bridges are "beautiful," "elegant"

and stereotypically feminine words.

Whereas Spanish speakers  will be more likely to say

they're "strong" or "long,"

these masculine words.

In English, it's fine to say, "He broke the vase."

In a language like Spanish,

you might be more likely to say,

"The vase broke itself."

If it's an accident,

you wouldn't say that someone did it.

In English, quite weirdly,

we can even say things like,

"I broke my arm."

Now, in lots of languages,

you couldn't use that construction

unless you are a lunatic

and you went out looking to break your arm

and you succeeded.