IF IT HAS BEEN A VERY LONG DAY, YOU ARE ‘WEARY’. IF SOMEONE IS ACTING IN A WAY THAT MAKES YOU SUSPICIOUS, YOU ARE ‘WARY’.
ALL IN ‘DUE’ TIME, NOT ‘DO’ TIME
‘PER SE’ NOT ‘PER SAY’
THANK YOU
BREATHE – THE VERB FORM IN PRESENT TENSE
BREATH – THE NOUN FORM
THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE
WANDER – TO WALK ABOUT AIMLESSLY
WONDER – TO THINK OF IN A DREAMLIKE AND/OR WISTFUL MANNER
THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE (but one’s mind can wander)
DEFIANT – RESISTANT DEFINITE – CERTAIN
WANTON – DELIBERATE AND UNPROVOKED ACTION (ALSO AN ARCHAIC TERM FOR A PROMISCUOUS WOMAN)
WONTON – IT’S A DUMPLING THAT’S ALL IT IS IT’S A FUCKING DUMPLING
the english language is cruel
SHUTTERED – CLOSED, AS IN WINDOW SHUTTERS SHUDDERED – SHOOK, TREMBLED, SHIVERED
CUSTOMER – PERSON SHOPPING FOR A GOOD OR SERVICE COSTUMER – WARDROBE DEPARTMENT STAFF OR COSTUME MAKER
REIGNED – HELD SOVEREIGN, MONARCHIAL POWER OVER A NATION OR STATE REINED – USED METHOD OF CONTROL TO GUIDE SOMEONE/THING; FROM THE REINS, ATTACHED TO A BRIDLE, USED BY A RIDER TO GUIDE A HORSE RAINED – LIQUID PRECIPITATION HAPPENED
Make a kosher language, where every verb must be at least 3 to 6 words after a noun, depending on tradition.
but actually
INTERVIEWER
I read you had trouble with the editing of the British Penguin edition of Anna Karenina.
VOLOKHONSKY
They hated what we did.
PEVEAR
It was quite something. For example, Vronsky meets Anna on the railroad coming to Moscow. He says, “Did you come recently?” And the copy-editor wrote a comment which said, “I’m not sure if you’re aware of it, but this word now has acquired different meanings.” And there is better! Kitty is discussing the upcoming ball. Seventeen-year-old, completely innocent Kitty says, “I do like balls.” Again the copy editor wrote, “I’m not sure if you’re aware …” Then the editor had this other problem. I had written Anna “got into the carriage.” And the editor said, this is the American usage of the word “got”. We can’t do this in a British edition. You should say Anna “went” into the carriage. I wrote back, “I’m not sure if you’re aware of it, but this word has now acquired different meanings . . . ”
Affect can also be a noun, and… wait for it… effectcan also be a verb.
The definition of affect as a noun: ‘a display of emotion.’ Example: “Language isn’t important to you, therefore you show no affect when you read about grammar.”
The definition of effect as a verb: ‘to cause something to happen’… which sounds an awful lot like the definition of affect as a verb. The difference is that effect is more final (like ‘accomplish’ ). Example: My grammar posts might affect your opinion of the English language, but
I will continue to
effectchange in your grammar usage every Thursday (which will hopefully affectyour credibility).
please be aware that the correct way to replace ä, ö, ü, ß is turning them into ae, oe, ue, and ss, not just taking the dots away or typing “B”.
Otherwise you can get things like,
“Das Wetter ist sehr schwül heute.” = “The weather is very hot and humid today.”
“Das Wetter ist sehr schwul heute.” = “The weather is very gay today.”
well I now know how to call the weather gay
So, it’s like in Polish.
“Zrobić łaskę” means “Do mercy to someone”
but
“Zrobić laskę” means “Make a blowjob”.
I cannot think of a case where removing the dots of ä and ö in Finnish would result in something naughty (if you can, please contribute) but the same thing applies, ä and ö are completely different from a and o, and one does not simply remove the dots.
Finnish:
Näin appelsiineja = I saw oranges.
Nain appelsiineja = I fucked oranges.
its even worse in turkish doe cus like
Sık dişini?? Hang in there/Endure
Sik dişini?? Literally just fuck your tooth
that’s it
amazing
It’s not in the alphabet, but one of the problems a Spanish-first-language student at my old music school had was the difference between “ih” (English short i) and “ee” (English long ee).
We were a music school. The word “sheet” came up a lot.
pet peeve of the day: English is the worst special-snowflake language no rules PURE CHAOS
um no
English orthography is a mess in relation to pronunciation, yes. Germanic(ish) grammar + majority Latinate vocabulary + a smaller number of very frequently used Germanic words (e.g., very often Germanic noun + Latinate adjective regardless of context) results in some odd features, like many many doublets. This is not unique to English. It’s not even that rare!
And English has very strict rules about some things, which Anglophones mostly don’t notice because it’s so wired in, like adjectives (“red tall
four
trucks” = wrong–yes, Virginia, descriptively) and extremely rigid word order (why Yoda sounds funny). Again, this is not the weirdest thing ever. Most languages have rules around word order. Some are also highly rigid, even if we’re on the strict end (not alone there!).
Likewise, plenty of languages have, ah, challenging correspondence between written/spoken, like Hungarian, Arabic, French (thanks, Normandy >_>), and Hebrew. Many many languages have etymologically multilingual lexicons, even very much so, as with mixed languages (strictly defined), creoles (linguistic controversy: was Middle English a creole?), and dialects with very heavy borrowings.
idk, it’s like it always has to be ENGLISH IS THE BEST EVERYONE MUST SPEAK IT or ENGLISH IS THE WORST HOW DOES ANYONE LEARN IT, always exceptional. But really, English is just… a language.
Kimchi and Justice 