spinning-in-infinities

[spinning-in-infinities]

what about a life where you don't have to worry about careers and shit, and occasionally could go like "fuck it, I want to farm rice for a year", and then go farm rice, on a farm that's managed by actual competent farmers but 90% of the work force is people from the city who wanted to take a year off their work to meditate life and shit, plucking weeds from a rice field, and then the rice is sold to cities advertised like "farmed 100% by bored office workers, artists who lost their drive and other folks who were not sure where to go with their lives" and people who buy them at the store are like 'fuck, I want to go to a rice field for a year'.

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in the words of the great Elizabethan wordsmith William Shakespeare, in Hamlet Act IV Scene V, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” or, in the words of the great Twitter wordsmith @Horse_ebooks,

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Common adverbs

Adverbs of time :

Alors (so), après (after), après-demain (in two days) aujourd'hui (today), auparavant (beforehand), aussitôt (straight away), autrefois (in the past), avant (before), avant-hier (two days ago), bientôt (soon), déjà (already), demain (tomorrow), depuis (since/for), désormais + dorénavant (from now on), encore (again), enfin (finally), ensuite (then), hier (yesterday), jadis (in the past - rare), jamais (never), longtemps (for a long time), lors (during/at the time of), maintenant (now), parfois (sometimes), puis (then/next), quand (when), quelquefois (sometimes), soudain (all of a sudden), souvent (often), tard (late), tôt (early), toujours (always)…

Adverbs of way :

Ainsi (this way), bien (well), comme (like/as), comment (how), debout (up), ensemble (together), exprès (on purpose), mal (bad), mieux (better), plutôt (rather), vite (quickly), volontiers (willingly/gladly), etc.

Adverbs of quantity/intensity :

Assez (enough), aussi (too), autant (as/so much/many), beaucoup (a lot), combien (how much/many), comment (how), davantage (more), environ (around), guère (not much), mais (but), moins (less), pas mal (not bad), peu (few), plus (more), presque (almost), quelque (some), si (so, ex : ce n’est pas si dur), tant (so much), tout (all), tout à fait (absolutely), tellement (so much), très (very), trop (too much)…

Adverbs of location :

Ailleurs (somewhere else), alentour (in the surroundings of), arrière (back), autour (around), avant (before), contre (against), dedans (inside), dehors (outside), derrière (in the back), dessous (under), dessus (over), devant (in front of), ici (here), là (there), loin (far away), où (where), partout (everywhere), près proche (very close)…

Adverbs of affirmation :

Assurément, aussi (too), certainement (certainly), bien (well), certes (indeed), oui (yes), précisément (precisely), sans doute (without a doubt), si (marked yes), soit (alright), volontiers (willingly/gladly), vraiment (really)…

Adverbs of negation :

Non (no), aucun (none), aucunement (in no way), nullement (by no means), jamais (never), rien (nothing), personne (nobody)…

Adverbs of doubt :

Apparemment (apparently), peut-être (maybe), probablement (probably), sans doute (without a doubt), vraisemblablement (presumably)…

Please note : an -ent adjective becomes a -emment adverb (ardent : ardemment, indifférent : indifféremment) and a -ant adjective becomes a -amment adverb (brillant : brillamment, incessant : incessamment)…

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The different past tenses

INDICATIVE MODE:

Imperfect (imparfait):

Is made of one word; refers to (mostly) : a/ descriptions (Les enfants jouaient dans le jardin), b/ an historical fact (Les mineurs se blessaient souvent), c/ habits (Elle jouait au golf chaque lundi); sets the scene before *the thing* happens (in the perfect tenses).

Ex: J’allais à l’école - quand… (I was going to school - when…).

Perfect (passé composé):

Is made of two words (like in the name in French, hullo mnemotechnics); with the present tense of an auxiliary and the past participle of a verb; refers to a sometimes sudden, finished, past action.

Ex: J’ai été à l’école (I went to school).

N.B.: auxiliaries are Être, variable in gender and number, or Avoir invariable except when the object is placed before the verb.

Simple past (passé simple):

Is made of one word; expresses an action, often brief, set in the past and now over; is mostly used in classic literature and barely ever orally. RARE.

Ex: J’allai à l’école (I was going to school).

Pluperfect (plus-que-parfait):

Is made of two words; with the imperfect tense of an auxiliary and the past participle of a verb; refers to a past action that happened before another past action; is often followed by perfect or imperfect.

Ex: J’étais allé à l’école - quand… (I had gone to school - when…).

Past perfect (passé antérieur):

Is made of two words; with the simple past tense of an auxiliary and the past participle of a verb; refers to a brief, finished, past action; is usually followed by simple past. RARE. Sort of literary version of pluperfect.

Ex: Je fus allé à l’école - quand… (I had gone to school - when…).

CONDITIONAL MODE:

Past conditional (conditionnel passé):

Is made of two words; with the present conditional of an auxiliary and the past participle of a verb; expresses a regret or a blame.

Ex: Je serais allé à l’école (I would have gone to school).

*

SUBJUNCTIVE MODE:

Past subjunctive (subjonctif passé):

Is made of two words; with the present subjunctive of an auxiliary and the past participle of a verb; refers to an uncertain past action that may or may not have happened as we speak.

Ex: Tu doutes que je sois allé à l’école (You don’t think I’ve been to school).

N.B.: There’s also imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive but those are so rare I will happily leave them buried where they are.

*

GERUND MODE:

Past gerund (gérondif passé):

Is made of two words; with the present participle of an auxilary (Ayant or Étant) and the past participle of a verb; refers to a past action that leads to a consequence, often expressed in the perfect tense.

Ex: Étant allé à l’école… (Having been to school…)

*

INFINITIVE:

Past infinitive (infinitif passé):

Is made of two words; with the present infinitive of an auxiliary (Avoir or Être) and the past participle of a verb; refers to a past, finished action.

Ex: Je suis content d’avoir été à l’école (I’m happy I have been to school).

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Can you do a "past tense for dummies" post for Spanish?

Okay so bare bones overview

Spanish has two tenses for past tense - preterite and imperfect

Preterite is the easy one. It’s used as simple past. Things that are completed and totally finished and specifically things with set time phrases use the preterite. These are the “action” parts of a sentence in the past

Me senté en el sofá. = I sat down on the sofa.

Leí el poema. = I read the poem.

Hablaron con ellas. = They spoke with them (f). Hablaron con ellos. = They spoke with them (m+m, m+f).

No me lo dijeron. = They didn’t tell me (it).

Volví a la oficina. = I returned to the office.

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Imperfect tense is more complicated for English-speakers. This is typically the confusing one because English doesn’t have the clear distinction.

I find it most helpful to think of what “imperfect” means linguistically. The term “perfect” means “thoroughly done”, while “imperfect” means “not yet completed fully”

In that sense, imperfect is more typically narrative, description, describing things that “were” happening. 

Me sentaba en el sofá. = I was sitting on the sofa.

Leía el poema. = I was reading the poem.

Hablaban con ellas. = They were speaking with them (f). Hablaban con ellos. = They were speaking with them (m+m, m+f).

No me lo decían. = They weren’t telling me (it).

Volvía a la oficina. = I was going back to the office.

These work more narratively and set the scene. They typically introduce the situation, while preterite is often an interruption of action - the thing that actually happens.

Me sentaba en el sofá cuando sonó el timbre. = I was sitting on the sofa when the doorbell rang.

Estaba durmiendo cuando me llamaron. = I was sleeping when they called me.

Pagamos la cuenta mientras estábamos en el restaurante. = We paid the bill while we were in the restaurant.

Note: Telling time is always done in imperfect and most time expressions are done that way

Era la una. = It was one o’clock.

Ya era hora. = It was high time. / Now was the time. [as in “this was the moment.”]

Eran las siete de la mañana. = It was seven o’clock in the morning.

For weather, it can depend. It’s normally imperfect, but it can be preterite in some situations. Normally preterite weather expressions have a specific time frame in mind.

Hacía mucho frío. = It was really cold outside. Hizo mucho frío ayer. = It was really cold yesterday.

Hacía viento. = It was windy. Hizo viento el viernes. = It was windy on Friday.

Hacía calor. = It was hot. El agosto pasado hizo mucho calor. = Last August was really hot.

This weather one is very particular because with preterite it sounds like you’re saying “the entire time”, while imperfect is just a description that may or may not have been completed. 

It’s very normally imperfect with the weather, but it is something to keep in mind.

Another very important function of the imperfect tense is “used to”. This can be done with the imperfect tense, or with soler in the imperfect tense [soler doesn’t exist in preterite at all for this reason]. 

In present tense, soler means “to be in the habit of” or “to do often”, but in imperfect in comes out as “used to”

Llovía. = It was raining. / It used to rain. Solía llover. = It used to rain. [“used to” imperfect only]

Tocaba el piano. = I was playing the piano. / I used to play the piano. Solía tocar el piano. = I used to play the piano. [“used to” imperfect only]

Hablábamos con la vecina. = We were speaking to the neighbor. / We used to speak to the neighbor. Solíamos hablar con la vecina. = We used to speak to the neighbor. [“used to” imperfect only]

Iban a la playa. = They were going to the beach. / They used to go to the beach. Solían ir a la playa. = They used to go to the beach. [“used to” imperfect only]

The hard part of imperfect is deciding how something should be read in English

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There’s also some special cases with preterite/imperfect.

Normally, most sentences could be either with the meaning changing slightly like “was eating” vs. “ate”

But there are particular verbs where the meaning will drastically change depending on which one you choose. It’s a more involved topic since it can be difficult to fully explain but I’ll just list the verbs and what they normally mean:

querer in imperfect = “wanted” [what you normally want] querer in preterite = “tried/attempted to”

no querer in imperfect = “didn’t want” [what you normally want] no querer in preterite = “refused to”

conocer in imperfect = “knew (someone/something)”, “used to know” conocer in preterite = “met, became acquainted with”

saber in imperfect = “knew (facts)”, “had knowledge of” saber in preterite = “found out”, “discovered”, “learned of”

poder in imperfect = “was able to”, “could” [what you normally want] poder in preterite = “was successful in doing”, “managed to do” [And by consequence no poder is “couldn’t” as in “did not have the ability” in imperfect, but in preterite it comes out as “failed to do” or “was unsuccessful”]

The other verbs to watch are tener and haber

tener is the wildcard because preterite tener usually means “to physically have” as in “to obtain”. The problem is that there are a lot of expressions that use tener like tener hambre “to be hungry” etc. It’s normally imperfect tener you want, but it’s a case by case basis.

And haber is a style change. Imperfect haber means “there was/were” in an everyday way... haber in preterite is “there was/were” in a shocking way. 

Using haber in preterite is typically reserved for reporting on things out of the ordinary and particularly accidents, deaths, and disasters:

Había comida. = There was food.

Hubo un terremoto. = There was an earthquake.

Había mucha lluvia. = There was a lot of rain. [not serious] Hubo mucha lluvia. = There was a lot of rain. [serious, reads like it was a disaster]

This one can also depend on the mood of the sentence, but particularly in journalism you’ll see hubo un accidente “there was an accident”, hubo un robo “there was a robbery”, or hubo un maremoto “there was a tsunami”

Using hubo can happen for specific time phrases like the weather though so keep that in mind, but usually hubo marks a more serious tone

In everyday Spanish, imperfect haber is more common. And using imperfect with haber is what you use when using the perfect tenses:

He hablado con ella. = I’ve spoken with her. [present perfect] Había hablado con ella. = I’d spoken with her. [pluperfect]

Hemos hecho el proyecto. = We have done the project. [present perfect] Habíamos hecho el proyecto. = We had done the project. [pluperfect]

Han dicho la verdad. = They have told the truth. [present perfect] Habían dicho la verdad. = They had told the truth. [pluperfect]

If you need a more detailed explanation of anything I mentioned please let me know. I don’t mind explaining things in more detail, this is just a very large topic so it’s more of an overview.

[spinning-in-infinities]

GILLIAN ANDERSON as DANA SCULLY THE X-FILES (1993-2018) • ❝Deep Throat❞

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favorite interiors in art

marie-louise roosevelt pierrepont, lachlan goudié, stanislav zhukovsky, susan ryder, larry bracegirdle, paul kauzmann, hugo grenville, isaac grunewald, susan ryder

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If you need to insult someone on twitter or social media, the most common insult of recent years is payaso/a meaning “clown”

This post brought to you by Spain twitter after seeing menuda payasada which is “utter/absolute/total clownery” but in a Spain way

[spinning-in-infinities]

i don’t think people should have to work in their 20s i think they should just be government designated Adventure Years where you’re paid to wander the country and go on journeys of self discovery and have gay sex and try different foods and sing badly in cars and create enemies and find fleeting father figures and sometimes commit crimes

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“People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, “Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner.” I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds. Look at nature. Look at flowers. We never walk into our garden and say “Oh wouldn’t that flower be so much more pretty if it were taller? Or red instead of pink?”

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by Gordon Mortensen

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Despite every moment of life being indescribably precious and a wondrous mystery, I will spend it caring about dividends and how many rental properties I have.

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“When I was young, women were raped on the campus of a great university and the authorities responded by telling all the women students not to go out alone after dark or not to be out at all. Get in the house. (For women, confinement is always waiting to envelope you.) Some pranksters put up a poster announcing another remedy, that all men be excluded from campus after dark. It was an equally logical solution, but men were shocked at being asked to disappear, to lose their freedom to move and participate, all because of the violence of one man.”

— Rebecca Solnit, Grandmother Spider in Men Explain Things To Me and Other Essays

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stairways to heaven

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“i do not dream of labor” yes u do. labor is fulfilling. u dream of a world where ur labor isnt exploited and its that or starvation. i guarantee u dream of labor. labor is a necessity and in and of itself is a good thing.

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you know how mathematicians have the journal of recreational mathematics, right? where they publish stuff like, ‘oh i found this cool property of this one seemingly boring number’, or, ‘this is literally nonsense but it sounds ~scientific~’ and it’s all great fun to read?

well

behold, the journal of recreational linguistics

with such delightful papers as ‘tennis puns’, ‘animals in different languages’, and ‘gifts from a homonymous benefactor’

excuse me while i go read all 50 volumes in one sitting