#adverbs of place grammar

[mylanguageclasses]

Adverbs of Place in English Grammar

Introduction Adverbs of Place are essential components of English grammar. They describe where an action happens and provide more clarity in sentences. Understanding these adverbs can significantly improve communication skills. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore their definition, rules, usage, examples, and important considerations. Common Expressions Using Adverbs of Place Here are…

[unityrain24]

WAIT WHAT?!?! HERE/THERE ARE CONSIDERED ADVERBS IN ENGLISH?!??? IN JAPANESE THEY ARE CONSIDERED PRONOUNS WHICH MAKES WAY!? MORE!? SENSE!?

[an-ruraiocht]

90% of the time when i see reviews and posts saying "this book needed editing" i don't think the reader have any idea what editing actually entails. usually this is actually code for one of several "problems" with the book:

it's too long, or it's slower paced than this reader's preference. they believe "editing" would mean making it shorter

it has a heavily descriptive style, which the reader doesn't like. they believe "editing" means paring every sentence down to hemingway-style prose with no adverbs

it doesn't follow the very rigid "save the cat" style 3-act story structure, disrupting the reader's sense of narrative tension. an editor, they believe, would've made sure it did

there were a few typos or formatting errors, and they believe it's the editor's job to catch these (it's not, it's typically the proofreader and the typesetter who have responsibility for that kind of thing)

and finally, most often:

the author had different narrative priorities than the reader, who thinks an editor would have made the author change their priorities.

the thing is, there are actually issues with editors in trad publishing being overworked to the point where things aren't getting the thorough, thoughtful editing that they need to be the best version of themselves. there are plenty of badly-structured, poorly-researched, and clumsily written books out there. moreover copyediting is typically freelance and perhaps because of that, this is the area where i see the largest number of issues: continuity issues, grammar issues, factual errors etc that someone should've spotted and didn't.

but this is not typically what people's "this needed an editor" reviews are focusing on. most often it just means they didn't like the book and they've decided editing is an all-powerful force that would have transformed it into a book they liked. but that's not how it works. and disproportionately what this comment means is that the book doesn't match what current fashions have decided is The Correct Style to write in

"this book needed an editor" if it's traditionally published, it had one. like. by definition. it was an editor who bought the book. that doesn't mean the editor did a great job but they definitely existed. there were probably at least two (acquiring editor who does the dev edits; copyeditor who does copyedits), and the proofreader, and a bunch of other people besides.

also i think people think editors are the ones who like. implement the changes. but they don't. they give comments and recommendations and ask questions and the author is the one to act on them. the editor will not rewrite the book. they will not fix the problems themselves, they will highlight the problem and the author will figure out a fix for it, or they will decide they don't agree that it's a problem and leave it as it. and a lot of the sentence-level style stuff is entirely on the author so if they don't have an ear for the rhythm then nobody's going to fix that for them. editors do a lot less than people seem to imagine they do, tbh

anyway

for reference—

structural/developmental edits: is this chapter in the right place and does the plot make sense and is the characterisation consistent and effective

line edits: is this sentence in the right place and is it as stylish as it could be

copy edits: is this sentence grammatically correct and consistent/factually correct within the story/its world and do the spellings follow the publisher's stylesheet

proofreading: are there any typos in this sentence and was the formatting preserved correctly when it was typeset

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How to Improve your Writing

Rick Riordan's Writing Tips

Rick Riordan:

Taste is subjective, and opinions differ about what "good writing" looks like. Most of us have read a bestseller or two and wondered, "How did this thing get published?" Nevertheless, I would argue that most work does not get published unless it demonstrates a certain level of technical competence. The grammar is correct. The prose is readable. I would further argue that most manuscripts are rejected because the writing is not technically competent. The manuscript never stands a chance because the writer simply doesn't know the craft of writing well enough. If you write well, you have already set yourself apart from 99% of what agents and editors see every day. Below are some notes on what I call "sentence level competence" — the ability to craft prose at the most basic level. These tips reflect the most common problems I've observed in unpublished manuscripts.

Sentence-Level Competence

Sentence focus — the subjects of all clauses should be appropriate to the content of the sentence.

Favor the concrete over the abstract, the antecedent over the pronoun.

Example: It was a sunny day. (the subject "it" is boring and vague.)

Better: The sky was brilliant blue. (Here the subject is sky, which is what the sentence was supposed to be about.)

If you are writing a sentence about a guy named Fred, the subject in the sentence should be (surprise!) Fred.

Exercise

Go through a page of prose and underline your own subjects.

How many are abstract?

How many of your sentences are truly focused?

Modifiers

Be sure the modifier refers to the right thing.

The modifier should refer to the closest noun.

Confusing modifiers will trip up the reader, consciously or subconsciously.

By the same token, pronouns should have clear antecedents.

Always place the modifier as close to the subject as possible.

Example: Can you help other writers who are writing books like me? (I got this question recently. I understand what the person is saying, but 'like me' follows the word 'books' so he is implying, without meaning to, that there are people producing books that look like him.)

Better: Can you help other writers like me who are writing books?

Exercise

Color-code a page of your manuscript, making each phrase and clause a different color.

Match up dependent clauses and phrases with their modifiers.

Avoid getting your modifier too far away from the thing being modified.

Deft Description

Choose your details carefully.

A description should be vivid, but surgically precise.

The detail must be given for a reason, and have a logical connection to the plot or advancement of character.

Avoid long "grocery lists" of details.

For a paragraph-length description, offer a uniting theme — an extended metaphor — to give the details cohesion.

Example: He was six feet tall, three hundred pounds, with brown hair, small brown eyes, a big nose and big fists. He wore jeans and a muscle shirt. He looked angry. (this is way too much description for the reader to keep track of, and it is offered as a random list)

Better: He looked like a rhino, ready to charge. (then you can pick a few details that reinforce the image of a rhino)

Exercise

Go through a chapter and delete all adjectives and adverbs.

Read through, then add some back in sparingly.

You may find you can do with less than before.

Parallelism

Clauses or phrases that are part of a list should be similar in structure.

Unparallel constructions are awkward and difficult to read, even if the reader can't put her finger on the exact problem.

Example: He likes dogs, hiking in the woods and reads books a lot. (Dogs is a single noun, hiking in the woods is a participial phrase, reads books a lot is a simple predicate. These are all totally different things. Make them the same, and the sentence will flow much better.)

Better: He likes walking his dog, hiking in the woods, and reading lots of books.

Exercise

Try constructing your descriptions in parallel units — absolutes, infinitives, adjectives.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[thelingodingo]

BTS' Speech Styles

Like anybody, the members of BTS have their own speech patterns and language quirks that make their speaking unique to themselves. So I thought it would be interesting to make a post that goes deeper into the details of how each member speaks in Korean!

Jin: He talks in an old-fashioned manner (very exaggerated ahjusshi) and doesn’t use much slang. He also uses a lot of puns consistently, its quite impressive and cringy honestly. His vocabulary isn't as varied and wide as RM but his grammar is pretty spot on. Also very speedy at talking and hard to understand sometimes. On top that, he's great at getting his point across in serious situations without adding unnecessary emotion.

Suga: I think I once heard a fandom myth that he has a lisp (which he very much does not). But he does mumble a lot and stretches his ㅔ's, making it very difficult for even native Korean speakers to understand him properly. On top of that, Suga also speaks incredibly quickly, making it another thing that makes it very hard to understand him (no wonder he's a rapper). Sometimes, he speaks very swaggy. Sometimes, he speaks like an old uncle. Sometimes, he's like RM and gets very eloquent with his wording.

J-Hope: Because of his dialect, he sounds very warm and friendly. He also seems to enjoy using words such as 되게 (really) and 뭔가 (somewhat) veryveryvery often. His tone fluctuates alot and something about the way he pronounces words is very crisp and staccato-like. He can also be very serious and deadass as well.

RM: He speaks very intellectually and educated. Both his vocabulary and sentence structure is very high-level, sometimes choosing difficult and unconventional words. Every now and then he jokes around in the many different dialects he picked up from the rest of the members (he doesn't come from a place that speaks a different dialect like the others). His normal speaking is also very unique sometimes due to the influence he has from the different dialects of the members, over the years he basically created his very own dialect that's a mix of all the different dialects together. This makes his speech so nuanced and special and difficult to fully translate/convey.

Jimin: Has a very friendly and down to earth tone when talking to fans since he speaks informally. His speech pattern is very playful, sweet, and cheeky. During other occasions, he speaks formally to fans and has the most "feminine" sounding speech style. You can tell he selects words very carefully and delicately to be as nice as possible. In Korea, he has a nickname of Park DaJeong, meaning "Tender Park" due to his speech style. Sometimes, he slips into dialect which is when he sounds a bit "rougher".

Taehyung: Is a big fan of using and repeating adverbs such as 약간, 조금, 진짜, etc. In Korea, people call the way he speaks 태태어 (Tae's language) because of how interestingly different and lowkey peculiarly he speaks Korean. It doesn't have much to do with his dialect, he literally just speaks that way. (he can speak amazingly when needed, it's just that he has his own quirks when speaking in casual situations)

Jungkook: He speaks with hints of dialect quite often, making him sound very rough and most "masculine" sounding in Korean out of all the members. I think he has a very clear and smooth tone which makes it easy to listen to him, so if you're learning Korean he might be a good person to do listening practice. He's not as polished in vocabulary/grammar compared to RM and Jimin but he's still great at speaking.

Something I want to mention is that the younger members very commonly use honorifics/polite social conventions/formal speech towards the older members even with their closeness and family-like relationship. This is actually something about BTS that is highly praised among Korean society due to how professional and respectful it makes them seem.

There's probably more to analyze and delve into when it comes to the members' speaking styles and patterns but this post is just a general overview.

Please let me know if theres any inaccuracies or if you want more posts like this!

[tozettastone]

can you explain what's a split infinitive?

Ehhh. I'm not a linguist, anon, I'm just a guy who writes with limited respect for prescriptive grammar that serves no purpose. There are a bunch of different verb forms to be categorised in linguistics and if you want to know about them you can look them up on Wikipedia or ask a linguist. ( @roadkill2580 is that you? )

Short version: an infinitive is a non-finite verb, as opposed to (you guessed it) a finite verb. Most verbs in English can be written in finite OR non-finite form, and occasionally those are identical. In English we often write these like, for example, "to see." If you cram something between "to" and "see" you have split it. So "to properly see if that was true," is putting an adverb in the middle of a verb form, splitting it. In theory it would therefore be, "to see properly if that was true."

The most oft-derided split infinitive of the 20th century was probably "to boldly go where no man has gone before," ala OG Star Trek, and is probably the only place where most people who are from the 1980s or younger will have encountered this incredibly stuffy grammatical complaint, I think. (The "corrected" version would have been, "to go boldly where no man has gone before.")

Personally I would not bother to worry about split infinitives when I could worry about learning to apostrophise or not switching tense mid sentence or other grammatical conventions that are actually useful in English. Same with ending a sentence on a preposition, really. Who even are we?

If we're gonna be real, most native English speakers learnt the rules to English by vibes only and in basically whatever dialect we fetched up beside. Some settings require specific writing competencies (like professional emails or published stories, etc) but in my experience absolutely none of them require you to worry about split infinitives in 2024.

[hindisoup]

Are any of the other North Indian languages mutually intelligible with Hindi?

(other than Urdu)

Boy, did this ask take me down a rabbit hole. I have only studied Hindi and some Urdu, and my exposure to other Indian languages is mostly through fusion film songs that mix various languages. So if I make a mistake here, please feel free to expand and correct me!

India is home to a diverse range of languages, many of which share roots with Hindi in the Indo-Aryan language family. While some are highly mutually intelligible, others are more distinct but still share structural and lexical similarities.

When comparing languages with common roots, it's often helpful to look at the words that are probably the oldest, such as those for home, food, or basic verbs. Here's a comparison of Hindi and Urdu to six other Indian languages with three example sentences.

What we can see here:

Shared vocabulary: Words like घर, किताब and खाना are mostly consistent across the board and would likely be understood by many speakers of these languages. Words like पुस्तक, छोरी and भोजन are also familiar to Hindi speakers, though they might be considered more formal, regional or specific.

Grammar: all these languages follow the Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) sentence structure. Even if you encounter an unfamiliar word, this consistent syntax helps understanding and contextually deducing its meaning. Knowing where nouns, verbs and adverbs are likely placed in a sentence can be a huge advantage when learning or comparing these languages.

Script: Hindi uses Devanagari, Urdu uses Nastaliq or Naskh, Punjabi uses Gurmukhi in India and Shahmukhi (Perso-Arabian script similar to Urdu) in Pakistan. Gujarati has its own script, and others, like Maithili and Bhojpuri, also use Devanagari with minor regional tweaks.

So the answer to your question is: well yes, but actually no.

You can test how much you understand by listening to these songs! Some of them have a bit of Hindi influence or shared vocabulary mixed into them:

Punjabi

Rajasthani

Bhojpuri

Maithili

Marathi

Gujarati

[srbachchan]

DAY 5798

Jalsa, Mumbai Jan 1/2, 2024 Mon/Tue 12:20 AM

🪔 ,

January 02 .. birthday wishes to Ef Smita Buch .. Ef Nita Menon .. Ef Mohammad Amin Sarwar from Faisalabad, Pakistan 🇵🇰 .. and Ef Minie Manal from Russia 🇷🇺 .. love and affection .. 🙏🏻🚩

The hand goes in repetition to the 12 and '23 .. and then you realise it's done .. it is now 1 and 1 and '24 ..

It was the 31 st that was intriguing .. last DAY of the week , last day of the month , last day day of the year 🥹 .. pretty darn cool .. naaah !! .. too Gen Z colloquial .. errmm .. "it was rather coincidental" .. hmm .. better .. !

😁

So the year endeth as does the 23 to 24 .. bringing as is often expressed , a better year .. blessed and hope filled with achievement and prosperity ..

But they all say that at the end of the year .. always .. and then the year takes over and performs according to its willing .. to be assessed when it shifts from 24 to 25 .. and on ....

The celebrations on the turn of the tide remained quiet, sombre and mostly on solitudinous thought .. no reflections on what went by .. it never does bring any reflect .. and the memory simply fails to bring those visuals alive .. indeed the memory fails to bring many of the past, alive .. moments , names , incidents , details and places - there at the tip of your tongue, but ailing, yes ailing, not failing, to form those magical words ..

🙃

words that were readily available at the drop of the 'proverbial hat' ..

'proverbial hat ..' ?

where on earth did this expression come from ..

AAAAHHHH .. found out ..

'The phrase “at the drop of a hat” originated sometime in the early 19th century when it was common for people to signal the start of a fight or a race by literally dropping a hat or waving it down through the air.

This signal would prompt the participants to start fighting or running immediately. As years passed, the phrase took on a broader meaning and became associated with almost any activity done without a second thought.'

hmmm .. nothing very bright or original ..

but the GOJ is ever original and filled with the love of the well wishers and a joy as ever to be in their midst every Sunday .. and the consideration for having the drinking water available , ad also the fans that sprinkle a thin layer of the acqua into the audience just to keep them cool and comfortable ..

some complained that they were positioned right in front of them so they could not see, so had pedestals made for them and hope that the well wishers are adapting to this immediate request of theirs ..

see the fans on either sides of the gate .. ?

🕺

... the namaste .. hmm .. the little finger still struggling to straighten out after the surgery .. well .. most of the hand is struggling .. its strength not back to normal .. holding writing with pen and several other deeds that hands are involved in , are in limbo ..

The medical says it normally takes 5-6 months .. !

The hand .. the most complicated machinery on the human body .. serviced by several nerves .. in fact three of the fingers serviced by one particular nerve .. one and half finger serviced by another .. and the remaining by another ..

amaze .. !!

I often ask the medical professionalists how and what they feel when they - who are privileged to have access to the workings of most of the elements in the body - feel, at the complexities of our human system and its working ..

And they seem perplexed that we should seek such information .. for, for them, it is the education, medical degrees address .. much as the grammar equations they teach at English language classes or the attaining of degrees in their education .. the adjective the adverb the consonance et al .. frightening moments for me .. never could understand these delicacies of the language and still do not .. much of the reason I rejected BA English and took up BSc .. but then those 'delicacies' were equally non understandable !!!! 😳

see ya .. and love ❤️

Amitabh Bachchan

[inkichan]

ましょう - ましょうか · frequency adverbs

(⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧ N5 grammar [ことのは lesson 17]

ましょう and ましょうか

construction:

stem + ましょう -> let's + verb

stem + ましょうか -> shall I + verb + (for you)?

☆ ましょう express desire or enthusiasm. it means "let's do something"

サッカーをしましょう let's play soccer

☆ ましょうか indicates a suggestion or offering of help

手伝(てつだ)いましょうか shall I help you?

frequency adverbs

frequency adverbs are used to describe how often you do something. In general, they are placed at the beginning of the sentence or after the subject.

always -> いつも

usually -> たいてい

often -> よく

sometimes -> ときどき

not often, not much -> あまり

not at all -> ぜんぜん

いつも犬(いぬ)と散歩(さんぽ)します

I always take a walk with my dog

note: あまり and ぜんぜん always accompany the negative form

ケンはぜんぜん英語(えいご)を勉強(べんきょう)しません

Ken doesn't study English at all

またね～@inkichan

꒰ა ˚₊ ✧・┈・╴﹕꒰ ᐢ｡- ༝ -｡ᐢ ꒱﹕╴・┈・𐑺 ‧₊˚໒꒱

[berliner-baerchen]

Omg about the ai fics i didnt realize that a few of these acc were using ai and it made me feel really inadequate as an author for not being able to post or write as much as them and then i read one and i was like hey wait a minute this doesnt seem right. Then it all clicked and i got really mad

Write your own shit. If english isnt your first language or you're bad at grammar then... imrove. You wont get better at it using ai.

I don't understand people who forego the process of creating and growing.

Genuinely! This was my exact thought process. There was a time when it didn't even occur to me that people would post AI fic. After all, FanFic is inherently transformative. The ability to share your scenarios and communally engage in ideas is part of what makes fanwork so great.

Then this author, doing a daily posting challenge, dropped a bombshell in their Author's Notes. They'd been using AI to "help" because English isn't their first language... which felt like a betrayal since English is not my first language either. It was so frustrating. Beta readers exist! Fandom is a community, and people will have your back if you simply reach out and ask if somebody more experienced in English will read your work before you post it.

I use your ask to post a list of things to look out for. None of these should be treated as a "gotcha" since LLMs are trained by scraping real people's writing. However, since LLMs are calculation models, they use predictive wording and structure, and it's possible to clue into something being AI-written.

[Edit for the people with no reading comprehension: "things to look out for" =/= "here is irrefutable evidence of AI usage!". I'm talking about LLM generation patterns.]

1. Overuse of Similes

Almost every author will use similes. However, AI over-relies on them and typically uses them every other sentence. You will see many of the same similes word-for-word repeated across AI-written fics.

“He walked in like he owned the place.”

“His voice cracked like glass under pressure.”

“The silence was heavy, like a wet blanket.”

“The anger surged through him like a tidal wave.”

2. Overly Formal Dialogue

Some AUs make this type of wording far more fitting. However, both Tyler and Josh speak in an informal Americanized way, using conjunctions and filler words (uh, like, you know).

“I am not sure what you mean by that, but I would appreciate some clarification,” he said.

Instead of the more natural: “The heck are you talking about?”

3. Dramatic Em-Dash Constructions

I love a good em-dash and hate how AI uses them too. Many good writers use em-dashes since they convey information differently from semicolons. But LLMs attempt to mimic emotional fragmentation in a way that's supposed to create emphasis, but often comes across as unnecessary.

“He was trying—trying—to make things right.”

“He couldn’t breathe—no, wouldn’t breathe—until he knew Josh was okay.”

“It was over—everything they’d fought for—gone.”

4. Generic Reactions

Again, since LLMs scrape data from human-written FanFic, they emulate common reactions that real people use. However, like with similes, they tend to overuse them in ways that don't always fit the context.

He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

His heart beat hard in his chest.

His jaw clenched.

A shiver ran down his spine.

5. Repetitive Sentence Structures

Writing is like music. You have cadence and flow. But AI relies heavily on a certain sentence rhythm, like "[Character] did [action], [adverb/adjective] doing [something else]." Also, the overuse of "something" and stilted one-sentence lines, and having one-line paragraphs.

Tyler turned away, shoulders trembling, his breath hitching in his throat. He followed, footsteps echoing, his heart pounding like a war drum.

Something about the day felt different. Promising. Not just another cycle of practices and performance but a branching path leading somewhere else. Somewhere new. Something… exciting.

But no. Not yet. Not now.

6. Emotional Beats that Don't Land

AI likes to insert intense emotional reactions without proper build-up or payoff, creating tonal whiplash.

Josh glanced at him—and suddenly, his soul shattered into a thousand pieces of longing.

7. Stacked Descriptions

I keep emphasising this, but plenty of human authors do this too. Still, AI often layers adjectives and adverbs in a way that reads as cluttered and devoid of subtlety. It should not be seen as an indicator of LLM usage by itself.

His dark, glistening hazel eyes pierced through the dim, hazy light of the cramped, dust-choked room.

My final note is that none of these should be taken as irrefutable indications of AI use. I do not want to engender hostility. However, as somebody with access to an AI detector that's used in academic fields, I can assure you... There are authors in the tag who are posting heavily AI-written fics. Many of them are doing it in a disingenuous/deceptive manner, too. I do ask you, however, not to harass any person who might be using AI! It is far more effective to simply not engage with their work.

As always, please feel free to vent in my inbox. I like to know I am not alone in my frustration.

[mylanguageclasses]

Adverbs of Time in English Grammar

Introduction Adverbs of time are an essential part of English grammar, as they help describe when an action takes place. They provide clarity to sentences by indicating past, present, or future time and are commonly used in both spoken and written English. Understanding adverbs of time is crucial for effective communication, as they allow speakers and writers to express when an event happens,…

[matcha-fawn]

I cannot stop thinking about your poem. "Maybe I simply disturbed memories of running water," hey I'm gonna eat my.phone now, thanks.

AWW THANK YOU!! hope it tasted good... /silly

i shall be hijacking this ask to ramble about my own poem below the cut HOPE YOU DON'T MIND!! :P

"disturbed" operating as an adjective or verb depending on which version you're reading mwahaha (same with 'so' being and adverb or a conjunction i love grammar)

"do you hear it? that song? / i do, and i remember: / forgetting about you" from john's perspective (regaining his memories at larson's)

and "that soft melody was created for you. / i cannot forgive myself for / my greatest regret, / you" from arthur's (directed at faroe)

AND "i cannot forgive myself for forgetting about you" when combined has significance for BOTH OF THEM AHHHH

also (and this requires reading lines all over the place but isn't that the joy of the format?) "tell me i can improve / myself, inflict suffering on / that bastard" for arthur, seeking redemption by punishing larson for the same crime he committed

but for john we have "tell me i can improve if i lie to / you, hide my deal with / that bastard" about KAYNE and boy oh boy i love both those lines together...

AND FINALLY almost done i promise:

in my mind, john's "bastard" is kayne while arthur's is larson, but "this monster" is both of them referring to themselves...

alright infodump over thanks for reading if you got this far! <3 i have so much more word level analysis to ramble about but pfft this isn't english class XD

[blastydynamightno1hero]

A POST FOR DUMB IDIOTS

Your = possessive adjective indicating ownership

You're = You are but shortened

Their = possessive adjective indicating ownership

They're = They are but shortened

There = Adverb. Refers to a place.

To = preposition indicating direction, place, or position

Too = an adverb meaning 'also' or 'excessively'

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

{OOC: my hc is that he's a bitch about grammar LOL}

[chouxcats]

VRVSUNI CH.9 Resources

HSR Lore

I feel like most people know this already (and I’ve also mentioned it once or twice), but Thalassa is an oceanic planet, so naturally its candles will be flameless.

From the wiki — the Lone Voyage era is marked as the start of Xianzhou civilization after the 9 ships departed their home planet 7 millennia ago.

The pipa Leevhĩ mentions uses craftsmanship styles from the Xianzhou Yuanqiao, one of the 2 Xianzhou flagships (Yuanqiao and Daiyu) which had their populations decimated by viscorpus corrosion. 

Remember that gigantic beast in Firefly’s trailer? That’s a Swarm Mother. 

Totton is a cavernous rocky planet plagued by storms that destroy everything in their paths, leaving only the strongest and most resilient alive. Whoever found and transported the Leviathan skeleton is / was a trooper fr. And it was DEFINITELY not done alone lmao.

Anaria is a planet mentioned in one of Boothill’s parts in the Penacony quest. According to the NPC, it throws extravagant parties a lot, so they would probs also have a hand in the Auction pie.

Planet Screwllum is powered by a planetary engine that processes punched-tape calculations. Leevhĩ’s date (?) is saying he has enough money and power to power the planet for a century. Bullshit or not? Up to you to decide.

Pteruges-V is Kafka’s home planet. She seems to enjoy fashion, so I just extrapolated that into “attention to fashion is a cultural thing on Pteruges-V”. 

Hellem, where the unnamed princess is from, is a planet mentioned in one of the IPC radio broadcasts in the AE parlor car.

Ratio recognizes Leevhĩ’s charm as one from Mendasia, an Idrila-worshipping planet that was a paradise until the disappearance of the Beauty’s blessing led to its demise. When Ratio says pre-Idrilan, what he means is pre-fall of Idrila, because Mendasia is known to have believed in Idrila since the dawn of civilization. It just doesn’t sound as nice LOL — and it’s probs a common academic colloquialism or wtv.

Other Notes 

Leevhĩ and Biihpæ are drastically different sizes because Leevhĩ is a half-Attouinean — that’s also part of the reason Biihpæ is a bit hostile towards Leevhĩ, although Ratio doesn’t notice. Obviously I don’t condone discrimination against mixed-race people, but this particular situation is more complicated due to multiple reasons, which I hope some of you managed to pick up on. I’ll try to describe it simply: native Attouineans are victims of IPC colonization and rightfully feel angry towards their oppressors, and Leevhĩ is working for them, so Biihpæ’s anger is justified in this context. On the other hand, native Attouineans aren’t the friendliest to non-purebreds in general, which could have been what spurred Leevhĩ to try find work off-world in the first place — of which the best and easiest choice, with Attouine’s connections, would be the IPC. It’s not the clearest, mostly because of the limitations of Ratio’s POV and also because I don’t have time to explore such a complex issue, but it’s a fun fact about Attouinean racial social dynamics. 

If you run the characters “baɨχppʋε” through Enrique or “baɨχpʋε” through Conchita (both Castilian Spanish) here, you should get the approximation of what Biihpæ’s name sounds like. 

The structure of the Native Attouinean language is based on Japanese grammar, with a few alterations made. It follows an “Object-Subject-Verb” construction, with adjectives next to nouns and adverbs next to verbs. However, there is no specific way to construct adverbs, e.g. “-ly” in English. There is no conjugation in native Attouinean, or even things like “un”, “ist” etc. — instead they put modification-words after the noun or verb they’re supposed to modify. “Singer” = “sing-person”, “fearless” = “scared-always-not” and so on. As with all things in linguistics, there are exceptions, but that’s how it generally goes.

“That is convenient”, I make Ratio say, pretending I didn’t just make shit up to desperately make the masquerade plot make sense

Aventurine’s ball outfit is inspired by Romani men’s clothing, but with some galactic pizzazz (+ what I assume to be his personal taste) added! 

[marisbuzi]

spanish checklist for a1 (and slightly a2) level: vocab, grammar etc.

hey!

i have completed covering the a1 level of spanish (and also covered 1/4? or less maybe of a2) so here is a checklist with everything i learnt.

note: at the end of the post there's a link with a google doc where every item on the list is expanded as well as i could expand it (for example, you'll find examples for conjugation etc). if you need to track your progress, please make a copy of it (you won't have access to edit it otherwise).

Greetings and basic introductions.

Personal pronouns (yo, tú, él/ella, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas) and verb conjugation in the present tense.

Basic vocabulary related to daily activities, family, numbers, colors, food, and common objects.

Describing people, places, and objects using adjectives.

Forming questions with question words (¿qué, quién, dónde, cuándo, cómo, etc.) and question formation.

Demonstrative adjectives (este, ese, aquel) and possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su, nuestro, vuestro, su).

Basic verbs and expressions for expressing likes, dislikes, preferences, and opinions.

Telling time and talking about daily routines.

Talking about hobbies, interests, and free time activities.

Basic vocabulary for locations, directions, and giving and following simple instructions.

Regular and irregular verbs in the present tense, including stem-changing verbs.

Basic prepositions (en, con, de, a, por, para) and their usage.

Formation and usage of the present progressive tense (estar + gerund).

Talking about the weather and seasons.

Expressing frequency using adverbs (siempre, a veces, nunca, etc.).

Basic vocabulary for professions, places in the city, and transportation.

Describing daily routines and activities in the past using the preterite tense (preterito indefinido).

Usage of preterito imperfecto.

Usage of preterito perfecto.

Basic vocabulary for shopping, clothing, and describing items.

Expressing obligation, ability, and necessity using modal verbs (deber, poder, necesitar).

Comparatives and superlatives (más/menos + adjective, el/la/los/las más/menos + adjective).

Talking about future plans using the future tense (ir + a + infinitive).

Basic vocabulary and expressions for traveling and making hotel reservations.

Giving and asking for directions using prepositions of location (a la derecha, a la izquierda, enfrente, etc.).

Basic vocabulary and phrases for ordering food and drinks in a restaurant.

Introduction to indirect object pronouns (me, te, le, nos, os, les) and their usage.

Indirect and Direct objects

here is the link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WaB3cIyMbnG5uJneX7dF9PAKfU-CTdicr-QZJBqWKls/edit?usp=sharing)

did it help you? i made it for my revision before i begin classes this september and so far it has helped me a lot so i hope it turns out just as useful for you!

adiós, mar <3

[tequeguava]

hello! i've just discovered this blog and am very excited about all the words here, as someone who is interested in learning hawaiian (the music is so beautiful...) do u know some other good resources to look at for pronounciation, verb conjugation and hawaiian history? where do u source all of these words? do u have some info you'd like to share about hawaii regarding stereotypes and misconceptions?

I'm glad that my WOTD series has been helpful for you! I've been meaning to be more active on here and starting it back up again for a while now 😅

My source for vocab words is this English-Hawaiian and Hawaiian-English dictionary (https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/eng-a.htm)*. I also have a physical copy of the Pukui & Elbert dictionary (which is one of the main sources for this combined dictionary), although I tend to prefer the online one since it's much quicker to find specific words. The Trussel page for Hawaiian also has topical subsets (https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/topical.htm), which you can use to create themed vocab sets for practice.

For pronunciation, it's hard for me to give tips since I learned it by just getting exposure to the sounds while I was growing up, but the resource I use for grammar does have a brief introduction to pronunciation guidelines (https://hawaiian-grammar.org/current/#h.35nkun2). The best way to improve your pronunciation is probably to just listen to people speaking Hawaiian a lot, though. Continuing to listen to Hawaiian music would probably be helpful for learning pronunciations!

Hawaiian grammar is deceptively simple, but can be pretty difficult to learn from an English-speaking perspective because of how different the rules are. To give just one example, Hawaiian doesn't have adjectives or adverbs in the same way as languages like English or Spanish do. Instead, stative verbs, which refer to a state of affairs, rather than to an action, event, or process, are used. For example, in the sentence "Ua maʻi ʻo ia" meaning "He is sick", where "maʻi" is the stative verb meaning "to be sick" but used to represent the adjective "sick". Verbs also don't actually conjugate at all in Hawaiian. You add verb markers (māka painu) to indicate tense and mood, but the verb itself doesn't change. In the previous sentence, the verb marker "ua" is used to show that becoming sick is a completed action.

There's so many resources out there for learning about Hawaiian history that it's difficult to choose any in particular, but to keep it brief I'll just recommend a couple books. The first one is "Hawaiʻis Story by Hawaiʻis Queen" by Queen Liliʻuokalani. The second is "Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism" by Noenoe K. Silva.

I can't think of any specific stereotypes or misconceptions off the top of my head, but I definitely think that certain parts of Hawaiian history aren't very well known outside of the islands. One of these things is the history of how Hawaii became a state in the first place. Unlike most other states prior to becoming part of the US, the Hawaiian Kingdom was a recognized sovereign nation. It was illegally annexed in a coup d'état in 1893 in which Queen Liliʻuokalani was overthrown. After being deposed, Queen Liliʻuokalani was held in her home, ʻIolani Palace, under house arrest. (An actual fun fact to finish this out though is that ʻIolani Palace is the only royal palace on US soil!)

*For anyone interested in other Austronesian languages, trussel2.com also has dictionaries for Kiribati, Marshallese, Mokilese, Palauan, Pohnpeian, and Yapese!