robglazebrook.com

Grammar class hurt my head today. We started a new chapter… verbs. You never really realize how atrocious the English language is, until you start looking at the verbs.

I think I’m supposed to be blaming my verb problems on a bunch of dead French persons. Specifically, the ones involved with the Norman Invasion of England (Angleterre en francais) in 1066. Way back then, English was (go figure) a lot different. There were many different regular patterns which verbs could follow. Unfortunately, the only surviving words that followed the old patterns were the most commonly used English words. The rest of the words just adopted the “add -ed or -ing or -en to alter the verb” rules, because only the stupid, uncultured Britons were speaking English, so it didn’t really matter much.

Which means that the most commonly used verbs in the English language are also the most irregular.

Take “to be,” for example. Who would’ve thought that existing could be so complicated? But, it is. I am, but you are, and he is, while they were. At the same time, I have been while they are being (or at least she was). Yuck.

And on top of all of that, I tend to make up my own words. Sometimes without even realizing it. I make up my own verb formulas, and use them, and because they sound accurate, people know what I’m talking about. But that doesn’t really help much, come class time. I was given the word “to smite” in class today. I came up with the correct past tense and past participle forms (they being ’smote’ and ’smitten’), but there were some other variations in there that I was just as likely to have used as the proper words. Smited, for example. Smake. Smoke. Smoten. And the class favorite, smutted, which a few of us have decided is a new naughty word.

I do this sort of verb-shift often. I think, but I also (being from the Midwest, or just being myself) thunk. Which should really make the past tense form “thank”. Think, thank, thunk, as in sink, sank, sunk. But that doesn’t work. And dink, dank, and dunk all have different meanings entirely. And then there’s “sneak”. According to my teacher, “sneaked” was the only sneaky thing you could do in the past tense when she was a little girl attending Catholic school forty years ago. Now, however, you can (according to the common tongue and the dictionary) have ’snuck’ in the past. And personally, I’m just as inclined to have snook. :)

Bring. Bring is another nasty one, but I’m not the only one confused there. Bring, brought, brought is the proper present, past, and past participle forms of the word. However, most of the class fully believed you could bring, brang, and brung, which my grammar teacher insists you can only do as a small child.

Maybe it’s just the sounds of the words that confuse me so much. Once you repeat “eat” and “ate” to yourself a dozen or so times, it only makes sense that “meet” is immediately followed by “mate”. *grin*

—–

Okies, that verbage verbiage is getting too verbose. :)

I ended up not going in to work at all this weekend due to the shoddy weather. Which means I’m going to be a couple of hundred dollars poorer than I was anticipating. Which means I’m going to have to be far more careful with my money than usual. Which sucks, because I’m already fairly careful with my cash. And I’ve already spent a lot of it. *g*

Well, maybe not a *lot* of it. But some of it. Megan and I needed groceries. And chocolate (because it’s cheap after Valentine’s Day). And two new DVDs. :) The DVDs were my fault, yeah. I consider DVDs to be a necessary expenditure. We watched two or three movies together this weekend. And I watched another two or three while she was at work. :)

What I did *not* do, however, was my homework. Which I have a lot of. Silly (stupid) me. I should have written a four-page debate last night, but I didn’t. Why is it so hard to write a four-page debate, when I’m willing to bet that, were I to print out this entry double-spaced, I’d have four pages easily? Je ne sais pas.

I’m going to have a lot of schoolwork this week, really. Which isn’t going to be much fun, because I’ve gotten used to relaxing this semester. I have a paper due Tuesday, a French test on Wednesday (which also means completing 15 or so workbook pages I haven’t looked at yet), a debate on Thursday, and a movie due on Thursday. And then another movie due next Tuesday. :p So yeah, this week isn’t going to be much fun. Don’t expect to hear much from me.

And I guess that means the site revampination will have to wait a week or two. *pout*

*hugs*
-Rob