Igenlode Wordsmith > Recent Status Updates

Pairs of prepositions: виз, нас, and кот :D

On those questions for which answers are actually given I managed to make multiple errors, as opposed to just on those elements that were being specifically tested... :(

I do not at all remember that поезд идёт, but автобус едет!

And nowadays, of course, the whole *concept* of flowers being out of season doesn't even exist; we really do expect to get flowers from Africa, not just as a joke, and to have all flowers available to buy all year round..

So many... lists... to memorise...

I had totally forgotten that the present tense of the perfective forms of the verbs is the future tense (as it were!)
But it does vaguely sound 'right' as a construction, so it must ring some bells somewhere ...

These books really do expect you to memorise a colossal amount per lesson: for this one they are covering the past tense *and* perfective/imperfective verbs *and* expressions of time *and* days of the week *and* months of the year. All at once,
Luckily for me I actually do subconsciously remember the majority of this enormous list of verb-forms they just present the learner with...

The 'substitution drills' in this course are an excellent form of practice that gives the reader a good workout while requiring very little space in the text - but my major problem with all these exercises is that none of them save a single translation per chapter have correct answers supplied, so you never know where you made mistakes. I can see why, but it makes solo learning much harder.

Riftwar story is disappointing. Symphony of Ages a bit clunkily written, but powerful concept. Generally good.

Oops! I found an obvious typo in the exercise: приятно ездить нам отоцикле... (на мотоцикле)

Irregular verbs of motion *groan*
I never did get the hang of these the first time round...

Diana Gabaldon's contribution feels very much written for the female gaze, I'm afraid ; the first of these stories that I've been uncomfortable with.

So far I've been favourably impressed by the universes I didn't know and a little confused about the timeline of the Robin Hobb one: is this the original colonisation of the Rain Wilds, preceding "The Liveship Traders"?

All occurrences in this chapter of the word мастерство (as per the award received by Smekhov! ) have been amended in tiny writing to ремесло, presumably on my original teacher's instructions!

After 150 pages they haven't even managed to START crossing Greenland yet, but are still negotiating the coastal waters...

A nice easy chapter, as we'd already covered the prepositional case in the very first chapter of the other book!

Ironically, two of the words I had to learn for this chapter (смелый, courageous and горло болит, my throat hurts) both subsequently turned up in YouTube videos yesterday: virtue rewarded! (As, oddly enough, did представитель, министерство and торговля, albeit all in separate contexts - one phrase I *never* thought was going to be useful outside the context of the Soviet 1960s!)

"The stress tends to be capricious in the short form of many adjectives. The reader should not worry about this unduly at the present stage. He may even be comforted to know that in some cases Russians themselves fail to agree on the stress of the short form of the adjective" - always nice to see a textbook with a sense of humour!

I had forgotten how very, very good Pratchett was back when he was still good...