Igenlode Wordsmith > Recent Status Updates

More graphic phrases: Я не могу лезть иоп стол в моей возрасте! (I cannot crawl under the table at my age)
Я поднялся с пола с большим трудом (I got up from the floor with great difficulty - presumably the sequel to the above :D)

She manages to pull off yet further highly effective twists...

In Lesson 19 (of 30) we *finally* get an extremely cursory introduction to perfective and imperfective verbs, as opposed to the far more confusing verbs of motion, which were introduced back in Lesson 11...

Внезапно нотёл лопнул, машина сломалась, поезд остановился, п он был принуждён пойти пешком по полям - the sample sentence in which a ordinary railway trip suddenly turns into disaster when the [steam] engine's boiler explodes is verging on the "postillion struck by lightning" variety!

What on *earth* did I mean by the helpful marginal note "adverbs like noble gases"?

Verbs of motion again, not in a single block this time!

I'm pretty sure nobody in the 1930s talked about "Native American mothers", or even about "the natives", not in America... or about people having "Dutch heritage". (And 'Ingrid Anderssen' and her husband Eric sound far more Swedish than Dutch to me...)

Participles. I remember those (but haven't reached then again in the textbook[s], so couldn't construct them myself! )

Nobody in 1922 would talk about "glamorous silent movie stars"! How can this writer be a famous historical novelist?

"The familiar scent of rosin to keep the strings supple" - no, that is *not* what rosin is for!

"Cora crossed herself in the Catholic way" - what, as opposed to the Eastern Orthodox way?
So Emily speaks fluent Gaelic, and yet is *not* herself Catholic Irish (or she wouldn't be thinking such a thing)... right.

I'm not a fan of the adjectives in this opening passage - the author is clearly desperate for description.
'imposing ebony door' - really? It's just a New York tenement...
'Bevelled glass', 'steely clouds', 'her eyes carried the unmistakable ruby hue of grief' - 'ruby hue'? *Really*?
And then we get some token Gaelic to show they're quaint Irish despite the chandelier and Tiffany glass...

I don't understand the point of this list of infinitives. They're not particularly common verbs (to cheer up, to colonise, to dive) and they're not particularly good examples of the conjugations they are listed under, being often irregular in parts... but the irregularities aren't listed.
But then if you wanted a list of irregular verbs to be studied, there are far more useful/common ones to be had...

I still haven't covered the oblique cases of adjectives - but they had apparently appeared by p38 of the accompanying 1930s textbook!
"Frankly, this stage of learning the language must inevitably be a little tedious"... I do like an honest text :-D

Aarrgghh, numbers!

You can't help but admire a textbook that contains sample sentences like "He was killed by a tiger" or "My uncle is in hospital and my aunt is in prison. Unfortunately it is not possible to visit my aunt" - so much more entertaining than that dull Spanish course book about the type of souvenirs to be bought in South America!

I have zero recollection of this negative-genitive business, but there is a logic to it: one has a thing, but none OF a thing :-)
(And likewise много, which I do know and which they haven't mentioned yet...)

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..