Ask Lemmy

26707 readers

2793 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

How can I add an emotional undertone in English? (feddit.de)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

56 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Context: I'm missing a cutting board. So I wrote in our telegram family group: "Wo ist eigentlich unser zweites großes Schneidebrett hin?" (literally: "Where is actually our second big cuttingboard thither?").

By using the modal particle "eigentlich" I insinuate that something is oddly off and express an emotional state of curiousity and/or mild discontent.

By adding "hin", I notify that I ask because it is not where it is supposed to be and not because I don't know where it should be.

Now I ask myself, how would I express this additional information in English?

Edit: Thank you all for your answers! I learned a lot. Just our cutting board is still gone, and probably enjoying it's freedom somewhere ... I suppose.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Actually this could be shorter:

So … anybody know where the cutting board has gotten to?

This phrase “has gotten to” vaguely refers to a child or animal that is missing; and the missing implies it has a known home location.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ooh ooh! Even shorter:

So … anybody know where the cutting board went?

“went” implies that I know it has moved, ie that I knew where it was, and know it’s not there right now.

Referencing a specific location can either mean “I saw it somewhere once” or it can mean “I know its home location”, and the first use case doesn’t make sense per theory of mind because if you saw it in a random place others wouldn’t know where that place is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The cutting board seems to have vanished!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Send it back, Picard!