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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.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"is curiously missing" could also be replaced with other verbs that capture the unexpected / curious nature of its absence such as "has vanished" or "has disappeared".

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

Those could work, too. It's a good example of using synonyms to give different connotations - all those words convey that the cutting board is not there, but in different ways.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Vanished/disappeared is of course impossible literally but, colloquially, it definitely suggests something unusual happened without directly sounding accusatory. To me it reads a bit more lighthearted than other options. And I don't think it would be misinterpreted in text form.

Dad would always say, "Who took the cutting board?" And not in a nice way lol.