Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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It must confuse English learners to hear phrases like, "I'm home", instead of "I am at home." We don't say I'm school, or I'm post office. (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

This happens a lot in English. Probably other languages too.

"Love you."

"See ya."

"Be right back."

And more!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It wouldn't surprise me if this subject-dropping was introduced into English by non-native speakers? English is actually a bit peculiar as languages go in its wanting to put a subject in practically every sentence. It's raining. It's about time. What is the "it" here referring to? Linguists will tell you you're looking at a subject placeholder that doesn't convey any special meaning but simply completes the grammar. And people learning English from other languages that don't need this fail to see the point. So they just start saying "About time we dropped that stupid it!" and then even native speakers start thinking yeah, why not ditch the subject if we don't really need it?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It's a thing that happens in most languages that create rules about sentence structure.

Basically, really important or frequently used statements will break the rules to... Save time.

Can you imagine that scene from scene from half bake, instead of "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, fuck you, I'm out!"

You'd get "I will fuck you, I will fuck you, I will fuck you, I will fuck you, I think that you are cool, I will fuck you, I will leave now."

Something like 'Im going to the store' only becomes 'going to the store!' in contexts of urgency and familiarity, like yelling it on the way out the door to your spouse. You wouldn't likely do that in your workplace.

https://youtube.com/shorts/5CceU7oR22s

This kids great if you like language nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I always thought that "Fuck you" was a command ("You fuck you").

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It is, it means "Fuck yourself".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah, one context in which a subject is not required even with proper English grammar is in imperatives, which makes sense given the implied urgency. If "Watch out!" had to be something more long-winded like "You must watch out!" you'd probably be dead.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/shorts/5CceU7oR22s

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Te amo.

Nos vemos.

The top two are not too far out, the Spanish is similar - "you I love" "see us". Be right back is so weird in English but funnier in Spanish, ya vuelvo, sounds like "I am already back"