Useful words 04/29/2008
 

Here's something for you to mull over as you go about your day: what words do you think are the most useful for your daily life? I recently found myself idly thinking about which (new) words I've gotten the most mileage out of since I've been here, or which were the most important to know early on. My completely non-rigorous, unscientific answers include:
--generally
--kind (as in a type of something -- this kind vs that kind)
--most/majority
--same
--almost

I got sidetracked pretty quickly, but I thought it was funny that most of the words that jumped immediately to mind had to do with degree.

Among words not up for consideration were pronouns, articles, numbers, and a random assortment of basic words like "hello", "night", "friend", etc., because I already knew those when I got here. I also discounted "snow" and "cold" as purely a matter of timing.

 


Comments

Tony

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:03:05

Yeah - I always found things like "unfortunately," "of course" and "second-to-last" were good to know.

I should have known something when one of the first phrases in a Russian textbook I used was, "Excuse me, I think I have salmonella."

 

Rob

Sat, 03 May 2008 20:58:58

I read a quote one time along the lines of, the only two phrases you need in a foreign language are to ask for food and to tell a woman you love her. And if you have to dispense with one, its the one about food because if you tell a woman you love her, she'll probably feed you.

 



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