Thread: Thinking in English

What verb do you use to describe a very loud, unpleasant and quite long laughter? We use ржать for that in Russian.

In addition to Seraph's suggestions, I would offer "to bray with laughter" or "to have a braying laugh". ("To bray" literally refers to the йа-йа noise of a donkey.)

There's also the word "cackle", which refers to the loud, unpleasant, and feminine laughter characteristic of a "хабалка" sort of woman. So, in general: witches cackle; gossipy teenage girls sometimes cackle; men usually don't "cackle" unless they're голубые и женеподобные. (Literally, "cackle" is the sound of chickens.)

Women cackling in the onomatopoeic song "Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little", from 1962's The Music Man:

Originally Posted by Seraph

I'm not sure of your meaning for Квадратные черты лица, possibly dull facial features/dull featured/ or even plain featured?
.

This should explain it perfectly
terminator.jpg

Originally Posted by Doomer

This should explain it perfectly
terminator.jpg

Yes, this is exactly what I meant with квадратные черты лица.


Okay, some new questions.

1) I was wondering what verb do you use to describe the proccess of putting something consisting of very small parts into a container or something? The good substances to illustrate that "consisting of very small parts" are sand, powder, etc. I would use сыпать in Russian for that.

2) I was watching a movie today and saw a ceiling dropping down powder. I was thinking about using to flake off, but I think it's more of an action when something breaks off in flakes. I would use сыпаться in Russian for that.

3) How can I express пить залпом in English? What is пить залпом? It's when you're trying to drink something down without any pauses, like to breathe in or take a short break. It's like when you try to drink something down in one huge sip.


4) What is your phrase for мышечная память? This is a type of a memory when your mustles move in the same way without you realizing that because you have repeated that movement a huge amount of time. The good example of that is all the mouth movements we use to pronounce sounds, you don't have to make a deliberate effort to reproduce all the mouth movements needed to utter a sound, word, sentence etc correctly, in fact you don't even think about those movements, you just do them automatically.

Okay, that's it for today. Thanks in advance for all your great help

Originally Posted by iCake

Yes, this is exactly what I meant with квадратные черты лица.


Okay, some new questions.

1) I was wondering what verb do you use to describe the proccess of putting something consisting of very small parts into a container or something? The good substances to illustrate that "consisting of very small parts" are sand, powder, etc. I would use сыпать in Russian for that.

2) I was watching a movie today and saw a ceiling dropping down powder. I was thinking about using to flake off, but I think it's more of an action when something breaks off in flakes. I would use сыпаться in Russian for that.

3) How can I express пить залпом in English? What is пить залпом? It's when you're trying to drink something down without any pauses, like to breathe in or take a short break. It's like when you try to drink something down in one huge sip.


4) What is your phrase for мышечная память? This is a type of a memory when your mustles move in the same way without you realizing that because you have repeated that movement a huge amount of time. The good example of that is all the mouth movements we use to pronounce sounds, you don't have to make a deliberate effort to reproduce all the mouth movements needed to utter a sound, word, sentence etc correctly, in fact you don't even think about those movements, you just do them automatically.

Okay, that's it for today. Thanks in advance for all your great help

квадратные черты лица = square jawed.

(1) In English, same verb is used for сыпать и __лить verbs. to pour liquids, to pour powders, grain, sand, dust etc. For some instances, 'to sprinkle', 'to dust' or 'to powder' something, eg dusting with powdered sugar, a dusting of snow. But these are usually for small amounts, to make a thin covering. So when going in a container, pour the powder in. When the powder is going on in small amounts, as in sugar, talcum powder etc, then use 'to dust', or 'to powder', 'to sprinkle' or even 'to shake some ___ on'. If lots of the solid substance is being put on, then it would be 'poured on' also. Ground pepper would use it's own verb 'to pepper' something, and salt would use it's own verb, 'to salt'. "Shake some salt (pepper, or whatever) on it." Could also use verb derived from implement used. 'He shoveled the cement powder into the cement mixer.' Also, could use "to spoon in" for some types of things.

(2) Disintegrating into powder, coming to bits, ( & shivered to atoms)

(3) gulp it down, chug it down, gulp down without stopping, For food, same idea is 'to wolf it down' There are a few others, scarf it down,...

(4) I have seen 'muscle memory' used, and some people will be fully familiar with this, but not every one, I expect. For a habitual action not requiring any thought by person performing, but could be quite involved, and not easy to explain. Gymnastics, figure skating etc, take time to learn, but once learned, person doesn't need to think about individual actions, it's muscle memory. (it doesn't matter that the muscle has no memory, it's called that anyway.)

Originally Posted by iCake

2) I was watching a movie today and saw a ceiling dropping down powder. I was thinking about using to flake off, but I think it's more of an action when something breaks off in flakes. I would use сыпаться in Russian for that.

Originally Posted by Seraph

(2) Disintegrating into powder, coming to bits, ( & shivered to atoms)

First of all, I learned a new thing from your reply, but I don't really mean that the whole ceiling was dropping down powder. There was just a small spot that was doing that, and the whole thing was happening because someone was jumping up and down onto the floor right above the spot. And the powder was really more like a dust of white substance, which is usually put on ceilings.

I think you could use 'shed' for small amounts of ceiling plaster dust coming down. "The person in the room above was jumping up and down, causing the ceiling plaster in the room below to (fracture/break up/fragment/crack/...) and (shed/give off/emit/...) dust into the room."

"The person in the room above was jumping up and down, causing the ceiling plaster in the room below to shed dust into the room."


(I added a little of qualification to the pour section above also.)

I'm going to ask more of the ''why is that so' questions today.

I have to write down a dialogue from a movie I watched today to lay the foundation for my first two questions.

A critically ill girl sits on a bench in the graveyard. The girl's friend comes up to her and the girl says:
- G: Big ups for finding me
- F: It's a rather morbid choice of resting place
- G: I came here a lot when I was a kid. Sometimes you just need a place to think, you know.
Some unimportant stuff
- F: I'll take you somewhere else, somewhere safe.
- G: Okay, but can we stay here a bit longer? It's nice. Unless, you have somewhere to be
- F: No, I'm good

1) Why the friend says '... of resting place'. Shouldn't it have been '... of a resting place'? I've been noticing that sometimes countable nouns go with no article at all. Is it because they're used in set phrases? Or maybe there is a rule for when you should not place any article before a noun, even though the noun is countable? Please, help me work through this thing. It would be impossible for me to get to the desired level of English thinking untill this stuff is dealt with Right now it plunges me into total confusion. One more thing, the last thing of this kind I can remember right now is "heat of battle" rather than "heat of a battle"

2) The last phrase of the dialogue, which is "No, I'm good", just stuns me. Yeah, I know that it basically means that the friend doesn't have somewhere else to be, but the logic of the phrase is just beyond my comprehension. Please, someone tell me why this phrase was ever even used.

3) I've seen a lot of sentences of this pattern on the internet.

-- how do/would I do that.

I ask that because we don't really ask themselves 'how do I do that' questions. In fact, it would be transformed into an infinitive form as this - how to do that? So, the question itself is this. Do you ask themselves "how do I" questions rather than "how to do" ones. I think it'd be invaluable to know that if I want to achieve what I seek.

Well, I still have some questions but I think it's a rather long post already. Don't want to take too much of your time. I can't wait to see your replies and thank you in advance

A critically ill girl sits on a bench in the graveyard. The girl's friend comes up to her and the girl says:
- G: Big ups for finding me
- F: It's a rather morbid choice of resting place
- G: I came here a lot when I was a kid. Sometimes you just need a place to think, you know.

It should be "of a resting place". It just sounds weird otherwise...

Some unimportant stuff
- F: I'll take you somewhere else, somewhere safe.
- G: Okay, but can we stay here a bit longer? It's nice. Unless, you have somewhere to be
- F: No, I'm good

"I'm good" is a saying we all use... a lot.
I suppose it would be considered slang, but basically it's saying "I'm satisfied/content" or something to that degree.

-- how do/would I do that.

I ask that because we don't really ask themselves 'how do I do that' questions. In fact, it would be transformed into an infinitive form as this - how to do that? So, the question itself is this. Do you ask themselves "how do I" questions rather than "how to do" ones. I think it'd be invaluable to know that if I want to achieve what I seek.

In general we never say "How to do", it's always "How do I" or "how do you" and so on. "How to do" sounds very wrong.

It should be "of a resting place". It just sounds weird otherwise...

Not sure if regionalism has anything to do with this. "That's a strange choice of profession!" "What a lovely shade of pink/rose/green etc!" "He's a despicable kind of thief!" For me, no article is necessary for those to sound normal. Likewise "It's a rather morbid choice of resting place."

"I'm good" is a saying we all use... a lot.

I never say it. "I'm fine, thanks" is what I use, along with some other phrases. As far as the movie dialog, don't know what I'd say.

I think now that you're hearing two different ideas this would be useful:
2--> Urban Dictionary: I'm Good


As for number 1, there's a discussion here, which seems like this user has/had the same confusion as you do now, so i think it's pretty satisfying:

Singular Countable Noun WITHOUT an article!

And again for number 1, i hope it would be a bit relevant:

Can I omit a/an before a singular countable noun? - WordReference Forums

Hopefully, you're less confused now!

Originally Posted by Seraph

"That's a strange choice of profession!" "What a lovely shade of pink/rose/green etc!" "He's a despicable kind of thief!" For me, no article is necessary for those to sound normal. Likewise "It's a rather morbid choice of resting place."

Correct me if I'm wrong but you basically just said that it's safe to omit an article before a counable singular noun if it's preceded by of? And I would be much obliged if you elaborate on these and those things.

Today's questions:

1) What verb do you use to describe a process of making an expansible furniture, um, become something else? For example, I have a couch which is capable of being turned into a bed if you pull out its bottom part to expand it. I was thinking about the verb to fold, but I don't think if it's the right word. Also I would like to know a verb of a conrary meaning, as in to make my couch back into a couch I would use вытащить, вытянуть, расправить or even сделать to mean the first part of my question in Russian. Заправить, собрать, or втащить for the second part

2) What the difference between these things:
Have you done that yet?
Have you done it already?

As I understand it now the first one is kind of more impatient like you want that to be already done at the time you ask it. The second one is more general. Do I get it right?

3) I was thinking about what verb do you use to mean the proccess of smell's gradual disappearance, usually a bad one. Blown away or something like that? I'd use выветриваться in Russian

That's it for today. As always I can't thank you enough for all of the great help I've already got from you and more than that I'm sure there is more of that to come. Good day!

Originally Posted by iCake

Correct me if I'm wrong but you basically just said that it's safe to omit an article before a counable singular noun if it's preceded by of? And I would be much obliged if you elaborate on this and that things.

I don't know what the general rule is, but in those cases, seems ok. There are times when an article is needed, after 'of'.

After thinking a bit about this, it seems that after 'kind' and 'sort', it is optional.
What kind/sort of (plan, car, tree, fish, rock, animal, plant etc) is it?

What kind/sort of a (plan, car, tree, fish, rock, animal, plant etc) is it?

He's a tall sort of a man. She's a nice kind of a teacher. 'A' is optional in those.

There are probably some other such things. "This is a special type of a plant!" optional a.

Originally Posted by iCake

Today's questions:

1) What verb do you use to describe a process of making an expansible furniture, um, become something else? For example, I have a couch which is capable of being turned into a bed if you pull out its bottom part to expand it. I was thinking about the verb to fold, but I don't think if it's the right word. Also I would like to know a verb of a conrary meaning, as in to make my couch back into a couch I would use вытащить, вытянуть, расправить or even сделать to mean the first part of my question in Russian. Заправить, собрать, or втащить for the second part

fold out couch => Fold the couch out into a bed. Fold the bed back (up) into a couch.

2) What the difference between these things:
Have you done that yet?
Have you done it already?

As I understand it now the first one is kind of more impatient like you want that to be already done at the time you ask it. The second one is more general. Do I get it right?

I can't really answer this one. For me the tone of voice is more telling about the degree of impatience. I think you just might be right.

3) I was thinking about what verb do you use to mean the proccess of smell's gradual disappearance, usually a bad one. Blown away or something like that? I'd use выветриваться in Russian

That's it for today. As always I can't thank you enough for all of the great help I've already got from you and more than that I'm sure there is more of that to come. Good day!

The foul reek/odour/smell faded/dissipated/dispersed/diminished gradually. You don't want bookish things do you? "The malodorous scent evanesced..."

Thanks for detailed answers to my previous question. I have some new ones now:

1) Maybe this thing exists only in Russia, but I think it's worth to ask but first I need to elaborate on the matter a bit. Our public buses have a special number indicating what route they follow. So, I wonder if you have a short phrase for a phrase "bus number 25 (for example)". We would just use an ordinal number such as twenty-fifth to refer to bus number 25 briefly.

2) How do you call this in English? gorka.jpg

3) What verb do you use to describe a process of being very close to someone in order to prevent them from falling, hurting etc, especially by catching them, supporting them, holding them etc. I would use придерживать in Russian

That's it for today. Take care!

(1) route number or just 'number' "The number 16 bus" "The route 16 bus" If you said it "bus number 16" people would know what you meant, I think.

(2) (children's) slide

(3) to steady someone, is how I would phrase it. "The guide helped to steady the dizzy tourist."

Okay, today's questions.

1) It's almost the same as this:

Originally Posted by iCake

3) What verb do you use to describe a process of being very close to someone in order to prevent them from falling, hurting etc, especially by catching them, supporting them, holding them etc. I would use придерживать in Russian

But the reason is a little different for that. Now it's all about not letting someone move too fast and if they move too fast you will restrain them by slowing them down, but it's not that you push them or drag them, you at least try to do that gently and you certainly don't restrain them from moving wherever they want. Strangely I would use the same Russian word for that, which is придерживать

2) What word do you use to generally describe a process of repairing a house (like renovating it, putting up wallpapers etc). We say ремонт here.

3) This one is not very pleasant but how do you call those things that sometimes clump together in your nose out of nose slime We say козявка or казюля here

Originally Posted by iCake

But the reason is a little different for that. Now it's all about not letting someone move too fast and if they move too fast you will restrain them by slowing them down, but it's not that you push them or drag them, you at least try to do that gently and you certainly don't restrain them from moving wherever they want.

2) What word do you use to generally describe a process of repairing a house (like renovating it, putting up wallpapers etc). We say ремонт here.

3) This one is not very pleasant but how do you call those things that sometimes clump together in your nose out of nose slime We say козявка or казюля here

1) Смотря кого придерживаешь (I mean, it depends on who you're "restraining"). We might use different words if you're talking about a 5-year-old child in a grocery store; or an adult who is just beginning to learn how to ski/ice-skate/scuba-dive (if you're the instructor) or an elderly person who has difficulty walking. With a small child, we might say "to keep on a short leash" (which literally refers to walking a dog!). With an adult, we might say "to escort" or "to assist with walking."

2) If you are making major structural changes (like knocking down an interior wall between two small rooms, to create one large room), we'd say "to remodel" or "to do remodeling." Superficial changes (like putting up wallpaper) would be "to redecorate." As a general term that covers both extremes, "to renovate" and "renovation" will work.

3) The "nose slime" (when it's wet) is colloquially called "snot." When the snot dries or partly dries into clumps, these are called "boogers" in US English, but I believe that "bogey" is the usual term in the UK. (Hence the "bogey-flavoured" jellybeans in Harry Potter.)

P.S. A детская горка is sometimes called "a sliding board", although Seraph's answer "a slide" seems to be the more common usage. And if the slide is spiral-shaped, kids invariably call it a "twisty slide."

P.S. I forgot to add that "booger" is pronounced to rhyme with "sugar," but not with "cougar" (пума).

Also, I wanted to share this slightly disgusting joke from my childhood:

Q. What's the difference between boogers and caviar?
A. Some people have never eaten caviar.

A variant:

Q. What's the difference between boogers and fried liver?
A. No mother has ever said to her children, "STOP eating your liver!"