What's Da Buzz?

For the fun of the English language, I thought I would get a lesson from my hubby and pass it on as I struggle with this all the time.

What is the past tense of the word hit? Is it hitted?

No, hitted is not a word. The past tense of hit is hit. The reason why the past tense of hit is hit is because when you move to throw something at a target whether it be your fist or a book the end result is what you are describing. The action being done is “throwing.” Hit is describing an action already done because throwing a punch results in either a hit or a miss. But to make it even harder, there are 41 definitions for the word hit.

What about the word pit? Is the word pit already in past tense? Is the past tense of pit pit?

Of course not, the past tense of pit is pitted. For example, you want to pit a peach which means you pit the pit of the peach. This is fun isn’t this? How many definitions does the word pit have? Luckily, it only has 24 definitions.

Okay, so is the past tense of the word sit or sitted?

The answer is neither. The past tense of the word sit is sat. Does the word sit mean the same as seat? No, it doesn’t mean the same but I thought it did. To sit is the act of planting your butt on a chair or bench. To seat is when a hostess at a restaurant finds a place for you to sit. When you and your company sit down then you have been seated after you sat.

Fun isn’t it? I wonder if I’ll ever fully understand the English language.

Live well,

Anah

I believe I will not find the end of things in the English language and American vernacular to amuse me and keep my interest. So I wanted to dive into 3 simple words. Those words are eccentric, sorted / sordid, and retirement.

Why eccentric? Well, I was watching Iron Man 2 with my hubby and the word came up describing Tony Stark. It caught my attention so I had to find out what it meant. Looking it up in the online dictionaries really didn’t answer it for me as there seemed to be more to it than a mere dictionary definition. Goryo made this one incredibly easy for me.

“Eccentric means you are weird and wealthy. If you are middle class or poor, you are just weird or strange.”

That definition totally fits how it is commonly used here.

Why sorted? Well, the word itself is very straight forward on its definition. That wasn’t the problem, it was my occasional accent that comes up when I’m tired. The context was I had tried to say “I sorted the laundry.” But my accent changed it to

“I sordid the laundry.”

My hubby was laughing on that one as he explained how badly I changed the definition of the sentence with my accent. Instead of putting dirty laundry in piles, I changed it to an incorrect grammatical sentence meaning I was doing dirty things to the dirty laundry. Gotta watch that accent.

On a side note, I recently had a business transaction with a Philippine company. The lady on the phone stated I would need to “pint it up” regarding an email attachment. Grammatically, standard slang, and enunciation wise, that made little sense as it could be taken to mean adding more alcoholic drinks to someone or something. What she meant to say was “print it out.” That would have made complete sense.

Lastly, the word retirement came up in a discussion on prefixes, suffixes, and the general working of the English language and all of its numerous exceptions. “Re-” means again or back. “Tire” means to become exhausted or fatigued.

The suffix “-ment” usually refers to a state of being or the state of being a verb. So using the English language rules strictly, retirement means “the state of being exhausted again.”

However, that is totally wrong as it means you have ceased employment usually due to age or sufficient enough savings.

The joys of the English language will never end.

Thank you and live well,

Anah

Today, I must share with you a blunder I made on the technological side and the solution I generated for it. As you read, you’ll understand the title.

First, you will need a little background information. Our household has recently acquired a brand new 27″ iMac. It was supposed to be for my hubby to mount on the wall in his computer area but it is in my office. I must say I really like my new toy. Toy? I mean tool. Yah, that’s it.

As much as I like it, I have to admit there is a minor design oversight in the iMac. They placed the SD memory card reader next to the DVD drive. This may not seem like an issue but it is if you aren’t paying attention or are tired.

To be blunt, I accidentally put the SD card in the DVD drive. Looking online for solutions, I found out I wasn’t the only one who had a brain fart. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a workable solution. Some tried to send in their computer or take it to a service station to get the card removed. The danger in that is you have succeeded in invalidating your warranty as it counts against normal usage. There is also no guarantee they will get it out either.

So what do you do? I tried a variety of things to fish it out but I had to be cautious on my selections so I wouldn’t damage the DVD drive. In the end, I found a use for those annoying inserts in a magazine. The stiff paper was the perfect solution for a device rigid enough to fish out the card but soft enough to not damage the drive. See photos below.

How do you do it? Well, you are going fishing. The answer is to simply change the stiff paper into a fishing hook of sorts. I have included a photo of my finished “tool” so you can find out a potential solution should you make this same warranty-busting blunder.

Hopefully, you will never need to use this advice. If you do though, be nice to your iMac and yourself. In any case, learn from your mistake and don’t repeat it again. Or in the case like mine, get more rest after having a baby.

Live well and make it a great day,

Anah