How often do you brush your teeth? Sure, we’ve all been told the ‘twice-a-day’ , but how many of us strictly follow it?

Are there any cultures out there with alternative practices that still maintain good oral health?

I’m intrigued to hear your brushing habits, thoughts on this, and any interesting findings you’ve stumbled upon.

  • UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    You don’t need to be sorry to anything at all. I learnt from you. Even if understanding/using the things I just read will take time I have heard things that I didn’t know existed. Like the alternating long/short. Imma start paying more attension to that maybe ppl actually use it, and I’ve just been ignoring it. The other thing is not to “attribute” objects. It’s kinda a bummer because I feel like my mother tounge uses it a lot, so I kinda think that way. Is it correct to phrase it like: “the increase in X tells me” or “the increase in X leads me to”? Does the focus have to be on X (only giving it adjectives, I believe you’ve done that)?

    I’m fucking ashamed that probably the single largest info drop that I got for speaking tips came from me being a fucking slob… (I should change)

    Also what is that “new language” that you been trying to learn, maybe just maybe, it’s mine :)

    side note: I always have problems with edge case (at least for me) tenses, when the “perfect” is in there I’m out of there. Thx again.

    ^I tried using short/long in this post btw, hope it worked

    • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Like the alternating long/short. Imma start paying more attension to that maybe ppl actually use it, and I’ve just been ignoring it.

      This is basically just a trick to sound more natural with less grammar, so feel free to pick and choose when to use it. So far I think you’ve struck a pretty good balance!

      Is it correct to phrase it like: “the increase in X tells me” or “the increase in X leads me to”?

      Yes, both of these sentences sound very natural to me. I think you’ve gotten the hang of it

      Also what is that “new language” that you been trying to learn, maybe just maybe, it’s mine :)

      Japanese! I’m a mega-weaboo lol

      I’m fucking ashamed that probably the single largest info drop that I got for speaking tips came from me being a fucking slob… (I should change)

      Yeah, you might want to work on your hygiene… It’s OK, though. We all have our circumstances and other people on the internet are rarely as perfect as they claim to be!

      Does the focus have to be on X (only giving it adjectives, I believe you’ve done that)?

      It’s less about the pattern of the sentence and more about a grammatical concept called the “agent”. The agent is the “doer” of the sentence. In English, the agent is usually (not always!) based on the sentence subject and native speakers will use one of several different tricks to shuffle the agent around when talking about an inanimate subject. I’ll list a few additional ways of doing this below to help illustrate:

      Unnatural: My shirt wrinkled

      This is a normal type of sentence, so the agent is the subject (“my shirt”). An inanimate agent sounds unnatural, so try to avoid this

      Natural: My shirt is wrinkled

      In this sentence we’ve introduced a copula (“is”) as the main verb of the sentence. Copula-based sentences like this one describe states of being and thus contain no action at all (e.g.: “My shirt is red” – no action!). No action means no agent. No agent means no problem!

      Natural: My shirt got wrinkled

      This is a way of speaking called the “passive voice” which implies a hidden agent as the true doer of the action. Since the agent is hidden, it won’t be based on the subject, so an inanimate subject can be used without sounding unnatural.

      Natural: My shirt wrinkled itself

      This is a way of speaking called the “reflexive voice” which you can use if the verb in question also has a transitive form (AKA: if it’s a “labile verb”). In the reflexive voice, all agents automatically become animate. No inanimate agent means no problem!

      Natural: The sun rose

      Some non-living things are still considered to be animate. These are almost always things which appear to move of their own volition, such as celestial bodies (“The moon shone”) or vehicles (“The boat sank”). There’s no problem with using animate things as the agent!

      • UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Thanks again. I’m not Japanese, or know it, so I can’t help you with that one, sorry. May I ask whether you’re and english major? You say so much grammar so confidently, are you a teacher perhaps? The thing about agents I only heard once or twice in English class.

        I’m Hungarian btw, and I know how hard our language is, so I figured I could be of great help. It’s probably for the best as even I don’t know how to speak this shit culture rich language correctly :/

        • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          May I ask whether you’re and english major? You say so much grammar so confidently, are you a teacher perhaps? The thing about agents I only heard once or twice in English class.

          Nah, I’m just a college dropout who has weird interests lol! It has been my sincere pleasure to help out another learner 😊

          I’m Hungarian btw, and I know how hard our language is, so I figured I could be of great help. It’s probably for the best as even I don’t know how to speak this shit culture rich language correctly :/

          Greetings from across the ocean in Atlanta, GA!