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Oct 13, 2023Liked by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

the rain was blown in my face by the wind.

Let me fix that for ya...

The durned wind blew the rain in my face.

Or in West Texan, "Dayum wind, got ma glasses wet."

German is interesting.

You can say something in high german, formal German, low german, common german, etc.

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Oct 14, 2023Liked by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

Salve, I see you too are a man of culture. Lucas introduced a new technique to learning Latin called the "Ranieri-Dowling Method" which modified the older "Dowling Method". I have used his improves method in the past to help with Latin vocabulary retention. Also his Latin pronunciation is second to none. Ave Christus Rex.

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Oct 13, 2023Liked by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

As an original German grammar Nazi, I have to correct your sentence "den Regen blies mir der Wind im Gesicht." It has to be "Den Regen blies mir der Wind in das Gesicht."

I love my native language but I read so much in English that I sometimes have word-finding problems in German.

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author

Thank you! I have made the appropriate correction.

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Oct 13, 2023Liked by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

Early in my study of the Russian language, I read (paraphrased): “Russian has a robust case system very much like German. Once you learn it, the language opens up to you.”

I found cases such a foreign concept and the most formidable obstacle early on, so much so that I can understand Twain’s frustration. The flexibility in expression that you describe hardly seems worth the learning curve, at least at first.

Having put forth painstaking effort, it is only now that I can appreciate such a system!

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Oct 12, 2023Liked by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

There is a perfectly delightful version of this on Librivox.

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Oct 12, 2023Liked by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson

“In doing this, the Connecticut Confederate in King Wilhelm’s court ... .” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Now THAT is a real background reference! Once could also title him Graf von Clemens or Graf von Hannibal for more fun.

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