How to Evaluate Someone Else's Plan

NOTE TO YOU, THE PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE:

Because of the lag time between when I create a comic and when it runs, I am writing this message to you from Monday the 4th, the day before the US presidential election. Needless to say, I am having difficulty concentrating. Also, I have a great deal of admin to do involving the release of my new novel, That's Not Right (Available for pre-order now on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible!) so I am taking this week off. The comic will be back next week. Sorry for any inconvenience.

END TRANSMISSION FROM THE BEFORE TIMES!!

Yes, another language learning comic. Missy and I are taking an organized Portuguese class now, not trusting an animated owl on our smartphones to see us through. You can probably expect more language humor and school-based insecurity.

Lucky you.

Here’s an interesting factoid: Portuguese does not have a single word that replicates the usage of the English word “is.” Instead, it has three different verbs that cover three common use cases for “is,” and each of those is regularly conjugated five different ways, depending on what “is,” and how it “is.” That’s fifteen different words for basic usage.

Examples:

If the subject is in a state that is temporary, as in “The student is panicking,” you use the verb estar, conjugated for a single subject.

If the subject is in a state that will not change any time in the foreseeable future, as in “The student is middle aged, and doesn’t learn language as easily as he did when he was young,” you want the verb ser, again, conjugated for a single subject.

If you’re describing the subject’s permanent location, as in “The pharmacy is across the street, if the student needs pain relievers for the headache this lesson has given him,” you use the verb ficar, which means “to stay.” And you would conjugate it as a singular. When dealing with verbs, we don’t have to worry about gender, but for the record, pharmacies are feminine, obviously.

My teacher puts a friendly face on it by talking up the incredible specificity of the Portuguese language, and she has a point. She is always able to point out specifically why the word I chose was incorrect.