Adjectives

“so different” but not “so same”

Adjectives

Why do people say “so different” but do not say “so same”?

A popular definition of the word “different” as an adjective is dissimilar, differing, or not alike in quality or character.

A popular definition of the word “same” as an adjective is being identical though perhaps having different aspects or names.

I often hear sentences such as “Jane is so different than her twin Mary that you will never find them in the same shop.”

But I never hear sentences such as “Jane is so same as her twin Mary that you will always find them in the same shop on Saturday morning.”

This puzzles me, and I have yet to find a good explanation of why it is common to hear “so different” but it is rare — if not impossible — to hear “so same”.

“… inspections that were never finalled …”

Adjectives, Nouns, Verbs

I saw this yesterday in a letter.

Problem:
The word “final” is not a verb.

Explanation:
The letter came from the City of Houston Code Enforcement Division.

The full sentence was “Also, you may have outstanding inspections that were never finalled on this project as listed below.”

The problem with this sentence is that “final” is a noun or an adjective, but never a verb.

So one cannot “final a project”, and therefore one cannot use “final” as a verb in passive voice, either.

It is ironic that the next sentence in the letter contained the correct verb.

For fun, I searched Google for “finalled” (with the quotation marks, to avoid matches for such phrases as “final LED”) and got about 6,230 matches.

This indicates that very people are making the mistake made by in the form letter from the City of Houston Code Enforcement Division.

Solution:
“… inspections that were never finalized …”

“Verklempt”

Adjectives

This is one of my favorite words.

An article at Wikipedia identifies the adjective “verklempt” as a Yiddish word used by English-speaking Jews.

I know very little Yiddish, but I love this word because it describes in two syllables a very specific state that humans experience.

The adjective “verklempt” means choked or overcome with emotion or (emotionally) stuck.

“The standing ovation made me verklempt.” is a good example of how to use this adjective.

If you have never heard this word, of if you do not know that Yiddish words are generally pronounced like German words and do not know how to pronounce German words, then you probably will mispronounce it.

The correction pronunciation — in pseudo-phonetics — is “fair-klempt”.

The Wikipedia article says that the Yiddish adjective “verklempt” — with an M-P-T on the end — is derived from the German adjective “verklemmt” — with an M-M-T on the end.

Whether you prefer “verklempt” or “verklemmt”, consider adding it to your vocabulary.

You might be surprised by how useful this adjective will become to you.