We've just gotten back from another grueling schoolday commute and I set the kids down in front of their bowls of yogurt and granola and set off for the computer to check on Super Tuesday results. After about five minutes of dead silence but for the slurping of snack, the following:
Aislin: (yelling from the kitchen) Mom?
Me: Yes?
Aislin: Have you ever thought about just how often you use adverbs?
Me: (short pause) Er, no, I guess I haven't.
Aislin: Well I just have.
I pause, waiting for the follow-up. There is none. She is satisfied. Exeunt.
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2 comments:
Hmm. It's unclear: had Aislin been thinking about how often she uses adverbs, and was asking if you'd done the same for yourself, or was she concerned strictly with your use of them?
And now that you've thought about it, how often do you use adverbs?
Now this is a good question. I had the distinct impression that she was contemplating how often adverbs occur in the average English speaker's usage, but frankly, she may easily have been trying to call attention to my own profligate use of that part of speech.
Perhaps I shall start a campaign of sentence diagramming to determine how terribly, discomfitingly often I end up wittily (or unwittingly) utilizing adverbs. Food for thought, verily.
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