#i also use the present participle way more than is usual in french so i have to restrain that impulse as well

[coquelicoq]

Il y a les nuits où il se réveille d'un cauchemar, le regard frénétique, les poings serrant les draps, soufflant à perdre haleine. Ces nuits-là elle l'étreint ; elle fait de petites bises sur son crâne ; avec son pouce elle caresse sa nuque couverte de sueur, tendue et tremblante. Quand il revient à lui-même, elle le chevauche, appuyant fort sur son corps avec tout son poids ; elle prend son visage entre ses deux mains ; elle pousse son front contre le sien, en répétant : "T'es à moi, à moi, à moi, à moi," jusqu'à ce qu'elle voie la chaleur dans son regard, jusqu'à ce qu'elle sente la réponse de son corps sous elle.

Elle le nique vigoureusement, ces nuits-là. Elle mord son épaule sans qu'il doive lui en demander. Elle le fait crier son nom à elle, pour l'empêcher de crier ceux de ses proches perdus. En lui coupant le souffler par amour, elle écrase le souvenir de ce qui l’a fait par terreur. Leur sueur s'entremêle, le stabilisant, le liant au présent, à ce lieu, à elle. Quand il se rendort, épuisé, des fourmis dans les membres, son cœur bat fort à cause de leur amour, leur amour et rien d'autre.

Dans la paix qui suit, elle passe les doigts le long des balafres sur le dos de son bien-aimé, écoute son haleine qui s'équilibre, se concentre sur sa propre sueur pendant qu'elle s'évapore dans l'air frais de la nuit.

[wilstudies]

Get a grade 9 in a language GCSE!

Please note:

1. These tips are almost entirely applicable to any AQA language at GCSE. 2. Modern Foreign Languages at GCSE Level is anywhere from A2 to B1 (dependant on the tier and grade) on the CEFR scale, but, there is no official equivalent.

In November 2018, whilst in Year 10, my teacher saw that I was excelling in French, with my extensive knowledge of tenses and idioms. So, she proposed that I’d do the January mocks, alongside Year 11, despite not knowing more than half of the subject content. Then we’d see where I’d go from there.

I followed the AQA exam board, higher paper. Specification. You can find the Kerboodle textbook I used, here.  

Here’s what I did:

Throughout the year, I was also studying the Year 10 content (Theme 1 - Identity and culture) in class.

In my own time, each month I’d cover one or two units, completing the more challenging activities on each page of the textbook. Luckily, each unit was only 4 double-page spreads long.

In January I completed my mocks. This was the first time I had ever sat in an exam hall, so it was really daunting to be doing it with a bunch of kids who were older than me, even though I knew I had enough knowledge. Overall, I got a secure grade 8, in my mocks, despite not knowing half of the course content.

I also did “pre-exam mocks”, two weeks before each exam. These consisted of specimen papers which are notoriously harder, so my results looked almost exactly the same as past papers, which was upsetting as I couldn’t see that I’d actually improved. But practice is practice!

MY ACTUAL GCSE RESULT: 

With a lot of work. I managed to achieve a grade 9 (the top mark, higher than an A*), which was insane. I’m so, so proud of myself, and grateful for all of the teachers that supported me!!!

^Edit from 25/08/2019.

LISTENING

In my opinion, listening is based purely on practice and knowing the exam technique that works for you.

To practice: 

frenchpod101 intermediate listening comprehension

Going through every specimen track and listening activity I could find - pausing it after each sentence, saying it once in French, then translating it into English. I’d do this in the shower, on the way to school, wherever.

Know your vocab!

My exam technique:

In the 5 minutes reading time: underline keywords and themes in the questions. This time goes very quickly, but I’d also try to jot down a few synonyms in the French section too.

Multiple choice questions: the process of elimination; key vocab; negative and positive tonality and opinion words - watch out for negative structures!

Completing the sentences: note down words said in French or translate each sentence into English in your head, then remember it when it comes to writing it down.

French section: fill each sentence with key French words that you hear. Don’t worry about accents, unless it helps you determine the word.

Remember each track plays twice.

READING

The January Mock: I didn’t know much of the course content, so I struggled with the translation. I also circled and placed a question mark near any words I didn’t know, as it was a mock and my teacher would be able to note down any translations for me. I think what boosted my grade, to a 9 for this paper, was knowledge of grammar.

T/F/NM questions are usually a gamble. Just look for explicit information and know your negative formations.

Texts change their minds often: look out for counter-arguments and opposing exclamations

Use the method of elimination for multiple choice: rule out if there’s no mention. Be wary that a text can mention an option, but say it wasn’t that.

Texts often refer to things mentioned prior.

If you know a certain type of texts are your kryptonite (it was the classical stories with dialogue, for me), then download as many of that genre as you can. Understand the way speech and dialogue works, and the structure, before you tackle the vocab.

Many say skim read and don’t read the whole thing, but I found it easier to translate big chunks in my head as I went along and lightly annotate each text, which just comes with practice.

WRITING

Top tip: don’t go any more than 10% over word limits!!!!!!! Teachers say they have to mark all of it - no they don’t. If you do double the word limit, your last few bullet points could come after the cut-off point, cutting off access to half of the marks!!! 

90 WORD - 99 words maximum! About 20-25 words per bullet point.

150 WORD - 165 words maximum! About 75 words per bullet point.

Which brings me to mention, that you must cover every bullet point: those are your content marks, which cover about half the marks of each question.

90 WORD Question (16 marks)

Content - 10 marks: Making sure your writing covers each bullet point enough.

Quality of Language - 6 marks: Using interesting vocabulary, such as “malheureusement”.

Stick to about one page.

If you’re giving an opinion, great, just stop there. If you explain it too much, you risk going over your word limit.

150 WORD Question (32 marks)

Content - 15 marks: Every. Bullet. Point. Detailed.

Range of Language - 12 marks: get in those adjectives, idioms and grammatical structures!

Accuracy - 5 marks: correct basic tense conjugations (present, past, future simple/future proche)

In order to hit all of these I came up with a mnemonic checklist, and it scored me full marks in a specimen paper I did for my teacher! And I made it into a cute phone background, so I’d start to remember it, I still can now, hehe! You can find it here. If that doesn’t work, then download it here.

SPEAKING

Know your question words! (x)

For the roleplay and photocard, my teacher printed off me a load of practice cards in bulk and annotated two or three every day, using the planning techniques mentioned below.

Roleplay - 2 minutes; can be any theme. 

When planning, try to avoid writing out answers, but just keywords and gaps for you to fill in with pronouns or articles etc.

Keep it brief, one sentence per bullet point, but cover each part of each bullet point. 

Photo card - 3 minutes (aim to speak for at least 2). 

Plan with a small spider-diagram of nouns, opinions, anecdotes etc. for each known question. 

Use one or two prepped anecdotes for the prepared questions - e.g. where you went last year, who with, what you did. 

For the unknown questions, keep it short and sweet and fill up any time with opinions and reasoning.

General conversation - 5-7 minutes. 

Lie and make up stories! Be creative and use the words and structures you know.

I was a little extra and I prepared every theme as flashcards. You can’t get away with only revising your chosen theme! 

I made flashcards that could cover several types of questions: I had bullet points of topics and keywords on one side and a sample paragraph on the other. 

Pretty sure I made about 80 flashcards oops.

I also went through the mark scheme and see which areas I could secure marks in and which areas I needed to improve.

VOCAB

Learning vocab is SO important!

I started by making spreadsheets of jumbled word lists from the specification and doing a colour-coded match up. 

You can access a pdf of all of the vocab grids here. There might be the odd word missing due to copy-pasting errors, but if so, don’t stress, just look it up in a dictionary and note it down - sorry in advance!!!

Then with the vocab that I had to look up in a dictionary, I added to a Quizlet and wrestled it into my noggin. 

You can find the Quizlet here.

Remember that:

sauf - except

puisque - since

presque - almost

GRAMMAR

To me, learning tenses was like learning formulae for maths. So find a way to learn rules like that, if it’s easier for you.

e.g. Conditional Tense = subject + (future/conditional stem + imperfect ending)*

*note that future stems are the same as conditional stems.

Know your DRMRSPVANDERTRAMP verbs, and their past participles. These verbs go with ÊTRE and always agree with the subject.

Know your auxiliary and irregular verbs.

MUST KNOW: avoir, être, aller, faire, vouloir

HELPFUL: devoir, pouvoir, vivre, boire, voir, dire, savoir

OTHERS: mettre, prendre, venir, écrire, lire, recevoir

I learnt these by making flashcards, and then brain dumping them on paper over and over again until they stuck - my teacher thought I was insane, madly scribbling away.

Memorise some key structures that can be used in writing and speaking. 

If you want 7+ structures, find them here.

MISC TIPS

Always write notes about improvements and errors in practice papers and mocks.

Find a native french internet friend.

In my opinion, music, movies and TV shows aren’t great for revision. However, if you begin to understand them, they are a great confidence boost.

I highly recommend the Skam France series, which you can find with and without les sous-titres (subtitles) here.

And here’s my french music playlist on Spotify.

MORE ASSISTANCE

I’m happy to offer my assistance to anybody who needs it, pop me a dm or an ask if you think others will find it useful too. 

Here’s some ways I could help:

Finding some resources about a certain topic (videos, worksheets, mindmaps) - I have them all backed up hehe

Sending you some of my past answers

Sending you pdf of my general conversation/irregular verb table flashcards

Marking practice answers

Talking to you in french

Etc. etc.

Thank you for reading! Please reblog to help any others that might find this useful. If any of the links are faulty, please pop me a dm, and I’ll get them sorted asap!! 🥐

-Wil x

[helshades]

French prompt! How does one look at être and arrive at fut? (I know "verbs of being" are notoriously unruly, but this was a mystery for me, even though my own language cobbles the tenses from two separate verbs, neither of which have all tenses.) Broader prompt: what used to be the point of passé simple and how did it become "the storybook tense"?

One of my mother’s favourite puns is the following: On ne peut pas naître et avoir été (’One cannot be born and have been’), a play on an old saying, On ne peut pas être et avoir été (’One cannot be and have been’) meaning that one simply cannot live at once in the past and in the present. Grammatically speaking, this isn’t entirely true, though: the French passé composé, like its equivalent the English present perfect, is trying very hard. When you think of it, ‘I have been doing this for the last five minutes’ is telling exactly that: one is performing a continuous action that began some time in the past and is still going at the moment. Every single French pupil learning English was subjected to the example of the vase that one has broken, and is consequently still broken at present. French has one time like this, known as the ‘compound past’, which technically works in the exact same way, except it has come to be used everywhere, replacing even the French equivalent to the preterite, or past simple, to the point that no one uses the French preterite anymore aside from the only people who may get away with reading as highly literary, which isn’t a lot of people nowadays. Children’s books rarely do contain verbs conjugated in the past simple anymore; in (junior) high school, students are only taught the third person of the singular and of the plural for ‘important’ verbs, and a number of people have been pushing for the complete eradication of a tense which they deemed ‘elitist’ for being more complicated than the compound past, which only requires one to know the present-simple forms of auxiliary verb avoir, ‘to have’, plus the past participle of the verb concerned by the action.

Of course, French students used to have no particular difficulty in learning conjugations, no matter how detailed; only, for a few decades now people deeming themselves progressists have imposed new teaching methods based on a supposedly ‘intuitive’ approach to knowledge as well as a downright utilitarian idea of the language itself—what isn’t useful in everyday life will never be of use, and can therefore be dropped altogether. French isn’t taught systemically in French school anymore, grammar rules are generally glossed over and since learning by heart is strongly frowned upon conjugations are more than imperfectly mastered, not to say anything about the basic principles of syntax. Today, it is estimated (by international tests also) that about one third of students enter junior high school (at age 11) without knowing how to read, or write, their own language. Parents usually riot if teachers seek to correct children’s spelling or enunciation, and after each national exam now students take to Twitter to complain about the difficulty of the exceedingly simple tests. In this context, it is very hard to know whether or not the passé simple is meant to fall out of usage definitely—but I suspect it won’t before long, as a matter of fact, as it already serves, along with other grammatical notions, to separate those who do master their own idiom from those who don’t.

In any case, concerning the structure of the simple past and its meaning, I’m reminded of a remark that famous French linguist Émile Benveniste made about the simple past: like narration, in which it is almost exclusively employed, the simple past is non-deictic, whereas discourse as well as the tenses used in it are deictic, meaning they are anchored in the ‘situation of enunciation’, the frame of the dialogue. Being outside the deixis, the simple past operates somewhat remotely from the event which it describes, inducing an impression of temporal and/or spatial distance with it. Quite frankly, it’s hard not to make a parallel here with the postmodern obsession with immediacy and its deep-rooted hatred of the long term...

Speaking of long-term things!

How does one look at être and arrive at fut? Well, that is a splendid question, reaching far into the history of the French language, and in truth all Indo-European languages since they all have the quirky habit of mashing up the conjugations for several verbs expressing slightly different aspects of an action and deciding that they are to be only one verb now—usually, an auxiliary, and the results are just wild. But let’s get a closer look at the conjugation we’re dealing with, here:

You’ll note that I didn’t include (amongst other things) the four tenses of the subjunctive mode, to avoid being too long as I only aim to draw a few explanatory comparisons with Latin, but just in case, I’ll remind you that the present goes que je sois (sois, soit, soyons, soyez, soient) while subjunctive imperfect goes que je fusse (fusses, fût, fussions, fussiez, fussent). And now, hoping you didn’t run away screaming and flailing, I propose a little comparison with the equivalent Latin tenses:

Please fawn over my pedagogical abilities. Once that is over, please note how the conjugation of être was mostly constituted in Old French (from the 9th century onwards), bar a few interesting exceptions, such as the concurrent forms in the future: the older stem, er- or ier-, directly evolved from Latin. Linguists theorised that the stem that ended up in modern French, in ser-, is actually a syntagmatic construction taken from the Latin infinitive (es)sere to which were added special endings borrowed from the conjugation of auxiliary avoir, to have. Romance languages all form their future synthetically. For instance, ‘we will love’, nous aimerons, is literally nous aimer-(av)ons. (Compare to Spanish cantaré, ‘I will sing’, which is cantar + hé.) Where être is concerned, the ser- stem replaced the original infinitive after too many speakers dropped the beginning of infinitive essere, especially in the first person, and a full tense ended up being constituted from that model (hence the ‘syntagmatic construction’ I was mentioning earlier: it didn’t evolve so much as it was reshaped to accommodate usage).

If you know a bit of Latin, you might have frowned upon the infinitive essere, since the classical verb is esse. Esse was a pretty archaic form to begin with, although it was actually conjugated regularly; the -s had mutated to an -r between two vowels in most other verbs pretty early in the evolution of the language, and that is where the French infinitives (-er, -ir, -re) come from. But esse remained unchanged, probably because of its particular role as an auxiliary. On the other hand, in Vulgar Latin, which was Latin as it was spoken by regular people, the strange infinitive got hypercorrected, ‘regularised’, into essere, after getting mistaken for a stem. And since Romance languages are mostly stemming from popular, late-era Latin, rather than the literary language... In Italian, the infinitive is still essere. In Spanish, it evolved into ser. In Occitan, into èser. The t of estre is, as you can see, a French particularity; it’s purely epenthetic, meaning it was only added to ease the pronunciation of the word, in this case after one of the vowels dropped: esre > estre.

The participles of être, however, both in the present (étant) and the past (été, ayant été) don’t come from any version of esse, any more than the imperfect tense, since its Latin equivalent was eram. They come, instead, from an entirely different verb: stare, which evolved into Vulgar Latin estare, which in turn became Old French ester, and which meant ‘to stand, to stay’. Well, it’s actually the origin of verb ‘stay’ in English, which was borrowed from the Old French. In modern French, you’ll find its descendant as rester, ‘to stay, to remain’.

And this is where we come to our strange Latin stem in fui-, and its French equivalence in the simple past. Now where does that come from?! Well, my dear Tatty, it is the last remnant on an archaic verb issued from an Indo-European root °bheu- meaning ‘to grow’, ‘to become’. It’s why the auxiliary in English is ‘to be’, actually! (Proto-Germanic °beuną > Old English bēon > Middle English been). In most languages this Indo-European root gave words beginning in b-. The exceptions are Sanskrit (bh-, with a strong aspiration), Hellenic languages (Ancient Greek φύω, phúô) and Italic languages, where it ended up being pronounced as an f, hence fui. In passing, the original meaning of the Indo-European root, ‘to grow’, has been preserved only in Greek φύσις, phúsis, ‘nature’—hence ‘physics’. Morphologically, though, the root is present everywhere in Indo-European languages, starting with the word ‘future’ itself.

A major difference between Latin (and Greek) and Germanic languages, however, is that fu- in Latin possessed in its meaning the idea of veering towards the completion of an action, but that was expressed differently in the future (participle) and in past-tense narration; eventually, the future aspect was dropped from the language altogether, and all that remained was the stem’s perfective value (the idea of accomplishment, of a done and over thing), which serves to explain how the fu- root came to be specialised in Romance languages as a form destined for the simple past/preterite/perfect tense. (In Germanic languages, the past is defined by the idea of staying in one place, whereas the enunciation is characterised by a general idea of ‘aiming towards’.)

In guise of a conclusion, I heartily recommend the Wikipedia article on the Indo-European copula, which is long and bountiful and makes a few salient points on the topic of this fixture in all Indo-European languages that is a weird, weird little verb corresponding to the English to be, and it tells a lot on the way languages get shaped.

[owlaholic68]

Fic Writing

Since I’ve just (almost) finished writing chapter 9 of Au-Dela/Beyond the Stars, I thought I’d do a lovely little retrospective of my writing and translating experience!

The most obvious thing is that my writing speed in French has improved dramatically. I just busted out over 1000 words today, which is not bad compared to my English writing speed, and is way better than it was when I started. 

My random thoughts on chapters I’ve written:

Chapter 1: there’s apparently an “entertainment officer” on Lucky and I have no idea why their job is important enough to be mentioned. 

Chapter 2: I literally forgot that Lily was in this fic for some reason, don’t worry, she’ll be back. Also, I imagine Arcade’s lab to be like a Studio Ghibli greenhouse/science room. 

Chapter 3: I literally don’t remember coming up with the plot for this chapter, it just happened. Also, Julie is very good friends with both Christine and Veronica, I hope that was clear. 

Chapter 4: This was like the Bachelor, but less dumb and also less romantic? Also, Arcade was supposed to be in this somewhere, I don’t know where he went. 

Chapter 5: This is where Arcade went. Sorry, man, your job sucks. Also the king does...literally nothing ever... Oh right, my big reveal! I’m not sure why I tacked it on to this chapter, but I hope it was a nice cliffhanger!

Chapter 6: This is like the Boy who Cried Wolf with all these darn fake medical emergency messages. Also, almost kissing, ugh my weakness. 

Chapter 7: This chapter was supposed to almost 4000 words long, I don’t have any idea how that happened, so I split it two bc i’m back in school next week. 

Chapter 7 part two (Chapter 8): Oooh this isn’t up yet, but it’s a lot of fun! Veronica’s in there, Christine’s in there, Dmitri gets some time in. I also wrote this to the angstiest songs for some reason?? Also, not to spoil anything, but some scenes go better when I just knock Arcade unconscious. I just like giving the man head wounds. It happened in She Packed No Star (in the last chapter he got a concussion), Silver Stars (knocked himself out while teleporting to Julie’s temple), and this chapter too! Sometimes I get stuck writing, then I knock him out and everything goes great!!!!! Sorry!!!!!

Chapter 9 (just mostly written): I learned a lot about old Moroccan (Marrakech specifically) ruins and architectural elements. It was a lot of fun. That’s all I’ll say. 

Sometimes I forget what words I’ve used, and I always have my previous chapters open. Recent example: the word “stretcher” has two different words in French, and I just jumped back to Chapter 1 to find exactly which one I’d used. I have a weirdly good memory for exact times that I’ve used certain words or phrases.

Oh, the agony of decisions concerning formality of language...Christine just started using “tu” with Lynn and I’ve just been screaming internally the whole time I’ve been writing.

WHY do I use the present participle so much?????

THANK GOODNESS I made a stylistic decision a long time ago to write in present tense, because this would have been a lot harder if I would have had to write in passé simple or in another past tense. 

Forgot the spelling of the word “emperor” in french, jotted it down in English on my document, went to go look up the word and forgot how to spell it in English, had to go back to what I’d written. I should’ve just looked at my other chapters. It was in chapter One. It would have taken half as much time.

*word* *looks up French/English equivalent* *while page is loading, I think of the right word in French/English, now I just have the dictionary page open for no reason*

“La main” or “le main”? I’ve used the word for “hand” about 30 times a chapter, still second-guess myself on the gender of the noun. 

*writes romance interlude* *interlude is longer than my normal chapters* *interlude also contains important plot elements, so it’s basically just another chapter*

I actually have to set aside specific time for romantic interactions, bc sometimes I just forget...that that’s one of my main plot elements...Also (for example) bc of plot restraints, Veronica often can’t be a big part of the other chapters (yet), so she needs a little bit of designated Lynn Interaction Time. And since this is my first time writing a poly thing, that little bit of extra relaxed time will come in handy later.

While translating into English, I go to look up a phrase. After reading the dictionary definition, I don’t like it. Then I somehow remember the exact phrase that I had wanted to say while writing it originally in French. 

Translation is great bc I know EXACTLY what the author was trying to convey, because I AM the author. 

Finds errors in my French version while translating it into English.

WHY aren’t there as many descriptive words for saying things different ways in French? Ughhhhhh there’s basically no difference between scream/yell/shout/say loudly/squeal/squeak, they’re all just “crier/hurler”

WHY do I have all these weird sentences that are just “she stood up.” Why did I feel like I needed to write these in French? 

stuff that sounds better in French

stuff that sounds better in English

stuff that doesn’t sound good in either

I have to translate right at the end, bc otherwise I’ll change/add things in my French draft that I then have to go change/add in my English one and it’s a huge pain

PRONOUNS. Example: Technically Dmitri should use the feminine “elle” because the word for plant is feminine, but he of course uses “il” which I’m not sure exactly conveys that Arcade is saying “he” not “it”???? Also Arcade uses “tu” with Dmitri, fyi.

Also PRONOUNS between all these women are killing me.

Speaking of Dmitri, I have no idea why I picked that name. I think I looked up French nature-related names, and something similar to that came up? I just really like the name. 

I either write a whole paragraph without looking up a single word, or I have to look up every word in a single sentence. The former results in fast writing of quick-action scenes that I go back and edit, the latter makes for some lovely poetic descriptions. 

Lynn is always hesitating for some reason. She’s also making lots of eye contact too. Julie is always smiling. Christine is always showing lots of nonverbal affection. Arcade always has something in his hands. 

Speaking of Christine, I did toy with the idea of making her unable to speak, but ultimately forgot about it and dropped the idea within 0.5 seconds of writing Christine dialogue. I don’t regret it one bit. 

The king was supposed to be House?? And now he’s not, but he still kind of is?? Oh well I don’t care about him anymore...

I had the first story arc mapped out pretty detailed, this second one is going to be about 95% done on the fly, I pretty much just know what’s going to happen at the end. It’s going to be very character driven. There’s going to be an overarching plot with Star-Trek-style episodes thrown in.

I can’t decide what the ship’s hierarchy is?? Definitely (in order): the king, Lynn, Julie, and then I think Christine and Boone, then Fantastic and Reyes, then other minor officers? 

Somehow tropes from Silver Stars (Greek Mythology AU) are trying to creep into this story. One Big One is coming in Chapter 9 that I kept bc it still feels right, but I realized halfway through that this particular story element is kind of familiar. There’s also a lot of mentions of stars and the night sky that I don’t know why I’m still using in this fic, but it does still paint a very lovely picture. 

I’m definitely describing a lot more in french, but also describing things less in some ways. Sometimes I go to translate certain parts, and I’m shocked by how little time I spent describing scenery. But other times, I realize that I’ve gone into detail about the diplomatic structure of peace treaties in my AU. 

Uhhhhh a lot of times I write fic on my phone, and I just can’t do that with this, because I always need at least one dictionary tab open, and usually another couple tabs with music or research. However, it’s easier for me to edit my French drafts on my phone because I have a french keyboard option, which I can’t get a handle on on my desktop. 

I try to listen to French music when I write in French, but anything’s fair game when I’m translating. I always come up with ideas when I’m in my car listening to either Bob Dylan songs or Woodie Guthrie protest/pro-union anthems. 

I can’t believe I’ve written so much, and I’m still probably just under halfway through (if even). Also, I can’t believe that I’ve actually have consistent updates of decent lengths, every single week! This fic has been so much fun to write and translate, and has definitely been the slowest burn romance I’ve ever written!

I hope that everyone reading has enjoyed reading as much as I’ve enjoyed writing! 

[secretlyfantasticprincess-blog]

1.      Placid definition: pleasantly calm or peaceful; unruffled; tranquil; serenely quiet or undisturbed: synonyms: calm, mild etymology: 1620s, from French placide (15c.) and directly from Latin placidus "pleasing, peaceful, quiet, gentle, still, calm," from placere "to please" (see please). Related: Placidly; placidness. reason: my default state, I think.

2.      Observant definition: quick to notice or perceive; alert. synonym: alert, watchful etymology: 1590s, from observe + -ant, or else from French observant, past participle of observer (see observance). In reference to Judaism, from 1902. As a noun from late 15c. Related: Observantly; observantness. reason: I like to think of myself as observant, but it’s often hard to know oneself, especially in cases like this.

3.      Tactile definition: perceptible to the touch; tangible. synonym: tactual, physical etymology: 1610s, "perceptible to touch," from French tactile (16c.) and directly from Latin tactilis "tangible, that may be touched," from tactus, past participle of tangere "to touch" reason: I’m a visual learner, and I struggle with meta-physical concepts sometimes, if I don’t have a clear mental idea of what to picture. Specifically, learning a technique without a visual is particularly challenging.

4.      Sentimental definition: expressive of or appealing to sentiment, especially the tender emotions and feelings, as love, pity, or nostalgia: synonyms: nostalgic etymology: 1749, "pertaining to or characterized by sentiment," from sentiment + -al (1). At first without pejorative connotations; meaning "having too much sentiment, apt to be swayed by prejudice" had emerged by 1793 (implied in sentimentalist). reason: as I’ve grown into a young person, I’ve realized that I’m driven by nostalgia and a sense of sentiment. It’s a hard feeling to shake.

5.      Reticent definition: disposed to be silent or not to speak freely; reserved. synonyms:: taciturn, quiet etymology: 1834, from Latin reticentem (nominative reticens), present participle of reticere "be silent" reason: like my first word, I’m a typically withdrawn person.

6.      Esthetic definition: relating to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality. synonyms: discriminating, cultivated, refined. etymology: 1798, from German Ästhetisch (mid-18c.) or French esthétique (which is from German), ultimately from Greek aisthetikos "of or for perception by the senses, perceptive," of things, "perceptible," from aisthanesthai "to perceive (by the senses or by the mind), to feel," from PIE *awis-dh-yo-, from root *au- (4) "to perceive" (see audience). reason: I get that the term ‘aesthetics’ is overused nowadays, but I’ve always found myself more drawn to things that incite emotion rather than appeal to logic. Emotions >

7.      Ardent definition: intensely devoted, eager, or enthusiastic; zealous: synonyms: avid etymology: early 14c., of alcoholic distillates, brandy (ardent spirits), etc., from Old French ardant (13c.) "burning, hot; zealous," from Latin ardentem (nominative ardens) "glowing, fiery, hot, ablaze," also used figuratively of passions, present participle of ardere "to burn," reason: I’m not passionate about a lot of things, but the things I do like, I like a lot, and throw myself into.

8.      Aloof definition: reserved or reticent; indifferent; disinterested: synonyms: cool, detached, etymology: 1530s, "to windward," from a- (1) "on" + Middle English loof "windward direction," probably from Dutch loef (Middle Dutch lof) "the weather side of a ship" (see luff (n.)). Originally in nautical orders to keep the ship's head to the wind, thus to stay clear of a lee-shore or some other quarter; hence "at a distance but within view" reason: another aspect of my personality that’s fitting, namely because of experiences where I’ve learned to hide emotional responses from certain people.

9.      Demure definition: affectedly or coyly decorous, sober, or sedate. synonyms: modest etymology: late 14c. (early 14c. as a surname), from Old French meur "mature, fully grown, ripe," hence "discreet," from Latin maturus "mature" (see mature (v.)) [OED]. The de- in this word is of uncertain meaning. Or possibly from Anglo-French demuré (Old French demoré), past participle of demorer "stay," and influenced by meur [Barnhart]. Or from Old French de (bon) murs "of good manners," from murs (Modern French moeurs) [Klein] reason: I’m usually a serious person, and don’t like to draw attention to myself. This word combines those aspects, in a way.

10.   Chichi definition: showily or affectedly elegant or trendy; pretentious. synonym: ostentatious etymology: also chichi, "extremely chic, sophisticated," also "pretentious fussiness," 1908, from French chichi "airs, fuss." Perhaps, like frou-frou, imitative. reason: I like fashion a lot, and I definitely self-identify as pretentious, so I thought this term was kinda perfect. It’s funny, too, like chichi? What?