"We'll want to minimize the amount of our tech they can get their hands on before full capitulation," Intelligence Officer Rouel noted. "To go from undetectable from a distance to an orbital communications relay network in only five hundred years suggests a remarkably high innovation score."
​
Admiral Crassock flicked an ear tuft and nodded. "The less we give them to reverse engineer, the less we'll bleed. Are there any other warning flags?"
​
"No, sir," Rouel answered. "They launch their satellites with chemical rockets. Even first generation counter-grav is more cost effective, so we can reasonably assume they don't have it. Since you can't do FTL R&D on a planet's surface without destroying it, no counter-grav means no FTL, which means no reinforcements. A separatist colony would have retained enough tech for an outward facing system defense network; a penal colony would have an inward facing one. Since this system has neither, this must be this species's homeworld."
​
"Has there been any change in the habitability report since the original survey?" the admiral asked. CRX-4 sat right in the sweet spot of the habitability assessment, with most of its landmass in the subtropical zones, but enough temperate and arctic real estate to ensure that over 90% of galactic species could live there with only adornment grade protective clothing. Only a handful of the most extreme outlier species would need more than class three environmental gear to survive somewhere on the planet. The only reason no one had snapped it up when it was first discovered was that its location was simply too remote to be practical. But borders had expanded in the intervening centuries, and now the Wingover Heromancy was close enough to claim the planet and defend that claim against any contenders.
​
"Surprisingly little," the intelligence officer answered. "They must have had their industrial revolution at an atypically low population benchmark, and learned how to clean up after themselves fairly quickly. Another indication that they have an abnormally high innovation score."
​
"What about their physiology?" Admiral Crassock asked. "It won't constrain their combat effectiveness as much as it would for a less innovative species, but it must still influence their tactics."
​
Intelligence Officer Rouel nodded. "Here, we have visuals on them." He flicked a command to the display, but then began reading off the data anyway. "Mammalian bipeds, hair sparse except on the top of the head and a few other locations that vary by individual. Moderate sexual dimorphism--subtle but enough to render co-ed sports competitions impractical for any but strictly recreational purposes. Very conflicting reports on strength and stamina, suggesting that they have a use-it-or-lose-it physiology. Atypically high resting metabolic rates, even for endotherms."
​
"Meaning that a middle of the sleep cycle surprise attack will have to be perfectly executed in order to retain the advantages of a surprise attack?" the admiral interjected.
​
"Precisely," Rouel answered. "Viviparous with a gestational period of nearly a year and roughly two decades to maturity. Birthrate appears to inversely correlate with wealth, which suggests a lack of innate control over their reproduction. It's difficult to determine their typical lifespan--hereditary and environmental factors apparently can alter it by as much as 50%; the current primary suppression of their life expectancy appears to come from a tendency toward extreme recklessness in their adolescent males."
​
"That will make ground combat...interesting..." Admiral Crossack said. "I think i'll tell the training officers to put their most creative minds on designing the practice scenarios for the ground units."
​
"With a combination of innovative and reckless, i'd suggest putting the truly diabolical minds on the air unit training scenarios," Captain Hussend said, his reptilian muzzle parting in a grin of malicious glee.
​
"Looking for an excuse to pull out that black box scenario?" Admiral Crossack asked the captain of his fleet's contingent of planetary troops. Returning his attention to the intelligence officer he asked, "Do we have to worry about attempted MAD?"
​
"FTL research is noisy enough that we'd detect it long before they managed to weaponize it." Rouel answered. "As much easier as that is than using it for travel, it's still far from easy. They do have fission reactors providing some of their power. There's no evidence that they ever tried to weaponize that technology, however; we'd see fallout scars if they'd done any testing. I'd still recommend seizing those nuclear power plants and any fuel processing facilities as quickly as possible."
​
Admiral Crossack nodded. "Unless you find something else before we arrive within targeting range of the planet, i think we'll remain in stealth mode until we're in position to take out all of their satellites simultaneously. Their ground based sensors should be sufficient for them to realize we have orbital superiority. If that isn't enough to make them surrender, it will be Captain Hussend's turn to call the shots. Do we know what they call themselves? If we're going to demand that they surrender sovereignty of their home planet, we can at least do them the courtesy of using their name for it."
​
"They call themselves 'humans'," Intelligence Officer Rouel answered. "The planet they call Ferrari. Oddly, it's the same in all twelve of their languages; perhaps it was inherited from some archaic language that is no longer used."
​
---------------------------------------
​
The initial attack went off perfectly. All of the satellites around Ferrari disintegrated within a few seconds of one another, with no wasted shots from the WHN ships. Almost as soon as they realized that all of their satellite communications were down, the humans began evacuating their civilians toward a series of massive underground bunkers.
​
"I can't tell if that's an overpowered communications laser, or a weapons test modulated to carry data to give them plausible deniability if it fails," the Communications Officer reported when the humans finally replied to the Wingover Heromancy's surrender demands.
​
"Retaliation will make them assume their weapons are strong enough to damage our ships," Captain Hussend predicted.
​
Intelligence Officer Rouel concurred. "My recommendation would be to politely ask them to dial back the power on that laser as it's clearly intended for communication over much longer distances. Imply that it's merely signal degradation due to overexposure, not anything that threatens to actually damage our receiver."
​
Admiral Crossack considered the suggestion for a few moments and then told the communications officer, "Do it."
​
After some negotiation with the humans over optimal signal strength, the transmission settled on the image of a human in what appeared to be their civilian formal wear. "President Chen, of the Faction Arbitration Council," the human identified himself. "Since you're asking for our surrender rather than simply glassing the planet, you must want it intact, which means you're going to have to come down here and take it. It would be easier to negotiate a land for tech swap--except that none of us has the authority to order everyone else to stand down. You'd have to negotiate with each faction separately if you want the whole planet. And since you opened with an attack, even if it was just on infrastructure and not personnel, rather than a diplomatic contact, half of them are going to insist that you're nothing but thieves and bullies, no matter how big an empire you might happen to have behind you.
​
"The short version," President Chen continued. "If you want this planet, you're going to have to come down here and take it."
​
"If we refrain from firing on your evacuating civilians, will you refrain from salting the Ferrari?" Admiral Crossack asked.
​
"Salting the--?" the human President's forehead wrinkled as he tried to puzzle out the phrase. "You mean, 'salting the earth'?"
​
"Isn't that what i said?" Admiral Crossack asked. "I understand that the connotations of synonymous words can vary, but the denotation should be similar enough for understanding. And every terrestrial species calls their planet some cognate of Fertile Soil or Solid Ground. It requires relatively advanced astronomical knowledge to realize that the planet beneath one's feet has anything in common with the wandering stars in the night sky, after all."
​
The human's eyes widened, and then his face went curiously blank. He just figured something out, and he's weighing the tactical considerations against the strategic ones, Rouel guessed silently.
​
"We won't start an atrocity contest as long as you don't," President Chen said. "Not all of our cultures agree on what does and what does not constitute war crimes, but as long as you refrain from targeting civilians and don't use biological or chemical weapons, they should all remain within the parameters of what most warriors consider an acceptable level of occupational hazard."
​
"What's the most common opinion on eating your kills?" Captain Hussend asked, displaying his mouthful of large reptilian teeth.
​
"In extremis only," President Chen answered. "There are a few superstitions that hold that eating hearts or certain other organs can be a way to appropriate your enemy's virtues, but far more of us regard it as a way of declaring your enemy to be an animal rather than a person. Cannibalism as a last ditch alternative to death by starvation will generally be overlooked, but ritual practice is not tolerated."
​
Captain Hussend nodded. "That is a common consensus among most polities and species as well. I suppose that any trophy taking would best be justifiable as preserving DNA samples to determine who is dead and who is missing once the war ends?"
​
"Oh, the nerds are going to love you," President Chen muttered. "Is there anything else we need to discuss, or is it time for you to either reconsider your invasion or else 'bring it on'?"
​
"My troops are already dropping," Captain Hussend answered with another toothy grin.
​
---------------------------------
​
"Woah, hey, there's no need to get nasty," Pedro said as his eyes locked onto the tray of surgical implements. "I'm a civilian. I've got no reason not to spill the beans."
​
"Civilian," the mantis looking interrogator scoffed. "You killed at least forty of our soldiers, and crippled over a dozen more."
​
"I'm just a guy trying to defend his home. If your people had just obeyed the 'no trespassing' signs, nobody would have died," Pedro responded.
​
"In any case, it's your medical condition that's responsible for any nastiness," the interrogator informed the human captive. "The squad that dug you out from under that landslide thought they were recovering a corpse for autopsy. Growing replacement organs for your ruptured ones was straightforward enough, but your species is violently allergic to all of our existing bone glue formulations, so your broken bones are going to have to heal the slow way. I'm told that broken ribs are even more painful than a fractured thoracic plate."
​
"Convenient," Pedro said. "You get to dose me with enough painkillers to keep me from guarding my tongue and still claim you're just trying to help me."
​
"Quite convenient," the interrogator agreed. "Also a useful argument against those who claim that compassion is nothing but a waste of resources. May i have your full name for the next exchange of survival records?"
​
"Pedro Fook. I'm seriously tempted to give you the correct spelling instead of the one English speakers will pronounce correctly, but i'm too tired for that game."
​
The interrogator paused to listen to what the linguist was telling him through his earpiece and then clacked in amusement. "Very droll. I can accept that a civilian would have sufficient motive for attacking our troops, but i find your effectiveness implausible."
​
Pedro answered, "Why? Hunting the free-range livestock gets us kill training. Paintball games give us tactical training against opponents as smart and creative as we are. Wilderness hiking and camping gets us survival training. And VR lets us familiarize ourselves with the stuff that would be too dangerous to do for real."
​
"But how are you coordinating your attacks?" the interrogator asked.
​
"We aren't," Pedro answered. "We're spread out enough that we aren't likely to get in each other's ways; and we all grew up reading the same books, watching the same movies, and playing the same games, so we all have fairly similar ideas as to what tactics are likely to work in what situations. We don't need to win, we just have to keep harassing your people enough to prove we haven't abandoned our claim until the military gets here. If you had a prior claim, you should have planted a flag or left a beacon in orbit or something, so we'd have known we needed to negotiate instead of just moving in."
​
"Habitable planets are far to precious to be left in the hands of those who can't defend them," the interrogator replied. "There are a few interstellar species so xenophobic that they will glass a planet that someone else beat them to. If you can't keep us from taking it when we want to preserve it, you'd have no hope of keeping them from destroying it."
​
"You still could have tried negotiating first and attacking second," Pedro replied angrily. "Counter-gravity tech would be well worth sharing a planet over. Possibly even giving one up if we could have come to an arrangement regarding the people who have put down roots too deep to be willing to move to a different one. Too late for that now, though."
​
"You have no FTL," the interrogator said. "How would you leave, and how could you have come here from somewhere else."
​
"Why do you think we--ohhhhhh..." Pedro suddenly realized, "You never did solve the energy discharge from getting it almost right problem. You had counter-grav, you could just do your research and development in deep space where failures wouldn't destroy your planet. We had to focus on miniaturization instead, so the energy release was small enough to contain, until we could consistently get it right. Then we scaled back up until we had something suitable for a mass transit system. By the way, the emergency evacuation portals can be weaponized, so i'd advise against backing us into any corners. And our home planet isn't on this network, so even if you manage to capture a control unit intact, you can't get all of us!"
​
"Do you know where it is, in spatial terms?" the interrogator asked.
​
Pedro started to shrug and them stopped when his ribs objected. "Galaxy cluster on the other side of the Great Attractor from here, if i remember correctly. We've got at least a hundred planets scattered across a dozen different galaxies, as best the astronomers can tell. There's one that's suspected of not even being in the same universe."
​
"What does Ferrari translate as," the interrogator asked.
​
"Did anyone notice that paved track with the freestanding garage near my house?" Pedro responded. "That car in there, that's a Ferrari."
​
The translator listened to something on his earpiece and then said, "Four-wheeled ground vehicle, internal combustion engine--used for recreational racing?" Getting a nod from Pedro he went on, "The car is named after the planet?"
​
"No," Pedro answered. "The planet was named after the car; the car is named after the guy who founded the company that originally manufactured it. No clue what the etymology on his family name is."
​
"I see," the interrogator said. His insect-like anatomy and stridulatory vocal apparatus didn't prevent him from being noticeably disturbed by what he'd learned.
​
-------------------------------------
​
"But everyone calls their planet 'Dirt'," Admiral Crossack objected once he finished watching the recording of the interview.
​
"But they're not from here," Captain Hussend said. "It would have been obvious, except their method of getting here flies in the face of everything we know about FTL tech. We've got enough seismic surveys now to know those bunkers are nowhere near big enough to hold everyone who went into them. Not even with true stasis tech or physiology that would allow for adult cryofreeze. Can't swear on the former, but we know they don't have the latter."
​
"A pity this Pedro never studied enough physics to explain how their portals work. He can tell us what they do, but not why," Intelligence Officer Rouel said. "They probably sent anyone who did have that knowledge home in the first wave of evacuations. A pity we didn't know to stop them."
​
Captain Hussend disagreed. "Just as well we didn't. If that portal tech really does have the same energy discharge problem as conventional FTL, they have at least planetary, and possibly system scale, MAD. Firing on evacuees would have been a disaster."
​
"And Pedro thinks they've sent enough shuttle parts through that portal for them to reverse engineer the counter-gravity tech," Admiral Crossack said glumly. "Doesn't know enough to guess how long that will take, or which direction they'll try to hit us from once they have it. I suppose i can't really blame him for not bothering to study astrography with the way their portal network ignores physical distance, but it's blasted inconvenient for us."
​
"And President Chen still insists that negotiation is impossible until their military arrives in force--no one currently on planet has the authority or the firepower to force all factions to abide by any agreement," Rouel noted, equally glum. "We need to crack one of those bunkers open, see what's in there."
​
"Already in planning," Captain Hussend said. "And i just ordered it moved to the top of the priority list."
​
That was when the bunkers in question exploded. A number of blunt conical projectiles erupted from each site, propelled by an unholy mixture of chemical rockets and conter-grav.
​
"Those missiles have shields," one of the point defense sensor techs reported.
​
Captain Hussend's pupils went to full dilation and he lunged for the fleet wide communication toggle. "All personnel, stand by to repel boarders. Projectile loadout, not concussion."
​
Admiral Crossack stared at the captain in consternation. "That firefight is going to be a nightmare for damage control."
​
"If they can survive that kind of acceleration," Hussend waved a hand at the display that was tracking the missiles' progress, "and be able to fight afterwards, then while concussion injuries may still be a nightmare for the survivors' nearest and dearest to deal with, they won't do us any good."
​
"Notify me as soon as all of these presumed boarding missiles have either docked or been destroyed," Admiral Crossack told the sensor officer sorrowfully. Then he turned to the main console and began reciting a lengthy series of authorization codes, concluding with, "Assimilator boarding protocol to standby."
​
"You think they're that dangerous, sir?" one of the other ship commanders asked on a private channel.
​
"MAD only works if it truly is mutual," Admiral Crossack explained. "We don't know how many planets these humans have or where they are; we cannot allow them to have that information about ours. A species that scores as high as this one for both aggression and innovation is not something we want to have to fight a defensive war against."
​
Even with the deranged acceleration produced by the hybrid drive systems, it was several long minutes before the boarding missiles began impacting against the orbiting ships. The smaller, faster ships had been sent racing away from Ferrari. Half of them immediately headed to various WHN stations to relay the information acquired so far; half of them loitered on the fringes of the system to see how events played out. The larger ships, however, needed too much time to bring their main engines up to full thrust to escape the attack via distance.
​
The human soldiers from the last of the boarding missiles to arrive were greeted by an automated sounding, "Assimilation boarding protocol activated. Detection of any breaching charge will activate the self-destruct on all WHN ships within one astronomical unit."
​
"What did we do that spooked them that bad?" a human from a different boarding party wondered.
​
"If that translated correctly," the squads senior member answered, "they're using a protocol intended for somebody else. Still, we must have spooked them at least a little to go with one that all-or-nothing."
​
"I'm getting painted with a sensor laser," a third man reported. "Can they eavesdrop on us without cracking the radio encryption?"
​
Admiral Crossack figured it was time to offer his proposal. "If you refrain from penetrating any further into our ships, we will withdraw to the fringes of this system until we can negotiate terms for retrieving our planet-side personnel as well as your own return. We will also order our ground troops to return to and remain in the currently existing fortified positions for so long as there are no attacks on those positions. Is this cease fire acceptable?"
​
"You will refrain from attacking the positions we currently hold?" one of the human boarders asked.
​
"We will," Admiral Crossack answered.
​
"Terms accepted."
​
-----------------------------------
​
Negotiations went as well as could be expected when the humans were reluctant to allow enough Heromancy shuttles near the planet to lift all of their personnel at once and the WHN officers were reluctant to leave a contingent of the size they could lift at one time on the planet alone. The boarding parties, in contrast, had been returned as soon as the humans could satisfy themselves that the shuttle was not booby trapped--neither they nor the WHN was happy about the active self-destruct contingency.
​
Eventually a compromise was reached in which the last of the Heromancy bases on Ferrari was to be converted into an embassy. It wouldn't actually attain that status under Heromancy law until the Council of Winglords formally recognized at least one of the human governments, and required a Winglord's presence to attain at least consulate status--but nothing prevented the humans from granting it formal diplomatic recognition in the meanwhile.
​
President Chen and Admiral Crossack sat facing each other in one of the lounges of the future embassy. "Exactly how much authority do you have to negotiate?" President Chen asked.
​
"Officially, none," Crossack answered. "Treaties must be ratified by the council and negotiated by a Winglord. Unofficially, i should be able to give you reliable guidance as to what terms will be acceptable and what will not. How much of a courtship dance will be required to get those terms accepted, i can't guess until i know which Winglord will be conducting the official negotiations."
​
"Seems strange to give you the authority to start a war, but not to finish it," Chen observed.
​
"Ordinarily," Crossack explained, "a Winglord would have been dispatched as soon as we realized the situation was anomalous. However, they happen to be in the middle of the once a decade Grand Conclave, the one time when Winglords whose disputes cannot be reconciled by legal means are permitted to seek normally illegal forms of redress. Any Winglord not participating still wants to be there to keep an eye on those who are."
​
"Normally illegal...such as dueling?" Chen guessed.
​
"Precisely. I was able to attend the last Conclave, and the preparation rituals, intended to preclude cheating, are so humiliating that it can be safely assumed that the participants were not going to be satisfied by anything less than blood." Crossack added, "Technically it's not limited to Winglords, but the requirements for ordinary citizens to challenge anyone are much more stringent. The conventional wisdom is that the less one has to lose, the less likely one is to be deterred by death and dishonor."
​
"Hmm, i suppose i can see the logic in that." A communication device pinged, and President Chen looked at the display. "What is a Voice, among your people?"
​
Admiral Crossack's ear tufts straightened. Finally, for good or for ill, he would know what was to be. "Both a courier and a seal of authentication. They make no decisions, but they speak with the authority of the full Council of Winglords. They are generally superlative specimens of species that have powers of persuasion or coercion, which is another reason they are so rigorously trained to be bearers of law only and never lawgivers."
​
"I see," Chen said slowly. "If she's coming with an arrest warrant, like you were speculating about a few days ago, we're willing to offer you asylum."
​
"I find exile more unpalatable than death and dishonor combined, but i am honored by your willingness to have me," Admiral Crossack said. "I am a bit puzzled by it, however. I was the one who ordered the attack on your world, after all."
​
President Chen shrugged. "You only fought with those who wanted to fight, and the conter-grav tech we captured is more than adequate compensation for the infrastructure damage. And the special ops teams that boarded your ships were flattered by the fact that you felt you had to pull out your worst case scenario contingency to stop them. The penultimate contingency apparently wasn't good enough. Er, i hope that was your worst case contingency."
​
"Worst case for contingency triggers," Crossack agreed. "There's self-destruct every ship in the system now, and trigger a system sterilizing solar flare, but those are direct triggers, and the latter is for scenarios that so far remain purely hypothetical. And the problem was that your people only needed to capture one ship, while i had to keep every single one out of their hands."
​
"Your people haven't figured out that the counter to a gray goo scenario is to build nannites that eat nannites?" Chen asked rhetorically. "What are the Assimilators, anyway?"
​
"The reason we don't do implanted technology unless there's no viable alternative medically and keep augmented reality to the absolute minimum needed for non-lethal training," Crossack said. "As best anyone has been able to tell, the Assimilators started as a faction in a VR role playing game. Somewhere along the line the species that originally created the game switched from external device full immersion VR to cyborg tech augmented reality and the players started LARPing. Sometime after that, they stopped their practice of only cyborg modding volunteers who wanted to join their club and started modding anyone they could catch."
​
Crossack grimaced and continued, "As long as they needed a full surgical suite to perform the modifications, they were strictly a law enforcement problem. Unfortunately, before the last of them could be hunted down, they got their hands on some kind of replicant nano-tech that lets them infiltrate a neural link into a person without that person's knowledge."
​
"There's no such thing as a person with a direct brain-computer interface who isn't one of these Assimilators," Chen asked for clarification.
​
"No," Crossack sighed. "Any network they manage to link into, any person directly connected to that network immediately gets converted. How they do it, we're not sure; the leading hypothesis is that they've managed to create a computer-based intelligence with persuasive or coercive powers of a type and power that require a person to either take the Voice's Oath or else accept lifetime quarantine. But we just don't know. The good news is that as long as you keep your tech at arms length, it's perfectly safe, or at least they can't do anything that a conventional hacker couldn't. But it does mean that we can't infiltrate their network to figure out what in the seven blue perditions is going on with them. There are some aspects of a neural link that an external interface just can't mimic."
​
"That could be a problem," President Chen said. "Thankfully, we can't run cable through a portal--it gets cut anytime there's a power blip--but we've got way too many people with medical implants. Your people don't happen to know how to repair spinal cord injuries, do they?"
​
"Some species yes, others no," Crossack answered. "In our efforts to provide medical care to POWs of your species, we found that the treatment had to be provided immediately to be effective, and that which treatment protocol would work varied by both the cause of the damage and idiosyncratic factors. We had to guess right on the first try for treatment to work."
​
"Figures," Chen said. "Any vaccine for their nannite infiltrators?"
​
"A vaccine...for nannites?" Crossack asked in surprise.
​
"Why not?" Chen asked. "Any sufficiently advanced nano-tech is indistinguishable from biology; so why not borrow a page from the bio-control handbook?"
​
"I don't believe there's any such thing," Crossack answered slowly. "Many species can induce sufficient sensitivity to trigger a lethal allergic reaction, but that means walking around with a lethal allergy to many common structural and medical materials."
​
"That would be problematic," Chen agreed. "I need to pass this information about the Assimilators along as quickly as possible. Excuse me for a few minutes."
​
"Of course," Admiral Crossack said. Once President Chen had left the room he stood and began pacing. Curiously, knowing that a Voice was en route and that he would not have to wait much longer to have his hopes and fears regarding his future resolved was making the delay harder rather than easier to endure. After a few laps of failed attempts to resign himself to further waiting, he went to the door and asked the officer guarding it to find out how soon the Voice was expected to arrive.
​
"The Voice's shuttle has landed and the humans are trying to figure out what size and type of escort is appropriate to her rank," the officer reported. Then he blinked and flicked his tail in confusion. "Sir, a Voice is her own escort, isn't she?"
​
"The humans don't know that. A Voice speaks with the authority of the full Council of Winglords, but the humans have no official relationship to the Wingover Hegemony until the Voice delivers her words--assuming she has been given words to that effect."
​
"Precisely, Winglord Crossack."
​
Crossack turned to face the new arrival. The female was tall and so ethereally slender that she was nearly translucent. "Voice Laurelliana," Admiral Winglord Crossack said, having met this particular Voice before. He started to bow, but then the implications of her greeting caught up to him and his ear tufts straightened so hard they nearly snapped. "Wait, what--?"
​
"For recognizing that the impossible was possible in time to avert disaster, for valuing the welfare of the Heromancy above your own pride, for a lifetime of exemplary service, you have been granted the title of Winglord and a seat on the counsel."
​
Admiral Winglord Crossack needed some time to reply as he first had to persuade his throat to stop trying to swallow itself. At last he said, "I am well aware of how badly things could have gone if i had been any slower to admit that the humans must have some other, unknown means of bridging the distance between worlds--but i would have thought that barely enough to buy me an honorable retirement, given that i lost a war i chose to initiate. Then too, i would never have arrived at that understanding so quickly without Captain Hessend and Intelligence Officer Rouel, and their many subordinates who had the wisdom to recognize which reports required immediate attention."
​
"You followed standard procedure to the letter until it was made clear that you were not dealing with the kind of situation which that procedure was intended to cover. You therefore cannot be faulted for initiating the conflict. You were also able to admit that the inconceivable had occurred. To not only be able to stretch your thinking to accommodate what was previously unknown and unimagined, but to do so in time to keep defeat from becoming disaster--this is a capacity much needed in a Winglord, and rarest to find. Many prepare for the impossible; but how can anyone prepare for what he cannot imagine?"
​
Crossack nodded, conceding the point, and the Voice continued, "Many admirals find it almost physically painful to yield overall command to the captain of their ground forces and be relegated to providing fire support. Many of those who have no difficulty yielding command are reluctant to reclaim it when the priority returns to space-side operations, preferring to avoid responsibility. But you have never shown any hesitation in either direction, preferring to let the responsibility rest where it can best be fulfilled."
​
Crossacck shifted and flicked an ear tuft and said, "It helps that i trust Captain Hessend's judgement."
​
"And you never once have tried to claim the credit for your subordinate's efforts," Voice Laurelliana smiled at Crossack.
​
"Eh, stolen honor is not," Crossack replied.
​
"Many say it," the Voice said. "Few live it. The appropriate commendations for those you cited credited with identifying the anomalies here have already been issued. The Vaerins claim to have solved the regeneration resistance problem in draeliks; if Hero Hessend chooses to risk the as yet inadequately tested treatment, the Council will cover his expenses."
​
Hero fits a lot better on him than Winglord sits on me, Crossack thought. "I can't predict whether Hero Hessend will take that offer. He keeps his own counsel when it comes to his injuries."
​
"Is something wrong?" Voice Laurelliana asked President Chen, who'd returned partway through her conversation with Crossack and had been staring at her ever since.
​
"You look much like the description of some of our more insidious legends," Chen told her bluntly. "As unlikely as it is to be anything other than coincidence, it is still difficult to keep the resemblance from inducing significant levels of paranoia."
​
"At least you prefer to lance the boil at once rather than dance around the issue while it festers ever deeper," Laurelliana said, dropping her gaze to indicate that she was speaking as herself and not as a Voice. "Long and long ago, or so it is said, while we were still planet-bound, mine and certain of the other will-bending species dealt with those who abused their powers by exiling them to another world. Your portal network suggests that this is not so impossible as we had thought. If your species has suffered from predation by one of our outcasts, i wouldn't blame you for being paranoid where my kind is concerned."
​
"The conspiracy nuts are going to have fun when they hear that," Chen said with a sigh.
​
Voice Laurelliana lifted her head again. "The council wishes to extend formal diplomatic recognition to your people, but we are suffering from some confusion as to which entity we should be extending that recognition to. Some clarification as to your political structure is needed."
​
"Ah," President Chen said. "I can see how it might. Each of the factions on this planet is considered a sovereign nation, although they're a bit more easy-going about their borders than was, or for that matter still is, customary back on earth. The Faction Arbitration Council is precisely what the name says, a neutral forum in which the factions can hash out their differences and save face by accepting a compromise suggested by a neutral party instead of their opponent. We have no real authority, but we do provide a place where you can address all of the factions at once."
​
"It sounds as though you have all of the responsibility of a Winglord, and none of the power," Voice Laurelliana said.
​
Chen shrugged. "I may only have the authority of a debate moderator, but most of the time that's all i need. As for the times when it is not sufficient, well, the prospect of imminent destruction tends to have a remarkably clarifying effect on everyone's priorities."
​
"I suppose it would," the Voice said. "Whose military did you call in?"
​
"The Liberation Hegemony doesn't claim sovereignty over any but it's native States, but they do provide military protection and economic assistance to anyone who abides by what they regard as the minimum standard of human rights. Which usually works out in practice to 'you can have whatever laws you want as long as you make it easy for people who don't like your laws to leave'. Which is why you never see a planet on the Hegemony network with fewer than seven factions--easy to leave requires that there be a compatible place for you to go."
​
"So we can treat with your Faction Arbitration Counsel as a planetary power, and this Liberation Hegemony as a regional one?" Voice Laurelliana asked, and then added "--to the extent that that's a coherent concept with the way your portal network allegedly ignores distance."
​
"Yes," President Chen said. "There's also the Golden Bureaucracy Bloc. Don't buy anything from them without reading the fine print, and never take out a loan from them. The only reason they aren't ruling us all is that the Hegemony is perfectly willing to apply Alexander's solution to Gordian red tape."
​
"Cultural reference," the Voice said. "Not clear from context."
​
"Sorry," President Chen replied. "Gordias was some guy who tied a really complicated knot and said that the man who untied it would rule the world. Alexander came by a while later, looked it over, and used his sword to cut it apart. After he went on to conquer a larger chunk of the world in less time than anyone before him, the locals where Grodias left the knot decided that this counted as 'untying' it."
​
"So keep it simple, and in good faith, when dealing with the Hegemony, because you never know what they might decide is underhanded enough to void the contract?" Crossack guessed.
​
"This system of yours...works?" the Voice asked uncertainly.
​
"As well as anything else we've tried," Chen answered. "Mostly due to the fact that most of us have gotten too lazy to want to bother proving that we could run other people's lives better than they can. MAD helps keep the peace, too, of course. Although, the fact that exile is always an option does tend to leave people favoring lethal forms of self-defense."
​
"Now that would explain a lot," Winglord Crossack said. "I should go mention that detail to Hero Hessend--he's a bit sore over the fact that it was your civilians bleeding his men so hard."

English grammar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English grammar is the way in which meanings are encoded into wordings in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, right up to the structure of whole texts.
There are historical, social, cultural and regional variations of English. Divergences from the grammar described here occur in some dialects. This article describes a generalized present-day Standard English – a form of speech and writing used in public discourse, including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news, over a range of registers from formal to informal. There are differences in grammar between the standard forms of British, American, and Australian English, although these are more minor than differences in vocabulary and pronunciation.
Modern English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system of Indo-European in favor of analytic constructions. The personal pronouns retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class (a remnant of the more extensive Germanic case system of Old English). For other pronouns, and all nouns, adjectives, and articles, grammatical function is indicated only by word order, by prepositions, and by the "Saxon genitive or English possessive" (-'s).[1]
Eight "word classes" or "parts of speech" are commonly distinguished in English: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Nouns form the largest word class, and verbs the second-largest. Unlike many Indo-European languages, English nouns do not have grammatical gender.
Contents 1 Word classes and phrases 1.1 Nouns 1.1.1 Phrases 1.1.2 Gender 1.2 Determiners 1.3 Pronouns 1.3.1 Personal 1.3.2 Demonstrative and interrogative 1.3.3 Relative 1.3.4 "There" 1.3.5 Other 1.4 Verbs 1.4.1 Phrases 1.5 Adjectives 1.5.1 Comparison 1.5.2 Phrases 1.6 Adverbs 1.6.1 Phrases 1.7 Prepositions 1.8 Conjunctions 1.9 Case 1.10 Declension 2 Negation 3 Clause and sentence structure 3.1 Word order 3.2 Questions 3.3 Dependent clauses 3.4 Other uses of inversion 3.5 Imperatives 3.6 Elliptical constructions 4 History of English grammars 5 See also 6 Notes and references 7 Further reading 7.1 Grammar books 7.2 Monographs 8 External links Word classes and phrases Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs form open classes – word classes that readily accept new members, such as the noun celebutante (a celebrity who frequents the fashion circles), and other similar relatively new words.[2] The others are considered to be closed classes. For example, it is rare for a new pronoun to enter the language. Determiners, traditionally classified along with adjectives, have not always been regarded as a separate part of speech. Interjections are another word class, but these are not described here as they do not form part of the clause and sentence structure of the language.[2]
Linguists generally accept nine English word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and exclamations. English words are not generally marked for word class. It is not usually possible to tell from the form of a word which class it belongs to except, to some extent, in the case of words with inflectional endings or derivational suffixes. On the other hand, most words belong to more than one word class. For example, run can serve as either a verb or a noun (these are regarded as two different lexemes).[3] Lexemes may be inflected to express different grammatical categories. The lexeme run has the forms runs, ran, runny, runner, and running.[3] Words in one class can sometimes be derived from those in another. This has the potential to give rise to new words. The noun aerobics has recently given rise to the adjective aerobicized.[3]
Words combine to form phrases. A phrase typically serves the same function as a word from some particular word class.[3] For example, my very good friend Peter is a phrase that can be used in a sentence as if it were a noun, and is therefore called a noun phrase. Similarly, adjectival phrases and adverbial phrases function as if they were adjectives or adverbs, but with other types of phrases the terminology has different implications. For example, a verb phrase consists of a verb together with any objects and other dependents; a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and its complement (and is therefore usually a type of adverbial phrase); and a determiner phrase is a type of noun phrase containing a determiner.
Nouns Many common suffixes form nouns from other nouns or from other types of words, such as -age (as in shrinkage), -hood (as in sisterhood), and so on,[3] although many nouns are base forms not containing any such suffix (such as cat, grass, France). Nouns are also often created by conversion of verbs or adjectives, as with the words talk and reading (a boring talk, the assigned reading).
Nouns are sometimes classified semantically (by their meanings) as proper nouns and common nouns (Cyrus, China vs. frog, milk) or as concrete nouns and abstract nouns (book, laptop vs. embarrassment, prejudice).[4] A grammatical distinction is often made between count (countable) nouns such as clock and city, and non-count (uncountable) nouns such as milk and decor.[5] Some nouns can function both as countable and as uncountable such as the word "wine" (This is a good wine, I prefer red wine).
Countable nouns generally have singular and plural forms.[4] In most cases the plural is formed from the singular by adding -[e]s (as in dogs, bushes), although there are also irregular forms (woman/women, foot/feet, etc.), including cases where the two forms are identical (sheep, series). For more details, see English plural. Certain nouns can be used with plural verbs even though they are singular in form, as in The government were ... (where the government is considered to refer to the people constituting the government). This is a form of synesis; it is more common in British than American English. See English plural § Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural.
English nouns are not marked for case as they are in some languages, but they have possessive forms, through the addition of -'s (as in John's, children's) or just an apostrophe (with no change in pronunciation) in the case of -[e]s plurals and sometimes other words ending with -s (the dogs' owners, Jesus' love). More generally, the ending can be applied to noun phrases (as in the man you saw yesterday's sister); see below. The possessive form can be used either as a determiner (John's cat) or as a noun phrase (John's is the one next to Jane's).
The status of the possessive as an affix or a clitic is the subject of debate.[6][7] It differs from the noun inflection of languages such as German, in that the genitive ending may attach to the last word of the phrase. To account for this, the possessive can be analysed, for instance as a clitic construction (an "enclitic postposition"[8]) or as an inflection[9][10] of the last word of a phrase ("edge inflection").
Phrases Noun phrases are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences, for example as the subject or object of a verb. Most noun phrases have a noun as their head.[5]
An English noun phrase typically takes the following form (not all elements need be present):
Determiner + Pre-modifiers + NOUN + Postmodifiers/Complement In this structure:
the determiner may be an article (the, a[n]) or other equivalent word, as described in the following section. In many contexts it is required for a noun phrase to include some determiner. pre-modifiers include adjectives and some adjective phrases (such as red, really lovely), and noun adjuncts (such as college in the phrase the college student). Adjectival modifiers usually come before noun adjuncts. a complement or postmodifier[5] may be a prepositional phrase (... of London), a relative clause (like ...which we saw yesterday), certain adjective or participial phrases (... sitting on the beach), or a dependent clause or infinitive phrase appropriate to the noun (like ... that the world is round after a noun such as fact or statement, or ... to travel widely after a noun such as desire). An example of a noun phrase that includes all of the above-mentioned elements is that rather attractive young college student to whom you were talking. Here that is the determiner, rather attractive and young are adjectival pre-modifiers, college is a noun adjunct, student is the noun serving as the head of the phrase, and to whom you were talking is a post-modifier (a relative clause in this case). Notice the order of the pre-modifiers; the determiner that must come first and the noun adjunct college must come after the adjectival modifiers.
Coordinating conjunctions such as and, or, and but can be used at various levels in noun phrases, as in John, Paul, and Mary; the matching green coat and hat; a dangerous but exciting ride; a person sitting down or standing up. See § Conjunctions below for more explanation.
Noun phrases can also be placed in apposition (where two consecutive phrases refer to the same thing), as in that president, Abraham Lincoln, ... (where that president and Abraham Lincoln are in apposition). In some contexts the same can be expressed by a prepositional phrase, as in the twin curses of famine and pestilence (meaning "the twin curses" that are "famine and pestilence").
Particular forms of noun phrases include:
phrases formed by the determiner the with an adjective, as in the homeless, the English (these are plural phrases referring to homeless people or English people in general); phrases with a pronoun rather than a noun as the head (see below); phrases consisting just of a possessive; infinitive and gerund phrases, in certain positions; certain clauses, such as that clauses and relative clauses like what he said, in certain positions. Gender Main article: Gender in English A system of grammatical gender, whereby every noun was treated as either masculine, feminine or neuter, existed in Old English, but fell out of use during the Middle English period. Modern English retains features relating to natural gender, namely the use of certain nouns and pronouns (such as he and she) to refer specifically to persons or animals of one or other genders and certain others (such as it) for sexless objects – although feminine pronouns are sometimes used when referring to ships (and more uncommonly some airplanes and analogous machinery) and nation states.
Some aspects of gender usage in English have been influenced by the movement towards a preference for gender-neutral language. Animals are triple-gender nouns, being able to take masculine, feminine and neuter pronouns.[11] Generally there is no difference between male and female in English nouns. However, gender is occasionally exposed by different shapes or dissimilar words when referring to people or animals.[12]
Masculine Feminine Gender neutral man woman adult boy girl child husband wife spouse actor actress performer rooster hen chicken Many nouns that mention people's roles and jobs can refer to either a masculine or a feminine subject, for instance "cousin", "teenager", "teacher", "doctor", "student", "friend", and "colleague".[12]
Jane is my friend. She is a dentist. Paul is my cousin. He is a dentist. Often the gender distinction for these neutral nouns is established by inserting the words "male" or "female".[12]
Sam is a female doctor. No, he is not my boyfriend; he is just a male friend. I have three female cousins and two male cousins. Rarely, nouns illustrating things with no gender are referred to with a gendered pronoun to convey familiarity. It is also standard to use the gender-neutral pronoun (it).[12]
I love my car. She (the car) is my greatest passion. France is popular with her (France's) neighbors at the moment. I travelled from England to New York on the Queen Elizabeth; she (the Queen Elizabeth) is a great ship. Determiners Main articles: English determiners and English articles English determiners constitute a relatively small class of words. They include the articles the and a[n]; certain demonstrative and interrogative words such as this, that, and which; possessives such as my and whose (the role of determiner can also be played by noun possessive forms such as John's and the girl's); various quantifying words like all, some, many, various; and numerals (one, two, etc.). There are also many phrases (such as a couple of) that can play the role of determiners.
Determiners are used in the formation of noun phrases (see above). Many words that serve as determiners can also be used as pronouns (this, that, many, etc.).
Determiners can be used in certain combinations, such as all the water and the many problems.
In many contexts, it is required for a noun phrase to be completed with an article or some other determiner. It is not grammatical to say just cat sat on table; one must say my cat sat on the table. The most common situations in which a complete noun phrase can be formed without a determiner are when it refers generally to a whole class or concept (as in dogs are dangerous and beauty is subjective) and when it is a name (Jane, Spain, etc.). This is discussed in more detail at English articles and Zero article in English.
Pronouns Pronouns are a relatively small, closed class of words that function in the place of nouns or noun phrases. They include personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and some others, mainly indefinite pronouns.
Personal Main article: English personal pronouns The personal pronouns of modern standard English, and the corresponding possessive forms, are as follows:
Nominative Oblique Reflexive Possessive determiner Possessive pronoun 1st pers. sing. I me myself my mine 2nd pers. sing./pl. you you yourself/yourselves your yours 3rd pers. sing. she, he, they, it her, him, them, it herself, himself, themself, itself her, his, their, its hers, his, theirs, its 1st pers. pl. we us ourselves our ours 3rd pers. pl. they them themselves their theirs The second-person forms such as you are used with both singular and plural reference. In the Southern United States, y'all (you all) is used as a plural form, and various other phrases such as you guys are used in other places. An archaic set of second-person pronouns used for singular reference is thou, thee, thyself, thy, thine, which are still used in religious services and can be seen in older works, such as Shakespeare's—in such texts, the you set of pronouns are used for plural reference, or with singular reference as a formal V-form. You can also be used as an indefinite pronoun, referring to a person in general (see generic you), compared to the more formal alternative, one (reflexive oneself, possessive one's).
The third-person singular forms are differentiated according to the sex of the referent. For example, she is used to refer to a female person, sometimes a female animal, and sometimes an object to which female characteristics are attributed, such as a ship or a country. A male person, and sometimes a male animal, is referred to using he. In other cases it can be used. (See Gender in English.) The word it can also be used as a dummy subject, in sentences like It is going to be sunny this afternoon.
The third-person plural forms such as they are sometimes used with singular reference, as a gender-neutral pronoun, as in each employee should ensure they tidy their desk. Despite its long history, this usage is sometimes considered ungrammatical. (See singular they.)
The possessive determiners such as my are used as determiners together with nouns, as in my old man, some of his friends. The second possessive forms like mine are used when they do not qualify a noun: as pronouns, as in mine is bigger than yours, and as predicates, as in this one is mine. Note also the construction a friend of mine (meaning "someone who is my friend"). See English possessive for more details.
Demonstrative and interrogative The demonstrative pronouns of English are this (plural these), and that (plural those), as in these are good, I like that. Note that all four words can also be used as determiners (followed by a noun), as in those cars. They can also form the alternative pronominal expressions this/that one, these/those ones.
The interrogative pronouns are who, what, and which (all of them can take the suffix -ever for emphasis). The pronoun who refers to a person or people; it has an oblique form whom (though in informal contexts this is usually replaced by who), and a possessive form (pronoun or determiner) whose. The pronoun what refers to things or abstracts. The word which is used to ask about alternatives from what is seen as a closed set: which (of the books) do you like best? (It can also be an interrogative determiner: which book?; this can form the alternative pronominal expressions which one and which ones.) Which, who, and what can be either singular or plural, although who and what often take a singular verb regardless of any supposed number. For more information see who.
All the interrogative pronouns can also be used as relative pronouns; see below for more details.
Relative Main article: English relative clauses For "who/whom" and related forms, see Who (pronoun). The main relative pronouns in English are who (with its derived forms whom and whose), which, and that.[13]
The relative pronoun which refers to things rather than persons, as in the shirt, which used to be red, is faded. For persons, who is used (the man who saw me was tall). The oblique case form of who is whom, as in the man whom I saw was tall, although in informal registers who is commonly used in place of whom.
The possessive form of who is whose (the man whose car is missing ...); however the use of whose is not restricted to persons (one can say an idea whose time has come).
The word that as a relative pronoun is normally found only in restrictive relative clauses (unlike which and who, which can be used in both restrictive and unrestrictive clauses). It can refer to either persons or things, and cannot follow a preposition. For example, one can say the song that [or which] I listened to yesterday, but the song to which [not to that] I listened yesterday. The relative pronoun that is usually pronounced with a reduced vowel (schwa), and hence differently from the demonstrative that (see Weak and strong forms in English). If that is not the subject of the relative clause, it can be omitted (the song I listened to yesterday).
The word what can be used to form a free relative clause – one that has no antecedent and that serves as a complete noun phrase in itself, as in I like what he likes. The words whatever and whichever can be used similarly, in the role of either pronouns (whatever he likes) or determiners (whatever book he likes). When referring to persons, who(ever) (and whom(ever)) can be used in a similar way (but not as determiners).
"There" The word there is used as a pronoun in some sentences, playing the role of a dummy subject, normally of an intransitive verb. The "logical subject" of the verb then appears as a complement after the verb.
This use of there occurs most commonly with forms of the verb be in existential clauses, to refer to the presence or existence of something. For example: There is a heaven; There are two cups on the table; There have been a lot of problems lately. It can also be used with other verbs: There exist two major variants; There occurred a very strange incident.
The dummy subject takes the number (singular or plural) of the logical subject (complement), hence it takes a plural verb if the complement is plural. In informal English, however, the contraction there's is often used for both singular and plural.[14]
The dummy subject can undergo inversion, Is there a test today? and Never has there been a man such as this. It can also appear without a corresponding logical subject, in short sentences and question tags: There wasn't a discussion, was there? There was.
The word there in such sentences has sometimes been analyzed as an adverb, or as a dummy predicate, rather than as a pronoun.[15] However, its identification as a pronoun is most consistent with its behavior in inverted sentences and question tags as described above.
Because the word there can also be a deictic adverb (meaning "at/to that place"), a sentence like There is a river could have either of two meanings: "a river exists" (with there as a pronoun), and "a river is in that place" (with there as an adverb). In speech, the adverbial there would be given stress, while the pronoun would not – in fact the pronoun is often pronounced as a weak form, /ðə(r)/.
Other Other pronouns in English are often identical in form to determiners (especially quantifiers), such as many, a little, etc. Sometimes, the pronoun form is different, as with none (corresponding to the determiner no), nothing, everyone, somebody, etc. Many examples are listed as indefinite pronouns. Another indefinite (or impersonal) pronoun is one (with its reflexive form oneself and possessive one's), which is a more formal alternative to generic you.[16]
Verbs Main article: English verbs The basic form of an English verb is not generally marked by any ending, although there are certain suffixes that are frequently used to form verbs, such as -ate (formulate), -fy (electrify), and -ise/ize (realise/realize).[17] Many verbs also contain prefixes, such un- (unmask), out- (outlast), over- (overtake), and under- (undervalue).[17] Verbs can also be formed from nouns and adjectives by zero derivation, as with the verbs snare, nose, dry, and calm.
Most verbs have three or four inflected forms in addition to the base form: a third-person singular present tense form in -(e)s (writes, botches), a present participle and gerund form in -ing (writing), a past tense (wrote), and – though often identical to the past tense form – a past participle (written). Regular verbs have identical past tense and past participle forms in -ed, but there are 100 or so irregular English verbs with different forms (see list). The verbs have, do and say also have irregular third-person present tense forms (has, does /dʌz/, says /sɛz/). The verb be has the largest number of irregular forms (am, is, are in the present tense, was, were in the past tense, been for the past participle).
Most of what are often referred to as verb tenses (or sometimes aspects) in English are formed using auxiliary verbs. Apart from what are called the simple present (write, writes) and simple past (wrote), there are also continuous (progressive) forms (am/is/are/was/were writing), perfect forms (have/has/had written, and the perfect continuous have/has/had been writing), future forms (will write, will be writing, will have written, will have been writing), and conditionals (also called "future in the past") with would in place of will. The auxiliaries shall and should sometimes replace will and would in the first person. For the uses of these various verb forms, see English verbs and English clause syntax.
The basic form of the verb (be, write, play) is used as the infinitive, although there is also a "to-infinitive" (to be, to write, to play) used in many syntactical constructions. There are also infinitives corresponding to other aspects: (to) have written, (to) be writing, (to) have been writing. The second-person imperative is identical to the (basic) infinitive; other imperative forms may be made with let (let us go, or let's go; let them eat cake).
A form identical to the infinitive can be used as a present subjunctive in certain contexts: It is important that he follow them or ... that he be committed to the cause. There is also a past subjunctive (distinct from the simple past only in the possible use of were instead of was), used in some conditional sentences and similar: if I were (or was) rich ...; were he to arrive now ...; I wish she were (or was) here. For details see English subjunctive.
The passive voice is formed using the verb be (in the appropriate tense or form) with the past participle of the verb in question: cars are driven, he was killed, I am being tickled, it is nice to be pampered, etc. The performer of the action may be introduced in a prepositional phrase with by (as in they were killed by the invaders).
The English modal verbs consist of the core modals can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would, as well as ought (to), had better, and in some uses dare and need.[18] These do not inflect for person or number,[18] and do not have infinitive or participle forms (except synonyms, as with be/being/been able (to) for the modals can/could). The modals are used with the basic infinitive form of a verb (I can swim, he may be killed, we dare not move, need they go?), except for ought, which takes to (you ought to go).
The copula be, along with the modal verbs and the other auxiliaries, form a distinct class, sometimes called "special verbs" or simply "auxiliaries".[19] These have different syntax from ordinary lexical verbs, especially in that they make their interrogative forms by plain inversion with the subject, and their negative forms by adding not after the verb (could I ...? I could not ...). Apart from those already mentioned, this class may also include used to (although the forms did he use to? and he didn't use to are also found), and sometimes have even when not an auxiliary (forms like have you a sister? and he hadn't a clue are possible, though becoming less common). It also includes the auxiliary do (does, did); this is used with the basic infinitive of other verbs (those not belonging to the "special verbs" class) to make their question and negation forms, as well as emphatic forms (do I like you?; he doesn't speak English; we did close the fridge). For more details of this, see do-support.
Some forms of the copula and auxiliaries often appear as contractions, as in I'm for I am, you'd for you would or you had, and John's for John is. Their negated forms with following not are also often contracted (see § Negation below). For detail see English auxiliaries and contractions.
Phrases A verb together with its dependents, excluding its subject, may be identified as a verb phrase (although this concept is not acknowledged in all theories of grammar[20]). A verb phrase headed by a finite verb may also be called a predicate. The dependents may be objects, complements, and modifiers (adverbs or adverbial phrases). In English, objects and complements nearly always come after the verb; a direct object precedes other complements such as prepositional phrases, but if there is an indirect object as well, expressed without a preposition, then that precedes the direct object: give me the book, but give the book to me. Adverbial modifiers generally follow objects, although other positions are possible (see under § Adverbs below). Certain verb–modifier combinations, particularly when they have independent meaning (such as take on and get up), are known as "phrasal verbs".
For details of possible patterns, see English clause syntax. See the Non-finite clauses section of that article for verb phrases headed by non-finite verb forms, such as infinitives and participles.
Adjectives English adjectives, as with other word classes, cannot in general be identified as such by their form,[21] although many of them are formed from nouns or other words by the addition of a suffix, such as -al (habitual), -ful (blissful), -ic (atomic), -ish (impish, youngish), -ous (hazardous), etc.; or from other adjectives using a prefix: disloyal, irredeemable, unforeseen, overtired.
Adjectives may be used attributively, as part of a noun phrase (nearly always preceding the noun they modify; for exceptions see postpositive adjective), as in the big house, or predicatively, as in the house is big. Certain adjectives are restricted to one or other use; for example, drunken is attributive (a drunken sailor), while drunk is usually predicative (the sailor was drunk).
Comparison Many adjectives have comparative and superlative forms in -er and -est,[22] such as faster and fastest (from the positive form fast). Spelling rules which maintain pronunciation apply to suffixing adjectives just as they do for similar treatment of regular past tense formation; these cover consonant doubling (as in bigger and biggest, from big) and the change of y to i after consonants (as in happier and happiest, from happy).
The adjectives good and bad have the irregular forms better, best and worse, worst; also far becomes farther, farthest or further, furthest. The adjective old (for which the regular older and oldest are usual) also has the irregular forms elder and eldest, these generally being restricted to use in comparing siblings and in certain independent uses. For the comparison of adverbs, see Adverbs below.
Many adjectives, however, particularly those that are longer and less common, do not have inflected comparative and superlative forms. Instead, they can be qualified with more and most, as in beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful (this construction is also sometimes used even for adjectives for which inflected forms do exist).
Certain adjectives are classed as ungradable.[22] These represent properties that cannot be compared on a scale; they simply apply or do not, as with pregnant, dead, unique. Consequently, comparative and superlative forms of such adjectives are not normally used, except in a figurative, humorous or imprecise context. Similarly, such adjectives are not normally qualified with modifiers of degree such as very and fairly, although with some of them it is idiomatic to use adverbs such as completely. Another type of adjectives sometimes considered ungradable is those that represent an extreme degree of some property, such as delicious and terrified.
Phrases An adjective phrase is a group of words that plays the role of an adjective in a sentence. It usually has a single adjective as its head, to which modifiers and complements may be added.[23]
Adjectives can be modified by a preceding adverb or adverb phrase, as in very warm, truly imposing, more than a little excited. Some can also be preceded by a noun or quantitative phrase, as in fat-free, two-metre-long.
Complements following the adjective may include:
prepositional phrases: proud of him, angry at the screen, keen on breeding toads; infinitive phrases: anxious to solve the problem, easy to pick up; content clauses, i.e. that clauses and certain others: certain that he was right, unsure where they are; after comparatives, phrases or clauses with than: better than you, smaller than I had imagined. An adjective phrase may include both modifiers before the adjective and a complement after it, as in very difficult to put away.
Adjective phrases containing complements after the adjective cannot normally be used as attributive adjectives before a noun. Sometimes they are used attributively after the noun, as in a woman proud of being a midwife (where they may be converted into relative clauses: a woman who is proud of being a midwife), but it is wrong to say *a proud of being a midwife woman. Exceptions include very brief and often established phrases such as easy-to-use. (Certain complements can be moved to after the noun, leaving the adjective before the noun, as in a better man than you, a hard nut to crack.)
Certain attributive adjective phrases are formed from other parts of speech, without any adjective as their head, as in a two-bedroom house, a no-jeans policy.
Adverbs Adverbs perform a wide range of functions. They typically modify verbs (or verb phrases), adjectives (or adjectival phrases), or other adverbs (or adverbial phrases).[24] However, adverbs also sometimes qualify noun phrases (only the boss; quite a lovely place), pronouns and determiners (almost all), prepositional phrases (halfway through the movie), or whole sentences, to provide contextual comment or indicate an attitude (Frankly, I don't believe you).[25] They can also indicate a relationship between clauses or sentences (He died, and consequently I inherited the estate).[25]
Many English adverbs are formed from adjectives by adding the ending -ly, as in hopefully, widely, theoretically (for details of spelling and etymology, see -ly). Certain words can be used as both adjectives and adverbs, such as fast, straight, and hard; these are flat adverbs. In earlier usage more flat adverbs were accepted in formal usage; many of these survive in idioms and colloquially. (That's just plain ugly.) Some adjectives can also be used as flat adverbs when they actually describe the subject. (The streaker ran naked, not **The streaker ran nakedly.) The adverb corresponding to the adjective good is well (note that bad forms the regular badly, although ill is occasionally used in some phrases).
There are also many adverbs that are not derived from adjectives,[24] including adverbs of time, of frequency, of place, of degree and with other meanings. Some suffixes that are commonly used to form adverbs from nouns are -ward[s] (as in homeward[s]) and -wise (as in lengthwise).
Most adverbs form comparatives and superlatives by modification with more and most: often, more often, most often; smoothly, more smoothly, most smoothly (see also comparison of adjectives, above). However, a few adverbs retain irregular inflection for comparative and superlative forms:[24] much, more, most; a little, less, least; well, better, best; badly, worse, worst; far, further (farther), furthest (farthest); or follow the regular adjectival inflection: fast, faster, fastest; soon, sooner, soonest; etc.
Adverbs indicating the manner of an action are generally placed after the verb and its objects (We considered the proposal carefully), although other positions are often possible (We carefully considered the proposal). Many adverbs of frequency, degree, certainty, etc. (such as often, always, almost, probably, and various others such as just) tend to be placed before the verb (they usually have chips), although if there is an auxiliary or other "special verb" (see § Verbs above), then the normal position for such adverbs is after that special verb (or after the first of them, if there is more than one): I have just finished the crossword; She can usually manage a pint; We are never late; You might possibly have been unconscious. Adverbs that provide a connection with previous information (such as next, then, however), and those that provide the context (such as time or place) for a sentence, are typically placed at the start of the sentence: Yesterday we went on a shopping expedition.[26]
A special type of adverb is the adverbial particle used to form phrasal verbs (such as up in pick up, on in get on, etc.) If such a verb also has an object, then the particle may precede or follow the object, although it will normally follow the object if the object is a pronoun (pick the pen up or pick up the pen, but pick it up).
Phrases An adverb phrase is a phrase that acts as an adverb within a sentence.[27] An adverb phrase may have an adverb as its head, together with any modifiers (other adverbs or adverb phrases) and complements, analogously to the adjective phrases described above. For example: very sleepily; all too suddenly; oddly enough; perhaps shockingly for us.
Another very common type of adverb phrase is the prepositional phrase, which consists of a preposition and its object: in the pool; after two years; for the sake of harmony.
Prepositions Prepositions form a closed word class,[25] although there are also certain phrases that serve as prepositions, such as in front of. A single preposition may have a variety of meanings, often including temporal, spatial and abstract. Many words that are prepositions can also serve as adverbs. Examples of common English prepositions (including phrasal instances) are of, in, on, over, under, to, from, with, in front of, behind, opposite, by, before, after, during, through, in spite of or despite, between, among, etc.
A preposition is usually used with a noun phrase as its complement. A preposition together with its complement is called a prepositional phrase.[28] Examples are in England, under the table, after six pleasant weeks, between the land and the sea. A prepositional phrase can be used as a complement or post-modifier of a noun in a noun phrase, as in the man in the car, the start of the fight; as a complement of a verb or adjective, as in deal with the problem, proud of oneself; or generally as an adverb phrase (see above).
English allows the use of "stranded" prepositions. This can occur in interrogative and relative clauses, where the interrogative or relative pronoun that is the preposition's complement is moved to the start (fronted), leaving the preposition in place. This kind of structure is avoided in some kinds of formal English. For example:
What are you talking about? (Possible alternative version: About what are you talking?) The song that you were listening to ... (more formal: The song to which you were listening ...) Notice that in the second example the relative pronoun that could be omitted.
Stranded prepositions can also arise in passive voice constructions and other uses of passive past participial phrases, where the complement in a prepositional phrase can become zero in the same way that a verb's direct object would: it was looked at; I will be operated on; get your teeth seen to. The same can happen in certain uses of infinitive phrases: he is nice to talk to; this is the page to make copies of.
Conjunctions Conjunctions express a variety of logical relations between items, phrases, clauses and sentences.[29] The principal coordinating conjunctions in English are: and, or, but, nor, so, yet, and for. These can be used in many grammatical contexts to link two or more items of equal grammatical status,[29] for example:
Noun phrases combined into a longer noun phrase, such as John, Eric, and Jill, the red coat or the blue one. When and is used, the resulting noun phrase is plural. A determiner does not need to be repeated with the individual elements: the cat, the dog, and the mouse and the cat, dog, and mouse are both correct. The same applies to other modifiers. (The word but can be used here in the sense of "except": nobody but you.) Adjective or adverb phrases combined into a longer adjective or adverb phrase: tired but happy, over the fields and far away. Verbs or verb phrases combined as in he washed, peeled, and diced the turnips (verbs conjoined, object shared); he washed the turnips, peeled them, and diced them (full verb phrases, including objects, conjoined). Other equivalent items linked, such as prefixes linked in pre- and post-test counselling,[30] numerals as in two or three buildings, etc. Clauses or sentences linked, as in We came, but they wouldn't let us in. They wouldn't let us in, nor would they explain what we had done wrong. There are also correlative conjunctions, where as well as the basic conjunction, an additional element appears before the first of the items being linked.[29] The common correlatives in English are:
either ... or (either a man or a woman); neither ... nor (neither clever nor funny); both ... and (they both punished and rewarded them); not ... but, particularly in not only ... but also (not exhausted but exhilarated, not only football but also many other sports).

[Previous] [First] [Next]
...and thanks to their valiant efforts, fire damage to the museum was minimized, however- what’s that? Right now? Ladies and Gentlemen I’m just now receiving word of a breaking news story. Humanity’s first faster than light capable ship, the Sacagawea, has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean weeks before it was scheduled to return. Details are scarce, but a nearby cruise ship was able to render aid to the ship and recover the astronauts on board. Photographs from witnesses aboard the cruise ship show the Sacagawea crew, consisting of Commander Glenn Thompson, Pilot Ron Parker, and Engineer Jack Takeuchi, alive and well after removal from the ship. Mysteriously, witness photographs also seem to show one other person being recovered from the ship, with rumors of a second extra person still on board. Neither NASA nor JAXA have yet to release an official statement on the events currently unfolding.
I laid in bed, listening to the birds sing outside of my window as I tried to push back the anxiety and panic from the previous night’s dreams. The days and nights were longer here, and even after more than a month I still found myself rising before the sun. Across the hall, I could hear the sound of snoring. Ron wasn’t awake yet, but the sun was beginning to rise and he’d be up shortly.
I stood up and stretched, sighing contentedly as my back cracked, then pulled on a t-shirt and some sweatpants. I wandered groggily to the kitchen. Feeling particularly lazy, I pulled a box of frozen pancakes from the freezer and turned on the oven. Sure, the microwave would have been faster, but I still didn’t trust something that emitted radiation with so little shielding. I opened the box and noted with dismay that it was almost empty. We’d definitely need to go out to get more. I sat down at the kitchen table and contemplated my situation.
The human government had allowed me a surprising amount of freedom, going so far as to allow me to go out in public, so long as I was under constant supervision. Not that I went out much. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with all the attention I drew. I almost think I would have preferred staying hidden from the general public altogether, but that wasn’t exactly feasible. Apparently we had splashed down near a human “cruise ship”. With the Sacagawea’s mission being such a high profile endeavor, the humans on board immediately recognized it and knew something had gone immensely wrong. The Sac’s mission profile had been highly publicized, and it was never meant to land back on Earth, let alone crash into the ocean, weeks ahead of schedule. Crew members from the cruise ship had already evacuated us from the bridge onto a lifeboat and were trying to figure out a way to move Jax by the time a US navy carrier showed up to retrieve us. Pictures of me slumped over on a lifeboat, disheveled and battered, had already spread around the world before we ever made landfall. Without any way to cover up my unexpected arrival, the existence of myself and my planet was formally announced to the general public, along with a general summary of everything that had transpired. I did a few interviews, both televised and behind closed doors, but I felt woefully under qualified to be speaking on behalf of my people. Especially when speaking to government officials. I mostly wanted to stay out of the spotlight.
When it came time to address my living arrangements, Ron volunteered to “babysit” me, as he put it. He had a three bedroom house on a decent amount of land, and lived alone, so moving me in caused minimal disruption, and he was adamant that I not be left in some “prison dressed up like an apartment with a prison warden parading around as a bodyguard.” Especially since I would have been confined to said apartment for years as the humans painstakingly created more of the exotic matter required to fuel their FTL drives. After they made a new one. And if they even decided to send me home. Technically, that still wasn’t decided. Glenn was a regular visitor, but Jack had returned to his home country of Japan. He would still message us regularly though, which was nice.
I heard a yawn and shuffling come from the hallway to the bedrooms.
“Man, why are you always up so early?” Ron asked, heading straight to the coffee machine.
I opened my mouth to answer but stopped. I had left my tablet in my room. Eyes closed in thought, I tried to remember the words in English.
“Your nights are longer. I told you this. Many times.”
Ron smiled at me. “Hey, that was pretty good! But it’s been over a month, learn to sleep in a little! We ain’t all morning people.”
“Neither am I.” I said, pulling a baking sheet from the cabinet. “But your nights are long. And there are no more pancakes left.”
Ron grabbed the box of pancakes from the table. “Dude, there’s like 4 left.”
“And they are mine.” I said, grabbing the box back. I put the pancakes on the baking sheet and threw them in the oven.
“You eat a lot of pancakes man.” Ron said, pouring himself a steaming cup of coffee.
“They remind me of a…” I struggled to remember the word. “A food item you eat after a meal?”
“A dessert?”
“Yes, a dessert we had back home. A light… bread thing? With a sweet… covering?” Even though I had been awake for a while, I still wasn’t awake enough to really tackle English. It was, at times, an incomprehensibly convoluted language.
“Oh, we have that too. It’s called cake.”
“Is a pancake not a cake?”
“No, well yes, but not really.”
English. I rolled my eyes.
“Cakes are generally lighter, sweeter, and covered with frosting, not syrup. They come in all kinds of flavors, and we usually eat them during special occasions and celebrations.” He took a sip of coffee. “And sometimes for dessert.”
Ron stretched and looked out the window. “Whew, it looks like it's gonna be a beautiful day.” He was right, the sun was out and shining, and there were few clouds in the sky. The weather had been getting warmer as well. Ron had said we were in the season of Spring, where the cold receded and the plant life of Earth seemed to come back to life. I had noticed the fields outside begin to turn a rich green, with vibrant patches of color sprouting here and there.
“Tell ya what Ren, how about we do something special today, huh?” Ron said, grinning as he set his cup down. “Get a little fresh air, enjoy the weather.”
“As long as I don’t have to go in a grocery store.” I said, pulling my pancakes from the oven and promptly drenching them in syrup. “You know I don’t like going out in public.”
Ron frowned. “You know, the more regularly you go out, the quicker people get used to you. I mean, I doubt people’ll ever get completely used to seeing you. You are the first alien to come to Earth, and your arrival wasn’t exactly what everyone expected, but…” he trailed off. “Well, worst case scenario, you get used to the publicity. Anyway, once you’re done eating, get dressed and meet me at the car. No grocery stores, public parks, or anything like that, promise.”
I nodded, shoving pancakes in my mouth. I had no idea what Ron had planned, but I wasn’t sure I’d like it. He had admitted to me before that he was a bit of a thrill seeker. That was why he had become a test pilot, then an astronaut. He hadn’t tried to get me to try anything crazy yet, but I figured it was only a matter of time. And from what I had learned about humans so far, thrilling was synonymous with dangerous. But I was beginning to feel cramped from spending my days in Ron’s house with nothing to do but learn English and browse the “internet”. There was an astounding amount of information on the internet, and I had learned a lot about humanity from it, but sitting in front of a computer screen all day was growing stale. Eventually, I finished my meal, placed my dishes in the sink, and went to my room to get dressed. By the time I made my way to Ron’s car, he was already sitting inside, ready to go.
“So where exactly are we going?” I asked, buckling myself into the chair next to Ron.
“It’s a surprise!” He said cheerfully, typing a destination into the car’s nav system.
The vehicle backed itself down Ron’s driveway and took off down the road with a quiet hum. At least the humans had the good sense to automate their ground transports, though Ron had taken manual control of the vehicle once before while I was riding along. It was a terrifying ordeal at the speeds we were going. Human ground transports, or cars, as they usually called them, generally travelled at much lower speeds than Tevucian grav transports, but relied on wheels and friction for directional control and lacked any gravity based inertia dampening. You felt every bit of the speed you were going, and the first few times I rode in one I suffered from severe motion sickness. That wasn’t an issue anymore, but driving at 80 mph in such close proximity to other vehicles while under manual control made my fur stand on end. Luckily, Ron seemed content to let the car drive itself this time and after only a few minutes, we rolled up to a gated lot in front of a squat, nondescript building on the edge of town.
“What is this place?”
“It’s a storage facility.” He said simply, rolling the window down to type a code into a pin pad in front of the gate. There was a beep and the gate began to slide open. The car pulled into the facility and I could make out several doors along one side of the building. We stopped in front of one and Ron climbed out of the car. He typed in a code on another keypad on the wall and the storage facility door rattled open. I climbed out of the car and followed him in. He flipped a switch on the wall and the storage unit was illuminated.
“Is this….another car?” I asked, looking at the machine in front of me. It was obviously a car, but it was radically different from any other I had seen on the road. Whereas the ‘Tesla’ Ron normally drove was rounded and sleek, with flowing lines and a shape that emphasized cabin space and aerodynamic efficiency, this thing was angular, aggressive, and had almost comical proportions by comparison. The front section was long, flat, and came to a shallow point. The cabin section was short, with seating for four, though the vehicle only had two doors and the back seats looked almost vestigial. And the rear section was shorter still, tapering down slightly, with few lines and fewer curves to be found. Four round headlights were set into a grill that ran the width of the car's front end, flanking two smaller vertical grilles at the center. They made the car look angry somehow. Predatory. Dangerous.
“This, my friend,” Ron said, throwing his arm around my shoulders, “is not just another car. This is a 1985 BMW M635CSI. She is a classic. Straight six engine, rear wheel drive, manual transmission, just like the Driving Gods intended.”
I blinked in confusion. “I understood none of that.”
“Alright, let me walk you through it.” He said, ushering me closer to the machine. “This car is a BMW, like the one outside is a Tesla. Different manufacturer. M635CSI is just the model name. It was made in 1985.”
“Wait, 1985? Isn’t that over 100 years ago?” I looked at the car again. It definitely looked old. It’s maroon paint was faded, and most of it on the hood was flaking off. Small dents and scratches covered the sides of it.
“Yes, she’s just a touch over 100, and still going. Mostly.” Ron smiled. “I bought her a couple years ago and just about coaxed her back to life right before the mission. I’ve been looking forward to taking her out on the road once I got back.” He opened the driver’s door and reached inside. There was a creak as a panel covering the front section popped open slightly. Ron came around and grabbed the panel near the base of the windshield. He lifted and the panel hinged open. We were greeted by a rectangular block of metal nestled amidst a tangle of hoses and wires and zip ties.
“Yeah, it ain’t too pretty under here yet, still got some tidying up to do, but she runs.” Ron smiled proudly at the ungainly mechanism.
“And this powers the car?”
“Yeah, let me show you!” Ron said, sliding into the driver’s seat.
I was staring at a particularly concerning looking bundle of taped together wires when the metal lump began heaving to life. A rhythmic whir emanated from the machine, interrupted by occasional sputtering coughs that shook the engine. The coughs and sputters increased in frequency until the car suddenly barked to life, snarling like a beast angry at being disturbed from its slumber, before settling into a low rumble that reverberated through the small storage unit and thrummed in my chest.
I recoiled with a yelp at the sudden cacophony of sound.
“Whoops, sorry bud. Forgot how loud this thing is.” Ron said casually, as if his eardrums weren’t currently being damaged.
“Why is it so loud?” I yelled, pressing my ears firmly against my skull in an attempt to dampen the assault on my sense of hearing.
“Why’s it so what-oh, the exhaust rusted out, and it’s impossible to find replacement parts. So I just welded up some pipe and ran it to the back of the car, so it’s got no muffler, resonator, or anything to quiet it down.
“Okay, but why does it produce that much noise at all? What could that engine possibly be doing to create so much noise?” I paused briefly as a pungent smell began to fill the small space. “Is-is something burning?”
Ron coughed. “Whew, yeah, that’s why we don’t use these any more. Step outta the garage, I’ll pull this thing out.” He pulled the door shut and it bounced back open. Shaking his head, he slammed the door shut and it stayed. I walked out into the fresh air and looked back at the strange, rumbling machine. It let out a sharp snarl and began to inch forward. I felt my fur stand on end as it rolled out into the daylight, growling and crackling. Ron reached for something near the instrument panel in front of him and the machine fell silent. “So what were you asking?”
“Why is that thing so damn loud?!”
“Oh! It runs on gasoline. It combusts gas and air and uses the resulting expanding gas to drive pistons to move the car.”
“Explosions. You used explosions to propel your cars.”
“I mean, that’s kind of simplifying it but, yes.”
“And this is what humans used before electricity. As in, all cars used these engines?”
“Yes?”
“Is your entire species insane?!” I practically yelled. “I can understand you using explosives for your space ships since those are piloted by trained professionals, but putting explosives in the hands of civilians?! At least you eventually realized how dangerous that was and had the sense to switch to electricity.” I sighed. “I don’t know how you guys have made it this far without blowing yourselves up yet.”
Ron scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “Well, we came close a few times, and we didn’t really switch to electric cars for safety. It was more about reducing pollution, and the fact that gasoline was a finite resource. In fact, early electric cars used lithium ion batteries that, if they ever caught on fire, were extremely hard to put out. They were pretty safe otherwise.”
I stared at Ron, dumbfounded as he sat back down in the driver's seat.
“Come on, hop in! Let’s take her for a spin.”
“No. No no no no no. That thing is a death trap.” I said pointedly. “Is there even any kind of safety equipment in it. Any fire suppression systems?”
“Uh, it has seat belts?” He grinned sheepishly.
“No, not gonna happen.”
“C’mon, you’ll love it!” He said, patting the empty passenger seat.
“No.”
“C’moooon!”
“No.”
“You’ll love it!”
“No.”
“It’ll be fun!”
“NO!”
Ron recoiled at the sudden shift in my demeanor.
I took a breath. “I’m- I’m sorry. I know you’re just trying to help, to find something for us to do besides sit around in your house, and I know I can’t just hide away in there for years while NASA decides if they want to build another ship to get me home, but I…” I started twisting one of my ears in anxiety.
“It’s okay buddy.” Ron said gently, leaning out of the car. “Is something wrong? Or has something been bothering you? you can tell me. You keep that shit to yourself and it’s just gonna keep chewing away at you.”
I leaned back against the front fender of the car, running my hands over my head.
“I’m scared. Everything scares me now. Your planet scares me.” I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. “The first time I leave my home system, my ship explodes. You guys rescue me from near certain death, and your ship almost explodes. We get going again only to damn near plaster ourselves across the ocean. And Jax…” My words caught in my throat. I stayed silent for a moment, regaining my composure.
“And now I’m here on a planet full of insane aliens that seem hell bent on risking life and limb at every available opportunity and I’m at my wits end. I’m bored out of my mind cowering away in your house, but I don’t think my nerves can take going out into your world.” A silence hung heavy in the air, and I briefly wondered if I had inadvertently alienated the person who had risked so much for me, who had invited me to live in his own home.
“Let me ask you something.” Ron said, standing up out of the car. “Why did you become an astronaut, specifically a pilot?”
“I- well…”
“Even in your society, that has to carry risk, right? There’s more danger associated with space travel than say, an accountant, or whatever equivalent you have for an office job, right? And yet, you chose to go to space. Hell, you chose to leave your system. Why is that?”
“Because I- uh…” I faltered.
“Because a normal life is boring? Because you seek thrill, adventure?” He continued. “And why a pilot? Is it because you can control a machine that lets you do so much more than what’s otherwise possible? That having control of something that can take you anywhere you want is the ultimate freedom?”
“Maybe, I guess? I don’t…” I thought back to my youth, looking up in wonder to watch star-like specks of light flit across the night sky. I remembered the hours spent in simulations learning the controls of a spaceship, and the overwhelming thrill and sense of wonderment the first time I strapped myself into the pilot's seat and left the atmosphere. I remembered all those times I got yelled at for not using autopilot…
“You know what I think your problem is?” Ron said, scratching his chin. “You’ve been on this crazy roller coaster of an adventure, but you haven’t been in control for a long time. You were at our mercy once you set foot on our ship, and you're at the mercy of my government if you ever get to go home. You haven’t been able to enjoy the ride, because you didn’t even get to choose to get on it.”
I reflected on that. How different would my stay on Earth be if I chose to come here. If I had time to prepare. If I had my partner with me. Would I be cowering away inside, waiting for my departure? Or would I be dragging Jax all across this planet every time something caught my eye?
“Look, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to, but I really think that this,” he patted the old car’s roof affectionately, “might be able to help you break out of this funk you’ve been in. If you’re willing to learn, willing to master it, it will reward you with an experience you just can’t get from anything else today. There’s no traction control, no anti-lock brakes, no speed limiter, no electronic nannies to interfere. Just you, the car, and wherever you want to go, however you want to get there.” He turned to regard me while he closed the engine compartment panel. “Maybe it can give you some semblance of control back in your life.”
He climbed back into the old BMW and reached up near the instrument panel again. This time I saw him turn a small, black key behind the wheel in front of him. The car whirred and barked to life immediately this time, crackling as it settled into that low, unnerving growl once again.
“You can take the Tesla home if you want, I won’t make you ride in the death trap!” He shouted over the din.
I slowly walked around the front of the car. Apprehensively, I placed a hand on the faded maroon fender, feeling it vibrate and shudder with the explosions of gasoline and air. I looked at the sleek, white Tesla, silent, safe, waiting to take me back to Ron’s house where I could hide away from the madness that was this world.
No.
I was done being scared. Done hiding away, and done wasting the time I'd be spending here. I walked to the passenger side and opened the door. Taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, I lowered myself into the passenger seat.
“Atta boy.” Ron said, smiling. “Alright, before we set off, lemme run you through all the controls.
We rolled up to Ron’s house as the sun was sinking to the horizon. The sleek white Tesla was already there, sitting atop its inductive charging pad, having driven itself home shortly after our departure. As soon as Ron brought the BMW to a halt, I shoved open the door and practically spilled out onto the ground.
“C’mon, it wasn’t that bad.” Ron said, silencing the clattering machine as he climbed out.
I simply glared at him from my spot on the ground, ears ringing, willing my heart rate to drop to a safe level before I suffered a heart attack. I mentally reflected on the events of the day, and how Ron could possibly come to the conclusion that it hadn’t been that bad.
Our little road trip had started innocently enough, with Ron showing me all the archaic controls and their various functions. Then he insisted I try it myself in the storage unit parking lot. How any species could decide that a vehicle should be controlled with three pedals when they only had two legs was utterly beyond me. But Ron’s explanation made it seem a relatively simple affair, and being licensed to fly the most advanced piece of machinery my people had ever created, I felt I could handle the crude, century old transport I now occupied.
I was wrong.
It had struck me as predatory and beast like before, with all its growling and shuddering, and it’s shape, all hard edges and straight lines, gave it the appearance of a foul-tempered demeanor. Now I was almost certain it was alive, and extremely pissed off I was at its helm. No matter how gentle I tried to release the ”clutch”, (which was absurdly heavy, seriously, how was this ever considered normal?) the car would buck and protest, either spinning its tires with a piercing shriek or defiantly shutting down while doing its best to send my snout crashing into the steering wheel. Ron did his best to offer clearer instructions, but was struggling to do so through his laughter. Eventually, I was able to get the ornery thing to move reliably, but not without making it bellow and groan, the engine RPMs racing skyward as I slowly slipped the clutch. Once moving, the car became more compliant, but was still a handful. Go too slow, the car bucks and shudders or stalls out. Come to a stop without pressing the clutch or shifting to neutral, the car stalls out. Come to a stop facing uphill? Congratulations, you are now rolling backwards as soon as your foot comes off the brake. Ron had hoped this machine would help me feel like I had some aspect of control over something, anything, in my life. Instead, I felt it was a fight just to get the damn thing to move one foot forward. I was physically and mentally exhausted by the time Ron offered to take the driver’s seat back.
With Ron at the wheel, the machine’s demeanor seemed to shift immediately. With minimal drama, he coaxed the car forward, and we glided effortlessly onto the road. He slotted the shifter through the gears and soon, we were cruising along the empty rural road, windows down, the BMW rumbling contentedly.
Just as I was beginning to relax, to feel as though maybe, this mechanized insanity wasn’t as threatening or dangerous as I thought, Ron said some words that I hope to never hear again.
“Alright, lemme show what this thing can really do.”
What followed was a blur of deafening noise, the terrifying sensation of speed, and the feeling that my life would end at the hands of the cackling maniacal human piloting his death trap along nonsensically winding roads. I didn’t even realize when we had slowed down to a more sensible speed. My last clear memory was seeing Ron’s house as we pulled into the driveway.
Shakily, I picked myself up off the ground.
“Seriously though, are you okay? I didn’t think I'd scare you that bad, I thought you were getting comfortable with the car.”
“I was.” I said curtly, brushing off dust from the gravel driveway.
“Again, I’m sorry. But I’m my defense, we only got up to like sixty. We’ve gone way faster than that in the Tesla.” He said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder towards it.
My eyes narrowed at that. “There’s no way we weren’t going faster.”
Ron shrugged. “It’s a raw car. It doesn’t insulate you from the road. It’s meant to make driving fun.”
“Your definition of fun is very different from mine.”
I followed Ron into the house, falling unceremoniously onto a couch. Ron sat in the recliner along the wall, a thoughtful look on his face as he stared off out of the living room window.
“You know, the first time we took the Sacagawea out on an FTL test run, I don’t think I could honestly tell you how it felt.”
My ears perked as I looked towards the contemplative human.
“Me, Jack, Glenn, we were all so busy watching the data, checking parameters, looking for anything that might indicate the ship was gonna tear itself apart or explode or something, that I don’t think anyone actually experienced the whole thing.” Ron paused for a moment.
“I could probably recite exactly what the drive core temperatures were, our location, relative velocity, all that. But I don’t think I could tell you what the sensations of that first flight were, outside of anxiety, trepidation, and most of all, fear.” He shook his head, smiling. “It wasn’t until our fourth or fifth test flight that I realized the literal tons of FTL shit we bolted to what was originally an oversized cargo shuttle made it about as responsive as an apartment building in a mudslide, and that the most sensational part of FTL flight was the utter lack of sensation at all.”
Ron turned his gaze towards me. “The point I’m getting at is that the first time you try something, it can be overwhelming. You’re so bombarded with everything that’s happening, you don’t actually get the chance to process what’s going on. So if you want, and when you’re ready, we can go out and try again.” He shrugged. “If not, that’s fine, but I’m getting you out of this house. You’re stuck here on Earth for a while, and I’ll be damned if you leave without ever actually experiencing your time here.”
He stood and stretched. “Anyway, it’s late, and I don’t feel like making dinner. Pizza alright with you?”
“Yeah…” I nodded absently, staring out the window at the rolling fields bathed in the golden glow of dusk. At the predatory shape of that car silhouetted against the setting sun.
That night my thoughts swirled around me as I laid in bed. Eight to ten years. That was the estimate the scientists at NASA had given me for how long it would take them to synthesize enough exotic matter for a trip to Cygaria. That was how long it would be before I could go home, if they even decided to let me leave. That was still not officially decided. Just one more thing up in the air. Beyond my control.
I sighed and rolled on to my side. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that Ron was right. I’d just been along for the ride in everything that happened since my ship exploded, and I had just shut down. I locked myself away in his house where nothing crazy happened and life couldn’t throw anymore surprises my way. I didn’t want to hide away anymore, I was tired of being afraid, tired of the feeling of helplessness in my current situation. However, the thought of going out doing anything on this insanity-inducing planet brought forth feelings of anxiety and apprehension. Something had to change, but change was hard. My troubled thoughts followed me as I finally drifted off to sleep.
Heavy. Everything was heavy. I tried to lift my head. A sharp pain lanced down my back and shoulders. I sucked in a breath of air and tried again. Slowly, I was able to look up and take in my surroundings. The bridge was dim, and all the consoles were dead. The three humans were slumped in their seats. I began to feel light headed and let my head drop again. More pain. I could feel the Sac swaying gently below me, hear the sounds of water lapping against the ship and boiling away. We had made it. We survived. Glenn groaned, then called out across the bridge.
“Is everyone alive?”
“I am in one piece.”
“Ugh, gravity’s a mean bitch.”
“I’m alive. My neck feels like someone tried to rip it from my body.” I said through gritted teeth, struggling to lift my head once again.
“Try not to move. You probably only have whiplash, but it could be something worse. Moving too much could cause more damage.” I could hear Glenn straining as he reached for the radio controls. He pushed a couple of buttons, but nothing happened. “Shit, powers completely dead. Looks like we’re waiting in the dark. No way to check on our pick up.”
I looked over at the display that showed the medbay camera feed. My heart dropped. It was blank. I began fumbling with my restraints.
“Woah, Ren! What are you doing.” Ron called out, pulling at his own harness buckle.
“I need to check on Jax!” I gasped. I could only imagine what damage the violent landing had done to him in his fragile state. The sudden reintroduction to gravity was wreaking havoc on my body. My arms felt stiff and unresponsive. I managed to unclasp my harness and throw it off.
“Ren wait! Help will be here soon!” Ron shouted. “There’s nothing you can do right now, you’re only going to hurt yourself!”
I didn’t care. I needed to make sure he was okay. I wrenched myself out of the chair and collapsed onto the floor. Searing hot pain shot up my back and into my head. I tried to raise an arm, to drag myself forwards. I couldn’t. Everything hurt. My limbs felt like they were made of lead. I dropped my head against the hard metal floor and yelled in frustration. In anger. My yelling faded into pitiful sobs. I was helpless. If Jax was dying in that medbay, there wasn’t a damned thing I could do. I couldn’t even be there for him. So I lay on the floor instead, sniffling like some lost child. I felt a familiar weight on my back and turned my head. Ron was on all fours, breathing heavily, one hand on my back. That strange human gesture of comfort. It helped.
“Ren, easy,” he said between gasps. “We’ve made it...this far man. Jax...has made it this far. He’s sick...but he’s tough. He’ll get through this. We’ll...get through this. Help is coming...soon. We’ll be alright.”
I took a shaky breath. “Okay. You’re- you’re right.” Jax would be fine. He had to be fine. Ron eased himself down and joined me on the floor.
“No way in hell I'm gonna be able to stand back up. Hope you don’t mind if I join you.”
I slowly, painfully, rolled over into my back, hissing in pain. “I don’t mind.” I gasped.
“Bet you don’t have to deal with reacclimating to gravity, huh?”
“No, having onboard gravity prevents that.”
“Hmm, must be nice.”
“Yeah, it is.”
All four of us remained silent, listening to the gentle lapping of waves as the Sac bobbed gently on the ocean.
I awoke with a start, the feelings of panic and helplessness still seared in my mind. It was still pitch black in my room, and the stars shone clearly through the bedroom window. A quick glance at the clock told me it was early. Real early. 1:32am.
I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes.
Every night.
Every single night I dreamt of my arrival here. Everytime I closed my eyes I would relive the trauma, the vulnerability I’d felt immediately after splash down. It was draining. Sleep thoroughly out of the equation for the next few hours, I grabbed a light cloth “hoodie” and made my way downstairs as I had many times when my nightmares woke me. As I grabbed the handle to the front door, I noticed the keys to the BMW hanging from the wall next to the Tesla fob. Hesitantly, I picked up the small, metal keys and stepped outside. The night was crisp and clear, without a cloud in the sky to impede my view of the alien nightscape.
Unfamiliar stars and a ludicrously large moon were a stark reminder of my current situation, but there was a comforting beauty to them. I sat down on the porch steps, letting the cool night breeze wash over me as I stared out into the stellar sea above me. The stars had always held a certain power over me. I could feel that familiar tug, that longing for something more that pushed me to be a pilot in the first place. That drive that steeled my nerves and pushed me towards adventure. My gaze shifted down to the moonlit hills and trees that surrounded me, then to the angular shape of the BMW sitting in the driveway before me.
Maybe it was sleep deprivation, or maybe it was desperation to begin feeling like myself again, but I found myself walking to the driver‘s door of the car. I slid the small, fragile feeling key into the slot next to the handle. The door unlocked with a thunk and I pulled it open. Sliding into the seat, I shut the door and gripped the wheel, apprehension welling up inside me. Slotting the key in the ignition, I held my breath and turned it. The car barked to life, settling into that deep growling idle. I closed my eyes, feeling the car rumble around me. For a moment, I was back on the Sacagawea, strapped in a chair, feeling the ship rumble through the atmosphere, gripped in panic and helplessness. I wrenched my eyes open and reached for a switch on the ceiling. The car’s ancient sunroof squealed in protest as it opened, revealing the night sky. I stared up at them again, steeling my nerves and strengthening my resolve. Like it or not, this planet was now my mission, my adventure, and this crummy, ancient, rolling health hazard of a car was gonna be my ship. I was a pilot damnit, if I could hop into a spacecraft and fly out to another star system, then I could absolutely conquer driving a vehicle humans used to get groceries a century ago.
continued in comments

Long and short a, e, i, o, u
Doubled consonants are supposed to show when the letters a, e, i, o, u in words of more than one syllable have a short sound, as in matter, hemmed, hidden, dotty, tubby, rather than long, as in mate, theme, hide, dote, tube. When followed by just one consonant, or several consonants and a vowel, a, e, i, o, u are meant to be 'closed' , with a short sound, as in: am, ample; ten, tender; pin, pinked; pond ponder; bun bunker.
When followed by a single consonant and a vowel, they are ‘open’ and meant to be long; male, halo; peter, period; fine, final; sole, solo; tube, tubular'.
If a stressed short vowel before a single consonant and another vowel is to be short, or is to stay short, it should be followed by a doubled consonant: allergy, petty, Finnish, dolly, butter.
Schoolchildren spend much time learning to apply this rule when adding suffixes to short words: cut + er → cutter, prefer + ed → preferred; but: cute + er→ cuter, enter +ed → entered.
Sadly, at least 1,700 words of more than one syllable disobey the ‘closed /short' - 'open / long’ vowel system in 5 ways: 1. At least 567 common words fail to double the consonant after a short, stressed vowel, e.g. 'habit, very, similar, body, study'. 2. 219 words have needlessly doubled consonants after unstressed vowels, e.g. 'account, terrific, immense, occur, hurrah', undermining their regular use, as in: accurate, terror, simmer, occupy, hurry. 3. Nearly 200 words end with a surplus –e: (give, promise – cf.spiv drive; surprise tennis). 4. Around 200 words have irregular spellings for a, e, i, o and u (plait, bread, pretty, cough, touch), sometimes with missing doubled consonants as well (many, women, sausage, money). 5. At least 665 words do not use the long vowel method, of 'male, mere, mile, mole, mule': 87 for long a (late - wait, straight, eight), 373 long e (eke – seek, speak, shriek) - [e-e is used just in 86 words], 79 long i (while - style, whilst, island, height), 100 long o (mole – bowl, roll, soul), 26 long u (use - youth, juice, feud, lewd, beauty, Tuesday). All common words affected by the five irregularities are shown below in the following order: 1) Omitted consonant doubling; 2) Needless consonant doubling; 3) Surplus -e endings; 4) Exceptions to a, e, i, o, u; 5) Exceptions to a-e, i-e, o-e, u-e and 459 unpredictable spellings for the /ee/ sound. The exceptions dilute the English 'long/short' system so much that hundreds of spellings simply have to be learned word by word, instead of being spelt systematically, like 'pal, pale, pallid'. They were made irregular mainly with careless changes to the original English spelling system and are now most responsible for making learning to write English exceptionally difficult and time-consuming. Most of them cause reading difficulties as well, not just spelling ones: e.g. hide, hidden – hideous; arrow - arrive (cf. arise); save - have; ouch - touch. --------------------------------------------------------------
1) Words of more than one syllable without doubled consonants after their short, stressed vowel (which undermine the 500+ words with doubling, e.g. cabbage, chicken, adder...). (Only one-syllable words lengthened with suffixes have systematic consonant doubling: e.g. beg – begged, beggar, begging; fat – fatten, fatty).
Cabaret, cabin, cabinet, distribute, elaborate(X2), fabulous, habit, inhabit, liberal, liberty, nebula, probable, prohibit, rebel(noun), robin, tribute.
Articulate, binoculars, crocodile, decade, decorate, document, executive, faculty, placard, recognise, record(n), ridiculous, second(n), secondary, secular, vacuum, vicar. Accurate, broccoli, hiccough, hiccup, occupy, piccolo, soccer, succulent, tobacco. Echo, mechanism. Chequered, lacquer, liquor, liquorice.
Academy, adequate, body, credit, deciduous, edible, edit, educate, federal, graduate(X2), hideous, idiot, madam, medal, medical, moderate(X2), modern, modest, pedal, pedigree, produce(n), product, radical, radish, ridicule, shadow, study, video, widow.
Café, certificate, magnificent, Pacific, profit, reference, refuge, refuse (n), significant, specific,
agony, brigand, dragon, flagon, frigate, hexagonal, jaguar, negative, regular, sugar, vigorous, wagon,
Ability, abolish, analysis, apologise, astrology, balance, bilious, calendar, celebrate, celery, chalet, civilian, colony, column, delegate(X2), deliberate(X2), delicacy, deluge, demolish, develop, element, elephant, eligible, expel, facilities, felon, galaxy, helicopter, holiday, invalid(adj), italic, knowledge, lapel, lily, melody, melon, metropolitan, military, morality, motel, olive, palace, palate, pelican, policy, polish, politics, polythene, probability, qualify, quality, reality, relative, relevant, relic, salad, salary, salmon, salon, skeleton, solemn, solid, solitary, talent, talon, telescope, theology, tolerate, valentine, valiant, valid, value, ventriloquist, vitality, volume, voluntary.
Abominable, academic, amateur, atomic, barometer, calamity, camera, camouflage, cemetery, chemical, chemistry, comedy, comet, comic, criminal, damage, democrat, dominate, domino, dynamic, economic, eliminate, emerald, emigrate, epidemic, family, famished, feminine, glamour, image, kilometre, laminate(x2), lemon, limit, memorise, memory, plumber, preliminary, premier, premise, primitive, prominent, promise, remedy, semi, similar, simile, thermometer, timid, vomit.
Aluminium, animal, anonymous, anorak, astonish, astronomy, banish, banister, benefit, canopy, cinema, clinical, conifer, continue, degenerate(x2), economy, electronic, enemy, energy, finish, granary, honest, honour, January, lieutenant, linear, manage, manor, manual, manuscript, menace, menu, mineral, minimal, minimum, minister, minute(n), monarch, monastery, monitor, monument, opinion, organic, panic, penalty, penetrate, planet, punish, senate, sinister, spaniel, spinach, strenuous, supersonic, tenor, tonic, vanish, venison, vinegar.
Capita, capital, capitol, copy, deputy, dilapidated, epic, episode, leper, opera, operate, popular, proper, property, rapid, separate(x2), tapestry, tepid, topic, tropics.
America, Arab, arable, arid, asparagus, authority, baron, beret, caramel, caravan, caricature, carol, ceremony, chariot, charity, cherish, clarity, comparative, comparison, conspiracy, coral, derelict, empirical, experiment, florist, foreign, forest, garage(UK), herald, heritage, heroin/, heroine, heron, historic, horoscope, inherent, inherited, majority, merit, minority, miracle, moral, necessarily, numerical, orange, origin, parasol, parish, peril, periscope, perish, popularity, primarily, priority, quarantine, sheriff, sincerity, spirit, sterilise, therapist, transparent, very.
Acid, adolescent, anticipated, capacity, decimal, discipline, electricity, explicit, fascinate, glacier(UK), municipal, oscillate, pacifist, participate, precipice, prosecute, publicity, recipe, simplicity, solicitor, specify, specimen, velocity; glisten, listen; convalescent, crescent.
Gratitude, aquatic, athletic, atom, baton, botany, British, catalogue, catapult, category, citizen, city, compatible, competitive, critic, critical, dedicate, diplomatic, lateral, latitude, literal, literary, magnetic, mathematics, metal, monotonous, obliterate, pathetic, petal, pity, platinum, platypus, poetic, political, satin, saturate, Saturday, Saturn, static, strategy, tetanus, veteran, yeti.
Avenue, average, cavalry, cavern, cavity, civic, civil, clever, controversy, crevice, deliver, devil, driven, eleven, equivalent, ever, evidence, given, gravity, havoc, hover, javelin, lavender, navigate, never, novice, poverty, privilege, proverb, providence, quiver, ravenous, reverend, river, rivet, savage, scavenge, seven, shiver.
Hazard, lizard, lozenge, wizard, wizened; deposit, closet, desert, designate(x2), desolate(x2), hesitate, miserable, positive, presence, present, president, prison, resident, risen, visible, visit; scissors.
56 words have irregularly spelt short vowels and missing doubled consonants:
Any, berry/bury, burial, endeavour, heaven, heavy, heifer, jealous, jeopardy, leopard, many, meadow, peasant, pheasant, pleasant, ready (already), steady, threaten, weapon, zealous,
busy, chrysalis, cylinder, cynical, lyric, physical, physics, synagogue, synonym, syrup, typical, tyranny, women,
colour, courage, cousin, covenant, cover, covet, covey, dozen, govern, honey, monetary, money, nourish, onion, oven, shovel, slovenly, somersault, stomach, thorough. Sausage. Courier.
2) Words with needlessly doubled consonants (i.e. not after a stressed short vowel; the stressed syllable is underlined). - Compare: abridge, acute, adrenalin, afar, alone...
Abbreviate.
Accompany, accomplish, accord, accordance, accordion, account, accrue, accumulate, accuse, accustom.
Address(uk). Affair, affect, affection, affectionate, affluent, afford, chauffeur, differential, diffusion, effect, efficient, effluent, effusive, giraffe, graffiti, offence, offend, offensive, official, officious, paraffin, sheriff, sufficient. Aggravate, aggressive, suggest.
Alliance, allotment, allow, allowance, allowed/aloud, ballistic, balloon, caterpillar, collage, collapse, collect, collection, collide, constellation, controlled, excellent, hello, illegal, illegible, illiterate, illuminate, illusion, illustration, installation, intellectual, jewellery, llama, marvellous, parallel, pastille, roller, satellite, swollen, tonsillitis, traveller(UK), virtually, wholly, woollen.
Accommodation, ammunition, command, commemorate, commence, commercial, commission, commit, commodities, commotion, communication, communion, community, commuter, immaculate, immediate, immense, immersion, immortal, immune, programme, programmer, recommend.
Anniversary, announce, annoy, annul, connect, Finn/fin, inn, mayonnaise, personnel, questionnaire, tyranny.
Appal, apparatus, apparent, appendix, applaud, applause, appliance, apply, appoint, appreciate, apprehensive, apprentice, approach, appropriate(x2), approve, approximate(x2), hippopotamus, opportunity, oppose, sapphire, supply, support, suppose.
Arrange, array, arrest, arrive, barricade, correct, correlation, correspond, curriculum, erratic, hurrah, interrupt, irregular, irrigation, occurrence, serrated, surrender, surreptitious, surround, terrific, torrential, verruca.
Assail, assassin, assassinate, assault, assemble, assert, assessment, assessor, assign, assist, assistant, associate(x2), assort, assume, cassette, dessert, embassy, essential, lasso, moose/mousse, necessarily, necessary, possess, possessive, possibility.
Attach, attack, attain, attempt, attend, attention, attorney, attract, attributed, battalion, cigarette, mattress, omelette, palette, silhouette.
3) Words with surplus –e endings which obscure the vowel-lengthening function of –e in words like 'define, bone, care, endure, advise, inflate, ignite, drive, save, survive'.
Destine, determine, discipline, doctrine, examine, engine, famine, feminine, genuine, heroine, imagine, iodine, intestine, jasmine, masculine, medicine, urine,
gone, shone. Are, (cf. care, endure, mature). Conjure, exposure, failure, figure, fissure, injure, measure, pleasure, pressure, procedure, treasure. Adventure, agriculture, architecture, capture, caricature, creature, culture, departure, expenditure, feature, fracture, furniture, future, gesture, lecture, legislature, literature, manufacture, miniature, mixture, nature, picture, puncture, scripture, signature, structure, temperature, torture, venture, vulture. Purchase, premise, promise, purpose. (cf. atlas, devise, propose). Accurate, adequate, affectionate, candidate, chocolate, climate, considerate, corporate, delicate, desperate, extortionate, fortunate, frigate, illiterate, immaculate, immediate, intermediate, intricate, laureate, legitimate, obstinate, palate, passionate, pirate, private, proportionate, senate, Composite, Definite, exquisite, favourite, granite, infinite, opposite. In 25 words the –ate endings are used for two different words (to deliberate a deliberate act). Advocate, alternate, appropriate, approximate, articulate, associate, certificate, co-ordinate, degenerate, delegate, deliberate, designate, desolate, dictate, duplicate, elaborate, estimate, graduate, intimate, laminate, moderate, separate, subordinate, syndicate, triplicate (cf. inflate, dilate, obliterate). Give, forgive, have, live (cf. drive, save, alive), abrasive, abusive, adhesive, aggressive, apprehensive, comprehensive, compulsive, conclusive, creative, cursive, decisive, defensive, depressive, derisive, detective, dismissive, divisive, effusive, elusive, evasive, excessive, exclusive, expensive, explosive, expressive, extensive, fugitive, impressive, impulsive, incisive, inclusive, initiative, intensive, invasive, massive, motive, narrative, objective, obtrusive, offensive, oppressive, passive, pensive, permissive, perspective, persuasive, possessive, productive, progressive, prospective, radioactive, repulsive, respective, responsive, selective, sensitive, subjective, submissive, subversive, successive.
4) Words with irregular spellings for short /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and - (Letters in red are redundant.)
A - (bad, cat, rang, chav) - plaid, plait, meringue, have.
E - (bed, bend) – but : Bread/bred, breadth, breast, breath, dead, deaf, dealt, death, dread, dreamt, head, health, lead(x2), leant, leapt, meant, read(x2), ream, spread, sweat, thread, threat, wealth. Breakfast, cleanliness, cleanse, endeavour, feather, heather, heaven, heavy, instead, leather, measure, stealthy, treacherous, treadmill, treasure, weather. Friend, every, said, says, Wednesday.
Some lack doubled consonants as well (c.f. jelly, teddy, penny): Berry/bury. Any, many. Jeopardy, leopard. Heifer. Jealous, meadow, peasant, pheasant, pleasant, ready, (already), steady, weapon, zealous.
Different in US and UK: Leisure, lieutenant [leesure/lesure, lutennant/leftennant].
I – (in, it, sit ) - except: Build, built, busy, English, pretty, sieve, vineyard, women. Abyss, crypt, crystal, cyclical, cygnet, cymbals, cyst, eucalyptus, gym, hymn, hypnotise, lynch, lynx, mystery, myth, Olympics, rhythm, syllable, symbol, symmetry, sympathy, symptom, synchronise, syndicate, syndrome, synthesis, system. Without doubled consonants as well (unlike ‘syllable’ and ‘symmetry’): Chrysalis, cylinder, cynical, lyric, physics, synagogue, synonym, syrup, typical, tyranny.
O – (on hot spot) – irregular mainly just after w and qu: Swallow, swamp, swan, swap, waft, wand, wander, want/wont, wanton, warrant, warren, warrior, was, wash, wasp, watch, watt, wattle, what. Quality, quadrangle, quantity, quarantine, quarry, squabble, squad, squander, squash, squat. + Cough, trough; laurel, sausage.
U – (up, under) - Next to m, n , v and w, the short sound is often spelt o or o-e.
(* quite often without doubled consonants too, e.g. money– cf. funny).
Among, Monday, money, monger, mongrel, monk, monkey, month, mother, smother. Comfort, company, compass, pommel/pummel, stomach. Come, some/sum. Front, son, ton/tonne , tongue, sponge. Done, none/nun, nothing. Honey, onion. Above, cover, covet, covey, covenant, dove, glove, govern, love, oven, shove, shovel, slovenly.
Won/ one, wonder, worry. Once. Country, nourish, young. Enough. Not next to m, n or v: Double, couple, trouble. Rough, slough(x2), tough. Brother, colour, courage, cousin, dozen, does, hiccough/hiccup, other, Southern, thorough*, touch. Blood, flood.
5) Words with irregular spellings for a-e, i-e, o-e, u-e, followed by e-e (because e-e is no longer the main spelling for the /ee/ sound, as it used to be until the 15th century).
A-e (late, tale) Ale/ail, bale/bail, male/mail, pale/pail, sale/sail, tale/tail, whale/wail, assail, cocktail, detail, fail, hail, jail, nail, prevail, rail, retail, snail, trail, Main/mane, pain/pane, plain/plane, rain/reins(reindeer)/reign, vain/vein, Abstain, brain, chain... (in 31 words) Skein; deign, feign; campaign; champagne. Crane, lane, sane, membrane. Made/maid, aid, braid, laid, paid, raid, afraid. Brake/break, stake/steak. Aim, claim, exclaim, maim, proclaim. Place/plaice. Haste, paste, taste, waste/waist; Daisy, praise, raise, raisin. Traitor, waiter. Ate/eight, bate/bait, grate/great, straight/straits, wait/weight. Fête, freight. Faith. Halfpenny, neighbour. Able, cable, cradle, fable, gable, ladle, sabre, stable, table – (cf. label).
I-e - (ice) - except: I /eye/aye/ay, bite/bight(bay), knight/night, lite/light, mite/might, rite/right/write,
slight/sleight(trick), sight/site/cite. Alight, blight, bright, delight, fight, flight, fright, frighten, lightning, mighty, tight. Height; indict. Behind, bind, blind, find, grind, hind, kind, mind, ninth, pint, rind, wind (x2); Bible (cf. libel), bridle, disciple, idle, rifle, stifle, trifle. Child, mild (cf. children, mildew), wild, whilst; island; climb. Eider-down, Fahrenheit, kaleidoscope. Either, neither (UK pronunciation). Choir. Resign, sign. Tire/tyre, asylum, cycle, cypress, dyke, dynamic, dynamite, dynamo, hyacinth, hydrangea, hydrogen, hyena, hygrometer, hypothesis, nylon, paralyse, psychology, pylon, python, rhyme, scythe, style, thyroid, type, tyrant.
O - e, -o - (open, so) – quite regular in more recently imported words: Alcove, associated, chrome... video, volcano, zero. Except: Bungalow. Cocoa. Oboe. Pharaoh. Depot.
In older English words, the o-e/-o sound is spelt very unpredictably:
Approach, boast, boat, broach/brooch, cloak, coach, coal, coast, coat, coax, cockroach, croak, float, foal, foam, gloat, goal, goat, groan, load, loaf, loan, loathe, moan, oaf, oak, oath, oats, poach, road, roam, roast, shoal, soak, soap, stoat, throat, toad, toast.
Bold, cold, fold, gold, hold, old, scold, sold, solder, soldier, told. Folk, yoke/yolk. Holster.
Bolt, colt, dolt, jolt, revolt. Mould, moult, sole/soul, shoulder, smoulder.
Knoll, pole/poll, role/ roll, scroll, stroll, toll, troll, swollen, holy/ wholly. Control, enrol, patrol.
Host, most, post, postal, poster. Both, gross, noble, only, sloth. Goes. Mauve. Blown, bowl, grown, growth, known, mown, own, shown, sown/sewn, thrown, rowan. Blow, bow(x2), crow, flow, glow, grow, know, low, mow, row(x2), show, slow, snow, sow(x2), stow, throw, tow. Arrow, barrow, bellow, below, billow, burrow, elbow, fellow, follow, gallows, hollow, marrow, narrow, pillow, shadow, shallow, swallow, sorrow, sparrow, tomorrow, wallow, widow, willow, window, yellow.
Doe, floe, foe, hoe, roe, sloe, toe, woe. Oh/owe. So/sew. Dough, though. Ago, also, fro, go, hello, no. Alone, arose, bone, bony, broke, choke, chose, chosen, close, clothes, clover, code, cone, cope, cove, dole, dome, dose, doze, drone, drove, froze, frozen, grocer, grope, hole, holy, home, hope, hose, joke, lone, mole, nose, open, over, poke, pony, pope, primrose, rode, rope, rose, scope, slope, smoke, spoke, stoke, stole, stolen, stone, strode, stroke, tadpole, throne, tone, whole, woke, wove, wrote, yodel.
U - e, -ue – (use, tuba; cue, due) – In the stem of words, few exceptions: you/ewe/yew, Eucalyptus, ewer, youth. Feud, feudal, neutral, pneumatic, pseudo, rheumatism. Lewd, newt, pewter, sewage, jewel, steward. Juice, nuisance, suicide, suitable, suitcase. Beauty. Nuclear. Tuesday.
In endings unpredictable: Cue/queue, due/dew, sue. Argue, avenue, barbecue, continue, imbue, issue, pursue, rescue, revenue, statue, subdue, tissue, value, devalue, venue, virtue. Chew, few, Jew, knew, new, pew, spew, stew, askew, curfew, curlew, mildew, nephew. View, interview, review. Emu, menu.
E - e / ea / ee ... – (deed, lead, concede, siege, conceive, police, people, key, ski ...) The spellings of the /ee/ sound were made unpredictable mainly in the 15th C, when court scribes were obliged to switch from French to English. They changed most e-e spellings (like Chaucer's 'seke, speke, shreke, beleve') to the many different ones we still use now. Johnson's dictionary of 1755 made them even worse by giving 48 words 2 spellings: Bee/be, beech/beach, been/bean, beet/beat, breech/breach, cheep/cheap, creek/creak, deedear, discreet/discrete, eerie/eyrie, eve/eaves, feet/feat, flee/flea, freeze/frieze, jeans/genes, Greece/grease, heel/heal, heahere, key/quay, leech/leach, leek/leak, meet/meat, need/knead, pee/pea, peace/piece, peek/peak, peel/peal, peepier, reed/readx2[reed/red], reek/wreak, reel/real, sealing/ceiling, seamen/semen, see/sea, seem/seam, seen/scene, serial/cereal, sheeshear, sheikh/chic, steel/steal, sweet/suite, tee/tea, teem/team, wee/we, week/weak, wheel/weal. In UK also: geezegeyser, leavelever.
Open e : Adhesive, arena, cafeteria, cedar, chameleon, Chinese, comedian, compete, complete, concrete, convene, convenient, decent, demon, equal, era, even, evil, experience, exterior, extreme, female, fever, frequent, genie, genius, hero, hyena, imperial, inferior, ingredient, intermediate, legal, legion, lenient, material, medium, mere, meteor, meter, millipede, mysterious, obedient, period, peter, polythene, precede, previous, query, recent, recess, region, relay, scheme, sequence, sequin, series, serious, serum, species, sphere, stampede, strategic, superior, supreme, swede, tedious, theme, theory, these, torpedo, trapeze, vehicle, Venus, zero. He, me, she. Beef, beer, beetle, between, bleed, bleep, breed, breeze, career, cheek, cheer, cheese, cheetah, creep, deed, deep, eel, exceed, feeble, feed, feel, fleece, fleet, geese, greed, green, greet, indeed, jeep, jeer, keel, keen, keep, kneel, meek, needle, peep, pioneer, preen, proceed, proceedings, proceeds, queen, queer, reef, screech, screen, seed, seek, seep, seesaw, sheep, sheet, sleek, sleep, sleet, sleeve, smithereens, sneer, sneeze, speech, speed, squeeze, steep, steeple, steer, street, succeed, sweep, sweet, teeth, teetotal, thirteen, tweed, tweezers, weed, weep, wheedle, wheeze, wildebeest. Appeal, beacon, bead, beak, beam, beard, beast, beaver, beneath, bleach, bleak, bleat, breathe, cease, cheat, clean, clear, colleague, conceal, congeal, cream, crease, creature, deal, dean, decrease, defeat, disease, dream, dreary, each, eager, eagle, ear, ease, east, Easter, eat, fear, feast, feature, freak, gear, gleam, glean, heap, heat, heath, heathen, heave, increase, leadx2, leaf, league, lean, leap, lease, leash, least, leave, meagre, meal, mean, measles, near, neat, ordeal, peach, peat, plead, please, pleat, preach, queasy, reach, really, reap, rear, reason, release, repeat, retreat, reveal, scream, seal, sear, season, seat, sheaf, sheath, smear, sneak, speak, spear, squeak, squeal, squeamish, steam, streak, stream, teach, teak, tearx2, tease, theatre, treacle, treason, treat, treaty, veal, wean, weary, weasel, weave, wheat, wreath, year, yeast, zeal. Open i: Albino, antique, aubergine, bikini, clementine, fatigue, guillotine, machine, magazine, margarine, marine, mosquito, plasticine, police, prestige, ravine, regime, routine, sardine, suite, tambourine, tangerine, trampoline, unique, vaseline, pizza.
Achieve, belief, believe, brief , chief, diesel, field, fiend, fierce, grief, grieve, hygienic, medieval, niece, pierce, priest, relief, relieve, shield, shriek, siege, thief, thieve, tier, wield, yield. Caffeine, codeine, protein, seize, weir, weird, conceive /coneit, deceive /deceit, receive /receipt. Assorted variants: People; cathedral, secret; pizza, ski, souvenir; debris.
Learning to read and write English could be made much easier by merely correcting some of the above irregularities which make it exceptionally difficult and time-consuming.
Posted 1st July 2010 by Masha Bell (http://improvingenglishspelling.blogspot.com/2010/06/long-and-short-vowels.html?m=1)

a synonym is a phrase or word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another phrase or word. So in this post we will go through somecommon synonyms in the English language .

abroad - overseas
admit - confess agree
angry- mad or furious
answer- response or reply
ask- inquire or question
away -absent
awful- terrible or dreadful
attire- dress
baby- infant
beautiful -pretty
beg -implore or plead
begin- commence or start
belly- stomach
big large or huge
blank- empty
bizarre -weird
broad - wide
brave- bold or courageous
busy- active
bad- evil or wicked
beautiful - attractive or gorgeous
bright - gleaming, smart
break- smash or fracture
calm - quiet or composed
cool - cold or chilly
come - approach arrive
cry - sob or bawl
cut - slash or slice
crooked - bent
calamity- disaster
center- middle
candy -sweets
change - transform
choosy- picky
close - shut
collect - gather
complete - total or finish
confine- restrict
confuse- mix-up
contrary -opposite
considerate thoughtful
correct- right
cunning clever
daybreak- dawn
dash- sprint or run
dedicated - committed
deliberate - planned
dangerous - unsafe or hazardous
dark- unlit or gloomy
definite - certain or sure
decide- choose or determine
delicious- tasty or enjoyable
describe- portray or narrate
difference- disagreement
do -carry out or achieve
destroy - ruin or demolish
delicate- fragile
destiny - fate
discount- reduction
disgrace - shame
disclose- reveal
eager- keen or interested
enjoy- appreciate or like
end - stop or finish
explain- clarify or elaborates
elevate- raise
enormous - huge
evaluate- assess
inquire- investigate
evil - bad
exactly - precisely
exit - leave
extra- additional
except- apart from
fair - just or unbiased
fall - drop or descend
false untrue or fake
famous - well-known
fast -quick, rapid or speedy
fat - chubby or plump
fear - scare or fright
fly - soar or hover
funny -humorous or amusing
finish -complete
fantastic - great
formerly- previously
fortunate -lucky
fun -entertaining funk
Can you think of any other synonyms?