How can I add an emotional undertone in English?

Context: I’m missing a cutting board. So I wrote in our telegram family group: “Wo ist eigentlich unser zweites großes Schneidebrett hin?” (literally: “Where is actually our second big cuttingboard thither?”).

By using the modal particle “eigentlich” I insinuate that something is oddly off and express an emotional state of curiousity and/or mild discontent.

By adding “hin”, I notify that I ask because it is not where it is supposed to be and not because I don’t know where it should be.

Now I ask myself, how would I express this additional information in English?

Deceptichum,
Deceptichum avatar

Depends on who you're speaking to, the tone you want, etc.

If it was casually my room-mate I'd say "Where the fuck's the cutting board gone?", family "Does anyone know where's the cutting board gone off to?, a workplace "Anyone seen the cutting board lately?" etc. If I wanted to be more angrier sounding something like "WHERE is thee cutting board?!".

But really fuck is the perfect word for describing things in English provided you're not surrounded by prudes. "Where the fuck's the cutting board", "What the fuck, who took the bloody fucking cutting board, Ill fucking cut you if you don't return it", "Fuck me, I've lost the cutting board", "Why the fuck is the cutting board not where it's supposed to be", "The cutting boards fucking gone and pissed off, anyone seen it lately?"

I am Australian though, so perceive that as you will.

Suspiciousbrowsing,

Great demonstration of the diversity of 'fuck'

captain_aggravated,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Spoken verbally, intonation can get you there. You can imagine this question asked perfectly calmly and innocently, “Where’s the cutting board?” “Oh it’s over there on the kitchen table.” “Ah.” Or you could imagine Batman growl screaming it in the Joker’s face. WHERE’S THE CUTTING BOARD?!?! TELL ME!!!

Now, in terms of phrasing, “Does anyone know where the cutting board is?” is probably fairly calm and innocent, “Who hid the cutting board?” is more accusatory/conspiratorial, “where’d the cutting board go?” implies you know where it was/should be, but it is not there, “What happened to the cutting board?” might mean it’s gone, or it might mean it’s damaged or in some adverse state, “Where the hell is the cutting board?” is probably getting a bit angry, “If I were a cutting board, where would I be?” means you’re either in a new kitchen and don’t know where the tools are stored, or it has been misplaced and you’re still calm about it…there are lots of options.

“Where has it gone?” = avoiding assigning blame. “Where did you put it?” = assigning blame.

Donebrach,
@Donebrach@lemmy.world avatar

Add an expletive. Example “where’s the fucking cutting board?”

mnemonicmonkeys,

Where the fucking fuck is the fucking fuck? Fuck!

cheese_greater,

wunden? Haha just Scheißing

person,

Garfield’s 1978 pipe strip resonates with a new generation once more!

Squeezer,

O cutting board, cutting board, wherefore art thou cutting board?

sanguinepar,
@sanguinepar@lemmy.world avatar

“Because otherwise you’d damage your kitchen counter”

Squeezer,

“Deny thy counter and refuse thy knife”

pythonoob,

Perfect response

NegativeLookBehind,
NegativeLookBehind avatar

As others have mentioned, cursing is is a wonderful way of expressing emotions

OhmsLawn,

English is a highly indirect language when it comes to these sorts of statements. “Have you seen the cutting board?” Would indicate that it’s not where it should be. “Where is the cutting board” would be too much of a personal accusation. It’s the type of thing you would say to a child that had hidden it. “Where do you keep the cutting board” would be how you ask when you honestly don’t know, like if you’re helping a friend prepare dinner.

aubeynarf,

“Yall, where the fuck the other cutting board at?”

EinfachUnersetzlich,

They said English, not American.

aubeynarf,

“Oi, where the bloody hell’s the other chopping board, mate?”

shasta,

That’s the southern version. Otherwise just “where the fuck is the cutting board?!”

Ejh3k,

Add a fuck or two.

Where the fuck is the fucking cutting board?

Where the fuck have you fucking little fucker taken the fucking cutting board?

Y’all motherfuckers better tell me where in the fuck you little fucking thief’s have taken the fucking cutting board,

The relative size doesn’t matter. The fact that the cutting board isn’t in the approximate location is should be does. Adding in a bunch of cuss’ will express how seriously concerned you are. Get a little more personal and offensive with the cussing will probably speed up the answers, but also get them to hate you more. So use that sparingly.

But general cussing isn’t overall too damaging.

intensely_human,

Something is oddly off and I’m expressing emotional state of curiosity and/or mild discontent: “So …”

It is not where it should be, but I do indeed know where the place it should be is: reference to its place.

Here’s your equivalent question in English:

So … the cutting board’s not in its place. Anybody know where it is?

intensely_human,

Actually this could be shorter:

So … anybody know where the cutting board has gotten to?

This phrase “has gotten to” vaguely refers to a child or animal that is missing; and the missing implies it has a known home location.

intensely_human,

Ooh ooh! Even shorter:

So … anybody know where the cutting board went?

“went” implies that I know it has moved, ie that I knew where it was, and know it’s not there right now.

Referencing a specific location can either mean “I saw it somewhere once” or it can mean “I know its home location”, and the first use case doesn’t make sense per theory of mind because if you saw it in a random place others wouldn’t know where that place is.

AnUnusualRelic,
@AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

The cutting board seems to have vanished!

intensely_human,

Send it back, Picard!

lvxferre,
@lvxferre@mander.xyz avatar

German Modalpartikeln are rather unique to the language, so really hard to translate. To convey the same “feeling” you’d probably need to rely on other resources, like:

  • synonyms;
  • figures of speech;
  • interjections;
  • a more or less direct grammar;
  • punctuation, emojis, etc.

For example, I feel like your sentence could be translated like “Our second cutting board is curiously missing. Does anyone know where it is?”. That “curiously” performing a similar job as “eigentlich”, and the indirect phrasing of the second sentence highlighting that you have no clue on where it is. It’s still missing the “it is not here” connotation of “hin”, but I guess that it’s good enough?

[Caveat lector: I’m not fully proficient in English, and certainly not in German. So… yeah.]

intensely_human,

You seem to be doing alright. How do you think you might improve that proficiency even further?

lvxferre,
@lvxferre@mander.xyz avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    intensely_human,

    My recommendation is to read Stephen King.

    Here’s a website that lists all his books in publication order. I’m reading them from earliest to most recent (I’m at about 1990 currently): www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/profile-stephen-king/

    He’s a good storyteller, he uses colloquial language, and even as a native speaker I always learn new words with every one of his books he writes. For example, I learned from reading the Tommyknockers that the word “depend” can mean “to hang from”, as in “The moss depended from the branch of the tree”.

    Also, I think I’ve only seen one typo in all the books I’ve read of his so far. I’ve read about 20 (all of them up to Tommyknockers), and there was one spelling error somewhere in Christine. So it’s extremely well-edited, well-proofread.

    Reading on kindle paperwhite is amazing because you can long press any word to get its definition. So much faster than trying to look it up in a dictionary, even a digital one.

    Really though, any fiction is good for that. Fiction will fill in an intuitive understanding of at/on/in for example, simply by presenting each word hundreds of time in correct context.

    The rules we write down to describe grammar aren’t really how it’s defined; we just write those down for fun. Grammar is really defined, and learned, the way machine learning works: tons of examples. I couldn’t tell you the rules for those words, for instance. I could try, and come up with something, but it wouldn’t convey everything I know because the knowledge is unconscious.

    Acamon,

    “is curiously missing” could also be replaced with other verbs that capture the unexpected / curious nature of its absence such as “has vanished” or “has disappeared”.

    lvxferre,
    @lvxferre@mander.xyz avatar

    Those could work, too. It’s a good example of using synonyms to give different connotations - all those words convey that the cutting board is not there, but in different ways.

    agent_flounder, (edited )
    @agent_flounder@lemmy.world avatar

    Vanished/disappeared is of course impossible literally but, colloquially, it definitely suggests something unusual happened without directly sounding accusatory. To me it reads a bit more lighthearted than other options. And I don’t think it would be misinterpreted in text form.

    Dad would always say, “Who took the cutting board?” And not in a nice way lol.

    Suspiciousbrowsing,

    If youre friendly "who took the large chopping board?" Implies is not where it should be.
    You'd expect a response of "I've got it in my room, cutting up fine herbs" or something of the sort.

    RobotToaster,
    @RobotToaster@mander.xyz avatar

    Who bloody hell stole the damn cutting board?

    revelrous,

    ‘Where has the cutting board wandered off to?’ Something passively accusatory. Everyone knows the board didn’t move itself, but the speaker is not assigning blame. …and because everyone knows that there is blame to be assigned, the annoyance is sort of implied?

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