Why is the verb for 'to be' so irregular in so many languages? | AskScience Blog

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Thursday, October 14, 2021

Why is the verb for 'to be' so irregular in so many languages?

Why is the verb for 'to be' so irregular in so many languages?


Why is the verb for 'to be' so irregular in so many languages?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 09:44 AM PDT

This is true of every language that I have more than a fleeting knowledge of: English, Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, and German. Some of these languages (German and English) are very similar, but some (Hebrew and Spanish) are very different. Yet all of them have highly irregular conjugations of their being verbs. Why is this?

Edit: Maybe it's unfair to call the Hebrew word for 'to be' (היה) irregular, but it is triply weak, which makes it nigh impossible to conjugate based on its form.

submitted by /u/FlyingCarsArePlanes
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Jet engines have been increasing their size to increase bypass ratio. What about miniaturizing the core instead?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 12:44 PM PDT

Jet engines have been getting larger and larger to achieve higher and higher bypass ratios in the quest for efficiency.

However, this has resulted in issues like how the CFM LEAP on the 737 MAX had to be moved, resulting in CoG and CoL changes that necessitated the MCAS system.

What about making the core smaller, or making an existing smaller core more powerful to free up fan space that way?

submitted by /u/TronX33
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How do long-acting injectable psychiatric medications help with symptoms for months at a time?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 12:33 PM PDT

For example, Invega Trinza is an antipsychotic given once every 3 months. They also have a once daily oral medicine. They're both listed as the same active ingredient.

Surely it's not a matter of just giving the patient a huge dose of the medication at once.

And I'm also guessing it's not just sitting in the muscle, slowly absorbing over the course of 3 months.

How do these medicines manage symptoms for so long?

submitted by /u/albuterol_abuser
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Why does thunder sound the way it does?

Posted: 14 Oct 2021 01:49 AM PDT

So during a thunderstorm, the following happens after a lightning flash: you can hear the thunder 'approaching' i.e. its sound getting louder and then a 'boom' and mini quake as the shockwave reaches you before going off in the other direction… its pretty intuitive what has happened there. I even understand why there is a delay between the flash and the thunder. But why does thunder have this crackling noise? Why does lightning even come with a noise?

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How does the body get rid of pus?

Posted: 14 Oct 2021 01:43 AM PDT

In the case of pimples, how does the body deal with pus if they're unpopped or rupture downward into the skin (as they apparently do)?

submitted by /u/Odd-Ad2382
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How does ammonium ion uptake into muscle promote mass gain?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 12:42 PM PDT

I'm learning about trenbolone and I saw this statement in the Wikipedia article about it, and I can't for the life of me figure out the mechanism of action.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trenbolone

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Greenland is rising as the glaciers melt. Will the ocean floor sink as the weight of the water above the floor increase?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 03:52 PM PDT

Basically does postglacial rebound effect both directions along the vertical axis? It seems logical that a 12mm rise in Greenland would be offset by a depression spread somewhere else.

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Will we be able to use the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope as an interferometer?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 08:42 AM PDT

With the James Webb Space Telescope reaching its launch site in South America yesterday, I was wondering if it was possible to use it and the Hubble Space Telescope together as an interferometer? If it is possible, are there any plans to position them at opposite sides of Earth and use the telescopes as an interferometer?

submitted by /u/MOREiLEARNandLESSiNO
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Is it possible to test for chirality in a substance? If so, how?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 01:30 PM PDT

Basically, if I am given a random substance which I know the formula of, is there a procedure I can do to check if there are left and/or right handed versions of its molecule in the substance (assume the substance is perfectly pure), without prior knowledge it can be chiral in the first place?

If I can identify this, is there a way to check the proportions of left : right isomers (e.g: 54% left 46% right)?

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Is it more efficient to have less fuel in your car due to less weight being pulled?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 01:03 PM PDT

A day is 24 hours. Earth's rotation is 23. 56 and change. Where do those 4 minutes go? And why isn't the time scale divided so it's 24 hours exactly?

Posted: 12 Oct 2021 10:18 PM PDT

What’s the deal with this new “signal we’ve never seen before” from space?

Posted: 12 Oct 2021 11:52 PM PDT

I don't have the article handy but I'm sure many of you have seen it floating around. Obviously the need in me would love for this to be suspiciously different (you know what I mean) but I'm sure it's some natural phenomenon we just haven't seen yet.

What is our current best guess?

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If fats are made of fatty acids, why don't fatty foods taste acidic?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 10:22 AM PDT

I find it weird that acidic foods that taste sour (lemon, vinegar, etc.) seem be the complete opposite of fatty foods that taste rich, so much that they complement/balance each other out flavour-wise. But if fats are made of fatty acids, why do they taste so opposite from other acids? Why don't the H+ ion receptors on our tongues recognize them as acids?

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Why aren't gun bullets heavier but slower to avoid breaking the sound barrier?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 01:17 AM PDT

Force = mass x momentum. Why don't ammo manufacturers reduce momentum but increase mass to avoid breaking the sound barrier (so that the gun is quieter) while at the same time maintaining it's lethality.

submitted by /u/Sol33t303
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What is the vaccine efficacy against severe disease if an adult only takes one dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine?

Posted: 13 Oct 2021 01:50 PM PDT

The vaccine efficacy of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine was calculated after 2 doses, in the Phase 3 clinical trial. I am wondering if any trial was done to calculate the vaccine efficacy after only 1 dose? One study showed extended interval (8 to 12 weeks) can generate higher antibody responses in older people. But this was not a clinical trial. So one can't calculate the vaccine efficacy. Thank you.

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If there is one plant of a species in an area, and it goes to seed, are the seeds viable?

Posted: 12 Oct 2021 08:36 PM PDT

I collected some Illinois Bundleflower seeds from a single plant in my neighborhood. As far as I know, it was the only IB plant in the neighborhood. I tried growing the seeds I collected on multiple occasions, and they never grew. Could somebody explain why it is not growing plants from the seeds I collected?

submitted by /u/Baclofriend
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