Made up conversation in the present tense

[Infidel]

You're showing your ignorance. The meaning would be exactly the same if it were sushi ga sugoi yo. Desu just makes the sentence more polite. Some courses refer to i-adjectives as verbal-adjectives because they have a built-in copula, and they conjugate, much the way verbs do.

Ok thank you for the grammar info. But I don't appreciate the way you say "You're showing your ignorance.," that just sounds harsh and mean.

Main Entry:
ig·no·rant Listen to the pronunciation of ignorant
Pronunciation:
\ˈig-n(ə-)rənt\
Function:
adjective
Date:
14th century

1 a: destitute of knowledge or education <an ignorant society> ; also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified <parents ignorant of modern mathematics> b: resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence <ignorant errors>2: unaware, uninformed

As you can plainly see, there is nothing insulting or mean about the term ignorance. It is simply the state of mind that precedes education.

[Yudan Taiteki]

Nevertheless, I think that we should try to be kind to new posters and beginners. I don't think Mr. Paper meant any offense.

[Infidel]

Nevertheless, I think that we should try to be kind to new posters and beginners. I don't think Mr. Paper meant any offense.

So where was I offended or unkind? Telling an ignorant person that they are showing their ignorance is no more unkind than telling a child that their room is dirty, clean it up before inviting visitors over.

[Yudan Taiteki]

"ignorant" is used so often in a perjorative sense that I think it's hard to use it otherwise, even if the dictionary technically says it's not perjorative. More to the point, correcting someone's error does not require that you tell them they are ignorant, and especially for new posters and beginners I think it's good to use some restraint.

[ニッキー]

So where was I offended or unkind? Telling an ignorant person that they are showing their ignorance is no more unkind than telling a child that their room is dirty, clean it up before inviting visitors over.

There's a difference there, "dirty" applies to the room, not the person. It would be closer if you were to say "you're dirty so you need to go have a shower" and I suspect most adults wouldn't be too happy if you were to say that to them since people generally don't like being bluntly told something bad about themselves, whether it's ignorant, dirty or something else.

[AJBryant]

Frankly, whinging over the proper usage of a simple non-pejorative term is getting on my nerves.

Hell, there are MANY things I'm ignorant of. I recognize that fact. If someone tells me I'm ignorant of XYZ fact, the only time I'd be upset is if I actually *weren't* ignorant of it.

Get over yerselves, people.



Tony