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Example of B1 reading

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12 messages over 2 pages: 1
tarvos
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 Message 9 of 12
08 July 2014 at 6:05pm | IP Logged 
How often do you really say "beads of sweat" though?

I would say "I'm sweating" or even "I'm sweating buckets"...
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Alphathon
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 Message 10 of 12
08 July 2014 at 7:28pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
I would consider both "rumple" and "bead" to be quite common. But when wrinkling paper, the first word I would choose would be "crumple", in fact I wouldn't describe paper as rumpled. Paper a bit wrinkled is "wrinkled", but paper wadded into a ball is "crumpled". Rumpled is used more for things like hair and clothing. It's something a bit more than wrinkled.


I tend to agree, although I'm not sure I would use rumpled for hair, but rather ruffled. To me "rumple" almost exclusively applies to fabric (clothing, bedding, a ship's sail, a sack etc) and implies a sort of rough fold that is usually messy but also loose, smooth and lacking in distinct edges, rather like a sine curve but more chaotic (in contrast to a crease, which is sharp and has a well defined apex).

tarvos wrote:
How often do you really say "beads of sweat" though?

I would say "I'm sweating" or even "I'm sweating buckets"...


That's not really the same thing. Just because you'd normally say "it's raining" doesn't mean you don't need a word for raindrops. The same is true for "beads of sweat" versus "sweating". Admittedly, "beads of sweat" is more common in literature than in spoken language to spice up the language, and also invoke a more vivid image (e.g. "beads of sweat were running down his brow" rather than "he had a sweaty forehead") but I wouldn't say it's particularly rare. Honestly though, I think beads would be more common when talking about jewellery than sweat. There are also things like "beady eyes" which rely somewhat on an understanding of what a bead is.

Edited by Alphathon on 08 July 2014 at 7:28pm

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tarvos
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 Message 11 of 12
08 July 2014 at 7:35pm | IP Logged 
You do need it. I do understand the need for beads, but even in its guise of jewellery I
don't think it's a word I use very often.
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drygramul
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 Message 12 of 12
08 July 2014 at 8:08pm | IP Logged 
That's interesting, the difference in meaning of sgualcito (rumpled) is not that marked compared with stropicciato (creased, crumpled, depending on dictionary) in Italian. And both can be used for paper and tissues. But you made the usage in English perfectly clear.

Beads is used for both sweat drops and jewellery in Italian too. And just like in English the first usage is more common in literature than speech.


Btw, I remember e thread in which another user was unsatisfied with the level reached after studying French for 5 years. I've been exposed to English for almost 25 years now (to some degree), and I am still in the dark when the topic at hand is changed.


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