Bones Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bones - Essay Example 436–443). Tendons are flexible fibrous connective tissues connecting muscles and bones. Fundamentally, they facilitate the movement of people as they act as intermediaries between muscles and bones, and are vulnerable to tearing caused by prolonged or repetitive movement of muscles, excessive muscle contraction or overstretching (Benjamin et al., 2006). They are located in areas that are characterised by bone intersection such as knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows, and feet. Ligaments are connecting tissues that attach one bone to another or muscles to other structures in the body. Even though both ligaments and tendons can withstand tension, ligaments connect bones to other bones and help in stabilizing the joints around them. They are by long and stringy collagen fibres that create bands of tough fibrous connective tissues mostly found where ends of bones intersect. They can be stretched and lengthened with caution to avoid sprains resulting from direct or indirect trauma that pre-disposition a joint (Benjamin et al., 2006). It may be easy to confuse tendons, ligaments and bursae, but these three structures represent adipose and connective tissues. Therefore, it is important to note that bursae act as an adipose tissue that protects the connective tissues whose differences have been highlighted. Benjamin, M, Toumi, H.,  Ralphs, J.,  Bydder,G., Best, T.,   and   Milz, S. (2006), Where tendons and ligaments meet bone: Attachment sites (‘entheses’) in relation to exercise and/or mechanical load. Journal of Anatomy, 208(4): 471–490. doi:  Ã‚  10.1111/j.1469-7580.2006.00540.x Shaw, M,. Santer, M., Watson, A., and Benjamin, M. (2007). Adipose tissue at entheses: the innervation and cell composition of the retromalleolar fat pad associated with the rat Achilles tendon.  Journal of Anatomy. 211(4): 436–443.

Hemingway’s exploration of loneliness… Essay Example for Free

Hemingway’s exploration of loneliness†¦ Essay Ernest Hemingway is known for his surprisingly brief and ‘quiet’ short stories that tackle numerous topics through different approaches. In his stories, â€Å"Cat in the Rain† and â€Å"A Clean and Well-lighted place† Hemingway tackles the issue of loneliness. In both of these stories the theme of loneliness is not directly addressed, instead a subtle and discreet amount of symbolism is used to imply the theme while allowing the reader critical thought which is important in appreciating either of these stories. In â€Å"A Clean and well-lighted Place† Hemingway skimps on the characters and focuses on the parallel symbols between the client in the cafe and the waiters to approach the theme of loneliness. In this story, a young waiter who is in a hurry to close the cafe converses with an older waiter who is more considerate in understanding why a deaf old man prefers to stay late in the cafe drinking brandy. In this story, Hemingway presents three faces of loneliness, the first being symbolized by the deaf, brandy-drinking, old man. In the story, the old man attempts to kill himself prior to his appearance in the cafe, hence, the discussion between the waiters in the lines, â€Å"Last week he tried to commit suicide, one waiter said. †Why? He was in despair. † (Hemingway) The waiters, in their conversation, also mention that the old man is very wealthy and lives with only with his niece; later, they also get into talking about the old man’s wife and his family. (Hemingway) From these implied characterizations, the old man is experiencing loneliness because he has nobody left in his life except his niece, and the mere fact that he is living with his niece also possibly implies that he had no children or his children had left him already. The most potent indicator of loneliness for this old man is the fact that he stays up very late drinking brandy; which Hemingway then contrasts with the young waiter who is in a hurry to go home because he had a wife waiting for him, and who claims that, he has confidence and that he is all confidence. (Hemingway) With these, Hemingway implies that the young fellow was experiencing a loneliness that was normal for his age – the loneliness of fulfillment; that although he had almost everything, a job, a wife, and his youth, he was not yet fulfilled. Finally, the third approach that Hemingway employed was to present loneliness as a tie that binds all lonely people together. In the story, one will notice that the older waiter is quite considerate of the old deaf man, hence, the lines, â€Å"Why didnt you let him stay and drink? the unhurried waiter asked. † (Hemingway) The reason for this consideration comes at the end of the story when the older waiter, after work, goes to a bar for lack of a cleaner and brighter place to go to, and spends the rest of the time drinking brandy as well, because he claims he has insomnia; but in fact, he too is lonely which explains why he had sympathized with the old deaf man. In â€Å"Cat in the Rain† Hemingway brings out another kind of loneliness known to many as domestic loneliness, or the anonymity between the wife and the husband. Here, in this story, Hemingway uses the cat in the rain to symbolize the desire of the female character to have a child of her own to which her husband seems indifferent. The woman sees a cat in the rain, by the ledge of their hotel window and remarks, â€Å"Im. going down and get that kitty,† (Hemingway); to this, the husband merely, â€Å"went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed. † (Hemingway) after being refused by his wife on his offer to go out and get the cat himself. Here now, one notices the indifference of the husband. The loneliness of the wife is implied in the fact that normally, when a husband and a wife are in a room together, nothing else exists, but since the wife saw the kitten, then she was looking out of the window which illustrate that she was in deep thought to have noticed something other than her husband. In a way, the wife is lonely because she is dissatisfied with her married life – this is clear in the scene after she is unable to retrieve the cat and she goes back to the room. (Hemingway) While sitting in front of the mirror she blurts out many things such as wanting her hair long to which her husband seems unabashed. The matter of loneliness is even compounded when after wanting her hair long, the wife enumerates a number of other things that she wants, to include, â€Å"I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back, I want to have a kitty to sit on my, I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and she goes on and on until the husband is annoyed and tells her to shut up. Here, Hemingway uses the material desires of the woman to symbolize the depth of her loneliness with her husband; that her husband was not giving her enough attention, so she wanted many other things to compensate for this lack. Despite the very short executions of these two stories, Hemingway was able to get his message across. The distinct and unique feature of both of these stories is the subtlety in the way the author delivers and conveys the message and the expanded use of symbols to discreetly convey the central thematic of loneliness. References Hemingway, E. (2000). Cat in the Rain. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www. my-forum. org/_79008/Ernest_Hemingway__Cat_in_the_Rain_151745. html Hemingway, E. (2001). A Clean and Well-lighted Place. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www. mrbauld. com/hemclean. html

Medicine, Drugs, and the Internet Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research

Drugs and Cyberspace Since the beginning of time, humans have been searching for the ultimate answer. Throughout many cultures, plants as well as manufactured substances are used both for healing and to broaden perceptions and challenge reality. Drugs are a part of the incessant evolution of the human species towards a higher and greater intelligence, empathy and awareness or consciousness (Rushkoff, 34). Gurus and shaman have eternally incorporated plant chemicals into methods for enlightenment. For America, the early 1950's marked the emergence in popularity of psychedelic drugs as a tool for mind expansion (Kuhn, 163). Timothy Leary, an icon of 60's drug subculture, as well as cybernetic psychology explains, "the psychedelic drug movement of the 60's and the personal computer movement of the 80's are inner and outer reflections of each other." Leary also argues that only if you understand something about computers, can you begin to understand psychedelic drugs (Sheff, 120). Psychedelics deconstruct one's basic assumptions about life, presenting choices that are arbitrary to the individual and the given society. In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley reflects on the capabilities of chemicals on the human mind: "Administered in suitable doses, peyote changes the quality of consciousness more profoundly and yet is less toxic than any other substances in the pharmacologist's repetory" (Huxley, 9). Douglas Rushkoff, one in the same as Leary, has written several books on the topic of psychedelics and cyberspace. He believes "with the help of a psychedelic journey, one can come back [from tripping] and consciously choose a different reality from one that's been agreed upon... ...rception. New York: Harper & Row, 1954. Kimm, Todd. "Can a Man Fly on the Internet?" icon. Vol. 16, Oct. 15, 1998, www.iconquest.com Kuhn, Cynthia; Scott Swartzwelder; Wilkie Wilson. Buzzed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. Leary, Timothy. High Priest. New York: College Notes &Texts, Inc., 1968. Leinhard, John H. "A Concern About Reality." No. 88. Nov. 1998. http://www.uh.edu/engines. McKenna, Terence. Archaic Revivals. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991. Neumann, Peter G. "Are Computers Addictive?" Communications of the ACM Vol. 40. No. 3 (March 1998): p. 128. Rushkoff, Douglas. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994. Sheff, David. "From Psychedelics to Cybernetics." Publish. Feb 1992: p.120 Taylor, Eugene. "Psychedelics: The Second Coming." Psychology Today. Jul 1996: pp.56-59+

Harley Davidson – Organizational Behavior

Harley History Harley Davidson was seen in America as a company that produced motorcycles with â€Å"raw power. † The company was founded by Arthur and Walter Davidson and William Harley in 1903. In 1918, Harley Davidson had become the largest motorcycle producing company in the world. Their production totaled 28,000 motorcycles. Production continued to increase with the onset of World War II and the military use of Harley’s motorcycles. The mystique of the product had a tough sense to it with famous actors such as James Dean and Marlin Brando sporting the bikes.After World War II, foreign competitors became interested in the motorcycle market. Japanese competitors entered the market in 1959; Harley Davidson executives did nothing to counter the advance of the competition. Harley Davidson’s share of the industry began dropping while Japanese competitors introduced high quality products. The confidence in Harley’s reputation was causing the firm’s ma rket share to decline steadily. AMF Years Harley Davidson lacked resources to finance new products and designs to expand their production. They were taken over by AMF, a heavy-industrial conglomerate.At this time there was high demand for motorcycles in the U. S. The AMF team thought that they would be able to sell anything they produced, even without taking quality into consideration. After the take over, production was increased drastically at the cost of the quality of the product. AMF began spending large amounts of money on Harley’s manufacturing plants. Production increased from 15,475 units in 1969 to 70,000 units in 1973 due to these new expenditures on capital. To make things worse for Harley, the Japanese firm Honda introduced the â€Å"Goldwing. This was the first introduction of a foreign â€Å"heavy weight† motorcycle that would directly compete with Harley’s market share. With Harley Davidson’s share of the heavyweight market beginning to d ecrease, the quality of their products also decreased because they were becoming outdated compared to the new advanced Japanese products. Vaughn Beals was brought into the picture by Harley executives to lead the firm. Vaughn Beals Saves the Day Vaughn Beals’ ideals were different than those of AMF its top management. It became clear that AMF did not have the same amount of concern for Harley’s success as Beals, so AMF began looking for a buyer.With Harley Davidson’s profitability down, Beals and some other Harley Davidson managers orchestrated a highly leveraged buyout. This large amount of debt for the buyout forced Harley Davidson’s managers to adopt a new strategy: survival. Vaughn Beals realized that his firm needed to change to become a more competitive force within the motorcycle industry. Change Many things at Harley Davidson were going wrong. The motorcycles were being made at a low level of quality and the focus was too much driven by quantity r ather than quality. The organization was formed around the traditional top thinks and everybody acts.It was very apparent that if nothing changed, Harley Davidson’s reputation would be forever tarnished due to low quality products. Forces for Change: Competition (chapter 19) Competition for business is changing. Competitors can come from across the ocean or from across town. For Vaughn Beals, his main force for change was the Japanese competition that was continuing to decrease Harley Davidson’s share of the market. He realized that something had to be done. While visiting the Honda plant, he learned many things that the Japanese did better than Harley Davidson. The differences between Harley Davidson and Honda were striking. For example, only 5 percent of Honda’s motorcycles failed to pass final quality inspection; over 50 percent of Harley’s failed during the same test† (Buller & Schuler 2006). Job Design Instead of allowing manufacturers to keep producing the products at a high pace, with little attention to quality, Beals and his top management wanted to change the way the elements in an employees job was organized. Harley Davidson initiated this new job design through the productivity triad. The Productivity TriadAfter the visit, Beals and his team realized the only way to compete with the very effective management of the Japanese was to improve the quality of their product and the production process that was necessary to produce it. The productivity triad was based on Japanese methods of manufacturing and production. â€Å"This new approach involved (a) employee involvement, (b) use of JIT inventory practices, and (c) statistical operator control (SOC). Organizational Structure (chapter 16) To improve the quality of Harley Davidson’s motorcycles, a complete change of the organizations structure was necessary.Job tasks would be divided, grouped, and coordinated much differently under the productivity triad. To cha nge the structure, Beals and his management introduced many new aspects to the employee’s average day at work. Employee Involvement (chapter 7) Harley Davidson executives realized that using the input of employees would increase their commitment to the much-needed new success of Harley Davidson. They â€Å"reasoned that full participation of employees at all levels was the key to successful improvement of both the product quality and the production process† (Buller & Schuler 2006).Job Characteristics Model Harley Davidson uses 3 out of 5 of the characteristics in the model developed by J. Richard Hackman. This model proposes that any job can be described in terms of these core dimensions. Autonomy (chapter 7) Since the line workers were more knowledgeable about what techniques would work and not work in the production process, they were encouraged to make decisions about the production process. This provided a substantial amount of freedom in determining the procedures to be carried out for producing the product. Skill Variety (chapter 7)Instead of just relying on the line workers to construct the product, Beals and his team wanted to make sure that the motorcycles were going to be of a much higher quality than in the past. To avoid catastrophes, such as oil leaking onto a showroom floor, â€Å"top management reasoned that training and empowering employees to measure quality and recommend change was essential for improvement† (Buller & Schuler 2006). Using the Statistical Operator Control method, employees could now see how problems developed and how they could fix them during the production process.Task Identity (chapter 7) The same employees that were measuring the products for quality issues were also manufacturing the product. This would allow the employee to really become part of his/her product. It would also allow for a more efficient method of production. Creating a Learning Organization Learning Organization (chapter 19) To have a continuous ability to adapt and change would allow Harley Davidson to keep up with the competition and provide its employees with the knowledge to continue to produce quality products.In the 1990’s, Harley Davidson â€Å"began emphasizing organizational and individual learning at all levels through a program it termed the Leadership Institute† (Buller & Schuler 2006). The organization took on a strong belief that anyone could learn more. The traditional top thinks and everyone else acts was merged into thinking and acting in all jobs. Along with all this learning, the firm began to change many core aspects of its operations. New Design Options To help Harley Davidson compete more effectively, top management began to mphasize teamwork at all levels. This would allow for easy information sharing and constant learning throughout the organization. To enhance the effectiveness of teams, Harley Davidson wanted to break down any barriers that would prevent employees from sha ring information, developing new ideas, or catching current production problems. To do this, they needed to get away from the traditional roles that employees and managers play. Team Structure (chapter 16) Harley Davidson eliminated the positions of senior vice president in marketing and operations.They observed that these jobs did not add any value to the motorcycles. A create demand team, a team that was in charge of producing the products, and a product support team were introduced to help employees. Instead of having to approach one top manager for help and get sent to another department to solve the problem, Harley executives realized these teams would be more efficient. Boundaryless Organization (chapter 16) For all of these new changes to actually work, executives in a sense had to let employees become their own managers.To make the changes the most effective, Harley Davidson eliminated the chain of command, allowed the employees to have limitless spans of control, and replac ed departments with empowered teams. Types of Teams Self Managed Work Teams (chapter 10) Harley-Davidson employees were put into work teams and encouraged to participate in the decision making process because they knew better than management what worked and what did not. Because the productivity triad emphasized employee involvement so much, the logical way to form teams would be to allow the members to make most decisions. Types of TrainingMost of the training that the employees would go through when they sought new knowledge was technical based. They would be taught about any aspect of the firm they felt would benefit production or quality. Technical Training (chapter 18) At Harley-Davidson top management saw that as technology became a larger part of the production process their employees needed to have better training to be able to operate productively. Also, after benchmarking itself against Japanese competitors Harley-Davidson saw that learning about all fields within the orga nization would benefit everyone.This led to the invention of the â€Å"Leadership Institute†, which encouraged employees to seek out training when they needed it. They wanted to create a program that would allow employees to have the opportunity to do a quality job every time. This included learning more about the theories behind the latest technologies and learning about related fields. Since Harley-Davidson was now using empowered teams to make important decisions throughout the organization, each team member needed to have a good handle on technical aspects involved with their responsibilities. CultureWith all of these changes underway, Harley Davidson began to develop its own sense of internal culture that became a system of shared meaning held by the employees. The productivity triad and the Learning Institute both helped pave the way for a unique new culture at Harley Davidson. Organizational Culture (chapter 17) It is not hard to assume that with such drastic changes i n an organization’s structure, there could be changes in the culture as well. Since employees were allowed to make a lot more of their own decisions and management was not seen as so much of an authority, gaining knowledge in the organization became more of a choice. An employee must make the decision that he or she wants more training – no one will tap you on the shoulder – but once you are there, we will help you† (Buller & Schuler 2006). The executive committee wanted to heavily emphasize that they too had much to learn. This became the norm for employees and managers throughout the firm. A willingness to learn about all fields within the production of a motorcycle was seen as a very desirable trait within Harley Davidson.This would improve the quality of the product because increased knowledge about different aspects of the motorcycle, which were perhaps previously unknown organization wide, would now be put to use. Core Values (chapter 17) The primary or dominant values that were accepted throughout the Learning Institute included the work itself, the supporting systems, and how the work was done. Employees were encouraged to master all the skills necessary to do a quality job every time. To uphold the idea of constant learning, they were expected to learn more of the theories behind the latest technologies of one’s job.To emphasize the boundaryless aspect, employees were expected to branch out and learn the related fields of work around them. Each employee should also have a high degree of knowledge about how the motorcycle works and how it can be improved. If they have a good handle on how the motorcycle operates and how to fix it, this could drastically improve customer relations. Since employees became empowered to make decisions for the production process, they were also expected to take responsibility for their product.If there was a quality problem in their product, it was up to them to figure out how to solve it. Having an open mind was important too. An employee was expected to always be looking for new things to learn about improving their work. There were no strict guidelines that employees had to stick to when it came to brainstorming ideas. Creativity and experimentation were encouraged. Conflict Functional (chapter 15) Since Harley Davidson’s new culture involved a lot of participation and independent learning, there were a lot of different opinions from different employees.This would be a good amount of conflict that would avoid groupthink and promote creativity. Process (chapter 15) After production quality began to increase, the idea of over seas production had come up. There was a lot of debate about whether or not Harley should produce motorcycles abroad, or just increase domestic production for export. Some of the employees thought that the overseas manufacturing of Harley Davidson motorcycles was inconsistent with â€Å"buying a piece of the American Dream† (Buller & Schuler 2006). The international market for Harley Davidson is growing.The firm has subsidiaries across the globe in countries such as: Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The German subsidiary also serves Austria, France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Germany, Japan, Canada, and Australia represent the firm’s largest export markets. It is very apparent that Harley Davidson is known worldwide. Europe holds the world’s largest heavyweight motorcycle market and is â€Å"expected to become the next battleground for heavyweight motorcycles† (Buller & Schuler 2006). Rewarding EmployeesTo increase motivation and work performance, Harley Davidson really wanted their employees to understand empowerment. They rewarded them with power and of course pay. Participative Management (chapter 7) At Harley-Davidson top management realized that the employee needed to be utilized as a resource for ideas on how production of motorcycles should work. Harle y-Davidson also realized that there were un-needed positions at the corporate level of the company â€Å"We eliminated those jobs because they didn’t add value to our products. The people were auditors.They were checkers† (Buller & Schuler 2006). This led to the company eliminating the Senior Vice President in Marketing and Operations position among other positions. These positions did not add value to the product. Instead of having these jobs, employees were put into teams and were encouraged to use their own expertise in the decision making process. Harley-Davidson wanted their employees to become more like managers and to not feel the need to ask someone above them on how to do things. This is a key tool for increasing job satisfaction and motivation.Merit Based Pay (chapter 7) Another new program that Harley-Davidson began was a pay for performance pay system. Harley-Davidson wanted their employees to understand empowerment, so they encouraged their employees to le arn as much as they could about the company. This would improve quality, which would allow a general wage increase to take place. Task Groups (chapter 9) When Harley-Davidson created these teams it meant that employees had more power in their own decisions. Many of the teams specialized in one aspect of production, so they had very specific tasks.After the teams were created, these teams would make decisions on production instead of higher ups in the company, â€Å"Before Harley established teams, people would go up to one boss and that boss would go over to another boss and he would go to still another boss. And we wondered why the Japanese beat us on the issue of time† (Buller & Schuler 2006). Conclusion Harley Davidson’s market share began to dramatically increase in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The structural and cultural change that Vaughn Beals and Harley executives imagined truly did save the firm. Harley Davidson motorcycles today are seen as very high quality machines.They have become a symbol of status and lifestyle in today’s society. Observing how much customization a consumer can request for his/her bike reflects the creative aspect of the firm’s internal culture. Harley continues to exemplify individuality through its production process and large amount of die hard followers. Contributions to the project: Jared and Scott wrote the paper; everyone did their part for the power point. References: Buller & Schuler. (2006). Managing organizations and people. U. S. : Thomson South Western. Judge, J. A. , & Robbins, S. P. (2008). Organizational behavior (13th edition). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Family in sociology Essay

The family is a very important social institution in our society because it helps to socialize its members to be important people in the society.   The people in the family are linked by either marriage or blood. Families can be categorized in various ways such as extended families and nuclear families. Extended families are large families whose members can be of same generation and who can be distantly or closely related .Nuclear families on the other hand, consist of the husband, wife and the children. Families rely on each other for support on basic things such as security and economic. Main body Sociological analysis is very important because then people will get to know the importance of families .With the recent times, people do not hold families with importance and hence the high number of divorces in our society due to emotional imbalance. Many families are breaking up and the people who get to suffer most are the children, in such cases it is very hard to administer the rules and norms. One of the main lessons learnt from the above article is that families are supposed to guide some of the very important issues such as planning for the future of their children and themselves too and this is largely guided by financial matters (Sullivan,  Ã‚  Ã‚   2010). The article made me see that communication is what holds the family together and only does this when done in the right way and clearly states on issues relating to inheritance. It helps in cases of step parents and children. Every member in the family is entitled to an opinion in the family. The article does not address the various roles that should be played by each member in the family especially that of children and it does not discuss to length factors that cause families to be dysfunctional apart form financial issues.   Conclusion The modern society is undergoing some changes and hence how we handle our families today determine the future families of our children. WORKS CITED Sullivan, Paul. Blended Families Face a Thicket of Financial and Emotional Issues. Estate Planning. New York Times. 2010. Print. Viewed on June 7th, 2010 at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/your-money/estate-planning/05wealth.html

How to Apologize and Say Im Sorry In German

How to Apologize and Say I'm Sorry In German You are likely to make either cultural mistakes or miscommunicate your intentions as a student of the German language, especially if you are traveling through German-speaking countries. Therefore, on your long list of vocabulary essentials to master when studying the language, be sure to include German expressions of forgiveness and excusing yourself. When deciding what expression to use after youve made a mistake or misstated something, err on the side of excusing yourself too much rather than not enough. Just hope you don’t have to use the following expressions too often- but if you do, learn which expression or phrase is correct. Excusing Yourself When you need to say excuse me, the German language provides several ways to make the request. In the examples in this and the subsequent sections, the German expression is listed on the left, with the English translation on the right, followed by a brief explanation of the social context where needed. Entschuldigung Excuse me. (such as when you want to pass by)Entschuldigen Sie bitte/ Entschuldige (casual)   Excuse meEntschuldigen Sie bitte meine Fehler.   Excuse my mistakes.Entschuldigen Sie/ Entschuldige, dass... Excuse me that / Sorry that...Entschuldigen Sie bitte, dass ich Sie stà ¶re.   Excuse me for disturbing you.Entschuldige bitte, dass ich es vergessen habe.   Sorry for forgetting. Saying Sorry for a Mishap There are two ways to say that you are sorry for a small mishap or mistake, as shown in this example: Entschuldigung / Ich bitte Sie / dich um Entschuldigung   Sorry / Please excuse me. To Ask for Forgiveness There are also several ways to ask for forgiveness in German: Jemanden um Verzeihung bitten   To ask somebody for forgivenessIch bitte Sie / dich um Verzeihung.   I ask you for forgiveness.Kà ¶nnen / Kannst Sie / du mir diese Dummheiten verzeihen? Can you forgive my foolishness?Das habe ich nicht so gemeint.   I didn’t mean it that way.Das war doch nicht so gemeint.   It wasn’t meant in that way.Das war nicht mein Ernst I wasn’t serious. Note how the last three examples do not even include the word forgive or excuse. Instead, you are essentially asking for forgiveness by making a statement indicating that you were not serious or that the intended meaning of your action or statement was misunderstood. To Regret Something German offers some colorful ways to say that you regret taking a certain action or making a particular statement. Etwas bedauern   regret somethingIch bedauere sehr, dass ich sie nicht eingeladen habe I regret not having invited her.Es tut mir Leid I am sorry.Es tut mir Leid, dass ich ihr nichts geschenkt habe I regret not having given her a present.Leider habe ich keine Zeit dafà ¼r. Unfortunately, I do not have any time for that.Es ist schade, dass er nicht hier ist. It’s too bad that he is not here.Schade! Too bad! (or Pity!) Note how in the last example, using a phrase like Too bad! in English would be considered a social faux pas as if you were saying Tough luck! in a pejorative manner. But, the phrase in German does, indeed, indicate that you are being contrite and asking for forgiveness for your transgression, whatever it may be.

Why Spanish Words From Greek Often Break the Gender Rule

Why Spanish Words From Greek Often Break the Gender Rule Greek words abound  in Spanish  - but with a twist. Most if not all Spanish words that end in -ma and come from Greek are masculine  even though the last letter is a. Why Greek Words Often Break the Gender Rule There are dozens of such words. Among the ones youre likely to recognize even if you know little Spanish are problema (problem), tema (theme or subject), teorema (theorem), trauma (trauma), and poema (poem). A few other Greek-derived nouns with other endings also break the rule, including  planeta (planet). So the question often comes up: Why are these words from Greek ending in -a masculine? According to the popular language website Del Castellano, it has to do with the way the words entered the language. In Greek these words were all neuter gender, and they remained neuter as they became part of Latin. But as Latin morphed into Spanish, the masculine and neuter genders merged in a way that formerly neuter nouns became masculine. (The neuter gender still exists in Spanish for some specialized situations, but it isnt used for the names of things.) Something similar happened with the Greek words that evolved into those Spanish words ending in -ta that refer to roles of people, such as dentista (dentist) and atleta (athlete). Those words were masculine in Greek and then Latin. As Spanish evolved, the default form of those words continued to be masculine - but they alternatively could become feminine when referring to women. Many words for occupations fit this category. Unfortunately, theres no foolproof way to know which Spanish words ending in -ma come from Greek, although nearly all of them have English cognates, and many have them are connected with science or academic matters. Among the -ma words that dont come from Greek is và ­ctima (victim), which is feminine even referring to a male. Và ­ctima comes from Latin and thus follows the regular pattern. Sample Sentences Here are sentences showing some of the masculine -a words in use. The words may have meanings other than those in the translations: Pocas flores tienen un aroma tan poderoso como la gardenia. (Few flowers have a scent as strong as does the gardenia.) El carisma es una especie de magnetismo que inspira confianza y adoracià ³n. (Charisma is a type of attraction that inspires confidence and adoration.) El clima de Colombia es muy variado. (The climate of Colombia is quite varied.) El coma es un estado de inconsciencia prolongadoc caracterizada por una pà ©rdida de funciones importantes de la vida. (A coma is a state of prolonged unconsciousness characterized by a loss of important life functions.  Note that coma when it means comma is feminine.) El astrà ³nomo britnico Edmund Halley fue el primero en calcular la à ³rbita de un cometa. (The British astronomer Edmund Halley was the first to calculate the orbit of a comet. Note that the feminine cometa is the word for a kite.) El cromosoma humano 14 ha sido completamente secuenciado. (Human chromosome 14 has been completely sequenced.) El diafragma es una parte del objetivo que limita el rayo de luz que penetra en la cmara. (The diaphragm is a part of the lens that limits the light beam entering the camera.) Un diagrama de Venn usa cà ­rculos. (A Venn diagram uses circles.) Los dilemas morales son una preocupacià ³n desde la antigà ¼edad. (Moral dilemmas have been a concern since antiquity.)  ¿Crees que eres inteligente? Aquà ­ encontrars algunos muy difà ­ciles enigmas. (Do you think youre intelligent? Here you will find some very difficult puzzles.) Aunque es muy raro, los fantasmas pueden ser visibles durante el dà ­a. (Although its quite rare, ghosts can be visible during the day.) No todos los idiomas espaà ±oles son latinos. (Not all the languages of Spain are from Latin.) Esta organizacià ³n es como un sistema cerrado. (This organization is like a closed system.) El tema seleccionado del estudio debe ser un problema prioritario de nuestra sociedad. (The subject selected for the study should be a critical problem in our society.) El teorema de Pitgoras est relacionado con la geometrà ­a y la trigonometrà ­a. (The Pythagorean theorem is related to geometry and trigonometry.) â€Å" ¿Cul es tu programa favorito de la televisià ³n? (What is your favorite television program?) Enviar un telegrama de hasta 40 palabras cuesta en Argentina unos 300 pesos. (Sending a telegram of up to 40 words costs about 300 pesos in Argentina.) Una extraccià ³n de sangre puede provocar trauma sicolà ³gico. (A blood drawing can cause psychological trauma.)