Kirk: I’m having trouble hearing lately. Bones: Can you describe the symptoms? Kirk: Homer is a fat guy, and his wife Marge has blue hair.

  • 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦@ttrpg.networkOPEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    …

    I don’t even know how to respond to this.

    Kirk’s complaint is at the top. Not only is English read from left to right, but it’s also read TOP TO BOTTOM. This fact has been used all over the place in writing, including in comics:

    (So ubiquitous is this format that I literally just popped a comic I was in the process of reading up onto my screen and there it was in one of the frames! I didn’t have to go searching.)

    You’ll also see it in advertising, in some books with fancier formatting, and a whole bunch of other places.

    So remember not only “left to right” but “top to bottom” and you’ll do fine.

    • lugal@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      I, too, had problems reading Bones’ question. I read it as “Can you symptoms describe the”. I still don’t get it, “symptoms” is further the the left than “describe”. This is all very confusing for me.