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Cake day: November 7th, 2024

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  • It’s what happens to phrasal verbs when they become nouns and adjectives. I couldn’t find a great source other than this writing tip, but “back up” altogether makes up a phrasal verb.

    English is rather notorious for having these phrases that when translated directly don’t make any sense: the words on their own are rather meaningless and have to be taken together to derive the meaning:

    • speak up (verb)
    • slow down (verb) → slowdown (noun)
    • shut down (verb) → shutdown (noun)
    • piss off

    For example, I can’t translate “speak up” to “hablar arriba” in Spanish, that makes absolutely no sense.