Things you are too embarrassed to admit you don't understand

[ClassicStripe]

I don't think I really understand what a fascist is.

Flying ants-the fact these non flying insects randomly grow wings overnight. Where do they all go?

English teacher here too. You’re referring to auxiliary verbs (‘avoid’ and ‘etre’ in French). For initial understanding, verbs are ‘doing’ words - actions.

But as the sun is a ball of gas constantly burning, why doesn't that give an ongoing supply of new/more energy to the earth? Rather than there being a finite amount of energy on earth? Until the sun burns out that is.

I know that's wrong but don't understand.

I struggle with the difference between a noun, verb and adjective.

What makes this even worse is that I write for a living and have done for the past 20 years.

I've only managed to grasp the concept recently while helping with DDs English homework. I could never reveal this shameful secret in real life!

@RosesAndHellebores totally with you on the hand waving man trying "help" you park! So confusing, especially as theres a mirror invoved. I actually realised being watched is what makes me park badly. Now I can breeze in backwards very confidently.

This is a wild oversimplification but I see the mainstream parties on a continuum of values from ‘equality’ on the left to ‘liberty’ on the right. Of course we all believe in both to some degree but the further you are to the left the more importance you place on equality (hence big state, high taxes, investment in public services, to level out differences across socioeconomic groups, social policies which promote equality etc) and the further to the right you are, the more you’ll put a premium on individual freedom and responsibility (small state, low taxes, putting more choice and more responsibility on the individual at both ends of the social scale (the wealthy keep more of their income while the poor are left more to fall back on their own efforts).

The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ come from where different factions sat in the assembly following the French Revolution, so don’t have any meaning in their own right.

This thread has highlighted the fact there are a lot of us out there who really don't get this.

I'm glad it's not just me!

Weather patterns - El Niño and La Niña

@CandleWick4 Not to mention mobile phones especially when you’re calling from a long distance.

Anything to do with accounting, and taxes. Had to quit working freelance as could not understand wtf was going on with my money (had an accountant and had it explained to me many times).

I struggle with practice and practise. I have to look it up time and time again and still struggle to use them confidently.

I know one's a noun and the other a verb, but can't always figure out if it's a noun or a verb that I need. Things like 'the GP's practice' or is should it be practise? Or could it be either depending on the context? 🤯

Car Leases. They seem really popular but whenever I've looked in to getting one myself, I end up really confused about how they work and why they seem so expensive.

For my shame, I'm an accountant!

But as the sun is a ball of gas constantly burning, why doesn't that give an ongoing supply of new/more energy to the earth? Rather than there being a finite amount of energy on earth? Until the sun burns out that is.

There isn't a finite amount of energy on earth. There's a finite amount of energy in the universe.

If Jesus rose from the dead, when did he actually die?
Embarrassed that I have no idea about this at all.

Also, and probably most embarrassingly, I have no idea what age groups "millennial", "gen x" and "baby boomer" refer to

"gen z"

@ChocHotolate I do it as a rhyme to help me remember. Gross gives me the most, but net is what I get
Stupid, but it helps lol

Stars and planets. I recently had a conversation with someone about this. We looked at the night sky, plenty of stars and Venus was very bright. I think what they were telling me was the light we see from stars/planets, isn't the actual physical 'thing' i.e. star or planet, it's the light projected through space from the physical 'thing'. something like X million light years away. What?!?! How have they calculated a 'million light year'? How does light from a star (which is dead isn't it?) still shine brightly, every single night (for decades/centuries) when it's been dead for X million years?

I probably haven't explained it right but god my head hurts when I think about it!

@illiterato is correct that energy comes in lots of forms. The bonds between atoms can release energy when broken or need extra energy to break.

@biggerboat We are made of matter. We have energy stored in our bodies in the bonds between the atoms that we are made of. Fat is a form of chemical potential energy that we can convert into heat energy or kinetic energy (when we move) in case of famine. When we die, the materials that we are made of are consumed by other living things, transferring the chemical potential energy to those creatures so that they can convert it into heat energy or kinetic energy. If we are cremated, the materials from which we are made are turned into combustion products, converting chemical potential energy into heat energy in the process.

Electricity. Wtf is potential difference? And how does alternating current ever get anywhere if it’s always going back on itself??

As a kid a girl in my school had two mams and they where both (to quote Nicky from OITNB) 'Diesel Dikes' (deliberately extremely unfeminine). As a kid it confused me, not them being 2 women but more the fact they seemed to 'hate' anything 'womanly'.

My best friend is pansexual but married a woman, my friend is a tomboy and her wife was butch.

I don't actually know butch & femme lesbian couples in real life, a mismatch in 'style' seems more common among my male gay friends.

So do builders - for instance what length of timber would be needed to make a pitched roof, or a staircase.

Your "steps" is a very good way of describing locks, and it has only just dawned on me that that is probably why a series of locks is called a "flight", same as a flight of stairs.

I didn't understand locks until I spent a week on a narrowboat. Once you've done the flight of 30 locks at Tardebigge in Worcestershire, you realise why we have them!

Decimal odds are easier to understand than fractional odds when it comes to working out what's higher or lower odds of winning. And working out what mony you will win if it it wins