The verb is a very ingenious grammatical artifact. It serves, of course, to know that Mom “abandoned” Dad, but it also indicates the moment when the event occurred. “Abandoned”, in fact, means that it has already happened. If we had said “I would leave”, it would mean that Mom put some condition to stay. All this thanks to its plasticity, which evokes that of invertebrates such as the octopus, whose joints have infinite potential for movement. If we say that Dad, after Mom’s departure, does not “make” the food, we are pointing out that he does not “cook” now, these days. Maybe “cook” in the future, where “cook” indicates that it may or may not, we’ll see, it depends on how your mood evolves, how long it takes to get out of depression, poor man. If it exceeds it, it will “cook” again. That “will cook” takes us back to a time when he will make white rice or spaghetti with tomato for dinner.
Another incredible thing about the verb is its ingenuity in adapting to the person it is talking about. We do not say “mom they left home” because “mom” is singular and “they were” plural. The verb knows it, it knows when it has to go in one or another number. You put a “she” in front of the verb and it automatically puts an “abandon”: she abandons. Not even a two-year-old child would say “she abandons,” and not because of the child’s merit, but because of the intelligence of the verb, which knows the position to adopt according to the person who performs its action. He really likes the posture of the verb. Sometimes, as in the phrase “you have abandoned your husband,” another verb, in this case, to have, is used to carry out its twist. Another day we’ll talk about when dad abandoned mom and mom stopped making cannelloni stuffed with tuna. The verb abandon, unlike its antonym, welcome, is regular. Too regular for my taste.
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#regular