1 syllable verbs

Discussion in 'Blindsolving Discussion' started by cmhardw, Apr 21, 2008.



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  1. cmhardw

    cmhardw Premium Member

    Apr 5, 2006
    Atlanta, Georgia
    Hi everyone,

    I'm currently compiling a list of 1 syllable verbs to expand my memorization method for the 2x2-5x5 (and eventually 6x6 and 7x7) ;-)

    I have come up, so far, with a list of about 375 one syllable English verbs. I am very interested to include German verbs in this list as well. My question though, is that I am wondering how best to incorporate them into my memory method. The verbs themselves in the infinitive are often more than 1 syllable, but the third person singular conjugation is often 1 syllable for many verbs, as is the informal plural conjugation.

    Since my memorization will consist of a 1 syllable object followed by a 1 syllable verb it will be a sort of pseudo person-action memory method. The problem is that some of my objects are plural objects, but nearly all are singular.

    For example I can use the German verb singen. I will use the third person singular form "singt" to combine with my object. But some of my objects are plural, like "Glocks" (as in two or more Glock pistols).

    So my phrase would be "Glocks singt", which is conjugated incorrectly. Should I not worry about the mis-conjugation? It seems this would rarely happen, but it might come across as confusing for me.

    I thought about also using the imperatives, say the informal plural imperative. So I could say "Glocks, singt!" as in "singt ihr!" or even just regular conjugation as in "ihr singt".

    Does this sound reasonable? So for example if I had Glocks followed by the german verb singen I could say "Glocks, singt!" as in "hey you glocks, start singing!". Or if I had a singular object like duck I could say "Duck singt" as in "the duck is singing". This seems like it might work, but I want to ask the native German speakers if this sounds like it would make sense. The last thing I want to do is butcher the German language in my memory technique, and make a very improper grammar form habit due to my memorization technique. Of course this will be a mix, often with an object in English followed by a verb in German, so already this is kind of pushing it. But there are not as many options for 1 syllable English verbs as simply 2 syllable English words.

    Vielen Dank!
  2. Chris, I'm using a similar system for my memo right now. The only difference is that you're making a set list, where I adjust on the fly. Your way takes less thinking, but mine takes less memo. Yours will probably be faster; I'm just lazy.

    What I do right now is when I see my cycle, I give the pieces a tentative word. If that word fits for whichever part of speech it needs, I move on. With the next pair, I try to make one. Usually something obvious pops up. If that conflicts with the previous word, I think and do a little optimizing, usually with tenses and things.

    As far as mixing languages, I really think the proper grammar thing is a double edged sword. On one hand, it will make your vocabulary search much easier, and your memo will work better with the things that you thought up first (because they're the first things you think of). Unfortunately, you'll probably have some confusion when you run into improper grammar, as opposed to if you used all proper things.

    I say go for it, because I do it all the time. Funny accents help. When I drop articles in a sentence, or misconjugate on purpose, I usually use a thick Russian accent when I imagine the words in my head. For yelling, usually something angry and German sounding (think Bavarian accent or Koln). For something silly, British.

    I'm curious to see your word list sometime. Can you post it or email me?
  3. joey

    joey Member

    Apr 8, 2007

    Now, I'm going back to my crumpets and tea.
  4. cmhardw

    cmhardw Premium Member

    Apr 5, 2006
    Atlanta, Georgia
    I've found that I really like using 1 syllable words, but I've found that memorizing both the edges and corners of a 3x3x3 this way is hard because it takes 10 words and short term memory can take up to 7 +- 2 things under normal circumstances without intensive review and chunking.

    The goal is to chunk the 6 words for edges into three noun-verb phrases. This will reduce corners to around 2 noun verb phrases, leaving me with 5 units of information to memorize (much easier than my current 10). Also, the single syllable thing is an absolute requirement. I made sure my first list (www.speedcubing.com/chris/memo-words.html) used only single syllable words. It was a pain in the neck to create the list this way, but I am really glad that I did now.

    My goal is to memorize the 3x3x3 using only my auditory short term memory. The human brain can effortlessly memorize close to a 10 second auditory sound loop and place that sound loop into a short term memory. My goal is to be able to condense these roughly 5 noun-verb phrases into a longer phrase that can be said in less than 10 seconds, resulting in a quick and effortless memo of the 3x3x3 (or 3x3x3 pieces within a larger cube).

    I hadn't thought to use accents or anything like that before, I will give it a try and see what I think. For right now I just say the words as quickly as I can (the goal being to literally "hear" all words in less than 10 seconds, the limit of human auditory short term memory).

    See the link above for my current list. This list includes some verbs and some nouns, because while creating it I had no intention of learning separate verb and noun lists later on. All verbs on that list will move over to my verb list and I'll have to create new nouns to replace them on the current list.

    I will post both lists when I am finished, I believe in making methods public. This is partly because I want the credit for creating it ;-) but also because if it helps me, maybe it can help somebody else who thinks that those people who memorize in sub-20 seconds purely visually are purpose built cube solving robots *cough*Rowe*cough* ;-)

    Last edited: Apr 21, 2008
  5. deadalnix

    deadalnix Member

    Apr 6, 2007
    Very frustrating for non english people . . .

    But interesting idea.
  6. I also forgot to mention that I really like the fact that you're using the phonemes the letters create rather than the strict letters. The J sound is almost impossible to end words with, unless you allow things like dge (dodge, hedge, rage).

    As I'm doing only 3x3, I only have to deal with T, S, Sh/Ch, F, P, H, and K for corners and L, M, R, W/Th, B, D, Z, G, N, V, and J for my edges (they're arranged on the cube roughly paralleling where the sounds are formed in the mouth according to the International Phonetic Alphabet). This gives me a much shorter and easier list to work with for my letter combos, which I'm sure helps. I've found that because I separated my voiced and unvoiced letters, I can fudge one or two per solve either direction with no loss in performance or confusion. For example, J sounds a lot like Ch, so I often swap it out to make the word "LatCH". Do you fudge sounds ever? I think it's great and you might want to look into it, if you don't.

    Some other thoughts I've had: It will greatly increase the time it takes you to learn the system, but I think the noun-verb pair idea is significantly less useful than one with more parts of speech. What if you run into a special case? What if the words for your noun and verb don't go together well or conflict with a different cycle? What if you find that memorizing in the distinct pairs like that makes remembering order difficult?

    Your mention of the 7+2 count for short term memory is pretty close to accurate. Especially in solves where I have to start many new cycles, or where it's a big 7 and 11 cycle, I often drop a single letter pair. Sometimes two. On solves where I end with elaborate edge setups into a Z perm to fix two half cycles, I usually have no trouble, because I remember the whole case as one chunk of info to solve four edges. I think this means I should perhaps find a way to combine some of my chunks of information. Any ideas on how?

    I'm also toying with adding in short connecting words or phrases, to help make sentences flow better, and to denote certain occurrences during the solve, like parity, buffer changing, new cycles, special cases, or setup turns. Or course, this assumes I'm probably not doing auditory specifically, but I'm really good at remembering sentences in my mind's eye (it's like a marquis screen saver, so this is perfect for me). It might not work for you, but if you can get good with it, perhaps that will make doing it under 10 seconds possible.

    I had more ideas, but they've slipped my mind for the moment. More to come later.

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