"When he looks at me," he gently corrects, though he's already fighting back a smile at what it's like to steal a glance at Luke, only to find that his friend is already looking back at him. A look doesn't have to mean anything, he's told himself this so many times by now that it's practically become a mantra, but if he does one day discover that it's turned out he's the only one to feel like there's something more that exists between them... Well, he'll be both utterly humiliated and very distressed by how horribly wrong he'd assessed the entire situation.
Catching Hild's smile is what startles him back to the present, and he blinks dumbly at her for a moment before letting out an embarrassed laugh. "Right, when he 'looks' at me. If the subject is singular and in the third person, like 'he' or 'she,' and the verb is in the present tense, the verb will have an s-ending. 'He looks' and 'she looks,' 'Hild looks' and 'Spencer looks.' Does that make sense?"
There are exceptions to the rule that Reid thinks would only perplex someone still in the fairly early stages of learning, but he hopes it's simple and straight-forward enough for the time being. He wonders whether it would be wise to gift Hild with a Latin-to-English dictionary, which he's already sure he could find at Luke's, or if it would be more useful for her to continue using her real-time experiences to help her learn. He'll have to sit on that because she's already improved since the last time he'd seen her, which pleases him even though he'd had nothing to do with it.
"Anyway," he continues, pausing to take a sip of his coffee, "if you told him that, you'd only see him look at me for help until he realizes you're only doing it to get a rise out of him. It would be worth the smile we'd get out of him, though."
no subject
Catching Hild's smile is what startles him back to the present, and he blinks dumbly at her for a moment before letting out an embarrassed laugh. "Right, when he 'looks' at me. If the subject is singular and in the third person, like 'he' or 'she,' and the verb is in the present tense, the verb will have an s-ending. 'He looks' and 'she looks,' 'Hild looks' and 'Spencer looks.' Does that make sense?"
There are exceptions to the rule that Reid thinks would only perplex someone still in the fairly early stages of learning, but he hopes it's simple and straight-forward enough for the time being. He wonders whether it would be wise to gift Hild with a Latin-to-English dictionary, which he's already sure he could find at Luke's, or if it would be more useful for her to continue using her real-time experiences to help her learn. He'll have to sit on that because she's already improved since the last time he'd seen her, which pleases him even though he'd had nothing to do with it.
"Anyway," he continues, pausing to take a sip of his coffee, "if you told him that, you'd only see him look at me for help until he realizes you're only doing it to get a rise out of him. It would be worth the smile we'd get out of him, though."