12.8. Irregular English verbs

| Chapter 12: Advanced Actions |

| 12.8. Irregular English verbs

Our three example actions can be recognised in play using the following:

> Understand "photograph [something]" as photographing.

> Understand "blink" as blinking.

> Understand "scrape [something] with [something]" as scraping it with.

The last of these examples shows why Inform does not risk generating this automatically: English is so full of irregular verbs. Inform could have guessed "blink" and "photograph", but might then have opted for "scrap" instead of "scrape".

Inform does risk automatically generating the past participle of an action. (Many past participles are never needed, so the stakes are lower if Inform gets this wrong.) What usually happens is that the "-ing" is replaced with "-ed", thus photographed, blinked, scraped - but Inform has a dictionary of some 460 irregular exceptions, such as caught, fled, crossbred, taken, woven. So with luck Inform will guess correctly. If not, we can get around this like so:

> Squicking is an action with past participle squacked, applying to one thing.

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| Example 3 AM A shake command which agitates soda and makes items thump around in boxes. |
RB

"3 AM" Understand "shake [something preferably held]" as shaking. Shaking is an action with past participle shaken, applying to one carried thing. Carry out shaking: say "Nothing results of your shaking [the noun]." Instead of shaking a closed container when something is in the noun: say "Something rattles inside [the noun]." Instead of shaking a closed transparent container when something is in the noun: say "Inside [the noun] there are banging noises produced by [the list of things contained by the noun]." Instead of shaking an open container which contains something: say "[The list of things contained by the noun] might fly out." The Wawa is a room. "A convenience store, if you like to call it that, vending the usual assortment of chips, donuts, soda, and beer. There is something of a line at the sandwich counter." The box of enrobed cakes is in the Wawa. "A box of Tastykake Enrobed Cakes has fallen off its shelf." The description is "'Enrobed Cakes' is a fancy term for 'strange sponge-like baked good, covered in a thin shell of waxy chocolate'. They are addictive, but not in a way that lets you respect yourself in the morning." The box is a closed openable container. In the box is a cake. Instead of opening the box, say "The Wawa clerks frown on the consumption of unpurchased foodstuffs." The can of root beer is a closed openable container carried by the player. The can of root beer is either agitated or calm. Because the can of root beer should have some reactions to having been shaken later in the game, we need to borrow a few ideas from the later chapters on time: Instead of shaking the can of root beer: the can calms down in five turns from now; say "You give the can a good hard shake."; now the can is agitated. Instead of listening to the can: say "It sounds [if agitated]fizzy[otherwise]calm[end if]!" At the time when the can calms down: now the can is calm. The sticky mess is fixed in place. "There is a sticky mess on the ground." Instead of opening the agitated can of root beer: remove the can of root beer from play; now the sticky mess is in the location; say "You open the can and fizzing sweet soda goes absolutely everywhere." Instead of opening the calm can of root beer when the can has been agitated: remove the can of root beer from play; say "The root beer is disappointingly flat. That's what you get for shaking it up!" Test me with "get box / shake box / open box / shake box / listen to can / shake can / listen to can / wait / wait / wait / wait / wait / listen to can / open can".

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