[Vocabulary] presence of mind

[wynnmyintuu]

I know there exists the word "absent-minded" in English. Is there a counter part "present-minded" in English?

 

[Rover_KE]

'Absentminded' is more frequently written without the hyphen. (Click)

 

[kadioguy]

'Absentminded' is more frequently written without the hyphen. (Click)

Well, here is a second opinion.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...t1;,absent - minded;,c0;.t1;,absentminded;,c0

 

[kadioguy]

I know there exists the word "absent-minded" in English. Is there a counter part "present-minded" in English?

You can use 'attentive'.

attentive /əˈtɛntɪv/ adjective
[more attentive; most attentive]

1 : thinking about or watching something carefully : paying careful attention to something

Attentive [=observant] readers might notice some mistakes in the book.
an attentive audience
— often + to
He's very attentive to details.

http://learnersdictionary.com/definition/attentive

 

[kadioguy]

An absent-minded person can be attentive. The two words are not antonyms.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/absent-minded?s=t

 

[Tdol]

An absent-minded person can be attentive. The two words are not antonyms.

How about focused then?

 

[Rover_KE]

kadioguy, you appear to go to a lot of trouble to find documentary evidence contradicting the responses of native speakers showing posters how to use words and expressions colloquially.

Lists of antonyms and synonyms, for example, do not apply in every case.

Have you nothing better to do with your time?

 

[Raymott]

Lists of synonyms and antonyms can only be relied on if you know the meanings and usages of words, or are willing to investigate them. You certainly can't use a word from a list of antonyms as an antonym until you understand the word. They are a poor learning tool if you take them too literally.

 

[kadioguy]

kadioguy, you appear to go to a lot of trouble to find documentary evidence contradicting the responses of native speakers showing posters how to use words and expressions colloquially.

Lists of antonyms and synonyms, for example, do not apply in every case.

Have you nothing better to do with your time?

Sorry to make you angry, but I didn't mean that. I just posted what I looked up on Dictionary.com. It is one of my favorite websites, so I don't think this should be called 'go to a lot of trouble to find documentary evidence'. I would have to say that maybe you overreacted to this.

Frankly speaking, it doesn't do me any good to contradict you - from then on you may no longer be willing to answer my questions.

So, well, if you don't like this, I will not do so again. (But I would think that a teacher should be more patient with learners - even on the internet, isn't it?)

I do respect all of you.

 

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER


Hello, Wynnmyintuu:

I am replying only because of your thread title "presence of mind," which is a great expression and one of my favorites.


It means something like this: You have the ability to stay calm and take effective action when something unexpected happens.

I do not have this ability, so I envy people who do.

 

[jutfrank]

'Absentminded' is more frequently written without the hyphen. (Click)

No, it's not! You've put spaces around the hyphen.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Well, here is a second opinion.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...t1;,absent - minded;,c0;.t1;,absentminded;,c0

Stop that!

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I know there exists the word "absent-minded" in English. Is there a counter part "present-minded" in English?

There's no "absence of mind," either.

Absent-minded is an adjective. It means forgetful, spacy.

Presence of mind is a noun phrase. It means alertness, quick intelligence, ability to think and act.

 

[jutfrank]

When I tried 'absent-minded' and 'absentminded' as an Ngram, I got this message:

Replaced absent-minded with absent - minded to match how we processed the books.

Yes, I noticed that. I'm not sure why it does that. Anyhow, I think it still gives data for the word as it is written in the box at the top. Not sure though.

When I looked at the graph that Rover linked, there seemed to be spaces in the box at the top. I don't know what happened but the data was not right.

 

[kadioguy]

Stop that!

Sorry, but I don't know why you said this. Did you see my link? Is there anything wrong with my link?

I think my link doesn't get any inappropriate. It is truth although it is different from another answer.

My link is even more reliable because in my link there are not spaces in the box at the top. :shock:
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[Tdol]

Turns valve to let a little of the steam out