SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

Hiya! I thought I’d open this week’s post with a huge thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on the stick the heid oan post. You’ve saved my future readers a big headache (? ) in figuring out what it means. There are a couple of ways to deal with it, either I mention the word headbutt close to the phrase, or I just remove it. I’m leaving it for future Susan to deal with ?.

This week’s word is an everyday word in Scots, as is its translation into English. Oh, and it’s pronounced mih-bey.

[I don’t tend to add a set-up for these scenes, but when I read this wee snippet back, I realised I had no clue where they were. Adam and Elle (and Dani–Elle’s sister who is offscreen) are in a restaurant in Marseille, France–the bulk of the book is set there.]

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

Adam grabbed a slice of bread from the table and leant across Elle for the butter. “What pissed your wee sister off?”

“Nothing, she’ll be back any second, and you can’t be here when she does.”

“You’re a touch more uptight than normal. Either that stick up your arse went deeper, or you’re planning on running. Best be warned, doll, running away from me will only piss me off.”

A sweet smile curved her lips. “How would I know the difference?”

“Keep it up, and you’ll find out. Mibbe I’ll start with investigating Dani’s hacking activities.” Elle’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, you didn’t think we knew about her extracurricular activities?”

“You’re blackmailing me?”

“Yip.”

Elle’s eyes narrowed into slits of anger. “If you threaten Dani again, we’ll disappear, and you can deal with this—whatever the hell this is—on your own.”

Adam leant close to her. “There’s nowhere in this world you can hide from me. I’ll always find you. And if I have to drag you back here to do what’s right, I will.” He eased back and bit off a chunk of bread.

Running the Asset (Deniable Unit #1)

Hopefully, this was much easier to understand ?But, if it wasn’t, or you just want confirmation that you’re guess was correct, mibbe means maybe in English.

Having looked at the top ten locations my visitors access the site from, I thought I’d google the translations for their local languages.

In Afrikaans it’s miskien.

In German, it’s vielleicht.

In Hindi, it’s ????.

In Dutch, it’s måske.

And in French, it’s peut-être que.

(If I’ve made a mistake, let me know, and I’ll change it. Thanks in advance!)

That’s it for this week

I hope you enjoyed this post. I’d love to hear your comments on how easy or difficult it was to get the gist of mibbe as it appeared in the quote.

Interested in some Scots words from Running the Asset that are a wee bit too hot for the site? (The first newsletter exclusive spicy snippet hits inboxes this weekend!)

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If you find yourself inspired by the Scots words I share, add the tag #TiS or #ThingsinScots to your writing/art/photo post and drop your link in the comments.

If you want to see more Scots posts, check out the original series, Things in Scots.

Thanks for reading. Take care, and I hope to see you next week for more Scots on Fiction Friday!