This week's extracts contain more than the usual number of "soft" words for "hard" topics, those subjects which people who are not directly concerned try to avoid naming by their "straight" names, i.e. death and blindness, talking about people who are either dead or blind.

Somebody who is referred to in Slovak as "zosnulý" sounds like they have just gone to sleep. In English, "the late Gejza Princ" suggests that people are still waiting for him to come back, and the problem is just that he's been delayed. The Slovak "nebohý" sounds to me (but I haven't had this confirmed) like someone has gone to heaven ("nebo"). The English "deceased" suggests that the person has stopped or finished living, but the original Latin idea was "gone away" or "departed".

The issue with sight impairment is that there are various degrees or stages of this problem, and not all the affected people are completely blind, making this word unsuitable.