Language Overflow

2:53 AM

I can't search on the Dictionary for two words T^T I know bloody the latterly meaning but I think this not come with the latterly meaning — Maha 2 hours ago

"bloody the latterly"?

What does that mean?

What did they want to say that it meant?

Damkerng T.

3:07 AM

...

> The meals cost the 40-year-old Seattle resident $500 to $600 a month.

> buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/…

(I'm in the mood od reading old stuff, BTW.)

That doesn't sound too bad.

Also, I think food at Starbucks could be healthier than McDonald's.

(I still have to look it up every time I want to write McDonald's. Is it McDonalds, McDonalds', or McDonald's? I ask myself that every single time.)

...

0

Q: The 's' or 'es' word

Where do exactly put the 's' or 'es' word on the sentences? And why using that word on sentence? And when the right time to add the 's' or 'es' word?

grammar

Ah. that reminds me of snailboat's comment from a couple days ago...

2 days ago, by snailboat

People are asking questions, but it's clear many of them don't have a firm foundation to build on.

(I still keep pasting the wrong link! As usual.)

....

0

Q: How to use participle phrase.

Here are sentences that I want to trasform using participle phrases. Rain was pouring down. We were standing next to each other at a bar and seeing rain droping through the window without saying anything, because we ran out of things to talk about. Rain pouring, standing next to each oth...

participles

> Rain pouring, standing next to each other at a bar, we were seeing rain dropping without saying anything, runing out of things to talk about.

Hmm... there's something about that sentence.

I think it's a good example for showing that people will read the same sentence differently assuming that it was written by a different writer.

I guess that most readers would think it's incorrect if they knew that it was written by a non-native speaker.

But if they assumed that it was written by a famous writer, maybe, just maybe, they might think it's an interesting sentence.

...

@FumbleFingers Oh FF! C'mon it's a sound rule not a spelling rule! (2 Stella Artois, 2 lochs, 2 pince-nez. And the F? ... That ain't no sibilant ;) — Araucaria 2 hours ago

Hmm... I thought only Americans and non-native speakers (who use AmE) used "ain't no".

...

0

A: Until I went to army, I (had been / used to be / was ) a introverted person. - which one is right?

The idiom "used to do smth" actually corresponds to "have done smth", in other words, the present [perfect] tense. You should not employ "used to be whatnot" to indicate past. See this page. So, only past perfect and past indefinite remain. Of those I think that the simple "was" is sufficient...

rubbing my eyes...

> The idiom "used to do smth" actually corresponds to "have done smth", in other words, the present [perfect] tense.

Hmm...

BTW, I don't think join the army would be the right or precise word for the OP's context. I think it makes sense that the OP chose to use went. There must be a better way to phrase it, but I can't come up with one.

It's not like join, because by default every man who has come of age is already in the army over there.

So, it's more like "leaving their home to stay with the army for two years to receive the standard training".

Anonymous

4:55 AM

@DamkerngT. I have no idea.

Anonymous

Apparently not.

Anonymous

My brain doesn't process smth as easily as something

Damkerng T.

It looks weird to me seeing someone who seems to use BrE wrote something which looks like AmE to another BrE speaker.

Anonymous

Perhaps your AmEdar needs rejiggering, then?

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Ahh... an abbr. that sounds familiar only to learners.

@snailboat Perhaps! :D

Anonymous

4:58 AM

It's familiar to me. But not as familiar.

Anonymous

There are other abbreviations, too.

Anonymous

sth

Damkerng T.

Ah, yes.

I'm not sure which one is used more often.

Anonymous

But even though I know what they are, it makes it harder to read when I run across them, because the vast majority of the time these abbreviations aren't used.

Anonymous

And any literate reader is highly practiced at reading things the way they're usually written.

Anonymous

4:59 AM

So even if they can read things written other ways, it's usually slower or takes more effort.

Anonymous

That's the case for me, here, although I can't speak for anyone else.

Damkerng T.

I remember others said something similar too.

Anonymous

Maybe if I stay on ELL long enough I'll get used to it eventually and won't even notice ;-)

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Damkerng T.

5:24 AM

I'm browsing through old questions on Writers SE...

8

Q: What is the key reference documentation and how should I cite BASH?

I originally posted this question at SO, but two users there suggested that I take it here. I am writing a scientific research paper, and I want to know if it is appropriate to cite bash, and if so, how should I do so? I am having trouble finding a citation for bash because bash is relatively ...

citations scientific-publishing

If the Writers stack is still the same, I think lots of our recent questions fit there.

Though our questions usually have grammar issues.

Anonymous

I was never quite sure what sorts of things were on topic on Writers.

Damkerng T.

> Writers Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for authors, editors, reviewers, professional writers, and aspiring writers. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a library of detailed answers to every question about writing, copywriting, publishing or editing.

(I pasted it here so I can read it easily.)

Anonymous

Ah.

Damkerng T.

Earlier, I thought technical writing didn't count over there.

Damkerng T.

6:37 AM

It's weird that this question came up today. I wrote about it here just yesterday!

1

Q: "I can't remember" is this sentence correct?

I don't remember and I can't remember Do these mean the same? I translated it to my mother tongue using Google translate and the translation is the same, but I have a feeling that it's not correct to say "I can't remember".

grammar modal-verbs do-support

Anonymous

It's a great question, too! :-)

Damkerng T.

Exactly! I think sometimes I switch between the two without thinking much.

BTW, yesterday I tried to find such a question on ELL, but failed. So, it's a little strange that it just came up on its own today, as if ELL could read my mind!

Anonymous

Synchronicity!

Damkerng T.

Oh, nice word!

Anonymous

6:52 AM

It's a fun one.

Damkerng T.

Argh! I found fulfil and I thought it was a misspelling!

Anonymous

We prefer fulfill in AmE

Anonymous

There are several other words like that

Damkerng T.

Yes. I think I get myself used to fulfill enough that I think fulfil is wrong!

Anonymous

skil(l)ful

Anonymous

6:58 AM

I rather like the British spellings, though

Damkerng T.

Eh? Hah! skilful is correct too!

Anonymous

There's probably a story behind that spelling variation, but I don't know it

Damkerng T.

(reviewing CGEL chapter 1): "An accent-neutral phonological representation" is an interesting concept.

Anonymous

It's not possible at a detailed level, really, but for the purposes of a reference grammar which has relatively little phonology to begin with, it seems like a reasonable idea

Anonymous

I'm having a little trouble adjusting to the idea that so many possibilities that existed last week are no longer possible this week

Damkerng T.

7:10 AM

Eh?

Anonymous

My friend and I can't do a project together anymore

Damkerng T.

Aww

That's sad.

Anonymous

It was only ever an idea

Anonymous

Nothing more than an idea

Damkerng T.

I have no idea what kind of project it was. A music related one, perhaps?

Anonymous

7:13 AM

Music related

Damkerng T.

nods -- I was hoping that it might've been translation related, though.

Anonymous

When I made a study group for Japanese in high school, he was one of the first people to join :-) He didn't keep learning Japanese, though

Anonymous

Most of my study group didn't

Damkerng T.

Ahh

I guess learning another language sounds like a fun idea for most people...

Anonymous

We went to the same schools in the same grade

Damkerng T.

7:16 AM

but after a while, they would realize that it takes a lot of effort.

Anonymous

Yeah. Well, there's nothing wrong with learning a little.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat It was way back in the high school days, perhaps?

@snailboat Of course! :-)

Anonymous

We were friends before high school

Anonymous

He put more time into studying German than Japanese

Anonymous

I never did learn much of any German

Damkerng T.

7:19 AM

Ahh

Anonymous

It was the only language offered at my school I didn't take

Damkerng T.

I wished I had been able to speak German back then.

Anonymous

On your trip?

Damkerng T.

It might've been more fun traveling around. :D

Yes.

Anonymous

It's a pretty nifty language.

Anonymous

7:20 AM

And of course it has a deep relationship with English.

Damkerng T.

It looks almost like English, but it's not.

Anonymous

I learned just a little bit of German.

Anonymous

But I'd be hopeless if you tried to speak German to me :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat How many languages were offered at your school?

Anonymous

Very few!

Anonymous

7:22 AM

The languages offered during 95-99 were Latin, German, French, Spanish, and experimentally Mandarin

Damkerng T.

Oh, Mandarin too!

Anonymous

Mandarin was a new thing they tried adding for one year

Damkerng T.

Eh, Japanese wasn't in the list.

Anonymous

Yes, I had to study that on my own

Anonymous

I started over the summer one year

Anonymous

7:23 AM

Sadly, they dropped Latin while I was there...

Anonymous

Folks don't learn Latin so much as they used to these days

Damkerng T.

Oh! I thought Latin would be cool for native English speakers.

Anonymous

It used to be really widespread in English speaking schools, but it's been on the way out since before I was born

Damkerng T.

BTW, I found this while re-reading Longman English Grammar:

> There are only six words in the English language which have different subject and object forms: I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them and who/whom. This lack of inflexions in English tempts some people to observe (quite wrongly) that the language has 'hardly any grammar'.

It sounds somewhat funny to me. :D

Anonymous

Note that who(m) is unlike the other pronouns on that list

Damkerng T.

7:26 AM

Oh, yes.

Anonymous

English of course has tons of grammar

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

As you are aware! :-)

Anonymous

But it's true that it has less inflectional morphology than it used to

Damkerng T.

Too many things to remember, even!

Anonymous

7:28 AM

But it has more syntax than it used to

Anonymous

Of course, it has a decent amount of derivational morphology and other types of inflectional morphology are still around, even if not as much as used to be

Damkerng T.

Words like hither and thither look like some kind of inflection to me, though I guess that they aren't technically not inflections.

Anonymous

They definitely have a morphological relationship. What sort of relationship do you suppose that might be?

Damkerng T.

H(ere)+ither (as in "ether"?), and Th(ere)+ither, I suppose.

Anonymous

7:44 AM

Don't forget where and whither. You'll want to fit them into the puzzle somewhere

Damkerng T.

I can't think of an explanation for where, but doesn't whither look a bit like Wh(ich/ere)+ither?

Anonymous

Maybe you could treat wh, th, h as basic elements

Damkerng T.

I wonder if we really can. Maybe we can. :D

Hmm... whence, hence, is thence a word?

Oh, it's a word!

Damkerng T.

9:30 AM

> Moscow has also denied providing heavy, sophisticated weaponry that has been repeatedly seen in eastern Ukraine to separatist forces.

> ell.stackexchange.com/q/64311/3281

I wonder if, in a more strict style, it has to be this:

> Moscow has also denied having provided heavy, sophisticated weaponry that has been repeatedly seen in eastern Ukraine to separatist forces.

(or even having been providing)

Fantasier

10:32 AM

I think they are a little different.

> Moscow has also said it does not provides heavy, sophisticated weaponry

becomes

> Moscow has also denied providing ...

whilst

> Moscow has also said it ( has not provided / did not provide ) heavy, sophisticated weaponry ...

becomes

> Moscow has also denied having provided ...

I think the second "original" could become the first "reported" too, maybe even more common.

Damkerng T.

@Fantasier nods -- I think in everyday English, the denied providing is probably way more common.

I just recalled that I've seen some test/exam questions that seemed to emphasize this point (that denied having provided is more appropriate because of it's a past event).

Fantasier

10:51 AM

Well, it's no wonder you have. Those prescriptivists :-P

Anyway, reporting verbs like this happened to be on my English II exam last year too.

And IIRC, a similar issue arose.

Annnnd I'm pretty sure my teachers (it's the final exam, so I think they had a meeting to decide what answers were acceptable) accepted both.

Damkerng T.

I definitely accept both. Some practice tests seem to suggested otherwise, though. :P

Fantasier

They are very open-minded about possible answers. Some questions they accepted more than 4 answers.

Damkerng T.

Hah!

Damkerng T.

11:41 AM

...

> Which may be why the question is so often asked in a skeptical tone implying that, unlike the multiplication tables or the principles of auto mechanics, creativity can’t be transmitted from teacher to student.

> theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/08/close-reading/305038

I'm sure that the part can't be transmitted from teacher to student will give many learners a headache.

"Where are the articles?!"

Damkerng T.

11:59 AM

...

0

Q: what kind of speech of part does OFF stand for in the following sentence?

(This song is a rip off to DEA LEPPARD "pour some sugar on me") it's actually a random comment i saw under a music video. And i still don't get both meaning and grammar..

american-english

"A rip-off to"?

Shouldn't it be "a rip-off of"?

...

> And who could have asked for better teachers: generous, uncritical, blessed with wisdom and genius, as endlessly forgiving as only the dead can be?

> theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/08/close-reading/305038

Bah! Is there anything truer than that?!

Damkerng T.

12:19 PM

....

1

Q: he is coauthor of three books -- why is there no indefinite article in front of "coauthor" in this sentence?

Example: Peter Gulutzan, MySQL AB Software Architect, worked with stored procedures for a different DBMS for several years. He is coauthor of three SQL books. Question #1: I asked a friend of mine who is from the United States and he said that coauthor is absolutely fine with no article. Bu...

articles

Hah! Speaking of articles!

Damkerng T.

12:33 PM

...

wired.com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2

> Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up. | WIRED

The Genesis Engine.

(note the period)

Isn't that the same thing that resurrected Spock in Star Trek?

Anonymous

3:40 PM

The Genesis Machine is one of James P. Hogan's earliest novels, written before the brain eater got him

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yes :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yep! But who, *tho, *ho ← only who is a word

Anonymous

why, *thy, *hy

Anonymous

wherefore, therefore, herefore

Anonymous

when, then, hen, but hen was never more than an obscure dialectal term

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

4:02 PM

@DamkerngT. .

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

4:44 PM

@DamkerngT. What? English has grammar?

Fantasier

5:11 PM

@DamkerngT. Huh? My volume is at 70% and I heard that loud enough.

O wait, I went back too far lol. I thought I was looking at new messages...

Damkerng T.

8:59 PM

RIP, LOL.

Facebook Data Indicates That “LOL” Is Dead

> What’s more, the average median age of LOLers is the highest of the four (hovering slightly below 30), while emoji users are the youngest. But it’s O.K.: thirty-ish is the new twenty-ish. It really is.

> Other fun facts: LOL use is concentrated mainly in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Alaska. The average LOL is three letters long. And if anybody continues to use LOL after this groundbreaking data set, then [old man emoji] [phone emoji] [skull emoji].

"The average LOL is three letters long" -- Um...

> The maps broadly show that haha and hehe are more popular on the west coast, emoji are the weapon of choice in the midwest, and southern states are fond of lol. Presidential campaigns, take note: the battleground states of Ohio and Virginia are haha states, while the candidates' emoji games will surely be key in determining who emerges victorious in Florida.

> The Not-So-Universal Language of Laughter | Blog | Research at Facebook | Facebook

^Apparently, the older a person is, the less they laugh, on the average.

(laugh on the Internet, um, I mean "internet", btw)

> The most common laugh is haha, followed by various emoji and hehe. Age, gender and geographic location play a role in laughter type and length: young people and women prefer emoji, whereas men prefer longer hehes. People in Chicago and New York prefer emoji, while Seattle and San Francisco prefer hahas.

Catija

11:13 PM

@DamkerngT. Did you realize that you're one of the ten most prolific chat users on SE?

chat.stackexchange.com/users?tab=online&sort=activity

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