English Language Learners

9:02 PM

Ahh... I think I assumed that Farooq assumed that (or suspected that) Quirk used the symbol in the book. What he said simply means (as I understand) that he haven't noticed the symbol in the book.

Everything else I (incorrectly) implied.

(Being ambiguous is also an art form, too, imo. Marketers are very good at it.)

Anonymous

It's okay. People are ambiguous all day long. We can usually sort out what people mean from context :-)

Anonymous

Sometimes we can't, I suppose.

user116848

nods :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, I wonder if Jasper is editing old questions because of some hat, or he simply wants to do it.

Maybe the latter.

Anonymous

I edit old questions sometimes.

Anonymous

9:05 PM

Arguably I shouldn't bump old questions for little things, I suppose... But sometimes I do anyway.

Anonymous

I habitually fix the spelling of reference materials in case people want to look things up.

Damkerng T.

It seems like most of the edited questions are related to reading aloud.

Anonymous

I don't know if there's an editing-related hat.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... maybe a badge. Or maybe he's simply a nice guy. :-)

Anonymous

Ah, he made a reading-aloud tag and tag wiki

Anonymous

9:07 PM

It appears to be about the pronunciation of symbols in a given context

Anonymous

So he's adding the tag to a few questions.

Damkerng T.

I like it when tags are well-organized.

Oh, how can we write a tag in here, like the way you just did?

Anonymous

[tag:blah-blah]

Damkerng T.

Thanks!

Anonymous

There's also [meta-tag:blah-blah]

Anonymous

9:11 PM

discussion

Damkerng T.

reading-aloud

Nice!

Anonymous

The tag thing works in comments, too.

Damkerng T.

Oh, that's neat!

Anonymous

And questions and answers

Anonymous

But it looks different in all three contexts

Damkerng T.

9:12 PM

Oh, super-duper neat!

Anonymous

There are a few other magic thingies. I wonder if they work right now:

Anonymous

faq

Anonymous

Well, that one's exciting. :-)

Anonymous

[help]

Anonymous

That one didn't work.

Damkerng T.

9:13 PM

[on-topic]

Anonymous

I thought it was supposed to link to the help center, but it didn't.

Anonymous

[help-center]

Anonymous

No dice

Anonymous

I think you can link to the help center, but I don't know where it's documented

Anonymous

And I don't remember how to do it.

user116848

9:16 PM

@DamkerngT. How can one put a button here? Like (reading aloud button) you pasted.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I have 5 votes left today. Exciting!

5 mins ago, by snailboat

[tag:blah-blah]

user116848

ah :-)

user116848

Silly me.

Anonymous

I can't figure out how you link to the help center.

user116848

[tag: xyz]

Anonymous

9:19 PM

You can't put a space in.

user116848

xyz

user116848

Yay!

user116848

Thanks!

Damkerng T.

Yay!

Let's say you're in a classroom, and the teacher says, "Everyone, raise your hands." How many hands would you raise?

Hey, maybe it's a good question!

Anonymous

Um.

Anonymous

9:20 PM

Is that the whole sentence? I mean, teachers generally don't tell everyone to just raise their hands for no reason.

user116848

@DamkerngT. One hand?

Anonymous

They say things like "Everyone who doesn't have a booklet, raise your hand(s)"

Damkerng T.

@Farooq I don't know the answer!

Anonymous

In which case you'd raise one

Anonymous

If a teacher just said "Everyone, raise your hands", I guess I'd look to see what other people were doing :-) I might raise both?

Damkerng T.

9:21 PM

LOL

Anonymous

Dunno.

user116848

:-)

Anonymous

Sorry, I tried to come up with a situation where a teacher would say "raise your hands" instead of "raise your hand" but I had trouble

Damkerng T.

Maybe when they rob a bank.

Anonymous

Or if they're teaching you how to raise the roof.

Damkerng T.

9:24 PM

What if they're playing Simon Says?

Anonymous

I dunno! :-)

user116848

@snailboat Here " I guess I'd look to see what other people are doing " is also grammatical, right?

Anonymous

Yeah

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I guess confusion will ensue. :D

user116848

I played Simon Says when I was a child.

user116848

9:29 PM

I always wondered why Simon?

Damkerng T.

Simon Says is fun!

Dunno!

Anonymous

→ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Says#History

Damkerng T.

I'm sure there is a song named Simon Says, but the game might have already existed.

Anonymous

Alliteration is what I thought of.

Damkerng T.

> The tradition behind the use of 'Simon' as the controller of the game may trace back to the year 1264!

(! is mine)

Oh!

user116848

9:32 PM

I see

user116848

Yes, the article says it is old.

Damkerng T.

Hey, Jasper is Time Lord now!

Anonymous

Ah, I guess it was all for a hat, then

user116848

Oh no. They completely missed the writing exercise today.

user116848

I'll write my own story I guess.

user116848

9:37 PM

But chatting with you people improves my writing too in a sense :-)

user116848

That's why I hang out here all the time.

Damkerng T.

@Farooq There should be an Austere Hat for that. :-)

user116848

Also it is kinda fun.

user116848

haha

user116848

Funny :-)

user116848

9:39 PM

Some think I live an austere life :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, I should spend all the rest of my votes.

user116848

I mean ascetic :-)

Damkerng T.

An ascetic life sounds nice.

user116848

Yes, it is a simple one :-)

Damkerng T.

Ta-da! All votes spent!

See if I will get an I Vote Today Hat.

user116848

9:44 PM

@DamkerngT. How can one spent all the votes here?

Damkerng T.

Just vote and vote. :D

I think the quota is 40 votes a day.

user116848

But isn't it unlimited?

user116848

ah

user116848

I didn't know about the quota.

user116848

Yeah, 40 is too much.

Damkerng T.

9:46 PM

Hmm... I'm not sure, but I think 40 is too many could be better. (I'd say 40 is too high.)

I Vote Today get! (note: non-standard usage)

Anonymous

It's 30, but it goes up when you vote on questions, so if you vote on enough questions, you get 40

user116848

@DamkerngT. Yes you can. I wrote in a sense that "40 is too much (for voting in a single day)"

Anonymous

You might vote that much if you look at some old questions, for example

user116848

Yesterday there were like 212 users in all SE chats at one time. Maybe due to hats season :-)

user116848

But at that time here it is midnight.

user116848

9:52 PM

Oh, my screen just flickered.

user116848

Goodnight Snail, DT and others.

Damkerng T.

Good night!

2

Q: It's/I'm acting in your best interest/interests

The plural version is more common according to Google ngram. It is also used as an example in Cambridge's dictionary. It's in his interests to keep careful records However, I would like to know whether the plural and the singular versions are equally perfect to use without sounding unnatura...

I think it comes down to whether it's countable or not

Anonymous

10:08 PM

corpus.byu.edu/coca/?c=coca&q=35687664

Anonymous

I am honestly quite surprised at the plural version

Anonymous

I would've thought it was never plural… but it looks like I'm wrong!

Damkerng T.

I guess that it depends on how the speaker conceptualizes the "interest(s)".

Anonymous

books.google.com/ngrams/…

Anonymous

And on Google Books Ngram Viewer, the singular version is only a little bit ahead

Anonymous

10:11 PM

Looks like the plural version might be a little more common in BrE

Anonymous

7 and 3 results in BNC, and 77 and 58 in GloWbE / GB

Damkerng T.

Only 7 and 3!

Anonymous

Well, BNC is a smaller corpus than COCA

Anonymous

Ahh, too many bumped questions

Damkerng T.

Probably another hat. :-)

Anonymous

10:13 PM

Yeah.

Anonymous

in Japanese Language, yesterday, by ssb

these hats encourage so much destructive behavior..

Damkerng T.

I think it depends on the hat criteria.

Oh, Waffle Hat looks nice!

Damkerng T.

10:28 PM

3

Q: How to state that something makes something unnecessary?

I want to say that something makes something unnecessary. I mean you no longer need to do it. For example if students be allowed to eat in the class they won't need to leave the class so as to eat. I believe that there should be a verb to this aim. I've mentioned the following sentence to expres...

word-request

Sometimes it's frustrating to see that the OP sometimes contradicts themselves in their own questions.

I read the OP's example and I think it's a different thing from the first sentence in the question.

Now I think it looks like the OP isn't sure about his question himself.

@WendiKidd Thanks for pushing me back to the first step (Just kidding). So what's the correct answer? — mok 2 hours ago

:D

Anonymous

10:43 PM

> Time Lord can be eared by editing 5 old questions.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. But mok left that comment after WendiKidd posted an answer!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Isn't that curious!?

@snailboat Thanks for the tip!

I think the big problem in that question is the example sentence itself. It forces too many things.

And I don't think it's a real sentence the OP was planning to use.

Anonymous

Ah, it wasn't a tip! :-)

Anonymous

I don't want to encourage people to bump old questions for no reason other than getting a hat

Damkerng T.

Oh! But it's a secret hat.

Ahh

Anonymous

10:47 PM

This is excellent:

Anonymous

→ japanese.stackexchange.com/users/1478/snailboat

Anonymous

Snail boat!

Damkerng T.

Neat!

The boat is a bit hard to notice, though.

Anonymous

Well.

Anonymous

→ japanese.stackexchange.com/users/1478/snailboat

Anonymous

10:50 PM

Is that better? :-)

Damkerng T.

A little bit. :-)

Anonymous

A... a little? What should I do to make it stand out more? :-)

Damkerng T.

Eh? It looks (almost) the same as before to me.

Anonymous

But the boat's all big and stuff.

Damkerng T.

I think it'd be easier to notice if the mast stuck out of your avatar just a little bit.

Anonymous

10:54 PM

It does!

Anonymous

Maybe it was cached, so you couldn't see the change right away.

Anonymous

But when I said that, I made the boat stick off of the icon :-)

Anonymous

It covers up part of the "Moderator" text now!

Damkerng T.

Oh, good point! -- Clearing my cache.

Ah, I can see the mast now!

(A little bit bigger than I expected, but okay. :-)

Anonymous

I tried to make it easier to see! :-)

Damkerng T.

10:57 PM

Hee

It's easy to see now!

3

Q: Using 'to be going to do something' instead of future simple ('will')

In Oxford English Grammar Course by Michael Swan & Catherine Walter (OUP 2011) I have come across the following example: Jennifer's eight, and she doesn't know what she's going to do. One day she says she's going to be a dancer, and the next she says she's going to work with animals. In t...

grammar semi-modals

The OP must be very frustrating now!

("Ah, the answers don't agree with my textbook! What to do? What to do?")

Ah, this reminds me of something I've thought about...

> "we use 'to be going to do something' when we have already decided to do something"

The thing is that I cited the example of usage from the coursebook 'Grammar Practice for Intermediate Students by Sheila Didnen and Brigit Viney with Elaine Walker and Steve Elsworth' p.69 (we use 'to be going to do something' when we have already decided to do something): I'm going to stay in today. I've got to write an essay. So, I guess one can't say it's just incorrect @Danegraphics — Yukatan 3 hours ago

The is one of the basic flaws of the grammar-rules-based learning.

(It's the flaw of the method, not the teachers, or the learners, imo.)

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