English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

kiamlaluno

12:00 AM

@Cerberus What do you have?

aedia λ

@kiamlaluno yes: "she parted a better person" = "she was a better person after/upon parting"

Cerberus

@kiamlaluno Yes: "they departed [as] as better person".

kiamlaluno

@aediaλ So it's more "they parted the keyboard, being a better person."

aedia λ

Probably more commonly at the end of a story like "and at the end of the road, Joe departed a wiser man"

Cerberus

This. ^

kiamlaluno

12:03 AM

Vote for me: I will part your keyboards. (I, hereby, approve this message.)

aedia λ

Where Joe is not leaving some other dude but leaving the road after having become a wiser man for his experiences.

Well, he could have left countless other dudes strewn along the road; that's just not important in the statement.

kiamlaluno

@aediaλ Departed, or parted?

I don't know why, but I have problems reading countless. Uhmmm...

aedia λ

@kiamlaluno Ehh to me the parting the keyboard one is a tiny bit awkward for some reason, so I tried to come up with a more common-sounding one. You could use other words, like "at the end, Joe left a wiser man" <- Joe is the wiser man, he's not leaving some other wise man

kiamlaluno

@aediaλ Poor Joe.

He keeps being put in the middle of something. I am sure he would prefer doing something else.

aedia λ

giggles

Cerberus

12:07 AM

@kiamlaluno I applaud your gerunds!

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus I can applaud somebody because he is doing something completely wrong. Now, which is the case? :-)

Any why are my gerunds getting applauds when it's me who write them?

Cerberus

@kiamlaluno No; I noticed you used the gerund after keep, which is excellent. After prefer, both gerund and infinitive would probably work.

kiamlaluno

I demand my rights!

Cerberus

Well...we have talked about gerunds before.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus It's good we didn't talk of gepatroj. :-)

Cerberus

12:11 AM

Ehh what?

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Gepatroj. It's another word starting with ge.

It would be good if English would be using ge- in the same way.

In Esperanto it is used to mean people of both sexes.

So, patro means father, patrino means mother, and gepatroj means parents.

Cerberus

Ah, I see!

kiamlaluno

And Gesinjoroj means "lady and gentleman."

simchona

-13

Q: Flag your own questions as "for the experience"

In the 19 questions I asked on Stackoverflow's main site, I came across a lot of problems. There are/were so many things I had to look at that I sometimes even forgot what I wanted to ask. And when I remembered my question, it seemed like I asked it totaly wrong. Of course I got some edits, some...

feature-request

Interesting questions over at MSO sometimes.

MetaEd

@Kitḫ All right, dammit, I'm writing it again. Ya goaded me into it.

kiamlaluno

12:26 AM

@simchona Is it interesting for the down-votes? :-)

simchona

@kiamlaluno Interesting in part because, besides ranting, he has a semi valid point

kiamlaluno

@simchona Is that like a semifreddo?

simchona

Also

-24

Q: How to report annoying editing of my questions?

I have serious issue now with guy that edit my question and another questions that related to one of exist tag, I have no problem if that tag was right tag, or at least that tag has a description that make using that tag acceptable. I have many question like: How to re-enable login screen after...

discussion tags editing

@kiamlaluno Al fresco?

kiamlaluno

@simchona I thought the actor was Al pacino, even if the could be called Al fresco because he in his movies he is the bad guy most of the times.

Semifreddo means "dessert," and al fresco means "in jail."

Well, actually it's a type of dessert.

Wait, semifreddo is also used in English. :-)

(Another word they copied, but at least this time they don't say it's Latin.)

Cerberus

@simchona Wow, what a gem.

I honestly do not understand at all what the OP's point is.

simchona

12:35 AM

@Cerberus Sometimes I sort all meta questions by vote, and start reading from the end.

Cerberus

Haha, you masochist.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus That could be sadism.

Cerberus

12:58 AM

Is this accent fake?:

►

Anonymous

I am not native speaker but I guess it's fakes.

Cerberus

Hi!

Yeah it sounds fake to me too.

simchona

My First Giant Meta Answer:

1

A: Would a grace period or a sandbox mode help introduce new users?

Overview: At first this answer was going to be something like "oh no, the system is just fine as is". However, seeing as how English Language and Usage has had similar debate recently, I think there should be at least SE-neighborhood-wide discussion. Recently, on EL&U this question was asked ...

kiamlaluno

@simchona That is a well-done post.

simchona

@kiamlaluno Thank you!

kiamlaluno

1:15 AM

@Cerberus It doesn't seem so fake, to me.

It seems American accent to me.

simchona

That's a Southern accent. I'm not from the South, so I can't tell if it's fake or not.

kiamlaluno

There was somebody on Cooking channel with a Southern accent. I remember how she said yummy, and you.

Ya'll.

Mahnax

@kiamlaluno Paula?

kiamlaluno

@Mahnax She is blonde, not thin…

Mahnax

@kiamlaluno Heh. I don't watch cooking channel much, so I wouldn't know.

Hi @Daniel!

@simchona You have been incredibly active on MSO.

Daniel δ

1:30 AM

@simchona +1 Love it!

Mahnax

I gave it an upvote too.

Daniel δ

@Mahnax Hi!

@simchona I hope something in there is implemented.

Mahnax

@Danielδ How are you?

Daniel δ

@Mahnax I am doing pretty well.

Mahnax

@Danielδ Good, good.

At first glance, it would appear that there is no difference between 3 and З.

Daniel δ

1:35 AM

@Mahnax Except maybe for very large values of 3.

Mahnax

@Danielδ I am talking about the physical appearance of the 3's, are you?

Daniel δ

@Mahnax Actually I was referring to this joke. The decimal point after the second 3 could imply a continuation, though... ;)

No, really, now you mention it, there is a physical difference.

simchona

@Mahnax Have I? I only created an account last week or so

@Danielδ Now I'm in a comment thread with Jeff.

Mahnax

@Danielδ Oh, that. The second one isn't actually a three.

@simchona Yeah, two very good answers.

@simchona You make good points in the comments, but I hate to say that Jeff does have a point too. I just hate how he says "we," as if he were part of the community or something.

simchona

1:51 AM

@Mahnax I don't disagree that he has good points too, but I think one thing is that in smaller sites like ELU there are some people who don't understand the community at first, ask a crappy question, are shown the door, and never get to improve or find out how to improve

I use "we" a lot in comments too

Mahnax

@simchona Preachin' to the choir. I'm definitely on your side there.

simchona

@Mahnax Sometimes I wish Jeff would be slightly more open to suggestion

Mahnax

@simchona Heh. If he was, he wouldn't be Jeff. Then again, he probably feels the same way about EL&U; the two parties (Jeff and EL&U, mostly before my arrival here) have had some major disputes in the past.

simchona

@Mahnax Oh, I know. I was here around then (right after, so there was still chatter on the subject). I feel like if he's too hard on this, a lot of sites will flounder

Mahnax

@simchona It's probably good that the people here were so stubborn. It's such a shame that Kosmonaut left, though.

Daniel δ

1:58 AM

@Mahnax I see you have been doing some editing this month.

Mahnax

@Danielδ Yeah, quite a lot, methinks.

Daniel δ

@simchona You certainly are.

Robusto

3:27 AM

@Cerberus — That's an actor faking a hillbilly, or "jus' folks" accent.

It sounds like he's going for backwoods Kentucky, but there are too many wrong notes. And it's a bit too broad.

Cerberus

@Robusto OK, that was my impression too.

It also sounds too—I don't know, too articulate.

Everyone slurs some syllables in his native accent.

@Sim: You have my votes in your meta thingie.

Robusto

People trying to fake a Southern accent usually hit the obvious drawling syllables too hard, while skating over other signifiers that they just don't hear.

Cerberus

Notice how Jeff's semi-literate "that criteria". I mean, is that the right guy to tell new users they are worthless and can't write proper English?

@Robusto Yeah, I suppose that happens with most people who ape accents.

It's hard to copy the subtle things that you never noticed.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Unless they're very good.

Cerberus

@Robusto Yes, I suppose; but, in Dutch, I have never heard anyone successfully copy my accent who had not been exposed to it a lot.

Robusto

3:35 AM

@Cerberus — That's the key: exposure.

Cerberus

Yes. And I meant that to include actively speaking it with native speakers.

You can get very close without doing so; but I doubt you could ever fool a native speaker.

Robusto

Most actors in America don't even realize that there isn't a single "Southern" accent. The Texas accent is vastly different from the New Orleans accent, which is again different from Georgia and Tennessee, and Kentucky and West Virginia.

Cerberus

Of course.

Robusto

People in southern Illinois speak more like folks from Tennessee than they do like people from the Chicago area. And so on.

Cerberus

And the closer to home, the smaller the differences one will hear.

Robusto

3:37 AM

Yes.

Cerberus

The more socially stagnant an area is, the denser the spread of accents, I would expect.

Robusto

It's very rare that I can't spot an actor faking an accent. One case where I was fooled, though, was Idris Elba's portrayal of Stringer Bell in The Wire. Elba is British, but he did a very convincing black gangsta accent.

Cerberus

Hmm. Perhaps his best friend was an American gangsta and he lived in America for a decade?

Robusto

Check it out:

►

And here he is in his real voice:

►

simchona

@Robusto Wow.

Robusto

3:46 AM

@Cerberus, @Vitaly, @RegDwight, @Kit: We have 5hade5 knockin' on de doah.

@simchona — Uh-huh.

simchona

Tyrant is so much more fun with a screwdriver. Take that as you will.

Cerberus

@Robusto I would never have guessed. I had no idea which guy it was, and I didn't detect anything. Then again, I am not familiar with the accent.

@simchona Hmmm...

Robusto

@Cerberus — Trust me when I say it's pretty damn good.

Cerberus

Always.

Then again, I presume it isn't your accent either.

kiamlaluno

The actor who is the main actor in "Doctor House" is British. When you hear him speaking in interviews, he has a different accent than in "Doctor House."

Robusto

3:52 AM

@Cerberus — No. But I have a good ear for them. Even in other languages.

Mahnax

@simchona Maybe the drink screwdriver?

Robusto

@kiamlaluno — Yeah. Hugh Laurie is another one.

simchona

@Mahnax Right in one.

Mahnax

@simchona Heh.

Cerberus

@Robusto Hmm then I'll put your skills to the test with some Dutch accents.

kiamlaluno

3:53 AM

@Robusto Somebody I know (American) thought he was from USA, watching "Doctor House."

simchona

@kiamlaluno I knew he wasn't because I've seen Masterpiece Theater.

He was in one of the Austen movies

Robusto

@kiamlaluno — That's not surprising. A lot of British actors, in fact, do a convincing job with American accents, probably because American media are so pervasive. They just hear the dialects a lot growing up.

kiamlaluno

It's so amazing how the accent changes, when he speaks freely.

I thought, "Oh my, it cannot be the same person."

I thought somebody was speaking instead of him, in "Doctor House."

Cerberus

Spent.

simchona

He apparently fooled other cast members of the show, too

kiamlaluno

3:57 AM

(By the way, what word can I use, instead of "Doctor House"? Is film correct?)

Robusto

@Cerberus — I'm pretty sure I can't detect differences in Dutch accents, having heard very little Dutch. I can tell whether someone's from Hamburg or München, though.

@kiamlaluno — TV show or just "show."

simchona

@kiamlaluno Film is always a movie, and actually doesn't even apply to all of those

kiamlaluno

Being exposed to the bad usage of English words in Italy doesn't help. For example, telefilm is used for TV show, here.

Cerberus

youtube.com/…

kiamlaluno

(I still wonder why they think it should be Happy Hours.)

simchona

4:00 AM

@kiamlaluno The closest I've heard is "telenovella" which only refers to Spanish-language shows I think.

kiamlaluno

@simchona That is telenovela, as we say, but that is for a specific show, at least here.

Cerberus

youtube.com/…

Robusto

@Cerberus Is the blonde chick German?

kiamlaluno

Is that Swedish?

Cerberus

@Robusto Which video do you think has the accent closer to Germany?

simchona

4:01 AM

@kiamlaluno I don't watch them, so I'm really not sure what they encompass. definitely Spanish though.

Cerberus

@Robusto Hmm let me see...

kiamlaluno

@simchona Or from Columbia.

simchona

@kiamlaluno Spanish language

kiamlaluno

@simchona Think of them as "Dallas" in Spanish.

Cerberus

@Robusto Nope, just a very ugly south-eastern Dutch accent.

simchona

4:03 AM

@kiamlaluno I'm too young for that reference

Cerberus

But I can still understand it, so she is not even speaking dialect.

@kiamlaluno All Dutch!

Robusto

@Cerberus — Sounds a bit Norddeutsche.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus You are lucky I didn't say "it seems all Chinese, to me." ;-)

Cerberus

@Robusto Well, it is close to the border, so you probably heard that correctly.

Robusto

Damn, do I have to listen to all 23 minutes of this.

Cerberus

4:04 AM

@Robusto Of course not!

Just twenty seconds.

I listened maybe ten.

Oh shit, I accidentally posted the same video twice.

Robusto

Dutch sounds like a marriage of German and English.

youtube.com/…

Is this spoken in Northern Italy, or Southern Italy?

Cerberus

@Robusto But that is not proper Dutch. Now listen to this. ^

Robusto

4:07 AM

So the latter one is proper Dutch?

And the first one is Dutch shitkickers?

Cerberus

@Robusto The latter one is the PM, which is the same as my accent. The first one is the most provincial you could get without using a different dialect.

@kiamlaluno He literally says "I'm going to speak the dialect of Mantua".

I would have guessed non-southern because I heard no swallowing of final syllables.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Good, now guess if that is Northern Italy or not, without to look at a map. :-)

Cerberus

But it does souns very different from standard Italian.

Robusto

The PM's sounds smoother and less guttural, with softer /r/ and less of what I would call German vowel transformations.

Cerberus

@kiamlaluno Uhh what do you think, I am a barbarian? I know very well where Mantua is.

Po delta.

@Robusto Yes, that sounds accurate.

kiamlaluno

4:11 AM

@Cerberus I didn't think that, or I would not have added the smiley. Geesh!

Cerberus

Heh.

This was my attempt at mimicked an Italian temperament.

Mahnax

Wow, on english.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=newest there are eight closed questions.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus You mean Southern Italian.

simchona

@Mahnax And this, in part, is why I think we need to change how we handle new users

gets off soap box

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus To notice the word he used for potatoes: It's very similar to the French term.

Pomme de terre.

Mahnax

4:13 AM

@simchona Yeah. Or create a better mechanism for avoiding dupes/bad questions (maybe one that only affects users with low rep.

simchona

@Mahnax Part of the thing is that dupes on ELU are dupes of topics, rather than dupes of cases

so people don't always find the dupe

Robusto

Well, S.O. itself is a Niagara Falls of dupery. You see the same questions getting asked over and over — often without any replies at all.

kiamlaluno

This is the language spoken around here.

►

Mahnax

@simchona True. I suggest that before a user can ask their first question, that it suggests they visit english.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=faq first, it has many popular questions.

Robusto

Well, I'm too tired to care right now. CYAZ later.

Mahnax

4:15 AM

Or maybe english.stackexchange.com/questions/greatest-hits

Then again, the first question makes me think, maybe not.

Cerberus

@Robusto Hey.

Wait.

youtube.com/…

I wonder what you hear when you listen to this (blonde woman).

@kiamlaluno To us, the French are already very temperamental, let alone Lombards!

kiamlaluno

This is funnier.

►

Cerberus

@kiamlaluno Yeah I heard that, sounded funny. I wondered why they would use French words outside Piedmonte.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Uh? Do you mean Dutch take too much Prozac?

Now, don't ask me to translate figa.

Cerberus

@kiamlaluno No: we are Protestants.

kiamlaluno

4:19 AM

@Cerberus I think that is not what makes the difference. Lombards are not very temperamental. Southern Italians are temperamental.

Cerberus

Not to you, perhaps!

In fact, Dutchmen from the south are more temperamental already.

And those from the north-east are more subdued.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Well, try making a gesture I tell you to a Southern Italian, and you will see.

Cerberus

Hehe.

I'd rather not.

kiamlaluno

Remember they still have the delitto d'onore.

Or simply try saying cornuto to something from Southern Italy: They get crazy like hell.

Cerberus

Revenge killing?

By the way, that Rambo guy sounds hard to understand. I will be lost if I ever visit Brescia!

And what is "fare da Mauro"?

kiamlaluno

4:25 AM

@Cerberus fare is to do, da Mauro is at Mauro's.

Cerberus

Ahhh OK, the restaurant.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Well, we speak Italian. Lombard is only used in family.

Cerberus

Yeah OK.

kiamlaluno

This is Calabrian.

►

@Cerberus By the way, notice the most of the words I have heard in that video are the same than in Italian.

Cerberus

@kiamlaluno Yes, but his accent...

@kiamlaluno Wow, I can't understand a word of that. And the sounds sound much less familiar than the Brescian accent.

How easy is that for you to understand, Calabrian?

kiamlaluno

4:32 AM

@Cerberus I understand what I was taught. Calabrian is different from town to town.

Have fun with this.

►

Pugliese is famous for not using vocals. They say it's like Arabian.

@Cerberus I know some words that would confuse somebody from Brescia. I know crapa doesn't mean skull as In Brixian, but goat.

Un jati tantu all’aria ca caditi
ppe ra horte superbia ca portati,
ca ra superbia l’anu le pulite
e chine a assai giardini e pocu stati.

Of that, I would have wrongly translated l'anu, and stati.

Cerberus

Something about the nasal sound almost sounds Portuguese.

kiamlaluno

I remember there was a video about the different dialect spoken in Puglia. (If just I would remember the English word for that region.)

Cerberus

I know Puglia.

kiamlaluno

4:47 AM

In some places, it recalls English; in some other places it reminds of French.

Cerberus

The easiest way of looking it up is by going to the Italian wiki on Puglia and click through to the English page.

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus I know you know, but I don't like mixing Italian with English.

Cerberus

Apulia or Puglia.

Says English wiki.

kiamlaluno

Apulia, if I recall correctly.

Cerberus

Apulia is the Latin name, I believe.

kiamlaluno

4:48 AM

It could be.

English takes the names of Italian places from different sources.

Turin seems to be from the local language.

Milan seems to be Lombard.

Milan l'è un gran Milan.

Cerberus

Could be through French too.

Dutch: Milaan, Turijn.

kiamlaluno

Actually, Milan is pronounced with a little long a in the Lombard they speak.

I would say Milà, which is different from mila ("thousand").

Cerberus

Hmm.

Isn't the a in Milano long too?

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus No, it's not in Italian.

Cerberus

Oh, OK.

It's bed time for me.

Arrivederci!

kiamlaluno

4:56 AM

There is not difference between the a in Italia, carabiniere, and Milano.

Statte bbuono.

Cerberus

And can you name a word in which it is long?

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus There isn't such word: We have just 5 vocals. :-)

Accented a could seem longer, but it isn't.

Now I cannot even count.

Cerberus

Oh, huh? So all your vowels are the same length, at least different lengths don't give different phonemes? I didn't know that.

Well, good night!

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus Well, that is what I can recall, at this hour of the day. :-)

G'nite.

Cerberus

Heh, OK, ciao!

Mahnax

5:01 AM

Hallo.

Mahnax

5:33 AM

sighs Another new, angry user.

@Cerb I just bought a gold pack and I didn't get a rare card! Is that supposed to happen?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

9:52 AM

People, people, people!!!

Why the hell is this:

4

Q: Why is "to" used after the verb at the end of a sentence?

Possible Duplicate: When is it appropriate to end a sentence in a preposition? I would do it if I wanted to. I would do it if I wanted. Why is to used after the verb? Only to give emphasis? Is there a difference in the meanings of the above sentences?

prepositions

closed as a dupe of this:

41

Q: When is it appropriate to end a sentence in a preposition?

Like many others, I commonly find myself ending a sentence with a preposition. Yes, it makes me cringe. I usually rewrite the sentence, but sometimes (in emails) I just live with it. To, with... you know who you are. Should I keep fighting myself on this one, or is it okay in some circumstanc...

grammaticality prepositions word-order

?

I am ashamed.

Matt Эллен

That seems like a task for the RE-OPENERS

oh, or you

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I mean, come on, you can close it as whatever you wish, but not as a dupe of a question that makes us look like idiots.

Confusing to and to is such a noob mistake, it hurts.

Matt Эллен

:D

RegDwight Ѭſ道

It could be that only two people voted to close as a dupe, and three others voted to close for a different reason each, so only a minority was technically wrong, but outnumbered the majority. But still. That minority should not so much as exist on this site.

Oh well.

Where do I look up how many votes there were for which reason anyway? I never figured that out.

Matt Эллен

I do not know. I can only see who closed it, not what each voted for

RegDwight Ѭſ道

10:05 AM

Yeah.

I think there was a thread on MSO or five.

I don't think the reasons can be viewed after the fact.

Matt Эллен

a shame

kiamlaluno

Doesn't the timeline show that for moderators?

Uff… I am already without reputation left on MSO!

Matt Эллен

did you give it all up for bounties?

kiamlaluno

@MattЭллен No, I have reached the rep cap.

Hugo

17,620 reputation on MSO! meta.stackoverflow.com/users/140449/kiamlaluno?tab=reputation

kiamlaluno

10:16 AM

Oh, that is me.

(I was curious to see for which account that link was, and I discovered it was mine.)

Matt Эллен

> Did you know that it would take 29.5 billion Hula Hoops to reach the Moon from Earth?

I wonder if they've made that many

kiamlaluno

10:31 AM

@MattЭллен Is using hula hoops the emergency plane for the space station?

(I mean the ISS.)

Matt Эллен

@kiamlaluno it could be! Maybe we could use them to make the space elevator. Patato starch is stronger than carbon nano fibres, right?

kiamlaluno

@MattЭллен Patat… Ehmmm… I hope so, for the astronauts.

It is even better than kevlar.

Matt Эллен

:D really?

kiamlaluno

And it is also biodegradable. When you are done using it, you eat it.

Matt Эллен

that the best part. yummy

kiamlaluno

10:35 AM

If somebody tells you, "Chew it, you buster!" you can reply, "It's not lunch time, yet."

(If buster is mildly disrespectful, what is about ghost buster?)

Matt Эллен

I don't think anyone has yet told me that. But at least I have a retort if they ever do

@kiamlaluno ah, that's the special thing where the same word has two meanings!

kiamlaluno

Do I take it doesn't mean "ghost of a buster"?

Matt Эллен

buster can be a chump

it can also be a person who breaks things

@kiamlaluno yes, it doesn't

kiamlaluno

Imagines saying, "You, piggy ghost of a buster!" to somebody.

Matt Эллен

onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-of/buster

@kiamlaluno that would be quite the insult :D

kiamlaluno

10:42 AM

Now, I didn't know that not overdosing the fun would be against law.

> A person that does not add more fun too a fun situation.

Matt Эллен

well, you've got to make fun things funner!

kiamlaluno

I have my own idea of adding fun to fun.

Wait I shoot your (impersonal you) foot, and then I am going to call that "adding fun to fun."

Matt Эллен

!!

hides his feet

kiamlaluno

At least we can play "who doesn't jump is Berlusconi."

Matt Эллен

OK. That sounds like a strange game

kiamlaluno

10:46 AM

@MattЭллен It's quite easy: Somebody screams Chi non salta Berlusconi è, è, è and all people must jump, or who doesn't jump is Berlusconi.

Matt Эллен

lol! I'm good at jumping, but my reaction time is slow...

kiamlaluno

(I will scratch my own armpits.)

Matt Эллен

(so you are Berlusconi?)

kiamlaluno

(I am a multitasker: I jump, I scratch my armpits, I call for a delivery, and iron my shirt all at the same time. Plus, I close the door of my room, if I really need to, and I am in the right mood.)

The problem is when I use the iron to scratch my armpits, and I close my foot in the door.

Matt Эллен

(golly)

ouch!

kiamlaluno

10:50 AM

(Is that Holly's sister?)

Matt Эллен

(I don't think so, you could ask her though)

kiamlaluno

But then it is all fine; I cannot do anything worse than that.

(I could call her for a date; I could need to ask her about Molly.)

Who doesn't jump is Berlusca!

Falls from the chair.

Matt Эллен

11:05 AM

I think this

4

Q: Why is "to" used after the verb at the end of a sentence?

I would do it if I wanted to. I would do it if I wanted. Why is to used after the verb? Only to give emphasis? Is there a difference in the meanings of the above sentences?

prepositions

is a duplicate of

2

Q: 'to'-infinitive without the verb

I seem to recall reading somewhere that using a to-infinitive with the actual verb omitted (because it's clear from context) — as in He asked me to go, but I don't want to. (1) — is fine in American but not in British English. Brits, or so the story went, append do: He asked...

british-english infinitive ellipsis

kiamlaluno

I think you are correct.

Matt Эллен

I'm having trouble because the original question is confusing to read

kiamlaluno

Now I cannot anymore vote to close it.

Matt Эллен

ah yes, you have already closed this question

kiamlaluno

Uhmmm… It's food time.

Matt Эллен

11:11 AM

enjoy!

kiamlaluno

What a brilliant idea to re-open it without to first look for the correct duplicated question. :-)

Matt Эллен

well, it's not Reg's job to find all the dupes

it should be SE's job to write a better search algorithm ;-)

RegDwight Ѭſ道

11:24 AM

Hm. They look related but not the same.

The older question is about adding do. The more recent one is about removing to.

Matt Эллен

I thought Mehper's question was about keeping to

but yes, I see your point

not dupes

Robusto

12:23 PM

@Cerberus: Is that blonde woman in the last video Scandinavian?

You may all enjoy these results from XKCD's color survey: blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results

RegDwight Ѭſ道

That's the slowest Jinx in history.

I believe I have posted the link OVER 9000 times now.

Robusto

Mar 7 '11 at 18:22, by Robusto

Who reads your shit?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Feb 18 '11 at 16:01, by RegDwight

Attention is overrated.

Robusto

12:58 PM

Something with pelicans ... yeah, that's it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:33 PM

Ok today's goal is for nobody to say anything new in this chat room, just quote old messages of themselves saying stuff.

Matt Эллен

Jan 4 at 21:08, by Matt Эллен

ok then!

yesterday, by Matt Эллен

hello @MrShinyandNew

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Aug 10 '11 at 12:42, by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

anyway, @MattEllen, good morning

Dec 6 '11 at 19:39, by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

mmm mostly-warm coffee

Robusto

Feb 17 '11 at 21:25, by Robusto

27 secs ago, by RegDwight

2 hours ago, by RegDwight

yesterday, by RegDwight

Feb 7 at 15:38, by RegDwight

Russell's paradox

In the foundations of mathematics, Russell's paradox (also known as Russell's antinomy), discovered by Bertrand Russell in 1901, showed that the naive set theory created by Georg Cantor leads to a contradiction. The same paradox had been discovered a year before by Ernst Zermelo but he did not publish the idea, which remained known only to Hilbert, Husserl and other members of the University of Göttingen. Let R be the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. If R qualifies as a member of itself, it would contradict its own definition as a set containing sets that are not member...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Aug 17 '11 at 15:16, by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

nice!

Robusto

1:49 PM

Apr 21 '11 at 16:44, by Robusto