English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

5:00 PM

She's no ambassador!

@DavidWallace Pour le petit déjeuner aussi, oui, pourquoi pas.

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie Tu est où?

Johan Larsson

hydrophore is the translation

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus but she is a person in a position of power. Teachers have power over their pupils

David Wallace

@MattЭллен Yes, that's a good point. The superior may have said "stop teaching these people, or face dire consequences", or words to that effect.

Cerberus

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie Quelle est ta langue maternelle?

Anonymous

Switzerland

Noah

5:01 PM

@JohanLarsson You mean Pressure Vessel.

Cerberus

Ah.

Robusto

Advertising works.

Cerberus

I thought you said you had come to Switzerland to learn French?

Matt Эллен

@DavidWallace yeah, something like that

Cerberus

confused

Anonymous

5:02 PM

No, I live in Switzerland. I have been there since April.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен You keep on fantasising, while I put the kettle up.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus up where?

Johan Larsson

@Noah It is a system with a pump and a vessel, think it works by compressing air as a buffer so the pump does not have to switch on/off all the time

Cerberus

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie Alors, tu viens d'où?

Anonymous

My Maternal language, is Amharic (Spoken in Ethiopia), then Tigrinia(Spoken in Eritrea), then Sudanese Arabic, then English, now French, next Germany baby :))

Anonymous

5:03 PM

Je suis Erythryeen

Cerberus

Ahhh!

Anonymous

Mais, Je suis venu de Dubai

Noah

@JohanLarsson Do you have any idea how expense this system would be?

Cerberus

Erythryeen, c'est super cool.

Anonymous

Tu les connais?

Cerberus

5:04 PM

Jamais je n'ai rencontré personne de ce nouveau pays.

Mais je connais le pays, naturellement.

Noah

@DavidWallace How is your life? Hope things have got better for you. Or at least improved a bit.

Johan Larsson

@Noah I don't own one but it is very commonly used in cottages who have their own well. My estimate ~1 000$ nothing fancy or high tech really.

Cerberus

Vous avez combattu avec les Ethiopiens, n'est-ce pas?

Anonymous

Pas a a cause de gare... J'espere

David Wallace

Yes, thanks Noah. I'm not sure whether things are actually better, but I'm starting to feel better about them.

Anonymous

5:05 PM

Oui, oui.

Cerberus

Mais oui.

Anonymous

C'est dommage.

Cerberus

Mais vous avez juste commencé à exister: au futur on écoutera plus de choses intéressants sur votre pays.

Noah

@DavidWallace That's good and sounds promising. I am sure they will get better over time. Just keep your fingers crossed.

@DavidWallace I see you speak good French.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Ça, c'est bon. Mieux.

Noah

5:08 PM

@DavidWallace Or at least can fool us to believe so.

Anonymous

c'est gentil. :)

David Wallace

@Noah I do no such thing.

@Cerberus Thanks.

Noah

Is there a Google Translate plugin for chat.SE?

David Wallace

@Cerberus That would be nice, and I would enjoy that very much if they wish to share.

Cerberus

@Noah J'sais pas. Probablement pas.

@DavidWallace Certainement ils le feront éventuellement.

Okay, my French sucks.

David Wallace

5:11 PM

@Cerberus Pourquoi certainement?

Anonymous

@Cerberus QUOI? Tu rigole?

David Wallace

wonders if there really is such a word as éventuellement

Noah

@Cerberus Maintenant que vous tournez cette pièce en une colonie française.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Par-ce que c'est inévitable qu'un pays produisit des nouvelles?

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie Hélas, non.

@DavidWallace I have no freaking clue!

David Wallace

@Cerberus Oh, I misunderstood you, sorry. Hardly surprising under the circumstances though.

Noah

5:16 PM

I am gona call 911. Toodle-pip.

Cerberus

@Noah Ehh quoi? Cette chambre à chat?

@Noah What? Seriously? What's going on?

@DavidWallace Ah oké.

David Wallace

I thought you were saying that it was inevitable that The Complete PHP Newbie would return to this "chambre a chat" one day, and tell us more things about his/her country. And I was going to marvel at your inconsistent use of tu and vous. But looking back, it was clear that you meant the Eritrean nation as a whole, not just the one person who has joined us today.

Cerberus

Ah, oui, c'est correct.

Even I would not be so inconsistent!

David Wallace

Mais tu as trois têtes.

Cerberus

Oui.

Mais ceci ne sont pas toujours assez.

David Wallace

5:21 PM

Your heads aren't always asses?

Anonymous

Il se trouve que, en Suisse c'est tres defficile d'apprendere le Francaise, parsque, le genst sont tres timid des autres, C'est tres defficile de fair des amis ici.

David Wallace

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie It's sad to hear that.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Pah.

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie Hmm tu est où?

Genève?

Anonymous

A Lausanne

Cerberus

Lausanne?

Ah.

Anonymous

5:25 PM

Oui, Je sais

Cerberus

My second guess.

David Wallace

Est-ce que tu pense que c'est la même chose a Genève?

Anonymous

C'est la plus ..... qui les autres.

Anonymous

No, Geneve is much better.

Cerberus

The thing is, you probably need to join some club or shared activity, sports, anything.

Anonymous

5:26 PM

Whereever there are more foreigners, it is always better

Cerberus

Even in Lausanne, that should bring you some more social contacts.

There are other foreigners in Lausanne, surely.

Anonymous

Trust me. That is not the case. I have been here 8 months, trying to make friends, in bars, nighclubs, library, which is where I am now... but pointless.

David Wallace

It seems a shame to move to a new country, then only hang out with foreigners though. One can do that without moving.

Cerberus

But have you tried joining a sports club?

Like field hockey? Chess?

Bridge?

@DavidWallace That happens a lot.

David Wallace

Ah, what wonderful sports the Dutch have!

Cerberus

5:28 PM

Foreigners stick together, because they are in the same boat.

@DavidWallace I know you don't have either.

David Wallace

Svaka ptica svome jatu leti.

Cerberus

Is that Yeti-speak?

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie I can imagine it must be a bit difficult in those venues.

Anonymous

I have played Chess at ouchy (lausanne) longer than I can remember. it is painful.

Cerberus

Why?

David Wallace

Bars and nightclubs are hard because it can be so noisy. The library probably has the opposite problem.

@Cerberus Maybe it's a contact sport in Switzerland

Cerberus

5:30 PM

You need a situation where you are forced to talk to the same people for a longer time and on a regular basis.

@DavidWallace Living chess...

At least we would call it that. We have Living Stratego.

David Wallace

Yes, I was the four of diamonds in a living bridge game once.

KitFox

Sorry @Reg. I couldn't wait anymore.

Cerberus

Haha.

Such an elevated rank.

Anonymous

Because, I met two nice girls who played chess with me for about 2 hours, and just when I was starting to think, I was wrong about people in Switzerland, they turned out to be from France, and went back to France the next day. And, that is the only time, I have played, or talked with any person since comming here

David Wallace

C'est tragique.

Anonymous

5:32 PM

I think the atmosphere is much better in France.

Anonymous

c'est un cauchemar

Cerberus

But why haven't you played with others there? Don't they set up matches for all people present?

How about taking a course at the chess club?

David Wallace

Can you take up a real sport? I mean a team sport like football, not something individual like tennis.

Anonymous

I played with other ( Who were willing to play ), mostly they were Albanians, Algerians and so and so... but, nothing out of the ordinary. I have been told, the Swiss tend to relax while exercising, and would be best to join sports club, Gym.

Anonymous

I am looking forward to it.

Cerberus

5:37 PM

What David says.

Anonymous

But, I am surprised that neither of you seem to have had any similar experience my little dilemma

Cerberus

A gym is too individualistic. You need a team sport.

David Wallace

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie I live in my country of birth.

Cerberus

I have never been abroad for a long time.

And I have little desire to.

Partly for just this reason.

But most people find it fun.

You just need to find some friends to start with, and then everything will be all right.

MετάEd

1

Q: "How best to handle" vs. "how to best handle"

Are there rules on the placement of 'best'? They are deciding how to best handle the matter. They are deciding how best to handle the matter. Is one of them wrong?

I did not see an answer whether this was, or was not, an NS question.

Anonymous

5:41 PM

Well it kind of makes one feel persuasive to join something just deliberately to make friends. Imagine you are where people think, you came to enjoy the game but inside you have no ambitions of what others are doing, except looking for something else.

Robusto

> AA makes scientology look credible. — Doug Stanhope

Anonymous

I don't know. It might just be me

Cerberus

@TheCOMPLETEPHPNewbie Well, you should join some activity that you will actually enjoy too.

And you will come to enjoy most activities once get to know them.

If not, leave.

David Wallace

@Cerberus Peut-etre, il ne peut pas.

Cerberus

What activities do you like to do that there could be clubs for?

@DavidWallace You can always leave a cub.

David Wallace

5:43 PM

Oh, I thought you meant leave Lausanne.

Cerberus

Oh, no.

Anonymous

No. I have decided to befriend Eritreans / Ethiopians only. It is easier that way, even though most of the one's born / grew up here have developed the same behaviors as the Swiss. I thought It was about me, until I asked others. It is a cultural thing, they said that most people in Swiss have very limited friendship and friends.

Anonymous

They knew eachother from first grades, and continues from then to be friends. Anyway, It is fine. I am thinking about going to Dubai, I had a small life there before I came here

Cerberus

6:02 PM

Yeah it is very well possible that the Swiss are much less open than Eritreans.

Being in a more internationally oriented city also helps.

Robusto

@Cerberus: For free speech:

►

Thought you'd get a kick out of this.

Cerberus

> I don't have to look at pictures of the result.

I hear ya.

MετάEd

@MετάEd It's Christmas. We're supposed to answer all the questions, not close them. — tchrist 1 min ago

It's Christmas. We're supposed to be especially nice to the people who have to answer these questions, by helping the OP to ask good ones.

Cerberus

> Have you ever considered registering as a sex offender just so that your friends can't bring their stupid children over to your house?

I love it!

@Robusto I didn't quite get the nigger cock thing.

Why does he have that picture, and what does it "prove"?

Robusto

@Cerberus Go back five minutes in the video. Or watch it from the beginning. It's pretty good.

Cerberus

6:14 PM

OK maybe.

He is of course simplifying things a little bit.

What matters is how and when you use the word.

Making cancer jokes at a funeral is really in poor taste.

Or calling a black kid "stupid niggar" while he's being bullied by racists.

Robusto

@Cerberus Comedy isn't about nuance.

Cerberus

Of course.

I was just thinking how it could be educational for the PC.

Now let me watch on.

Robusto

The PC would be appalled by Doug Stanhope. For sure.

Cerberus

I still like the sex offender best.

2

@Robusto Even he being a comedian, they can't listen to that?

Robusto

What do you think?

Cerberus

6:17 PM

I don't know? Comedians are holy here.

One even faux-masturbated on the Queen (in her absence).

Which I could barely watch.

But it is still acceptable.

Robusto

You are a hat-seeking missile. — Robusto 6 mins ago

For Kit.

KitFox

Just one vote @Rob. Just one. That's all I need.

Robusto

You go down for hats. Get hold of yourself. We need an intervention for you.

KitFox

I got the DTs bad, man.

Robusto

I can't be an enabler anymore. Not anymore.

KitFox

6:22 PM

I only got two hats today. I'm thinking maybe I could go to some other sites, score some hats there.

But they'd just be the same hats, wouldn't they? I need new hats. Those old ones aren't doing it for me anymore.

Matt Эллен

you don't know how other sites cut their hats

KitFox

Just a little something to help this headache go away.

Cerberus

Women and clothes!

ducks

Robusto

@Cerberus That is a pleonasm.

Matt Эллен

swans

David Wallace

6:24 PM

gooses somebody

Gigili

Hello.

KitFox

gets impregnated by Zeus ftw

Robusto

> Artists who say that they are artists are usually people that need a job. — Doug Stanhope

Gigili

Is this sentence grammatical?

Cerberus

@Robusto Have you looked at the Internet like, ever?

Gigili

6:25 PM

> Design space Exploration (DSE) is the key step in design process which.

David Wallace

@Gigili Hey, hello. Are you well?

Cerberus

Women are for porn, not clothes.

KitFox

@Gigili No.

Robusto

@Cerberus No, never. I can't enable the Internet anymore. Not anymore.

Cerberus

I didn't know your facility blocked all of the Internets.

Gigili

6:26 PM

@DavidWallace Hey. I am fine, thanks for asking.

David Wallace

@Gigili I was trying to work out whether that was a question.

Cerberus

You might consider acting sane again for a while.

Until they let you out.

Gigili

@KitFox Uhum, thank you.

Robusto

@Cerberus Again? When have I ever acted sane?

Gigili

@DavidWallace That was clearly a question?

KitFox

6:27 PM

Oh. So MaxLength and MultiLine don't mingle. Fuck you, Microsoft.

Cerberus

@Robusto Hmm you got me there.

Gigili

OK, bite!

David Wallace

@Gigili Umm, I don't know what you mean.

Oh, you've gone. OK, bye then.

Ohh pretty prism.

6:43 PM

@KitFox Is that Microsoft specific?

KitFox

@DavidWallace In my case, yes.

David Wallace

Oh, OK. It's just that I'd hate to think you were f***ing the wrong entity.

KitFox

I wasn't fucking Microsoft. I was inviting Microsoft to fuck itself.

Now I am sad. I thought I had an interesting question, and instead I am...boring.

David Wallace

@KitFox don't be sad. Nobody in their right mind finds you boring.

Jez

Spammers have made e-mail unusable without anti-spam software.

i can't believe we haven't devised a way of dealing with this problem yet.

KitFox

6:56 PM

One solution I saw that I thought was interesting was to charge a very tiny amount for each email that someone sends.

David Wallace

@KitFox Who would impose the charge?

KitFox

Whoever is maintaining the infrastructure.

David Wallace

Like one cent per email or something? Added to my ISP bill?

I can't see my ISP wanting to do that. Would there be laws to force them to?

And wouldn't spammers just operate from a country where there are no such laws?

KitFox

@DavidWallace Much less than one cent. Tiny fraction. And it would be for all traffic through your servers, so spammers could be from another country, sure, but they get go through your infrastructure without paying a toll.

A toll that doesn't exist really, if you are not sending millions of emails.

Jez

i regularly ask myself the question, "can i do without e-mail?"

and basically the answer is "no"

if we'd started out with a different infrastructure i probably could.

but as e-mail gets used for message board notifications and stuff now, i need it

David Wallace

7:11 PM

@KitFox Where would the money eventually end up?

KitFox

@DavidWallace Well, there wouldn't be any, because the spammers would all be out of business if they had to pay for it.

But ideally, in my pocket.

David Wallace

I can see the benefits of it being in your pocket.

Do you use your pockets? Many women don't. I guess some men don't too.

Cerberus

@KitFox But the problem is that you would have to make the sending server pay, and so you would have to only allow e-mail between accredited institutions.

I hear half of all SMS messages in China are spam already, because they are free.

@KitFox Or how else could it be arranged so? I would be in favour of this plan in theory.

On the other hand, I never get spam from Whatsapp.

Perhaps because you can only send messages to people that have you in their address book?

I don't even know.

MετάEd

7:32 PM

0

Q: You have no idea, (...): "do you" or "don't you"?

Which one is correct? option 1: You have no idea, don't you? or, option 2: You have no idea, do you?

question-tags

I feel we've dealt with this already but I can't find it.

KitFox

Yeah. Um. Maybe with Isn't it?

RegDwighт

@MετάEd I answered something similar like two years ago. I am not proud of my answer in the least. Barrie's is way better.

MετάEd

@RegDwighт Ok.

RegDwighт

4

Q: About question tags

He did nothing*. Which is the correct question tag for the sentence above? didn't he? did he? What is the effect of using nothing for negation?

grammaticality questions negation question-tags

Here

KitFox

2

Q: Question tags — "did you" vs. "didn't you"

Typically, when we ask for confirmation/denial of a statement, we say something like the following: We turn left here, don't we? You have a cat, don't you? We've met before, haven't we? pairing a positive statement with a negative question, or We don't need that, do we? You don't ...

meaning questions negation inversion question-tags

Oh.

RegDwighт

7:36 PM

Yup, just a giant quote from Wikipedia.

That doesn't really answer the question to boot.

Good times!

KitFox

Did I mention this headache?

Which is really an earache.

Which might be DTs from hat withdrawal.

I think you need more hats @Reg.

RegDwighт

I so think too.

MετάEd

@KitFox So ... nohat had better have nohat.

RegDwighт

Arqade are 110 ahead all of a sudden.

MετάEd

You can't see hats?

KitFox

7:38 PM

shakes uncontrollably

@MετάEd You can. Nohat opted out.

MετάEd

@KitFox Good.

RegDwighт

No. Bad nohat, bad.

MετάEd

Anything else would be uncivilized.

RegDwighт

And Kosmo and Jasper.

Speaking of hats, I am not that far away from capping! How did that happen? Need just 35 monies for jam.

KitFox

I can't imagine how that might have happened.

RegDwighт

7:42 PM

Oh, right.

I started answering gen-refs that then got closed.

Right, right.

Let's see which gen-refs are still open, then.

KitFox

I am right on top of capping. So close.

RegDwighт

3

Q: Tag Questions "is he not"

"He is happy, isn't he?" If you did not use the contraction isn't he, in the question above, would the correct sentence be: "He is happy, is he not?" "He is happy, is not he?" Sentence #1 seems to have to have same meaning as the above question but does not become the subject complement of ...

word-order questions negation contractions question-tags

Why do I keep reading this as "is he hot"?

KitFox

Oh wait. I did cap.

RegDwighт

Too much Doug Stanhope, I guess.

@KitFox but you had that hat already, no?

KitFox

Yeah, but I don't have the one for doing it five times.

RegDwighт

7:44 PM

WHA.

There is such thing?

OMG

KitFox

So I'm going to have to think of some more questions.

RegDwighт

Haha. Like the one I told you wouldn't fly.

KitFox

You said you weren't interested in it.

RegDwighт

You will have to think of 20 of these a day.

@KitFox because it wouldn't fly. And because we had no internet.

KitFox

I still think it is interesting.

RegDwighт

7:45 PM

Well yes.

KitFox

I am disappointed with the answers.

RegDwighт

I am not saying it's not interesting. I am saying it's not flying anywhere.

I have posted a great many questions like that myself.

KitFox

"No, there's also 'less'" kind of misses the point.

Well, you could give my question a really nice answer, then we will both benefit.

RegDwighт

But I don't have an answer.

I am no Protogermaniac.

KitFox

I suppose it would be terribly unethical for me to flag five things and then dismiss the flags as helpful?

What if I flagged them, and you dismissed them, and then vice-versa?

RegDwighт

7:47 PM

cough Google for "thanks fixed" cough flag as "obsolete" cough

How do you think I got my Yakety Stacks?

KitFox

Oh. I didn't realize you had it.

RegDwighт

Comments is where it's at.

KitFox

Where is my hat? frown I need it, man, I need it bad.

feels sated

Robusto

@Robusto - Could you be more specific? I don't understand your comment with respect to the question. — Mohit 13 mins ago

Here I am, confusing the pineapples again.

RegDwighт

Hahaha.

KitFox

7:55 PM

Maybe if you abused me, I could get sympathy votes.

RegDwighт

I saw that one and I understood it. I am understanding Robusto more and more.

MετάEd

Lawler sets new record, a 1.22 lawler answer: english.stackexchange.com/a/94649/14073

@KitFox What's the deal with your hats?

KitFox

@MετάEd I don't know.

Robusto

@KitFox It's worth a try.

KitFox

@MετάEd I just got a new one though.

MετάEd

7:57 PM

@KitFox I'm playing the hat game by not trying. I just want to see how many hats I wear. (Not trying to earn hats, I mean.)

Robusto

Should I explain it to Mohit? Ease his pain?

KitFox

@MετάEd Well, I thought I would let it ride, but we are so close to beating Arqade, and I put in a little effort and the next thing I know, it's smack.

@Robusto If you like. Or we could delete the comments.

MετάEd

I didn't realize there was a hat race.

RegDwighт

@Robusto explain it to him like you would to your buddy who is leaving. A couple obscure references go a long way.

KitFox

@MετάEd It's a hat dash.

MετάEd

7:59 PM

Ah. A haberdash.

Gotcha.

KitFox