English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

5:29 PM

Hello

Can anyone answer a simple doubt I have?

Maybe. What is it?

Hi!

I'm doing my Chemistry homework, and I think it's against the rules to post such a specific question in the forum, I just don't know what sentence is grammatically correct.

You can post anything in chat!

I can't post pictures of me naked in chat. I'm pretty sure I'd get banned

5:34 PM

Ok, so this is what I have: "Colloids don't settle down when left to stand" or "Colloids don't settle down when they're left standing". I'm going for the second one but I'm not completely sure.

@MattЭллен You can post them, but you shouldn't.

@ChairOTP "left to stand" sounds more academic.

But both are OK.

@KitFox That sentence was my first guess but I thought it was wrong since it's the first time I use "left to stand"

Thank you.

@Cerberus anything?

@MattЭллен But you could do it!

@Mitch Yes!

@Cerberus yeah, but no one here wants to see that :D seriously

I don't want to be responsible for anyone else's therapy

5:41 PM

@KitFox why aren't people still talking about Brittany? She is hot.

@Cerberus La preuve!

1 hour ago, by KitFox

I agree with you @Mr.Shiny. She's hot, she can dance, her voice seems pretty good.

@Mitch Let Matt prove it to you.

one more time.

oh, that would be 'do it'. On second thought, no thanks.

@KitFox Why aren't we dissing Ke$ha? Her lyrics aren't -totally- idiotic (hmmm...maybe they are) She's also hot. And she went to Columbia. That's gotta count for something.

@Mitch Who?

Who is this Casher?

5:44 PM

Also, doesn't this all show that we're totally out of touch. Aren't they all...

srsly?

@Cerberus That's funny, she doesn't look jewish.

Haha.

I have no idea who this, but OK.

I'm sure she like grabbing coins, like Borat's Jew.

anyway, this is 10 years ago, right?

@Cerberus Um...no more grabby than absolutely everybody else in the world.

Ke$ha has the line about 'brushing teeth with a bottle of Jack' that has all the parents in an uproar.

True.

@Mitch I will expect an SMS from my parents shortly, then.

@ΜετάEd Freddie Mercury?

@Mitch The university or the country?

@Robusto !! the university.

5:54 PM

Well, you weren't specific.

@Cerberus well, it is true that the entire mouth biota is wiped out. so there's that.

@Robusto Shakira is from Colombia (unspecified) and she's hot, too.

@Mitch *Colombia

ΜετάEd

@Robusto The very man.

@Mitch Is that really true?

Oh. That fixes tit for both me and Robusto

5:57 PM

This was Jack Daniels, right?

Presumably

Not some obscure American cleaning agent?

OK.

Jack Sprat?

Jack Black.

Jack White.

5:59 PM

Bob White.

White Wash.

Mouthwash.

Full circle.

Mouth ulcers

Argh...I closed the cycle too soon.

@MattЭллен Does it cause them or just burn them out right off?

ΜετάEd

6:00 PM

Premature encapsulation.

@Mitch I don't know

@MattЭллен a mouth of Sundays

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

6:03 PM

Cute.

Looks like KISS with racoons.

When speaking about particles, and combining them, should I use "...to make/form new particles"

Q: what is the diversity of pronouns in English language?

0

What is the diversity of pronouns in English language and why are they given so much importance in grammer?

pronouns

Who wants to know?

May 14 at 14:36, by Robusto

1

A: "Big" vs. "large" — which one to use?

It depends on the rest of the article. Both are acceptable. You may be using large/big to refer to the non-small companies, so you might want to keep the same phrase when discussing the size of the budgets.

What are "the non-small companies"?

I guess big boys, big shots and big deals become large boys, large shots and large deals when they cross the pond. And largess becomes bigess (pronounced "big-ass") going the other way. — Robusto 9 secs ago

I thought a largess was a male large. I must have been mistaken.

@ChairOTP You're so very particular about that stuff.

@Robusto lol why?

6:18 PM

You tell me.

@Robusto well as I said before, I'm doing homework and posting my doubts in the forum would be against the rules.

ЯegDwight

@Robusto that is just perfect.

Mar 17 at 19:10, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

It's one of these things you can't ridicule, because they ridicule themselves in the most perfect manner. Any attempt at a parody would be way less funny than the original.

Yup.

@ChairOTP Against what rules exactly?

Ask yourself why you used two of them in your question. — Robusto 1 min ago

ЯegDwight

6:22 PM

@Robusto and the answer to that, obviously, is because he didn't use three of them.

Seven.

@Gigili english.stackexchange.com/faq Proofreading, Writing advice.

@ChairOTP Oh, I thought you meant your teacher doesn't want you to do something like that and you're supposed to do your homework on your own or something.

@Gigili Oh no. My homework is done, but we're supposed to translate everything we did in Spanish to English, it doesn't have to be 'perfect', but doing it right helps me to improve my English.

Yeah, good luck with that.

6:32 PM

Good morning everyone.

@DavidWallace Hey, how are you?

@ChairOTP I'm very well. I only woke up an hour or so ago.

I see you have been working hard at your English.

@DavidWallace At some point I will have to use technical terms and that stuff so everything gets a bit harder, but practice is my best solution right now.

I imagine you're right. But be encouraged. Your English is already really good.

My written English, I'm still working on my spoken English which by the way, I followed your advice and I'm trying to stress the important words and shortening the not so important ones.

6:38 PM

How's that working out?

@DavidWallace It's been exhausting given that depending on which word you stress, the 'meaning' of the sentence may vary.

Right. There's a question somewhere on this site about the sentence "what would you like". Let me know if you can't find it.

This one: english.stackexchange.com/questions/33150/… ?

No.

Hang on, I'll find the one I was thinking of.

Ok.

6:45 PM

@ChairOTP I have that problem too. It's not easy to find out which words needs to be stressed and which don't.

@ChairOTP That one is a good questions. I liked it.

4

Q: Prosodic stress

What difference do different stress positions make to the meaning of the following sentence: What would you like? What would you like? What would you like? What would you like?

stress

@Gigili It's hard but not impossible, I've been listening to the news and the radio trying to take the hint.

@DavidWallace Different "stress positions"? Sounds barbaric.

Stress position

A stress position, also known as a submission position, places the human body in such a way that a great amount of weight is placed on just one or two muscles. For example, a subject may be forced to stand on the balls of his feet, then squat so that his thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates an intense amount of pressure on the legs, leading first to pain and then muscle failure. Forcing prisoners to adopt such positions is a method of ill-treatment used for extracting information or as a punishment, amounting to torture. See also *Murga punishment *Enhanced interrogation ...

Hey, I didn't write the question. I didn't even answer it.

@DavidWallace Really good question. And the answers, even better.

6:51 PM

No, but you foisted it on us. Now we're the ones who have to suffer.

@ChairOTP And the comments on the answers are better still, right?