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11:32 AM
0
A: "Can easily be" vs. "can be easily" — what's the difference?

abdul naeemI think it will be can easily be. Because once I have read that we can use an adverb between two auxiliary verbs.

This just hurts.
 
pain.se
 
i got rejected in interview of big MNC's only due to my bad english verbal communication.... i m happy about this room, because such rooms encouraging and helping to other people communication..... i guess this is the right way use of technology.
 
vs "a picture of the king's s's"
 
nice!
any king would be proud
 
11:43 AM
> Close to these are words that are more obviously loan-words, ... Use freely in English, but beware that many are "false friends" when it comes to learning another language (mousse is only some sort of creams in English, any in French, and several words from Japanese used only in relation to sex acts in English are - to the point where I won't give examples - are quite plain and boring words in Japanese that only refer to sex acts when that is clearly the context).
I give. What is this about Japanese sex acts?
From here:
1
A: Is it acceptable to mix Latin with English?

Jon HannaThere are a few different ways in which loan words or phrases are used in English, whether from Latin or otherwise. On the one extreme, there are words like potato, cello and waltz that are so absorbed into the language that their being loan-words is more a matter of the history of their etymolo...

 
well i like golden crown of king :D
 
Bukake?
 
Buttcake?
 
11:45 AM
is a sex act portrayed in pornographic films, in which several men ejaculate on a woman, or another man. Bukkake videos are a relatively prevalent niche in contemporary pornographic films. Originating in Japan in the 1980s, the genre subsequently spread to North America and Europe, and crossed over into gay pornography. Etymology Bukkake is the noun form of the Japanese verb bukkakeru (ぶっ掛ける, to dash or sprinkle water), and means "to dash", "splash" or "heavy splash". The compound verb can be decomposed into a prefix and a verb: butsu (ぶつ) and kakeru (掛ける). Butsu is a prefix derived...
 
LOL its antique word for me
 
Oh, so that is what they call that? I didn’t even know it had a name.
 
The more you know!
 
Opposable thumbs for the win.
 
11:47 AM
its really nice concept actually
 
@Cerberus I want you to know what a good boy am I, that I shan’t be pointing out that Barrie has argued himself into a self-contradiction (read: he’s wrong) about his double-genitives.
4
A: "A friend of Susan" vs. "a friend of Susan's"

Barrie EnglandA friend of Susan’s is a double genitive, which has been a feature of English grammar for centuries, and it is the normal alternative to one of Susan’s friends. Just as most people would say a friend of mine, rather than a friend of me, so a friend of Susan’s, rather than a friend of Susan, would...

That is not a double genitive. It is a single genitive with a prepositional phrase. A double-genitive would be like Susan’s’s, or saeculorum’s.
Since it can only be a genitive if it has a morphological inflection.
Q.E.F.D.
 
queefed?
 
Excuse yourself when do you that.
 
hmmm. a supermod came and reopened a question. interesting.
 
Easier than deleting a Tweet, I guess.
Whoa, we have 368 follower (sic).
Oh, that's supposed to be German.
 
11:59 AM
@MattЭллен Why does the one sound (well, or smell) any less nasty than the other?
 
you were meant to tell us in german?
 
Haha, and it even tweeted the meta post about scraping.
 
@tchrist well, a queef would not necessarily involve cum
 
Nothing that a good Puck wouldn’t fix.
 
12:00 PM
I assumed queef just means expelling air from the vagina
but urban dic seems to imply sex too
wateva
 
God the tweeted questions are meh.
Xblast!
 
Folgen, really?
I think queef must be mostly U.K.-only because of the quim connection.
 
also (in theory) there would be no poo particles expelled with a queef, so less poo smell
 
American have no idea what that word means.
 
interesting.
 
12:04 PM
You could teach them. You could be the Quim-Evangelist to the Gentiles.
 
travelling from state to state, city to city, exposing Americans to the wonders of queefing
2
a job's a job, I suppose
 
LOL, i excited to see and experience orgy like thing .... i also wonder it happen in the
world!!!!!!
 
You’d think queef were a strong past tense of quaff.
I think quaff is the only verb ending in -aff that has the FATHER vowel not the CAT vowel. Faffing about. Well, ok, some people say laugh pompously, but that is spelled without an -aff.
 
uh, it's more of a southern English accent than a pompous thing
 
Gotcha! I was teasing you. :)
 
12:09 PM
oh you!
 
It is so easy to stick it to RP.
 
:D
@iHungry we discuss most things here.
 
The only dialect that has RAHZBRIES and QUEEZARDILLERS in the same room.
And taecos maequismo.
 
hmmm
 
I'm getting hungry just thinking about them
 
12:12 PM
hahaha
me too ;)
 
Honest. I was at some Mexican restaurant in one of your London circuses (:-) and heard a man order queezerdillers for quesadillas (kaysadeeyas). Just the funniest thing.
 
well, when in Ingland
lunches
 
It’s like Americans who rhyme jalapeños with gelatinous. And yes, some really do.
Well, close to it. You get the idea.
I’m not IPA-arsible this morn.
 
Endia .... LOL
 
@MattЭллен “Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?”
@MattЭллен That is, hickishly saying jalapeños as /d͡ʒəˈlɒpəˌnoʊz/ in Appalachian American instead of something that more closely approximates /χalaˈpeɲos/ — like, I dunno, “hollow penis”, maybe. You gotta admit, the hick pronuncification slips under the tongue better. So I guess you’re no worse than we are. We just each mangle different words in our own risi-inimitable ways.
Which is why it is too early to be IPA-arsible. Gosh.
How come we seem to see people writing o’clock so much less these days? They say it just as much. But it seems to have disappeared from writing.
...mmm... txtspk...
 
12:41 PM
"garden leave" and "gardening leave" give too many false positives in ngrams
and in the book search behind it
 
@RegDwighт Kris is on a “quoted bold italic” editing kick. :)
@MattЭллен Try prefacing with “on”, or some similar strategy, to try to weed out the falsies.
 
@tchrist good call!
tiny extracts from google books seem to suggest that "gardening leave" came from the British military and moved to politics and then into everyday life. But it's not enough for proof
 
Yes, evidence, not proof. Proof is a high mark.
 
and even as evidence it's a bit weak
 
1:16 PM
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@FumbleFingers — Jack Robbin Feb 12 '12 at 13:04
Great comment.
 
wow. it's so insightful, it should be an answer
 
You should ask @RegDwight to tell you why schon isn't always translatable into English. Same with doch and gleich and a bunch of others. It's the little words that get you. — Robusto 16 hours ago
Did you see that question, @Reg?
 
No.
 
Hello! Do you think this " losing your rag" is the same sense as "to get angry"?
http://books.google.com/books?id=svHvhERHLD0C&pg=PA128&dq=%22lose+your+rag%22+OR+%22lost+your+rag%22+OR+%22losing+your+rag%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AsDuUJyPO4fxsgae04DgAQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22lose%20your%20rag%22%20OR%20%22lost%20your%20rag%22%20OR%20%22losing%20your%20rag%22&f=false
 
Hmm, I wonder if it didn't ping you because I didn't have a tau at the end of your name.
 
1:29 PM
Actually in German I can see myself using bereits there.
 
So you don't think he meant schon?
 
Same difference.
 
@Cerberus There, my good deed for the day is done.
 
Not to mention same sameness as far as English is concerned.
As in, both translate to already.
 
@Cerberus It is rough, because I had only 3 bloody hours of sleep. Please feel free to revise, or I will try to improve it once I am better rested.
 
1:31 PM
@Robusto it didn't ping me because you can't just randomly ping people from anywhere on the site.
 
We won‘t tell Barrie. :)
 
1
Q: She was carrying twins and a bulky bag in her hands

Inglish TeetureI am not sure if this is Indian English but the verb carry is often used in India to speak of a pregnant woman and often without an object as, his wife was carrying when he joined the army. So my first question is, does that sound ambiguous to a native English speaker? If that doesn't soun...

Dupe.
 
They have to have participated in the exchange, or edited the post.
 
8
Q: Using verbs with multiple meanings

UrbycozIs it grammatically incorrect to use a verb with multiple-meanings so that the meanings are used at once? I'm thinking of a line from the classic Flanders Swann song Madiera M'Dear: ...he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, his cigar and the lamps. Is there a name for this kind of struc...

 
I had a question on syllepsis, too. One nohat answered.
 
1:32 PM
@RegDwighт Hmm, I get pinged from comments. At least I think I do.
 
Yes, of course.
Also, you get pinged even if you are not mentioned if you are the post owner or the only other interlocutor.
But you cannot just mention @somebody in random places on the site and expect them to hear your ping in the vasty deep.
 
@Robusto I just randomly pinged you from a comment thread. Good luck finding it.
 
OK, OK. Here's hoping.
 
The “only other interlocutor” rule is somewhat fuzzy, somewhat fluxy.
 
Haha.
 
1:35 PM
Anterolocutors.
 
@Robusto it's kind of the point, innit. That people don't start going hey Rob this, hey Rob that. "Please answer my question @Robusto!"
 
Well, I'm not sure of the point of any of it. Rules is rules, and people have to draw a line somewhere.
 
In fact we had a bunch of pseudo-pings of that kind. Where people said they'd only take answers from person X.
 
Pseudo-pings ... we are entering a brave new world here. I wonder if there are meta-pings too.
And don't say there are on meta.
 
I drew a line on my hand
 
1:38 PM
I drew Barrymore.
 
Bush drew a line in the sand.
 
I draw the line at sand.
 
He said, "This aggression will not stand, man."
 
The aggression immediately fell over.
 
In the sand.
 
1:38 PM
Right.
That's how it happened.
 
It's hard to stand
If all you have
Beneath your feet
Is lots of sand
Of course, that could be "Are lots of sand" as well. Maybe I will rattle the pineapple cage with a question like that today.
 
A lot of sand.
 
Better still, "Do you rattle a pinapple cage or shake a pineapple tree?"
 
You nick all as cage.
 
I drew lots of sand on my hand
 
1:41 PM
I take Coppolas notes.
 
The uncle doesn't fall far from the nephew.
 
The apple doesn't fall, it gets picked.
 
Is there a county in England called Taliashire? Or was that in Italia?
 
Alitalia.
 
Al Italia. The patron mobster of New Jersey.
 
1:43 PM
 
Maybe America has a New Taliashire. I'll have to check.
 
butcher and more?
 
Books and more.
 
Butcher and sea.
 
@Robusto I don't think there's a taliashire in the UK
 
1:44 PM
King: Lear und air das mare.
 
It's a short long story by Hemmingway.
 
@RegDwighт ah!
 
1:55 PM
@MattЭллен Have you looked behind the refrigerator?
0
Q: What is the difference between "clearance" and "sale"?

LittleshotI want to understand the difference between "clearance" and "sale". So are these words synonyms or not? E.g. Receive 60% - 90% off CookiesKids Clearance from Cookie's Kids. Receive 50% - 85% off After Holiday Sale items from Woodwind & Brasswind.

 
I dread to think what I'd find behind that
 
Why are there questions like this? ^
And of course Matt tweens me at the most inopportune moment.
Can we declare a moratorium on these questions?
 
can we pay to have the questions executed?
@Robusto better than the least inopportune moment.
 
I'll take opportune over opporbassocontinuo any time.
 
I don't like the tenor of this conversation. So I'm going to commute.
 
2:10 PM
disgust is the bass ick instinct
 
2:38 PM
A disgust of fresh air.
 
@Robusto I hate questions that pretend to be about grammar, and which are not.
 
2:50 PM
@Robusto First principles, Clearance. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
 
3:01 PM
149
Q: How should I deal with an employee who has slept with my wife?

Waiter JohnI'm the owner of a business with about 30-40 employees. Recently, I found out that one of my employees has been having an affair with my wife. The employee has worked for me for 4 years. I felt like I was his mentor, since I recruited straight from university, taught him the ropes, and promoted h...

33k views.
 
3:26 PM
@RegDwighт What do you mean? I don't see this CW? It says Cerberus to me.
 
Because I took care of it, duh.
 
Is this a real question?
-1
Q: When to use ellipsis (suspension points)

gSaenzContinuing this thought. Learning English as a second language I was taught that suspension points meant uncertainty, ommision of words or interrupted thoughts. There are plenty of threads explaining the meaning but I'm looking for explanation on a few examples; In subjects of emails. Email ...

 
@tchrist Barrie et al. reserve the right to treat other phenomena than tenses differently: they claim that tenses can only be a single word, but other things can be many. Somehow they like to reverse any tradition, because of John is traditionally not called a genitive, but a possessive, whereas will do is traditionally called a tense. Very odd.
 
Haha, someone just upvoted the question and downvoted the answer WTF.
 
@RegDwighт Oh! Thanks! I guess I edited it too many times? I hadn't noticed.
 
3:28 PM
Yeah, 11 in fact.
 
I couldn't stop.
 
@RegDwighт I am always a target.
 
Why does it turn into CW if the edits are by one user only, one wonders...
 
Therefore, if somehow doesn’t like something I say, they must compensate by upvoting the question and downvoting me.
 
3:30 PM
Of course it's favorited as well.
 
@RegDwighт Haha that's me.
 
Of course.
 
And I know by whom. :P
Holy crap he sure likes to favorite everything.
 
Who does?
 
am searching
 
3:32 PM
A certain user.
 
Kris.
 
Oh, her.
 
And you are right.
257 favoritissimos.
Kris always downdings me.
 
And out of the latest 90 about 80 are favorited by nobody else.
 
Now we know where all the dumbass favoritings are coming from.
Gotta love all his deleted faves.
 
3:37 PM
I wonder why she does that.
 
Chemical imbalance.
 
a need to click all the buttons
or a desire to make users feel welcome
 
Remember we learned that there was a SE blog posting advising new user’s to click as much as possible.
 
6× deleted
186× 1
29× 2
15× 3
3× 4
6× 5
2× 7
2× 8
1× 10
1× 11
1× 12
1× 20
1× 27
2× 38
1× 70
 
Hah.
 
3:45 PM
74.3% not favorited by anybody else.
 
Haha.
 
So. Um. Crosscheck for sanity.
 
"a question only Kris could love"
 
Who's got a comparable number of favs?
I have 65.
Can anybody offer more?
 
3:46 PM
I guess there was a SEDE query...
 
14 here.
 
Then I'll just tally myself.
 
How can you like so many questions?
 
I have lucky 13
 
Yay!
I always figure too many make it useless, because then I will never be able to find the ones I want.
 
3:47 PM
two of them are favourited by only me
 
mode is 1 @ 186, median is 1, mean is 2.33865, stdev is 5.9111
 
@MattЭллен I have one.
I have one deleted question, being an April's Fool joke.
 
@Cerberus you have two!
3
Q: In non-spatial contexts, when should I use "this" versus "that"?

Fedor SkrynnikovI'm always quite confused to choose which word should I put in the sentence like this/that :) That/This is not a problem at all. To be or not to be, this/that is the question. I know which one I should choose in terms of positioning. But still I don't have that/this feeling for not an object.

1
Q: What part of speech is the "be + verb" here? What tense are these sentences in?

Billare I shall have him be killed. She is to be stoned for adultery. What are the constructions be +verb called, grammatically? I feel like the above sentences are very adjectival in nature, more so than I shall have him killed. She will be stoned for adultery. Is that correct? Al...

 
1× deleted
19× 1
9× 2
11× 3
5× 4
3× 5
3× 6
3× 7
3× 8
1× 10
1× 11
3× 12
1× 13
1× 27
1× 33
 
@RegDwighт We should migrate that to EL&U.
 
3:53 PM
@MattЭллен Oh wait, I mislooked. I thought they were ordered by fav votes.
 
30.1% not favorited by anyone else for myself.
 
You're so emo, you have your own particular interests.
 
FF is at 75% favourited by only him
 
You're an Individual.
 
Not particular enough.
@MattЭллен four is not a sample size.
 
3:55 PM
:D
 
Heh.
It is a size...
 
@Cerberus yeah. More to the point, I never actually look for anything using the favs.
 
@RegDwighт Neither do I...but I just might!
And then it would be useless.
Can't have that.
 
On the few occasions that I did try, I either remembered the title verbatim, or the question had been long deleted (and I remembered the title verbatim).
 
> I either remembered the title verbatim
...
You must be of an alien species, or I.
 
3:58 PM
Well most titles are "I have question". Easy to remember.
 
I look up the "are you feeling tense" question in my favs
but the rest, not so much
 
Yeah perhaps I should start doing that.
Because somehow it is a PITA to search for.
 
@RegDwighт Haha OMG and it is even true.
 
I usually have to give up googling and go via Rob's profile.
 
Well, now you did it.
 
4:01 PM
Adultery: it's not just for adults anymore (if you live in Texas, where you can marry at 16).
 
Who did what.
 
Used to be in Tennessee the legal age for marriage was 13 for "men" and 12 for "women". I think they had to be first cousins, though.
 
Single first cousins, or double?
 
Twice removed.
 
4:03 PM
We call that quasi-grandchildren.
Your grandparent’s cousin or your cousin’s grandchildren are your first cousins twice removed.
 
Actually, in most states the legal age for marriage is 16.
 
They have the same genetic consanguinity R=1/32 factor as your second cousins, but they are your first cousins twice removed.
 
Pro tip: if you remove your cousins surgically, you only have to do it once.
 
Missouri If you are under 18 years old, you must have parental consent. Anyone under the age of 15 must have the approval of a county judge to receive a marriage license.
 
Some states allow first-cousin marriage (R=1/8) but disallow double–first-cousin (R=1/4) marriage.
 
4:06 PM
@Robusto note how it says nothing about receiving a judging license under the age of 15.
Loophole! USA! USA! USA!
 
So a judge in the Show-Me state can decide to, say, allow nine-year-olds to get married.
 
it's important to learn about commitment when you're young
 
@Robusto Only one.
That judge can allow a nine-year-old to marry a fifty-year-old.
 
Can you imagine being married for ten years without being able to take a legal drink of alcohol? It boggles the mind.
 
Go to Wisconsin.
 
4:08 PM
do not pass go, do not collect £200
 
That dodge is over with. Wisconsin is 21 now too.
 
Your parent can always give you a legal drink in a bar, and your spouse can, too.
Nope.
It only takes one spouse to be 21 to serve the other in a bar.
In Wisconsin.
Also, parents can always serve children.
It is . . . unusual.
 
But before they changed the law, people (and I mean 18-year-olds) used to drive up to Kenosha to get hammered. Then suddenly you couldn't do that anymore. Nobody said anything about getting married and being allowed to drink, or more people might have done it.
@tchrist Isn't that supposed to be "On Wisconsin"?
 
@Robusto Yes, this happened all the time. LG was a magnet.
It was 18 when I was.
 
@Robusto That's...young.
> “In Nederland kreeg ik ook het idee voor de Pebble”, zegt hij. “Ik kon niet, zoals Nederlanders dat wel doen, tegelijkertijd fietsen en op mijn telefoon kijken. Zo werd de Pebble geboren.”
The guy who made the Pebble says he can't ride a bike and look at his phone at the same time.
Is it that hard?
 
4:12 PM
I went into a few bars now and then when I was 16, but they let me get away with it because I was, well, sponsored.
 
They are trying to raise the age where you can buy drinks to 18 here.
What do you think high-schoolers are going to do?
It's so silly. Of course they will drink.
 
Duh.
 
they've raised the minimum smoking age to 18 here, despite it meaning that fewer people will die younger
 
I am not sure I actually drank in bars at 16.
 
And the most debauched kids will be the first.
 
4:14 PM
I wasn’t into drinking.
But I sometimes went there, when everybody else adjourned there for a snack and a beer.
 
@MattЭллен Hmm...
 
What is the difference between Tim and Curry?
 
Phaal.
 
Sorry, what's a difference between them.
 
One is only eaten by cannibals?
 
4:15 PM
Tim Curry. How can you have a difference between one thing?
 
Those are two things. See the space?
 
You forget he's a sweet transvestite.
 
"There is nearly half a century of age difference between Tim Curry"
 
That's true.
Mar 7 '12 at 11:32, by RegDwight Ѭſ道
user image
Mar 7 '12 at 11:31, by RegDwight Ѭſ道
user image
 
He was good in Clue.
 
4:18 PM
If that's the movie I'm thinking of, it was funny.
 
He was good in Legend, too
 
Rush Hurry. Tim Curry. Coïncidence?
 
Of course not, duh.
I am channeling the main site.
Oh I see he fixed the "what's a difference" within the grace period. Now it's just "what's difference"
 
So much better that way.
 
I are Borg.
The Oculus Rift.
Looks very comfortable.
 
4:23 PM
Natural selection.
 
Indeed! I'd like to see him check messages while riding his bike.
Although I presume the machine shows him a live video of his surroundings. But still.
 
Don't worry, the video has just the right amount of lag.
 
Yay!
Carnage!
The new note.
Notice how they have added the Cyrillic, probably for...I don't know? Estonia?
 
Right in time for the new dollar note.
 
Wow, a break-through design.
And such a lovely signature.
But I have to run.
 
4:27 PM
That's the point.
 
Later!
 
Bai!
@RegDwighт Bulgaria is in the Euro now?
 
I guess.
Unlike Estonia.
 
I don't think so.
 
4:28 PM
Who don't have Cyrillic to boot.
Bulgaria aims to join the euro zone in less than three years. The country has set itself a target date of 1 January 2015 or further depending on the Eurozone crisis developments. The euro coins have not been designed yet, but the motif for all coins has been chosen to be the Madara Rider. Selecting the design The Madara Rider was one of the favourites to become the symbol of Bulgaria to be used on the national side of the country's euro coins. Other eminent pretenders for the title ‘Symbol of Bulgaria' were the ancient tradition of the nestinars (Bulgarian fire-dancers), Cyrillic, the Ri...
 
@Cerberus A eurine specimen?
 
So they have already added just in case B. will join?
Otherwise it would have to be Estonia, Slovenia, or Slovakia, none of which probably have Cyrillic. Oh, well.
@Robusto Hah. Hah. Yes.
Bai!
 
CU
 
I wonder why they left out Turkish.
Cyprus is in the Eurozone.
 
Both halves?
 
4:31 PM
Though I suppose only the Greek half.
Jinx.
 
Quick poll: Do I really need to say it wasn't Scottish English in an old answer?
As many people said, it is not Scottish, however, it is Yorkeshire English. If your answer is to be final I suggest adding that statement and further describing this fact as this is what the asker was interested in as well as aiding future viewers. — cbbcbail 12 hours ago
 
Where is Yorkeshire? Is it near Yorkshire?
 
Wanna bet the complainant lives too close to the Wall?
 
Hadrian's?
 
Me saying "Middle English" does not mean it definitively came from Yorkshire, so I have no idea why I'm supposed to add that in.
/endgrumbling
 
4:38 PM
@Robusto Americans regularly confuse accents from the north of England with those from Scotland. This is probably someone who has some vested interest there.
 
@tchrist But it's not about accent
 
Yes, there are vocabulary differences.
 
It's not about who uses it, but how it came to be
 
@simchona if you add it in you might get a vote back, if you don't it's no big bother
 
4:40 PM
@MattЭллен I don't think it's necessarily right or worth my time, so I'm going to leave it
 
@Matt: Do you spend much time in the Bodleian Library?
 
@Robusto I'm not allowed in. members only
I mean, I can walk through the tourist bit, but I can't use the library, only look through the windows
 
Commute.
 
@MattЭллен Kind of takes the thrill out of living in Oxford if you can't visit the Bod, innit?
 
user19161
@Robusto Just visit the Body.
 
4:51 PM
Aug 18 '12 at 13:26, by Robusto
Another county heard from.
 
@Robusto I wonder what would happen if I just walked in...
toodles!
 
@MattЭллен You should propose that the Bodleian install a drive-thru for researchers on the run.
 
@Cerberus Cerbia
 
In the constellation Canis Minor.
 

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