@Robusto Here is a very good explanation in English of the difference between era and fui (the imperfect and the completed past). The examples are Portuguese, but the same applies very exactly in Spanish. Plus they are very easy and all direct cognates to Spanish and I'm sure you will be able to read enough of them for this to be use to you. The explanation itself is in English.

Plus all the Portuguese is fully translated.

Spanish might more commonly use niño for crianza there, as the latter means a baby that’s still suckling, and often applied to animals too.

As noted earlier, Portuguese orthography still follows the system of Old Spanish before spelling reforms.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

@tchrist I have to say that is not at all clear to me.

I see rules, and I see interpretations.

But in many cases I think several interpretations are possible and I don't know why he chooses one over the other.

That's just crazy talk

@Robusto ok

@Cerberus something special happened in the médias?

@Cerberus It has to do with whether the speaker is thinking about a time frame that is ongoing or completed. Juxtaposing "when X, (then) Y", the X is usually in the imperfect and the Y in the perfect because Y is an event and X is a durative condition. Think of "when" as working more like "while" in describing an ongoing situation.

It may be useful to look at his very last pair of contrasting examples where either can serve but carry a different meaning.

It's like there being places where both indicative and subjunctive could go depending on the speaker's point of view: they mean something different.

it's always funny how in English you say "kill something/someone dead", as if you could kill without it being dead

Well, you can shoot someone dead, but I don't know about killing someone dead.

Say, you aren't talking about zombies, are you? :)

@tchrist google.gr/…

You can actually say kill him dead for emphasis.

Dead is just used as an intensifier there.

@terdon AAVE

@tchrist Yup.

I don't speak it.

Think of it as positive concordance.

@tchrist saw it here imgur.com/gallery/KlcDz

@crl There it just feels weird.

This site isn't also always perfect in grammar

I think it sounds weird in "How it feels to be killed to death" because that's not a construction meant to convey totality and immediacy.

"Raid kills bugs dead" or "He killed him dead" do convey that.

ok

The lazy, looking-through-a-monocle posture of the former only points up the illogic, allowing the user to reflect on it too long.

Turns it into a critical look at the expression itself.

[ SmokeDetector ] Few unique characters in answer, repeating characters in answer: what do you call a civilized person? by fuck on english.stackexchange.com

It would be more illogical to say the raid kills bugs alive.

Unless of course it actually did that.

It does. As far as I know, the raid is alive when it kills the bugs.

@crl No: I just find it shocking how often I see the wrong plural in respectable newspapers! It's probably because you can't hear an -s in French that uneducated speakers assumed there must be an -s since it is plural.

@Cerberus yes people not familiar with Latin :), but well, I guess in several decades it will be accepted (edit it seems already the case), like forums, post-scriptums have been

@tchrist I guess i have to get accustomed with this English 'way', it's like "He's 12 years old" actually

English is a language full of imagery

this man ran 25mph fast

this water is 100°F hot

This water is 100 degrees cold. I live on the sun

@crl Noooooo.

@crl A language that is not full of imagery is not worth learning.

@Robusto estoy de acuerdo

Can we say "beware, this is slow when ..."? I mean we say "beware of the dog", "beware the low roof" , but with a sentence after I'm not sure

@crl Give me an example where you might use that.

Do you mean something like that?

There goes my site.

@Robusto "This algorithm does this and that. Beware it's quite slow for big numbers"

"Beware" is a word normally associated with threats to life or limb.

Ah, ok, what would you use there then, instead of beware?

You might be better off with: "Be aware that it can be quite slow for big numbers."

"Understand that it can be . . ."

ok

"Warning: can be slow for large numbers" is probably best.

yep better

O(n²)

More compact.

^_^

riddle

have you read yours?

@JohanLarsson Funny.

@MattE.Эллен a decent %