Language Overflow - 2017-01-18

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12:01 AM

Oh, "essence" also derives from "esse".

Anonymous

Neat :-)

Actually, it's from "essentia (-ae f.)", but I guess the Latin word is derived from that.

2 hours later…

2:09 AM

Hi! GOOD MORNING!

Anonymous

Good morning! :-)

What is the difference in between 'significant' and 'important'?

Hope you're fine

I rarely use the word 'significant' as I'm confused with Its Meaning to important.

Anonymous

2:24 AM

Hmm, it's a tough question. Very general.

Hm.

The OED basically contains only one common (apart from "most importantly" and the specialized meaning) meaning for "important", apart from "pompous, grandiose, pretentious". You already know this meaning. "Significant" is interchangeable with "important" in some contexts; in others, it means a different thing.

"Important" sounds simple.

2:46 AM

And it is simple. (The other meaning of "important", "pompous, ...", is derived from its basic meaning.) There's one meaning of "significant" that comes to mind, that's significantly different from "important" (you can't say "importantly different", because "significantly" here means "appreciably", "sizably") – "conveying some meaning, suggesting something", as in "it's significant of something". I'm just scratching the surface here, though.

@yubraj ^

2 hours later…

4:36 AM

@snailplane Wow! I'm impressed.

What simulacrum of a post service they used to deliver it, I wonder

5:33 AM

Is it okay to name a section in a document Body text?

1

Q: "If the concentration of the drug in the (a?) sample does not exceed.." - an article usage question

The very first sentence in a document section titled "Preparation of Solutions": If the concentration of the drug in a (the?) sample does not exceed 1.0 mg/ml, transfer 500 µl of the sample into a 1.5 ml microtube, add 200 µl of sample dilution solution 7 and mix (test solution). Should one...

0

Q: Is it okay to name a section in a document "Body Text"?

I have a large guideline document. It starts with some preliminary sections describing the guideline's scope and its legislative and regulatory underpinnings. Then goes the section titled (literally) in Russian "The Main Text of the Document". Is it okay to name it "Body Text" in English? Or is...

phrase-usage phrase-request

6:15 AM

0

Q: Why was this edit suggestion rejected?

I'm referring to this suggestion. Two reviewers rejected it with the following reason: This edit does not make the post even a little bit easier to read, easier to find, more accurate or more accessible. Changes are either completely superfluous or actively harm readability. One reviewer a...

discussion suggested-edits

6:42 AM

user image

user image

I activated Chrome's Englsih spellchecker. Nice. It now shows "Englsih" in red.

Englsih sounds mystic

And it looks mystic too with that red wavy line

That red wavy line makes it look like a waffle

7:14 AM

Can we "Extrapolate to something"? Or is it always "from something"?

> We extrapolate the data obtained in a clinical trial of a drup produced in Russia to the drug produced in Ireland.

forum.wordreference.com/threads/extrapolate-to-on.2061550

7:49 AM

> The use of a different reference drug calls for a detailed scientific justification, as well as additional documents and data.

I wonder if I can use "usage" there, and whether I can drop "a"

8:04 AM

@CowperKettle I think you can and you can. -- Doesn't my sentence sound a bit funny? :)

@DamkerngT. Thank you! But I think usage stresses "how something is used"

I'd opt for use

I'd use use (0:

Yeah, that's fine. I think it's fine either way. :D

I'm not sure about extrapolate to.

It sounds like it's possible, but I'm not sure.

0

Q: "use" vs. "usage" in "The use(usage) of a different drug calls for a detailed justification"

The use of a different reference drug calls for a detailed scientific justification, as well as additional documents and data. Would the word usage look okay in the place of this use? The usage of a different reference drug calls for a detailed scientific justification, as well as additi...

I hope that referencing the chatroom will attract visitors

Chrome's spellchecker picked "chatroom" as a wrong word

8:20 AM

Its spelling is still in flux, maybe.

it offers three options instead: coatroom, chat room, chat-room

nods

> This is the main coatroom for English Language Learners Stack Exchange. Welcome!

coatroom -- Haha!

@CowperKettle - I agree with at the top for what it's worth

8:32 AM

Word of the day: Effigies

3

Or effigy

@mike thank you!

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Whose effigy would you like to burn today?

In Russian, the pronoun for "him" and "it" is similar in one of the cases.

> If someone annoys you, write him a letter and burn it/him (in Russian)

This is the basis of a joke

A guy says: okay, I got it. But what to do with the letter?

user image

8:54 AM

@M.A.R. thanks for help (editing).

@V.V. Huh?

Oh, you mean yesterday's edit.

Don't mention it

9:10 AM

Are there any idioms meaning someone understands something suddenly?

Like, finally?

Or do you want it to mean something like they're very quick to understand new information?

> As far as I know, the word housewife is not very pleasant to be heard by a woman.

> ell.stackexchange.com/q/116045/3281

Hmm... really?

I guess it's unwild west and all the unnecessary feminism hype, Dam.

It's like calling some women anything is insulting

FFS

UNICEF | for every child

BTW, I was wondering how UNICEF is pronounced.

Is it like ''uni'' in ''united'' or ''uni'' in ''unicorns''?

I always read it "uni-safe".

9:25 AM

Me too, but a friend asked me whether if it's pronounced like ''united''

Hmm...

The stress is on the ''U'', right? So it should be like ''unicorn''

That would sound a bit weird.

I guess so, though I'm not sure if there's only one correct way.

In chem, it was really hard for me to get used to pronouncing ''di'' like ''die'' because I'm used to pronouncing it ''dee'' in Persian

How to Pronounce Unicef

Well, that clears it up

In my case, I feel weird every time I hear people pronouncing dir as "dire".

@M.A.R. applauds

9:28 AM

@DamkerngT. That's because it's C-shortV-C

Albert Einstein Approach to Thinking

Nice!

Up high, Dam. It seems we have beaten the Plane and conquered the star board.

LOL

0

Q: "your that question"?

Recently I have seen a sentence in a chat room. Which is as below: Are you saying I've answered your that question by .... Is the above sentence right? If yes, Please explain the construction of such sentences with example. Source: And are you saying I've answered your that qu...

word-usage sentence-construction

This is actually one of the common mistakes made by ELLs.

Oh, it got closed already! ell.stackexchange.com/questions/115965/…

Are you sure people don't say ''the red one''? Data seems to disagree. — M.A.R. 36 secs ago

First comment on the site after quite some time

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9:45 AM

1

A: "throughout the development program" vs. "throughout the course of the development program"

I think that your first sentence The same drug substance should be used throughout the development program. is more approriate, because throughout suffices to convey the meaning of "duration & consistency" as it means during the whole course or period.

Wow. That's interesting

9:55 AM

A lot of Chinese people are speaking Chinglish when they try to speak English.

Can I use present continuous tense here?

@ZhengquanBai Oh, like ''hey dude, did you Cheng chang chong that ching?''

We speak Runglish

I hope I didn't swear in Chinese

@ZhengquanBai I think yes

@ZhengquanBai You can use present tense here, but not continuous, since that's not a tense nor part of a tense

You can probably use the progressive aspect, yeah

10:00 AM

Don't they refer to the same thing?

Present continuous

‹See Tfd› The present continuous, also called the present progressive, is one of the present tenses used in modern English, the others being the simple present and the emphatic present. All of these can be employed in both the indicative and subjunctive moods. == Common uses == The present continuous is used in several instances: To describe something which is happening at the exact moment of speech: The boy is crying. To describe an action that is taking place now but not at the exact moment of speech: He is working in Dubai. To describe an event planned in the future: I'm resitting my French...

Well, English learner textbooks tend to call it that way

okay

But since I've learned how real grammarians label it, things have become clearer

Grammatical aspect

Aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event, or state, denoted by a verb, extends over time. Perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference to any flow of time during ("I helped him"). Imperfective aspect is used for situations conceived as existing continuously or repetitively as time flows ("I was helping him"; "I used to help people"). Further distinctions can be made, for example, to distinguish states and ongoing actions (continuous and progressive aspects) from repetitive actions (habitual aspect). Certai...

c.f. aspectuality, which is a semantic phenomenon, not grammatical

10:12 AM

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Anonymous

@M.A.R. /ˈjunɪˌsef/

How to Pronounce Benedict Cumberbatch

I posted a question: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/116053/…

10:29 AM

We have [present-continuous] and [present-progressive] with almost the same number of questions. @Snail, is that OK?

Oh, she's prolly asleep now

@CowperKettle Is it bucket crunderdunder?

@CowperKettle OK, I like the guy and the joke is getting old

@CowperKettle Wow, it's barely audible on my computer!

@CowperKettle Is it a fake channel?

10:45 AM

The channel had been a reliable pronunciation channel, until one day he changed his mind. :)

> 1. Drug products containing monoclonal antibodies
2. Monoclonal antibody-based drug products

I think version 2 is better.

But I wonder if there are other alternatives

How to Pronounce Miley Cyrus

This, on the other hand, is a work of art.

Version 1 is not so good because it permits the possibility of other substances being present in the products.

How to Pronounce Entrepreneurship

This is nice

Top 10 Hilariously Awful Movie Fights

11:07 AM

Устал махать? Опять махать!

Indian movies top it all

11:21 AM

Interesting. Looper says Suicide Squad's main reason for critical failure was excessive cuts

Also Fantastic Four and Batman vs. Superman

If I want to name a table column that lists the countries where this or that drug manufacturer is based, can I name it "Manufacturer's country of residence"?

Or is "residence" only for humans?

apparently it's not for humans only

12:09 PM

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12:31 PM

user image

Interesting message in there

That efficient is not necessarily favorable or beautiful

12:47 PM

Good Evening everyone!

Evening!

> Throughout the clinical trial you should keep your filled-out Trial Participant Card at hand

Is this okay?

Can I just write "with you"?

> Throughout the clinical trial you should keep your filled-out Trial Participant Card on you (?)

1:04 PM

@CowperKettle I like with you.

"Keep your card with you at all time" -- something like that.

So do I like.

What is the site here to ask questions about meditation?

@yubraj Health.SE?

Or maybe a religion stack.

I feel that the present progressive tense is excessively used in casual speaking context.

Sometimes I can't figure out why the present progressive tense is used. To give an example,

https://youtu.be/_mw9-uk_QFk
When the video is played till 34s, the speaker goes "You're coming to a new country, ...". I don't quite get it why he's using the present progressive tense.

@ZhengquanBai Recommended reading: I'm loving you – and knowing it too: Aspect in so-called stative verbs

@DamkerngT. thank you, Dam! I think it's "at all times"

1:16 PM

Oops! :-)

@SreeCharan Yes! Sorry for being unresponsive, too much work O_O

Are you sure this material answers my question, especially the one I'm confused in the video?

@ZhengquanBai It might, depending on how you view the topic.

Will do.

Anyway, it makes an argument against the common belief/rule that stative verbs can only be used with the non-progressive aspect.

With real examples.

1:19 PM

okay

It's a bit linguistics-ish, though.

(But I'm sure you can understand it just fine, and won't find it hard to read at all.)

Ah, that's magnanimous :)

LOL

0

A: "If the concentration of the drug in the (a?) sample does not exceed.." - an article usage question

Article "The" is used when you are mentioning it in long expressions or in very detailed expressions, just like you mentioned there. In my opinion article "A" can't be used in this expression.

A new theory of English articles. Short and clear.

@CowperKettle But, but, but is it correct?!

1:31 PM

@DamkerngT. Is any theory of English articles correct?! This at least is short and clear.

Haha! Good point!

We should start Grammar Golf StackExchange

LOLROTF!

"Come up with the shortest explanation"

meduza.io/news/2017/01/18/…

A girl in Yekaterinburg woke up at 2:0 am and thought it was already morning. She left home and went to school.

The school was closed, and she had no keys, so she got quite cold in the end.

Oh, no!

1:34 PM

The news article is titled "Police launches investigation into the case of Yekaterinburg girl who mistook night for morning"

I don't know what the sky over there looks like. Maybe it's tricky to tell whether it's already in the morning or not when it's just 2:00am.

I'm sure it hardly happens over here.

Yes. Today the sun rose at 09:20

School begins at 08:00

Ahh

When you leave for school, say, at 07:30, it's still dark

In my hometown in winter, all classes were held with lamps switched full on, because 50% of the time it's dark

> Law enforcement agencies in Yekaterinburg opened a criminal case in connection with the fact that the seven-year old girl who went to school at night, thinking that it's already morning, a few hours was on a street.

Google Translate is good

@CowperKettle Quite understandable!

1:38 PM

Is that a satirical news website?

No

I read the news in the morning on our local website E1.ru

e1.ru/news/spool/news_id-460150.html

Because now and then a child is lost and is found frozen to death

> In Yekaterinburg under the weight of snow collapsed the roof stops
Fortunately, from a fallen snowdrift nobody was hurt.

Google Translate Yoda Style

(^_^)

I wasn't sure why the police were involved... And how did she get out of the house without a key in the first place?

questions/115888/what-is-the-meaning-of-get-on-in-this-sentence

1

Q: What is the meaning of "get on" in this sentence?

Is this correct grammar? My teacher taught me what kind of work should be done if you want to get on in all aspects of your work. What does get on mean here?

meaning-in-context

I find the question on-topic and have voted to reopen

Voted

It indeed sounds a bit unfamiliar to me.

(Even though my first guess was in the ballpark.)

1:48 PM

The child's parents/guardians should be arrested, so that warrants police involvement, I guess.

@user2684291 The police will somehow involve the juvenal justice system, in order to check whether the family is "good" (provides enough care for the child). Their flat has a self-locking door, so she just opened it using the handle, and then closed it behind herself, and went to school.

2:04 PM

Nods..

I'm searching for memorization books by Dominic O'Brian, Do you have any pdf file, could you share me ?

Hi Dem!

2:45 PM

0

Q: When a raper deflowers a girl by force and is going to explain what he has committed to someone else

What a native speaker would say when they are going to say informally that they have deflowered a girl? [A raper who has had sex with a girl by force is explaining the event to his close friend.] I am looking for the informal equivalent of this verb. P.S. I guess "to take someone's virginity" d...

Certainly not the most pleasant topic in the world, agreed. But is taste a good enough reason to close down a thread?

I'm genuinely curious - personally I believe that language is language

I was just wondering if similar threads have been shut down in the past - I haven't been on ELL long enough to know what goes, and what doesn't.

It's possible that someone posting such a topic might be writing a book or short story for example.

3:02 PM

@mike We have had some discussion in the past - my view is that we shouldn't be too squeamish when we are educating. Let me see if I can find a link to the discussion

12

Q: Genocidal questions

I can't believe I'm asking this question, but what is this site's stance on morally repugnant questions? On one hand, it is a question about the English Language, so it is a valid question. On the other hand, I have seen 3 iffy questions about this subject from this user in the past week. I don...

discussion questions

@ColleenV - thanks for that. I agree with that sentiment for what it's worth - I was curious if there was a 'bar' that I wasn't aware of in terms of content.

There was also some discussion here:

-1

Q: Do we need to welcome "thesaurus" questions?

There is clear distinction between thesaurus questions and on-topic word (or idiom)-request questions. The former (usually) requests for a list of words like this one. Verbs for describing the action of defecating. It is readily answerable by searching the internet. This is the one link I foun...

because of a question about the word for "making a shit"

One thing that we do censor is "not safe for work" language in titles

appreciate the links - thank you

and I would have to check with the rest of the mod team, but if a question disrupts the site we will deal with it regardless

If you feel it is gratuitous use of vulgarity or things that are in bad taste, by all means flag it.

3:38 PM

@CowperKettle No it's not

@CowperKettle That sucks

@yubraj Sharing yubraj

@mike Not per se, but we could subjectively tell the difference between a genuine question and trolling. Trolls usually touch these sensitive subjects to make sure they have stolen our night's sleep

4:29 PM

@DamkerngT. Hi! Could you help me with these questions It is not good (a)/ to breed over (b)/ past failure.(c)/ No error(d)

His new job (a)/ necessitated his (b)/ getting up at six.(c)/ No error (d)

@M.A.R. yes

@user62015 brood over, I think.

Thanks.

Isn't that possible here?

@user62015 Even though it's not a very good sentence, I think it's okay.

4:33 PM

I agree

4:51 PM

> In vitro studies should be conducted first and a decision then made as to the extent of what, if any, in vivo work will be required.

Is this okay? I think it is better to write "is required" or (maybe) "would be required"

Assuming a likely context, I think it's fine either way, either is required or will be required.

Thank you! I overanalyzed it.

Chrome did not like overanalyze

5:31 PM

@DamkerngT. I am pretty sure this use is chiefly British.

(Only used by British chiefs.)

@DamkerngT. But is come stative in You're coming to a new country?

So I'm walking home one day, and this woman ....

So I'm walking home one day, and this woman approaches me, and she's asking me directions, but I'm running late because my friend is coming to see me, and I'm hoping he won't be standing outside my door and getting angry. :D

5:46 PM

Hi, Jim.

@JimReynolds No, I don't think so. But it's the same principle, I think, no matter what kind of verb it is.

BTW. good evening!

Hi V.V.

@Dam Probably.

6:31 PM

Isolation - Mind Field (Ep 1)

This was just fantastic

@JimReynolds Go to sleep

6:45 PM

Literature.SE launched. @Dam @Snail if you ever wanted a private beta invitation, just drop a ping

6:56 PM

Where is it?

> In addition, the presence of several biosimilar batches in the test allows the validation of production uniformity.

Is this "allows" okay, @snailplane - I constantly recall something about allow being not okay without "us" (allows us to)

@V.V. The site? It's in private beta, so people that didn't say so beforehand cannot join yet

7:19 PM

in Literature, 28 secs ago, by Catija

user image

@M.A.R. they invite to join them.

@M.A.R. Awww!

The happy Catija

8:04 PM

@M.A.R. Time flies!

8:48 PM

Hi all ! :)

Using the sewing machine for the first time is a challenge. I faced many problems. Sometimes, the thread cut, and in other times the needle doesn't work. @DamkerngT. In other times does not sound natural for me.

@Hanaa I don't like it much either. (Just other times would suffice.) But I don't think it's wrong per se.

@DamkerngT. OK

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Jan '1718

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