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01:26
Also interesting: the use of all combinations of identified as (the) author(s) of is attested by this Google Ngram search. Judging from the estimated page counts (of the combinations) on Google Books, the estimated numbers of pages agree with the Ngram results, i.e. "identified as the author of" 91 pages, "identified as author of" 48 pages, "identified as the authors of" 67 pages, "identified as authors of" 31 pages. (10 results a page) — Damkerng T. 55 secs ago
01:39
You can explain it to yourself however you want, but that's not translation: that's simplifying or rephrasing the definition. — Nathan Tuggy yesterday
True.
01:49
I don't disagree that in general the two words are synonymous. But idiomatically we obviously avoid fake as a verb in the context of passports. Google Books claims 76 hits for who forged passports, but not a single instance of the same with faked. On the other hand, "adjectival" fake passports is rapidly catching up with the once-ubiquitous forged passports. — FumbleFingers 7 hours ago
Interesting, and true!
 
7 hours later…
08:34
whenever you are confused with the articles, use 'some'. That is the trick I play many times! lol... so you need to add some more track! haha — Maulik V 10 mins ago
Hmm...
09:14
I disagree. I often use genitive determiners where possible if I want to play safe.
I think some is bad advice.
Me too.
But it's better to try not to play safe, so that we can grow. :-)
Exactly.
I'm not sure but it looks like most users on ELL are not familiar with distancing in English (for being indirect or politeness).
Maybe they don't teach this kind of stuff in school anymore.
09:23
Did they ever?
Hmm...
Good point!
I'm sure that in school, they teach please, excuse me, and maybe also would and could.
Haha. There oughts to be a change in English teaching in Thailand.
Or you mean schools in general, like anywhere?
Yes, actually that was what I thought.
09:25
O right. :-P
I mean, it should be more or less the same everywhere.
We all use grammar textbooks from Longman, Oxford, Cambridge, etc.
But I think European countries mau have fewer problems on this issue.
*may
Well, I think schools nowadays tend to use coursebooks, which teach this kind of thing, more.
nods -- Their first languages should be closer to English than our cases.
Maybe not much in Thailand.
By the way do you know any good Latin dictionary?
I'm at Kino looking for one.
Oh, you're at Kino!
09:28
Yes I am.
@Fantasier I'm afraid I don't know one.
My English course has been postponed and I wasn't informed before.
So I now have nothing to do lol
Oh!
It's the Siam Paragon branch, I guess. :D
I mean, the first date of the course.
How do you know"?
You're around!? Are you following me? worried
@Fantasier Because it's not far from CU. :D
09:32
That's
true.
Wow, this looks like a good list for you: inrebus.com/latindictionaries.php
The OLD can only be found in libraries I guess.
Plus the price is prohibitive!
@Fantasier Oops! $431.77 on Amazon.com!
The Latin Sexual Vocabulary. Hmmm. Those words alone make a dictionary!?
09:41
There's Cassel's here.
Yay!
How much does it cost at Kino?
823 baht.
It's the only one that's on the list lol
:D
That's cheaper than Garner's dictionary.
There's one by Collin's
But it's a pocket kind.
I'd like something I can use for a long time.
hmmm
@DamkerngT. I am so happy that you couldn't recognize my Ubuntu desktop, you took it for a Mac OS X. In fact many of my friends is mistaken :P
09:50
@Man_From_India Hehe! Job well done!
I really thought it was a Mac OS X desktop!
Job well done, but Jobs should worry :D
10:09
0
Q: How to differentiate between forms of verb

MustagheesI am confused about an MCQ in which I have to select the correct form of verb. But I think all of the options are correct. Rabia said that she ____ Aslam. can marry has married will marry would marry The provided answer is 2-has married. But when I think about it, all of them seem to be ...

What is MCQ?
Good morning, @snailboat!
Oh, Multiple-Choice Quiz.
Anonymous
Morning!
I haven't read 時をかける少女 for two days already!
(sad)
@DamkerngT. MCQ -- >Multiple Choice Questions
But I just bought Garner's dictionary from Amazon.co.jp today! (the law one).
@Freddy Oh, it could be question too!
In exams we have 50 marks MCQs
10:16
Ahh
It's a mistake that puzzles me; do some other languages not distinguish between the concepts of "what" and "how"? — Harry Johnston 7 hours ago
I think the how-what confusion is likely in a lot of Asian languages.
It's another recent language change in my first language too. (Every time I say or hear someone say [this-call-what?] in my first language, I feel like it's in English!. I remember that [this-call-how?] was more common when I was young.)
Anonymous
11:02
What's funny is how easy it is to convince ourselves that what and how are distinct and coherent conceptually
12:00
Hullo!
hi @Iplodman
How ya' doing? :)
Doing fine thanks :-) this room has become silent :-)
what about you?
Good thanks :)
Nice to hear it!
12:16
it's almost lunch time there...right?
 
3 hours later…
Anonymous
15:09
Hello!
Anonymous
(I'm doing my part as a member of Team Hello)
15:52
@Man_From_India Sorry, was downstairs :)
Yup!
@snailboat Blasphemy!
16:44
Hola
Hullo!
 
1 hour later…
Anonymous
17:59
Huddleston and Pullum both adopted the convention of capitalizing Functions like Subject and Object after CGEL was published
Anonymous
I rather like that convention
20:56
0
Q: Synonymize [mean] with [meaning]

Nathan Tuggymean has no wiki and no followers, and looks to be semantically identical to the far-better-established meaning. Unfortunately, I can't yet propose synonyms. Someone else able to do the job?

21:36
@MaulikV, thank you. Off the topic but then, can I say "I want to see sea" or "go to sea"? I am talking in general. There is a children's song called a sailor went to sea, how could a sailor go to sea, without an article "the"? — Joe Kim 6 hours ago
LOL (it's on my first left-open tab)
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I closed Firefox just now by accident
Anonymous
Guess what happened?
Anonymous
My download window was still open.
Anonymous
So I closed that, too, and restarted Firefox.
Anonymous
And all my tabs were gone!
Anonymous
21:40
My poor, poor tabs! I had like, twelve of them!
@snailboat Oh, do not close Firefox, and use my trick to salvage your tabs.
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. What is your trick again?
Copy session.bak (and .js), kill Firefox, move .bak to .js, restart Firefox.
But if it's only 12...
Maybe you can still remember all of them. :D
Anonymous
Well, let's see. There was chat.
Anonymous
Hello! I'm in chat!
Anonymous
21:42
Dunno about the rest. :-)
Yes!
Oh!
Anonymous
That's okay. I have some sort of browser history feature somewhere in here.
Yay!
WWZ (World War Z) is on HBO again.
I really like WWZ. Maybe because in the movie only the strongest and weakest of us survive. :P
Anonymous
I don't like zombie stuff in general, but...
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. You know, they did a full cast audio production of World War Z (the book)
Anonymous
21:45
Most audiobooks are read by just one person
Oh!
That's neat!
IMO when to grasp is used meaning to comprehend it usually goes with an abstract noun, because if you use it to refer to an inanimate object, it might be difficult to understand whether you can’t understand the book, or you just can’t hold it firmly in your hand. So the first sentence should read something like: “I can’t grasp the meaning/essence/main idea of the book”. Also, as far as I have seen grasp in this context is used in past tenses, passive or with modal verbs (such as can). — Lucky May 8 at 11:00
Another piece of evidence (I think) that Lucky is a non-native speaker.
It's the use of IMO in the place of IMHO, which is similar to mine.
(It's really hard for me to say IMHO when I think I'm not really that humble.)
Anonymous
I've seen native speakers wrote IMO
nods -- Hmm... come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've seen Lucky use IMHO before.
I'm sure I use both.
Anonymous
I just searched some (large) chat logs, and I found that certain speakers said IMHO, and others said IMO
Anonymous
At a glance it doesn't look like there's any overlap (though there probably would be in a big enough sample)
22:03
Oh, debutante doesn't mean what I expected in English!
(I thought it just means "beginner" in general.)
3
A: An appropriate term for an overly by-the-rules person

Dan BronThe correct and proper answer is, of course, a: pedantic martinet warning: that this is the correct answer does not preclude it from being utterly useless. I challenge you to ask 10 native speakers on the street what a "martinet" is ;)

That's a funny answer! :D
In Thai, that would be คุณละเอียด. :D
(Approx. lit. trans.: Ms. Scrupulous)
2
Q: Meaning of "get" in a sentence

ali salariIn these sentences (in a book about human rights) I can't understand the meaning of the word "get": Treat a person like a human being and you'll get a human being. Treat people like human beings and you will get truly human beings. I guess its meaning is "understand" but I'm not certai...

Hmm...
Maybe @MARamezani can explain why they think that that get would mean "understand".
(But we have to wait 20 more days!)
Anonymous
MARamezani is gone for 20 days?
He said so yesterday.
Anonymous
Oh, I missed it!
22:27
1
Q: When to use the word perceive

MohammadWhen I was reading about the meanings of the word perceive, I found that it is used in different ways. For example, sometimes it could mean understand but in other contexts it could mean realize, so I am a little confused because I do not know if it is exactly interchangeable with the words under...

The answer is okay. Though the OP's "I am a little confused because I do not know if it is exactly interchangeable with the words understand and realize or not" makes me wonder what he'll do with the answer he got.
Let's see...
> Teachers perceive their roles in different ways.
> He quickly perceived the truth.
The examples don't sound like examples of "when you may assimilate the perception to an understanding" to me.
Hmm...
Perception words are hard.
It's debatable, I think, because when talking about all the knowledge each of us has, we gain it through perception of one kind or another or of multiple kinds at the same time.
1
Q: Why do we use the past-perfect here instead of the simple past tense?

YaldaIn this text, why do we use the past-perfect here instead of the simple past tense for "double"? The chart shows the percentage of people aged 65 and over in the United States between 1900 and 2000. In the year 1900 just over 4% of the population was aged over 65. However, by 1960 this figure...

Let's see if my assumption is correct...
Ahh... It was taken from here: testbig.com/ielts-essays/…
So, the reference point in time is the year 2000, and the speaking time is "22 October 2013".
I think the writer (presumably a learner; they used was be once, too) used had double it in a formulaic manner, i.e. every time they used "by 19xx".
23:11
Thank you everyone. And @Jim, you are correct about it. Then can I also say "I hear quack quack" instead of ”I hear a quack" or "i hear a duck quack"? — Joe Kim 43 mins ago
Ah, that's going to be a complicated question!

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