ELL's Cabin

Crazy Ninja

03:53

Hi, Good Morning!

Damkerng T.

Morning!

Crazy Ninja

one word for reschedule something?

Damkerng T.

What's wrong with reschedule?

Crazy Ninja

I mean my class has been put to this thursday instead of normal tuesday class

but this is only for this week

Damkerng T.

postponed?

Crazy Ninja

03:57

"As my tuesday class has been postponed to today, i'll be leaving early today"

is this sounds ok?

Damkerng T.

Sounds a little odd.

Try has been moved up to today.

Wait, that's not quite right.

Crazy Ninja

I'll be leaving early today as i have a class which has been rescheduled to today.

Damkerng T.

Moved to or rescheduled to is better.

@CrazyNinja It actually works, but somehow it sounds a bit strange to my ear.

Crazy Ninja

@DamkerngT. but rescheduled doesn't it mean that it will be there for ever?

Damkerng T.

Maybe it's because it makes me wonder from when?

@CrazyNinja Reschedule for one time is fine.

Crazy Ninja

04:01

"rescheduled to today." is this correct?

please give me few minutes. I'll be back soon

Damkerng T.

@CrazyNinja Yes, it should work. At the moment, I think has been put off to today or has been held over to today is the best wording.

Crazy Ninja

has been put off to today perfect!

so, here is how i'm gonna rewrite it

I'll be leaving around 5 p.m. today as I have a class which has been put off to today.

Damkerng T.

This is a bit more concise:

> I'll be leaving around 5 p.m. this evening as/because my class has been put off to today.

Hmm... not exactly more concise. Let's say I think it flows better.

Crazy Ninja

Thanks you as usual --I want to improve my english like you have --

Damkerng T.

Welcome! -- You sure can do that!

Wait, I missed one spot!

Crazy Ninja

04:12

err.. what?

Damkerng T.

> I'll be leaving at around 5 p.m. this evening as/because my class has been put off to today.

It's not absolutely necessary when talking casually, but this is for your boss, I think?

Crazy Ninja

@DamkerngT. yes. to all my colleagues too

Damkerng T.

nods -- Then, better keep at.

Crazy Ninja

when i use taking about a guess time using 'around' do i want use the preposition at in front of it ?

Damkerng T.

Because you have around, I think at is not that necessary, but I'd use at anyway if I were to send a similar letter to my colleagues and boss.

Crazy Ninja

04:20

no i'm just asking, usually does at around or just around is more appropriate to use when talking about a time?

Damkerng T.

My opinion is at around is safer.

(FWIW, I don't think around without at is wrong.)

Crazy Ninja

04:33

@DamkerngT. ok. thanks

user116848

11:20

Hi guys

user116848

How are we all?

Crazy Ninja

@Arrowfar I'm good, i need to go.

user116848

See you later then :)

user116848

12:10

I am following this:

user116848

23

Writing Critiques

Proposed Q&A site for anyone looking for feedback and constructive criticism on their writing.

Currently in definition.

Anonymous

12:20

Sometimes I wish they'd get rid of Hot Network Questions. HNQ do make it easy to get lots of upvotes, but that's true even if you write something incorrect. And a better answer on a question that isn't promoted tends to get fewer upvotes. What's more, HNQ brings the wrong kind of attention—non-experts who not only vote, but write comments and answers. It reduces the overall quality of the site

user116848

@snailboat Heya!

Anonymous

Hello!

user116848

How are ya? Long time.

Anonymous

Usually when I get lots of upvotes, it's because I answered a Hot Network Question. I don't think it's usually because of the answer quality

Anonymous

Honestly, sometimes my answers aren't very good

Anonymous

12:23

It's 5am here, I'm just waking up

user116848

@snailboat Mine aren't good either. Still I try.

Anonymous

Yeah, I try. I'm not really satisfied with my own efforts, though.

user116848

I am satisfied as long as I am getting votes, heh.

Anonymous

And when theoretical disputes come up, I feel like it's difficult to really address them adequately—people are missing a lot of what I'd consider foundational knowledge and I can't very well include all of the assumptions and so forth I'm making in every answer...

user116848

Well, giving perfect answers is tough.

Anonymous

12:25

And you can only fit so much in comments.

Anonymous

I just tried to address a confused comment, but I'm afraid what I wrote won't be anything close to satisfactory

user116848

Can I see the comment?

Anonymous

That's okay, though.

Anonymous

Sure, it's the latest comment on my profile

Anonymous

I can find it if you give me a minute

user116848

12:28

Sure.

Anonymous

Here's the comment I was responding to:

Anonymous

The "implied you" explanation is, I think, unhelpful. As your "be careful" example makes clear, it's just wrong: there is no implied you. The construction uses the infinitive, not the second-person indicative. — David Richerby 21 mins ago

Anonymous

So, that user has a completely different grammatical framework in mind, and none of the words I'm using have quite the same meaning for me as for them

Anonymous

But I can't give a detailed argument for modern grammar in the space of a comment, so I unhelpfully wrote "Modern English has no indicative mood" without explaining why

Anonymous

So I don't expect my comment to be particularly persuasive

Anonymous

12:32

I left it anyway, though…

user116848

It is a good comment.

user116848

So I have many grammar books as well, but I never learned English with all its technical words like "imperative mood etc", nor do they teach such jargons here in schools to non native speakers like me and everything worked out fine for me.

user116848

I have this book as well. Well, it is well known all over Sub continent:

user116848

Wren & Martin

Wren & Martin refers to a single book High School English Grammar and Composition or collectively, a series of English grammar textbooks written jointly by P. C. Wren and H. Martin. Written primarily for the children of British officers residing in India, these books were widely adopted by Indian and Pakistani schools in the post-colonial era and missionary schools in Burma. The books were published in 1935, with a discussion on composition added later. The content in the books is largely based on The Manual of English Grammar and Composition by J.C. Nesfield. Other books in this series are...

Anonymous

Ah, I've heard of that

Anonymous

12:36

Man from India didn't speak very highly of W&M

user116848

Yeah it contains some errors etc. I hear.

Anonymous

Less than 10% of imperatives have explicit subjects, but we do find exanples, including third person imperatives: "Nobody move!"

Anonymous

When the subject is you, it's usually omitted, but not always: "Terry, you be safe now!" These tend to be informal in style

Anonymous

I've never seen W&M myself. I don't think the ideas it contains are really used by modern linguists

user116848

Yup, I know.

user116848

12:42

It is a small book. For basic learners.

user116848

Not like CGEL or Pullum.

Anonymous

PEU seems like a pretty good book for learners

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Anyway, It's important that you be careful is fine.

(It should work with other pronouns as well.)

@snailboat Yes!

As for me, I wouldn't speak very highly of Oxford (Learner's Dictionary).

Anonymous

There are essentially zero "learner's dictionaries" in Japanese, by the way.

Damkerng T.

Aww

The dictionary bundled with my coursebook is sort of a learner's dictionary, I think. It's not that good, though.

Anonymous

12:46

There are some monolingual dictionaries for small children that explain things in simple words, but it's not quite the same thing.

Damkerng T.

nods -- Oh, I got something like that in Chinese! (Never really use it, though. But it's very cute!)

Anonymous

But usually if you look up learner's dictionaries in Japanese, you find low quality bilingual dictionaries instead

Damkerng T.

@snailboat My mini Japanese dictionary is monolingual. I mean, it's all English. :P

Anonymous

There's a new series called 日本語多義語学習辞典 which is designed to teach learners to distinguish similar words

Anonymous

Oh, I was thinking "learner's dictionary" meant a monolingual dictionary designed for learners rather than native speakers

Damkerng T.

12:55

nods -- This one is a sort of mini-dictionary. Though it's not very resourceful, I find it's very handy, though, for reading beginner's stuff.

Anonymous

There are a few bilingual dictionaries designed for English speakers to use, but most bilingual Japanese dictionaries are designed for Japanese speakers to use since that audience is much larger (everyone there has to study English)

Damkerng T.

nods -- They may have both English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries.

Anonymous

I bought an English-Japanese dictionary in the 90s and found it mostly useless—it was made for native speakers of Japanese trying to decipher English words, it didn't tell you how to express things naturally, and it required the reader to know thousands of kanji and be able to read Japanese to understand the contextual notes, etc.

Anonymous

These days my favorite dictionary is 明鏡国語辞典 :-D

Anonymous

But I wish I had this dictionary back then:

Anonymous

13:05

amazon.com/…

Anonymous

It has very few entries, but each one has examples for each way you might translate that word

Anonymous

I always ended up saying stuff right with that one :-)

Anonymous

And saying stuff wrong with the other one!

Anonymous

I guess you could call it a bilingual learner's dictionary. I hope someone makes a good monolingual learner's dictionary someday.

Anonymous

English has so many! I like Macmillan

Damkerng T.

13:08

@snailboat Me too!

Anonymous

I started using/recommending Macmillan originally because they used IPA for both AmE and BrE, while many dictionaries use a less helpful scheme for AmE

Anonymous

(Including Oxford)

Damkerng T.

Oxford has published so many dictionaries!

Anonymous

It's true. The OED is good

Anonymous

The ODE is actually quite comprehensive when it comes to modern English

Damkerng T.

13:11

nods -- I've got one that's not so good. (Can't remember its full name)

Anonymous

And the full version has millions of example sentences

Anonymous

The OALD, right?

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, it's something much smaller. It was about half a buck.

Anonymous

Oh! I've never found a dictionary that cheap!

Damkerng T.

It was very thin, too! I'm pretty sure that it has a word like essential or beginner attached to the title. Not sure which one.

Anonymous

13:13

When I was six I bought a pocket dictionary at the store for maybe five dollars. My family had dictionaries, but this was my first dictionary and I was super excited about it :-)

Anonymous

In retrospect it wasn't a very good dictionary.

Damkerng T.

(I was trying to find a picture of its cover. No luck.)

Anonymous

I'm not familiar with an Oxford dictionary fitting that description

Damkerng T.

@snailboat My first super-exciting dictionary is American Heritage Dictionary, which is now split in two. :-)

Anonymous

I can't remember the names of the dictionaries my family had when I was little.

Anonymous

13:15

I can only remember the ones I yoinked when I moved out

Anonymous

And those were for other languages

Anonymous

I haven't purchased any dictionaries since my 電子辞書 in 2013

Anonymous

So I'm not a very good collector, I guess ;-)

Damkerng T.

Me either. But I've bought a few usage books this year.

Anonymous

Oh wait, there was a frequency dictionary, but that's it, I think

Anonymous

13:20

I bought a number of linguistics books this year

Anonymous

For some reason, people keep writing new ones!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat True!

Anonymous

Hasegawa wrote a new text on Japanese linguistics covering some new points

Damkerng T.

I think there are several angles that linguists can work on their subjects.

Anonymous

Oh, there are lots.

Anonymous

13:23

Plus, it's not just linguistics that changes. Languages do, too.

Damkerng T.

Oh, very true!

(feels a little sad when thinking about his own first language...)

Anonymous

English used to have a subjunctive mood, for example. So a description of Middle English would have to include that, while a description of Modern English does not

Anonymous

But sometimes it's linguistics that changes. It's now thought that English never had a future tense

Damkerng T.

It's an interesting thought. It's definitely helpful for learners, if they choose to embrace it.

in Language Overflow (Experimental), 30 secs ago, by Damkerng T.

> Nowadays writing teachers are more likely to recognize that many professional writers use sentence fragments repeatedly and artfully, often several at a time, in criticism, journalism, fiction, biography, history, essays.

It may be useful for others here.

Ahh... No luck. Kinokuniya Thailand doesn't sell Kodansha's Basic English-Japanese Dictionary.

Damkerng T.

13:54

-1

Q: How could I address students with a higher grade than me?

I know the word upperclassman but it means a junior or senior student in an American high school, college, or university. If I was a freshman I cannot call a sophomore an upperclassman. What the word should mean: to not only be a junior or senior student but a student with any higher grade. What'...

Reminds me of whichth. :-)

Hanaa

14:52

Hi

agent5566

15:39

hi guys

Hanaa

Hi

M.A.Ramezani

@Hanaa Salam!

Hullo world!

Damkerng T.

17:06

Hi! @agent5566, @M.A.Ramezani, and Jim too!

M.A.Ramezani

Hullo!

Anonymous

21:00

@Catija I noticed you used the word senpai in your latest answer. This should be clear to anyone who's familiar with Japanese, but I'm afraid the OP might not be, as they're a Chinese speaker.

Anonymous

The Mandarin words are xuézhǎng (male) and xuéjiě (female)

Catija

@snailboat Yeah, I know. I'll change it... I was mostly just having fun. I almost added a note that small groups of Americans may actually use the term senpai (particularly Japanophile groups) due to the popularity of anime in the US... but I don't know that I can support that statement with documentation.

Anonymous

Oh, well, it probably doesn't need to be documented if it's something you know from experience :-)

Anonymous

One of my friends is learning Japanese and constantly calls me senpai and I always feel like it's a little strange, but it's okay :-)

Catija

And that's the fun part of senpai... it really means mentor, so even someone younger than you can be your senpai, if they're more experienced.

Hanaa

22:27

Hi everyone

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