Language Overflow

mike

03:13

Happy Friday to all

Zhengquan Bai

03:51

Chinese New Year is drawing near. It's a festival for family union. But I'm dreaded about my parents grabbing me for a talk about the girlfriend thing. I don't blame them for that because they don't know I'm gay. And I feel struggled letting them down and not knowing how to approach telling them that.

I decided not to tell them until I have a long term relationship with a boyfriend and become well off. Until then, they may feel a bit relieved knowing my situation. It's really like a pain in the ass having to be confronted with such an issue.

Jude

04:16

Greetings!

To start off a letter like this, to whom it may concern, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, B263, Malabe, I confirm that Jude is a Permanent Employee at ABC campany'

Is this correct?

Malabe is a town

M.A.R.

05:04

@Jude Something's not right about it

CowperKettle

05:49

> Detailed description of potential statistical methods for biological studies is provided in Section 5.3.

Should it not be a detailed description?

@ZhengquanBai I hope they do accept this.

CowperKettle

07:06

allpoetry.com/poem/…

a nice poem

she manages to somehow cram a Russian poem into English

Jude

@M.A.R. how do i make it correct?

CowperKettle

08:18

@Jude you might try out lang-8.com

Because I've just finished proofreading a large text, and my brain is flatlining

Damkerng T.

09:10

@Jude It's probably okay, but what's the purpose of the letter?

Jude

I requested for a letter from HR head

Damkerng T.

I mean, grammatically, it's okay. But I wouldn't use confirm before anyone made such an inquiry.

Jude

She asked me, whom should I want to address in that letter

As I don't know exactly, whom should I want to address in that letter particularly, I tried to reply in that email as above mentioned

Damkerng T.

To whom it may concern is fine.

Jude

@M.A.R. thanks for your new webs site :) It looks cool

Damkerng T.

09:20

@ZhengquanBai nods -- I hope everything will be all right. I don't have any good advice for you, and it also seems like you've already made a decision how to resolve it, but I can tell you this: it will pass.

BTW, Happy Chinese New Year!

EngFan

HELLO

@DamkerngT.: "Would you care to reply to my email" ? - does it sound rude

Damkerng T.

@EngFan Yeah, a bit.

But don't forget that context and tone can change everything.

EngFan

09:39

ok so here is what happened , I sent a mail to a person and expected him to reply , but he didn't , so I was a bit angry.

Damkerng T.

Could it be that he didn't receive your email?

EngFan

@DamkerngT. : I was angry but did't want to sound rude . Bearing that in mind , what could be the politest way of saying it?

@DamkerngT. : believe me that wasn't the case

I did sent it to the correct Email ID

Damkerng T.

What's the relationship between you and him? Casual? Or strictly business?

EngFan

Actually that's a educational institute , I take coaching .

Damkerng T.

I see. And he is your contact at the institute, right?

Let's assume he is.

EngFan

09:48

nope actually I don't know who's on the other side

Damkerng T.

Oh!

Maybe you could start your email with "Dear [the institute],"

and then open your letter with something like:

mike

@Engfan - you could always send a follow-up email

Damkerng T.

Ah, maybe I should let mike take care of this. :D

mike

noooo

sorry - my internet is crap - didn't mean to cut across your reply

Damkerng T.

I'm not an expert at letter writing, anyway. :-)

EngFan

09:50

and I believe they is a separate team who looks after emails

Damkerng T.

Okay, if I were you, I might start my email like this:

EngFan

@mike :HI, that's fine

Damkerng T.

> I wrote an email to the institute [N days/weeks ago] about [your issue].

EngFan

@DamkerngT. : they already know that

Damkerng T.

> I've been waiting for your reply, but I haven't receive any, so I'm wondering if you have received my email.

> To recap, [write about the essential points of your previous email].

EngFan

09:53

I also want to express my anger :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh!

EngFan

hehe

Damkerng T.

You could do it Douglas Adam's style!

I remember that he contacted a company in a city and for some reason nobody contacted him back.

So, he wrote an email, or maybe a letter, I can't remember that, to someone at that company.

He wrote it so politely.

Then he added something like, it might be his fault that the possibilities to contact him back might be limited.

And he started to write a long list. A very, very long list.

Of his email, his agent's email, his personal email, his friends' email addresses.

He included telephone numbers, of his, of his agent, of his house, his offices, of his friends, and so on. (^_^)

And he ended his letter, again, very politely, that he sincerely hoped that that person can find a way to contact him this time. :-)

The list of those contact points was a full page long, IIRC. :D

And it was effective.

Someone did contact him back.

Anonymous

@ZhengquanBai That sounds like a really frustrating situation. I don't know what the atmosphere is like where you live, but like CowperKettle I hope they can accept you for who you are and be happy for you :-)

Anonymous

@EngFan Anger. Plus, a smiley!

Damkerng T.

10:01

@snailplane Hehe!

Anonymous

I have a confession to make to everyone. I'm a compulsive smiler.

Anonymous

I type smileys on the end of half of all my messages, even sometimes when it isn't entirely appropriate.

mike

@EngFan - tempting as it may be, it's not always good to express anger at something in an email

Anonymous

It's a habit I've had just about all my life, or at least since I started going online as a preteen, and I've never managed to kick the habit.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Maybe I'm a compulsive exclaimist!

@snailplane You would live over here just fine, if you chose to. :)

Anonymous

10:03

I think it's because I'm a nervous smiler and in real life I smile all the time, even when I'm nervous or upset, just as my default reaction to all sorts of things. It helps defuse tension sometimes, but sometimes it doesn't. In any case, I tend to type smileys when I'm actually smiling, and I don't think about it very much.

Anonymous

So if I ever type a smiley when I shouldn't, please forgive me :-)

Anonymous

@mike Yeah, I have to agree with you there.

Anonymous

Although that doesn't mean we can't talk about expressing anger in English.

mike

of course :)

Anonymous

I think some people would suggest you can get the anger out of your system by writing an angry email or letter or whatnot, and then not sending it, deleting it, and writing a nicer one afterwards :-)

Anonymous

10:05

I don't know if that's really helpful, but I know some people do that sort of thing.

mike

I know people who do this

just be careful to hit delete afterwards, and not send :D

A colleague of mine once sent an email like this to the company mailing list

EngFan

@snailplane : hellooo !! hehe

CowperKettle

I read somewhere that expressing one's anger only stokes it.

mike

I think it depends on the person

better to get it out, than to bottle it up and let it fester

Anonymous

@EngFan Hello! :-)

Anonymous

10:18

@mike Yikes! :-)

mike

:)

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Yeah, I don't know.

mike

There are constructive ways of releasing pent up anger :D

Anonymous

I think we should drop the pinning WOTD things.

mike

I'm not suggesting going on a rampage :)

Anonymous

10:19

I'm just gonna unpin them on sight, FYI.

Anonymous

They'll still have stars :-)

Anonymous

But we can reserve pins for things like room-wide announcements.

Anonymous

Y'know, if we ever do those.

EngFan

@mike: I totally agree with every word of what you have said , in fact I am always cool but when things go really out of hand .. :-)

CowperKettle

@snailplane It was some scientific study. It's quite interesting. Many of psychological mechanisms are quite counter-intuitive, and every study might turn out to be wrong though.

I'm cool when things go out of hand, but then they start to go out of arm I start to get nervous

Anonymous

10:24

I don't deal with conflict really well, but I'm working on it.

Anonymous

But surprisingly, any time I'm actually in real danger I'm completely calm.

CowperKettle

();

Anonymous

I thought all that stuff was supposed to have the same response, fight-or-flight or whatever it is.

EngFan

@CowperKettle : Is it an idiom " go out of arm" ?

Anonymous

No, he made a joke, so I starred it :-)

Anonymous

10:26

I forgot to respond other than starring it, I think.

CowperKettle

^_^

EngFan

:-) oh!!

CowperKettle

Starring is a good desultory response (0:

Damkerng T.

A desultory moggie agrees. (^_^)

CowperKettle

Damkerng T.

10:44

0

A: "president-elect" grammatically correct?

Its grammatically correct, they just cant fathom saying President Trump. Its because the mainstream media wants you to think the new party is illegitimate etc. Its a subtle way of influencing people to think a certain way pay attention the media does this all the time they choose key words and ke...

Um..

CowperKettle

11:26

Trump Grammar

Inauguration of Donald Trump

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States will mark the commencement of the four-year term of Donald Trump as President and Mike Pence as Vice President. A public ceremony will be held on Friday, January 20, 2017, on the West Front of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The inauguration theme is "Uniquely American", a phrase that highlights the inaugural ceremony as "a uniquely American expression of our Constitutional system". The theme also stresses the peaceful transition of power, and that the American people are "united behind an enduring...

Congratulations to our US friends

I am sure that everything will be allright in the end.

samjoe

Hi! I have a very wierd doubt, ill ask if you people don't mind! Its about human relationship terminology. Couldn't find a better place.

What does "sex outside marriage" mean? Does it mean "having sex" before marriage, or extra marital sex or does it include both?

Ill post a question in this site.

Damkerng T.

11:49

The Lion King - Hakuna Matata (HD)

►

@samjoe Yay!

CowperKettle

(0:

EngFan

12:38

A : "when will you interview her" ?
B : " I will let you know" .
A : " sure you will"
What does "sure you will" mean ?

CowperKettle

13:11

0

Correct usage is "the biosimilar principle". The principle refers to biosimilars, which were previously mentioned and defined as "similar biological medicinal products". That is, it is a principle dealing with the objects known as biosimilars, and not a principle that deals with the property of ...

O_O

But this is a new user, so he might be wrong

Damkerng T.

14:46

0

Q: Confusion with the verb tense used in the dependent clause

I had put my glasses on the table, and my friend forgot to take it for me when we went outside. First, I had put my glasses, and then my friend forgot. That is why I use Past Perfect for the first clause and Past Simple for the second one. However, I do not understand the situation with t...

usage

Hmm... it sounds like the OP already knows how to use it, doesn't it?

user62015

15:05

Hi@DamkerngT.

I have a question and I know the answer but I just want to make sure myself.

Attributing rise in inflation partly for withholding of food stocks by traders(a)/the minister said that(b)/he was committed(c)/to easing this supply side bottleneck.(d)

Answer says A I agree as we must use partly to instead of partly for but I believe section d must be checked. And to ease instead of to easing. Thanks.

Damkerng T.

No, to easing is correct.

user62015

Okay. Is it a gerund?

Damkerng T.

We don't commit (oneself) to do something, it's to something or to doing something.

@user62015 Yes, you can think of it as a gerund.

user62015

Okay.

So replace for with to?

Damkerng T.

Yes

user62015

15:21

Yes.

Thanks.

user62015

15:32

One question

The actress was ordered for (a) / wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet and (b) submit to random weekly drug testing after she failed to appear for a court date last week. (c) No error (d)

I know it is in section a and it should be to instead of

but my question is to you is that must we use after she had failed instead of she failed?

user2684291

No, the order of events is clear.

user62015

But she had failed

Damkerng T.

You will hear more than a few native speakers saying myself there because they are misremembering their grammar lessons from school. At home they would probably say for me but in public and in writing they would "correct" themselves (in error) and use for myself. There is a considerable overlap between that group of people and those who say, in error, "with her and I", because they think it is the "proper" way to speak. This is a byproduct of our educational system, not a natural linguistic development. — TRomano 19 hours ago

Hmm...

An interesting opinion.

user2684291

@user62015 B-but.

Damkerng T.

(which is of course not quite the same as mine)

user62015

15:37

I am so sorry. I am not able to understand your point? @user2684291

Damkerng T.

Either she failed or she had failed is fine, as @user2684291 said.

user2684291

@user62015 What part don't you understand?

user62015

B-but?

Okay so Dam says it fine.

user2684291

Haha, it just seemed ridiculous to argue with "but 'she had failed'".

user62015

Thanks

Damkerng T.

15:39

Think of it as an option rather than a law. For example, we can simply say I told you and not having to say when. In the same way, we can simply say after she did it even when after she had done it would also be fine.

V.V.

Privet, hi!

user62015

Thanks.

Damkerng T.

Privet!

user2684291

Hallo.

@V.V. Guten Tag.

V.V.

7. The next/nearest performance will take place next/the nearest week. Please, look at this.

user2684291

15:40

@V.V. Hoe gaat het?

V.V.

Fine,thanks

user2684291

@V.V. I've never heard "nearest" used in this context.

V.V.

That's why I am asking you all

What might the answer be?

Damkerng T.

The nearest performance is strange.

The nearest week might be possible, depending on context.

I guess they aren't technically wrong-wrong, though.

user2684291

I'm not sure why anyone would use that instead of the usual phrasing.

V.V.

15:47

This is a kind of a test.

Damkerng T.

@user2684291 As a reference to some reference in the context which is not included in the sentence, I suppose.

user2684291

You can say "the following week" if there's some other time reference.

Damkerng T.

True. Nearest wouldn't be my choice either, but I imagine that some people might use it.

V.V.

What about next-next?

user2684291

...

@V.V. Are you making these up, or are you translating some Russian idioms?

Damkerng T.

15:51

@V.V. The next performance will take place next week. -- I think it's fine.

V.V.

Wow!

I am proofreading the test

Thanks, Dam, you are my helping hand.

user2684291

@DamkerngT. Oh, I thought V.V. made up the word "next-next", haha.

EngFan

@DamkerngT. : A : "when will you interview her" ?
B : " I will let you know" .
A : " sure you will"
What does "sure you will" mean ?

user2684291

It means, and it's usually based on the speaker's past experiences, "I don't believe you will".

CowperKettle

16:26

I'm listening to Barak Obama's last moments as President

On KPCC 89.3 radio

scpr.org

Damkerng T.

16:39

@V.V. You're welcome!

@user2684291 (^_^)

@EngFan What @user2684291 said! :)

user2684291

youtube.com/watch?v=G4PJLBHuKJ8 If anyone's interested in watching Trump's inauguration live.

2

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle This is how that webpage looks like on my computer. What a mess!

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. Yes, California is a mess

Damkerng T.

LOL

CowperKettle

I hope Trump will clear this mess (0:

All those hippies

Them snail-catchers and other folk

Damkerng T.

16:43

@CowperKettle Oh, no worries. I guess we might hear "Make America Again" in his next running. :P

CowperKettle

(0:

Make California snaily again

EngFan

@user2684291@DamkerngT. : Thanks

Damkerng T.

@EngFan No problem!

user2684291

You're welcome.

EngFan

@DamkerngT. : And is "sure you will" sarcastic?

Damkerng T.

16:46

@EngFan Yes. I think we can read it directly as "I'm sure you will", but it's most likely used to mean the exact opposite.

EngFan

Hmm ironical-?

Damkerng T.

Hmm... not sure if it's qualified as an irony. :)

EngFan

:-) no problem

user2684291

@EngFan Yeah, it's called verbal irony.

Damkerng T.

(If Alanis Morissette wasn't sure, how could I?!)

EngFan

16:48

@user2684291: Thanks a lot

user2684291

Sarcasm is when you also insult someone.

EngFan

Yahoo!! I am learning the ropes

Thank you all

user2684291

@EngFan That means to learn the basics.

EngFan

17:20

@user2684291 : What can I use instead of it

user2684291

Trump became president of the U.S.A. God bless Her indeed.

2

@EngFan I'm not sure what you wanna say.

Damkerng T.

18:43

This is not the technical definition of this term. Some techie just invented it. I don't see how we can determine why the guy used the term: ra.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/SNNS/UserManual/node145.html — Lambie 2 hours ago

I don't know what's the point of the comment.

ra.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/SNNS/UserManual/node145.html is titled "Vanilla Backpropagation"

And strangely enough (or not strangely at all), the next section is titled "Enhanced Backpropagation".

Isn't that obvious what vanilla means?

Joe Pinsonault

Yeah, it seems like they used "vanilla" as a way to contrast it with the "enhanced" version, not intending to create a new technical term

Damkerng T.

Hi! @JoePinsonault -- Welcome to the room!

Joe Pinsonault

Hi! I just discovered the ell stack exchange

Damkerng T.

Yay! :D

Joe Pinsonault

I'm learning japanese and I was thinking, I wish I had a japanese friend to answer all my questions, and then I realized that people must be in the same position but learning english, and I found this place

seems like a great community

Damkerng T.

18:55

I think this is one of the best online communities for English learners we have around the web.

Ah, you're learning Japanese. I guess you've already joined Japanese.SE, then!

Joe Pinsonault

Yeah, I'm definitely going to have plenty of questions for them

Damkerng T.

(^_^)

Damkerng T.

20:07

Keep up the good work, ELL!

Damkerng T.

20:40

> We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you... the people.

> --Bane, The Dark Knight Rises

Nolan's script is always awesome.

Damkerng T.

21:22

@Mari-LouA Why is it on and not in, by the way? Is it idiomatic or something? — Zakiya 5 mins ago

Good point. I think we can say animals live "in" a farm, though.

2

Q: Why is the definite article used in "I live in the city"?

Where do you live? -- I live in the city. THE is used when talking about something which is already known to the listener or which has been previously mentioned, introduced, or discussed. But, the specific city where the speaker lives was not mentioned yet. So, why is it used in this senten...

sentence-meaning definite-article

It's not a bad definition. Still, like most rules devised for learners, it's not complete.

The concept of "identifiability" is indeed strong in most uses of the article the, though.

Put your hands in the air; under the sea; walk the line; etc.

Damkerng T.

21:43

The concept of "identiability" can be understood as "already known". Then again, it can be tricky what the listener can identify and what not (as you can guess, like the concept of countability, people from different languages might think differently). Having said that, I'm sure that at this point of your learning, you've already known many instances of thes that you automatically use the without having to think much about it, e.g., the sun, the wind, under the sea, put your hands in the air, open the window, take the elevator, etc. These are more or less identifiable in English. — Damkerng T. 3 mins ago

I find it not very easy to squeeze the whole train of my thought in a single comment. Oh, well.

What's done is done.

If I could write longer, I might include a walk in the park; let's go to the zoo, etc.

user2684291

Link to pp.70–72 in LSGSWE.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... Longman something something?

user2684291

It boils down to directly and indirectly intuitable anaphoric and cataphoric uses of "the", as well as "idiomatic uses" (e.g., fixed phrases) and "for generic references".

Damkerng T.

nods

user2684291

Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English.

Damkerng T.

21:51

A-ha! Thanks for the clarification!

user2684291

This doesn't help me at all, though.

Because the problem lies in identifying those uses, as you said in your comment.

Damkerng T.

Indeed.

user2684291

I've given up.

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Okay, I should hit the bunk now. See you later! o/

user2684291

In a while, alligator.

user2684291

22:11

ell.stackexchange.com/a/116415/3395 Are "shit talking" and "talking shit" complete synonyms?

Joe Pinsonault

More or less. I think "shit talking" more of a noun. Like "Look at these comments, it's just a bunch of shit talking". And "Talking shit" is more of a verb. Like "Stop talking shit to each other and grow up"

but I've also heard it reversed too, so...

"You're a shit talker", "You're just talking shit"

user2684291

Yeah, sure, but I still perceive the former as "talking bad things about someone", whereas the latter can mean "talk rubbish".

Joe Pinsonault

you could very well be right, it's not a phrase I use a lot personally haha

user2684291

When I look through the Urban Dictionary definitions, I can't find one that points to the second meaning. There's "When someone talks shit.", but I don't know what to make of it.

Joe Pinsonault

a lot of the meaning is in the tone too. Like the Rock, he's very playful about it, so you know his family isn't genuinely trying to bring him down, but just poking fun at him

user2684291

22:23

Yeah, which is "shit talking", but they're not exact synonyms. I think the answer provided is wrong on several counts, including the example which illustrates a completely different verb. Oh, well.

Joe Pinsonault

22:33

the usage probably varies by region too

I didn't know about "talking rubbish" until today

user2684291

Talking poppycock.

Joe Pinsonault

Talking 💩

user2684291

There are probably tens of dozens of terms for rubbish and for making snark remarks.

Joe Pinsonault

yeah

user2684291

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_toilet_slang Take a look at this beast, though.

Joe Pinsonault

22:40

"Make one's bladder gladder" hahaha

this is hilarious

user2684291

Yeah, that made me smile as well, haha.

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