« first day (630 days earlier)      last day (2904 days later) » 

01:03
I think "yours and your partner's documents" isn't correct too, for you can't say "your partner's and yours documents". — Rompey 11 hours ago
We were talking about the following sentence -
> You need yours and your partner's documents
@Catija do you think this one is wrong?
As DT said it is odd, but I have seen similar sentences.
I mean sentences with similar coordination construction.
01:17
@snailplane I think for small texts to proofread we can send here.
This is not a well known place. I think it's a good place, though. Run by real people, just like ELL or Lang 8.
02:16
> A: We went on a cruise last month.
B: That *must/should* have been nice!
Must sounds OK; I'm not sure about should, whether it can work as a weaker must here or not.
Yeah, "should" sounds wishy washy.
> A: I'm going on a cruise this month.
B: That must/should been nice!
Should sounds alright; must, mm, acceptable.
@skillpatrol Yeah, I don't know why.
I concur.
I asked this in the EL&U room and people were disagreeing all over and I wasn't able to wrap it up in the end. I thought I'd try poking this beehive too.
 
2 hours later…
04:38
Novel excerpt of the Day: Chapter 13, The Sandcastle
 
3 hours later…
07:09
As the prison will get (a)/ an official telephone facility soon, the prisoners (b)/ won’t have to make calls in discreet manner through smuggled mobile phones. (c)/ No error (d) Answer says a. @skillpatrol @snailplane @DamkerngT. @M.A.R. @userr2684291
Anonymous
@Færd Did you make a typo?
07:38
@user62015 Maybe it should be Since instead of As? Or maybe it should be gets instead of will get? But I would not have noticed anything out of the ordinary in the original sentence.
Good afternoon all!
Thanks.
gets makes sense
 
1 hour later…
09:02
@CowperKettle "Since" and "as" are interchangeable when giving reasons.
"As" sounds more formal to my ear, though.
09:14
@user62015 I agree with @CowperKettle and @userr2684291. If it's a), I think gets is what they want.
I guess no one has reviewed answers in You need you/your/yours and your partner's documents yet.
I don't know the answer, though.
Sometimes I wish we had a feature "place a bounty on this question if it gets no new answers by ___ hours".
@DamkerngT. Sawasdee khrap! But is will get an error?
It's +1 C
Amazing. Full two weeks ahead of time.
@CowperKettle Sawasdee khrap!
I don't think so.
@CowperKettle Yay!
in my opinion, your explanation is clearer. thank you. — Anthony Voronkov Mar 5 at 19:53
Hmm... but is it correct?
09:36
nothin fucked me up as much as learning Americans don't own kettles. no wonder trump won
Huh?!?
No kettles? What would they use instead, then?
Microwave ovens O_O
Hmm... possibly.
o_O
I just heard americans microwave water. If you're american you legally have to disclose every weird fucken thing you do to me, right now,
I wonder which is more energy efficient.
09:38
Of course microwaving is more efficient
I guess
But making electricity is not efficient.
They write that in the US the voltage is 110V, thus it takes longer to boil a kettle compared with Europe and Russia (220V)
09:40
I once noticed a large kettle combined with a thermos in a store. I'd like to buy one someday
> THE KETTLE on a gas hob, because gas is a primary energy source. Electricity is generated by burning gas or coal in a power station at somewhere between 30% and 50% efficiency. Heating by microwaves, generated from electricity, is even more inefficient.
I think I'm with him.
@userr2684291 Yes, I was only guessing..
It could be a good question on some stack, though. :D
> This one looks trustworthy:
'One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions’ Grace Murray Hopper Using a ‘plug in’ power meter I have measured the efficiency of boiling 1 litre of water in a two types of kettle (stainless steel and plastic) and a microwave. I have also measured the gas used to boil a pan of water on my gas hob. The sums are the sort you learn for GCSE science. Kettles; 65% Microwave: 30% Gas kettle: 25% You have to remember that gas is about a third the cost of electricity per kWh (or Unit or Joule) and also has a third of the CO2 emissions. In this test gas
in 8 days, 10 000 000 Russians have watched this movie, and not a single mention on any of the TV channels
The rest is to incorporate the efficiency of the electricity power stations.
09:44
An electrical guy came today to our flat to fix an appliance, and he told about this movie.
Interesting!
Everyone knows about it.
It's about how Prime Minister of Russia stole $ 1 billion
with proving materials
with video footage
The Government just pretends it has not happened
Now about 500 000 views per day
Only two newspapers published the story
It's a very nice house. (^_^)
Maybe an estate is more like it. :D
Yes.. a gift from a billionaire who lives in Europe and owns plants in Russia where people work for food
For every big house, there are thousands and thousands of people who might suffer for it.
09:48
There are dozens of people who must suffer for it: the President of Russia, the PM, the crooked officials in cahoots with them
The whole criminal gang
On 27 of March there will be a Russia-wide strike of long-distance truckers. I hope they will shake the country.
Oh!
I wonder if it's a good idea to announce the date in advance. :P
President Putin's billionaire friend set up a system where each trucker has to pay per each km travelled. All profits go to the billionaire
Ahh
That sounds rather convenient.
The Platon System
@CowperKettle How do they warrant it?
09:52
Owned by Mr. Rotenberg
@userr2684291 What? Excuse me. I don't understand.
What do you mean by "warrant"? And who are "they"?
«Платон» — российская система взимания платы с грузовиков, имеющих разрешённую максимальную массу свыше 12 тонн. Название «Платон» является сокращением от словосочетания «плата за тонны». С момента запуска в эксплуатацию системы 15 ноября 2015 года деньги будут взиматься с перевозчиков в счёт возмещения вреда, причиняемого автомобильным дорогам общего пользования федерального значения. Оплата проезда осуществляется двумя способами — с помощью маршрутной карты или бортового устройства. Расчет производится в зависимости от фактического пробега транспортного средства (в момент старта системы по тарифу…
@CowperKettle I mean, what reasons do Putin and his billionaire friend give to justify such "taxes"?
@userr2684291 They say it's for "fixing the roads", but there are already two other taxes for "fixing the roads"
So it was ridiculous from the start
I thought so.
And everyone understands that the bulk of the collected money will be stolen
Yesterday it turned out that in a road reconstruction project in St. Petersburg, out of the allocated RUB 14 billion, RUB 12 billion were stolen
09:56
That's amazing (0:
Yeah. And, uhm, no one knows anything about it, right?
I'm not sure.. Many people are brainwashed. On the TV news, the main news today was about some animals. The TV news have become totally irrelevant years ago, and many people don't care to watch or read anything else
Just another reason why Moscow has more billionaires than any other city in the world.
@userr2684291 It's on the "no ask, no tell" basis, I suppose.
This is Mr. Rotenberg
Who gets the road tax from the drivers
A happy man
09:59
He does seem happy.
The drivers intend to make him less enthused
(0:
An ad I just stumbled upon.
They seem happy.
Yeah
The ad makes me wonder, which is the main selling point between the course and the visa! :P
10:12
Are visas hard to get?
A tourist/visiting visa for a month or two is easy.
A one-year visa is much harder.
Interesting.
@DamkerngT. Thanks.
@user62015 Um, okay! (I'm not sure what you just thanked me for. :-)
You have answered my question
10:16
Ah, I see. I just expressed my opinion, that it's pretty much the same as CowperKettle's and userr2684291's.
Have you seen Webster's note on the difference between art and science? @DamkerngT.
No. Where is it?
Note - Authors have not always been careful to use the terms art and science with due discrimination and precision. Music is an art as well as a science In general, an art is that which depends on practice or performance, and science that which depends on abstract or speculative principles. The theory of music is a science; the practice of it an art.
Good point.
 
2 hours later…
12:13
@snailplane Yes. It was too late when I noticed.
I just wrote this in an email:
> No, I don't think I need need the 5-hour plan.
Please change it back to the 3-hour daily limit plan.
Thank you in advance.
I wonder if they'll think it's just a typo. I hope they won't read it as "really, really need"! :P
Anonymous
12:30
It does look like a typo. Is it supposed to be contrastive focus reduplication?
Anonymous
@Man_From_India I'll add a link to that site when I'm at a computer. :-) Thank you
@snailplane No, not reduplication. It's just my typo, as usual. :-)
13:01
Hai! I have a small doubt. If I say All A are not B, how would you understand it? Does it mean No A is B or not all A are B? @snailplane
Anonymous
It's ambiguous.
Anonymous
In All that glitters is not gold, it means 'Not everything that glitters is gold (but some things that glitter may be gold).'
Anonymous
But we don't often use this word order anymore, outside of fixed expressions like this one.
Anonymous
So although the grammar is still possible and it can have either meaning, it's difficult to come up with a natural-sounding example for the other interpretation because we would usually phrase it differently.
13:19
@snailplane I think if it's a syllogism, the meaning (of All As are not Bs) would be unambiguous.
But it's not a typical sentence pattern in everyday English, I guess.
Thanks!
> IBM speech recognition is on the verge of super-human accuracy
I really doubt that. (thinking of those auctioneers CowperKettle posted here a couple days ago)
13:55
@snailplane you welcome :-) but we are driving out our traffic. I don't think it's good. We need to better propose a site that can proof read, IMO.
14:23
@DamkerngT. in light of the fact that I understood barely 10% of what those Texans said, an AI system that would understand 11% would beat me (0:
15:01
4
A: "A turmoil" vs "turmoil"

FumbleFingersUntil the middle of the last century we usually included the article... ...but the current preference is now so strong that I think most (particularly, younger) people would probably notice and think it slightly "odd, dated" if you included it today.

Nice graph!
I used to think that languages reflect the way people in different languages see the world.
It just occurred to me that it could happen within the same language as well.
0
Q: What's the meaning of "let's not be coy."?

TING CHOE A man: Perhaps it's fate that today is the fourth of July. A woman: It's November 12. The man: Today let's not be coy. Let's not be smart or funny or quirky. (At 1:08 from this video clip) I found out coy has two meanings from a dictionary having a shy or sweetly innocent qual...

Another question about the dynamic of a joke in a comedy.
That reminds me of jimsug.
in ELL's Cabin, Sep 13 '15 at 7:07, by jimsug
0
Q: How to learn humor in English

Rescy_It sometimes occurs to me that being unable to understand English jokes is embarrassing and not socially correct. How could I learn humor? Could someone recommend some resources please?

2
Q: How to learn humor in English

Rescy_It sometimes occurs to me that being unable to understand English jokes is embarrassing and not socially correct. How could I learn humor? Could someone recommend some resources please?

I don't buy the idea that including the article somehow "trivialises" the referent. Over 2500 references to being in a complete shambles and dozens of references to an utter turmoil don't imply anything to me about there being other "shambles" and "turmoils" (which might make the one currently under consideration seem less "exceptional"). — FumbleFingers 2 mins ago
15:20
1
A: How to learn humor in English

StephieIt's probably a misconception to assume that there is English humour. In fact, humour is something that always needs a social context, a social group. It plays with a common understanding of social norms and accepted behaviour. To understand humour, you need not only to "speak the language", you ...

There are several kinds of humor anyway. :-)
... English humour (the dry sort) is quite different from humour in English.
Ah! I see your point!
However, one could also argue that English humour is humour in English. :)
15:23
@Lawrence Sure, though maybe not all humor in English is English humor. :P
@CowperKettle !
The largest crater in the world produced by thawing underground ice
It's almost like a plot of an anime!
15:24
@DamkerngT. Very funny.
@CowperKettle Thx! (^_^)
@DamkerngT. Yes, we only need to throw in some girls in scanty clothes.. oops not to good for the Siberian climate.. better in some fur coats
@DamkerngT. Being able to think in a different language does help provide a different perspective on things.
Indeed
15:27
Being able to do that in the same language would be quite an accomplishment.
\o, Muhammad
16:02
0
Q: I wonder if there is any defference between the two

user7476499"the dead" and "the deadly departed",do they have any difference?i saw a sentence "memorize the dead and deadly departed." (maybe written not by a native speaker)

WTH is that question mark . . .
16:37
Word of the Day: trifecta
2
@DamkerngT. \o
16:52
> Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
I understood why he uses gainst
Probably because they pronounced eclipses with a stress on the second syllable
and with an articulated final es
It sounds quite good this way
I went shopping and was reciting this poem, and it occurred to me
@DamkerngT. They look full of khrap
And kha
@CowperKettle I think that makes sense.
> What does a gang of Kathoey say when they want to rob a tourist?
- "We will beat all the khrap out of you!"
Heh
Why is it so funny, damn
17:00
> Khrup used to be "kho-rup" and later it was blended into khrup. In my opinion, kho-rup could mean "accept" or "I accept that" Literally it meaned that the listener understood what the speaker said.
Ah, there is nothing "manly" per se in the word
> Both "ครับ" and "คะ/ค่ะ" actually gained mainstream usage under prime minister Plaek Pibulsongkhram regime by using "Cultural Mandates" during 1939-1942.
In Russia in the 19th century there was a politeness particle s attached to the end of the sentence.
The company is negotiating new store launches (a)/ at nearby (b)/ half the rent (c)/ No error (d)
Answer says B
@CowperKettle That answer is pretty good.
@user62015 sure! I'd use nearly
nearby is used to denote location, like "a house nearby"
Also note that he(?) emphasizes that it's just his hypothesis.
Without at or with at?
17:03
with
Thanks.
These days, this politeness particle is used only for an oddity effect.
One famous phrase is "Vy i ubili-s" from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.
It means "But it was you who killed him" (with the politeness particle added)
The police investigator is pleased at having unraveled the case, and announces to Raskolnikoff that it was he who killed the old lady
Politely, even!
Yes, because Raskolnikoff belongs to the gentleman class
Here's the weird comics version ^_^
Inspector Porfiry tells Raskol that he is the murderer
Wait. O.o
Raskol-something is Batman?
17:14
(0:
In Dostoyevsky's novel, Raskolnikoff wrote an article how everything is allowed to you if you are a "super-human"
So it fits in a way
A very interesting book, by the way
Word of the day (funny version): Eyjafjallajokull
15
Q: It's Friday, it's Iceland, and I'm scared

tvanfossonFrom the Daily Mail: Face of the volcano: A radar image shows the crater of Eyjafjallajokull in southeast Iceland which has caused the cloud of volcanic ponies to spread over Europe

LOL -- I don't have even the slightest idea how I should pronounce it!
Ey-yuf-jal-la-jo-kul?
Prolly. How many attempts?
I still can't get out of the middle of it when I start reading it
Love this answer the most
12
A: It's Friday, it's Iceland, and I'm scared

ChristopheDEdvard Munch paints 'the scream' in 1893 (1 + 8 + 9 + 3 = 21 = 2 + 1 = 3). This volcano erupts in 2010 (2 + 0 + 1 + 0 = 3) Coincidence? I DON'T THINK SO Consider this: 2010-1893 = 117 (and 1 + 1 + 7 = 9 = 3 * 3 !!!)

They left very early (a)/ for the station for fear that they might (b)/ be held up on traffic. (c)/ No error (d)
Did the OP think it was fun to edit their question in such a way that makes everything irrelevant ad then delete it?
in traffic?
Thanks.
17:37
(^_^)
@DamkerngT. Screenshot? . . . Anyway, it's not uncommon for people to vandalize their post before deleting them
They don't know that the people that can see, see everything. O.O
@M.A.R. Just go through the edit history.
And that's spookier than usual, said about a robot.
@DamkerngT. I don't haz 10k
You do.
Oh!
The original question was:
> What difference does the comma make in the meaning of these sentences?
You won't believe but still believe it
You won't believe but still, believe it
Looks like comma has changed the meaning of the whole sentence
OK, but why did Katappa kill Bahubali?
17:42
How could I know?!
What's Katappa, and what's Bahubali anyway?
They sound like traditional spicy food
I guess they're characters in a TV drama.
Ugh, Bollywood
!!flip/Bollywood
◟(`ﮧ´ ◟ )ᗺoꞁꞁʎʍoop
> % change from 2016 to 2015?
Do we usually think backward in time like that?
I hope it's just a typo. :D
17:50
IT'S VERY REAL
Next year will be 2014.
And we all are getting younger! (Yay! :)
must be replaced by or with?
Or both are fine?
Depends.
By someone, with something.
Okay.
@DamkerngT. And IS will stop attacking Syria
in some years.
17:55
I hope so!
The trainer revised (a)/ his work thorough (b)/ so that no one could find fault with it. (c)/ No error (d)
B through
18:22
@M.A.R. Ah, it was done before I came back.
thoroughly @user62015
Okay.
Rhanks.
Thanks*
Sorry for asking but last question for the day.
Any of these branches do (a)/ not require more than (b)/ two employees since they have been recently established. (c)/ No error (d)
Neither of these branches
does*
0
Q: Why don't questions identify the native language of their author?

ChaimWhy don't questions identify the native language of their author? I'm new here, but it seems to me that it might be useful (and interesting) to know that people who speak a certain language often have problems with a certain pattern in English. Maybe tags would be an appropriate measure?

I remember we had a similar question long time ago
18:44
@DamkerngT. VNC! I used it in the early 2000s
@CowperKettle I still use it every day!
I remember I switched to a proprietary software that was nimbler
I guess its name begins with T. :-)
 
2 hours later…
Anonymous
21:18
22:10
@snailplane HA HA HA That's awesome!
22:22
@CowperKettle Rodion killed an old lady.
@CowperKettle Porfiry even lead Raskolnikov to believe that he thought RRR was innocent. Rodion then proceeded to ask him who he thought the murderer was, to which the sleuth replied (I'm paraphrasing): "Why, it is you who are the murderer!" Yes, having read the Croatian translation (twice, haha), I'd wager he used "Vi", i.e., the polite "you". However, Porfiry did say he respected RRR deeply.
It might've been a game he was playing in order to get a confession out of him, but IIRC, Porfiry wanted RRR to succeed (hence the reduced sentence, etc.) in life by taking the first step and confessing on his own.

« first day (630 days earlier)      last day (2904 days later) »