Language Overflow

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Anonymous

04:27

@Cardinal It's tricky.

CowperKettle

05:11

I wonder if "make up to the mark" is a naturally sounding phrase

> Add 5 mg of sodium acetate solution in a 100 mL beaker, make up to the mark with water and mix.

Anonymous

05:29

I don't really understand the phrase, except to the extent that I can figure out the meaning from context. But if it's a phrase used by chemistry folks, then it's okay that I don't know it :-)

CowperKettle

05:39

(0:

It's so much better to study chemistry than to translate procedures.

Cantalouping

06:40

@CowperKettle because you're filling the beaker with water, I would think fill up to the mark would be a better fit

Else if you're adding something that's solid I would say add up to the mark.

Actually you'd probably still use fill up even if it's solid

1 hour later…

CowperKettle

07:49

@Cantalouping - thank you!

Now I'm trying to translate a sentence about an electrophoretic gel casting tray.

It says that the lab technician should make it parallel to the ground using a level.

Spirit level

A spirit level, bubble level or simply a level is an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal (level) or vertical (plumb). Different types of spirit levels may be used by carpenters, stonemasons, bricklayers, other building trades workers, surveyors, millwrights and other metalworkers, and in some photographic or videographic work. Early spirit levels had very slightly curved glass vials with constant inner diameter at each viewing point. These vials are incompletely filled with a liquid, usually a colored spirit or alcohol, leaving a bubble in the tube. They have a slight...

> Place the glass cassette in the casting tray, adjust the casting tray using a level.

I wonder if there's a more natural phrase - to make it clear that we adjust the casting tray parallel to the ground.

4 hours later…

Damkerng T.

11:33

@CowperKettle I didn't know it's called that!

Good evening/morning, everyone!

(Probably no one is here at the moment.)

What a week. I didn't participate in ELL much this week. Kinda miss it.

Hope everyone is fine. :-)

Q: What does "return to Saturn" mean in this context?

In Katy Perry's song, "By the Grace of God", in the first sentence she sings Was 27 surviving my return to Saturn Google shows an album from a Japanese band, which AFAIK Katy has nothing to do with. The background is that her ex-husband said he wanted a divorce, and the song was written...

phrase-meaning

I have to admit, I haven't heard that song! :P

Cantalouping

@CowperKettle I think you've got it right, just add a clause at the end to indicate that - like:

Place the glass cassette in the casting tray, adjust the casting tray so that it is parallel to the ground using a level.

Damkerng T.

Hey there! @Cantalouping

Cantalouping

Hello!

Damkerng T.

We haven't met, I think. :)

Cantalouping

You wouldn't have, I only started here like 10 days ago or so

Damkerng T.

11:43

Oh, I've been sort of inactive that long!

Time flies indeed.

Anyway, welcome to the room!

Ahh... I even forgot to start Ellbot!

!!greet/Cantalouping

Ellbot

Welcome to ELL's chat room @Cantalouping! Happy chatting!

Damkerng T.

Evening, @Man_From_India!

Gotta go (for now). Happy chatting, everyone!

userr2684291

@DamkerngT. Welcome back.

Haha, okay, good bye. (:

CowperKettle

12:42

@DamkerngT. I knew that it was called "level" but not "spirit level"

Man_From_India

13:07

@DamkerngT. good evening. How is everything going for you?

3 hours later…

Man_From_India

15:41

A: Using adverbial modifiers ("the whole day" vs "for the whole day")

Both the whole day and for the whole day are correct in the following sentences and they essentially mean the same thing. I would be tired for the whole day. She was silent the whole day. Both the whole day and for the whole day here mean that throughout the period of a complete day...

Man_From_India

16:05

Friday night, planning to spend it watching Scooby Doo, the legend of Phantosaur...I love such cartoons :-)

M.A.R.

I used to love it

I dunno what happened

Man_From_India

It's stopped production, I think.

the movie I am going to watch after dinner is from 2011, but haven't watched it. So it's new to me :-)

Tonepoet

17:07

I do hate to bug you folk, but I've posted a meta question that regards in part the potential migration of a question from E.L.U. to E.L.L. and I figured you folk might be interested in providing your own opinions on the matter:

Q: Is this question about Boners too simple for E.L.U. or not, and if it is, should it be migrated to E.L.L?

We were just having a little debate about the question What does it mean to give someone boners? in chat, and it strikes me as a rather borderline case. The matter under consideration was whether or not enough research had been conducted, and how obvious that research is too obvious for considera...

discussion migration general-reference

M.A.R.

@Tonepoet Commented.

Feeds

18:05

Q: An emerging pattern of "research" close votes

Recently, and by recently, I mean during the past month or so, we've had an emerging pattern of voting to close questions because they lacked research. More precisely, questions used to be closed with this reason only for lacking context: This question should include more details than have ...

discussion close-reasons scope

userr2684291

18:31

@Tonepoet I don't know why anyone would form a search string including the word someone, and in addition use the verbatim option.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 He's probably setting the Googling skills to level zero

userr2684291

18:50

@Tonepoet That aside, the question is an archetypal ELL question (especially due to its being poorly researched). The real question here is whether EL&U allows it as well, since I have seen similar inquiries over there.

userr2684291

19:06

@M.A.R. That's why I took up Advanced Googling Skills at my university.

Tonepoet

@userr2684291 The title of the question included the word "Someone". That's the only reason why I included that word.

Maybe I shouldn't have used the verbatim option.

userr2684291

Hahah.

M.A.R.

Ahaha.

userr2684291

19:46

@Tonepoet By the way, you linked the discussion again where you wanted this in your question. Also, the periods in those initialisms are inconsistent and peculiar. :>

Tonepoet

@userr2684291 I thank you for pointing that out. I've been a little sidetracked while doing this.

userr2684291

@Tonepoet By the way, the question is a legit one had the inquirer included a proper research.

@Tonepoet Why did you use the present perfect there? I would've said I was..., for some reason.

Tonepoet

@userr2684291 I don't know.

userr2684291

20:01

@Tonepoet So I suppose you're a native English speaker?

Tonepoet

@userr2684291 I don't even know any other languages.

Unless you count the extent to which western anime fans use Japanese words as slang, which obviously shouldn't be counted at all.

userr2684291

@Tonepoet Yeah, I don't.

Anyway, Swan says this: We usually prefer a past tense when we identify the person, thing or circumstances responsible for a present situation (because we are thinking about the past cause, not the present result).

> Why are you crying? ~ Granny hit me.

But I suppose your this is indicative of your thinking that you're still doing it...

Tonepoet

@userr2684291 Perhaps that is so. It's the newest meta-thread and my distractions weren't so long ago either. I think I am done with this until tomorrow now though.

userr2684291

@Tonepoet I c, I c.

userr2684291

20:23

Word of the day: pecking order

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