I was looking for a duplicate of a recent question regarding tense shifting, and then I remembered I answered a similar question a while ago. But then I found this comment:

@userr2684291 you're awarded the badge comment discoverer

But the report of anything still holds at any point afterwards.

I sometimes wanna pronounce his username like "beagle" but with /dζ/

That's the closest thing I found to ζ

It's pronounced as belch (sorry).

But yeah, I'm now confused.

We know for a fact that someone believed/said/whatever something in the past. And that's still true at any later time.

If that's the logic we wanna apply, it's always optional to backshift.

Of course, I'm excluding the possibility that we're somehow reporting something deliberately dishonestly, haha.

"Oh, look, he backshifted – that means he's lying!"

@userr2684291 that IS confusing, I forget whether it's always or most of the time

@userr2684291 "Oh, look, he backshifted . . . He's trying to sound formal. He's definitely lying."

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ The default thing is to backshift. The usual thing is not to when what was reported still somehow holds.

@userr2684291 it's amazing how a word can change in the English language

All it takes is two chat messages

I guess the "5th century people" somehow qualifies and restricts our reports to just that period of time.

As if the 5th century people we're talking about still hold those beliefs.

It's true, right now they still believed that.

( :

I suppose "Yesterday, John believed..." isn't as restricting. However, "The John of yesterday believed..." is.

@userr2684291 right now, the people of 5th century still believe in flat Earth

Yeah...

The discussion about my edit is still "hot". Titles starting with "I want to talk about..." are inherently clickbait.

@userr2684291 are they?

They're just inherently annoyingly redundant

Oh eff see.

Redundant? I suppose anyone starting any thread of discussion wants to implicitly talk about something.

But "I want to talk about" adds this layer of seriousness and assertiveness, or such.

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I want to talk about the tea I'm drinking right now. Unsweetened though it is, it's actually good. (That's pretty much it.)

I heard it in some YouTube videos/lectures. "I wanna talk about" was used to switch onto a different (although related) topic.

Really annoying.

Just talk, man.

"I wanna talk about" is the new "Let's talk about".

@userr2684291 sometimes I do weird stuff too

I have never drank green tea with any sweetener in my life

I wanna talk about your tea.

. . .

@Jim's new avatar looks like someone who's just about to sue me

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I don't drink green tea.

Actually, I'm currently not drinking it. I might drink it.

@userr2684291 your funeral

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Why, haha?

Literally. It's probably the secret of those Japanese dudes that live longer than turtles

I don't wanna live longer than turtles. I want my corpse to look nice.

Add a little safron, and oh man, you don't need sweeteners

@userr2684291 corpses never look nice, unless you turn into stone

Real classy

I've just run out of honey.

@userr2684291 are you a bee?

Maybeee...

More like maybzzzzz

I only drink the fruity ones.

A good life plan is to get insured, age till 123, then look into the eyes of Medusa

The weird witch with the weird hair

Sounds like a death plan.

@userr2684291 then life is a death plan

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I think her hair's actually snakes.

@userr2684291 I wonder, how do those snakes excrete?

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ What do you think?

Best case scenario, they inject their poop into her blood so she gets rid of them

Worst case scenario, her clothes are always dirty

Doesn't help with finding a guy to settle down

Also the stone thing

I don't think these snakes were from Crete in the first place.

@userr2684291 yes they were, it's a fact

@snailplane Thank you. I'll get it.

@JimReynolds you'll never get it

Hello. :)

@Lawrence Jello :)

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Yum.

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I just noticed - your username has acquired a face.

@Lawrence people had a hard time not taking me seriously

This has potential to be a proverb!

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Did the face help?

@Lawrence seems so

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Trying to understand the intention of your "not" - do you mean that they didn't take you seriously, or that they did? Natural parsing is that they did, with the hint of an implication that you didn't like it.

@Lawrence they did

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Ah, so you wanted them to be more casual around you, right?

My sarcasm didn't come across as fast as it should

Nor the jokes

@Lawrence ayep

I'm overanalysing this. Sorry. :)

@Lawrence well, it'd seem natural to make grammar slash other stuff mistakes in an ELL chat

But I'm too awesome to make mistakes

In an ELL chat

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Famous last words. :P

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Vandalism is one of those things tends to be a percentage play. You might be able to cut it down, but addressing root causes is tough. The methods might not relate directly to the effect - e.g. fixing broken windows: that makes more targets right? Yet it's said to reduce crime. So ... gum control might not be such a bad idea after all.

Bye!

Cya

> But despite the smooth surface of his parents' unquestioned faith, Mortenson hadn't yet made up his mind about the nature of divinity.

What does this sentence mean?

and what meaning "surface" bear?

One for the phonetics people:

@Man_From_India the parents' faith is a deep lake, and its water has an undisturbed, smooth surface

Now what that means, how the hell should I know?

@snailplane I'm trying to figure out whether that meant me

No, I'm on my bed

Is internet comfy?

@snailplane OK, so I wonder what sparked the message