Language Overflow

CowperKettle

03:42

Word of the day: comedo

Jasper Loy

10:42

@Hexacoordinate-C I assume you are a native speaker of French. Do you like the Assimil books? For English, they would be L'Anglais and Perfectionnement Anglais to reach B2 and C1 respectively.

userr2684291

11:22

@JasperLoy Why did you say "the Assimil books"? Are you assuming they're familiar with them as one of the English-language-learning choices available?

Okay, Google reveals Assimil is a French company, so that's why, right?

userr2684291

11:37

Again, there's an ostensible difference between the pronunciation of a word on its own (as per the transcription given), and in a sentence: ldoceonline.com/dictionary/nonpareil – a mistake, right?

Hexacoordinate-C

14:08

@JasperLoy except for a book for vocabulary I never used a book to learn a language.

Jasper Loy

15:00

@userr2684291 Yes, it is a famous French company that publishes hundreds of language learning books, with various base and target languages.

CowperKettle

15:36

Word of the evening: tapenade

> Natasha Ednan-Laperouse bought the artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette from a shop at Heathrow Terminal 5 before collapsing on the British Airways flight.

Anonymous

16:26

@userr2684291 I don't know why Jasper said the, but it sounded fine to me in that context.

Anonymous

I probably would have said the, too.

CowperKettle

I always misread Jasper Loy as Jasper Joy

It takes an effort to make myself read it as Loy

userr2684291

@snailboat In what context exactly? Without the French thing, usually when you introduce things you don't use the definite article.

Also, I don't consider Assimil books some sort of series.

Do you like Samsung phones?

– I'm thinking about buying a phone.
– Do you like the Samsung phones?

Nah, still doesn't make sense because the question that comes to mind is "Which Samsung phones?".

Jasper Loy

16:45

@userr2684291 I only now understand your question. You were asking about why I used the. Let me think.

userr2684291

Yeah, haha.

It makes sense in the context in which you assume Hexacoordinate-C is familiar with Assimil books that teach English, which you then introduce by saying you assume Hexacoordinate-C is French. But that still guarantee definiteness, and Mr. or Ms. C might well have asked "Which Assimil books?".

Jasper Loy

I don't know any grammar, but I probably used the there because I was referring to some specific Assimil books, not all Assimil books. Probably.

userr2684291

Yes, of course. Those that teach you English, right?

Jasper Loy

@CowperKettle That is very strange. It happened to other people too.

@userr2684291 Yes, base language is French and target language is English.

If you go to assimil.com you can select various base and target languages among other selections.

userr2684291

@JasperLoy Yeah, and you based the assumption that they are familiar with those books on the assumption that they're French and that they'd looked at various English-teaching books, some of them being Assimil, right?

Jasper Loy

16:51

@CowperKettle The word baguette always reminds me of bak kut teh which is the English transliteration of a Hokkien word for some kind of soup with pork in it, lol.

@userr2684291 Yes.

userr2684291

@JasperLoy I don't mean to sound accusatory, haha, but you realize that they might not have done just that, and if they weren't French – say they were Indian – I don't think omitting the definite article would be that strange, would it?

(I'm merely saying Indian because that'd be a different continent, and I'm not sure if they're familiar with Assimil stuff, so I think you wouldn't know either.)

Jasper Loy

@userr2684291 Well, if they weren't French I wouldn't even have said that sentence in the first place. I think articles is a very confusing thing for me. Sometimes I really don't know why I use one or not.

userr2684291

Exactly, alright.

Jasper Loy

I just say whatever I want in chat, which may not be completely grammatical, lol.

But I do notice that many native speakers even use commas when they should not. For example:

The perfume a woman wears, tells more about her than the clothes she wears.

There should not be a comma above, but this kind of mistake is very common.

userr2684291

Yeah.

Jasper Loy

16:58

It happens when there is a long phrase of some kind.

userr2684291

It is. CGEL mention it, but I think they list an example that's a bit similar to it where it's customary to put a comma.

Jasper Loy

If it were just one word, nobody would put a comma. And the long phrase functions as one word.

userr2684291

Functions as one word.

Jasper Loy

What in the world is a giggle-o-meter test? lol

userr2684291

Yeah, you're right. But things aren't always as cut and dried.

Jasper Loy

17:02

I am going to eat something now.

userr2684291

It's evidently a test youth fails in a countable sense.

For some.

Back to the commas: for instance, you could optionally put a comma after a long phrase or clause connected with the next one by and or such. So there's something to it; there is a logic to that erroneous comma placement.

userr2684291

17:30

Here's a nice song by Billy Joel that I've been listening to: youtube.com/watch?v=wccRif2DaGs

Anonymous

18:36

I think I said "in reference to a singular person", not "in a countable sense".

Anonymous

@JasperLoy It's super duper scientific, which you can tell by looking at the -meter suffix and its fanciness level.

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Anonymous

It goes something like this: can you say it without giggling?

Jasper Loy

@snailboat I thought you would use American punctuation and write the comma and period before the closing quote marks, lol.

Anonymous

@JasperLoy A lot of computer people use a different style.

Jasper Loy

Do you use Windows or macOS?

Anonymous

18:40

Yes.

Jasper Loy

LOL.

Which one do you use?

I have never used macOS.

Anonymous

Both.

Jasper Loy

I see. macOS has some nice things, like Grapher which can draw all kinds of 3D graphs.

I think Office 2019 for both Windows and Mac will be released in the week beginning 1 Oct.

But if you subscribe to Office 365 annually, you should already be running the latest and greatest.

CowperKettle

> "The hope is that this biomarker can be used in second-stage screening after the identification of other risk factors for schizophrenia," said Tyrone Cannon, professor of psychology and psychiatry and senior author of the paper.

What does he mean?

"After we've compiled a list of factors that should be used in first-stage screening"?

Or "After this particular patient has tested positive for first-stage factors of schizophrenia"?

The meaning is ambiguous

source

@JasperLoy I subscribe to a pirated version of Office

Jasper Loy

@CowperKettle A risk factor for schizophrenia is something that may lead to schizophrenia. That bolded expression refers to seeing these factors.

@CowperKettle I don't know what he means either. That sentence is not totally clear to me. You need to ask Mister Tyrone.

@CowperKettle The reason I don't use pirated software is because I don't know what spyware they come with.

Anonymous

18:57

@JasperLoy Actually, risk factors are not specifically causal.

Jasper Loy

@snailboat Oh yes, maybe correlational.

@snailboat What is the best free website for international news where the journalists are based in an American company? I read theguardian.com but that is British and their articles have lots of typos and they tend to sensationalise things...

Anonymous

I don't know.

Jasper Loy

But I like the dating section in The Guardian where two readers go on a blind date each week and they talk about their experiences.

Although American dictionaries don't use IPA, at least all of them give the pronunciation for every headword.

ODE doesn't, and Collins English Dictionary Reference Edition doesn't either.

However, SOED does, and Collins English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged does.

And why I don't like Chambers Dictionary is because it still keeps the humorous definitions, but that is because many readers like them.

For example, eclair: a cake that is long in shape but short in duration.

Or mullet: a hairstyle that is short in front, long behind, and ridiculous all round.

Chambers used to be the official Scrabble dictionary but now that has been taken over by Collins.

It's pi AM here now.

userr2684291

20:02

@JasperLoy And that's the reason you don't like it?

I've always wondered why user P. E. Dant considered it their favorite dictionary, and I think I now know why.

@snailboat My sincere apologies.

Jasper Loy

21:37

@userr2684291 Yes, because I want my dictionary to be serious lol.

Anonymous

@JasperLoy Reminds me of the Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten.

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