Language Overflow

Damkerng T.

00:04

Aww...

Damkerng T.

00:24

> "So, Big Mike. You like to shop? Because tomorrow I think I'll have to show you how it's done."

> "I got clothes."

> "You have clothes. And an extra T-shirt in a plastic bag does not a wardrobe make."

> --The Blind Side

FWIW, I think Being a successful person in life is a big challenge, though possible, sounds odd. Becoming a successful person in life is a big challenge would be better, and Becoming a successful person is a big challenge or Becoming successful in life is a big challenge would be the best, IMHO. — Damkerng T. 18 mins ago

@Damkerng: I have to say I don't think there's anything in the least "odd" about the version you're not keen on. And changing being to becoming could significantly affect the meaning - consider, for example, Being a woman in Yemen isn't very satisfying if one can see how other people live. To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me to discover that the authorities in Yemen don't even permit anyone to "become" a woman (by surgical/hormonal treatment). — FumbleFingers 5 mins ago

Hmm...

An interesting point.

So, I think it's not that strange when someone says How to be rich for How to get rich.

The verb be itself could be ambiguous in this kind of sentence, I think.

It's also ambiguous in my first language.

(Perhaps because of English, the part of English that made it into my first language.)

Another similar ambiguous sentence:

> Being a senator is not easy.

(self-made)

Damkerng T.

00:53

@FumbleFingers I understand your comment. Still, I think it sounds odd, or at least ambiguous. I think the ambiguity would become more obvious with a simpler sentence such as Being a senator is not easy. — Damkerng T. 12 mins ago

@Damkerng: You have the edge on me, since I don't really understand your comment. To my mind, Being president isn't easy is a reference to what it's like if you are president - it implies nothing about any possible difficulties involved in becoming president, just as Becoming president isn't easy implies nothing about how things will be if you do actually achieve that ambition. — FumbleFingers 4 mins ago

Ahh... my message didn't get through.

> Being a successful person in life is a big challenge.

Is "being a successful person" such a big challenge?

When you've got everything you ever wanted.

Though I can imagine:

a) Some people use Being to mean Getting to be (or Becoming).

b) It's used similarly to Being the champion last year is a big challenge for us this year ('cause we feel we have to be the champion once again).

Damkerng T.

01:15

in ELL's Cabin, May 15 at 7:11, by snailboat

In the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, the authors generally start by cataloging the forms in use, then describing how those forms are used

> In the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, the authors generally start by cataloging the forms in use, then describing how those forms are used
So for example, walk is what they call the plain form of the verb. They explain that this form is used in imperative, infinitival, and subjunctive constructions.
They would call it the imperative-infinitive-subjunctive form, but that's a bit too wordy, so they went with "plain" :-)
They don't posit three separate forms (imperative, infinitive, subjunctive) because these forms are always identical for all verbs

Could be important.

But I can't figure out the tense of:

> Walk over here.

The simple present, imperative mood?

> In persuasion, your message has to focus on emotions, all the while maintaining a balance between logic and feelings. Logic and emotion are the two elements that make for perfect persuasion. We can be persuasive using only logic or only emotion, but the effect will be short-term and unbalanced.

> westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/laws_persuasion/chap14.html

Good point!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh, no. Imperatives don't bear tense.

Damkerng T.

So it's tenseless?

Anonymous

Well, it doesn't change form to reflect how the situation it describes is located in time.

Anonymous

By its nature the past is more or less ruled out, except in figures of speech:

Anonymous

> Do it now.
> Do it tomorrow.

Anonymous

01:28

> Do it! And I want it done yesterday!

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

Although it might be possible with an imperative conditional:

Damkerng T.

Do it yesterday wouldn't make sense.

Anonymous

> Do that and he might have been killed!

Anonymous

What I just called "imperative conditionals" are coordinations of clauses in which one of the coordinates is imperative in form: "Drink lots of milk and you'll have strong bones!"

Anonymous

01:29

The second clause is taken as a conditional consequence of the first clause, which is imperative in form

Anonymous

I dunno, might be the Eight and a Halfth Conditional.

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

I just got a failure of communication with FumbleFingers a short while ago.

Anonymous

The system of mood has pretty much vanished from Present Day English.

Damkerng T.

I thought it could get worse if I tried to explain more. So, I left my thoughts up there here instead.

@snailboat I think imperative sentences is one corner that most teachers try to avoid saying anything about its tense/aspect.

Anonymous

So I'd cross out three of those words: "The ~~simple present~~, imperative ~~mood~~"

Anonymous

01:33

Pretend I crossed out the comma, too. :-)

Damkerng T.

Got it!

Anonymous

Heck, we can even cross out the. Who needs articles, anyway?

Anonymous

Imperative!

Damkerng T.

LOL

Oh, BTW, would you use eying or eyeing?

2

Q: Question words "Where" Can a preposition be at the end?

Where did you play basketball? Where did you go? When it comes to "where", one of the question words, I know we don't put a preposition at the end because "where", I think, is a kind of adverb. At least, I have never heard Where did you play basketball at? ...

grammar

In to vs. into reminds me of The Martian.

> ORIGINAL: Six days in to what should be a greatest two months of my life, and it’s turned in to a nightmare.

> KINDLE: Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it’s turned into a nightmare.

Anonymous

The original being the self-published web version, and the Kindle version being the one that's gone through an editor?

Anonymous

01:45

Also, doesn't it say the greatest in the Kindle version?

Damkerng T.

Oh! checking...

Yes! You're right!

Ah, too late to edit!

Anonymous

Done!

Damkerng T.

Thanks!

:-)

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M posted a link to a self-published version a while ago.

Anonymous

Yeah, it was self-published first.

Anonymous

Better to read the final version, though.

Damkerng T.

01:47

nods

Anonymous

Editing improves almost any manuscript :-)

Damkerng T.

^My favorite message of the day!

I don't know why, but irregular spacing makes it a little more difficult to read for me.

I wonder what font they used.

(unclebarky.com/reviews_files/…, via ell.stackexchange.com/a/61957/3281)

Anonymous

What site is that?

Anonymous

Ah.

Anonymous

Go into Firebug and try X'ing out the letter-spacing: 0.5px;

Anonymous

01:57

That's making it add a pixel every other letter, I think.

Damkerng T.

A-ha! Looks much better!

Thanks!

I think 0.5px could be problematic.

Anonymous

Basically, font hinting screws it up.

Anonymous

It moves each letter over 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5...

Damkerng T.

How should a browser shift half a pixel?

Anonymous

But then the hinting moves every other letter back onto pixel boundaries so they can be rendered more sharply.

Damkerng T.

01:59

nods

Anonymous

The designer who put that in was probably on an OS/browser/setting combo without that unfortunate interaction.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. The smallest difference in phase that is possible depends on not only the sampling frequency (screen resolution) but also the bit depth of each sample

Anonymous

That's why you can shift audio 1/32768th of a sample, if you like.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Hmm... sounds reasonable. (Though not sure how to do it. :-)

LOL -- I've just noticed that on that page, there is a link named "SirLinksalot". :D

Anonymous

Hehe!

Damkerng T.

02:09

Could be useful for searching old questions:

> user2492 == birdman

> user6951 == pazzo

Anonymous

02:50

Ever heard this one? :-)

Anonymous

> "To be is to do" - Socrates
> "To do is to be" - Jean-Paul Sartre
> "Do be do be do" - Frank Sinatra

Anonymous

quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/16/do-be-do

Damkerng T.

03:14

I'm sure that Yogi Berra would say either "To be is to be" or "To do is to do". Maybe even both!

> Analytical or compound verb forms consist of at least two verbal elements, an auxiliary verb and a notional verb; the latter is presented by participle I, participle II, or the infinitive.

> An auxiliary verb is devoid of its lexical meaning, its role is purely grammatical. It may be finite or non-finite, thus showing whether the whole verb form is finite or non-finite as in:

> Jane is singing.

> Someone seems to be singing in the next room.

> The auxiliary verbs in English are not numerous, they are seven: to do, to be, to have, shall, will, should, would.

> The notional verb of a compound verb form is always non-finite, it carries the lexical meaning of the whole verb form.

> The analytical verb forms are the forms of the continuous aspect, the perfect forms, the passive forms, the future forms, the future in the past forms, some forms of the subjunctive mood, the interrogative, negative and emphatic forms of the present and past indefinite.

> The meaning of the analytical form as a whole is the result of the complete fusion of the auxiliary and the non-finite form.

> doclecture.net/1-19294.html

40 secs ago, by Damkerng T.

> The auxiliary verbs in English are not numerous, they are seven: to do, to be, to have, shall, will, should, would.

Hmm...

(It's from the same book mentioned in Сoncept of an attribute used by Russian grammarians by user11312, another deleted user.)

> user11312 == Study.English.Well

Hmm... that doesn't work. It's not easy enough to search for them.

User Lookup: user2492 == birdman

Anonymous

Was this written a very long time ago?

Damkerng T.

User Lookup: user6951 == pazzo

@snailboat An hour ago.

Anonymous

Um. The book, I mean.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, yes!

Anonymous

The one at doclecture that you're quoting.

Damkerng T.

03:29

The question was from March this year.

User Lookup: user11312 == Study.English.Well

Anonymous

But I wonder when the book was written.

Damkerng T.

Let's see...

Anonymous

Or is it just someone's website?

Damkerng T.

Yes. I think they copied the book and made it online.

Anonymous

Oh! The book is Английская грамматика: базовый теоретический курс

Anonymous

03:32

Copyright date is 2013

Damkerng T.

That's very new!

Anonymous

Well, that book would not be my first choice of grammars

Anonymous

What happened to auxiliaries like may and might?

Damkerng T.

That's what I thought!

Also can/could/must/etc.

Anonymous

@Tab When be is an auxiliary, it's a non-modal auxiliary. The English modal auxiliaries are can, may, will, shall, must, ought, need, and dare, and the non-modal auxiliaries are be, have, do, and for some speakers, use. See The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, pages 92 and 108. — snailboat Jul 2 at 15:58

Anonymous

03:35

That's CGEL's list.

Anonymous

It might also be worth discussing a semi-modal category.

Anonymous

If we were to discuss it at length, we could discuss what properties auxiliaries have. Why does it make sense to include certain verbs in the category, but not others?

Anonymous

If they form a coherent category, they should share a lot of properties that they don't share with non-auxiliary verbs.

Damkerng T.

How does CGEL think of seem?

Anonymous

What about it?

Damkerng T.

03:38

As an auxiliary too?

Anonymous

I'm not aware of seem having any auxiliary properties

Anonymous

What properties would suggest to you that it might be an auxiliary?

Anonymous

> Does it seem like an auxiliary verb?
> *Seems it like an auxiliary verb?

Damkerng T.

I thought it might be something special because some dictionaries classify it as a linking verb.

Anonymous

"Linking verb" here means "verb that takes a predicative complement" in CGEL's terms

Anonymous

03:39

That's not an auxiliary property, though.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

Predicative complements typically have the form of a noun phrase or an adjective phrase, and the noun phrase can potentially be a bare role noun phrase:

Damkerng T.

Oh, so be can be both an auxiliary and a linking verb.

Anonymous

> She became a senator. (regular NP)
> She became senator. (bare role NP)
> She became quite upset. (AdjP)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I suppose you could say that.

Anonymous

03:41

Usually, if it's a "linking verb", it's also an auxiliary.

Anonymous

Since it's almost always an auxiliary.

Damkerng T.

My cat is snoring!

Anonymous

> That is a snail.
> Is that a snail?
> That is cute.
> Is that cute?

Anonymous

Here, be is an auxiliary, demonstrated with one of the auxiliary properties (inversion)

Anonymous

It takes a predicative complement, and our main hint here is that it can take both NP and AdjP complements, as in the examples

Anonymous

03:44

Whereas:

Anonymous

> She punched me!
> *Punched she me?
> *She punched green!
> *Punched she green?

Anonymous

The third example can be interpreted grammatically with green as a secondary predicate (a predicative adjunct), but it's ungrammatical in the relevant interpretation (attempting to use green as a complement), so I've marked it with a star.

Anonymous

Punch takes an object, and objects are different from predicative complements. They don't take the form of AdjPs.

Anonymous

NPs are okay for objects.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

03:46

Only a fairly limited set of verbs take predicative complements.

Anonymous

These are the verbs you find in your list of linking verbs, generally speaking.

Anonymous

They are sometimes referred to as copula verbs.

Anonymous

Or copular verbs, or copulae, or what have you.

Damkerng T.

A-ha! That's where the confusion comes from.

Anonymous

Linking verb is a less Latin-y term for copula.

Anonymous

03:48

Copulation is linking two things together.

Anonymous

A copula links two things together.

Anonymous

> This is a snail.

Anonymous

Links: this ⇒ a snail

Anonymous

Seem fits into this category:

Anonymous

> She seems nice.

Anonymous

03:51

Nice is a property of she (taking into account the semantics of seem, anyway)

Anonymous

Seem can take an AdjP as a complement.

Anonymous

But it doesn't have the auxiliary properties.

Damkerng T.

> *Seems she nice? -- That doesn't work.

Anonymous

Right! Subject-auxiliary inversion doesn't work with seem.

Anonymous

Auxiliaries can also be directly negated:

Anonymous

03:54

> She can fly a plane.
> She can't fly a plane.

Anonymous

But lexical verbs cannot, outside of fossilized constructions:

Anonymous

> She likes eating spinach.
> She doesn't like eating spinach.

Anonymous

Here, we have to insert the dummy auxiliary does because we can only negate an auxiliary, not a lexical verb.

Anonymous

If we stick not after like, we get non-verbal negation (of the following non-finite clause):

Anonymous

> She likes [ not eating spinach ] .　← not negates eating spinach, not likes

Anonymous

03:55

For the same reason:

Anonymous

> *She walks not.
> She doesn't walk.

Anonymous

Negation and inversion are two of the auxiliary properties.

CopperKettle

09:18

"A study showed that scientists can wirelessly determine the path a mouse walks with a press of a button." - I wonder if there's a difference in meaning between this and "at the press of a button" (with one definite article)

Damkerng T.

09:54

@CopperKettle To me, with a press of a button sounds better. I can't decide if at the press of a button is incorrect; it's probably not, but with at, it doesn't sound like the scientists were the ones who pressed the button.

0

A: "Benzodiazepines can impair that experience by.." - could we say "this experience"?

I find no problem in using whatsoever -this or that especially in the very next sentence, and when there's only one experience have been just defined. There are very less chances that we think of 'some other' experience if we read 'this' instead of 'that' or vice versa. However, looking at t...

Original:

> "Evidence-based trauma-focused psychotherapies require that patients experience and then master anxiety," Dr. Guina and colleagues write. "Benzodiazepines can impair this experience by numbing emotions, decreasing learning efficiency, and inhibiting memory processing of material learned in therapy."

Him being curious:

> However, looking at the original source, I'm curious to know who spoke this sentence: "Benzodiazepines can impair that experience by numbing emotions, decreasing learning efficiency, and inhibiting memory processing of material learned in therapy."

An answer:

Jeffrey Guina, Sarah R. Rossetter, Bethany J. Derhodes, Ramzi W. Nahhas, Randon S. Welton. Benzodiazepines for PTSD. Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 2015; 21 (4): 281 DOI: 10.1097/PRA.0000000000000091 — PerryW 4 hours ago

Turned into a little discussion:

You still din' get my point @PerryW check the source...the 'quoted' sentence comes from nowhere. The previous sentence finishes with doctor and his colleagues 'write'. And the sentence is concerned is 'left alone' with no additional information. And I know the original source. — Maulik V 4 hours ago

@MaulikV [ "You're dirty," he said. "You ought to wash. Where did you go and what did you do? Tell me everything at once." ] Who would you think said "You ought to wash. ... Tell me everything at once."? — Damkerng T. 4 hours ago

@DamkerngT. in the original source... 'they concluded' or 'they added' would have worked. In your created example, I can add it!---> "You're dirty," he said. "You ought to wash. Where did you go and what did you do? Tell me everything at once," said her mother agreeing him. — Maulik V 12 mins ago

I didn't create my example. I'm quite sure that you can find it on the web. — Damkerng T. 6 mins ago

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

10:17

@DamkerngT. I don't remember what was this message a reply for.

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M We were talking about The Martian.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Oh.

Damkerng T.

Remember that you found its PDF on the web?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Yes.

CopperKettle

10:50

@DamkerngT. Thanks!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@CopperKettle You're welcome!

@CopperKettle I've seen at the press of a button usually in a context where the button is yet to be pushed.

I agree with @Dam that with a press of button is better.

Damkerng T.

11:34

@CopperKettle Welcome!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

So, what do you copy to get that space?

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M I don't even know! But I have it in my text file.

This: ->` `<-

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Dat iz cool!

Damkerng T.

Yay!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Damkerng T.

11:43

You're getting the hang of it!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Reloads keyboard

Damkerng T.

4

A: Why are some common nouns' first letters being used capital?

You are right: Meadow Hall is the proper name of a house or mansion described in the book, and that is why the words are capitalized. Note also that there is no article before "Meadow Hall": we don't usually use articles with proper nouns. We do have the definite article the before "scullery wi...

> Greenwich peninsula. - The National Gallery is on the northern side of Trafalgar Square, opposite Nelson's Column. It's about a fifteen-minute walk from The British Museum.

The The at front of British Museum is curious.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. Because they look more chic that way.

Damkerng T.

Not sure if there is a rule about which the should be capitalized.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Hehe!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I'm pretty sure Tim knows.

Damkerng T.

11:49

For example, I'm not sure if I should write the White House or The White House in the middle of a sentence.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Tim who?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Romano.

Damkerng T.

Haha!

Oh, it's tonight!

Transformers 4

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Oh, you gonna watch it?

It will give you the TF3's feel you told me about a while ago.

But it's fun to watch.

Damkerng T.

What did I told you about TF3?

Oh, maybe about too many things moving too fast on screen.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

That it gave you a headache because you had to keep track of a lot of stuff moving in the screen.

Damkerng T.

11:55

nods

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

the point is, you shouldn't keep track of everything.

Focus on Optimus/Lockdown/Whatever action is going on there.

Damkerng T.

LOL!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Bay's films are like that - they have a lot of extra fluff going on in the screen.

Damkerng T.

I guess it's the same in his Ninja Turtles.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

As notorious as they make Bay's movies, I kinda love it. It's more realistic.

Damkerng T.

11:57

(Or Turtle Ninjas?)

I think it's a little surrealistic!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. Ninja Mutants.

They were really ugly.

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I spent the whole movie time getting used to their faces.

Damkerng T.

LOLROTF!

3

Q: "My pet's body size is like that of a rabbit" - or "like that of a rabbit's"? May we use the double possessive?

My pet's body size is like that of a rabbit's. My pet's body size is like that of a rabbit. Which is correct?

possessive comparative double-genitive

Interesting question!

> a) My pet's body size is like that of a rabbit's.

> b) My pet's body size is like that of a rabbit.

> c) My pet is about the size of a rabbit.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Let me think. . .

@DamkerngT. This works for sure.

@DamkerngT. This is a different structure, burn it.

@DamkerngT. I think this also works, considering we're talking about the size of a body of a rabbit.

I love b) more.

Damkerng T.

12:08

Judging from the answers, I think this question is tricky even for native speakers.

Actually, I think I like c) the most.

b) is okay, I think. Personally, I don't like to use like that way.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Hmm.

Damkerng T.

> d) My pet's body size is about/around/almost that of a rabbit.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

That's one weird sentence.

Damkerng T.

But this is probably my natural choice:

> c) My pet/cat/mouse is about the same size as a rabbit.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Meh. I'd use as big/revolutionary/cute/funny/odd/miserable as.

Damkerng T.

12:16

Hehe!

Found an interesting, related GMAT question.

> Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are members of hill tribes enscorced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.

> (A) about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many

> (B) of about the same size as Great Britain is, but in Laos there is a population of only four million, and many

> (C) that is about the same size as Great Britain's land area, but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them

> (D) comparable to the size of Great Britain, but only four million in population, and many

> (E) comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only four million people, many of whom

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. This is grammatical, but not artistic.

@DamkerngT. Zis good.

@DamkerngT. This is way Shakespeare-ish.

Damkerng T.

Their note for (B): Inappropriate comparison between land area and Great Britain; the there is ... construction is wordy and imprecise.

Their note for (D): The coordinating conjunction and gives undue emphasis to the claim that many of the people in Laos live in inaccessible places.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

They?

Damkerng T.

The GMAT official guide makers.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Bah. . .

The GMAT official nitpickers usually nitpick too much. I wonder how many of those sentences will a native Englisher find odd.

Damkerng T.

12:23

The test is for native speakers too, so...

They don't really have us look for the correct sentence. They want us to look for the best sentence. That's why it's really tricky for everyone.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Bah. . .

So the best one is 1?

Damkerng T.

According to them, it's (E)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I'm not planning to be a journalist.

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Their note for (A): The comparison between land area and Great Britain is incorrect; where is an inappropriate referent to population, which does not designate a place.

Their note for (C): The reference of them is unclear and the expression is generally awkward.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Comparable to? They're overdoing it with political correctness.

Damkerng T.

12:27

Their note for (E): Correct. The land area of Laos is correctly compared to that of Great Britain; who refers appropriately to people.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. This unclear is an art in literature.

Damkerng T.

nods

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

3

Q: Why is that I don't need a "to" before the following verb?

Suddenly I didn’t feel hungry anymore. So all I did was (to) poke at my food. "did was poke at" has 5 hits on Google Books. "did was poke to at" has only 1 on Google Books. Why is that? I thought every infinitive verb had to be preceded by to.

grammar

A nice question!

Damkerng T.

Uh-oh!

nods -- I can feel that I need some paracetamols to answer that question properly.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Let's get grammary. . .What's the role of poke at my food?

Damkerng T.

12:33

A predicate?

A bare infinitive working as a predicate?

A bare-infinitive headed phrase working as a predicate?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

MWAHHAHAHHHA I found its dup! Or original!

Nice answer @snail!

Damkerng T.

Oh!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

4

Q: Explanation of "did was [verb]" structure

All I did was hand someone a bag. There are three verbs that come together. The tense of the verb hand confuses me. It doesn't fall into any grammar structure I know so far. It would make more sense to me if it were "All I did was handing..." (because handing is a noun form of the verb) or a...

grammar verb

Damkerng T.

A-ha!

Wait, I think the OP made a typo or something!

> "did was poke to at" has only 1 on Google Books.

But in his example sentence:

> Suddenly I didn’t feel hungry anymore. So all I did was (to) poke at my food.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I've shot my comment. You shoot yours.

Damkerng T.

12:37

It's indeed a typo. (I just followed his link.)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

SHOOT THE COMMENT ALREADY!

Damkerng T.

No need. I just edited the question. :-)

(And voted to close as a duplicate)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

0

Q: Is it ok to use 'Empire' twice in a sentence?

I went through this source when I read the following sentence: It remained a peripheral colony of the empire until independence as part of the short-lived First Mexican Empire, followed by membership in the United Provinces of Central America, from which it formally declared sovereignty in 18...

meaning-in-context

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

;_;

Thay say are they talking about the British empire?

And the sentence says as part of the short-lived First Mexican Empire. . .

I don't know what to say. . .

Damkerng T.

12:42

The first one (the empire) could indeed be the British Empire.

> It remained a peripheral colony of the empire until independence as part of the short-lived First Mexican Empire, followed by membership in the United Provinces of Central America, from which it formally declared sovereignty in 1847.

It = some place, perhaps a country nowadays

a peripheral colony of the empire = a remote colony of the British(?) Empire

until independence as part of the short-lived First Mexican Empire = until the day that it became independent, but as part of the First Mexican Empire

Then it became a member of the United Provinces of Central America

Then it became a country as we know it in 1847.

What is this country?

Ahhhh

Costa Rica

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Peripheral reminds me of @snailboat.

Damkerng T.

It reminds me of printers!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

O.o`

Damkerng T.

Printers were once the most commonly known peripheral device of computers.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

You old beans! - Said Arau.

Damkerng T.

12:49

Going out for a meal.

Tonight I'm going to have my dinner with Transformers. :P

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Oh, and Ratchet's gonna die in this one.

You'll only see Bee, Drift, Hound and Crosshairs helping Optimus.

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