Language Overflow

Damkerng T.

06:29

Having those photos nearby is a good technique!

1

A: Why is it "If I were you" and not "If I was you"?

You need to realize that in both cases,as spoken in everyday descriptive grammar, the two uses are perfectly understandable and fine to use. A nice way I have always thought about when teaching students to get into the habit of using "were" is how in U.K English, we have a habit of leaving out th...

> ..., but it has always helped people I've taken for lessons to remember which participle to use.

Huh?

What is he talking about?

Participle?

jimsug

> as spoken in everyday descriptive grammar

we don't speak in grammar :P

Damkerng T.

:D

jimsug

@DamkerngT. I have no idea. The past participle for be is been.

Damkerng T.

@aestrivex But it's not "very clearly [...] the wrong grammar". As The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language states on page 86, the was form has been in competition with were for 300-400 years, and most usage manuals regard it as acceptable. However, there are places where were must be used: inverted conditionals ("I would certainly join them, were I not working on a project of my own") and the fixed phrase as it were. It is also particularly common in if I were you, which can be regarded as a collocation. — snailboat May 23 '14 at 23:07

Hmm... that means that CGEL says...

> a) If I were sick, I would not have come to the party.

> b) If I was sick, I would not have come to the party.

that both a) and b) are fine.

(or at least most usage manuals regard them as acceptable)

jimsug

06:46

> The if...were structure is generally used when something is not possible by any means.

Yeah, no.

> I was happy yesterday, and if I were happy today, I'd give you a cake again.

It is perfectly possible for me to be happy today.

Damkerng T.

How about:

> If I was happy now, I'd give you a cake again.

Anonymous

Yeah, it's just an irrealis thingy.

Anonymous

If I was is common but tends to sounds more colloquial/informal

Damkerng T.

nods -- The problem is it's always were in the textbooks (except in the indicative mood as leoger discussed).

So I'm not sure how flexible it is that was could be used in the place of were.

Anonymous

Although both if I were and if I was are in use, the latter is somewhat less common than you'd expect given the frequency of were/was in general.

jimsug

06:50

Funnily, I had an English teacher who once insisted on if I was

Damkerng T.

@jimsug Hah!

Anonymous

A lot of people always use if I were for irrealis situations, even if they say things like "Well, if Bob was going to…"

jimsug

She'd make a big point when correcting your work, saying "if I was, not were."

Anonymous

That's weird.

Anonymous

Maybe my comment was misleading. I don't do a very good job with those sometimes.

Anonymous

06:52

Does it sound like it endorses the entire answer?

Damkerng T.

I thought that answer was incorrect until I saw your comment.

Anonymous

Or does it sound like I'm talking about was being grammatical?

Damkerng T.

Yes.

Though I don't agree with his reasoning.

Anonymous

Well, the answer isn't 100% accurate.

Damkerng T.

> On the other hand, if...was structure is fine if the thing is imaginably possible.

What?!

Anonymous

06:53

As jimsug demonstrated a few minutes ago.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

An answer could use real and unreal rather than realis and irrealis

jimsug

Yeah.

Anonymous

My phone doesn't think those are words :-(

Damkerng T.

Hehe! Your Autoincorrect is at work again!

jimsug

06:55

I've always found citing usage manuals for language to be a bit... untenable.

Usage manuals for English are like usage manuals for driving in a big city. There are rules that people are meant to follow but don't, and no matter how wrong you think something is, they'll probably keep doing it. There are also conventions for driving that you don't learn in a manual, so yeah.

But it's the best we have, I guess.

Anonymous

It made it real is!

Anonymous

I generally cite reference grammars, but sometimes it's interesting to learn that usage manuals support usages that appear standard from a descriptive perspective.

Anonymous

Like, very few usage manuals actually suggest that people shouldn't end sentences with prepositions. That's just some sort of folk thing that gets passed down and people end up believing, even today

Anonymous

Zombie grammar!

jimsug

I was going to call it fossil grammar.

But zombie is far more exciting.

Anonymous

06:58

Pullum points out that prescriptive grammar guides don't need to, in principle, ever disagree with descriptive grammars

Anonymous

You can give people advice while discussing the language as it seems to actually be

Damkerng T.

> In some structures we may put the prepositional object at or near the beginning of a clause. In this case, the preposition does not always go with it - it may stay together with 'its' noun, adjective or verb at the end of the clause. This happens especially in four cases:
wh-questions: Who's the present for?
relative structures: Joe's the person that I'm angry with.
passives: She likes to be looked at.
infinitive structures: The village is pleasant to live in.

> PEU 452.1

I love PEU. :D

jimsug

Isn't there that great preposition quote thingy?

Anonymous

Which one?

jimsug

Ending sentences with prepositions is something up with which I will not put.

Damkerng T.

07:00

LOL

Anonymous

Oh, yes. I first heard that in school, attributed to Churchill

Anonymous

Did you see the one I quoted the other day?

Damkerng T.

I wonder if that's grammatical!

Anonymous

It's not grammatical, but it's funny.

Damkerng T.

Phew! -- I thought my grammatron was malfunctioning for a while.

jimsug

07:01

en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill#Disputed

> "This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."

Anonymous

You can't strand part of put in put up with.

Anonymous

It's a whole banana. You can't split the banana.

Damkerng T.

Nice metaphor. :D

Anonymous

I said my sentence wrong but I can be forgiven as I am sick and on medication

Anonymous

Jul 24 at 20:45, by snailboat

> Speaker A: Excuse me, where's the library at?
> Speaker B: Here at Harvard, sir, we do not end a sentence with a preposition.
> Speaker A: Oh, sorry. Where's the library at, asshole?

Damkerng T.

07:05

Hooray!

Anonymous

I'm fond of that one.

jimsug

And therein lies the issue with treating written language as spoken language.

Really, you'd say "don't end a clause with a preposition" if you were to say it at all.

And for the above example, you'd still have ended that clause with a preposition.

Anonymous

Yeah, why do people say sentence? That's silly.

jimsug

Although I now can't remember whether clause means what I think it does in common usage.

@dam I mean clause as used in systemic functional grammar.

Damkerng T.

PEU says "clause" too!

Anonymous

07:12

In Japanese, I think Subjects are VP-internal arguments

Damkerng T.

Iirc, clause remains the same.

Anonymous

Sometimes I wonder whether I need this whole clause concept

Damkerng T.

In Japanese?

Anonymous

Yes

Anonymous

Relative VP just doesn't have the same ring to it :-(

Damkerng T.

07:21

Perhaps. I think that way because I feel the same for Thai.

Anonymous

Japanese has multiple word classes that can function as predicators

Anonymous

I'm still coming up with my own, inferior way of organizing everything :-)

Anonymous

I can't help myself. Must grammar…

jimsug

@snailboat Sentence is a graphological unit of organisation, like paragraph.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat You're writing your own version of IGEL for Japanese too, I guess. ;-)

jimsug

07:24

It's only useful insofar as you recognise that it's not a grammatical unit in and of itself, though it is certainly composed of one or more.

Anonymous

It's true that sentence divisions can be fairly arbitrary.

jimsug

Absolutely.

Do you call lone interjections sentences?

Ha!

Damkerng T.

A minor sentence?

Anonymous

The more sentence types, the better!

jimsug

Not for language learners, who are taught about sentences, then taught that they change and vary arbitrarily.

Anonymous

07:27

Oh, I just felt like typing a minor sentence.

jimsug

> Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go!

Oh wait, that's a miner sentence ;)

Damkerng T.

LOL

Anonymous

Too bad I can't star stuff from my phone!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It's okay. My grammar has "very wrong" in the title.

Damkerng T.

I think language is a bit like architecture.

I'll use a few photos of Thai architecture as our examples:

Anonymous

07:34

Pagoda!

Damkerng T.

Originally, Thai houses looked pretty much like that.

Anonymous

Sorry, go on, I just wanted to say pagoda.

Damkerng T.

This was built 220 years ago.

Anonymous

Ooh, pretty.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Pagoda is a nice word!

This was built 100 years ago.

Anonymous

07:36

The third one looks kind of like the American White House!

Damkerng T.

Yup!

I think it was Westernization of some sort.

I think it's similar to the concept of sentences and clauses in Thai.

Originally, we didn't write in sentences, I'd say.

But now, especially in formal writing, our sentences have pretty much the same structure as the structure of English sentences.

The building in the last photo (actually it's a palace) still looks very Thai, but you will have to stand very close to it. :D

See, not a single period, not a single comma, not even a single space. :D

Anonymous

It just occurred to me that relative tense is 相対テンス but relative clause is 関係節

Damkerng T.

Huh? Relative tense?

Anonymous

The former is really "relative" (opposite of 絶対) and the latter is actually more like "relation"

Anonymous

Japanese is often said to have a relative tense system

Damkerng T.

07:46

Interesting!

Anonymous

Tenses in subordinate clauses tend to locate situations in time relative to the superordinate clause above them

Anonymous

Although as I mentioned earlier た also has an aspectual interpretation

Anonymous

My pulse is still elevated. Being sick is weird.

Damkerng T.

Aww

Anonymous

It's 73 even though I'm lying down

Anonymous

07:49

My resting heart rate is normally 55-57

Anonymous

So this feels weird

Damkerng T.

^It says, "Get well soon."

Anonymous

Oh, that's cute! Thank you :-)

Damkerng T.

Welcome!

Anonymous

That's why I'm typing random things into chat. I can't focus really well right now, and I can't really sleep.

Anonymous

07:53

関係 is かんけい, it expresses a relationship between things. It's a very general term, so it can describe all sorts of relationships. It's just a link between A and B of some sort.

Anonymous

相対 is そうたい, it expresses 'relative' in the meaning 'not absolute'

Damkerng T.

Ahh... one is a link of sort, the other is about relativity.

Anonymous

関係 is a common word you need to know for Japanese, 相対 is more of a technical term

Anonymous

Although 絶対 is ぜったい 'absolute', and this word is very common

Anonymous

It's used as an intensifier!

Damkerng T.

07:57

Oh! Like English totally?

Anonymous

Yeah. Japanese has lots of intensifiers, including slangy ones

Anonymous

超 is ちょう 'super'

Anonymous

超かわいい 'super cute'

Anonymous

すごい is used in slang as a flat adverb (where standardly you'd have to say すごく)

Damkerng T.

I'm not sure if I've heard ちょう meaning "super", but I think I've heard "supa" before.

Hmm... was it in Japanese or in Korean?

Anonymous

08:00

超超超超どうでもいい 'I super super super super do not care'

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Hah!

Anonymous

スーパー is common in Japanese

Anonymous

It can be short for スーパーマーケット

Anonymous

It shows up a lot in fiction

Anonymous

Oh! That reminds me

Anonymous

08:03

The reason I had Dragon Ball on my mind is that they're making new episodes where the old ones left off.

Damkerng T.

Oh!

Like an extra?

Anonymous

It's called Dragon Ball Super but they wrote super with the 超 kanji

Damkerng T.

A-ha!

Anonymous

I read they're making at least 100 new episodes

Anonymous

So in that case 超 is スーパー and not ちょう but as a general principle you should assume ちょう

Damkerng T.

08:05

nods

Anonymous

Relative tense is interesting

Damkerng T.

I still have no idea why it's relative.

Anonymous

kyorin-u.ac.jp/univ/user/foreign/nikodebu/lectures(PDF)/4-3.pdf

Anonymous

Like, if the main clause is past, then a subordinate clause marked as past would be in the past of the past

Damkerng T.

Eh? Isn't that similar to English's past perfect?!

Anonymous

08:10

Well, except that the past perfect is doubly marked to indicate that

Anonymous

Because the past perfect is absolute tense

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I see.

Anonymous

When I'm at my computer later and typing is easier I'll explain it better :-)

Damkerng T.

I think I get it!

I think it's similar to Thai. :D

Anonymous

> 電車に乗る人は切符を買った。

Anonymous

08:14

Here the main clause is past and the relative clause is non past (here with a futurive interpretation)

Anonymous

The main clause having た sets the entire thing in the past. But the relative clause indicates something in the future relative to that past event.

Damkerng T.

So it's a future in the past!

Anonymous

They got on the train after buying the ticket, but the ticket was purchased in the past.

Anonymous

> 電車に乗った人は切符を買った。

Anonymous

Now both are marked past.

Anonymous

08:17

The purchasing of the ticket was in the past, but getting on the train was in the past relative to that.

Anonymous

So the time reference of the subordinate clause is relative to the time of the situation expressed by the main clause.

Anonymous

Explaining tense in Japanese can be a little tricky. But this is one of the key points :-)

Damkerng T.

But it works the same in Thai! :D

Anonymous

Great! It'll come naturally to you! :-)

Damkerng T.

I guess so. But it makes it a bit difficult to understand English!

Anonymous

08:20

It does seem quite different from English.

Anonymous

By the way, in Japanese, what I call "non-past" is (by default) interpreted as present for stative verbs, and as future for non-stative verbs

Anonymous

So for most verbs, it tends to have a future interpretation

Damkerng T.

Hmm...

Anonymous

Quite different from the English simple present, which only occasionally is interpreted as futurive!

Anonymous

> Yeah, we play their team next Wednesday.

Damkerng T.

08:27

That sentence is actually quite interesting. It works with or without จะ (Thai's will) in Thai.

Anonymous

But in Japanese: すしをたべるよ = "I'm going to eat sushi"

Anonymous

Same in English, but the sentence has some epistemic weakening with will

Anonymous

Although will can also be volitional

Anonymous

Without any epistemic weakening, the sentence sounds very certain, and is therefore appropriate when the event is pre-scheduled and you are certain of it

Anonymous

The easiest way to add epistemic weakening in Japanese is the modal だろう or its polite form でしょう

Anonymous

08:30

Both of which you'll hear all the time

Anonymous

English modals are tricky because of how polysemous they are. Most can represent multiple types of modality with different interpretations

Anonymous

Japanese modal expressions usually don't have polysemy between types of modality, so they're not as intimidating to learn :-)

Damkerng T.

Is it the same in Japanese? (I guess it is.)

Oh!

Anonymous

There are exceptions but most only express one type of modality

Anonymous

Like 〜にちがいない, which expresses 'must' as in something you have concluded is highly likely to be true, reasoning based on indirect evidence, but haven't directly observed

Anonymous

08:35

たぶん is like 'probably'

Anonymous

〜かもしれない indicates a low probability (you don't have much confidence; it may be true that…)

Anonymous

All of these have basically one meaning each :-)

Anonymous

Plus, most of these are pretty simple in terms of grammar

Anonymous

You can still fill a book with descriptions, but I find them simpler to describe than English modals, which have all sorts of wacky traits

Damkerng T.

It'd be nice if it's really straightforward.

Anonymous

08:42

A few of them are tricky to describe.

Anonymous

だろう may only express one kind of modality, but people argue over whether it expresses high or low certainty, or maybe you just have to get the level of certainty from context because with だろう it's unspecified

Anonymous

I wonder what modality in Thai is like

Damkerng T.

Hmm...

I think it's all hinged on จะ.

Let's start from English (because I'm not sure how to think of "modality" in Thai).

In English, there're will/would, shall/should, can/could, may/might, must, ought to.

Anonymous

In English we have the system of modal verbs, yes, and also the modal adverbs probably, maybe, and expressions in all likelihood, it's possible that, etc.

Damkerng T.

The typical equivalent/translated word for them are: will/would จะ อาจจะ คงจะ น่าจะ, shall/should จะ อาจจะ คงจะ น่าจะ, can/could จะ ได้, may/might จะ ได้ คง, must ต้อง จะต้อง, ought to ต้อง.

Anonymous

08:51

We focus on modal verbs a lot because they're so important and are special grammatically, but we have a number of other ways to express modality in English.

Damkerng T.

probably น่าจะ อาจจะ, maybe อาจจะ, in all likelihood เกือบจะแน่นอนว่า, it's possible เป็นไปได้ว่า

Most of the time, จะ คง น่า ได้ will get involved.

So we have a similar set of words which work somewhat like modal verbs somewhat like adverbs, with lots of overlapping, and none is really identical to its English equivalent word.

Which makes me come up with the idea that Thai is really more about hints, not tenses or aspects.

> He comes to tomorrow. เขา-มา-พรุ่งนี้ [he-come-tomorrrow]

> He will come to tomorrow. เขา-จะ-มา-พรุ่งนี้ [he-will-come-tomorrrow]

I think most people will do that when they translate English into Thai.

But!

If they think about it, it doesn't have to be like that.

Anonymous

There are people who suggest that there's been a Western imperialism of sorts when it comes to grammar—that ideas like subject aren't necessarily appropriate in all languages, etc., but these have been imposed on languages simply because that's how Western grammar always worked

Damkerng T.

เขา-มา-พรุ่งนี้ and เขา-จะ-มา-พรุ่งนี้ can be used for the same scenario.

Anonymous

Subject is just a random example.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Yes. I think it really has some impacts. (Similar to the architectural photos posted above.)

^Oh, I don't know why I typed to before tomorrow!

Ah, just got an (irrelevant) idea.

Perhaps Thai จะ is more like marked version of English will.

Hmm... not quite.

Because if I do that, it will be like I'm trying to map Thai proximal words to English here and there, but Thai has three ranges for that!

Anonymous

09:07

Proximal, medial, distal

Damkerng T.

Yes!

So, it's like Thai has unmarked, marked, and overmarked versions. :-)

Anonymous

Overmarked!

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

> a) จะ-มา-มั้ย [will-come-Q] "Will you come?"

> b) มา-มั้ย [come-Q] "Do you come?" (sort of)

> c) จะ-มา-มั้ย [WILL-come-Q] "Will. You. Come?"

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

09:25

@DamkerngT. Our inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M is actually an angel at times.

Damkerng T.

Well, I think we can prove one point. All votes are subjective. :D

It's more like we've proved it, even.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

BTW last night we've been to hell.

Anonymous

Oh?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Yeah.

Damkerng T.

Huh?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

09:32

So we decided to pay my grandpa a visit, the car broke down in the middle of the road, we pushed it for 1 kilometer, reached a gas station, asked for help, they arrived 2 hours later, the guy was a n00b and actually broke our car even further and couldn't fix it, took it to that emergency station or whatever it's called, and we came back home with another car.

Anonymous

Um.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

How. Ever,

Anonymous

I was in the other room.

Anonymous

I confused myself. :-)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

the hell wasn't as hot as they claim it to be.

Damkerng T.

09:34

A-ha!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

:23129291 We did crash into that idiot's mini-truck.

Damkerng T.

Eh?

Anonymous

Um.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Test: did that ping you @Dam?

Um.

Damkerng T.

Yup.

But @DamkerngT. did not.

I wonder why.

Anonymous

09:36

I can't ping MAR because I'm on my phone and would have to type at least 3 letters, but the third letter is too hard to type.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Hah! Kisses his username

Anonymous

@inɒ test

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Anonymous

@inɒ @inɒ @inɒ @inɒ @inɒ

Damkerng T.

:D

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

09:39

Blows up

Anonymous

I wonder why my phone won't let YouTube play in the background while I chat.

Anonymous

Maybe I have it set not to allow it to run backgrounded

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

13:05

0

Q: Eradicate comma splice

I saw the following (what I believe to be a) comma splice in an advert this morning and was wondering how you would go about remedying it. Be a part of it, visit [web address] Would it be better to substitute the comma for a dash?

Wow, this guy seems to be either a really advanced learner, or a native, or someone who lives in the UK/US, judging from the question they wrote.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

13:34

0

A: What does the phrase "other criteria" mean?

Yes. The Commonness ™ trial: COCA: First two results are: "and other criteria." and "and other criteria,". Ngrams: There are approximately 1.9M results, searching for PDF files that contain the exact phrase "other criteria". Approximately 4.5k results in Google books for "other criteria...

I love colorful answers.

Damkerng T.

15:07

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Nah.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I'm pretty sure they're not a Nah..

\o

@DamkerngT. Nima needs to change his mindset.

Ahmad, always a native speaker can understand most of my questions, do you know why? because most of the native speakers are educated and intelligent, although I have sometimes some mistakes or typoes. Thanks. — nima 24 mins ago

Maybe I overreacted, but his comment isn't constructive.

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M What?!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

What.

Damkerng T.

Some comments were removed?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

BTW @Dam I reached 2k! Yay! This answer of mine got accepted, and I now haz mod tools. I'm sure ELL is gonna graduate in 2 hours, so I'd miss it.

@DamkerngT. No.

I know it doesn't make sense.

Damkerng T.

15:19

It's strange that that comment was posted after the commenter's answer and probably after that answer was accepted.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M An advanced learner, yes. But nah, not a native speaker, I think.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. He's weird. But he says educated natives understand me. which is after Ahmad asks questions, unprofessionally, in two comments. That comes out as outright rude.

Damkerng T.

I agree that it's rude, but I wonder why he said that after he got and probably accepted their answer.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

BTW @Dam I changed my profile picture.

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Eh?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

It's less 3D.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M, Iran

2k 1 8 32

grammar meaning conjunctions expressions sentence-construction sentence-meaning word-usage

Damkerng T.

15:23

You look sort of like a Unicode character now. :P

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I'm now officiallily unofficially a [5,5,5,5]fenestrane.

So, @Dam could you proofread my last answer?

Damkerng T.

I'm not wearing my glasses at the moment.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Ah, so you have glasses too? I haz too. And @snail haz too.

Weird.

Damkerng T.

Hmm...

> There are approximately 1.9M results, searching for PDF files that contain the exact phrase "other criteria".

Try to get past the 43th page.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

BTW maybe you need to clean up your articles: "Here, in order to reduce the complexity we encounter in (33), we use the approximation of X. The approximation for X is given by:" Now I need to think why this sounds more natural to me than your original revision . . . — inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M 20 secs ago

@DamkerngT. Wow, you read it that fast?

Applauds

. . . himself.

Damkerng T.

15:29

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M I read from the bottom up.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Huh.

Damkerng T.

> Approximately 4.5k results in Google books for "other criteria".

Reading "Google books" makes me feel weird.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Why?

Damkerng T.

It makes me think that all those books belong to Google.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Nah.

Damkerng T.

15:33

Or Google made or published those books.

But I guess that many native speakers may write that.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I don't think I feel it that way. Try treating "Google books" as a single unit.

Damkerng T.

Yes. What are these books?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

On your shelf?

@DamkerngT. I mean, imagine it's like a bag you open and look inside.

Damkerng T.

In any case, I think writing Google Books is better because that's what it is.

Though strangely enough, their logo seems to use the lowercase books.

Oh, Google does this to everything they own now, I think.

It's Google Play, but the logo says "Google play".

Strangely enough, the logo of Google Images or Google Image Search on this page: images.google.com is in the proper case.

Well, I guess this point is not serious, 'cause The Commonness ™!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Hah!

My new profile pic rocks. As always.

Damkerng T.

15:44

Hey, the small version of your icon looks like a button on some game pad.

> There's also "et al.", "among others" and "and suchlike".

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

It's just a window. Puppy eyes

Damkerng T.

There are, I think.

> I'm not really sure though if et al. fits your context very well, despite its overwhelming usage boost.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

There's suddenly told me it's the truly correct version.

Damkerng T.

I wonder how often people write "sure though if" without commas.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M That's interesting.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

What is is referring to?

Damkerng T.

15:47

You seem to want to refer to three things in the same chart as one thing.

> . . . Organizing deadlines, schedules, and other criteria.

That's a curious fragment.

It's just a bullet point on a resume. — Adam 2 hours ago

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

They accepted my answer, which I interpreted as they were looking for etc..

Damkerng T.

So maybe that ". . ." is some Unicode character commonly used to introduce a bullet point.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Was your answer the first?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. No, the second.

And then it got the comments and stuff.

Damkerng T.

Interesting!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Oh, correction:

I'm a [5.5.5.5]fenestrane now.

Damkerng T.

15:52

Ahh... you substituted periods for commas.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

That's a very important change, actually.

Commas indicate substituted groups while dots are referring to carbon in geometry.

Damkerng T.

Maybe I should've said "dots" instead of "periods". The word period seems more appropriate when it's used to end a sentence. Dunno.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Yeah, that too.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... the other two answers are interesting.

They took the question (that phrase) differently.

One suggested:

> Ensuring deadlines, schedules, and other criteria are met.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I'm still worryingly at 2001 rep.

Damkerng T.

15:56

The other suggested:

> I helped develop the criteria upon which the acceptance of applicants was determined.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Eh?

I thought we don't worry about reps. :D

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

42 mins ago, by inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

BTW @Dam I reached 2k! Yay! This answer of mine got accepted, and I now haz mod tools. I'm sure ELL is gonna graduate in 2 hours, so I'd miss it.

Damkerng T.

Yes. I mean, we Yay about the reps, but we don't worry about them. :D

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

̿ ̿'̿'\̵͇̿̿\з=(•_•)=ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿

Damkerng T.

BTW, your avatar makes me think of origami. :D

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