Language Overflow

Anonymous

00:00

Ah, the question body doesn't ask the same thing as the question title

Anonymous

We typically say, "n days from today". And since "1 day from today" can't mean today (that would be 0 days from today) we'd say "2 days from now" or "2 days from today" to mean Tuesday if today was Sunday. — Jim 21 mins ago

Catija

Nope. It needs to be retitled, probably, but the content is what's intriguing... I wonder what their native language is.

Anonymous

But unless someone has a reason to emphasize the number seven, how often does anyone say "I'll see you in seven days" instead of "I'll see you in a week"?

Anonymous

"A week from today" is good if you need to be specific.

Catija

Right. After six days, I switch to "a week" and then go back to numbers until "fortnight"... because I like that word.

Anonymous

00:02

I can't guess their native language based on this question alone

Anonymous

I wonder what it is

Catija

Their user page doesn't say location :(

Anonymous

It sounds like they don't want to share that information

Catija

The User name is Hindu and male.

bachpan.com/Meaning-of-Lavya.aspx

Anonymous

I've read an awful lot of things online today that don't make any sense.

Catija

00:09

@snailboat Awww, sorry. The internet is full of that.

Anonymous

It sure is! :-)

Damkerng T.

01:54

@Catija Thanks!

Damkerng T.

02:25

I wonder in what language people say "a Sunday's third day" to mean a Tuesday.

Anonymous

Me too, but I have a feeling they're not going to tell us.

Damkerng T.

I think it's possible, even in English, to say "the third evening from now" to mean Tuesday's evening if we are in the morning or the afternoon of a Sunday.

Anonymous

Hmm . . .

Anonymous

If I search for phrases like that all I find are translations of the Christian bible

Damkerng T.

Oh!

Greek, perhaps, then?

But it doesn't fit the nature of the place they depicted.

Anonymous

02:41

Um, I don't know what language the relevant passage(s?) were written in.

Damkerng T.

03:25

No, there's no general rule for using prepositions. — snailboat 3 hours ago

There is!

The general rule for prepositions is, there is no general rule.

;-)

(That being said, I think the metaphor of point, surface, and container works quite satisfactorily, generally.)

0

Q: when to use have been

I have read that we use "have been" with the present perfect continuous as in the formula [has/have + been + present participle], e.g., You have been waiting here for two hours. But sometimes I read sentences formed as [has/have + been + v3], e.g., the forest has been cleared . I am c...

In the same situation, what makes one speaker say,

> a) I've been waiting here for two hours.

and another says,

> b) I've waited here for two hours.

Is an explanation along the lines of the idea that they say b) because they think the waiting is over enough?

That's why teach teach collocation nowadays, I think.

It'd be helpful.

I still think reading a lot (or listening a lot) is better, though. The most important thing is that the learner should know precisely what the expression means, at least in deep reading.

Damkerng T.

04:08

0

Q: What's the meaning of 'lay over'?

Dictionary says 'lay over' means 'a short stop in a journey', 'stopover', but I don't understand this sentence translating 'lay over' as 'stopover'. Here is the sentence, which is from 'Baker's blue-jay yarn' by Mark Twain: And there's yet another thing; in the one little particular of sco...

meaning meaning-in-context

A short by Mark Twain!

Anonymous

Great question!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. But sometimes that requires memorizing which sort of metaphor is used with which words for which meaning.

Damkerng T.

A few minutes glance over the short gave me the idea that this "lay over" means "lay his words over".

Though I'm not really sure what Twain meant.

Anonymous

in English Language & Usage, Aug 22 '14 at 2:21, by RegDwigнt

@snailboat well, they should totally go explain why I am married on my wife but she's married behind me. I'm being honest here, it actually applies to myself and I am actually waiting for an explanation.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Exactly!

Anonymous

04:10

That's about Russian.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Which unfortunately doesn't reduce the amount of memorization required

Damkerng T.

My advice (I'm a non-native speaker): Don't bother to ask why. Just keep aligning the words with their senses in your mind until their senses are natural to you. Give special care to the uses that surprise you (because they interfere with your first language). The concept of abstract vs. concrete nouns may be helpful. — Damkerng T. 21 hours ago

Anonymous

Because different languages use different metaphors.

Anonymous

Besides which, many function words are so polysemous it can be difficult to assign any particular meaning to them.

Anonymous

Of, for example, tends to be used when you want to relate a noun to another noun and don't have any more specific way that seems better to you at the moment.

Damkerng T.

04:12

@snailboat Yes. I plan to use the term "unit" or "item" instead of words and phrases.

I don't know if my guess of "lay over" correct. It makes sense to me to read/understand it that way.

@snailboat Come to think of it, I think that's exactly why prepositions are hrad.

Even though using the wrong prepositions wouldn't cause much trouble.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I'm still trying to think of how to explain it.

Damkerng T.

How about "taking a dab at"?

Anonymous

Is that related to the Twain quote?

Damkerng T.

It's from a short by Twain.

eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/WhaStu.shtml

Anonymous

What about it?

Anonymous

04:21

I don't see "taking a dab at" here

Damkerng T.

I didn't want to read about it, so I browsed over it, a bit here and there.

Anonymous

I'm just trying to understand 'How about "taking a dab at"'

Damkerng T.

> And there's yet another thing; in the one little particular of scolding - just good, clean, out-and-out scolding - a blue-jay can lay over anything, human or divine. Yes, sir, a jay is everything that a man is.

Anonymous

I actually read this blue jay thingy already

Damkerng T.

@snailboat For the bird's "lay over".

Oh!

Anonymous

04:22

@DamkerngT. I don't see the connection

Damkerng T.

Oh, hmm... what does it mean, then?

Anonymous

They're better at scolding than anyone or anything else

Damkerng T.

Oh, so "lay over" means scolding?

Anonymous

in the one little particular of scolding, a bluejay can lay over anything
→ a bluejay can lay over anything in the one little particular of scolding

Damkerng T.

This is my first thought:

14 mins ago, by Damkerng T.

A few minutes glance over the short gave me the idea that this "lay over" means "lay his words over".

Anonymous

04:24

I'm waiting to see someone else answer it :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, that sounds pretty much like a dab to me! (figuratively)

Anonymous

I don't understand the dab thing

Damkerng T.

Touching a subject briefly.

Though I didn't think of it as either a good or bad thing.

Or a good or bad angle.

If it was used to mean "scolding", it would be only about bad things or talking not nicely.

Anonymous

I'm still trying to think of how to put this

Anonymous

First

Anonymous

04:26

> You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, in a measure - because he's got feathers on him, and don't belong to no church, perhaps; but otherwise he is just as much a human as you be. And I'll tell you for why. A jay's gifts, and instincts, and feelings, and interests, cover the whole ground.

Anonymous

And in particular, they're good at swearing. And one particular little thing, scolding, they're especially good at.

Anonymous

That's how I understood it.

Damkerng T.

That passage made me not sure if Twain was really talking about the bird. :P

@snailboat I see. So maybe to be more specific, it may not be quite like "lay his words over", but "lay his scolding over".

Anonymous

Well, that's not how I understood it, but . . .

Anonymous

You can lay out your own interpretation if you'd like :-)

Anonymous

04:30

I haven't committed to an exact interpretation of lay over yet

Anonymous

As a spatial metaphor

Damkerng T.

What's challenging, I think, is that dictionaries define "lay over" in its own entries.

nods

Anonymous

He's not using lay over the way people tend to these days.

Catija

Well, whatever the answer is, it's not what the answer says.

Damkerng T.

The definitions seem to evoke similar visualization for me, but I think the way it's defined, it's too specific to be used to explain Twain's short.

Anonymous

04:32

So it's possible that the way I intuitively understand it today is different from what he had in mind when he wrote it in 1880.

Catija

"lay it on me" is a phrase used to mean "tell me the information".

Damkerng T.

@Catija Oh, we've got an answer now?

Anonymous

Yes, but I'm ignoring it :-)

Anonymous

By the way, when I search for academic papers about transitive adjectives, I find papers about transitive nouns! (All in languages other than English, of course.)

Damkerng T.

Huh! "transitive nouns"!

Catija

04:35

I mentally imagine a scolding mother who causes someone to bend backwards away from the loudness of the scolding... and the implication is that a jay can do this even to the divine because he cares not who is bearing the brunt of his words.

Damkerng T.

@Catija A-ha! The definitions in dictionaries for "lay on" seem to make sense for this "lay over"!

Anonymous

If you lay someone out, you're causing them to be sprawled across the ground (like with a punch)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yeah, like, I found a paper called Transitive Nominals in Old Avestan

Anonymous

Um.

Catija

@snailboat Yes. So if your scolding hits so hard, it's like a punch and causes them to be knocked out, that's a powerful punch.

Anonymous

04:38

If they need us to define scolding, then lay out seems like it might be a bit too difficult for them to focus on right now :-)

Anonymous

@Catija Yeah, I thought of something like that, too.

Anonymous

But I wasn't sure, to be honest.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I guess so!

I don't know what we should do with the question (scolding), though.

"but that word from the sentence below, I guess, should be translated differently."

Anonymous

The OED's version seems more like the way I originally read it

Damkerng T.

It would be better if they added what they think it should be translated to.

@snailboat Oh! I don't have access to the OED website.

But I have downloaded OED1.

Anonymous

04:44

> 57.c. ? U.S. colloq. To excel, to ‘put in the shade’.

Anonymous

> 1876 Mark Twain Tramp Abr. (1880) I. ii. 19 In scolding . . . a blue-jay can lay over anything, human or divine.

Damkerng T.

Hah!

OED even quotes this line!

Anonymous

So the editors of the OED understood it the same way I did, suggesting that they were better at scolding than anyone or anything else, human or divine

Anonymous

In other ways jays are equal to humans, but they're especially good at swearing, and scolding, well, they're champions of scolding

Catija

They must be champions if the gods can't beat them. :)

Damkerng T.

04:46

That's completely different from my guess.

It feels good when we learn something new. Something surprising. :-)

Catija

Indeed. :)

Anonymous

If I could monitor my blood glucose without using one of those stabby things diabetics use, I'd do it all the time. I love keeping track of vital signs.

Catija

I thought they had new methods that didn't require the stabbity things.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I've heard about some health wristwatches in China. Not sure if it would cover that. Probably not.

Anonymous

@Catija I was reading about those! But my friend (who is diabetic) was telling me that they cost a lot of money.

Catija

04:51

@snailboat Well, the price will drop eventually. :P Maybe they'll put one in the next iPhone. HA HA HA

Damkerng T.

@Catija It could be true some day soon!

Anonymous

Didja you know you can get a heart rate monitor app? It measures minute changes in the color of your fingertip through the camera lens.

Anonymous

And you can see a real-time photoplethysmogram with just your phone! :-)

Anonymous

I've been wanting to use that word so much.

Damkerng T.

Huh? That's a new trick for me!

@snailboat photoplethysmogram?

What a word!

Anonymous

04:53

Yes! Photoplethysmogram! :-)

Anonymous

But, um, you can just say pleth.

Damkerng T.

or PPG. :P

Anonymous

That's no fun.

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Anonymous

How many words are shaped like pleth, I ask you? The answer: one! Pleth is!

Anonymous

04:54

Sylvia Plath is a close second.

Damkerng T.

I don't know why pleth makes me think of Bleh! :P

Anonymous

Photoplethysmogram is one of those funny medical words like sphygmomanometer that you hope no one ever asks you to spell. Or pronounce. Or remember in any way.

Catija

They can use the really fancy ones in hospitals to measure blood oxygen levels, too.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat That makes me think, what's a common word for sphygmomanometer?

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Blood pressure . . . measuring . . . thingy?

Damkerng T.

04:57

Haha!

Anonymous

Blood pressure meter.

Anonymous

I guess.

Anonymous

Mine says "blood pressure monitor" on it. It's automatic.

Catija

I'd go with monitor, too.

Damkerng T.

I've heard that the automatic meters aren't very reliable. Maybe it's just over here.

Anonymous

04:58

Some are better than others. You also have to use them correctly.

Anonymous

If you want to know if yours is good, ① follow all the directions precisely, ② use one that refuses to turn on if you have it put on incorrectly, ③ take it to the doctor's office and compare to manual readings each time you go

Anonymous

Omron makes some good ones. In general arm cuffs are more accurate than wrist cuffs, mainly because it's easier to use the wrist ones incorrectly.

Catija

My dentist's office use the wrist ones... and you have to hold them over your heart while they measure.

Damkerng T.

I haven't even seen the wrist ones!

Oh, wait. I think I did. I just never thought of it as "wrist".

I thought it measured from the "arm".

Anonymous

@Catija Yeah, you have to have them at heart height for them to work. The good ones actually refuse to work if you have them at the wrong height (or move them out of the right position while they're going)

Catija

05:04

... Has anyone wondered why an ELL is even trying to read Twain's Blue Jay Yarn thingy? I'd never even heard of it before and it seems a bit esoteric for a learner... and he sure is asking a lot of questions about it.

Damkerng T.

@Catija My guess. It's an assignment. :P

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. The wrist ones measure on your forearm near the hand, but not quite where you'd normally put a watch.

Anonymous

They don't work properly if they overlap the radial styloid process.

Anonymous

Which is the small bony protrusion on the outside of your wrist (if your palms are facing down)

Damkerng T.

Maybe I can find some photos of it.

Anonymous

05:05

@Catija I don't know. People can read what they like, though, I suppose :-)

Anonymous

At their level, though, it would be more effective to read something easier.

Catija

I think this is what the one I've seen looks like:

heartratemonitorsusa.com/…

Anonymous

Those are good! :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, does it look like this?

Anonymous

I've had two different Omron wrist ones.

Catija

05:06

@DamkerngT. The ones I've seen usually have the display on the back of the wrist, not the front... I think.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Well, yes, although they're not wearing it properly . . . ?

Damkerng T.

I'll admit, I'd never seen the wrist one before.

@snailboat Oh!

Anonymous

My guess is someone wanted to make a photo more than use the device properly.

Damkerng T.

Haha!

I'm more used to something like this (at the hospital):

sellesmedical.co.uk/system/images/data/000/004/795/original/…

Anonymous

Oh, we have that sort at drug stores here.

Anonymous

05:08

It's like, buy some medicine, get your blood pressure taken for free! It's exciting.

Catija

The funny thing is that all of the images have the display on that side.

Anonymous

But all of my doctors have always used the actual manual sort.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Hah! That's interesting! I wonder why no drug store over here does that!

Anonymous

The manual sort is great if you're ① trained ② not lazy ③ two people.

Anonymous

I happen to be one person, so it's easier for me to use the automatic type.

Catija

05:09

Anonymous

Automatic blood pressure monitors are the best thing ever.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat With the stethoscope?

Anonymous

Yep! Like Catija's picture!

Anonymous

That's the kind I've always had people use at hospitals.

Anonymous

And doctor's offices more generally.

Damkerng T.

05:10

nods -- A lot of doctors here say it's the most reliable method.

Anonymous

I'm actually happy with my new Omron wrist monitor.

Anonymous

It's pretty accurate.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Yay!

Anonymous

I think some of the earliest wrist monitors were particularly problematic.

Damkerng T.

If it's accurate, being convenient would be a big plus!

Anonymous

05:12

It isn't exactly the same as what I get told at the doctor, but it's pretty close.

Anonymous

Plus it keeps track of the last 200 measurements with dates and times, along with my pulse.

Anonymous

@Catija I'd love a monitor that could check my blood oxygen level! I don't even know why I'd want to know that, but I'm sure there's some reason.

Damkerng T.

I've actually got one (from my aunt who is a doctor), but it's ridiculously unreliable.

Anonymous

Oh no!

Catija

I think it tells you how well your lungs are functioning?

Anonymous

05:13

My best friend has a Panasonic one that gives crazy numbers.

Anonymous

@Catija Oh! That sounds important. I do have asthma. But it's not serious.

Damkerng T.

Every time it would read my blood pressure as something like 56-98.

Which is very far from the reading I get when I see a doctor!

Anonymous

My sister's asthmatic, and unfortunately she started chain smoking when she was younger. That was really dangerous for her.

Damkerng T.

@Catija Eh? It could? Cool!

@snailboat Chain smoking, as in one cigarette after another?

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I do get double-digit systolic readings sometimes, but they're not dangerously low. But in my case that makes sense . . .

Anonymous

05:16

I don't know how to interpret 56-98

Anonymous

Is that diastolic-systolic?

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Yes.

Catija

I only know about it from when I was in the hospital with my grandmother and she died... she was on a respirator and when they turned it off, the numbers slowly dropped because her breathing wasn't strong enough to keep enough oxygen in her blood.

Anonymous

That's like my blood pressure when standing up makes me quite dizzy.

Damkerng T.

My systolic's never been lower than 115 at the hospital.

@Catija Aww

Anonymous

05:17

My doctor tells me stuff like I should have more salt

Anonymous

@Catija Oh, that's sad

Catija

@snailboat That's unusual. Most doctors tell people to eat less salt.

Anonymous

Well, too little salt will kill you.

Anonymous

And if you have healthy kidneys and drink enough water, your body will get rid of excess salt pretty easily.

Damkerng T.

Moderation is good for mods. :P

Catija

05:18

@snailboat certainly, it's necessary, but most food in the US has so much added sodium it's difficult to get too little.

Anonymous

Well, I don't eat food out of a box.

Catija

You must eat a lot of whole foods and avoid the processed crap.

Anonymous

I cook all of my own food

Anonymous

Of course, huge amounts of salt would be bad for anyone

Catija

That's smart. We cook sometimes but we eat out a lot. When we do eat at home, we usually make it from scratch. I don't like all of the prepared meals and stuff like that. It's usually too sweet.

Anonymous

05:20

If I try white bread now, I taste the sugar.

Anonymous

I know the bread is the same as when I used to not be able to taste it.

Anonymous

But my body isn't used to getting so much sugar all the time anymore, so it stands out for me.

Anonymous

I feel like I used to be addicted to sugary foods, but now they just taste kind of gross to me.

Anonymous

I've been eating potatoes instead of bread :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat You could survive on Mars! :P

Anonymous

05:22

@DamkerngT. Oh god, I can't imagine eating nothing but potatoes.

Anonymous

Do you have any idea how many potatoes I'd have to eat each day to meet my total daily energy expenditure?

Anonymous

Potatoes are so satiating, I can't imagine eating more than two in a day.

Damkerng T.

Frankly, no! :-)

Anonymous

I find that if you eat whole foods, it's really hard to overeat.

Damkerng T.

Potatoes are more like a side dish to me, anyhow.

Ahh

Is rice a whole food?

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

05:24

It's a hole food.

Anonymous

I do eat brown rice

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M You don't eat rice?

Anonymous

White rice is brown rice with the hulls removed, which removes a lot of the nutrients, but it also removes the phytic acid which lowers the bioavailability of nutrients in brown rice

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@DamkerngT. Not more than 3 kilos a day.

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M LOL

@snailboat I mix them.

Catija

05:25

When I was a kid I couldn't eat brown rice... not because I was allergic or anything... for some reason I would chew and chew but I couldn't make myself swallow it. Not sure what that was about. Now I love brown rice.

Damkerng T.

@Catija Yay! I think it's similar for me. I still love both white and browse, so I mix the two. :-)

Anonymous

Brown rice may be a whole food, by the way, but soy sauce isn't :-)

Catija

I've never tried mixing them... It is nice, though... the brown rice at Thai restaurants in town is some of the best I've had. The grains are really different... darker and plumper. Not sure what sort of specialty rice it is.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Soy sauce is yummy. ;-)

Anonymous

(Not that I'm telling anyone not to have soy sauce.)

Catija

05:27

Soy sauce is fermented. Fermented stuff is good for you.

Anonymous

My favorite is jasmine rice.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Yay! Jasmine rice is the best.

Anonymous

@Catija Most soy sauce also has gluten, which is actually fine for me. My body tells me to gluten away if I want. I was surprised to learn that, though.

Catija

@snailboat I do like it a lot... the Indian restaurants have such fragrant rice... and it's so long. None of the jasmine rice I can ever find is as long grain as in Indian places.

Anonymous

@Catija You can ferment brown rice.

Catija

05:29

@snailboat Wheat-free tamari is all the rage here... most restaurants will even bring you a bottle if you ask for it especially.

Anonymous

I don't have any special intolerances other than dairy (so I supplement calcium)

Anonymous

Fermenting brown rice to reduce phytic acid content: wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/04/…

Damkerng T.

Talking about rice makes me hungry. :-)

Gotta have some. :D BBL!

Anonymous

I can talk about food as much as I want because I'm so full I can't imagine eating :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Enjoy!

Anonymous

05:36

@DamkerngT. I'm happy when my systolic is around 115. They say under 120 is good, and I feel fine if it's over 100. If it gets too low I start to get symptoms.

Anonymous

A few years ago I got a measurement over 120.

Anonymous

My family has naturally low blood pressure and pulse rates, I think.

Anonymous

There've been people in my family who had to get pacemakers due to their pulse falling too low overnight while they slept.

Anonymous

My resting heart rate is around 55 lately, and my brother's is below 50 (but he's more athletic than I am)

Anonymous

But my doctor gives me EKGs and tells me my heart is fine.

Damkerng T.

06:33

@snailboat I tend to have a higher systolic, more like around 130.

Our "lay over" question still hasn't gotten a correct answer. :-)

Anonymous

You can quote the OED! :-)

Anonymous

I put the quote up there.

Damkerng T.

Ah, don't you want to answer that question? :D

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I guess a lot of it has to do with genetics.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I'm tired! :-)

Damkerng T.

06:36

@snailboat I see. Okay, I'll clear a little of my stuff first. If it still hasn't gotten any new answer in 10-20 minutes, I'll answer it.

@snailboat nods

@snailboat Have a lot of good rest!

Damkerng T.

07:52

0

A: In simple words, what is the difference between 'possible' and 'probable'?

As you are Persian: Possible = امکان دارد Probable = احتمال دارد Possibility refers to the conditions required something happens. If he sits on that chair, it is possible that it broke It means because he is heavy, by sitting on the chair the conditions for breaking the chair is prov...

> As you are Persian:
Possible = امکان دارد Probable = احتمال دا

I'm not a big fan of bilingual dictionary.

I understand that it could be helpful, at first, to relate words in L2 to words in L1.

But I wish the = sign would've been ~ or some other symbol that suggests that they're not exactly the same.

And after skimming through the answer, I think it's incorrect.

(sadly)

Damkerng T.

08:33

I can't say anything about Persian, but judging from your explanation, I think you misunderstood the two words. It's as other answers say, possible means it "can" happen, and probable means it's "likely" to happen. — Damkerng T. 21 mins ago

A comment could give you more work!

Ugh!

4

A: "Dare to be dull"

I didn't watch the video, but it is a play on a whole series of "Dare to be..." statements. I've heard "Dare to be different", "Dare to be you", "Dare to be strong", etc.. They all mean that you should have the courage to do something you are a little afraid of doing. "Dare to be dull" is a lit...

Before I posted my own answer, that answer has only 3 votes, iirc.

Now it's 4!

Mine is still at 0. -- Is my answer wrong or something?

I dare say that that answer is incorrect, even!

(They answered it without watching the video!)

Man_From_India

Good afternoon @DamkerngT.

Damkerng T.

Good afternoon!

It was quite a while, eh? :-)

Anonymous

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M I changed my mind. I think the odds that they're the same person are much higher now that I started paying attention :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Still awake! Still tired :-)

Anonymous

Hi, @Man_From_India!

Anonymous

08:40

@DamkerngT. In my experience, monolingual dictionaries define things more usefully, but bilingual dictionaries often give lots of example sentence pairs, and I think those examples can be pretty useful!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Aww

Anonymous

That's more about large Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionaries, though, not about other language pairs

Anonymous

Also, people have suspected that one user = that other user for years: math.stackexchange.com/questions/620236/…

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Probably a fork where one uses plain English and the other uses a formal English. :P

@snailboat I've posted my third comment already. Hopefully the last.

Man_From_India

My internet :(

Can't connect properly

Damkerng T.

08:42

@Man_From_India Aww

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I think that trying to equate words between languages can be a really bad idea. But surprisingly, it often works with very technical vocabulary :-)

Man_From_India

Very bad weather here, continuous rain here almost imprisoned me in home :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Ah, a snail detective is pumped! :P

Man_From_India

@snailboat How r u doing?

Damkerng T.

@Man_From_India Oh, yes. We've got lots of rains over here too.

Anonymous

08:44

@DamkerngT. I'm just interested. I noticed a cluster of users that do things together that all committed to Law Area 51, but then only one of them signed up for an actual account when it went into beta

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Because (my maxim) difficult words are easy. ;-)

Man_From_India

In most places it caused flood.

Anonymous

And interestingly, they make the same conceptual mistakes as one another.

Damkerng T.

Oh, no! @Man_From_India

@snailboat Ah, that's really interesting!

Anonymous

I don't mean to say they're the same person (I have no way of knowing), it's just interesting.

Damkerng T.

08:47

I know. I was just kidding. :-)

Anonymous

It hadn't occurred to me that someone might commit to their favorite Area 51 proposal multiple times to get it running without the required amount of people

Damkerng T.

> "Dare to be dull" is a little funny. It made me laugh when I read it. We don't normally encourage people to be boring. From the video, you'll need to figure out whether in context this was meant as a joke, or whether the person was earnestly telling people to have the courage to be boring if that is who they are.

That sounds like they thought "dare to be dull" means "dare to be boring".

That's indeed wrong.

This "dare to be dull" was used to mean "dare to be not smart".

sigh

Better have some tea. :D

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