Language Overflow

StoneyB

01:37

@snailboat Let's not forget their companions § (or #), ‖, ¶ (or Δ) and ☞ ! (The alternates are attributed by Wikipedia to John Bach McMaster's multi-volume History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War (1883 sqq.))

Anonymous

Oh! Neat! I didn't know about # or △.

Anonymous

Wait, you typed Δ, not △.

Anonymous

Chat just reversed the order of my messages! I edited them back into order :-)

tchrist

@snailboat Really?

Most of SE seems wedged right now. It might be some fallout from that.

StoneyB

I just checked my Bryce, *The Holy Roman Empire*—that's very pedestrian, using superscript lowercase alphabetics.

tchrist

01:41

—

StoneyB

Quite so.

Anonymous

*Test*—Test 　 *Test*―Test

StoneyB

What!?

Anonymous

Maybe I'll have to get into the habit of using a spaced en-dash in chat.

Anonymous

Test – Test

Anonymous

01:43

Test – Test

Anonymous

Test – Test

Anonymous

I need to add a regular non-breaking space to my input method.

Anonymous

And a non-non-breaking thin space :-)

StoneyB

Is there a non-breaking thin space?

Anonymous

' '

Anonymous

01:46

I use it when I type . . . ellipses

Anonymous

At least on this computer. I don't have fancy stuff set up on other computers.

StoneyB

Good on you. I detest the scrunched-up Unicharacter ellipsis points.

Anonymous

The pre-made ellipsis is used a lot in Japanese, but I have software problems with it sometimes. It doesn't render consistently.

tchrist

I always space my ellipses.

Anonymous

> 窓も同じだった。船の両舷に取り付けられたいくつもの窓……。　← At the end here.

Anonymous

01:49

For me, it's inconsistent whether it renders in the middle or at the bottom.

tchrist

like . . . this

Anonymous

That is the same spacing I have saved in my input method! :-)

tchrist

Those have U+202F around the dots.

StoneyB

@tchrist Why are all the readily available fonts so chintzy with space around points? And why are the points so faint?

Anonymous

I type tententen and it turns into ' . . . '

tchrist

01:51

@StoneyB Because they expect kerning rules to kick in to fix it all.

Anonymous

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. is also on team ' . . . '

Anonymous

I used tententen because I already have '...' set to convert into '…'.

Anonymous

Ten is Japanese for 'dot'.

StoneyB

@tchrist Yes, but they don't.

tchrist

@StoneyB Web browsers by and large can’t/don’t kern.

StoneyB

01:57

I'm getting to an age where I can no longer read anything but works typeset in the UK in the 1930s.

tchrist

Hardcovers are a lot nicer than cheap mass-market paperbacks.

In terms of their type.

StoneyB

That's what I grew up on. Behold the semicolon! Behold the quotation marks!

tchrist

Looks weird.

Damkerng T.

The typeset above is in stark contrast to this innovation(?): slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2015/10/…

StoneyB

<sigh> “We don’t want students to go too long without having to do something with the information they’re acquiring.” The mantra is: “Read a little, do a little.”</sigh>

That is, they are never taught to read. They are never taught to enter into a dialogue with the text.

tchrist

02:13

No attention spans, no retention.

StoneyB

No interaction with the text. Interactivity is something that happens outside the text.

Damkerng T.

Sometimes I wonder where we're heading to.

StoneyB

Are we headed somewhere?

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Nihilist_Frost

02:29

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPTOvcMPr1eP1eE7D5_r5oh4Ezut2MbUA5MwdK9

Some of my vowels. Which ones are they?

StoneyB

are full of platitudinous methodology

404. That’s an error.

The requested URL was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

Nihilist_Frost

oops

probably wrong way

goo.gl/photos/zz9d9ktP3gWraLLB8

try that

Damkerng T.

The last three vowels sound exactly like ones in Thai.

The 6th vowel makes me think of Chinese "ye".

My CGEL has just arrived!

4

It surely can be used as a door stopper!

3.1 kg!

Anonymous

02:59

@Nihilist_Frost Which vowels do you suppose they are? :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I starred your message! :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Thanks! (Yay!)

The paper they use is much better than I expected.

Fantasier

03:20

The first time I saw CGEL in the library I was like... Wow that sure is huge.

Fantasier

03:34

I thought about borrowing it but then, um, I couldn't put the book in my bag without destructing it, so I changed my mind.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

09:14

@snailboat It's an honor working with you. Shakes hands

Damkerng T.

11:26

@Fantasier You'd need a big big bag for that. :-)

Nihilist_Frost

@snailboat that was my own voice BTW

Damkerng T.

12:15

1

Q: What does the "that" refer to?

You use 'of' to combine two nouns when the first noun identifies the feature of the second noun that you want to talk about. I am not sure what "I" want to talk about in the sentence. Talking about "the feature" or talking about "the second noun"?

pronouns

Genuinely ambiguous?

"the name of the hash object that you want to traverse"

"in the Duration box, type the number of seconds that you want"

"Click the Download icon in the upper-right corner of the item that you want to download."

"Download the version of Joomla! that you want to use"

"the absence of what it is that you want to know"

"the negative aspects of your current culture that you want to eliminate"

^Some results of "the * of * that you want"

Usernew

13:57

Guys! How do I move a conversation to Chat?

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Usernew Do you see the message "please avoid extensive discussions . . . "?

Usernew

14:29

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Not yet chemistry-guy.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Usernew Huh?

Usernew

But that only comes when we have extended a chat session

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Well you can't move every conversation to chat.

\o @Nihilist_Frost

Usernew

Okay

Nihilist_Frost

What do you think is the best writing system

Latin alphabet is winner

in before opinion war

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

14:32

@Nihilist_Frost Pencil and paper.

Nihilist_Frost

Lel

*lol

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

You can edit chat messages.

Though @Jim lel's rather than lol.

Nihilist_Frost

oh

Somehow, when a Germanic word with a /x/ comes to English, it is corrupted to /k/

While when a Spanish word with a /x/ comes to English, it gets converted to /h/

?

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Where's that from?

Nihilist_Frost

hmmm

in AmE "jalapeno" starts with /h/

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

14:38

Where is this hmmm you're talking about . . . ?

Nihilist_Frost

"hmmm" means I am thinking

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

I know.

Nihilist_Frost

I'm out of coherence here.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

in The Periodic Table, 35 secs ago, by Jan

The Richter scale

@Nihilist_Frost Yyyeah . . . Normal me.

@DamkerngT. Show stopper?

BTW tell me they sent you something irrelevant. :P

Damkerng T.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. They sent me correct items. :D

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

14:45

（ノT＿T)ノ＾┻━┻

Nihilist_Frost

I wonder what could cause the name of the letter "Y" to have a /w/ in it

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Hmm, like "Get back to York!"?

Nihilist_Frost

funny that we call E /i/, while /i/ is associated with "I" in other languages

Blame that Great Vowel Shift

Damkerng T.

Must be historical, why's Y pronounced why.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@DamkerngT. Hmm. Like the reason for "I".

Damkerng T.

14:51

My Fair Lady - Vowels

►

Nihilist_Frost

Long U is a consonant plus a vowel

/j/ plus /u/

And it's treated as such

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

U're right.

Nihilist_Frost

words beginning with long U must take "a" and not "an"

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

A unicoin

Nihilist_Frost

I wanted to count all the possible English consonant clusters

lolno

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

14:56

@Nihilist_Frost So, how many are there?

Nihilist_Frost

no idea

I'm gonna try listing some right now

CopperKettle

Brown shoes don't make it

►

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle But I'm sure brown is the answer to everything.

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. Congratulations!

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. (0:

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle So, what are you doing/translating these days?

@Nihilist_Frost Hehe that's like me making a schedule for myself.

CopperKettle

15:01

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Industry news a bit, and making an essay (stydying at translators' courses)

Nihilist_Frost

str, skr, spr, sf, sl, tr/chr, str, vl, vr, pl, pr, ps, ngkths, ngg, kr, kl, kw, skw, br, bl, gw, gr, gz, ks, pt, st, sd, ky, dr/jr, sw, rd, some more

CopperKettle

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Uralkali has plans to cut its workforce by 20% by 2020, writes Interfax, citing a statement made by the potassium fertilizer giant's Financial Director Anton Vischanenko. "We have an approved workforce reduction program with a goal of 20% less employees by 2020," said Vischanenko.

Damkerng T.

@CopperKettle Thanks!

CopperKettle

This kind.

(0:

CYA!

Damkerng T.

Good night!

Nihilist_Frost

15:05

sy, spl, dz, ts, kt, dw, tw, fy, fr, ft, fl, fs, hy, lz, more

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle Yawns

But good luck.

Nihilist_Frost

imagine how pain in the butt an East Asian immigrant learning an Indo-European language can be

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Nihilist_Frost My imagination broke. :/

BTW I'm Asian, but not East Asian.

CopperKettle

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. And reading articles like this one to write an essay.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle I'm interested.

Damkerng T.

15:12

@Nihilist_Frost And vice versa. ;-)

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Well, if you're not trying to meet a deadline, it must be real fun.

CopperKettle

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. It's really an interesting topic. Biotechnology is cool.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@DamkerngT. This user says no.

Nihilist_Frost

17:24

And then in English you have awful loads of irregular vowels

tchrist

@Nihilist_Frost ?

There aren't any.

A vowel is just a vowel. It cannot be regular or irregular.

It is what it is.

That's all.

Nihilist_Frost

I used the wrong word then.

change topic.

my father 90% of the time cannot make a schwa.

short I also is a pain for many people.

tchrist

17:40

Phonemes that you don't have in your own language will always be hard.

Nihilist_Frost

yup

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

BTW "th" and "th" don't exist in standard Persian.

tchrist

That maketh no sense, and a good bit less.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

(/¯◡ ‿ ◡)/¯ ~ ┻━┻ I'm distracted.

Nihilist_Frost

my parents mix up /a/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ə/, /eɪ/ all the time

I'm sure even natives screw it up up too

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

17:44

Where're you from?

Nihilist_Frost

My family is Vietnamese

I live in Canada

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Oh.

Nihilist_Frost

and by "th" and "th", you mean /θ/ and /ð/?

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Yes. I didn't have the temperament to go and Unicode-dig them up.

tchrist

/θ/ and /ð/ are standard English phonemes.

Nihilist_Frost

17:46

ipa.typeit.org/full

tchrist

If you cannot pronounce them, you will be marked as a furry person.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

5 mins ago, by Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

BTW "th" and "th" don't exist in standard Persian.

tchrist

You edited it!

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

I was distracted; somehow I typo'ed English instead of Persian.

Fantasier

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. You cheated! (HAHAHA, How do you feel about my surprising jump-in?)

tchrist

17:47

Braino'd.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Fantasier Jump-ins are always awesome.

Fantasier

Wait, did we have a retagging event earlier today?

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

We did, not us.

Er, I mean chem had, not ELL.

Nihilist_Frost

You mean that grammar retag?

Fantasier

Yes

tchrist

17:49

@Nihilist_Frost I rather doubt that.

Nihilist_Frost

Grammar - the hated tag

tchrist

Burninate.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Fantasier Considering how fast the meta Q is proceeding . . .

@Nihilist_Frost The must-be-hated tag.

Fantasier

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Oh, I think we can actually just get dictatorial and do it ourselves.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

We should get dictatorial. Certain people don't understand what we're doing, and for what purpose, and blindly hug grammar. (Don't mean you BTW)

Nihilist_Frost

17:52

That grammar tag is just a vague dumping ground.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

And I think those people will finally manage to stop me from trying to contribute to ELL's quality.

What bugs me is that they now hold a position that makes them seem they know what's best for ELL.

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Nihilist_Frost

(>'-')> <('-'<) ^(' - ')^ <('-'<) (>'-')> w00t for the death of the Grammar tag

Fantasier

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. That's getting a little too specific, wouldn't you think?

Nihilist_Frost

In before an emoticon containing a tsu

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Fantasier Thanks God it's a very tiny group of users at the moment . . .

Fantasier

17:57

@Nihilist_Frost Ehh, does your dialect distinguish /a/ from /ɑ/? I thought Standard English didn't have /a/ as a phoneme?

Nihilist_Frost

I was describing my family's accent.

Fantasier

Oh, yeah, I see :-)

Nihilist_Frost

In AmE /a/ doesn't really exist except before short I.

Fantasier

nods

Nihilist_Frost

Though in other languages, /a/ is common

or at least some variation

Fantasier

18:00

nods

Nihilist_Frost

BrE does have /a/ though

Fantasier

Huh?

Could you give me an example?

Nihilist_Frost

nvm

I need further research

Fantasier

Ah, okay :-)

Nihilist_Frost

maybe it's a symbol mixup

It was indeed a misreading

It's the Aussies that have /a/

Fantasier

18:05

A-ha

I didn't know that.

Nihilist_Frost

English phonology

Like many languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (though not identical) phonological system. Phonological analysis of English often concentrates on, or uses as a reference point, one or more of the prestige or standard accents, such as Received Pronunciation for England, General American for the United States, and General Australian for Australia. Nevertheless, many other dialects of English are spoken, which do not necessarily descend from any of the...

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Aussies do have short /a/. I think it was the pronunciation of "baby" in some dialect.

Fantasier

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Erm, pardon me, but I find that pronunciation funny...

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Fantasier I do too. :)

Fantasier

It sounds too much like Barbie.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

18:08

Hmm, between "so do I" and "I do too", which one wins? I think the former. To the n-gram!

Fantasier

I think "I do too." is quite uncommon.

"Me too," on the other hand...

Nihilist_Frost

What's the weirdest English dialect?

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Fantasier Oh really? books.google.com/ngrams/…

Nihilist_Frost

in sound quality

Fantasier

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Wuuuut

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. BUT "ME TOO" WINS books.google.com/ngrams/…

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

18:11

@Nihilist_Frost Persian English.

@Fantasier Because "me too" can come in many other contexts.

Fantasier

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. For example?

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

"I'm an idiot" "Me too" But you can't say "I do too" or "So do I".

Fantasier

Oh, right.

Nihilist_Frost

I remember that "Do native English speakers distinguish between L and R" question

28

Q: Do native speakers distinguish well the pronunciations of "L" and "R"?

Sometimes I have a problem in distinguishing "L" and "R" in spoken English. I wonder if native speakers distinguish well the pronunciations of "L" and "R". For example, how about "leave" and "reave" or "elect" and "erect"?

pronunciation phonology

Indo-European languages distinguish them all too well.

who can remember the etymology of "foo"? (just a knowledge-testing question)

Damkerng T.

This is more like it: books.google.com/ngrams/…

BTW, this monitor is killing me. After using it for about three months, I think the flickering effect (which we can't really see with our naked eyes) is starting to show.

Fantasier

18:21

@DamkerngT. ุOh, it's case-sensitive.

Damkerng T.

@Fantasier Yes! Google Ngram is case-sensitive by default, so "so do I" was something else.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@DamkerngT. If you pity your sight, you should throw it away.

Damkerng T.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. I just ordered a new monitor.

I was wondering why I feel like I've got a headache without any real headache.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

But if it takes for that to arrive as much as it took for CGEL, you and your eyes are screwed.

Damkerng T.

So, I switched to use iMac for a while, and I was just fine.

Fantasier

18:23

I thought you had that amazing robotic holographic 3D vision!

So monitors aren't necessary for you.

Nihilist_Frost

I've been using the same monitor at home for five years

Damkerng T.

@Fantasier I think it's because this monitor is a 3D one!

Nihilist_Frost

lol

The monitor before was in use for 9 years and it burnt out a few months ago.

when my little brother was using it.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@Nihilist_Frost And who did he blame?

Nihilist_Frost

he didn't blame anyone.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

18:26

How old is he?

Nihilist_Frost

the monitor got replaced ASAP.

He's 9-10

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

IMPOSSIBLE.

Here my little brother blames me for what I blame him for.

Damkerng T.

@Nihilist_Frost I switched to use this one (which was bought as a spare/experimental display, mostly for 3D) because my old monitor was broken.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. That's what brothers do. :D

Nihilist_Frost

my brother's too sedated in video games to blame people.

My mother spent four years trying to get him to take care of his mind.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Oh.

Nihilist_Frost

18:28

fail

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

Where's that zombie apocalypse poster . . .

Damkerng T.

@Nihilist_Frost He could do well in South Korea. :P

Nihilist_Frost

lol

South Korean guys are infamous for that

Damkerng T.

It's like the sanctuary of gamers.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

And also the sanctuary of plastic surgery.

Damkerng T.

18:34

I think it is well-known for that too!

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

20:15

@Dam is there a word for the over-use of adverbs NNS's tend to do a lot while communicating? :P

Damkerng T.

Is that true? -- frowning

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

It is.

Not too competent learners with a relatively large vocab range do it a lot.

Anonymous

Some people think a lot of native speakers overuse adverbs, too.

Anonymous

I think the focus should probably be on using adverbs well, not so much on frequency.

Anonymous

But that's just me.

Damkerng T.

20:29

Seems your two first explications are the most suitable in this case. As well they look very simple and i'm worrying about this simplicity because i would like to use a formal phrase. From my experience the simplest phrases are the worst when they appear in formal exams like Toefl. Otherwise, do you think that my habitude to try and do complex phrase can become a handicap for a no native english speaker as I am. Someone has told me the best way to attempt this kind of exam is to write by the simplest way we are able to do. — jr28 24 mins ago

Anonymous

Yeah, focus on writing clearly first.

Anonymous

They're trying to fancy up their sentences, but it isn't really working.

Anonymous

That's not to say you can't go for fancy, but it can't come at the expense of clarity.

Damkerng T.

"From my experience the simplest phrases are the worst when they appear in formal exams like Toefl." -- See what the tests can make people do.

Anonymous

What was the term you all discovered for that?

Anonymous

20:34

Wow! Habitude is in dictionaries!

Anonymous

I thought they'd just invented it.

Damkerng T.

Washback, I think.

Oct 21 at 21:30, by Damkerng T.

> Just remember, the examiner cannot give you any points if you don´t provide the material. So try to impress the examiner with informal expressions and other appropriate language usage.

Anonymous

Ah, thanks :-)

Damkerng T.

^A message from an IELTS examiner to me.

Anonymous

Oct 21 at 1:40, by Damkerng T.

> Negative washback: - a mismatch between the stated goals of instruction and the focus of assessment, - may lead to the abandonment of instructional goals in favour of test preparation.

Damkerng T.

20:35

(in an informal writing task)

@snailboat No problem!

Anonymous

I starred that message, but I guess since it was from a while back, it doesn't show up on the star wall.

Anonymous

Geoffrey Pullum likes to talk about normal and formal rather than informal and formal.

Anonymous

I like that normal and formal rhyme :-)

Damkerng T.

informal rhymes with them too!

Anonymous

Well, informal rhymes with normal.

Anonymous

20:38

To say that informal and formal rhyme, well, that's a bit iffy to my mind . . .

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Anonymous

Self-rhyme is no rhyme at all.

Anonymous

But the two could be part of a larger rhyme.

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

23:13

@Snail it's interesting.

Just thought you should know.

Anonymous

Well, thank you for letting me know! :-)

Anonymous

I don't think getting one upvote, bringing a post up to -3, is really asking a user to come back.

Anonymous

I'm not sure if I should comment there or not.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Have you begun reading CGEL yet? :-)

Anonymous

Even if you're planning on using it primarily as a reference and not reading it cover-to-cover, you need to read the first two chapters to get an idea of their theoretical framework first.

Anonymous

23:21

If you don't know how the pieces fit together and how they define their terms, it'll be like one of those out-of-context ELL questions that quotes a tiny snippet from CGEL but leaves out all the details you need to understand it . . .

Damkerng T.

Not yet. I just scanned through it a bit. -- Thanks for the reminding. I think I've read about half a chapter because of ELL. :D

Anonymous

Hehe!

Anonymous

Well, you should already be familiar with some of the terms and ideas from discussions you've participated in and posts you've read (or written after some research!).

Damkerng T.

nods -- I hope they share the term with the Student's CGEL. (Its real name is long!)

Anonymous

Oh! Yes, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar is like a tiny version of CGEL! :-)

Damkerng T.

23:27

terms

Anonymous

Way stripped down, but based on the same ideas. It includes a few things CGEL doesn't and is missing some sections entirely, and it's supposed to be kind of textbooky, so it's got little questions at the end of each chapter.

Anonymous

But it fits into the same theoretical framework and uses the same terms, more or less.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Hah! It has something CGEL doesn't have?

Anonymous

You'll probably notice some tiny inconsistencies if you read both of them.

Anonymous

Sure.

Anonymous

23:27

It was written afterwards.

Anonymous

You might also find that sometimes the explanations or examples in the baby CGEL are more quotable and work better in answers.

Anonymous

Also, make sure you download this extra (draft) chapter: lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/grammar/adjuncts

Damkerng T.

Reading A Student's Introduction to English Grammar on Kindle wasn't as fun as holding CGEL in my hands (or reading it on my desk), always being able to see the whole page.

@snailboat Thanks!

Anonymous

Like for example, in CGEL the have that expresses (among other things) possession is called "stative have", but in A Student's Introduction it's called "static have".

Anonymous

You'll notice little inconsistencies like that here and there, but nothing that really matters.

tchrist

23:56

I have a good example of that. I want you to listen WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED to this brief 30-second clip, and see if you can make out the words he’s saying (they're printed so don't look). Then after that, you can go back and see how near or far you were.

Aragorn Singing Elendil's Oath - (With Lyrics)

►

I know the words, and there is one line I simply cannot hear the way the words are; to me he sings something completely different (and meaningful, because I'm mismatching like mondegreen).

Since you aren't an L1 or L2 speaker, you'll try to hear the words in one of your L1/L2.

And you may well hear things that aren't there.

Transcript for