Language Overflow

Catija

04:44

0

He (subject, argument), does (auxiliary verb[?]), not (auxiliary adverb[?]), seem (verb[?]), the kindest (article[?], adjective[?], adjectival phrase[?], subject complement[?]).(?) I (subject, argument) do (intransitive verb[?]).(?) How may you sight, and parse, a verb, and arguments, ...

Is this really an effective way of learning a language?

Why does it matter how to parse this? I don't even know what most of these things are.

Jim Reynolds

@Cat Maybe only that learner can say so for themselves. It makes my eyes and brain hurt to look at it.

I might vote to close it as multiple questions.

0

A: Verbs for describing the action of making a shit

Take a shit Take a crap Take a dump Pinch a loaf. (This is less common, and is intended to carry a humorous tone.) As I'm sure you know, all of these phrases are considered vulgar or can be taken as offensive by some people or in some situations. We often speak of the act...

I feel so dirty right now.

Catija

Yeah, that was a pretty bad one... I don't understand why that was the one euphemism that they knew...

Damkerng T.

I've heard "take the Browns to the Superbowl", too. :p

(And of course, the standard "number two".)

Jim Reynolds

Haha

I'll catch up with you later. I have to take the Browns to the superbowl!

1

A: Present perfect with since: starting and ending times of a finished past event?

When we set a finished past event or state at a particular time in the past, we normally use the past simple: I read from 9am to 10am. When such an event or state was sustained over an extended time period, we may alternatively use the past continuous: I was reading from 9am to 10am. ...

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Jim Reynolds

04:59

@Cat I tried to merge our answers together.

1

A: Present perfect with since: starting and ending times of a finished past event?

When we set a finished past event or state at a particular time in the past, we normally use the past simple: I read from 9am to 10am. When such an event or state was sustained over an extended time period, we may alternatively use the past continuous: I was reading from 9am to 10am. ...

I don't know why people were in such a hurry to close the shit question. Because of the smell, perhaps?

Damkerng T.

Too explicit? :D

Jim Reynolds

The sensitive people might be happier spending their lives with @Dam. He only dumps memory.

Damkerng T.

Haha!

Jim Reynolds

This is a true story from about three days ago.

I was chatting with a friend online and we were trading some favorite songs.

I searched for a youtube video of "I am coming"

And this came up as the first result on google:

10

A: I am cumming or I am coming

People use both come and cum as a verb (will cum/cummed? came?/is cumming/have cum); (will come/came/is coming/have come) to mean the experience of having an orgasm, and/or ejaculating, whether ejaculating means secreting semen from a male or (controversially) any fluid that may be secreted from ...

Damkerng T.

Hahaha!

Jim Reynolds

05:03

Haha! I didn't really plan to become famous for that.

Damkerng T.

I just learned that there is a famous convenient store named Kum & Go in the US. I don't know what they had in mind when they named their store.

Jim Reynolds

@Catija Why is the shit question "basic" ?

Now I have to defend "shit." :'(

O.O

ha

Maybe intentionally to be provocative.

Damkerng T.

Probably

:-)

@Catija I'm not even sure if they really are a learner.

CopperKettle

05:28

@JimReynolds (0:

@Catija They could be a linguistic student.

V.V.

Sure, it's their homework, hi!

But it's too wide a question.

CopperKettle

Hi, @V.V., good morning!

(off to read something)

Jim Reynolds

06:13

What's the best practice when we have several "duplicates" but the best existing answer is not on the first one?

V.V.

10:42

Hi!

S.R.I

Hello, V.V

V.V.

13:40

@DamkerngT., hi, can I ask?

Damkerng T.

Of course!

V.V.

Oh, how nice!

During his University career it had been a sort of hobby of his to propose to at least one of his partners at every dance he attended

Damkerng T.

Uh-huh?

V.V.

I am not sure what is meant "dance. A separate dance or a dancing party. What do you think?"

Damkerng T.

I think it's the latter, because of attended.

V.V.

13:50

You can' t attend a separate dance,yes?

Damkerng T.

I'd say no. We'd simply rather say take a dance.

V.V.

Wonderful! Thank you!

Damkerng T.

No problem! Don't forget to check it with others too, just in case. :-)

V.V.

Thank you, don't see anybody. But I am afraid in the evening there will be no Internet.

One more, can I?

Damkerng T.

Sure! :D

V.V.

14:00

That's about culture, not the language. I'd better copy the sentence

And”—here Tebbit completely broke down—“he—he’s threatened to send me a piece of the wedding-cake!”

About the cake. Is there any additional meaning?I mean some superstition?

Damkerng T.

I can't think of one. If there is one, I don't know it.

It sounds to me more like, "And he's going to make me part of it!"

(the wedding)

V.V.

You know,the bride throws flowers, and the girl who catches will marry next.

Damkerng T.

> In the past, most wedding cakes were made from fruitcake and its robust longevity made it last for many weeks after the wedding without going stale and made it easy to be sent by post as a token to those who were unable to attend or who were not quite important enough to receive an invitation.

> vintageweddingfair.co.uk/2014/07/18/…

Haha! Based on that, I guess Tebbit was afraid that he wasn't going to be invited to the wedding. :D

V.V.

Why the verb "threatens " is used?

Damkerng T.

That's what I'm not sure. I expected it to be he's threatening to send me ..., but it was from the early 1900s, so maybe that's the way it's used back then.

Literally, it means that something (hypothetically) threatened him to send Tebbit a piece of cake.

But threaten to do something is used idiomatically to mean "likely" (for something unpleasant).

V.V.

14:11

@JimReynolds, if you see the question, please, help.

Damkerng T.

So, if he’s threatened to send me is used, idiomatically, to mean what I think (he's threatening to send me), it'd simply mean, "And--he--he's probably not going to invite me to his wedding!"

> STYLIZED: “And—he—he’s threatened to send me a piece of the wedding-cake!”

> PLAIN: "And--he--he's probably not going to invite me to his wedding!"

V.V.

Aha,that's different

Damkerng T.

I hope it makes sense in the context (which I don't know about).

V.V.

I can't get humour in this sentence.

IͶΔ

@JimReynolds Could you step off for a moment?

V.V.

14:18

@IͶΔ, MAR, nice to see you.

IͶΔ

Hullo @V.V.!

V.V.

What are you doing?Some races?

Jim Reynolds

@V.V. Which question?

V.V.

Please, read first about "dance", then "wedding cake"

Jim Reynolds

Dance there means an event at which people dance.

V.V.

14:23

Fine, go on.

Jim Reynolds

In a typical US high school, there might be three or four school dances every year.

IͶΔ

@V.V. ?

V.V.

That was Oxford

Jim Reynolds

So, you can attend a dance, yes.

And that's what's meant in the sentence.

People dance at a dance.

V.V.

Yes, MAR?

IͶΔ

14:24

@V.V. Who was doing some races?

Jim Reynolds

A dancing party.

Yes, an event.

V.V.

It was my imagination, pctures are flying in the air.

CopperKettle

@IͶΔ - good evening, Muhammad!

V.V.

Jim, what about a cake?

IͶΔ

Evening, @Cop

I might actually have to leave, I've got studies to do.

Jim Reynolds

14:27

I can't tell. I would need more context to understand why a piece of wedding cake isn't wanted, or if it's a joke, or what.

CopperKettle

That's great, you should study!

Chatting with you is great, but I'd (ll?) feel great if you pass the exams with flying colors.

BBL

IͶΔ

@CopperKettle I always pass the exams, the difference is passing with 100 vs. passing with a 99. O_O

Jim Reynolds

madameulalie.org/punch/The_Last_Instance.html

It's a very short story?

V.V.

The plot is the following. His friend, a perfect bachelor, had to marry, he is upset to loose him for the society. But his friend seems to enjoy his marriage. And then goes this final sentence. And I don't understand this humour.Yes, The Last Instance

Jim Reynolds

@V.V. You know what a man of parts is?

I am reading the story now.

I have passed social beaker. :-)

I don't know if sending a piece of the cake had or has any special significance.

Oh. I think I'm reading the same thing Dam did now.

It used to be customary to send a piece of cake to people who couldn't attend a wedding.

I suppose that the article is essentially saying that the group of friends is unconventional.

Are you with me so far? @V.V.

V.V.

14:42

Yes,a gitfed person

Yes

Jim Reynolds

Ok. I think I see it now.

The joke is simply that SMYTH has become conventional.

The joke is that it's a "crime" the worst imaginable thing that could ever happen.

And I suppose that sending out a piece of wedding cake is also a social convention.

V.V.

What is conventional "

Jim Reynolds

Normal, common.

They are saying that they loved the life of being different, and free.

Not getting married.

V.V.

Where's humour?

Jim Reynolds

Not behaving as middle or upper-middle, or upper-class people are supposed to behave.

Ah. Well, it's not that funny to you or me.

V.V.

14:47

I understand everything, except the last sentence

CopperKettle

@IͶΔ Let is be 100 then! (0:

Jim Reynolds

Well, the humor is that getting married is a tragedy, right?

IͶΔ

@CopperKettle That's the weirdest sentence I've ever seen.

Jim Reynolds

It basically means that SMYTHE is not only getting married, but he's happy about it, and he's even attending to small details of etiquette relating to the wedding.

The joke is that SMYTHE has been completely, utterly lost to the horror of behaving in the way that's expected of the typical person.

CopperKettle

@IͶΔ I was in a hurry. (0:

Damkerng T.

15:13

@JimReynolds Oh, so the point was the marriage that he might be going to have at last, not the cake, I guess.

Jim Reynolds

Well, I think the central joke is this: 1. We are not like average people. We are special. We are superior. Better to be dead than to be one of the ordinary people who do ordinary things.

2. We've now lost one of our members to an ordinary act: Getting married.

Damkerng T.

LOL -- I guess that makes a good story.

Jim Reynolds

3. He's even going to follow one of the minor details of the ritual.

Damkerng T.

A tag line (or maxim) from a movie I just watched: If you can take it, you can make it.

Jim Reynolds

If you can handle something difficult, you can {survive | be successful} ?

Damkerng T.

15:18

I guess the maxim is meant to cover all of those.

I guess maybe we need more war movies, to remind ourselves that we shouldn't have a next one.

> "Do you know how many people I've rejected for this program?"
"No."
"That’s right. Because we’re a top secret program. But I’ll tell you, just because we’re friends, that last week I rejected one of our great nation’s top linguists, knows German better than Bertolt Brecht."
"I don't speak German."
"What?"
"I don't. Speak German."
"How the bloody hell are you supposed to decrypt German communications if you don't, oh, I don't know, *speak German*?"
"I'm quite excellent at crossword puzzles."

(a pretty good dramatization!)

CopperKettle

16:28

14

Q: Is land-based aircraft carrier possible?

Is it possible to have an aircraft carrier that travels on land instead water? Assuming that the land aircraft carrier is the same size as a regular one the shape can be different but the overall size the same.

reality-check technology warfare

OMG (0:

+1 for designing the next generation of aircraft carriers with MS Paint. — David Grinberg 18 hours ago

CopperKettle

16:45

Why does it have the definite article before "coffee"?

Damkerng T.

17:00

@CopperKettle The coffee of all coffee? :P

CopperKettle

@DamkerngT. O.O

What? (0:

Damkerng T.

I was just funning you. :P

CopperKettle

(0:

Beethoven: "Cease your funning" (12 Scottish Songs) op.156#5

►

Damkerng T.

Aww

On the serious side, I suspect that that the coffee is probably somewhat like the air.

bjb568

@DJClayworth That's not true, the cranes for plain planes work mainly on the plains, but the cranes for decorated planes work mainly on grain. — bjb568 16 secs ago

CopperKettle

17:13

@DamkerngT. here's another great version of the same song, from the Beggar's Opera

@bjb568 (0:

The famous Threepenny Opera (German, by Brecht) was based on The Beggar's Opera

CopperKettle

18:09

Hey, it turns out that Chem SE has 12,894, while ELL has 23,000 questions

ELL is quite active.

Anonymous

@CopperKettle We don't know. Not enough context.

CopperKettle

Good evening, Snails! We don't know what?

I guess 23 000 questions beats 13 000 (0:

Or (do?) you mean the Coffee?

They author probably meant "my coffee, the one I usually consume", hence the the.

Anonymous

18:41

@CopperKettle Sorry, I was using the mobile interface, so I couldn't reply to an individual message.

Anonymous

I did mean the in the coffee.

Anonymous

We can't tell what it means. It's a contextual marker and the message is presented outside of any context.

Anonymous

So we have to make up a context for the to make sense.

CopperKettle

nods

Anonymous

I don't know if your interpretation is the most likely one. I just imagined some coffee was present in the speaker's context, and then the quote was taken out of that context.

CopperKettle

18:43

I thought of asking the question on ELL, but was spooked by the ghosts of native speakers crying for more context.

Anonymous

Well, that's the answer. We don't know without more context.

Anonymous

Sometimes there isn't enough context to provide a definitive interpretation of a short quote.

CopperKettle

nods

Anonymous

@CopperKettle → youtube.com/watch?v=1RiQDvPoJgc#t=80s

Anonymous

So it was in a real context originally!

CopperKettle

18:48

@snailboat I see (0:

Thank you, Snails!

Anonymous

I guess it's the coffee at Luke's diner.

Anonymous

I don't know, though.

Anonymous

It's kind of an unusual sounding line, isn't it? :-)

CopperKettle

19:00

@snailboat Yes, kind of. He probably was telling something to her, along the lines of "When would you stop drinking that coffee?"

Damkerng T.

20:19

@DamkerngT. Your understanding of "it's time you went* to bed" is not correct. The past subjunctive went* expresses a wish/demand, what someone should do now. dictionary.cambridge.org/de/grammatik/britisch-grammatik/… A pity that the Cambridge article does not say that "we went" is past subjunctive referring not to past, but to now. — rogermue 2 hours ago

@roguemue I thought I said "now". I said now, didn't I? — Damkerng T. 41 secs ago

Damkerng T.

21:10

Good afternoon! @snailboat

Anonymous

21:52

Good afternoon! :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, it's from Gilmore Girls!

I've heard that series title.

Anonymous

22:19

Yes, that's right. I found that out by searching on Google.

Anonymous

I didn't recognize the quote myself. One of my closest friends is a big fan of the show, but I haven't seen it myself.

Damkerng T.

Me either, but it looked like a great show.

Anonymous

It comes highly recommended.

Anonymous

By my friend, not me :-)

user116848

22:34

Good evening!

user116848

22:49

So today I recorded myself speaking English, finally! :)

Transcript for