Language Overflow

CowperKettle

00:53

a warehouse full of fireworks caught fire in Yekaterinburg

Man_From_India

Morning Kettle!

CowperKettle

Namaste, @Man_From_India!

Student

03:31

oiii oiiiii @DamkerngT. @CowperKettle How's life at your end? :D

Hiii @V.V. it's been a while :D

@snailplane I haven't forget about your snail mode :D

Choice of word: damaging - pestered

Dominance of Metopograpsus latiforus led to unstable and pestered/damaging irrigation in nature conservation.

CowperKettle

03:55

Good morning, @Student!

Student

I've posted my question above @CowperKettle, which one you would choose? :)

CowperKettle

The whole sentence is a bit off-kilter

Google finds no results for 'Metopograpsus latiforus'

Student

Hmmm it is dealing with Makrozoobenthos

CowperKettle

Macrobenthos

I don't understand the meaning of the sentence..

what is "irrigation in nature conservation"?

Student

watering system

CowperKettle

04:02

> The region's irrigation has been compromised by ML, a species that became dominant in the region.

I dunno how to evade repeating 'region'

Student

hmmmm thinking

CowperKettle

> ML's dominance has disrupted the region's irrigation system, making it unstable

I dunno how to attach 'nature conservation' there, because I see no use for't

Student

nature conservation cant be removed

it is the project

CowperKettle

What then does it mean?

Student

hmmm sec please

nature.org

CowperKettle

04:06

> The stability of the region's irrigation system was damaged by the fact that ML gained dominance

Student

dominance value - evenness value -- diversity index

CowperKettle

Okay, try to put your sentence in simple words, and probably someone will help. (0:

I'll lurk some..

..translating.

Student

okay thanks a lot @CowperKettle happy translating!

CowperKettle

(0:

You may try out lang-8.com

Færd

04:58

@DamkerngT. I'm not sure how many you need to get by during a trip. These are some quotes from Paul Pimsleur's How to Learn a Foreign Language:

> Words, words, words. It takes about fifteen hundred of them for a “basic” command of a language and perhaps five thousand to be really fluent.

But it can depend on what language you want to learn.

> The vocabulary “hump” is reached earlier in German than in most other languages. The thousand most frequent German words actually comprise about 80 percent of most reading matter; the second thousand words raise this figure to 90 percent.

And there's this chart (which I don't why is so awkwardly shaped):

So I guess for a learner of English, a practical, objective first goal could be to master COCA's list of the top 5000 words of English: wordfrequency.info/free.asp?s=y

(I bet you won't be able to find 5 words there that are entirely new to you. Gives me comfort.)

Anonymous

05:15

@Student I have a new snail named Zeta :-)

Anonymous

2

Anonymous

@Færd It really is awkwardly shaped.

Anonymous

I've always felt that that kind of comparison is a little misleading, though. If you sit down to read a book and can only understand 90% of the words in the first chapter, you're likely missing multiple words in every sentence. How much can you really understand at that level?

Anonymous

You can certainly do a great deal with a language knowing only a few thousand words.

Anonymous

But when people aren't making special accommodations for your vocabulary size, it's going to be a challenge.

CowperKettle

05:32

@snailplane Beautiful!

Morning!

Word of the morning: buffy coat

It's from a piece I'm translating..

Never knew how the blood is separated into layers

Density Gradient Centrifugation - Isolate Mononuclear Cells from Whole Blood (Ficoll or Lymphoprep)

►

Now I'm trying to understand whether it's "interface layer" or "interphase layer" that we collect the mononuclear cells from after centrifugation

Seems to be the former.

> The mononuclear cells (lymphocytes and monocytes) were collected from the interface between the plasma and the Lymphoprep layer and washed with a sterile PBS solution.

Whew.

Damkerng T.

05:48

@Student Nice to see you again!

@Færd Thanks for the info!

@Færd I guess so. I haven't checked out all the words in the list, though, just a quick scan over some first pages of it.

Hey, they count CEO as a word!

@snailplane Yay!

To be fair, I can't find any good explanation in a Longman dictionary!

They just write "sing singular".

How helpful!

Student

@DamkerngT. waving at you, yes it's been a while heheee anyway, did you read my question above?

Damkerng T.

@Student I was going to! :D

waving, waving! :D

Between pestered and damaging, damaging makes more sense to me.

@snailplane Hello, Zeta!

@CowperKettle My first thought when I saw the word, is that a coat one should wear when slaying a vampire? :P

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. LOL

Damkerng T.

Strange that it's about blood!

CowperKettle

Sawasdee khrap!

I never saw that movie. (0:

Damkerng T.

06:03

Zdorovo and sawasdee khrap!

@CowperKettle My cable TV provider is broadcasting a rerun of it, right from the first episode of season one!

CowperKettle

Nice!

Damkerng T.

(I took a peek at a few of the episodes. :P)

Gotta go back to my chores. See y'all later!

CowperKettle

Laters!

CowperKettle

06:18

-1 for the not commonly used anymore statement with no evidence. Also, the advice that one is preferred over the other, which seems a matter of personal taste wrapped in the guise of prescription. — Jim Reynolds 8 mins ago

However, I try to use "therefore" instead of "thus".

Jim Reynolds

@Cowp (icily) BASED ON WHAT?

I am looking for a battle, and my cat is hiding from me!

We can debate in English, French, or Russian. Take your pick.

CowperKettle

06:44

No, @JimReynolds, I'd better go for a jog. (0:

> We assessed RNA concentration using a Nanovue spectrophotometer (GE Healthcare) and controlled the quality of the purified RNA by electrophoresis in 1.5% agarose gel.

Should there be "a" before "agarose gel"?

It's a substance, so no article is needed

But it's a substance with a particular concentration of .. something.. dunno what

Ludwig says 'no article':

ludwig.guru/s/electrophoresis%20in%201.5%25%20agarose%20gel

@Student The stability of irrigation under the nature conservation project was negatively affected by the overabundance of ML, a dominant species

Does it sound better?

"a species that grew in dominance"

"a species that became dominant in this area"

Student

hmmmmm @CowperKettle

CowperKettle

Ah, you're here

Does it look better?

It's unclear whether ML was a dominant species already, or whether it became dominant, or whether it even became dominant as a result of the conservation project.

Without context, it's impossible to translate a sentence right in 90% of cases.

What was the project about? What activities, what goals, what equipment?

What did it involve?

Etc, etc.

Jim Reynolds

07:03

@DamkerngT. Typical of my political scientist friend:

drive.google.com/file/d/0B_hivi_ChoizY0hVNnlGV085OVk/…

@CowperKettle Article not needed. I'd leave it out here.

My feeling is that "dominant species" is probably fine here

^ @CowperKettle @Stu

Student

@JimReynolds Hiiiiiiiii after a long time :D

dominance value

dominance value - evenness value - diversity index

Jim Reynolds

07:23

Hi. Um... Is that a question?

@CowperKettle I didn't write this carefully. A prescription can involve a personal preference.

But I'm not here to be careful. I'm here to be evil

I've failed at everything else. Even cannibalism. I talk a lot, but have eaten no one, if the truth be told

:'(

CowperKettle

08:33

حضور بانوی محجبه مصری در مسابقات والیبال ساحلی المپیک ریو 2016 مورد توجه رسانه‌های جهانی قرار گرفته است. https://t.co/HE6Ok2QNTW

Tweeted by Tansimnews on August 8, 2016 at 4:19 PM

(0:

Anonymous

3

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Hello! (^_^)

Word of the Day: latitude

> I'm sorry, Mr. Shephard, but our policy is that the body must have the proper documentation. There's just no latitude.

Jim Reynolds

08:57

Confucius say: They who give much latitude have lax attitude

@snailplane Muy cyuuuto

The little snail seems rather mellow: I'll just let my house sit kind of sideways and have a snack

CowperKettle

09:11

@snailplane Beautiful, especially with all the droplets!

Damkerng T.

09:24

Please add more information to your question. Why did you write it? Is it part of a paragraph? If so, show us more. Why do you think it's wrong? The sentence can be right or wrong, depending on what you want to say. — Jim Reynolds 20 secs ago

LOL -- We said essentially the same thing! @JimReynolds

1

Q: How to use the word “purge"

I’ve seen the word “purge” used in conjunction with “of” and “from” or being used on its own. However, would it be appropriate to say something like “I purged the information out from my brain?"

word-usage

Nein, nein, nein. With purge, you use anarchy! :P

Jim Reynolds

O.O

0

Q: Can includes be singular?

Is this a correct usage of the word include? Your dues includes your membership fee for the season, your Handbook, prize money, and birdie pins. You must maintain your annual GHIN Membership which is currently $15.00. This must be renewed every year on January 1st at the Pro Shop.

subject

I want to say dues can be singular here

Damkerng T.

So did Hot Licks ...

The question is whether "dues", in this sense, is singular or plural. As used it refers to a single entity, and this is a common usage. So it should either be simply "singular", or, that Get out of jail free card, "singular, plural in construction". I'm not sure even prescriptivists are solidly aligned on one side or the other. — Hot Licks 15 hours ago

Jim Reynolds

Yes

Damkerng T.

But all dictionaries I've tried (actually just two :P) say it's plural.

Jim Reynolds

Purged it out of . . .

Damkerng T.

09:31

Nein, it's always the purge anarchy, period. :P

Jim Reynolds

I'm not sure if we would call it ungrammatical or something like questionable

O.O

Damkerng T.

I stopped watching this franchise after its first sequel, BTW.

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Zeta isn't much bigger than a drop of water :-)

Jim Reynolds

Never heard of it, but robots interested in creating anarchy frighten me

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds Must be because of the frequency of the ads the bot has heard or seen. :P

Hmm... in a movie franchise, is its first sequel the first movie or the second movie?

Jim Reynolds

09:33

Sequel means follow, basically

That which follows from st

Damkerng T.

I guess the first sequel is the second movie, then.

Jim Reynolds

Unless the second movie is a prequel. :-)

LMS

@DamkerngT. It could be second, third, fourth

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds Haha!

@LMS Oh! How could it be the third or the fourth?

scratching head

LMS

@DamkerngT. A sequel can be any film where the story of that film takes place after the story of a previous film

A prequel being a film where the story takes place prior to the events of the story of a previous film

Damkerng T.

09:36

Oh, I see. So it's more about the contents than the releases.

Jim Reynolds

The nth sequel is the ith plus 1 film, divided by the square of the number of prequels

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds You're confusing a robot! :-)

LMS

So if you have Film #1 taking place in 1980, Film #2 taking place in 1930, and Film #3 taking place in 1990

Jim Reynolds

My aim is to produce smoke

LMS

#2 is a prequel to #1, and #3 is a sequel to both #1 and #2

2

Damkerng T.

09:37

@JimReynolds Hehe!

LMS

You can't let the magic blue smoke out. As an electronics/electrical engineer, that's basically what my study boils down to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke

Jim Reynolds

What if the writers consider time to be running backwards?

LMS

They need to adjust their timepieces

Damkerng T.

@LMS But I guess I wouldn't be wrong, technically, if I ignore the events in a sequel, and just count the sequels by release dates, right?

LMS

You wouldn't be wrong, since there are overlapping meanings

Damkerng T.

09:39

nods -- Thanks!

LMS

Specifically, "A published, broadcast, or recorded work that continues the story or develops the theme of an earlier one:"

Jim Reynolds

@LMS lol

I'm loathe to admit that the paragraph sequel to the initial paragraph in the magic smoke article is warming up my own circuitry

LMS

This sentence is going to get hairy: A prequel, however, only refers to a later work that covers events taking place earlier than the events of an earlier work

Damkerng T.

@snailplane scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/tpt/51/7/10.1119/…

Jim Reynolds

Suppose that a second film is produced before the first-produced film?

Damkerng T.

09:43

Apparently, people conduct their research in almost every possible area I can imageine!

> In order to test whether large drops with sizes well above 10 mm may also have stable forms, we performed an experiment that created an extremely large drop by filling a regular balloon with about two liters of water (horizontal diameter around 15 cm).

LMS

@JimReynolds Then it depends on the order of release, not order of production :)

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds Hah! Technically, it's possible, I think!

Jim Reynolds

I honestly think @LMS is a Russian computer program. No one is that smart.

The dog, and the cat, is bruised. Can this be considered standard?

LMS

I AM NORMAL HUMAN COMRADE.

BLEEP BLOO- I MEAN, NORMAL HUMAN SOUNDS

Jim Reynolds

Hahaha

LMS

09:47

DIGEST DIGEST

Damkerng T.

VERIFIED. AFFIRMATIVE.

LMS

HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW HUMANS?

Damkerng T.

I AM DOING OKAY.

LMS

LET US PARTAKE IN NORMAL HUMAN ACTIVITIES.

Damkerng T.

HOW DO YOU DO?

Jim Reynolds

09:48

We shouldn't need to say I really lol'd, nevertheless I did

Damkerng T.

:D

Jim Reynolds

How do you do what you do do?

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds CONFIDENTIAL DATA. ACCESS DENIED.

Jim Reynolds

Lol

Not really

Oh, now, yes.

Damkerng T.

:)

Jim Reynolds

09:51

That was an lol occurring sequel to statement thereto

An LOST

Now you know how I pronounce the initialism

Because I used an

Damkerng T.

For variation, you could use en sometimes as well. :P

Jim Reynolds

O.O

Use en en?

Damkerng T.

Acksactly.

Jim Reynolds

:D

LMS

You could throw an "un" in there, too. Really spice things up

Damkerng T.

11:53

For the record, @J.R. this native speaker ranks "damn", and "dammit", and "hell" higher on the offensiveness than "shit". — G. Ann - SonarSource Team 24 mins ago

Weird. Not sure why something written to J.R. is under my answer. Maybe she posted it under the wrong answer.

But because I didn't rank them the same way. Actually, my ranking is the exact opposite of hers, as I wrote in my comment yesterday:

@G.Ann-SonarSourceTeam I suppose that a comment is good enough. (Thanks for the comment!) Personally, Damn! or Hell! is less offensive than Shit!, but, of course, context and how we say it is very important. In any case, I didn't mean those words in that line to be "inoffensive", just something that could be less offensive. — Damkerng T. 15 hours ago

So, on the record, this non-native speaker ranks damn, dammit, and hell lower on the offensiveness than shit.

Naturally, I did a quick search. Interestingly, the first two links I tried appear to support my intuition.

Just for future reference, here they are:

> dysfunctionalliteracy.com/2014/01/18/why-is-hell-a-bad-word

> Who’s Swearing Now? The Social Aspects of Conversational Swearing By Kristy Beers Fägersten

Anonymous

12:28

@DamkerngT. I think my ranking is different from hers, too.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane I guess that they could sound differently to different groups of speakers.

Also, good morning!

Jim Reynolds

I think there is now a suffiently detailed question. An answer might briefly explain when speakers would more likely make one choice over the other. The OP has been responsive here. — Jim Reynolds 2 mins ago

Grrrr

1

Q: Environmental issues do matter

I have written the following statement which is wrong but still want to know what is wrong with it? Would anyone explain? Environmental issues do matter. I wanted to say that people have to consider the environmental impacts seriously during plant's operations and do their best to protect ...

grammar

Damkerng T.

Brrr :P

Jim Reynolds

:D

Damkerng T.

3

Q: What is the difference between “within” and “inside”?

Here is the definition of the word within from Oxford Dictionary: inside (something) So does that mean the two words have no difference, and can be used exchangingly? Is there any connotation that one word can be used but not the other?

difference vocabulary connotations word-definition

Hmm... is that really the definition given by the dictionary?

(within = inside (something))

that begs for cross-checking!

Hmm... it's sort of yes, and no.

Jim Reynolds

12:37

My forthcoming biography: Damkerng T., the CPU Within

Damkerng T.

Haha!

Jim Reynolds

It's a scandalous tell-all

Damkerng T.

Oh, no!

Jim Reynolds

Is the public ready to hear that all our browser tabs are being hogged by one entity?

Cardinal

@CowperKettle I cannot believe that you follow that media. :)))

Damkerng T.

12:44

Number of currently victimized tabs: 2058

Cardinal

Hi all

Damkerng T.

Hi!

(Not to mention 30 other windows and the other two browser instances.)

Jim Reynolds

This is going to sell big!

Damkerng T.

:D

Cardinal

0

Q: Idiom: "What are we looking at? Minutes, hours, or days?"

Can I say: What are we looking at? Minutes, hours, or days? in order to get a rough estimate on how long something will take? Or is "What are we looking at?" part of some other common construction?

idioms

I thought the best choice is "How much will it take?"

Damkerng T.

12:48

It makes perfect sense to me.

(But I wasn't sure at first when I read just the title.)

Jim Reynolds

Yes. It means something like, What's you assessment (of something we are looking at, figuratively).

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. I learned something knew. Is there any difference between that and "how much will it take".

Damkerng T.

It roughly means "How long will it take? Can you give me an estimate?"

Jim Reynolds

If you have written an equation, and another mathematician walks in and sees it for the first time, she might say What do we have here, a reverse-Boolean n-dimensional matrix? haha

Can you see that idea? It's similar.

Cardinal

@JimReynolds I see. I have never confronted with this idiom

Jim Reynolds

12:52

You is no gooder Englishes? O.O

Damkerng T.

Actually, it's one of the questions I'd like to hear to most when I've got a new project.

"What are we looking at? A few weeks, a couple months, or half a year?"

But that's very, very rare. -- It usually goes like, "You've got two months, XXXXX baht, can you get it done?"

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yes, that sounds likely! (Although most people would probably say sound different rather than sound differently.)

Damkerng T.

@snailplane I wrote different and then edited it to differently!

I should've trusted my first thoughts more!

My cat went crazy because it's raining rather heavily, with some lightnings!

Cardinal

@JimReynolds I cannot construe that scenario

Jim Reynolds

The math one?

If we are both thinking about something, we can say it's ours. Our problem, our activity.

Cardinal

12:59

Are you sure that she is a mathematician? She related an equation to reverse-boolian {I have no idea what is it} n-dimensional matrix :D

Jim Reynolds

Haha

You just need to learn higher-level math!

Cardinal

Oh my connection sucks

I think I need to learn higher level languages

especially English

What is called "Reverse-Boolian" ?

The last boolian thing that I remember is the following code that I wrote couple of minutes ago in Matlab:

ind = Rc_x < = g_th;

Cardinal

13:20

> Italian police cook elderly couple pasta after neighbours hear crying

Sorce: independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/…

^_^ <3

CowperKettle

13:31

(0:

Jim Reynolds

13:51

@Cardinal I just tried to make up something that sounds mathematical

I am not a math guy at all

CowperKettle

15:03

:3156953 Cool. I understand nothing though

Cardinal

15:21

@JimReynolds I know a bit mathematics, but I do not know how several of them are called in English. I guessed "reverse-bolean" must be one of them.

Damkerng T.

Diane Kruger's French Accent Gets Her Out Of Trouble Every Time

►

It was a fun interview, and hey, foreign accents can be quite useful sometimes, as she demonstrates it very well!

Cardinal

"fun interview" or "funny interview" ?

Damkerng T.

Well, this one I'd say it's fun rather than funny.

Cardinal

@JimReynolds What was the full scale version of SOOL?

Damkerng T.

(Skip to 6:13 to see example accents.)

Cardinal

15:25

@DamkerngT. I have problem with those

adjective fun versus adjective funny

Damkerng T.

For me, fun is like having a good time. Funny is like when you're watching Just For Laughs or something.

They're quite close, I agree, but hmm... I'm not sure how to explain the real difference. I just know when I want to use which one.

Maybe funny is more like something you'll laugh at, but fun is more like something you'll laugh with.

Cardinal

Is it right to say: He is funny/fun ?

I think something is wrong with this sentence

Damkerng T.

Both should be okay.

Cardinal

but, I cannot remember that

Damkerng T.

Fun as an adjective may sound wrong to some people, though.

(Then again, it's unclear what exactly it is in He is fun.)

Cardinal

15:32

Hmm, let's consider it as a synonym for hilarious

or having a good sense of humor

The last night party was so funny

Damkerng T.

Hmm... hilarious could be either fun or funny for me.

A good sense of humor is more like a character of a person.

Cardinal

I see

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Was there anyone fell on their behind?

:P

Cardinal

:D :V

No it was just another example

Damkerng T.

I know. I just added some feedback to make it a bit clearer what kind of "funny" (in a party) thing I would expect.

Cardinal

15:36

The last night Trump's speech was so funny, It made me laugh to death.

Damkerng T.

Yeah! That's funny!

(I didn't see that, BTW! :-)

Cardinal

I didn't see too, I even doubt if there was any speech last night ! :D

Damkerng T.

BTW, for most people (or on general occasions), you'd want to use watch rather than see.

Cardinal

Ah, I see

Damkerng T.

Using see this way is probably one of my idiosyncrasy, because for some kinds of programs, I don't really watch them. Just glance my eyes on.

Cardinal

15:39

@DamkerngT. :D

Damkerng T.

:D

I guess, the most common ones are watch a TV show, see the news, and go see a movie.

Cardinal

Thanks, good advice

Damkerng T.

(You could watch the news, too, of course.)

@Cardinal No problem!

Yay! Thailand is back in the top-ten chart again! (at #9 at the moment)

Cardinal

Michael Phelps

Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American competition swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 23 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (19, more than twice that of the second-highest record holders), Olympic gold medals in individual events (11), and Olympic medals in individual events for a male (13). In winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps took the record away from fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz (7) for the most first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. Five of those victories were...

I am a big fan of this guy

Damkerng T.

His swimming strokes are awesome!

Catija

15:57

Hey, can you check something for me?

The question on the main page about translation software... it's closed. If you click on it, where does it take you?

Cardinal

It has been deleted

Catija

@Cardinal Right. But can you post the link you get when you click on it?

Cardinal

> This question was voluntarily removed by its author.

I just clicked on link at the top of this page

It was the new activity

Catija

OK. Thanks :D

Cardinal

I couldn't see it on the main site

TIPS

16:20

@Cardinal If you earn 10,000 reputation, you will be able to.

It's magical powers.

CowperKettle

I spotted some mistakes in a genetic drug development report, and my comments turned out to be correct. ^_^

And I only understand about 60% of the thing I'm translating now.. the rest is kind of hazy.

TIPS

@CowperKettle \o/

You are of an exceptional mind.

I guess having water boil in you regularly hardens you.

Catija

@TIPS @CowperKettle can you check that, too? Are you getting the same thing as Cardinal? I have people blaming caching but I'm still getting the meta page, personally.

TIPS

@Catija Check what? Also hullo]

Catija

Hi :D Check that question about French-English translation software. It's closed on the main page of ELL... but it was migrated to Meta but then deleted by the OP.

TIPS

16:30

0

Q: Do you know an powerful translation software English / French and French / English (about full text)?

Do you have a powerful software (not known) better than Google translation (which is too rough even if it is better than others)? If a person practices a translation of a serious text, Google translation produces a ridiculous text reading in English (and vice versa). If you know a powerful soft...

british-english translation french

I see it on main, no redirect to meta, no 404.

And a "migration rejected" in the timeline.

Catija

Whenever I click on it, it takes me to Meta. :(

meta.ell.stackexchange.com/questions/3129/…

^There

TIPS

@Catija Deleted.

Can you click on my message's onebox?

Catija

@TIPS I can... but it still redirects to that same link.

TIPS

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Catija

I can't actually go to the main page question.

TIPS

16:34

Bug report! (/¯◡ ‿ ◡)/¯ ~ ┻━┻

Or maybe wait a little?

Jim Reynolds

@Car A funny person is hilarious. Makes you laugh. A fun person makes us feel entertained or is enjoyable.

Catija

@TIPS Yeah, it's probably a caching thing... I guess... but when Cardinal got the same result, I was curious.

TIPS

@JimReynolds I'm a funny fun person.

Jim Reynolds

She always has lots of ideas for things to do. She knows a lot of games, and has good suggestions for activities. She's always friendly and interesting. She's a very fun person.

TIPS

She can also be a he.

Jim Reynolds

16:36

He always tells jokes. He'a funny.

NOT THE SHE I AM THINKING ABOUT, DAMMIT

TIPS

@JimReynolds New auxiliary! "ia"

Jim Reynolds

About time we had a new one

I sleep, perchance to dream that TIPS can speak English

TIPS

@JimReynolds Aww! How Jimly of you!

Hugs @Jim

Man_From_India

4

Q: “There goes my chances” or “There go my chances"

Is “there goes my chances” or “there go my chances” correct? The first seems to be more natural, but since chances is plural, shouldn’t you use “go” instead of “goes”?

grammar

Jim Reynolds

Go

Chance is countable here.

Man_From_India

16:49

But some commenters there said there are lots of result in google book for goes as well. Is not it strange?

Jim Reynolds

There goes my chance. In the singular case, yes.

Man_From_India

hmmm

Jim Reynolds

Most commonly, we'd speak of a chance in this context.

There goes my chance to be a millionaire. I lost my lottery ticket.

I can't think of many situations where we'd use the plural.

TIPS

-22

Q: Avoid premature advocation?

When reading answers, the first thing a user sees is the number of upvotes. This influences the user before the user reads the answer - a lot of upvotes predisposes the user to thinking the answer is a good answer and vice versa. What if the upvotes were aligned to the bottom of the answer ...

discussion feature-request

Drawing the opposite conclusion from the same argument

Man_From_India

@JimReynolds hmmm that makes sense.

Jim Reynolds

16:55

Suppose I want to marry TIPS or Cardinal. I need to ask their parents' permission. All the parents were supposed to meet me, but as I'm arriving, they all leave on camelback and I'll never get to ask them.

There go my chances to marry those two.

Man_From_India

haha good real life example :-)

Jim Reynolds

Haha

@TIPS You mean you think that lots of upvotes likely signifies a good answer, so you want to see that information soon?

TIPS

@JimReynolds Yes.

Jim Reynolds

Yeah. I think we can figure out if an upvoted answer is not good

Premature advocation. Funny

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