Language Overflow

Jim Reynolds

02:52

@DEAD ... I'm MAR/TIPS. My new chemical is called "DEAD", ... if a reader doesn't know you, this may be a confusing introduction.

What about beginning with a factual statement that a general reader can relate to right away, then keeping your fun joke? My recent usernames have been/included MAR and TIPS. I study chemistry and these are abbreviations for chemicals. Currently it's DEAD, which ....

Is something like that better? I dunno how many people of what kinds will read the stuff and vote.

Anonymous

03:41

@DamkerngT. It sounds unlikely. My first guess would be that you heard a real sound, but that you're interpreting that sound as a when a native speaker would interpret it as something else.

Anonymous

I can't really say without hearing the recording myself, though.

Damkerng T.

04:10

@snailplane I just checked, he said a huge waste of time. So, I misheard him! drive.google.com/file/d/0B8KKQ0fwLEZ9RjByUGhzeWo4MXc/…

I think the words after "50 hours" (which is barely audible) confused me a little and so I got it cross-wired!

CC @Jim!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Ah, I see! :-)

Anonymous

Wow, other people have a lot more reviews than me on ELL.

Damkerng T.

What's funny is that I thought he talked fast, but I just checked. He said only about 50 words in about 10 seconds, give or take a couple words and a second.

So, it's only 5 words a second, which I don't think is very fast.

Anonymous

Ooh, I would have a candidate score of 37/40.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Yay! Go for it!

Anonymous

04:23

I could totally win the candidate score contest.

Damkerng T.

I just earned another Constituent badge on ELU. :D

Anonymous

Yay!

Damkerng T.

@snailplane You do earn it! :-)

> We just don't have the time to spend either.
We have all kinds of important stuff we're working on,
and if we spend a week trying to find an office,
and he and I put 20 hours into it, 50 hours into it,
it's a huge waste of time.

Not sure if I got it right every word, but it should be more or less like that.

(There are several words I'm not 100% sure, like the time or a time, or We have or We've got or maybe even Really, or into it or until, but I opted for the choices that make sense the most.)

Morning, @KinzleB!

Kinzle B

It's noon. :)

Damkerng T.

Ah, I see. Sorry that I forgot about the time zones!

Kinzle B

04:34

We are almost the same!

Damkerng T.

Indeed!

I just realized that 5 words a second in English is quite fast!

V.V.

Good time of the day!

Damkerng T.

Good morning!

V.V.

For you, sawasdee kha!

Damkerng T.

Privet and sawasdee khrap!

Kinzle B

04:41

Would my icon remind people I might be a girl? :-) @DamkerngT.

Damkerng T.

@KinzleB Maybe, if they first met you!

V.V.

Yes, but it's pretty.

Damkerng T.

Wow, Thai's words are very short! :D

(via: linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/1617/…)

CowperKettle

Sawasdee khrap, Dam!

Dobroye Utro, @V.V.!

Damkerng T.

Sawasdee khrap!

Kinzle B

04:44

@Thank you! @V.V.

CowperKettle

Buenos morning, @snailplane!

V.V.

Privet!

Kinzle B

Haha, I stole your compliment!!

V.V.

He's like a lightning.

It's "hi"

What's "hi" in Chinese?

Kinzle B

it means hello! :)

Anonymous

04:54

nǐhǎo! :-)

V.V.

Morning, Snailplane.

Or "evening".

Kinzle B

@snailplane I presume you r in US. It should be midnight.

Anonymous

05:13

@KinzleB I live in California, so it's about 10 in the evening.

Anonymous

Here in ELL chat, we seem to indiscriminately mix "Good morning!" with "Good evening!"

Anonymous

After all, it's always one or the other for someone here :-)

Kinzle B

@snailplane Yeah! Are you a fan of movie, by any chance?

Anonymous

I like movies, but I haven't seen as many of them as some people :-)

Anonymous

I'm more of a reader than a watcher.

Kinzle B

05:28

@snailplane I see. I think it would be good if you chose to be a mod! :)

Avicenna

Hi!

What do you think of this sentence

If he asked you about disobedience, tell him that I did not listen to you as I always do.

I thought it should be thus way: If he had asked you about disobedience, you would tell him that I did not listen to you as I always do.

But it seems I was wrong. What do you think?

1

Q: How the meaning of these sentences change on changing the tense?

If he asks you about disobedience, tell him that I did not listen to you as I always do. If he will ask you about disobedience, tell him that I did not listen to you as I always do. If he asked you about disobedience, tell him that I did not listen to you as I always do. If he s...

Cardinal

06:06

If I were who should answer this question, I say that is ungrammatical.
However, we should note that it's a real conditional.
Good question @Avicenna

(I would say)

Hi @V.V. Good morning

V.V.

Morning, Cardinal.

Cardinal

06:22

@P.E.Dant I'm struggling to understand time consistency in the 3rd sentence. Would guide me a little bit ? — Cardinal 3 mins ago

V.V.

He is right.

V.V.

06:50

No, the first and the forth are correct, the forth-British English.

CowperKettle

"the forth is British English"

* fourth

DEAD

*forte

CowperKettle

English has no 'zero copula', @V.V.

\o, Muhammad!

DEAD

Hey @Cowp, haven't chatted with you these days

@DamkerngT. It'll be huge waste a of time

CowperKettle

07:06

Today is the City Day in Yekaterinburg

An annual celebration

DEAD

Yay!

What do you celebrate @Cowp? Liberating your city from vampires in 1895?

@JimReynolds Dunno. People read that stuff?

CowperKettle

@DEAD No, I'm translating a 200-page document

DEAD

And chatting and not chatting at the same time "not to get distracted".

DEAD

07:34

-9

Q: Is stack Exchange generating a knowledge base that government research agencies use,secretly?

Stack exchange is well known for it's network of multi communities,where professionals and non-professionals come together to learn and share knowledge. But what if stack exchange is secretly used by government's research agencies to build artificial intelligence programs which can analyse,mutat...

discussion

Usernew

@DEAD LOL!

@snailplane youtube.com/watch?v=FGZv3VDOnDA

DEAD

08:58

Hey @user. Long time no chat

Damkerng T.

09:10

@DEAD Heh!

@CowperKettle Congratulation!

DEAD

09:23

@DamkerngT. Only one congratulation?

Damkerng T.

@DEAD Only one typo!

DEAD

@DamkerngT. Thank God. I thought you were saving all your congratulations to congratulate my win in the election. :P

Hey @Sum. Lost? :)

Damkerng T.

:D

@DEAD Huh? It hasn't ended yet, I think.

DEAD

09:40

@DamkerngT. Sumelic hasn't ended yet?

He has now.

sumelic

09:52

@DEAD Hi! I just thought I'd pop in.

DEAD

@sumelic How's you?

Damkerng T.

1

Q: Why do we use "of" instead of "for"?

We use "of" instead of "for" in some kinds of sentences because the adjective which is near infinitive describes the character (evaluation) of the person. For example It was careless of you to leave your bag on the train. but I don't understand why we use "of". Is that related to the featur...

meaning grammar word-usage

Looks easy, but not easy.

See of: "used in passive constructions to indicate the agent ⇒ he was beloved of all" — user3169 Jul 21 at 5:32

DEAD

@DamkerngT. I just voted to leave open, but someone for God's sake edit the tags.

Damkerng T.

But we don't have any passive constructions here!

DEAD

Oh wait.

I mistook that for a recent question.

Damkerng T.

09:54

0

A: Why do we use "of" instead of "for"?

It is a very big difference. Why? What does this sentence mean? Sarah is a friend of mine? That she is my friend. And how about that? Sarah is a very good friend for me. of means that something comes from a person or it belongs to a person. Your example shows that some "you" left his bag on the t...

But careless is not a noun like friend!

@DEAD I edited the tags anyway. :D

Hi, @sumelic! Welcome to the room!

sumelic

@DEAD I'm OK, thanks.

@DamkerngT. Hello! It's nice to be here.

DEAD

@sumelic But I thought you were Sumelic.

Damkerng T.

@sumelic Yay! Glad to hear that!

Anonymous

@sumelic Welcome to ELL chat :-)

sumelic

@DEAD Hey, you're the one who keeps changing your name, not me :) I've had the same handle since I first signed up.

Damkerng T.

09:57

@sumelic LOL

DEAD

Silence ensues

sumelic

I had been wondering recently if I should make it match my avatar by changing the e to a schwa.

DEAD

I am cool with that

All the cool kids have Unicody usernames.

Except TCh, but he's too cool for that.

sumelic

Right! It's a thing on ELU.

@DEAD It's annoying when that happens. But at least there are no rules against necromancy here: unlike on most forums, it's actually encouraged!

Damkerng T.

> Elsewhere: I see dead people.

DEAD

10:02

@sumelic Well, it's discouraged on a large scale.

Damkerng T.

> Here: I see DEAD, people.

DEAD

@DamkerngT. Tips hat

Cardinal

10:18

@sumelic Is "I had been wondering recently if I should make .." correct? I think It has a time consistency problem

DEAD

It doesn't

Cardinal

Really?

So why did you have problem with "can" couple of days ago?

DEAD

I didn't.

Someone else did.

And that was backshifting. How's it relevant?

Cardinal

It's not relevant. I wanted to know how you distinguish between them

@DEAD It's pretty odd sounding to me with "can't"... You could certainly use a direct quote to use "can't"... I thought, "I can't do this alone"... — Catija yesterday

sumelic

@Cardinal I don't think there's any inconsistency. It's true the use of the pluperfect here wasn't really necessary: I could have just said "I was wondering recently..."

DEAD

10:25

@Cardinal Backshifting is the real phenomenon behind what learners call "reported speech". It also has a broader scope.

Cardinal

@sumelic My problem is with "if clause" which is in the present tense

sumelic

I don't think "should" would ever have to be back-shifted since I'm talking about a currently existing state.

DEAD

@Cardinal Distinguish between what?

Cardinal

@sumelic nods

@DEAD Between the past form of "can" and the past form of "should"

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal FWIW, it may be helpful to think of the sentence in context as (Before you mentioned that,) I had been wondering recently if I should make it match my avatar by changing the e to a schwa.

Cardinal

10:28

@DamkerngT. Thanks, but I think you did get me wrong

sumelic

@Cardinal Another thing that might be relevant: "should" is already a past form (relative to "shall"). That's not how it's being used here, but I think there's a difference between back-shifting "can" to "could" and back-shifting "should" to "should have."

DEAD

@Cardinal shoulded

Cardinal

I mean, I have problem with the time consistency, especially in conditionals.

DEAD

@Cardinal You think you have a problem. You really don't.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I see. I thought you had a problem with had been wondering!

sumelic

10:29

For example, you can't say "I thought I can say something" but you can say "I thought I should say something"

DEAD

Don't think about nitpicking the tense, and be the natural you, and you'd get conditionals right 90 percent of the time.

Or perhaps even more.

Cardinal

@sumelic Wow Amazing

I didn't know that, I am serious.

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal should is somewhat odd, compared to its modal friends.

Cardinal

nods

Damkerng T.

If you hadn't noticed, it's already in its past form.

Cardinal

10:32

Thank you guys, you thought me very important lesson.

@DamkerngT. BTW, may you decipher "FWIW"? :-)

sumelic

@Cardinal Glad to help. I found a table that might be helpful: Backshift in Reported Speech

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Ah, it's for For what it's worth. :D

Cardinal

10:45

1

Q: I don't fully understand this sentence

“The theatrical fools of the end of the sixteenth century were only one manifestation of a long tradition of fooling, more or less continuous since at least the Middle Ages, which evolved alongside the theater but was by no means dependent upon it” Does which in "which evolved" refers to t...

meaning-in-context relative-clauses interpretation

Damkerng T.

I agree with stangdon.

I thought about writing an answer, but I'm not sure about some of my assertions (about reading English sentences in general). Someone else would do a better job than me.

But it's much likelier that a non-restrictive clause should modify the closest phrase on its left.

Cardinal

Firstly, I jumped into a conclusion that it refers to "theatrical fools" since I thought that is a kind of parlor or whatever. I mean "theatrical fools" as a whole

@DamkerngT. I see

Damkerng T.

It (stangon's reading) makes more sense in the OP's context, too.

CowperKettle

11:08

0

Q: Why did all my tables lost borders (Word 2007)?

My MS Word 2007 document had too many rogue "headings" in the automatic table of contents. I switched to the outline view, selected all the text and demoted it to "body text", that solved this issue. However, now I've noticed that about a 100 little tables I had created in the document have all ...

microsoft-word microsoft-word-2007

D'oh..

Hi, Cardinal!

Cardinal

Hi. cop

CowperKettle

Am now going through 100 little tables and making them visible again..

Isn't there a way so select all tables in MS Word?

..and then restore their borders?

I don't know how I made them invisible.. was too busy fixing the Table Of Contents

For some reason, the original document tables remained with visible borders.

Cardinal

<I'm thinking>

@CowperKettle I don't think so

I have never worked with Excel seriously

@CowperKettle Are they from the same style ?

CowperKettle

I don't know.

I fixed them manually.

Cardinal

If so, I think if you change the style options, then all the tables formatted by that style will change

CowperKettle

11:19

I've no idea where to look for a table's style (0:

Okay, I 'solved' the problem manually.

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle Phew!

Cardinal

I think you have removed the table format.

I mean you need to format them again:

BTW, Super User looks great

I am going to register an account over that community.

CowperKettle

@Cardinal I'm working in Word 2007

(0:

Cardinal

12:21

Are you serious?

0

Q: Campaign or countryside: Which one I've to use?

I'm translating a Italian review in English and I've a doubt. Are there any difference between "campaign" and "countryside"? Which one I've to use and when?

word-choice

CowperKettle

12:33

Champion derives from "field"

A Frenchman or an Italian might confuse the words.

Jim Reynolds

13:25

@DamkerngT. You need to go to the shop and have your aural circuits washed in electronic solvent

Don't let it get to be too a huge problem

CowperKettle

14:05

0

Q: Two lines duplicate in a MS Word 2007 table, cannot be deleted

I've got a table in an MS Word 2007 document in which the first two lines (not the heading line) are duplicated closer to the end, for an unknown reason. I cannot select them using the mouse. O_O What can I do to delete them?

microsoft-word-2007

I should go and jog, this docx editing will drive me mad.

Jim Reynolds

@Cow Add a screenshot to that question? The description may be unclear.

CowperKettle

> P.S. I selected the whole table and copied it into another document, and voila, the repeating lines vanished. The repearing lines were just under where the table crossed a border between two pages.

microsoft-word-2007

It apparently has something to do with Word's rendering engine. When the table crosses page border.. I'll go tinker some more.

Cardinal

15:33

"work out" has six different meanings as I can see on the Macmillan website. Would you add more context? See: macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/work-out — Cardinal 1 min ago

Mattew

@Cardinal thanks anyway, I ask you a little thing: Is it right "Where you going"?

Shouldn't be "Where are you going"?

Cardinal

@Mattew As a learner, I would say "Where you going" is wrong

@Mattew My connection sucks today

Mattew

ok

ororo.tv/en/shows/futurama#1-1

Why futurama says "wher you going"?

Cardinal

let me see, I hope I can play that

Mattew

Ok :)

Cardinal

15:37

That part happens in which time?

Mattew

00:35

Cardinal

Stuck on Fry, Pizza going

Mattew

go on some seconds

00:38

Cardinal

Thus, I think "work out" means we are done, Its over and this sort of thing

In terms of "where you going" I have no Idea

Mattew

@Cardinal thanks

I asked it ell.stackexchange.com/questions/101132/where-you-going-is-right

StoneyB

15:51

@Mattew I don't have access to the particular video you're looking at, but in colloquial US English the are is usually elided to 're or even dropped in wh- questions: Where you going? Whatcha doing? Who you taking to the party? That shouldn't be emulated in written English.

Mattew

oh ok.

I understood.

Cardinal

Hi @StoneyB Good evening

StoneyB

Hi, @Cardinal

Usernew

@DEAD Yeah, very busy these days :(

@DEAD I hope you are doing well with your exams and your life(Oops! Didn't knew you were DEAD :P)

@StoneyB Hey!

Anybody here listens to country songs?

I need help regarding one :(

It starts at 1:03 :)

LOGITECH Z623 Speakers - SOUND TEST and Review

►

Anyone?

Thanks!

StoneyB

Hi, @Usernew What's your problem?

Usernew

16:10

I am trying to find a country song @StoneyB

StoneyB

What song are you trying to find?

Usernew

Check the video at 1:03 :)

StoneyB

YOu want somebody to identify the song from the guitar solo?

Usernew

yeah :D

@StoneyB Aren't you participating to be a moderator?

StoneyB

Sorry, I can't help you with that particular piece.

No, I'm not in the running.

Usernew

16:13

No problemo!

I asked on the music fan site, too.

But have very odd chance

hehe!

Man_From_India

0

Q: the difference between two sentences below

I am wondering what is the difference between two structures: I don't know the place where I am going, I don't know where I am going.

relative-clause

It's very odd.

> I don't know the place where I am going,

Usernew

Bye, all!

Man_From_India

You may encounter the first sentence being used where the second is intended (and standard). — Edwin Ashworth 2 hours ago

StoneyB

We might say "I don't know the place where I'm going" to indicate that although we know the name of the place we're not familiar with it.

Man_From_India

> I don't know what is written over there.

StoneyB

16:21

But we wouldn't use it to say our destination is unknown.

Man_From_India

We however don't say - I don't know the sentence what is written over there.

StoneyB

BillJ's comment says the same thing as I just said.

Man_From_India

I think in these cases only embedded interrogative occurs.

@StoneyB yes nods.

StoneyB

@Man_From_India No, what is no longer used as a relative pronoun in bound relatives; we use which instead. But where is used as a relative pronoun in both bound and free relatives: I know a place where you can get a beer for fifty cents, I know where I'm going.

Bye, @Usernew

Man_From_India

@StoneyB I have to read about it a bit. I don't know the distinction of bound vs free relatives. But right now I am a bit busy. Is it there in CGEL?

StoneyB

16:32

Yes; CGEL uses the term fused relative for what I call a free relative. (CGEL also distinguishes between fused relative phrases and embedded questions, which I think is baloney!) My "...a place where you can get a beer..." is a bound relative: where refers to the antecedent a place and is 'bound' to it. My I know where I'm going is a free relative: where is not bound to an antecedent.

Man_From_India

Just found this on facebook -

> only support internet that's REALLY free for all! Not just that has the word free in it!

I think it's also wrong use. Isn't it?

DEAD

It's shaky, but not as bad as wrong

Man_From_India

I thought that sentence is wrong.

DEAD

Maybe I've seen similar sentences so much that I don't consider it ungrammatical anymore.

StoneyB

The second sentence is fine -- it just ellipts the word internet, which is recoverable from context. The pointing is informal, but Hey, this is the internet.

Man_From_India

16:45

Ellipsis is a mystery to a learner :D

DEAD

Ellipsis is a mastery to a learner :D

StoneyB

Here you ID the parallels: *internet that is ... that has ... *

Man_From_India

@StoneyB Oh right, thanks.

StoneyB

Have a good evening folks -- I gotta run buy groceries. Seeya later.

DEAD

\o

Man_From_India

16:57

see you stoney

Araucaria

Hello folks

Just been looking at this question here:

0

Q: When should we use "these ones" vs "those ones"?

When we are talking about things we can say "these ones" or those ones". What is the difference in fact? For example if I want to point with a index finger on two things, should I say "those ones" or "these ones", the same question about a case in which I am talking in front of students as a le...

pronouns british-english australian-english canadian-english

DEAD

Hey

Araucaria

I think this question needs reopening!!

@DEAD Howdy death!

Man_From_India

From another forum - Q - Only two cucumber do you need? A - Yes, two is/are enough.

DEAD

@Man_From_India Both work.

Man_From_India

17:08

But we say - Two is a company, three is a chaos.

We don't use are there.

DEAD

@Araucaria It's one of the beauty-in-the-eye-of-beholder cases, and that asker I don't recall for asking good questions, but have a vote anyway.

Man_From_India

Isn't that strange.

DEAD

No.

Araucaria

I don't know why we can't say "These who want to know the answer, come and speak to me after the class" but we can say "Those who want to know the answer, come and speak to me after the class" - even if we have already said "Many of you will want to know the answer" in the sentence before ...

DEAD

@Araucaria I gave what you told me about running for mod the other day some thought.

That thing about me being young and doing much better things than running a site.

Araucaria

17:10

@DEAD You is or you ain't?

DEAD

Or ruining it, for that matter.

Araucaria

@DEAD You wouldn't ruin it, you'd be great. But you do have much better things to do, I'm sure ... :)

DEAD

Then I realized, this is my better thing to do.

As sad as that may be, Arau.

Araucaria

@DEAD So you is!

DEAD

Let's look at what we have in real life.

Artificial tests that take my ambition from me.

Having to pursue the future that brings me money, not the future I like.

Araucaria

17:13

@DEAD So you're gonna let that put you off your studies and waste your time administrating on here?

DEAD

Having to resist idiots in the educational system

@Araucaria This site isn't hindering my studies.

Araucaria

@DEAD You want to be an administrator for a company that won't pay you and is going to start making millions of pounds from your free work on here?

DEAD

I don't look at it like that.

For one thing, mods aren't doing that much work you expect them to be doing.

Araucaria

@DEAD Most companies do useful things for people. But that doesn't make them charities. You'll basically be doing an unpaid internship that you cannot use on your CV ...

DEAD

I don't mind that.

CowperKettle

17:15

Evening khrap

DEAD

Because otherwise I would've been playing computer games Arau.

Araucaria

@DEAD You should do before you decide to be a mod ...

CowperKettle

> Over the period from 20 Jan 2015 to 20 Jan 2016, no batches non-compliant with relevant specifications were discovered. (Do I need the comma after 2016?)

Araucaria

@DEAD You could just write good answers and man the review cues - and do lots of other s=tuff too, and be around in chat etc, etc ...

DEAD

@Araucaria The time I spend here is valuable, but me being the foolish teen I am, would've spent it on playing games and doing other stupid things teens do these days.

I'd rather be wasting time and helping other people, than just wasting time.

@Araucaria Being a mod isn't much work, trust me. Especially on a site like ELL where it generates roughly 30 flags a day.

Araucaria

17:18

@DEAD Yes, it's very valuable to a small number of people who own the company. Now that they're advertising they're going to start making $$$$$$ out of your work here as a mod ... :)

CowperKettle

@JimReynolds I should read that

DEAD

But I'm running for another reason.

For two years my words weren't of any value on meta.ELL.

But if I become a mod, I'd gain some authority.

Araucaria

@DEAD Got to skidaddle old bean, let me know. I'll get back to you later ... :-)

DEAD

Then I'd start cleaning some mess.

@Araucaria Yay

But they're providing a service I'd like to use.

A service I'd like to see work better.

@Araucaria Cya

CowperKettle

@DEAD You can attend some scientific clubs, some study groups, do some serious sports.

There must be such things in Iran.

And there's the university and stuff.

Anonymous

17:30

@DEAD The way I see it, moderators should follow the meta community consensus, so to make a change, you still need to make your case on meta and get people on board.

DEAD

@snailplane Yes, I'm not looking to become a tyrant. ;)

But people will accept what I say better if I'm a mod rather a lowly low-rep user.

The same arguments, but this time with more authority, will obviously work better.

@CowperKettle Do you really think that if I become a mod I have to be here 24/7/

BTW, my shift key is working funnily, so don't expect parenthesis or question marks for some time.

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