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02:40
@Law The OP strikes me as sincere but struggling.
I don't think you are besmirching anyone by raising the question. Not at all.
Is it really corret. I thought "what would happen if + present tense" is wrong, but this answer says sometbing different:
5
A: Correct use of will & would?

D. PatrickI think there's an implied meaning in using "will" vs. "would" in hypotheticals. In your first example, would and will are both correct. Will, I believe implies a higher level of expected certainty. By that I mean, if you ask "what will happen" you're expecting the reader to infer that the ans...

@Car I have many favorite movies that come to mind at different times. One is interestingly titled: Bagdad Cafe (!)
Another is Rambling Rose
Inland Empire
nods
The Grifters
Sophie's Choice
No, I was wrong It does not say something different
I mean the mentioned answer.
02:50
What would happen if our mother walks in right now?
Ok
Jim I didn't see those movies, but i will
@JimReynolds Is that grammatical?
All of them tend to be deeply emotional films.
Yes. We often backshift, but we don't have to.
I think using the present makes the possibility seem more likely, generally.
Oh, I didn't know that
I am not an expert on this. It's my feeling.
Is it only common in "what would happen" questions?
02:56
How would you feel .... etc. Same.
More common to backshift. More formal. More likely not to backshift in speech vs writing.
But present form is natural
nods
Where should we go if it rains?
Even in formal speech, that seems very common.
When something is very unlikely or impossible, we would much more likely to backshift.
What would you do if the sun didn't rise tomorrow?
Should is a weird animal. The past or present is not clear completely :-)
@JimReynolds I see
Same with would and could. Very confusing.
But hmmm.. sun doesn't rise... is also quite natural and likely!
> what would happen if you don't receive the fundings
I heard that on TV
I came to search about it
03:06
Sawasdee khrap
It was an interview about international fundings for afganistan, BBC
@CowperKettle Hi and good morning
03:26
@Cardinal Yes. It's fine.
03:49
869 words already O_O
in 2 months
I wonder if someone had started to learn Russian in this way 2 months ago - would they have really learned several hundred words by now?
Or any other language
I still don't get the meaning of a card's "ease"
The other statistics seem more or less comprehensible, but it took awhile to get it.
I entered a handful of non-technical words there, like "sool"
Bye, Cardi!
Too bad I can't install this program on my Nokia
I should buy a dirt-cheap Android phone just for Anki (0:
04:06
@CowperKettle Good job
Thank you! I estimate that about 60% is really learned.
When I was memorizing using copy books, I got the same figure. About 33% is lost from the memory.
> Table column: [Used in:][Crohn's disease, including the pediatric form]
Is there a way to shorten this "including the pediatric form"?
Maybe [Crohn's disease, adult- and pediatric onset]
The Russian original says "в т.ч. у детей" (including in children)
Bye, Cardi!
04:40
> The frequency and severity of allergic reactions associated with the treatment will be estimated on the strength of all the postmarketing pharmacovigilance data. (is okay, or does it sound too "legalistic"?)
05:18
@Lawrence The OP to that comment is certainly trolling. :P
05:28
This is simplified to the degree of stupidity.
BWAAHHHA I found a flaw in the flawless Socratic site.
I feel superior to mankind and kettlekind now.
@CowperKettle I guess a rough estimation of how easy the word is to pronounce, how often you're likely to use it, how digestible and memorable the meaning is, and how easy it is to use in related contexts.
@DEAD Yay. I have 9 pending answers and comments on (in? at?) Socratic
My questions were viewed 4,770 times
@DEAD A nice answer there. For a beginner, a great answer.
@CowperKettle It wouldn't have been if it were wrong.
It is not uncommon at all to be wrong when you simplify.
06:06
@CowperKettle , incl pediatric
@JimReynolds Thank you!
Standard abbreviation.
Even ped. would be understood by biomed people
@CowperKettle ok
Thank you!
06:32
2 messages moved to Trash
@Lawrence It's hard to say. Let's err on the side presuming innocent.
Temperature forecast for 2016
> Nasa: Earth is warming at a pace 'unprecedented in 1,000 years'
I hope the upcoming winter will be warm in the Urals
@CowperKettle But ladies in nice dresses can do everything these men in suits do. What should we do, then, I hope we don't ban all these dresses!
@DamkerngT. I'm not against banning all dresses for ladies, provided the climate is warm.
@CowperKettle A-ha!
Maybe the bicycling gear should be retained though. Because it's tough to ride long distances without the special cushions bicyclists use
A nice article in The Guardian
Found it:
A cycling pad, also known as "chamois" or "bikepad" or "Fondello" (Italian), "Gamuza" or "Badana" (Spanish), Peau (French) is a protective insert that is applied in cycling shorts with the main purpose of protecting the groin from the friction of constant and prolonged saddle contact. Cycling pads were developed at the beginning of the 1900s and were exclusively made of deer leather up until the 1980s, when technical fabrics were introduced, and allowed for enhanced performance. The first high-tech thermo molded cycling pads date back to the early 1990s; gel inserts also make their first appearance...
I was wondering why they wear the shorts, but now I'm thinking of buying the shorts myself.
06:48
Sounds like it's becoming too warm to bike over there.
In Russian, they call it "велопамперсы" (velo-Pampers) - from the famous brand name of toddlers' products
Added it to Multitran.
@DamkerngT. No, it's okay to bike over here. Now it's only + 16C
07:10
I still haven't received my T-shirt from ELL
Me either.
No, but it seems to me that you can say "There is no neighbour of mine whom I don't like". — CowperKettle 9 secs ago
07:31
0
Q: Is this sentence apposition? The belief is that the earth is round

박용현The belief is that the earth is round. Is 'the belief' and 'that earth is round' apposition here?

Our English teacher has gotten to appositions.
> This belief, "the Earth is round", is quite widespread.
Would "the Earth is round" count as an appositive?
Or maybe here this belief would be the appositive.
07:49
It should be the Earth is round that is the appositive in the sentence.
o/
. . . [A] guest asked a friend and I how we met.
Grammatical?
If it's commonly said by "educated" native speakers, is it still ungrammatical, and according to what evidence or authority?
The above comes from a NY Times blog.
Well, President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to -- to meet with him and First Lady Laura Bush.
Mr. Obama at a press conference.
08:04
Ah, I would have said "A guest asked a friend and me how we met". Now I see that it might be okay.
But should not it be "me"?
08:16
Language is somewhat political, too!
@CowperKettle You are asking my question back at me? I'm not Socrates!
We could make a website and invite all English speakers in the world to vote whether a sentence is grammatical or not. Let the people debate and fight and talk things out.
@DamkerngT. Maybe we vote on such with every sentence we utter?
At the end of day, we might have something we could say, confidently, about the grammaticality of the sentence, because the people have spoken. :P
@JimReynolds Probably, but I doubt if it's been debated over widely in public. :)
I will try to find an answer in CGEL, but I have a poor e-book reader on my phone, and it's hard to navigate that tome.
08:29
:D
'Tis a tome most unweildy, but the best in its fieldy.
2
2
Q: A question about using definite article with ordinal numbers

CardinalI was reading the definition of the verb "content" came across with this example: "he had to be content with third place" Shouldn't it be: "he had to be content with the third place" I thought that ordinal numbers take definite articles in such sentences. Especially, in this case the ...

Is it a duplicate? @CowperKettle
If so, I will delete the question.
@Cardinal It's a good question.
BTW, hi and good evening
@JimReynolds A grimoire, as Snails called it
08:31
or afternoon or whatever
Good afternoon, @Cardinal!
:-)
@CowperKettle Oh, I just saw your recent comment
I don't think it should be deleted
@CowperKettle I have the grimoire. Now I have to find more time to use it to create talismans and amulets. :)
(0:
> It is most commonly believed that the term grimoire originated from the Old French word grammaire, which had initially been used to refer to all books written in Latin.
08:50
@DamkerngT. @JimReynolds @DEAD Thanks for your input and I appreciate your notes. By the way, with 1 yes, 1 no and 1 not sure, we've covered all the bases :) .
So I should say "On 20 August, I took second train to Moscow"? The train is already made specific by the adjective "second". — CowperKettle 31 secs ago
@Lawrence :)
@Cardinal I have some thoughts on this. Would you like me to put it into an answer?
Or discuss it here?
Essentially, it's that third place with the zero article idiomatically means a ranking, while the third place idiomatically refers to a location. You can also have the third place winner, where the apples to winner, with third place modifying winner. So if you say "he had to be content with the third place", the initial impression is that he had to be content with the third location. (Note that chat, for example, is called the third place, after Main and Meta).
I've written a little about the here and there, though those references might not be sufficiently specific for your example.
Anonymous
09:11
@JimReynolds H&P would probably mark it with a superscript %, a symbol that indicates it's used by some speakers of Standard English but not others.
09:26
How many first places are there in a tournament? One. How many trains are at a typical train station? Many. Also, what makes the train "second"? The schedule. The schedule makes the "second" train specific. There may be only two trains leaving for Moscow, or more, and if you missed "the" second train to Moscow, you could always wait for "the" third one. The train is NOT named Second Train. LOL — Arch Denton 12 mins ago
Can anyone translate English to English for me?
:)
@snailplane Perfect. Thank you.
> How many first places are there in a tournament? One. [See, we don't use the because it's the only one.] How many trains are at a typical train station? Many. [See, we should use the because there are many.]
Like that?
There are many, so how do we refer to a specific one.
What about the One part?
According to a timetable, one is second. So it's the second.
09:30
Does it mean that the comment argues that we don't use the in expressions like first place because we know which specific one we're referring to?
@Lawrence Sure, You can post your answers. You don't need to ask anybody
I have similar question about this title:
Shouldn't it be TOEFL rather than the TOEFL?
@DamkerngT. I don't really agree with Arch Denton's comment. He's saying that you use "the" with train because there are many trains, but you don't use "the" with first place because there is only one first place. But the parallel should be between train and place, not train and third place. I've commented on Arch Denton's answer, including a short form of what I wrote above on the topic.
We have only one TOEFL object on (the?) earth
:-)
@Cardinal True, but it might be something you wanted to discuss interactively.
@Lawrence Thanks! I wasn't sure about his comment. I tried to think along his line of reasoning but it didn't work well for me!
09:35
... Actually, that indicates that my answer isn't sufficiently authoritative even in my own opinion, so I'll leave it here for now.
0
Q: Information given by users in their profiles

KirtiI was editing my profile when I saw there was a place where I can give my email, full name and my date of birth. There on the top it was written "Private information (not shown publicly)". It is my private information why the sites wants all this? What site will do with it? On the top of the spac...

@Cardinal I read it as the iBT of a specific kind, i.e., one that's issued by TOEFL.
@DamkerngT. Why do we say Third Avenue vs the third avenue?
@JimReynolds A label vs. a common noun. I think. (Which doesn't explain anything because we could turn any noun into a label, and assign a label to anything.)
@Cardinal I suppose there could be "The Tofu iBT" or "The Beef iBT" (never mind that they sound ridiculous). So "The TOEFL iBT" can work. (Which is what DamkerngT. said.
09:38
So is first place/prize a label?
@Lawrence I must do some daily tasks; I couldn't be so focused at the moment.
@JimReynolds To me, yes. It's a label we assigned to an abstract idea (of "place").
This is not a snailplaneTM question!
@JimReynolds A noun phrase, yes.
I don't know the answer
09:40
So if someone used the first/second/third/etc place, I'd need (in my mind) to instantiate an instance of such an idea to match the use of the.
@DamkerngT. Oops. I didn't read your whole reply. Bad Jim!
What do you mean I didn't fully understand that.
TOEFL is the name of an exam
(And why I would expect first place, rather than the first place, in most cases.)
If you like programming terms, it's an object factory vs. an object. :P
Let's read articles about the article the.
And we have the same kind of trickiness in programming, too, because an object factory itself is an object, too!
@Cardinal It's an idea similar to Lawrence's (chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/32105001#32105001).
@Lawrence By what authority do you pronounce yourself insufficiently authoritative on the matter?
Maybe it's an unknown known.
@JimReynolds By my own. :)
@CowperKettle Wow! So beautiful they could easily be included in Home!
"Home"?
I watched it in HD once. It was so vivid!
(Though the theme is a bit worrisome.)
@JimReynolds ... It's one of those things about idiomatic phrasing. Unless one goes into quite a bit of depth of corpus research, it's hard to defend against charges of "No, it's not idiomatic". I'm not sufficiently certain yet that there isn't a simple counter-example. I'll let the idea percolate for a while.
Is there a good, definitive answer on the "I took (the) first place" issue either on ELL or ELU?
@ArchDenton By that argument, there are multiple places (like your multiple trains), so that argument would justify using the third place. I think the reason third place uses the zero article has more to do with the changing the idiomatic understanding of place from ranking to location. — Lawrence 26 mins ago
@CowperKettle StoneyB's is more than good enough for me.
09:57
@DamkerngT. I'll add it to my "check out" list.
@CowperKettle Yay!
BTW, you can expect to see lots of stunning views, but I'm afraid you should not expect to finish the movie with good feelings.
The format is like, here is how beautiful things in our world are, and then, look at what we've done to our world, and then another beautiful thing, and what we've done to it, and so on.
I see..
10:23
...sorry, too sleepy to chat
@CowperKettle No problem. Have some rest!
What sort of dictitorial policy has the robot imposed on us?
We now must watch lithium-carbonium battery commercials?
(Robot porn.)
Haha
We used to have the same feed (of meta posts) in the old main room.
@Cow "All debts are cleared between you and I."
--Billy Shakespeare
@DamkerngT. Gotcha
11:25
@JimReynolds This is strong evidence suggesting that native speakers of English don't draw syntax-tree diagrams when they speak anything. :P
@DamkerngT. :-)
Oops! I misplaced my hyphen!
1
A: A question about using definite article with ordinal numbers: "content with third place" or "content with the third place"?

TRomanoThis is analogous to elementary school "grades", where the article can be used. What grade are you in? --I'm in (the) first grade. We can present the item in the ordered series using the definite article, in which case we're identifying its ordinal position within the series and ignoring any i...

Interesting answer
> So, if you ask a six-year-old child "What grade are you in?" the child might reply:

I'm in first grade!

or

I'm in the first grade.

Of the two, the first answer, without the article, is more likely to be given with a tone of pride and accomplishment and the second as merely a statement of fact.
It's along the same lines as my idea of "label".
It the answer correct?
I'll upvote it then
11:31
I think so, though I'm not sure how well it's applied to the specific case in the original example.
It's much better than the idea "we have only one so we don't need the", IMO.
11:50
@CowperKettle The second version (I'm in the first grade) can definitely be spoken with a tone of pride and accomplishment. Just place the stress on the word first.
12:18
@CowperKettle ^ I don't think that differentiates the choice we'd make. In most contexts, it's an open choice. I suppose some factors might tend to cause a slight preference for one vs the other, but I can't think of what they might be offhand.
 
1 hour later…
13:43
Would you tell me how(when) I should use the phrase "to one's consternation" ?
> to her consternation her car wouldn’t start
> She saw to her consternation that it was already after eight.
@Lawrence sorry, were you expecting other results?
BTW I was actually kidding, not inputting @Law
@DEAD No expectations, just glad to have some feedback.
13:46
@Mattew Oh gawd
@DEAD Yup, I caught the smilie. You were referring to me as the 'troll', right? :)
Hides
@DEAD I counted it anyway. Or, if you prefer, since I didn't include my own view (I leaned towards 'yes'), feel free to consider my vote substituted for yours. :)
Notably, my votes are far more authoritative.
@Cardinal You use it when the person is frustrated at the event. This is one idiomatic construction: "To her consternation, (independent clause describing the reason for her frustration)".
@Cardinal If you're playing around with the word to get a feel for its usage, try substituting the word "frustration" for "consternation".
Consternation isn't really frustration. It's subtly different. 'Consternation' is more anxious and 'frown-y'; it's more the feeling than the expression of that feeling.
Actually, it's more like dismay than frustration, but less helpless.
@DEAD You really want me to pull out the puns for DEAD votes? :P
14:09
@Lawrence Uh . . .
Yes
@DEAD Oh well, I suppose it's passed. Let's let sleeping dogs lie. ... poor doggie :P
Good evening
Hi @CowperKettle.
Hi, Lawrence!
No sun till next Monday
What's the tolerance on Learners for near-duplicate postings by the same person?
0
Q: I want to know whether you understand this ? 'period of the day, in the morning'

박용현I have waited for the period of the day, in the morning. Can the 'period of the day' and 'in the morning' be the apposition? please, tell me.

14:16
I'm very tolerant.
@CowperKettle Nice, if you can stay indoors.
Kettles generally are built to high tolerances.
off to make some coffee
@CowperKettle Oh dear. Are puns requisite for this chatroom? :P
@CowperKettle \o
I was just being honest. Honesty is a prerequisite here, because our master is a robot, @DamkerngT.
Good evening, Muhammad!
14:21
@CowperKettle :)
Skynet said, you'll be spared. :P
@CowperKettle Actually, this is more about education about posting protocol. The OP posted 3 near-identical posts, the latter two within an hour of his/her last comment on the first. I suspect the OP may not be aware of the way SE is curated. Perhaps some high-rep person on this site would like to have a chat with the OP over a cup of tea?
@Lawrence Does that mean: after someone faced a bad event, they undergo consternation? or since they think there will be something bad, they feel frustration?
My problem is the relation between the bad event and consternation feeling
Which one is the result of the other?
@Cardinal They might feel consternation at a bad turn of events.
@Cardinal Yes, you can say that events sometimes trigger a feeling of consternation.
It's an emotional response to something.
So, "to her consternation, he car wouldn't work" means that the car didn't work and caused to her consternation.
Right?
14:26
@Cardinal That's right. The car didn't work (first), that affected her (second), and her emotional response was consternation (third).
@Cardinal More like :/ .
:)
Shhhh, stop telling people about the FAQ! It's supposed to be a secret. — Tim Post ♦ Dec 30 '10 at 12:41
@DEAD Hey, no fair! Stop digging in the Meta graveyards. :D
@Lawrence Nice phrase; it seems that it can be used anywhere in a sentence.
14:30
@Lawrence That's like asking a cop to not be a cop anymore
@Cardinal :)
@DEAD o..O . :)
@Cardinal You might be on to something, there. :)
Maybe more often at the end, though.
@DEAD Poor Charlie Brown.
@Lawrence Yay! I am busy creating Anki flash cards
@Cardinal Congratulations!
That's a good thing to do on long rainy paeez evenings.
14:36
@CowperKettle Thank you
@Cardinal How do they work?
@CowperKettle yes, I like the term "paeez"
@CowperKettle :-)
@Lawrence What do you mean?
It is a flashcard
@Cardinal Do you just type stuff onto a page, and the page shows up from time to time?
14:38
It has a front page and a behind
@Lawrence Well, it is a software with a bunch of weird options
@Cardinal So, you look at the front page and guess/remember what's behind?
@CowperKettle has more insight into it
@Lawrence exactly
@Cardinal Hmm, I might check it out.
front: They went for a ------- walk in the woods
back: They went for a brisk walk in the woods
I added that one couple of minutes ago :-)
@Lawrence Yay!
I see. Do you create these in a community?
Otherwise, you already know the answer.
Because you set the question. :)
14:41
@Lawrence Yes, but the problem is time
@Cardinal Time to create the cards?
Human beings forget things over time
@Cardinal I see.
Yes, I estimate that I would have created more than 1000 cards by the end of September.
@Cardinal That's a lot. Wait ... you're not creating puns on your name as well, are you? I've just had @DEAD and @CowperKettle do that. CARD..inal?
:)
14:45
ha ha ha
It is a good idea
Nooooooo!
CARD in all
=))
Too late. :)
@Lawrence why didn't I think of that before?
@DEAD It was dead-easy to overlook, some might say.
14:47
Inal is both a given name and a surname. In the Turkish context the name Inal is a product of an onomastic-hygiene movement initiated following the formation of the Turkish Republic to replace Arabic name Emin with which it shares common meaning, ‘to believe.’ Notable people with the name include: Given name İnal Batu (1936-2013), Turkish diplomat and politician Inal Dzhioyev (born 1969), Russian footballer Inal Getigezhev (born 1987), Russian footballer Inal Pukhayev (born 1992), Russian footballer Surname Sayf ad-Din Inal (1381-1461), Burji Sultan of Egypt reigned 1453–1461 Ibrahim Inal (died...
:-)
Oh dear.
Forget I brought it up.
:)
Or at least, don't put it on one of your cards.
I'm Not a Lawyer == INAL :D
... After 1000 other cards, maybe we can try again. :)
I Need a Life == INAL :v
@Cardinal That one's not bad, actually.
Anyway, I need to head off. Nice chatting with you all. Bye!
14:53
Bye, Lawrence
@Lawrence o/

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