Language Overflow

Avicenna

19:05

Night all. Dream a beautiful garden. But don't forget your umbrella, it's supposed to rain there. :-)

Cardinal

@Avicenna 0/

user62015

Hi! @DEAD @DamkerngT. @JimReynolds Hi! Need help :-

A. According to the Bible
B. it is meek and humble
C. who shall inherit the earth.
D. No error.

Answer says option says b it is the meek and the humble

I don't understand this?

Damkerng T.

@user62015 Meek and humble are adjectives.

You need a noun.

user62015

Okay.

Damkerng T.

It's like the poor, the young, etc.

user62015

19:11

But before adjectives we never use articles

We use before nouns

Damkerng T.

Using the before some (maybe most) adjectives can allow us to use an adjective as if it were a noun.

Jim Reynolds

Yes. The meek and humble shall...

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds I think I've heard only the meek.

Jim Reynolds

That's the common expression

The meek shall inherit the earth.

Damkerng T.

macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/the, sense 8. @user62015

@JimReynolds nods

user62015

19:15

@DamkerngT. @JimReynolds Thanks brothers

Jim Reynolds

Maybe different versions of the Bible include both

Damkerng T.

No problem

Jim Reynolds

@user62015 o/

Anonymous

Technically, you're using an adjective there as though it's an adjective. I mean, that's something adjectives do :-)

Anonymous

One way to understand it is to pretend a noun has been left out: the meek ~~people~~ shall inherit the earth.

Jim Reynolds

19:20

I'll take two of the red (shirts).

Oh. I don't mean Thai people?

Anonymous

Red there is an adjective and a modifier. It's not a noun.

Damkerng T.

He was trying to pull off the impossible (stunt?).

Anonymous

It's an adjective doing something adjectives do :-)

Jim Reynolds

But omitting shirts.

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds Let it slide. :)

Jim Reynolds

19:22

@snailplane Right.

Anonymous

CGEL uses the concept of functional fusion rather than ellipsis to explain it.

Anonymous

But I think ellipsis is often the most intuitive way to understand it. Functional fusion can be hard on the brain.

Jim Reynolds

Cool

Damkerng T.

Sometimes we don't use any article, even!

Stupid is as stupid does.

Anonymous

What do you suppose the grammar is behind stupid there?

Jim Reynolds

19:26

Life is like a box of the chocolatey

Damkerng T.

I don't know. A fixed phrase, maybe.

Jim Reynolds

Noun. Stupidity personified.

Cardinal

I answered a question. I would be happy to see your comments

one more thing:

GHOP

Jim Reynolds

Adjective then noun.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Handsome is as handsome does.

Damkerng T.

19:28

Hmm... can handsome be a noun?

Anonymous

That's the original phrase.

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Anonymous

The one in the movie is a play on it. :-)

Jim Reynolds

!

Damkerng T.

@snailplane It sounds like an original to me!

Jim Reynolds

19:30

It'a surprisingly complex.

Seems so.

Anonymous

Before that, handsome is, that handsome does.

Jim Reynolds

Deeds are handsome

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal A link would be nice. :)

DEAD

Cardinal

0

A: "had gone" vs "was gone" vs "did go" vs "was going"

I think we can answer the question by ruling out improper options. I had gone to Peru, which is right next door. This sentence is in past perfect tense. Past perfect is used to avoid ambiguity when we mention two event that happened in the past. We use the past perfect for the earlier...

Jim Reynolds

19:32

Deeds make people handsome.

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Thanks!

Anonymous

It seems to have its own unique grammar, though.

Cardinal

You're welcome

Anonymous

Until Forrest Gump, there weren't really any utterances like it, at least none that I can think of.

Jim Reynolds

Me neither

Anonymous

19:33

I'm typing this from my phone, so someone else may be able to do research and prove me wrong :-)

Anonymous

But I can't at the moment.

Jim Reynolds

I sleep. My goodness !

Damkerng T.

@JimReynolds It's a miracle. We're chatting with Jim in his sleep!

Anonymous

The OED might be able to tell us how it was used.

Anonymous

I'll look it up when I get a chance :-)

Anonymous

19:36

@JimReynolds Me too, every day if I can manage it!

Damkerng T.

"I was gone to Peru, which is right next door." This sentence is in passive voice. -- not quite. @Cardinal

Anonymous

Right, no passives to be found there. Just an obsolete be-perfect.

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. hmm, would you tell me more about that

Damkerng T.

I'm gone. He's gone. They're gone. etc.

Anonymous

If you think it's passive, you'll have to come up with the active equivalent. But wait, there is none! Go is intransitive.

Cardinal

19:39

I deleted temporarily to understand what is going on

You say "gone" is an adjective

I meant it has passive structure

Anonymous

It does not have passive structure.

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal You answered the test question correctly, by and large, though.

DEAD

@Cardinal O.O how can a word be passive?

Cardinal

Ok, right

with this regard, I was gone does not make sense

DEAD

@Cardinal Why?

Cardinal

19:44

since gone here means I left there

Anonymous

English used to have a be-perfect that used be instead of have. You'll hear it in archaic quotes, like when people quote the Christian bible: "I am risen." = "I have risen."

Anonymous

It tended to occur with certain verbs like go back when it was a part of the English language.

DEAD

@Cardinal so?

Anonymous

Eventually, it disappeared from the language, although a few vestiges remain, phrases in which the participial verb form was reanalyzed as an adjective: "It's gone."

Cardinal

I was gone to Pru is wwrong

It should be

I was gone from Prue

Anonymous

19:49

But this can no longer be a be-perfect, and "It is gone to California" is ungrammatical because gone doesn't take the same range of complementation as the verb go.

Cardinal

nods

Anonymous

It can't be a passive, although it's superficially similar in form, so that's a common mistake. Go is intransitive, so it can't be passivized.

Anonymous

If it worked, you'd be able to say I was gone to Peru by my uncle = My uncle went me to Peru. But both are ungrammatical.

Anonymous

Go doesn't take an object like that.

Cardinal

Many thanks, I edited my answer

I mentioned that go is intransitive and gone is an adjective

DEAD

19:55

I should persuade myself to do more answering on ELL.

I don't do enough answering.

Cardinal

It seems that answering questions are more informative than asking them

DEAD

Like, zero

@Cardinal Only if nothing misleading remains in the final revision.

I hate wrong answers.

Cardinal

I thought that is an easy-one :(

DEAD

But what I like is when answerers realize they're mistaken and edit.

Sadly, not many answerers on ELL like to think they could be wrong.

Thankfully, you're not one of them. (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Cardinal

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Damkerng T.

19:59

You guys are cute. :)

Cardinal

However, I think I would never forget that "gone" in my life.

DEAD

@Cardinal The one with the wind?

@DamkerngT. Wanna see my real face?

Cardinal

I didn't watch that movie. :(

Damkerng T.

@DEAD Is it as cute as the emoticon?

DEAD

@DamkerngT. Hardly

user62015

20:01

Hi @DamkerngT. @JimReynolds One more question

If the room had been brighter, I would have been able to read for a while before bed time.
A. If the room was brighter
B. If the room are brighter
C. Had the room been brighter
D. No improvement

Answer says c

Cardinal

LoL

user62015

I think d

DEAD

I think d too.

Who says inversion is an improvement?

Stupid examiners.

May history know that this day I insulted people I don't even know.

Damkerng T.

Agree. There is no need to use C when the original is equally good.

user62015

Thanks @DamkerngT.

Damkerng T.

20:03

@user62015 Don't forget @DEAD. :)

user62015

@DamkerngT. Sure

DEAD

@DamkerngT. I just forgot myself myself

Damkerng T.

@DEAD Aww

Cardinal

@DamkerngT. I think Robots prefer less memory consumption. Thus, "had the room..." would be an improvement

Damkerng T.

@Cardinal Hehe!

DEAD

20:07

@Cardinal But parsing inversion costs some RAM, I guess

Cardinal

20:27

Good nigh o/

Damkerng T.

\o

Lawrence

23:57

@CowperKettle It's been a while since I looked into this, but the answer to that question is "Yes". It just depends on how long you want to wait or how accurate you want that information to be.

@JimReynolds opens the door again cautiously

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