Language Overflow

ColleenV

03:09

I always buy books for my niece and nephew each year for Christmas and this one is really fun and English related so I thought y'all might be interested: The Weird World of Words It's basically English trivia.

For example, Did you know that ‘Almost’ is the longest word in the English language with all of its letters in alphabetical order? Or that ‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word you can type solely with your left hand?

Anonymous

03:36

@ColleenV What about billowy? :-)

Anonymous

Or is it cheating to use a word which has two of the same letter?

Anonymous

I did

perl -ne 'chomp; $s = join "", sort split (//, $_); printf "%-3d $s\n", length $s if $s eq $_' ~/coca/words /usr/share/dict/words | grep -v ' [A-Z]' | sort -n | uniq

Anonymous

And it came up with billowy as the sole 7-letter candidate.

Anonymous

For 6 letters, it came up with abbess, abhors, accent, accept, access, accost, adders, almost, begins, bellow, billow, biopsy, cellos, chills, chilly, chimps, chinos, chintz, chippy, choosy, choppy, efflux, effort, floors, floppy, gloppy, glossy, and knotty.

Anonymous

If we get rid of words that reuse letters, it's down to almost, begins, biopsy, chimps, chinos, and chintz.

CowperKettle

04:23

good morn

minus thirty outside (0:

Mick

04:33

Greetings. How farest thou?

ColleenV

@snailplane I think for trivia purposes, double letters might not count. I like your script though :)

I hadn't gotten around to testing the veracity of the claims (I've already wrapped the book) but it's a fun conversation starter I think :)

@CowperKettle Yikes. It's only 0 here and I'm all bundled up lol

I can handle 38 C like a champ though ;)

CowperKettle

04:49

@Mick Fine, thank you!

(0:

1

Q: a passing police man vs a policeman passing

Please tell me the difference in nuance between the following two senteces. It was lucky for her that a passing policeman heard her cries for help and was able to rescue her from the canal. It was lucky for her that a policeman passing heard her cries for help and was able to rescue her from ...

"a passing policeman" - an adjective or a present participle phrase?

"a very passing policeman" - wrong. Probably a pp phrase then

Mick

Have you ever eaten chips (fries) cooked in beef dripping? They are wonderful. It must be 55 years. sigh

!!wiki/dripping

Ellbot

Dripping

Dripping, also known usually as beef dripping or, more rarely, as pork dripping, is an animal fat produced from the fatty or otherwise unusable parts of cow or pig carcasses. It is similar to lard, tallow and schmaltz. == History == It is used for cooking, especially in British cuisine, significantly so in the Midlands and Northern England, though towards the end of the 20th century dripping fell out of favour due to it being regarded as less healthy than vegetable oils such as olive or sunflower. Traditionally fish and chips were fried in beef dripping, and while this practice does continue in...

CowperKettle

No, never. I've had a millet porridge.

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Not all adjectives are gradable. If very works, we can tell that it's an adjective, but if very doesn't work, that alone doesn't prove that it's not an adjective.

CowperKettle

@snailplane so "a passing policeman" has an adjective after all?

and "a policeman passing" is a case of postpositive adjective?

Anonymous

04:55

No, it's a verb form, but your test was insufficient to demonstrate that on its own. I would avoid the abbreviation "pp" for "present participle", by the way, as it's ambiguous.

Anonymous

I use PP exclusively for "preposition phrase".

CowperKettle

nods

Anonymous

Which is a common convention among linguists.

Anonymous

> He was awake.

Anonymous

> He was very awake. ← Hmm, is awake gradable?

CowperKettle

04:57

> It was lucky for her that a policeman passing heard her cries for help and was able to rescue her from the canal. (a postpositive present participle probably works well only if it is long)

Anonymous

I guess we tend to say wide awake.

Anonymous

And we do say half-awake.

Anonymous

@CowperKettle I like passing by in this example.

CowperKettle

@snailplane also a pres. part. phrase?

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Yes. Or as CGEL would say, a gerund-participial clause. An -ing clause.

CowperKettle

04:59

yes (0:

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Noun phrases can have several kinds of post-head modifiers. One type of post-head modifier is the AdjP (adjective phrase); when AdjPs appear in this function, they are often referred to as "postpositive". But the term isn't much used for other types of post-head modifiers.

Anonymous

Also, not everything that appears in post-head position is a modifier. There are also, for example, post-head complements.

Anonymous

Live kittens: youtube.com/watch?v=BROE1ADxsLY and youtube.com/watch?v=EWHEV5ZiW04

CowperKettle

Complements are usually post-head

Anonymous

05:16

In CGEL's analysis, the subject is a kind of complement.

Nagendra

05:42

@snailplane I've read in a book that 'to be' is often allowed in the sense of "have" in passive voice sentences of the verbs fall, rise, come, arrive, go, lose. Is it right?

And it provided some examples. 1. Mighty Ceaser is(has) fallen 2. Summer is(has) come 3.The book is(has been) lost. 4.The sun is(has )risen 5.Golden days are(have) gone.

QuokMoon

Good morning

Anonymous

@Nagendra No, that is not correct. That is not passive; it is the archaic be-perfect.

Anonymous

In Present-Day English, the be-perfect is no longer a productive part of the language. There are some remnants which are still used, like gone, but these have been reanalyzed as predicate adjectives and are no longer be-perfects.

Anonymous

It was used productively until 150 years ago or so. It took a very long time to die out. You will still see it in older written English, in purposefully archaic English, in religious materials, and so on.

Anonymous

But what you said is almost correct, it's just that your description of it was somewhat inaccurate.

Anonymous

05:53

It is a real construction, just not a passive.

Nagendra

@snailplane it's not my description. I've exactly copied what is given in the book. I too thought that it's not passive. Thanks!

Anonymous

It superficially resembles the passive, so it's sometimes mistakenly described as one.

Anonymous

But it lacks the semantic and grammatical characteristics of the passive. There is no corresponding active clause, no by-phrase indicating the agent, no swapping of semantic roles.

Anonymous

What happened is this: in older forms of English, there were two perfect auxiliaries, be and have.

Anonymous

Have was always more common, but be was used as a perfect auxiliary with certain kinds of verbs.

Anonymous

06:04

This isn't entirely accurate, but the basic distinction was have for unergative and transitive perfects, and be for unaccusative perfects.

Anonymous

It took a very long time for English to completely lose the be-perfect. It lasted into the Modern English period, until the 1800s.

Anonymous

The last verbs to survive with be-perfects were come and go.

Anonymous

The actual difference between the have- and be-perfects is a little more complicated than just unergative versus unaccusative, but I can't give a complete account off the top of my head. It could make a good question for English Language & Usage.

Anonymous

Or Linguistics.SE. You can find a be-perfect in German, Danish, Italian, and other languages today.

Anonymous

The line is drawn in different places in different languages at different times.

Anonymous

06:09

It's probably most instructive to compare to German.

Anonymous

For a discussion in English, see e.g. be/have + past participle: the choice of the auxiliary with intransitives from Late Middle to Modern English (Kytö 1997), The Be/Have Variation with Intransitives in English (Rydén et al 1987), The perfect auxiliaries in the language of Shakespeare (Kakietek 1976), Structural change in the English auxiliary system: on the replacement of be by have (Zimmermann 1973)

Anonymous

The loss of the English be-perfect has been a very popular topic among linguists.

Nagendra

06:30

Thanks for your elaborate explanation. I'll try to ask it on ELU.

CowperKettle

07:04

3

Q: a passing police man vs a policeman passing

Please tell me the difference in nuance between the following two senteces. It was lucky for her that a passing policeman heard her cries for help and was able to rescue her from the canal. It was lucky for her that a policeman passing heard her cries for help and was able to rescue her from ...

meaning-in-context word-order phrasal-verbs obituaries

It looks like Jasper keeps on adding the obituaries tag to this question. O_O

Which is misguiding, methinks

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/posts/6120/revisions

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/posts/20749/revisions

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/posts/47643/revisions

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/posts/54767/revisions

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/posts/69297/revisions

Anonymous

07:06

Do obituaries have distinctive grammatical features?

CowperKettle

@snailplane I've no idea

> The first airport terminals were built for transportation purposes only and lacked any architectural significance. (Do I need the there, in the beginning?)

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Yes. First makes it definite.

CowperKettle

Thank you, the Blackhat Snail!

Anonymous

Out of the set of all airport terminals, we are picking out the first. First is not always definite, however . . .

CowperKettle

Because I thought that maybe "first terminals" could be read as "well, roughly the terminals that were built in the 1920s"

And this "roughly" may permit the omission of the

Anonymous

07:21

Nope :-)

CowperKettle

okay (0:

Anonymous

We aren't precisely specifying the exact set we're talking about, but that's not a requirement for definiteness.

CowperKettle

> The article explores the history of airport terminal complexes. The first airport terminals were built for transportation purposes only and lacked any architectural significance. As time went by, the "architect's perception" of the terminal changed, reflecting the intertwined technological and social changes.

I'm trying to help out a friend, translating a bit for free.

It is blatantly clear that the policeman mentioned in the OP is alive and well, the progressive form is used, hence the tag obituaries is wholly inappropriate. But have it your way. — Mari-Lou A 54 secs ago

CowperKettle

07:47

> This article explores the history of airport terminal complexes. The first airport terminals were built for transportation purposes only and lacked any outward architectural significance. As time went by, the "architect's perception" of the terminal changed, reflecting the intertwined technological and social changes. That is why, when we study the historical trends, we can identify the key time points, provide descriptions and uncover causal relationships.

> This study identifies the key stages in the development of international airport terminal design in Russia and foreign countries. By taking a close look at the sequence of events and trends in the field, it is possible to detect certain patterns that arose in the early stages of its history and to come up with recommendations to guide further development.

The art of writing a paragraph where a couple of words would have sufficed.

Damkerng T.

07:58

@CowperKettle An art indeed. A true master may be able to write 200-300 pages when one word would suffice.

They're a Writing Jedi! :P

BTW, nice boombox!

mike

good afternoon all (or whatever time it happens to be where you are) o/

Damkerng T.

Good afternoon!

@Catija nods -- Absolute vs. scale could be the key. (BTW, I should've written "I've never been happier -- not being as happy excludes now", to be more accurate.) cc @snailplane

@snailplane You aren't happier now than you are now. -- I suppose we could say that, but that would make English curious in another way! :-)

I think I've never know [something] vs. I've never been happier is probably like the continuative perfect vs. the experiential perfect.

It's often that in experiential perfect, the time of the state/event excludes now.

Stack Exchange

08:15

2

Q: McCoy, decoy, and coy

A “McCoy” means something that is truly genuine. The idiomatic expression, “the real McCoy” is used when the speaker wants to emphasize the purity the authenticity of something. It is said to derive from the Scottish McKay (or MacKay) whisky, whenever a host offers his guest a drop of the real Mc...

idioms nouns etymology

Damkerng T.

08:55

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=286

> All of these examples seem to be the distributed reading, in which each of a number of individuals has a unique head. In contrast, Shakespeare used "their head" only once, in Romeo and Juliet, where the Prince says to Montague:

Seale vp the mouth of outrage for a while,
Till we can cleare these ambiguities,
And know their spring, their head, their true descent,
And then will I be generall of your woes,
And lead you euen to death?

And in this case, there is indeed just one head for all the ambiguities.

"And in this case, there is indeed just one head for all the ambiguities." -- I say, this sentence is also ambiguous, and it was deliberately!

(In case my ellipsis after the introductory-it didn't work, you can read it as 'and it was done deliberately'.)

Save My Polar Bear (original song)

►

Nice song!

BTW, here is an updated chart of Arctic Sea Ice Area:

Damkerng T.

09:22

Let's have a look at another curious corner in English:

4

Q: They write in their school diary (or) diaries?

Currently, I am using a children's English coursebook called Gold Experience A2, by Pearson, it's for a private student of mine. It's supposed to help young learners prepare for the KEY exam, and it covers the basics. In chapter 02 there is a short report entitled Tech-free Teens—is it possible?...

american-english british-english singular-vs-plural singular-they

> a1) Each morning they write about their thoughts and feelings in their school diary.

> a2) Each morning they write about their thoughts and feelings in their school diaries.

I suppose a2) is preferable. (It's my choice, too.)

1

Q: a sense or senses

I have been facing a difficulty understanding the usage between singular or plural forms in situations like this: I give them a book. I give them books. If my understanding is right, the first sentence means I give a group of people just ONE book, while the second means I give a group of peopl...

singular-vs-plural

> b1) The activity helps them develop a keener sense of body awareness.

> b2) The activity helps them develop keener senses of body awareness.

Now, why b1) is preferable? (And it's my choice as well!)

Mari-Lou A

09:46

Hello... Oh, my EL&U avatar is showing up instead. How come? Anyway, slightly off topic request here. Does anyone know if Peter got a Winter Bash hat after I awarded him the bounty? It doesn't look like it, does it? FYI I didn't win one either. Sorry for butting in like this.

@Mick I've had roast potatoes cooked in goose fat two years ago, if that's relevant to the conversation. They were very yummy too.

Damkerng T.

@Mari-LouA No idea about the hat. I've got only one hat, and it's an easy one at that! BTW, just want to say hello. Hello!

Mari-Lou A

Hello!

Damkerng T.

I guess our avatars in chat is based on our main sites in our profiles.

Mari-Lou A

I was sure winning and awarding bounties would have earned hats. I think this year they're much harder to win. Oh, well...

Damkerng T.

(or should it be 'based on our main site in our profile'? lol :-)

Mari-Lou A

09:53

@DamkerngT. that would explain why the avatar is different. Makes sense.

Yes, I got your meaning

Well, it's very quiet here. Our American friends are still asleep I think. @DamkerngT. thanks for welcoming me here on chat. You are a gent (I presume you're a man...right?)

Damkerng T.

I just mentioned the choice between singular and plural when we use a noun in its distributive meaning, so right now my eyes are so keen at these choices. :D

@Mari-LouA Exactly!

!!greet/Mari-LouA

Ellbot

Welcome to ELL's chat room @Mari-LouA! Happy chatting!

Damkerng T.

See, I'm a man and a bot. :D

V.V.

12:29

"You can crash at our place ". Funny.

ColleenV

Damkerng T.

12:45

!!!

Arrowfar

Hello.

@ColleenV Wow!

@ColleenV I see you changed your avatar back.

ColleenV

@Arrowfar Yes, to something that can wear a hat :)

Arrowfar

Ahh nice!

ColleenV

Here's another picture of a crash:

Arrowfar

Heh!

That's a cutesie crash. :-)

Damkerng T.

13:21

Next time she might say, No, I won't. — TRomano 2 hours ago

xD

Damkerng T.

14:12

@Damkerng T: Repeating the article, "... a card or an old piece of paper" subtly reinforces the idea that one will have to search through a variety of old scraps when looking for something that was scribbled down. — TRomano 18 mins ago

I suppose he's right, but are we reading the sentence too close?

> " ... Six months later you find a name and e-mail address on a card or an old piece of paper."

en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/…

Hmm...

> X For what [reason] did you put that there?

For what reason did you put that there? is actually okay to me.

CowperKettle

14:53

> Zinc is essential for growth and development. At the cellular level, it is critically involved in proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis.

Why do we say "At eye level" but "At the cellular level"?

Damkerng T.

I suppose eye level is a special case, while the cellular level is a typical case.

CowperKettle

Ah, I think I understand. Thank you!

Arrowfar

Hi damk and cowper.

CowperKettle

Good evening!

Damkerng T.

15:09

Good evening!

Arrowfar

Cool. All three of us have evening at the moment :)

Arrowfar

15:23

Wow this is crazy and funny. Trolling at its best. Look at the 'best answer' here, it has 215 upvotes:

CowperKettle

Im reading about zinc metabolism. Quite interesting.

Arrowfar

Chemistry?

CowperKettle

> In developing countries, remarkable results can be expected: zinc supplementation
might reduce child death globally by 63%. Zinc
deficiency is one of the ten most important factors
contributing to the burden of disease in developing
countries with high mortality

@Arrowfar Yes, biochemistry, but the article is not deep into chemistry.

Arrowfar

So do you always have to do research while translating or proofreading?

CowperKettle

I was glancing through neuroscience news and found that a memory receptor needs zinc to function. From there, I found that zinc affects mood and cognition. Etc.

@Arrowfar I'm just reading for myself, out of curiosity.

Arrowfar

15:26

oh nice!

CowperKettle

> Zinc requirements and the risks and benefits of zinc supplementation

But zinc overdose is dangerous too. It has a narrow dosage window.

I finished translating a big job and decided to take some rest. Hence, reading random stuff.

Arrowfar

Good.

CowperKettle

I should print out more Shakespeare sonnets. I've run out of my current batch. All memorized. (0:

Does anybody have a book reader? Which model is good to buy, I wonder.

I mean the hardware thingy you use to read books.

My local shop has 14 models

Arrowfar

I have nooo idea. Snail might know.

Like a kindle?

I think damk has kindle if I remember correctly right @DamkerngT. ?

CowperKettle

I would like to buy the cheapest one, a Digma model. (0:

Damkerng T.

15:34

@Arrowfar Yes. It doesn't work now, though, and shipping it back to repair is probably not reasonable.

Arrowfar

oh.

CowperKettle

Another local shop has 142 models

Damkerng T.

I still have another non-LED eBook reader, but it's not a Kindle.

I remember that I looked into this a few months ago.

I think I saw this one:

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. Tesla?

Is it good?

Damkerng T.

But I can't remember now. I remember there are two brands selling exactly the same hardware, one with Google Play, and the other without.

CowperKettle

15:37

The shop says is has a highlight system for the screen

Damkerng T.

checking...

@CowperKettle nods -- Does it say it comes with the standard Google Play store?

CowperKettle

People seem to like this model

@DamkerngT. I haven't checked

Why is Google Store important?

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle Hmm... I don't know about that one.

@CowperKettle Ah, it might just be more important to me, because I've invested too much in Kindle books, so I need a legit Kindle app on my reader.

(If I want to buy a new one)

CowperKettle

Ah, I see!

I see: E-Ink Carta is better than E-Ink Pearl

So a Digma model might be good

Обзор читалки Digma E629. Самая дешевая Carta

►

Less than a hundred bucks

Damkerng T.

nods -- Some people may complain that it's too white. My old Kindle is Pearl. I'd say I'd want to use a whiter one. :D

CowperKettle

15:47

I'm not picky!

Сравнение экранов E Lnk Carta и Pearl HD

►

In this video, E-Carta is in the middle

Looks even less white

Arrowfar

Btw, I still use the very old nokia's black and white cellphone. There is no internet etc. in it though of course.

Damkerng T.

@CowperKettle Indeed! Strange!

CowperKettle

I have an ancient (2006) cellphone too, but its battery is poor

user2684291

@DamkerngT. It's a little awkward for casual conversation, by my lights.

Arrowfar

@CowperKettle Yay. So I am not alone!

Damkerng T.

15:56

I still think my old Nokia N95 has a better audio system than recent devices.

Arrowfar

@user2684291 your ping didn't reach anyone. Btw hello.

Damkerng T.

@user2684291 Agreed. The context I was thinking wasn't a casual one anyway.

It was in the same setting we'd say To whom am I speaking? :-)

Oops! Sorry for the extra to.

Better restart my browser; it's not very responsive at the moment. See you guys in a jiffy.

user2684291

@Arrowfar Hi. How are you going?

Arrowfar

Yes I am fine thanks. How are you?

Damkerng T.

It's still not very responsive, but at least I can type without lagging so far behind.

(And then he continued the heavyweight, monstrous background process...)

user2684291

16:06

@Arrowfar Pretty good.

Damkerng T.

@user2684291 I'm not sure, but is this your first time in this room? It looks like you've met Arrowfar, but I don't know about that.

user2684291

I'm not sure, I think I've been here before. And no, I don't know who @Arrowfar is.

Damkerng T.

I see. Anyway, welcome to the room! (^_^)

Hey, I just got a secret hat! What did I do?!!

Ah, this secret hat seems to be quite common!

user2684291

Thanks.
I'm not sure how I got mine either.

It's not much of a hat though, but it's better than nothing, I reckon.

Damkerng T.

:D

I haven't checked the leader board yet. Hopefully, ELL'll do better than last year.

Arrowfar

16:19

Yes true, I don't know who user2684291 is either, just random strangers on the internet meeting and greeting :0)

Damkerng T.

Hmm... 150 hats. Not too bad, I suppose.

Scratch that. We're in the top most 25%. 150 hats is pretty good!

user2684291

16:33

:>

CowperKettle

16:55

0

Q: "Fell onto" x "Fell on" What's the difference?

What's the difference between these two sentences? Are they correct? The water drop fell onto my head The water drop fell on my head Could anyone explain me difference between these terms?

prepositions

Would the sentence "The water drop fell onto my head" sound normal to a native speaker of English?

> "John fell on the roof", however, means that John was already on the roof in a standing or walking position, fell, and is now lying down.

Would "John fell on the roof" always imply that he had been there before falling?

Anonymous

@CowperKettle It sounds okay.

Anonymous

@CowperKettle I think it could go either way.

CowperKettle

Thank you!

Arrowfar

hi @snailplane

CowperKettle

I just recalled the song "Raindrops are falling on my head", and thought it would be strange to remodel it to onto

Anonymous

17:01

Hello

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Hmm, I do like it better with on. I wonder if that has to do with meaning or rhythm.

Anonymous

Maybe both :-)

CowperKettle

hmm

Arrowfar

I like "on" better.

Anonymous

I think onto is possible, though.

Anonymous

17:03

I'm looking at Google Books results.

Anonymous

> Droplets of water fell onto my head, neck, shoulders. I tipped my head back, and they fell on my face.

Anonymous

> A breeze shook the wet leaves. Raindrops fell onto my head. The smell of the sewer faded. I flicked the cigarette into the gutter and heard the jogger's sharp breath and her sneakers striking the wet street. I wished her a good night.

Arrowfar

Prepositions can be tricky. I make mistakes in using them sometimes.

CowperKettle

@snailplane This "onto" sounds a bit vernacular to me

Anonymous

I don't get that impression.

CowperKettle

17:05

Hmm, I'd say, "John fell on the roof" is ambiguous. It might mean that while he was on the roof, he fell. Or it might mean that he was somewhere else, in a helicopter hovering over the building perhaps, and he fell and landed on the roof. — Jay 2 mins ago

Anonymous

But I do think on is probably the usual choice, and onto is probably not particularly common.

Anonymous

@CowperKettle Yep.

Anonymous

That's what I meant when I said it could go either way.

Anonymous

So I suppose for raindrops, I'd recommend on.

Anonymous

Without actually going so far as saying there's something wrong with onto.

CowperKettle

17:07

nods

Ontology is a tough subject

Damkerng T.

Why is on more common? I'll blame it on this song:

Spider-Man 2 - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

►

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. The same that I mentioned

Damkerng T.

nods

CowperKettle

It's from some ancient musical, shot in the previous millenium

Arrowfar

@snailplane snail do you think my English has a good flow? I mean from the chat writing or do I have to improve it more? just out of curiosity.

Anonymous

17:09

You're fine.

Arrowfar

I see, thanks.

Hanaa

Hello all !

Arrowfar

Hello Hanaa!

Hanaa

17:22

My heart fell onto the floor when I saw the news @CowperKettle

Arrowfar

and did you pick your heart back from the floor Hanaa?

Hanaa

@CowperKettle The drops keep falling on his head! Why? Isn't it natural?

Arrowfar

(j/k)

Hanaa

@Arrowfar I did. :)

Arrowfar

Good :)

Hanaa

17:37

I liked the new picture @Mick :)

Mick

@Hanaa It's an old avatar (Spongebob Squarepants). I'm just using it for the Winter Bash.

Hanaa

17:58

@Mick The winter bash?

Arrowfar

yes it is "winter bash" right now. The season of fake internet hats ;-)

Hanaa

@Mick The winter bash?

Anonymous

winterbash2016.stackexchange.com

Arrowfar

Go to the main site and click on the snowflake, you will notice it.

Mick

@Hanaa You need to get busy on the main site. You won't earn any hats here.

Arrowfar

18:02

Yes you can I think. By starring ten messages in chat, I don't know if that hat is available now or not.

It gets crazy in chats when people are looking for that hat.

Anonymous

I think they're trying to make it so the hats this year don't encourage disruptive behaviors.

Mick

@Arrowfar I did wonder why chat was so busy.

Hanaa

@Mick wow!

Arrowfar

I have switched off hats though.

Mick

@Arrowfar You humbug!

Arrowfar

18:05

@Mick Heh. Naah people are here for just quality English discussions now :-)

@Mick Hah I might seem like a humbug but I did have 6.9k points a year ago, so I did contribute to sites here. Mostly giving answers. :)

Hanaa

Great@Arrowfar!

Arrowfar

@Hanaa Oh Hanaa you are here and you are there. I don't know where to chat with you now :)

Hanaa

Both places are beneficial

Arrowfar

Yeah.

Well Google hangouts are fun but here you can discuss English related things I believe.

Hanaa

Yes when I chat with you, I may use phrases which could be unnatural

I come to confirm here or in the ELL

Arrowfar

18:20

@Hanaa There on hangouts you type way too fast by the way. Here you make one message, disappear then make another message, disappear :) just joking by the way.

Laters.

Hanaa

I remove the message when I make mistakes.

Damkerng T.

Dish of the day ...

!!wiki/minestrone

Ellbot

Minestrone

Minestrone (/ˌmɪnᵻsˈtroʊni/; Italian: [mineˈstroːne]) is a thick soup of Italian origin made with vegetables, often with the addition of pasta or rice. Common ingredients include beans, onions, celery, carrots, stock, and tomatoes. There is no set recipe for minestrone, since it is usually made out of whatever vegetables are in season. It can be vegetarian, contain meat, or contain a meat-based broth (such as chicken stock). Angelo Pellegrini, however, argued that the base of minestrone is bean broth, and that borlotti beans (also called Roman beans) "are the beans to use for genuine minestrone...

Damkerng T.

IIRC, pronunciations match spellings more closely in Italian.

Hanaa

Healthy :)

Anonymous

18:30

google.co.jp/…

Anonymous

@Ellbot I would not syllabify minestrone that way in English. By the maximum onset principle, the /s/ belongs with the third syllable.

Damkerng T.

18:41

@snailplane Oh, yummy!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Your minestrone picture made me think of chāshū-men! :-)

Damkerng T.

A-ha! The description of minestrone made me think of another dish. Let's see if Ellbot can retrieve it.

!!wiki/จับฉ่าย

Ellbot

th.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Damkerng T.

Aww... no page for it!

Anonymous

I went to Google Images because I don't think there's a Wikipedia page for チャーシューメン.

Anonymous

18:44

@DamkerngT. Do you eat meat? I forgot.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Maybe there is! It's quite popular!

@snailplane Yes, but not very often.

Anonymous

I don't always remember which cultures eat which meats. And of course individual people in different cultures have different beliefs and customs . . .

Anonymous

Here in the U.S., most people eat most meats, but we have some vegetarians and vegans. Not very many, though. Most people who say they're vegetarian actually eat meat sometimes.

Damkerng T.

A lot of Chinese people don't eat beef.

I think most Thais eat almost everything. :-)

Anonymous

In some countries people eat dog or horse or cat or whale, but those are all taboo here.

Damkerng T.

18:51

Only a few people in some regions over here eat cats sometimes, but that's quite unusual.

Arrowfar

What does a cat taste like damk?

Damkerng T.

I've never tried that!

Arrowfar

Heh

Anonymous

I was going to say people in the U.S. eat all sorts of meats, but I realized while I was typing it that it's not true – that people in other countries eat meats we don't.

Anonymous

We just don't even think of them as meat normally because they're taboo and we don't think about them.

Anonymous

18:53

In the same way, I'm sure, that we eat meat in the U.S. that people in some other countries wouldn't even consider eating.

Arrowfar

Here beer and wine is taboo.

I mean alcohol heh.

Anonymous

I don't consume alcohol, but it's very widespread in the U.S.

user2684291

Right, India and cows comes to mind.

Anonymous

@user2684291 Oh, great example! :-)

Arrowfar

Should it be "Here beer and wine is taboo." or "Here beer and wine are taboos."?

Damkerng T.

18:54

@Arrowfar BTW, there's a song for this: youtube.com/watch?v=ZKufFIF-bpU (lit. bachelors eating cats)

Anonymous

@Arrowfar Either can work technically, but I prefer are. But don't change the form of taboo as though it's a noun; use it as an adjective.

Arrowfar

@DamkerngT. Heh listening now :D

@snailplane nods

Damkerng T.

@Arrowfar The melody is sort of traditional, a bit like Korean trot songs.

Anonymous

Subject–verb agreement with coordinate subjects in English is very complicated.

Arrowfar

@DamkerngT. Yeah. Are those guys in the video Thai?

Anonymous

18:56

It tends to depend on how the coordination is conceptualized. Is the pair a single unit, or are you considering them individually?

Anonymous

> [Peanut butter and jelly] is my favorite flavor of sandwich.

Damkerng T.

@Arrowfar Yes, 100% Thai, I'm sure. :-)

Anonymous

> [Peanut butter and jelly] are two flavors I like very much.

Anonymous

In the former, I'm considering peanut butter and jelly to be a single unit.

Anonymous

In some sentences, this isn't possible:

Anonymous

18:57

> [Peanut butter and jelly] are very different from one another.

Anonymous

Is would be ungrammatical.

Arrowfar

I see, thanks.

@DamkerngT. Nice tune. I subscribed to the channel btw just to try new songs once a while.

Transcript for