Language Overflow

SmokeDetector

03:41

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected: Is it right using of the word 'like' in the movie Pulp fiction? by Max on ell.SE

Damkerng T.

04:03

(I've got the) Moves Like Jagger is another good example. :-) — Damkerng T. 14 secs ago

:D

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Blacklisted user: Is there at least one right sentence on the list? by Max on ell.SE

Damkerng T.

Oh! They've got blacklisted! (Like what? Hmm...)

Man_From_India

04:51

@snailplane yes that's great for question posters. Pain for answerers. But still it's a good idea to have such site in our network.

CowperKettle

05:29

> The Church is one of the most popular places among city guests. It was erected in memory of Tsar Nicholas the IInd & his family that were executed by bolsheviks in 1918.

Shouldn't it be "by the Bolsheviks"?

skill patrol

Not necessary.

It sounds okay as is to me.

Adding a fourth "the" to the passage seems a bit overwhelming imho.

CowperKettle

05:55

Ah!

Are you a native speaker of English?

skill patrol

06:10

Yup.

Everybody is welcome to join the NCAA bracket challenge Password is quora.

For added banter:

The Clubhouse

General discussion for sports.stackexchange.com

Brackets lock in 8 hours.

CowperKettle

06:34

Ah! I thought you were not a native speaker.

skill patrol

Well...I try :-)

English was not really my favourite subject.

CowperKettle

Russian was not mine favorite either

So both my English and my Russian would benefit from some amelioration

there was some comment?

I'm multitasking

Well, ameliorate that comment and re-post it

skill patrol

Nah, it was a duplicate :-)

CowperKettle

ah!

(0:

you ameliorated it through deletiorating it

skill patrol

(0:

CowperKettle

06:52

> During the meeting, the Minister assured us that all possible effort would be made to facilitate and speed up the registration of our products.

I wonder if that's okay, as "future-in-the-past"

skill patrol

I think "...all possible efforts would be made..." sounds better.

CowperKettle

"efforts"?

skill patrol

Yup.

CowperKettle

I once had a reviewer tell me (he was a native speaker) that "efforts" sounds a bit awkward, as if someone is "clutching at straws", while "effort" is more solid. Or maybe I've mixed that up in my mind.

skill patrol

Perhaps, he's right. But I'm saying is many efforts from many people who are trying to speed up the registration.

CowperKettle

07:03

ah!

user62015

08:16

We consider concrete steps (a)/ that would be taken to create (b)/ the ‘smart governance’ necessary to implement such a direction.(c)/No error(d) @DamkerngT. @M.A.R. @snailplane @skillpatrol I don't see any issue but answer says option b

Man_From_India

08:37

@user62015 your answer key probably is wrong

user62015

Yes.

But what would be?

Man_From_India

Oh I mean option D

user62015

Let me confirm, are you sure?

SmokeDetector

09:05

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected: Is it right using of the word 'like' in the movie Pulp fiction? by Max on ell.SE

Jude Niroshan

09:29

It is highly unlikely to predict that would be the exact case

is this correct?

I'm not sure about this highly unlikely

can someone confirm it?

V.V.

09:48

We can use adverbs such as very, quite, highly and extremely before likely and unlikely to make their meaning stronger:

The government is very likely to propose changes to the income tax system soon.

I think it’s highly unlikely that she’ll get into university with the test scores she has.

Jude Niroshan

so, does my usage is valid?

V.V.

Up to "predict".

'cause I don't understand the rest.

Jude Niroshan

I was just referring to kind of a forensic stuff

I mean, here we are trying to make an assumption

V.V.

"what the exact decision would be.

CowperKettle

10:26

FFF system

The Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight (FFF) system is a humorous system of units based on unusual or impractical measurements. The length unit of the system is the furlong, the mass unit is the mass of a firkin of water, and the time unit is the fortnight. Like the SI or metre–kilogram–second systems, there are derived units for velocity, volume, mass and weight, etc. While the FFF system is not used in practice, it has been used as an example in discussions of the relative merits of different systems of units. Some of the FFF units, notably the microfortnight, have been used jokingly in computer science...

XPMai

11:16

What is @SmokeDetector

userr2684291

11:52

@XPMai charcoal-se.org/#whats-smokey

M.A.R.

13:02

@userr2684291 Nice, everyone around here knows about Smokey now.

userr2684291

13:14

@M.A.R. I mean... I just copied the link from goo.gl/eLDYqh+, haha.

M.A.R.

Bah

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Didn't even click on the actual link! Haha.

M.A.R.

!!flip/userr

Ellbot

( つ•̀ω•́)つnsǝɹɹ

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Thank you, you're far too kind.

M.A.R.

13:16

Yes I am, or I would've smitten you with my electrochemical lightning

userr2684291

@M.A.R. I'm sure I would've bolted by then. :>

Willow

13:46

Hi all -- just wondered if you'd seen this yet. LINK The Oxford comma

6

M.A.R.

14:11

Hey @Willow

Syndrome of The Day: Savant Syndrome

I'm watching Rain man

CowperKettle

14:34

@M.A.R. good movie

skill patrol

better movie

Raging bull- you never got me down ray

►

CowperKettle

15:43

> To provide documentary evidence showing that the gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) procedure is suitable for..

Which is better: documentary evidence or documented evidence?

hmm

can we say "provide a documented evidence"?

or is "evidence" always noncount?

M.A.R.

Provide documented evidence.

userr2684291

@CowperKettle Yeah. If you want to make it countable, precede it with "a piece of".

CowperKettle

17:01

31

Q: Is "evidence" countable?

As a native English speaker, I am often asked by friends and colleagues to correct their manuscripts. One of the most common mistakes I find is the use of the noun evidences. Now, the dictionary definitions I have read state that evidence is a mass noun, that it is not countable. For example, thi...

word-usage

"documentary evidence" beats "documented" on Ngram

V.V.

Cambridge dict. gives "documentary "

CowperKettle

> - What's the WiFi password in this place?
- It's an Intensive Care Unit!
- Lowercase or uppercase letters?

@V.V. yes, thank you!

Damkerng T.

17:42

@user62015 I don't think the sentence is really wrong, though if we want to be nitpicking, the whole sentence is full of less-than-ideal choices.

CowperKettle

> His son who suffers from the Down syndrome lived in the same room at the time of the alleged discovery of the grenades.

"lived" or "was living"?

Damkerng T.

I guess they might want We consider concrete steps (a)/ that would be taken to ~~create~~ implement (b)/ the ‘smart governance’ necessary to implement such a direction.(c)/No error(d) if they say the answer is B. Another possibility is they might prefer will to would.

But personally, I think the whole sentence is less than ideal.

@CowperKettle I think either is fine.

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. thank you!

Good evening!

Damkerng T.

Good evening!

M.A.R.

\o

CowperKettle

17:53

o/

skill patrol

\o

userr2684291

18:24

@CowperKettle Hm, I would pose it as a question on the main site to be completely certain.

@CowperKettle There's a difference in meaning between "documented" and "documentary", even though they might overlap.

So I don't think the Ngram Viewer results are of help. Also, Wikipedia tells me it's a legal term, as I would've expected, since "documentary" places more emphasis on the form of evidence (that can also be "physical").

CowperKettle