Language Overflow

Anonymous

03:39

Hello!

Anonymous

@userr2684291 What are we talking about here?

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Hello!

@userr2684291 must've been talking about the question from yesterday.

Let me look.

This one:

3

Q: "Behind each other's back" <-- is 'other's back' correct here?

People are always talking about each other behind each other's back. Should be other's or others' or if they are both ok, and why? Should be back or backs here? The effect of each other is confusing me here.

But IIRC, the (imaginary) bet was about the real OP's confusion/question.

(Because there's nothing much about the root cause in the original revision.)

> Is this sentence grammatical, and does it sound natural?
People are always taking about each other behind each other's back.

0

Q: How to ask person A and send the result to person B after consulting with Person A?

I would like to tell to person A: I will consult with person B and send to you the result for references. Is my sentences correct?

grammar

0

A: How to ask person A and send the result to person B after consulting with Person A?

Your sentence is understandable to a native speaker. However, "send you the result for references" is a little confusing. As a native speaker I would say something like this: I will consult with Person B and then get back to you.

It's amazing that the answerer was able to understand the sentence!

> How to ask person A and send the result to person B after consulting with Person A?

Who consults who? Who send the result(s) to who?

I tried to read it like I will consult with person B and send to you the result for references but didn't succeed.

So I commented :-)

Maybe it's just me, but I'm totally clueless what exactly you want to convey, considering that the title and the drafted sentence don't mean the same, at least to me. Let's say, if you are C, could you make it clear who consults who? and who will send the result(s) to who? — Damkerng T. 19 secs ago

Anonymous

03:54

I think they meant to say and send the results to you for (future) reference.

Anonymous

Usually when we use send X to Y we put the to-PP after X, not before it.

Anonymous

And I think for reference is a lot more likely than for references.

Anonymous

So when I read it, my mind switches it around that way for me automatically.

Damkerng T.

So, ... C wants to tell A that C will send the result to A for reference after consulting with B, I guess?

(which sounds like what the drafted sentence is supposed to mean, but totally different from the title)

Anonymous

It looks like they mixed up A and B in either the question title or the question body.

Anonymous

04:08

Did you mix up Person A with Person B? The question title suggests you'll consult with A and send the results to B, but the question body suggests you'll consult with B and send the results to A. Which did you mean to say? — snailplane ♦ 5 secs ago

Anonymous

@ColleenV Can you make sense of their question?

ColleenV

@snailplane I have no idea what they're really asking. My prediction is they will just accept the answer that gives them a sentence to use.

@userr2684291 I didn't see any reason to leave it closed when someone in the community wants to take it under their wing and turn it into something that might be useful.

@snailplane Frankly, looking at their other questions across the network, I'm disappointed by their lack of effort

Anonymous

04:34

I think closing it was the right call for now. It'd be nice if they could edit it a bit and clarify, though.

Anonymous

05:00

And it really is a proofreading question, besides being Unclear What They're Asking.

Anonymous

@ColleenV Your prediction came true! Unfortunately for them, the sentence may not communicate what they wanted, although it sounds perfectly natural.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I just had a look at their network profile. I think they might want to use that phrase in a question on some other stack.

Anonymous

Oh really? I only took a brief look at their network profile, and I think I missed that.

Anonymous

05:21

It'd be nice if we had some context, too.

Anonymous

This is actually a really nice question:

Anonymous

2

Q: What is the main noun in "a year's worth of learning" in the following sentence?

I wonder which noun in the phrase "a year's worth of learning" in the following sentence is the main noun of the phrase. If "a year's worth" is the main noun, then "of learning" should be a phrase that modifies "a year's worth". Otherwise, "learning" should be the main noun and "a year's worth of...

modifiers double-possessives

CowperKettle

It's worth

This is my single version of the truth for this question.

Anonymous

Yes, but an answer like "it's A" or "it's B" doesn't really tell us anything. We need to know: what are the implications of claiming that it's A or that it's B?

Anonymous

And that's what makes it an interesting question.

Anonymous

05:28

Because once we can figure that out, we can come up with an answer to the question.

Feeds

3

Q: What is the main noun in "a year's worth of learning" in the following sentence?

I wonder which noun in the phrase "a year's worth of learning" in the following sentence is the main noun of the phrase. If "a year's worth" is the main noun, then "of learning" should be a phrase that modifies "a year's worth". Otherwise, "learning" should be the main noun and "a year's worth of...

modifiers double-possessives

Anonymous

07:00

@DamkerngT. I know this was years ago, but . . .

Anonymous

Reading it again and I think your interpretation is correct. I removed my comments to avoid later confusions. — Damkerng T. Feb 12 '14 at 10:29

Anonymous

Do you think I should remove the two remaining comments as 'obsolete' now, or does the OP's comment add something useful still?

Damkerng T.

I think the two remaining comments look confusing without my original comment.

I can't remember now what I posted before the OP's reply.

Maybe removing both comments is the best option.

Alex89

Good morning to everyone. Nice to see you, snailplane and Damkerng T.

Anonymous

Good morning :-)

Damkerng T.

07:03

Oh, I said "comments", so it must've been lotta now-deleted comments up there.

@Alex89 Good morning!

Anonymous

There were four comments total.

Anonymous

They've been consigned to comment oblivion.

Damkerng T.

:D

Anonymous

0

Q: Should I read a grammar book?

My friend who can speak English told me "You should not read a grammar book, and just practice more and more". On the other hand, my high school teachers told me "Read the grammar book!". Which should I trust and why? If I should read a grammar book, which book do you recommend?

grammar grammar-myths learning-methods

Anonymous

I foresee this question being closed as Primarily Opinion Based.

Anonymous

07:11

I kind of like it, though.

Anonymous

The thing that really clinches it as P.O.B., though, is the last line:

Anonymous

> If I should read a grammar book, which book do you recommend?

Damkerng T.

nods -- Sometimes, opinion-based questions can be very useful.

Anonymous

I mean, a question like this could be a turning point in someone's language learning.

Anonymous

I love grammar books. Well, some of them, anyway ;-) But I would never tell anyone that you can learn a language just by sitting down and reading books about grammar.

Anonymous

07:15

And I think a lot of people try to do exactly that!

Anonymous

So you could interpret this question as asking, what should the role of a book on grammar be in language learning?

Anonymous

Ah, and here come the close votes. I don't really disagree with the close votes, either, even though I just said I liked the question.

Anonymous

How's Language Learning doing?

Anonymous

Is this sort of question on-topic over there?

Anonymous

07:18

I feel like it would be closed over there too.

Anonymous

Ah, it was self-deleted before it could be closed.

Anonymous

It makes me a little sad we couldn't help them.

Alex89

I have a couple of English grammar books at home, despite most of them being in Russian. E. g. textbook of Bonk, Kotiy and Lukyanova in two volumes. They have very good simple texts in English. I was glad when I read them and realized that I understand almost every word.

I want to ask about one situation. Suppose I asked a question and received an answer. I accepted it. After a few days I receive another answer, from another user. Is it good to reselect (reaccept) the answer? I know I can do that. But do other question authors do such things?..

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Aww

@snailplane To be honest, I've never visited the site since a few weeks after its beta.

@Alex89 I think though it doesn't happen regularly, it happens often enough.

Anonymous

07:52

@Alex89 Yes, it's perfectly fine to do that. It's up to you.

Damkerng T.

0

Q: Differences between "at (the) New Year", "in the new year", and "on (the) New Year’s Day"?

What are the differences between: at New Year, at the New Year, in the new year, on New Year’s Day, and on the New Year’s Day? I would say: for regular events, we can use "at New Year" or "at the New Year" (they mean the same) We never go away at the New Year because the traffic is awful. =...

prepositions articles definite-article date

Prepositions are hard ...

It's not an exact duplicate, I think, because there's nothing about in in the old question.

8

Q: What is the difference between 'at Christmas' and 'on Christmas'?

I saw the sentence like 'I will go on a vacation at Christmas'. Could I substitute this sentence with 'I will go on a vacation on Christmas' If so, What is the difference between 'at Christmas' and 'on Christmas'? I'd like to know the difference.

word-choice prepositional-phrases

Also, the new question seems to add another aspect of the language: the article the.

M.A.R.

09:42

@CowperKettle It's a good answer

Bounty-worthy, even

Not just because it agrees with me, but because it agrees with me

user8469759

Hi guys

M.A.R.

@user8469759 Hi

Welcome

user8469759

Out of curiosity, I just learnt that the verb "to escape" can be followed by the ing form, like gerund, I can't come up with with an example however could you provide me an example?

M.A.R.

@user8469759 Something like "Escaping the city life is what many people dream of in the middle of their office work"?

user8469759

No, escape + ing form is what I'm looking for

Like, "I'd avoid driving at work today"

Avoid is the verb, driving is the object expressed using the ing form

M.A.R.

09:49

I did provide an example in which 'escape' was used in its gerund form O.o

I don't understand your question

Why did you expect it not to have a gerund form?

user8469759

Have you understood my example with "Avoid" and "Driving"?

M.A.R.

Yes

user8469759

Leave "escape" in the same form of avoid and put any gerund after it

M.A.R.

For that I need to use a transitive sense of 'escape'

user8469759

Yes, that's what I meant

Sorry, any example?

M.A.R.

09:53

It would sound very weird, if not wrong, let me think of something

user8469759

I don't think it's wrong, but I agree it is weird, this is why I wanted to find out any example

M.A.R.

We need to find a gerund that can forget things

I don't know if such gerunds exist

> The sadness in the lives around them is escaping grinning children.

A grammatical example ^

Kinda cheating, because the head is 'children', not 'grinning'

But I guess it qualifies for what you were looking for, @user8

user8469759

Is "grin" the base form of "grinning"?

M.A.R.

Yep

user8469759

That's cheating, yes...

M.A.R.

10:02

@user8469759 Don't stick to one verb though. That could have been any verb that children can do

'laughing', 'giggling', 'flying' O.O

user8469759

10:16

The point was trying to find out some example that actually

Makes sense

Sorry for grammar mistakes

M.A.R.

@user8469759 And you did find one, no?

You can create infinitely many others

Just don't think about making the gerund the head

user8469759

What do you mean with "making the the head"?

M.A.R.

Head (linguistics)

In linguistics, the head of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic type of that phrase. For example, the head of the noun phrase boiling hot water is the noun water. Analogously, the head of a compound is the stem that determines the semantic category of that compound. For example, the head of the compound noun handbag is bag, since a handbag is a bag, not a hand. The other elements of the phrase or compound modify the head, and are therefore the head's dependents. Headed phrases and compounds are called endocentric, whereas exocentric ("headless") phrases and compounds (if they exist...

CowperKettle

10:56

> Staff at a Russian newspaper have received threats of 'retribution' after they reported allegations of the mass detention of hundreds of gay men in Chechnya, its editors have said.

independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/…

Another cheery day in Russia

They discovered concentration camps for gay men in Chechnya

And filed an application for starting a criminal investigation to the Russian Procesutor's Office. And received no reply.

userr2684291

@user8469759 Did you mean driving to work? At means you're already at work.

Atomic_alarm

@CowperKettle 3 years ago I would be surprised. Now - as you sow, so shall you reap.

userr2684291

@user8469759 By pleading guilty, he escaped whipping.

CowperKettle

@Atomic_alarm I would not be surprised even 3 years ago. There's no law in Chechnya, and Russia had the same general prosecutor then

The famous Chaika, whose sons all of a sudden turned millionaires

Talented chaps (0:

There's a movie about him. So no hope for law in Russia too.

«Чайка». Фильм Фонда борьбы с коррупцией.

►

There are good English subtitles to that movie

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle You're just jealous that they have slightly more than the minimum wage?

CowperKettle

11:10

@M.A.R. (0: I'm jealous for their talent at getting state-funded contracts without any competition, yes (0:

The Russian Property Register renamed his sons ЛСДУ3 and ЙФЯУ9

In order to confuse investigative journalists

LSDU3 and YFYaU9

(0:

A lot of jokes like this.

C3PO, R2D2, LSDU3, Yuri Chaika, YFYaU9

(0:

Basically, the main person overseeing Russian law enforcement is a criminal, and everybody knows that

M.A.R.

11:30

@CowperKettle Pfft, the POTUS is a criminal, and everybody knows that

Fawad

V.V.

Hi, people! Hope, you're fine.

CowperKettle

@M.A.R. I never heard of that. Did his children get rich from state money in an illegal way?

Fawad

@V.V. your name explain please.

CowperKettle

I actually liked how he bombed Assad's thugs for perpetrating a chemical attack

V.V.

11:36

What exactly? The first letters of a name and a patronymic.

M.A.R.

@V.V. \o

@CowperKettle No, but he got away with not paying his taxes, and several incidents of abuse

At the very least.

Fawad

@V.V. k

V.V.

What ia "k"?

Is

Fawad

@V.V. lazy people say "k" instead of "OK" I don't know others use it

V.V.

Ah! I am not very experienced in this respect

Fawad

11:41

Lol, these are funny

V.V.

Really.

userr2684291

12:21

@Fawad Yet they've written you as u. Add to that the awful smiley at the end...

M.A.R.

12:32

0

A: “The world better have strong leader” vs. “The world better has strong leader”

If you're looking for an idiomatic version neither, but your first option is closer to being grammatical. You should use, and maybe unintentionally are using "had better". "had better" is what Quirk et al. call a modal idiom. I checked, and CamGEL considers it as idiom-like as well. That means ...

Nice answer @Cowp

@userr2684291 Heck, the meme is kinda out of place too

What does the aliens guy have to do with time saving and being condescending?

The Willy Wonka meme is apt though

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Had (or 'd) is dropped in informal registers.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 Yeah, that's what I said . . . I think

userr2684291

@M.A.R. No, you said it's common.

M.A.R.

Right, editing

userr2684291

@M.A.R. While you're editing, add some kind of pause before neither.

M.A.R.

12:43

@userr2684291 I also wanted to cite CGEL, but it sounded too high-level for most learners

@userr2684291 Oh, I had an ellipsis before it, but I removed it when proofreading the answer

CowperKettle

@M.A.R. thank you!

Araucaria

12:58

0

A: Difference between will and shall

Here's what you need to know about will and shall in English. (1) Will is far more frequent in English than shall. In American English shall is very rare. (2) Will and shall are both used to describe the future in general: I will be there at around 9 am. I shall be there at around 9 am. How...

userr2684291

13:09

Can one award a bounty to oneself?

Fawad

@userr2684291 yes,you can but you will not get there reputation :D forget about it once you start bounty

userr2684291

@Araucaria Do it.

@Fawad Are there conditions under which a bounty is automatically awarded?

M.A.R.

@Fawad o.o You can

@userr2684291 Yes. It's a pretty weird system I haven't played around with

So there exceptions to exceptions to exceptions to exceptions

0

Q: DIFFRENCES BETWEEN "MAKE and "DO"

In my class, my teacher told us that, we should find the differences between "make" and "do". I'm Vietnamese so I'm confused with this question! Can you help me? And the similar between them is the meaning? Right? I hope you can help me!

word-difference

DOES ANYONE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Please don't shout, I have headphones on.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 I JUST WANT YOU TO HEAR CLEARLY

BLEEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRGH

Fawad

13:18

Word of the day: af

But I don't know exact meaning if it^

M.A.R.

af?

userr2684291

@M.A.R. i.imgur.com/zrSoDU9.jpg :>

M.A.R.

Doesn't it mean as fuck?

Fawad

@M.A.R. yes,I saw a lot on internet

@M.A.R. really? People just use it as normal on internet..

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 what did you say?

@Fawad Yes, because people use the F-word a lot on the internet.

userr2684291

13:21

@M.A.R. Fork?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 Fenestration

Fawad

af means as f**** or just f- word?

Examples of How to Use AF
"I'm bored af."
"That guy is handsome af."
"This pizza is tasty af."
"The weather is cold af."
"That song is mellow af."

lifewire.com/af-meaning-used-in-social-media-3485956

M.A.R.

@Fawad en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuck this is the F-word. And 'af' means ''as F-word''

userr2684291

@Fawad It's used as an intensifier.

Færd

Abbrs suck.

VanessaBrown

13:30

What're the difference between "make" and "do"?

Fawad

@VanessaBrown try making sentences from those words.

VanessaBrown

She makes a cake and she does the laundry?

Fawad

6

Q: What is the difference between make and do verbs?

In my native language, portuguese, "make" and "do" can be translated into one verb "fazer". When I write an English sentence I never know which one to use. So my question is regarding about when to use "make" versus when to use "do". Can someone provide some guidance about which situations it is ...

word-choice verbs differences

VanessaBrown

thanks

M.A.R.

!!greet/Vanessa

Ellbot

13:34

Welcome to ELL's chat room @Vanessa! Happy chatting!

VanessaBrown

Good evening everybody!
Thanks! @Ellbot

userr2684291

13:55

@VanessaBrown Good evening.

VanessaBrown

Good evening

Araucaria

Evening!

@userr2684291 I can't! But even if I could, it wouldn't make the answer go to the top of the page. Only the OP, or votes can do that ... The latter being more likely.

@userr2684291 Yes, if the bounty setter doesn't award the bounty to a specific user, then 50% of it gets allocated to the answer which has gained the most votes since the bounty was set (as opposed to the most votes overall) - but only if that answer has received more than two up-votes in that period.

userr2684291

@VanessaBrown I remember snailplane or someone talking about make, do, take, etc., as a specific type of verbs in expressions such as make a mistake or take a shower. Those are simply idiomatic/placeholder verbs. (Don't take what I said at face value, though.)

VanessaBrown

Ok! TKs

userr2684291

14:10

@Araucaria The OP can award the bounty to anyone, or did you mean they can accept an answer and thus, through auto-allocation of the bounty make it reach the top?

I know I should probably go ahead and just read about the system myself...

user178049

Hello 👋 (does this emoji work in your computer?)

@VanessaBrown Try googling delexical verbs, I think you'll find lots of information.

userr2684291

@user178049 Yeah.

Emoji work on all of my machines.

user178049

@userr2684291 Haha, are you using Apple PC? 🍎

userr2684291

@user178049 Sometimes.

user178049

Emoji doesn't work in my obsolete window 7 PC.

VanessaBrown

14:23

🍎

user178049

Shouldn't I say "on"?

VanessaBrown

how can you type that emoji?

wow

user178049

Haha, I'm using my Android phone now. I just tried Swiftkey keyboard. It even has an em dash — cool

userr2684291

@user178049 Weird. I thought Windows 7 natively supported them.

Araucaria

@userr2684291 Well, the OP set the question. They can select any answer as their chosen answer by sticking the green tick on it. It will then get pinned at the top of the list of answers. The rest of them then appear in sequence according to the number of votes. The person who sets the bounty (in this case, me) can allocate the bounty to whomever they want. But it doesn't affect how the answers appear in the queue. Alternatively, I can just let the system allocate it as described before.

But the bounty doesn't affect the order of the answers on the page ...

VanessaBrown

14:29

how about using apple?

we can type the emoji, right?

user178049

@userr2684291 Ikr, but idk why my PC doesn't support. It's not really mine, it was my brother's PC, but gave it to me. I think there's something broken.

VanessaBrown

Desktop or Laptop? @user178049

user178049

@VanessaBrown idk, but I think yes.. Maybe

@VanessaBrown it's a laptop

userr2684291

@Araucaria Yeah, thanks for the clarification.

user178049

That damn PC doesn't even detect wi-fi.. Ergh

Hey, does anyone know how to get a full access to CGEL and ComGEL?

userr2684291

14:36

@user178049 You do realize operating systems are different from computers?

@user178049 What's ComGEL?

Anyway, yes, you can buy them, haha.

user178049

Comprehensive Grammar of English Language

@userr2684291 HAHA! I would've bought it if it were available here. I cant find one in any bookstore

So I need a illegally-downloaded version

userr2684291

@user178049 Er, just google them, haha.

user178049

Haha!

Btw, where's Damkerng. Haven't seen him for long time.

userr2684291

@user178049 I'm not kidding.

user178049

I found something on subcrib.. Err.. Or whatever it's called. I'm installing the app now. I hope it works.

*scribd

userr2684291

14:51

I can't believe I actually accidentally googled the word (I literally just googled a random word to test some combination of keys) that turns out to be pertinent to what I was telling @VanessaBrown.

I've had that tab open the whole time, and I hadn't checked what it meant until a couple of moments ago.

Anyhow.

@user178049 Yeah, that's where you can download it.

Araucaria

@userr2684291 No probs :)

userr2684291

@user178049 I mean that site. I don't know if you can get it using the app.

user178049

@userr2684291 Yes, I got it. Finally. I got it. But the font is so damn small, but nvermind, it's illegally downloaded. No complain.

userr2684291

@user178049 Hahah.

@user178049 You can get the first two chapters for free, though (and completely legally).

Of CGEL, that is.

user178049

15:12

@userr2684291 Yeah, that's why i asked for the full access. Anyway, I just love illegal things.. Because they are free.. LOL

ell.stackexchange.com/questions/126674/… Oh wow, I didn't know that "make" has four letters. That's very helpful!

userr2684291

@user178049 I hope my flag will be helpful.

user178049

@userr2684291 Haha, I don't even know wether to flag it as non constructive or offensive. Too me it's very offensive it's like he is assuming the OP is too stupid to know that "make" has four letters.

userr2684291

@user178049 Haha.

@user178049 I'd have let it slide had it been a good pun/joke.

Word of the day: make do

2

user178049

15:31

Hahaha

Araucaria

15:47

2

A: Difference between will and shall

The main use of the auxiliary verbs Shall and Will is to form the Simple Future. However these days, the use of Shall to form the Simple Future is becoming rare (especially in the US). With modern English Grammar the Simple Future is usually formed with Will. Shall is often used to make sugg...

CowperKettle

16:21

CowperKettle

16:51

> I met two guys wearing matching clothing. So I asked them if they were gay.
They promptly arrested me.

M.A.R.

17:16

@CowperKettle Stats once again prove the reality is much different than the hype

CowperKettle

18:58

A group of Polish enthusiasts turned on some electric lights in Pripyat.

For the first time since 1986.

Pripyat

Pripyat (Ukrainian: При́п'ять, Prýp'jat′; Russian: При́пять, Prípyat′ Pronunciation) is a ghost town in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby Pripyat River, Pripyat was founded on 4 February 1970, as the ninth nuclear city (a type of closed city) in the Soviet Union, to serve the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979, and had grown to a population of 49,360 by the time it was evacuated, on the afternoon of April 27, 1986, the day after the Chernobyl disaster. Though Pripyat is located within the administrative district...

Funny thing is, my parent's friends were planning to buy a house in those places in 1985.

It was a good place to get property in.

Not in Pripyat but near Slavutich, AFAIR

But when the thing blew up, I remember we were discussing whether we should even go to the Black Sea that year. "Maybe it is all radioactive".

Transcript for