Language Overflow

Anonymous

00:00

So what is it about the semantics of same in English that requires this, or is it simply an arbitrary grammatical property?

Anonymous

Some other adjectives behave oddly when it comes to definiteness. Wrong, for example.

yubraj

01:03

Hi everyone

I asked a question many times but nobody responded, I don't know why.

I asked about "step out of" or "step out from"

CowperKettle

01:26

Good morning

First heavy rain of the year right now

Færd

Lagging behind us by a few days.

Good morning.

@yubraj Step out of is clear enough, I hope. It means you move out of something by (or as if by) taking a step. See this too: ldoceonline.com/dictionary/step-out .

Step out from is not that different. I would probably use it when I want to say that someone emerges from a definite area or place by taking a step or two.

Like there's a point of view in out from.

E.g you step out of your car and out of/from a shade.

Færd

01:59

I knew my words were not going to be responded to. I knew.

Later.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer: Is it correct to say "There are 5 hepatitis B viruses in his liver"? by Andre Marice Davis on ell.SE

CowperKettle

02:25

@snailplane -- is it okay to use was there?

Anonymous

@CowperKettle I guess, although I'd say had been personally.

CowperKettle

@snailplane Thank you! This was looked odd to me

Because it's not counterfactual

And would have is counterfactual

I mean, "would have" implies that Rome was not built in a day

Anonymous

@CowperKettle It's not?

Anonymous

People say things like "If she was here" and "If she were here" with the same meaning all the time, where was is more informal and were is more formal.

CowperKettle

03:07

@snailplane I thought that were only applied to second conditional (present time). I know that people sometimes use was instead in such cases. But does that work in "counterfactual past time"?

Anonymous

Hmm, maybe that is weird, given that we don't really say Rome is built in a day with built as an adjective.

Anonymous

I guess you're right :-)

CowperKettle

Yay!

Although I don't understand your reasoning with "Rome is built".

I'm trying to read up on chemistry now (0:

So my grammar unit has unglued

from my brain

I should send you a May 9th card. (0: Victory Day in Russia. If I have time...

Namaste, Man ji

Man_From_India

04:16

Namaste Kettle sahib :-)

sahib is a hindi term, previously used this way to refer to foreigners, or more specifically British in India.

Damkerng T.

06:42

@user62015 Hi!

Feeds

07:04

0

Q: What if I cannot choose the best answer?

What do I do if my question received a few very good answers and each of them is useful? I have had it this way a few times and some of my questions are still left without the best answer chosen. Incidentally, is it frowned upon if the OP doesn't choose the best answer?

V.V.

07:52

Found at last. Twin= leave (urban dict)

Cardinal

@Man_From_India does it mean something like "owner of something"? In Persian we have "saheb" which simply means owner.

Hello guys

In fact, saheb is an Arabic term since it rhymes with "fa el". So, I should correct that it's not Persian.

Although being commen, I would like to call them Arabic terms.

M.A.R.

08:12

@snailplane If we had one, what would we tag with it?

@Catija It's usually a legit rule, yeah

CowperKettle

08:25

@user178049 antonym: regurgitate

> A river girds the city west and south,
The main north channel of a broad lagoon,
Regurging with the salt tides from the mouth;
Waste marshes shine and glister to the moon
For leagues, then moorland black, then stony ridges;
Great piers and causeways, many noble bridges,
Connect the town and islet suburbs strewn.

> Upon an easy slope it lies at large
And scarcely overlaps the long curved crest
Which swells out two leagues from the river marge.
A trackless wilderness rolls north and west,
Savannahs, savage woods, enormous mountains,
Bleak uplands, black ravines with torrent fountains;
And eastward rolls the shipless sea's unrest.

> The city is not ruinous, although
Great ruins of an unremembered past,
With others of a few short years ago
More sad, are found within its precincts vast.
The street-lamps always burn; but scarce a casement
In house or palace front from roof to basement
Doth glow or gleam athwart the mirk air cast.

> The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms,
Amidst the soundless solitudes immense
Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.
The silence which benumbs or strains the sense
Fulfils with awe the soul's despair unweeping:
Myriads of habitants are ever sleeping,
Or dead, or fled from nameless pestilence!

user62015

08:41

37. He was ———— for murder.
(A) pleased (B) sentenced
(D) none of these
(C) punished @DamkerngT. Answer key says punished but I think sentences

Sorry for typing mistake as I am on iPad so maybe have made some mistakes

M.A.R.

Both B and C are possible

Why do you punish @DamkerngT.?

He probably didn't do anything

user62015

Hahaha

user178049

@CowperKettle :>

iamRR

09:14

Hello Folks!

userr2684291

10:32

Hi.

Damkerng T.

1

A: Confused about usage of IN and TO in sentences of this type

You usually use the preposition "to" in this context. You can also use at, but the preposition in, though grammatical, isn't so common.

It's an interesting answer.

userr2684291

@DamkerngT. Why?

Damkerng T.

Not sure if it helps the OP, but then again I guess preposition usage is usually like this.

M.A.R.

BBL lunch

Damkerng T.

Have a nice lunch!

userr2684291

10:38

@DamkerngT. I think Khan hit the nail on the head this time.

Damkerng T.

Yeah, but then it's just a frequency talk.

userr2684291

Yup.

With no further context, it's the only way to answer it.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I guess if I were a native speaker, I might've done better.

userr2684291

(:

Damkerng T.

:D

Being a non-native speaker, or maybe a native speaker who doesn't care much, the best answer that we can come up with is usually along the lines of "it just is".

But I suppose the best of us, when we're a native speaker, can do some introspection and say something intuitively useful.

When we care, too, I mean.

userr2684291

10:43

Right, I know what you mean.

I'm trying to figure it out myself now...

The LDOCE entry for new explains it pretty well, I think.

userr2684291

11:30

2

A: Use of "always" in all tenses

'Always' is an adverb, like 'repeatedly' for example, and as such won't change with the tense.

It doesn't really change with the tense, but the change in aspect might influence its scope/context in which it's used, innit?

I remember this from high school: I'm always losing my keys vs. I always lose my keys – I know this is mainly a difference between the present simple and present continuous, but it's worth noting, I think.

ColleenV

@CowperKettle I think they used it because of the adage"Rome wasn't built in a day". I prefer "if it had been" also.

userr2684291

12:05

Ah, I think @CowperKettle's fallen under several misapprehensions.

CowperKettle

@ColleenV Ah, I see

Thank you

Yes, I'm precipitous in falling under misapprehensions, but I hope that won't lead to disfellowshipping

userr2684291

The was there isn't a past indicative, and the "proper" way would be to use were. So the sentence is equivalent to this one: if Rome were built in a day which means "if that situation were true now" (we're hypothesizing) – and this is an OK sentence at first blush, but in that case built is an adjective, or at least an adjectival participle(?) and built isn't used as such in that saying.

That's what I think snailplane said: people don't describe Rome as built in that proverb, rather, they say it was built.

So If Rome were built in a day, we would've... is correct because they're saying "if that fact weren't true, independent of when it actually happened, we would have (in the past) done something" – presupposing that the fact about Rome was true at the time of their decision.

CowperKettle

12:27

Maybe I should post this as a question on main site?

I've no time to delve deep into this right now

But posting would help others

userr2684291

13:08

Sure – I think it's a good question – but depending on the explanation, it might do a disservice to learners struggling with assimilation of the difference between the usage of the so-called second and third conditional (and their mix); i.e., it might dope the conditional waters, in a manner of speaking. (:

user62015

Hi@DamkerngT.

13. Switzerland is ———— Germany, France, Australia and Italy. Between or among?

M.A.R.

Hi@DamkerngT.

Pinging @Dam is fun.

userr2684291

@user62015 What do you think?

M.A.R.

@Magisch hey, what brings you here?

Magisch

@M.A.R. I had messaged a moderator about suspicious activity here two days ago

And never actually left the room

userr2684291

13:15

@M.A.R. Please don't ping @DamkerngT. unless absolutely necessary.

M.A.R.

@Magisch oh nice

@userr2684291 You know I won't listen to you, right?

In any way, pinging regulars isn't that harmful

@Magisch nice. Sock activity?

Magisch

nah

non-obvious spam ring

M.A.R.

On ELL?

userr2684291

Spam ring, haha.

M.A.R.

O.O

@userr2684291 Doesn't sound really delicious to me

Bloody hell, what has this world come to?

userr2684291

13:18

@M.A.R. I don't think I've ever had spam.

@M.A.R. Did you know it's illegal (and most likely criminal) to quote stuff from LDOCE's website, for instance?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 o.O

What

userr2684291

I had to do a double take on LDOCE for some reason, I never noticed it has an E in it.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 I used to call it LCODE instead

Or even worse, LCDOE

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Oh yeah. The same, I think, with all other online dictionaries.

Sec.

M.A.R.

Min.

userr2684291

13:24

"Users are not entitled to modify the content of this Site or reproduce, republish, distribute, transmit, link, frame or deep-link it on any other website without the express permission of Pearson."

You can't even link to it.

M.A.R.

So what's your point?

userr2684291

No point, it's just a fact.

M.A.R.

Oh, I thought I plagiarized the dictionary somewhere

userr2684291

People sometimes think it's OK so long as you credit the author or website or something.

M.A.R.

Why would proper attribution be illegal?

userr2684291

13:28

It literally says so.

You're not even allowed to link it here.

M.A.R.

Well, they could have easily (?) issued a DMCA takedown notice with SE.

It does occur on SO sometimes

userr2684291

Really?

Neat.

@M.A.R. SE at least provides a way to distribute its content provided a proper attribution has been made.

M.A.R.

An all-familiar scene: User goes on a question rampage, polluting the front page with a bunch of poorly researched questions in 15 minutes, and leaves a mess close voters have to clean up.

Damnit people, at least check one frigging dictionary before posting

userr2684291

13:47

@M.A.R. An all-too familiar scene.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 I've heard both

userr2684291

@M.A.R. I get no results for "an all familiar" on NGrams but whatever.

M.A.R.

What about COCA

Ngram is buggy

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Same.

Damkerng T.

14:53

I got pinged and punished! What a day!

userr2684291

The day isn't over yet.

Damkerng T.

Haha!

M.A.R.

@DamkerngT. \o

Damkerng T.

@userr2684291 Good thing Longman (online dict) is not my favorite.

o/

I wonder if it's still okay if we claim "fair use".

M.A.R.

@DamkerngT. why would it not be?

Damkerng T.

14:57

The quote above sounds very strong.

userr2684291

15:30

@DamkerngT. Wouldn't you get sued in the UK, since Pearson, I think, is a British company?

Of course, the UK probably has its own fair use-esque laws.

userr2684291

15:47

Yeah, apparently they call it fair dealing.

yubraj

Hi All!

Good evening!

Hi @DamkerngT.

EngFan