Language Overflow

Cardinal

06:51

Word of the day: reprobate

Cardinal

08:39

I am wondering why no one asked why you used the present simple in the second clause:

2

Q: "Feel independence" or "Feel independent"?

Consider these sentences: Since I started working at the company, I feel much more independent. Since I started working at the company, I feel much more independence. Which one is the most idiomatic one? I just checked the Google and it seems that feel much more independent is much ...

Let's consider another example,

> Since I have been with the company, I ......... much more happy.

A. Have been
B. am

There is no end to the questions on the present perfect!

I think if we use the perfect aspect then it may imply that I no longer work for the company. For example, I just changed my profession just an hours ago and I say this.

Or it may mean "so far I have been happy since I have strated" and there is no guarantee for the future that I will feel the same!"

Feeds

08:55

1

Q: variations of "the places where"

More interaction in public places and human traffic on the sidewalks would increase surveillance of the places where people now fear to go. Link As far as I know, the sentence above can be changed into: More interaction in public places and human traffic on the sidewalks would increas...

relative-adverbs

userr2684291

10:40

@Cardinal I don't know what that means.

@Cardinal With since you designate some period that's lasted from a point in the past up to the present. You can only use the present perfect (simple / continuous). That's how I see it.

@Cardinal Since can also mean because; therefore, I think your sentence would be grammatical either way, but the meaning would be different.

And with the because meaning it would sound weird, of course – but maybe you'll be able to concoct a scenario that supports it.

@Cardinal As an adjective, noun, or a verb? (:

userr2684291

11:12

I feel that there's about 30 words in English that mean reprimand, and however that may be, whenever I actually need one, I'm not really sure which one to use because I don't know the subtle differences between them, despite having heard them in numerous contexts. Rebuke sounds very strong, and so does lambast. But that's pretty much it.

userr2684291

12:08

-2

Q: Which one is correct. a or b?

The larger the area of forest is destroyed, ……………………………………….. a. the more frequent are natural disasters b. the more frequently natural disasters occur

grammar

This sounds like a bad question, but if I put myself in the asker's shoes, I don't think I'd be able to go about solving the problem without an adequate linguistic background, or assert that one of these is more correct. (Of course, I assume they didn't read the text, lesson, or whatever guide they were given before attempting to answer the question, which is where the real problem lies.)

userr2684291

12:38

Anyway, I think the commenter (I'm ignoring the non-native one) who appears to be a native speaker is wrong, and the first option can never be grammatical.

Cardinal

@userr2684291 So, you say the option B is wrong?

> Every time I see you, you're drunk, you old reprobate!

That's on my Anki and I failed to answer it correctly.

I usually post them here, I mean those that I cannot remember or cannot answer correctly!

userr2684291

Damn, now I think option a in that sentence can be correct as well.

@Cardinal Yeah.

Cardinal

@userr2684291 I think both are correct.

userr2684291

@Cardinal I know you think that.

M.A.R.

12:54

@userr2684291 such textbook exercises usually don't expect you to know any lingo babble to solve them

Cardinal

1

Q: present simple or present perfect in this case

Shall I say I have tried to send you the money but it has not worked. I have tried to send you the money but it does not work. I think first version is the best because all my essay did not work.

tense present-perfect present-tense present-simple

M.A.R.

Just apply whatever patterns you find in the book

And the real problem is usually the books

Cardinal

So, you say it's wrong to say:

> I have tried to send you the money but it does not work.

M.A.R.

Too FLAWLESS

@Cardinal thanks, you're too kind

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Yeah, and I would expect the second option. But after not thinking about it for a while and then rereading it, the first one seems permissible as well.

M.A.R.

12:56

Please send it via paper airplanes instead

Cardinal

@M.A.R. Hmm, let's talk about konkour :D

M.A.R.

@Cardinal AAAAH

Cardinal

0:-)

@userr2684291 Why did it receive a down-vote?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 well, the article use is a bit sloppy which makes deciding hard

Cardinal

I guess giving down-vote(s) should be accompanied by some related comments!

M.A.R.

12:59

@Cardinal because well, it's homework thrown st our face without any effort?

BRB

userr2684291

Yeah, that's what it looks like.

But, as I said, I wouldn't know a better way to ask this question myself.

Cardinal

@M.A.R. Yay!

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 sure you would

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Well, I could zhuzh it up but it wouldn't add anything essential to it.

Cardinal

@userr2684291 zhuzh?

userr2684291

13:05

@Cardinal Yes.

Cardinal

@userr2684291 And what does that mean?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 it's not just about formatting and stuff. That effort fluff matters a lot sometimes

userr2684291

Mar 26 at 11:06, by userr2684291

@Alex89 http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/zhuzh

M.A.R.

@Cardinal "attractivize"

Cardinal

Oh I haven't seen that before.

@M.A.R. Garnish you mean?

:D

M.A.R.

13:07

@userr2684291 there should be some "lazy" achievement for this

@Cardinal no, attractivize

userr2684291

@M.A.R. If someone asks about it again, I'll link them to that one. I wonder to what degree it can stack up naturally.

Cardinal

@userr2684291 To start, they can say what they think themselves, it's obvious that they do not no the answer, but they can share their opinion.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 well, if you're wondering, it will eventually break chat layout

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Good.

@Cardinal I honestly don't think that helps, haha.

M.A.R.

Sandbox is full of nested blockquotes messages

@userr2684291 well, the what doesn't, but the why does

userr2684291

13:10

@M.A.R. I'm aware of that.

M.A.R.

"I think it's a" doesn't help, you're right

Cardinal

@userr2684291 It's not supposed to help, it shows.

userr2684291

@M.A.R. But I don't know the why myself. "I saw similar sentences before."

Cardinal

At least gives a clue to the people who want to answer.

M.A.R.

But a demonstration of the thought process ensures we're answering an intelligent human being and it makes answerers happy

Cardinal

13:12

They can direct the answer to the OP's bottleneck.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 I was thinking something like "I think a is wrong because it has two "r"s"

So the answerer can be boring further by explaining why you can have or can't have two be verbs

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Yeah, I feel disincentivized to answer "Which of these is correct?" type of questions, with no additional ... anything.

M.A.R.

BTW, @Card, I have an excellent plan for the upcoming week which means it will fail.

Cardinal

@M.A.R. Share it!

@Tᴚoɯɐuo You should really start giving answers and not comments! — SovereignSun 53 secs ago

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Yeah, I guess you could just make up some reason. I actually think that's the best way to get an answer. You make up something completely ridiculous, and then everyone's triggered into telling you how wrong you are, but of course they have to bring something to table themselves, thereby answering the main question.

Cardinal

13:15

LoL

@M.A.R. Oh wait, the exam is coming?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 you have a very gloomy outlook

@Cardinal Tir 16th

userr2684291

And then you stamp a classic "Thank you very much!" comment to the answer, which I'll promptly flag.

M.A.R.

BBL lunch

At 6 p.m. o.o

Cardinal

@M.A.R. Good luck, I am sure you will have 100 percent for English.

userr2684291

Enjoy your meal.

Araucaria

13:35

o/

userr2684291

Well, I tried to fix the question, but I don't know.

@Araucaria Hey. Do you mind having a look at this question? ell.stackexchange.com/questions/134063/…

M.A.R.

Back

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Front.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 Deep under

Araucaria

@userr2684291 Peter's answer there is correct (although instead of taking out is, we could put in a which: The larger the area of forest which is destroyed - but that's a bit clunky), no?

M.A.R.

13:46

I still don't like the article usage there for some reason

Hi Arau

Araucaria

@M.A.R. Which one?

M.A.R.

@Araucaria "the" before "area". It could work but I dunno why I don't like it

Maybe because I'm expecting a general statement that explains the correlation not some specific forest being destroyed

What do you have against forests? q_q

BTW @userr, regarding the [exam-questions] tag you just edited in, I would recommend against using it, because it's a meta tag and they only partially work when they're applied consistently. You know how consistent we are at applying tags

Araucaria

@M.A.R. we would tend use the there because the noun is being modified by a relative clause.

M.A.R.

14:12

1

Q: Does the sentence "what do you like to do?" have a direct object?

In japanese the sentence "what do you like to do?" has the word what succeeded by the particle "o" which marks direct objects, meaning for japaneses "what" is the direct object of this sentence. Is this the same in english? Yes/No - Why?

syntax

This is the closest to a good question I'd expect from a newish user today

userr2684291

@M.A.R. The person who accepted my edit changed my what's into what is.

@Araucaria The bigger they are, the stronger are they. Would this be grammatical?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 well, that is either just because, or because they want to maintain a high improve to approve ratio

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Why would they maintain that arbitrary ratio?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 numbers are people's weakness. They do a lot of absurd things to see numbers grow

userr2684291

@M.A.R. I also don't know why we have such a meta tag, but I've seen it used before so I applied it there.

M.A.R.

14:20

@userr2684291 well, I did write up a meta post before so we either burninate or consistently apply it but it was during the medieval apathy era so I had to delete it

userr2684291

@M.A.R. I remember seeing something similar to that.

M.A.R.

Shrug

I see without my bloodshed, ELL.meta looks boring and empty :P

Only either helpless new users asking about basic site philosophy or mods posting actually helpful posts

@userr2684291 on SO, there's a war going on between roboreviewing delinquents and mods and CMs. They go such great lengths to avoid being caught and roboreviewing at the same time that, in comparison, legitimately reviewing would be easier

Those are the prime examples of people that would want a high improve to approve ratio

The other group would be mod election candidates whose personal and online life goes totally under inspection during elections o.o

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Do they get a badge, reddit bronze, or whatever if they maintain that ratio?

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 they earn the loved-by-wannabe-moderationists badge

userr2684291

@M.A.R. Haha, their lives go through inspection? From what I've gathered, the candidates only have to answer a couple of questions on the meta...

I don't mean actual questions, but the questionnaire thing.

Anyway, gotta go.

Araucaria

14:50

@userr2684291 Yes, it would. The word the in that kind of sentence comes from a different root than the normal definite article the. It comes from an old English adverb which means something like so or so much. You sentence means So much bigger they are, so/that much stronger they are.

Anonymous

15:41

@userr2684291 Did you intend to say are they at the end instead of they are?

userr2684291

16:04

@snailplane Yep.

userr2684291

16:18

@Araucaria That clears things up a bit.

M.A.R.

Oh hullo snail

And others

And userr

Side note: Turbo F.A.S.T. is way too awesome for a normal kids cartoon

I never imagined I'd get so many laughs out of it

Anonymous

16:37

@userr2684291 It's a little weird with the inversion.

userr2684291

17:21

@snailplane That's why I asked about its grammaticality. It's parallel with the example in the original question: The larger the area of forest is destroyed, the more frequent are natural disasters.

@M.A.R. The cartoon I still like is Batman: The Animated Series. I know it's old and predictable, but I always feel happy when I watch it, heh.

M.A.R.

@userr2684291 oh, if I'm thinking of the same Batman, I like it too

Anonymous

17:49

@userr2684291 But natural disasters is a bit heavier.

userr2684291

18:05

Sounds bad to me either way, the they one is more obvious.

Anonymous

Really? The bigger they are, the stronger they are sounds perfectly natural to me.

Anonymous

The bigger they are, the stronger are they sounds marginal to my ear. Like, I'm not going to reject it as ungrammatical, but it doesn't sound like something people would generally say. Feels a bit off.

userr2684291

No, I meant the inverted version of both sentences.

Anonymous

Oh.

userr2684291

97 results in COCA for , the more [j*] [v*], 1.8k for s/v/p/.

Anonymous

18:10

. . . the more frequent are natural disasters doesn't sound so bad to me.

Anonymous

I, erm, don't really like the The larger the area of forest is destroyed part.

Anonymous

Where does this sentence come from?

userr2684291

You're not alone.

-2

Q: Word order in correlative constructions: the larger the X, the more

The larger the area of forest is destroyed,... ...the more frequent are natural disasters. ...the more frequently natural disasters occur. Which of the options is correct and why? If both sentences are correct, what is the difference between them?

exam-questions correlative-constructions

Cardinal

19:05

@userr2684291 your explanation, made me think deeply and ask a new question.

M.A.R.

@Cardinal that sounds catastrophic

Cardinal

@M.A.R. I know I'm on rush, I just improvised that.

BRB.

M.A.R.

BaRBie

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