English Language Learners

Anonymous

14:00

Coordination is my favorite part of syntax.

jimsug

@snailboat Yeah, I remember that... inspiration to take it, slice into it from a very specific perspective, and go nuts with it :P

Anonymous

> As usual, however, Reynolds and I had somewhat underestimated the best dictionary-makers: The American Heritage Dictionary had already listed slash as a conjunction, Reynolds discovered.

Anonymous

It's funny how the AHD is so often ranked among the best and the worst dictionaries by different people.

Anonymous

People get grumpy about dictionaries.

Damkerng T.

I liked AHD (I think I still do), but lately my first choice is always Macmillan.

Anonymous

14:02

I think certain people look down on any dictionary that doesn't include IPA.

Damkerng T.

Oh, no!

Anonymous

And by association, most American dictionaries.

Damkerng T.

Oh, no, no!

jimsug

@snailboat it doesn't need IPA, but dictionaries in general get abused far too often.

Anonymous

Oh, no, no, no!　←　I joined in!

Damkerng T.

14:03

:)

Anonymous

I usually do recommend dictionaries with IPA for learners. Macmillan is a good starting point :-)

Anonymous

Although I also usually recommend people check a bunch of dictionaries, especially with how easy it is to do these days

Damkerng T.

Oh, yes!

jimsug

@snailboat This is true, for learners... and yes, cross-checking.

Or, in some cases. checking. At all.

Anonymous

This site does have a lot of low-effort questions.

jimsug

14:04

Is that a problem, though?

Damkerng T.

(Though it was very tempting to say "Oh, yes, yes!", I decided not to say it.)

Anonymous

Yay, you answered my bounty!

jimsug

I mean, questions about English Language Learning are almost inherently going to be low-effort, for English speakers.

Anonymous

@jimsug Low-effort questions? Hmm.

Anonymous

Er. I mean like, people who don't bother looking things up in the dictionary.

jimsug

14:05

@snailboat Unfortunately, couldn't really come up with anything other than "well, sort of, but maybe this"

@snailboat Right, fair enough.

Damkerng T.

A-ha! That big bounty question!

Yay!

Anonymous

That is, the asker didn't bother to try to solve their problem before asking, or didn't bother trying to frame it in a way that would help people solve it

jimsug

@snailboat Although I tried to put a bit more effort in than the previous answerer, and... let me add a link to COCA.

Anonymous

I've never put a 500-rep bounty on a question before.

Anonymous

I've racked up 4000 points in bounty offerings, so I thought I'd bring it up to an even 5000.

jimsug

14:06

@snailboat Never answered a 500-rep bounty before :P

Anonymous

@jimsug I think it's just like answering a regular question.

Anonymous

Fake internet points don't really do very much.

jimsug

@snailboat yeah, exactly. Well, it does to some people :P

@snailboat I find that being on ELL helps me develop my argumentation.

@snailboat Especially since native English speakers are probably the least likely to admit that they mightn't have the best grasp on English :P

Anonymous

Hah! You got me.

Anonymous

I have to rely heavily on reference grammars and other work by linguists

Damkerng T.

14:08

@jimsug That's one of many things I like about ELL and ELU.

Anonymous

Luckily, I have lots of grammar books, doorstop-caliber and otherwise.

jimsug

@DamkerngT. yeah, I prefer ELL, though. Seems a tad less prescriptivist.

Anonymous

If all else fails, when I'm losing an argument about grammar, I can use them as blunt force weapons.

Damkerng T.

I see, I see.

I think I've heard this on ELU, "When all else fails, use cats.", or something similar.

jimsug

@snailboat I've found this to be true.

Damkerng T.

14:12

I still can't figure out, why cats?

jimsug

@snailboat you've been feeling generous? Two 5500-rep bounties?

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Well, I suppose they're more along the lines of a sharp-force weapon.

Anonymous

@jimsug I have lots of fake internet points. What else can they buy?

Damkerng T.

LOL

jimsug

@snailboat Fake internet... cats?

Anonymous

14:13

I have offered 34 bounties.

jimsug

> 34 Offered bounties for 5,000 reputation

@snailboat Yep, your story checks out :P

Damkerng T.

I'm curious about what we will get in another bounty question (the "could have" one).

jimsug

@DamkerngT. That one's interesting, I'd have a crack at it but it's getting late

Damkerng T.

Hey, I offered a few too!

Anonymous

That's the fun thing about bounties. Um, I can't figure out how to phrase this without making a Forrest Gump reference.

Anonymous

14:16

@DamkerngT. Yay! Go team!

jimsug

@DamkerngT. And I've still got another five hours of audio to transcribe :P

Damkerng T.

@snailboat (Not at the moment, though. :-)

@jimsug Wow!

Transcribing can be fun sometimes.

jimsug

@DamkerngT. I should be done roughly... tomorrow, if I go non-stop and start now :P

Anonymous

It fries my brain after a while.

Damkerng T.

(Though I think five hours is rather long.)

jimsug

14:18

@DamkerngT. Depends: if you're working with elicitations from a controlled environment, you can probably get through it reasonably quickly

@DamkerngT. If it's real-world data (mine's from a classroom), forget it.

Damkerng T.

Haha.

jimsug

@DamkerngT. I think I'm averaging about five hours per hour of recording.

@DamkerngT. Not in a straight block.

Damkerng T.

Wow, that's pretty good!

I think I can't transcribe that fast even in my first language.

I'm not a fast typist either.

jimsug

@DamkerngT. Heh. Transcribing is the fun part, though. I get to annotate it all after I've transcribed it.

Anyway, best turn in for the night.

'Til next time

nods

Damkerng T.

Oh, annotation!

Have fun with the transcribing! See you!

Anonymous

14:23

I haven't gotten any top bar notifications for upvotes since depositing my thousand rep in bounties.

Anonymous

I wonder if I have to get another thousand rep before they start showing up again :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, so that's the trick!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Hmm?

Damkerng T.

For 41 upvotes! :-)

Anonymous

Ah, so you looked it up?

Damkerng T.

14:26

I didn't. I thought you gave me a hint.

Anonymous

Oh! What do you think the answer is?

Damkerng T.

Offering bounties allows us to vote more than 40.

Anonymous

Nope.

Damkerng T.

No?

Oh, I still can't figure out the trick. :D

Anonymous

I do always have a sneaking suspicion that my answers are wronger than people point out

Damkerng T.

14:29

Though it's possible, I think it's rare.

Anonymous

No one's told me any of my answers were wrong on Japanese for what feels like a long time now.

Anonymous

But I don't trust myself enough to believe that I haven't actually been making mistakes.

Anonymous

I'm not a really good language learner.

Damkerng T.

Oh, on JSE, you mean.

Anonymous

Here, too.

Anonymous

14:31

Although here, I have more confidence.

Damkerng T.

You sure should have. :D

Anonymous

On both sites, I try to fact check what I write against reference materials and against corpus evidence

Anonymous

But language is a tricky, nuanced beastie.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

For example, I just looked up beastie in the ODE, and I found "A vehicle or device of a particular kind". Really?

Damkerng T.

14:33

I don't see anything wrong with that. Should I see something?

Anonymous

No, I've just never thought of the word as applied to vehicles before.

Damkerng T.

Oh, you mean the meaning of "beastie".

Hah!

Anonymous

And just earlier today, when Nico posted percipient, I thought it was an adjective. I didn't know it could be a noun, too!

Damkerng T.

Was it Nico?

Anonymous

Maaaybe.

Anonymous

14:36

Lessee.

Anonymous

No! It was Lucian Sava.

Anonymous

You must be more percipient than me :-)

Damkerng T.

Percipient is far from my first choice for that word.

Oh, thank you!

Anonymous

It's not even on the list, for me.

Anonymous

It's not part of my active vocabulary.

Damkerng T.

14:38

It's not on mine either.

(This is where I'd probably pronounce it as aye-ther.)

9 hours ago, by snailboat

What does it say?

Frankly, I already forgot it.

:D

Anonymous

It was a test message someone else wrote to try out ~~strikethrough~~

Damkerng T.

Oh, I see.

Anonymous

Oh!

Anonymous

I broke 15k reputation on Japanese! :-)

Damkerng T.

Hooray!

Congrats!

Okay, I finally caught up with the chat. Phew!

Anonymous

14:52

@DamkerngT. Caught

Damkerng T.

TYftC!

Anonymous

Sigh. I have to get another thousand rep before I start getting top bar notifications again.

Damkerng T.

Editing without saying it out loud could lead to such a mistake. :D

Anonymous

I'll miss those little guys.

Anonymous

22

Q: New Rep indicator stops when having negative score

Today I gave a bounty of 500 rep to this question. This results of course in a negative score for today. Since then I don't get any more notifications for new rep in the new top-bar on meta. Only after resetting the rep indicator by clicking on it I get new notifications.

Anonymous

14:53

Broken by design! ;-)

Damkerng T.

So, the notification bar has stopped working for you at the moment?

Hmm... I think I forget how it works. Will that little green +10 box still pop up?

In jimsug's answer,

> Similarly:
Someone was inside our house *Someone was in our house
Someone was in our home
Someone was inside our home
The first of each pair seems less marked, although I can't put my finger on why.

This makes me feel unsure which one is unmarked.

I'd guess that in is less marked (than inside).

> The doctors found two bullets inside his body.

Anonymous

Ooh, StoneyB wrote a post on attributive nouns, but I can't upvote it 'cause I ran out of votes.

Anonymous

0

A: How do you use plural or singular form of an adjective?

As snailplane and Man_From_India tell you, your question does not involve adjectives, which never have a distinct plural form, but attributive nouns. The singular form is certainly the ‘default’ for attributive constructions, but plural attributives are not uncommon. Some of these (and probably...

Damkerng T.

I haven't read that question yet.

Oh, an interesting question. It's a good question.

Anonymous

It's a fun question. I linked to an answer I wrote where I cited some of Quirk et al's criteria, which were (granted) back in 1985 and not 2014

Anonymous

15:07

I've never looked up attributive plurals in CGEL. I wonder what they have to say.

Damkerng T.

8 mins ago, by Damkerng T.

> The doctors found two bullets inside his body.

I think I still can't figure out why "in his body" sounds better.

Anonymous

Hey, don't ask me. I just post bounties.

Anonymous

:-)

Damkerng T.

I didn't try to trick you to give me a real answer. I was just curious. :-)

Anonymous

I'm wrong! My green number ten came back.

Damkerng T.

15:15

Yay!

I miss it a bit. I haven't posted an answer for a couple of days already.

Not is a pre-head dependent in the NP not everyone, and it has scope over the quantifier every-, just as it would in "[not every] person". It is a marker of non-verbal negation and doesn't modify prepared. See CGEL p.424, 795, 807. — snailplane 15 hours ago

I think you should turn that into an answer. ;-)

Anonymous

But that would take more work!

Damkerng T.

I think that's all Listenever needs.

Anonymous

When I'm writing to Listenever, I can assume she has CGEL, so I can give her references to the book.

Anonymous

And I can use the terminology in the book without explaining everything, because I know she can look it up.

Anonymous

But I feel like as a full answer I'd have to actually explain stuff.

Damkerng T.

15:20

I see.

My PEU can't explain this not either.

Though it's easy to understand.

Perhaps, not as a word is too easy.

Anonymous

Like, what does not having scope over every mean? Well, scope is a way of describing what sort of semantic proposition is negated.

Anonymous

> She promised not to help him.

Anonymous

> She didn't promise to help him.

Damkerng T.

I think I feel it's easy to understand because it works the same way in Thai.

Anonymous

You can see pretty clearly in the first example not has scope over the subordinate clause. [ not to help him ]

Anonymous

15:23

But her promise is not negated. "She made a promise. The promise was not to help him."

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

Whereas in the other sentence, we get: "The promise was to help him. She didn't make this promise."

Damkerng T.

In this respect, English seems to be very regular.

Anonymous

It's not quite, but in these examples it is.

Anonymous

> [Not every-]one likes pie. = [Not every] person likes pie.

Damkerng T.

15:25

A word or a group of words usually modifies the nearest.

Anonymous

Every is a quantifier, meaning all people. When we negate the quantifier, we're saying the number is != all. So, less than all, possibly zero.

Damkerng T.

Though not every usually implies some.

Anonymous

Some is the most likely interpretation, but zero is possible.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

The reason it's the most likely interpretation is that, pragmatically speaking, we can assume the speaker would have said no one likes pie if, in fact, no one liked pie

Damkerng T.

15:32

From another question...

Continued. as for question 4) I found the similar question on one site, in Japanese, and a teacher gave this sentence. I have some doubts about this but it was answered by a teacher, So I thought it might work. I was very confused and asked here. — tennis girl 16 hours ago

> 4) It's been a long time to see them.

Sentence 4) sounds odd to me indeed.

"It has been a long time ..." is okay, but "to see them"?

Anonymous

Yeah, it should be something like "since we've seen each other"

Anonymous

Except that's her describing the event while she's still there :-)

Anonymous

My versions were in the past perfect instead, since they described a long-term state of affairs that ended in the past. "It had been a long time since we had seen each other" or such.

Damkerng T.

Ah, yes. Her #1 and #3 use the simple past.

Anonymous

Hah, Maulik protected his question to prevent new users from trying for the bounty :-)

Damkerng T.

15:35

"I'd been waiting for a long time to see them." might work, but it sounds a little too much, I think.

@snailboat Eh, what do you mean?

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/posts/23281/revisions

Damkerng T.

Oh, they must get 10 points before answering the question.

Anonymous

You have to get 10 reputation on ELL.

Anonymous

The association bonus doesn't work.

Anonymous

So the protection will stop any users from seeing the question promoted and answering.

Damkerng T.

15:38

Ahh

Having +10 is not that hard, so I think it's fair.

Damkerng T.

16:30

"By now" is interesting. It reminds me of a handful of Thai words.

(I'll list those words to remind myself in the future: ป่านนี้, ป่านฉะนี้, ถึงยามนี้, จนถึงยามนี้, จนบัดนี้, จนถึงบัดนี้, จนกระทั่งบัดนี้, จนถึงเดี๋ยวนี้, จนกระทั่งเดี๋ยวนี้, จนถึงตอนนี้, จนกระทั่งตอนนี้, จนถึงเวลานี้, จนกระทั่งเวลานี้)

@Zhanlong Zheng: I can't imagine any circumstances where anyone would say By now I have owned some forty copies of the magazine, but you could certainly say "By now I must have read every issue of that magazine", for example. — FumbleFingers 32 mins ago

Oh, this is interesting!

Anonymous

You'd have most likely owned 40 copies serially, owning one, selling it, then owning another copy, and so on

Damkerng T.

> By now I have owned some forty books.

I think it's possible.

Along with its buddy, so far.

> I have owned some forty books so far.

Anonymous

Yeah, but it's treating ownership in a very unusual manner.

Anonymous

It sounds like a short-term experience. You go in for ownership, but only for a brief time, after which you part with each book.

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Anonymous

16:39

"I've owned about forty books by now. I'm thinking about owning another book for a couple days next week."

Damkerng T.

So, I own some forty books so far is more natural, I think?

Anonymous

It forces an aspectual interpretation which is not normally associated with own

Anonymous

So it's not ungrammatical, but it is very nearly nonsensical

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. That's weird, too.

Damkerng T.

16:40

Oh!

Oh, I mean own.

Cerberus

Hi!

I would probably leave out the so far.

Anonymous

Sure. With your edit, it works better.

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus Hi!

Anonymous

So far does make it sound like you're in progress (toward a specific goal...?)

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus What about replacing that so far with by now?

Cerberus

16:41

@snailboat Yeah I guess it is possible in a (less common) context.

@DamkerngT. Better!

Anonymous

"I lost my old book collection, so I set a goal for replacing it. I'm trying to collect a hundred books by next year. I own some forty books so far."

Damkerng T.

I think I share some senses with ZZ. I think we could say something like:

Anonymous

Hmm, but there own is suspect

Cerberus

@snailboat Yes, in that context it works.

Anonymous

It works but I would choose a different verb.

Damkerng T.

16:42

> I've collected books through all these years. I own about four hundred books so far.

(or by now)

Hmm... My natural choice might be up to now or up until now.

Cerberus

@snailboat Yes: the goal should have been specifically to own x books, not merely have them; otherwise I wouldn't use own the second time either.

@DamkerngT. My natural choice would be simply now.

Anonymous

Now is good

Damkerng T.

Ah, that sounds good.

Cerberus

For some reason, own really wants to be "timeless" unless there is a forcing reason not to.

Anonymous

Oh, I see the question now!

Damkerng T.

16:44

nods

Cerberus

@snailboat I see the question so far.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. You often talk about questions I haven't bothered to look at yet. If you don't link them, I often never do :-)

Anonymous

@Cerberus Hee.

Anonymous

1

Q: "Now" vs "by now"

Consider these examples: By now the desk should be looking significantly tidier! By now, the failure of regulators to contain dangerous forces should be well accepted. By now I own some forty copies of the magazine. By now the blue of twilight is glowing. He used leverage, but by n...

tense difference

Damkerng T.

:)

Cerberus

16:45

winks

Anonymous

Do you see the question by now?

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus Now you're trying to influence me with non-standard English. :D

I think ZZ and I share the same problem with the perfect aspect. We don't have it in our first languages.

And, I suspect that, probably like Thai, Mandarin also use a "perfective-suggestive" word in this case. (I owned forty books now.)

Anonymous

Stupid perfect-perfective distinction.

Damkerng T.

In Thai, it would be [I-own-books-forty-units-already].

MThomas

This question might sound stupid, but how do I ask in correct English, what forms do the exams in a program have. I mean do you have to do a written test, a individual or group paper, an oral exam etc...

Anonymous

16:49

Whoever's responsible for that distinction in terminology, I am currently frowning at them.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat You're frowning at me. :D

Specifically, I referred to already in this case.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. But I have all these books that talk about it! ;-)

Damkerng T.

Hah!

Anonymous

@MThomas Hmm. Good question!

Damkerng T.

@MThomas In conversation, or in a letter.

MThomas

16:50

Both?

Damkerng T.

If I were talking, I might ask, "What are the exams like?" and see how they replied.

In letters, we might want to be much more specific.

Oh, yeah. Thanks @Cerberus.

Cerberus

@DamkerngT. I was indeed!

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus Looks like your scheme works very well.

:)

Cerberus

Oh, what is my scheme?

Oh, that.

MThomas

sorry! @DamkerngT. I meant it as a question in advance. Not to an other student but for example as a question to a professor or anyone involved with the program

Cerberus

16:53

Yes, I'm trying to confuse the site.

Anonymous

@MThomas So you'd like to ask respectfully.

MThomas

yes

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I think you can phrase it much better than I can. :P

Anonymous

Ahh! Who, me?

Damkerng T.

Yes, you! :D

Anonymous

16:56

But I was enjoying watching you two do this answering stuff! ;-)

MThomas

In Dutch we have a word like 'getentamineerd', maybe there are people about who know what I mean now.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, I see.

I can't speak Dutch; I'm sorry!

> In what formats are the exams of your program? For example, are they in the form of a written test, an individual or a group paper, an oral exam, and so on?

I might write that.

Everyone is invited to improve it. :D

Revision #2:

> In what formats are the exams of your program? Are they in the form of, for example, a written test, an individual or a group paper, an oral exam, and so on?

Anonymous

ge-tentamin-eerd?

Damkerng T.

Alternate version:

> I would like to know more information about the details of the formats of examinations and tests your program employs.

I'm not a great requester, I think. :D

Cerberus

@MThomas I do!

How would you say it in Dutch?

@snailboat Yes. From tentamen, Latin for "test, attempt", stem tentamin-.

MThomas

17:09

@Cerberus "Hoe worden de vakken/cursussen getentamineerd?"

Cerberus

It means exam.

Anonymous

Dutch is so great.

Cerberus

@MThomas Right, even in Dutch that is slightly vague...

MThomas

@Cerberus it means more or less "type of exam"

Cerberus

I don't know, at university it is just any exam.

We also used tentamen in high school, same as schoolonderzoek.

MThomas

17:11

The 'problem' is that I want to know what kind of exam; written test, oral exam or a paper

Damkerng T.

Sorry to interrupt. I just read this post: http://ell.stackexchange.com/q/24218/3281.
I think it sounds like *houseboss*, but I can't find the word in any dictionary (except for Urban Dictionary).

Cerberus

Why not just ask more or less what Damkern suggested?

"What format are the exams? Are they written exams, oral exams, or papers?"

MThomas

@Cerberus sorry missed that one :0

Cerberus

Ah OK.

MThomas

@DamkerngT. Thnx mate! That what I was looking for!

Damkerng T.

17:13

@MThomas No problem. I thought you mightn't like it for a while. I'm glad that you like it!

Cerberus's version is more concise.

Because I'm not sure if boss of the house or house's boss or houseboss is commonly used in this sense, I probably will just leave another comment.

Damkerng T.

I think some of the fillers aren't really speech dysfluency.

For example, if someone posed a very difficult question to us, and we needed to think about it carefully before we could give our answer, I think it's fair to have a big long pause.

And probably, hmm, or umm, or uhh, is appropriate.

(I'm sure that politicians and executives would have much better ways to kill the silence than just hmm, umm, or uhh.)

(Oh, I just realized that even I have a few tricks to avoid this kind of silence in my first language, too.)

Damkerng T.

17:31

2

Q: Explain usage of “have had been”

I am very much confused with the usage of Have-Had-Has.I know Have is used in Present perfect whereas Had is used in past perfect. Then what about the usage of Have Had combination in a sentence. Where I ahave to use them? How I know whether my usage is correct or not? Please Help. Thanks!

grammar

I'd say that it's a duplicate, but this one is better than the old one.

Should I vote to reopen?

Anonymous

17:42

@DamkerngT. That's sort of definitional.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I don't know what a houseboss is.

Damkerng T.

A jerk --if he always says that he's doing something for no reason. — Maulik V 7 hours ago

Wow!

I think calling the guy a jerk is too strong, if he's just doing something for no reason but doesn't offend us.

Anonymous

Yeah, I don't think that's particularly appropriate

Damkerng T.

I think mindless might work, mindless people do not think about what they are doing. — Damkerng T. 22 secs ago

0

Q: What to call someone who cries out "wow" all the time?

What to call someone who (silently, but loud enough that the talking person hears it) cries out "wow" (throughout another person's monologue) all the time as an expression of delight or admiration (?) The talking person is someone of authority.

word-request vocabulary expressions

But I like to say, Wow!

sobbing

Anonymous

18:00

Wow!

Damkerng T.

Yeah! Wow!

Anonymous

Wow.

Damkerng T.

LOL

Anonymous

I'm at -803 reputation for the day on ELL!

Damkerng T.

Yay!

It looks like the more you give, the more you will get in return.

Anonymous

18:02

I have no idea.

Damkerng T.

That's my opinion.

@snailboat Oh, and Wow!

Anonymous

Wow.

Damkerng T.

2

Q: Made of or made from

As far as I know, "made of" is used when the material doesn't change but when it is transformed "made from" should be used. However, I came across the following sentence while reading an article on "eating out in restaurants" in an FCE book: "... fortunately, all (wine) glasses are made from unb...

difference

I think people seem to miss the OP's point.

To sum it up, I think he'd like to ask, when I should use "made of" and when "made from".

Anonymous

I wrote an answer about that, once upon a time.

Anonymous

Often both are possible, depending on how you're thinking about it.

Damkerng T.

18:06

(I didn't make up my mind to phrase it as either a question or indirect speech.)

@snailboat It would be nice if you can post a link to your old answer.

Anonymous

I can't, I blocked ELL on this laptop :-)

Damkerng T.

You did what? -- shocked!

Anonymous

Using this kind of feature I limit myself to spending only enough time to hit 200 reputation in one day. Apparently.

Damkerng T.

Poor ELL. -- sobbing

Anonymous

In other words, the blocking is completely ineffective. I just go over to the other computer. :-)

Damkerng T.

18:07

Ahh... I see.

Anonymous

I'm at -800 rep for the day. Now I'm maxed! Unless someone gives me an accept.

Anonymous

15

Q: Why is wine made 'from' grapes, but tables are made 'of' wood?

(1) Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes or other fruits. (Wikipedia) (2) Tables were made of marble or wood and metal (typically bronze or silver alloys), sometimes with richly ornate legs. (Wikipedia) Why is 'from' used in (1), whereas 'of' is used in (2)? Is it...

word-choice prepositions

Anonymous

See? Completely ineffective ;-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, this is a good post.

Anonymous

Well, it's relevant at least, but it sounded like they'd already read it and were unsatisfied

Damkerng T.

18:10

Oh, they said that indeed.

I will give them a link anyway, in case that they didn't mean this answer.

And, it's for others too.

I believe that "How to use Google to gather information" is more than fine. In the case that a higher formality is required, you might want to consider "Information Gathering using Google" (with Google is also possible, in my opinion). — Damkerng T. 7 secs ago

I hope that it's useful enough.

Too bad that it's been closed already.

Anonymous

I voted as unclear, not too broad

Anonymous

I couldn't figure out what it meant, even after they clarified

Damkerng T.

0

Q: Wondering what the difference is between "much less" and "let alone"

Good luck getting the city to do anything, much less file an injunction. The mayor is very pro-business and it won’t look good if he tries to shut down any business that could bring revenue and jobs to this dying town. Good luck getting the city to do anything, let alone file an injunct...

word-meaning

> Good luck getting the city to do anything, much less file an injunction.

> Good luck getting the city to do anything, let alone file an injunction.

I wrote an answer to that halfway, and cancelled it.

I think I know the difference, but I don't know how to express it properly.

Maybe I should leave it to others.

The "let alone" version also sounds a little odd (in this specific sentence), but I imagine that some people might say it.

Transcript for