English Language Learners - 2014-09-09 (page 1 of 2)

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5:27 AM

Just saw a new question here: http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/33052/what-does-ros-mean-in-the-context-of-online-advertisement

Is this this the type of question that we answer in this forum? It seems awfully internet-specific, not really a "learning English" type of question.

6 hours later…

10:59 AM

@Egghead99 I agree. I think if I worked in online marketing, I should know what that ROS means anyway, no matter which English skill level I had.

It's border line though. I googled for "ROS stand for" and it's probably unclear which one to choose for learners.

I like what Jim said.

You should ask ads@stackexchange.com. But my guess is that it corresponds to the targeted ad types (by rep, geo, and tag) on the other side, so the self-serve option only allows globally-displayed ads, not specifically targeted ones. But even if that's true I don't know what ROS might stand for. — Jim 6 hours ago

11:35 AM

This question is interesting.

3

Q: "Guess what" and "You know what"

I heard the phrases "Guess what" and "You know what" from movies and native speakers a lot, but I do not really catch the meaning implied. 1) Are they equal? 2) In what contexts one uses these phrases?

A matter of discourse is not easy to explain.

Anonymous

12:21 PM

Well, 2 i definitely wrong. That's why I have a strong concern about 4. — user1425 6 mins ago

Anonymous

Egghead's answer about "Guess what?" and "You know what?" is pretty decent.

Anonymous

I think the latter is slightly more general than described there, but I upvoted it

Anonymous

I should go to sleep before my ability to form sentences falls entirely out of my brain

Have a nice sleep, then!

3 hours later…

3:32 PM

Hey everyone. I'm almost sure the sentence "What you think(,) you become" is not grammatically correct (as opposed to "You become what you think", which is correct). Could you confirm this?

It reads fine to me.

ahh never mind, I can see it is correct now...

nods -- Movement in English comes in lots of forms.

3:52 PM

Hey guys, what's the protocol to follow when you see that someone else has made a really good answer, but failed to address a part of the original question? Do you make your own new answer addressing only that part of the question, or do you edit the other person's answer and add the missing part at the bottom, or comment and hope that the answerer addresses it?

I think I usually do either the 3rd or the 1st.

Sometimes I do the 2nd when I find typos.

Okay, awesome. Thanks!

Welcome!

2 hours later…

Anonymous

6:09 PM

I didn't actually vote to close the pour over question

Oh, I didn't know that. I was curious seeing it in the review queue. :D

Anonymous

I just left a comment :-)

Ahh... I see. :D

How about your sleep? Did it go well?

Anonymous

At the time it had no close votes

Anonymous

"What you think, you become" needs that comma. Otherwise you become will be read as a bare relative

6:12 PM

nods -- I agree.

Anonymous

Still sleepy :-)

Sorry for the ping.

Btw, I think we missed the half-year self-review indeed. They might've forgotten us!

Anonymous

The next one on Japanese begins in 9 days

Anonymous

I'll just guess that ELL's will too around then-ish

Anonymous

I'm not sure, but I might take a break from close voting

6:25 PM

Oh, how come?

Anonymous

No reason. I'm just lazy and there's a lot of questions. :-)

This might help --> [energy pill]

:D

Anonymous

0

Q: English - Grammar

Please tell me which is the correct phrase below: One of my favorite movies or One of my favorite movie

grammatical-number

Anonymous

I feel like this question could be answered quite well with a picture

I'm not sure about that, but I have a lot of favorite ones. :-)

6:35 PM

A picture as in a movie?

Anonymous

No.

Anonymous

A picture as in a picture. :-D

Reviewing is hard.

Anonymous

I don't review on ELL 90% of the time

Anonymous

The new review indicator trained me not to click it

6:39 PM

Also the Review Reopen Votes UI doesn't make sense, in my opinion.

Anonymous

The old one I always clicked because it was an action I could make disappear

Anonymous

But the new one shows up independently of whether or not I have things to do, so I naturally ended up forgetting it was there

Anonymous

So I only do reviews when I think "Hmm, I should do some reviews"

Anonymous

Since I have no reminder

@snailboat Oh, I don't even care to see that indicator. (or those, is there more than one?)

Anonymous

6:40 PM

It's the brown number on top.

Anonymous

It looks like it says 6 right now

@snailboat Me too. I review when I have time and I feel like I care.

Anonymous

Most often open the reviews because I see a question with close votes and I want to pick "Leave Open" :-)

Anonymous

Wow, people really hate to reopen questions after people follow their instructions

Anonymous

I keep seeing all these Leave Closed votes when people edit their questions in accordance with the close reason

Anonymous

6:43 PM

Maybe I'm missing something

Oh, are they the same people?

Anonymous

I'm not sure

Anonymous

But since they aren't communicating why they're voting to leave closed, the process breaks

I'm looking at this: ell.stackexchange.com/review/reopen/11005

And I don't know what to do because I don't what the answer is all about.

How can I vote to reopen (or leave close) with just that information?

Anonymous

I mean, we can assume they have some reason.

Anonymous

6:44 PM

They should post why they voted the way they did so we can understand it.

Anonymous

I always click questions before reviewing.

nods

user116848

hi

Anonymous

There isn't enough information in the review queue to review in good faith most of the time

Anonymous

It's not designed in a way that lets you review properly

6:46 PM

I couldn't find the question I was reviewing (I think it happens only with this queue.)

Hi @Arrowfar

user116848

0

A: English - Grammar

So "One of my favorite movies" is correct. It is like saying "One of the balls (i.e. one of the many 'balls') (not ball)

user116848

Oh, Hello!

LOL

I take it that you read what snailboat said. :)

user116848

haha

user116848

lol

user116848

6:47 PM

Seemed like a good idea

Okay, +1 for the picture. :D

user116848

Thanks!

Anonymous

Is anyone else impressed by how nonspecific the question title is?

Anonymous

> English - Grammar

Which makes me to have to +1 oerkelens's answer too. I think his answer is not that inferior. It just doesn't have any pictures. :D

user116848

6:49 PM

:-)

Anonymous

Edited!

Anonymous

1

Q: "the" before general concepts

Take a look at these two sentences: There are problems for students living away from the family. Computers play a very important role in education nowadays. Comparing them, I wonder why in the second one, 'education' is not preceded by 'the'.

Anonymous

It can be very hard to notice mistakes.

Anonymous

It said "at two these sentences"

Anonymous

And when I read it, it seemed fine because my mind automatically switched the words around :-)

6:52 PM

Oh! I haven't noticed that.

Anonymous

Haven't noticed what?

these two vs. two these

Anonymous

In that case "didn't notice" would be appropriate

Oh, I should've said didn't notice.

You're right. I read what I wrote and I couldn't understand what I wrote (and why I wrote it that way).

I was trying to figure out what I should do with this edit:

ell.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/11020

It's an edit that makes a significant change to the OP's example. But the OP's example doesn't make any sense.

Anonymous

People say "have noticed" when they're talking about generalities, sometimes. "Have you noticed that lots of people vote to close without leaving comments?" "No, I haven't noticed that"　←　Here the second speaker has no direct evidence at hand so it's still possible for them to say they haven't noticed, and their statement doesn't confirm the original proposition

6:59 PM

So, I'd say that any repair would be a guesswork.

@snailboat nods -- I remember that. I think when I say things quickly, my grammar could be degenerated a bit.

Anonymous

Ahh, I can't tell well enough to do anything with it

Maybe I will just skip it.

Anonymous

Hmm.

Anonymous

Actually

Anonymous

> I prefer orange cars because blue cars would be thought as the police which/that is always aggressive.

Anonymous

7:00 PM

It reads to me as

Anonymous

"I prefer to drive an orange car. People always think blue cars are the police, which are always aggressive."

Anonymous

That sort of meaning.

Anonymous

(Not that exactly)

Oh, that makes sense.

Anonymous

I don't think it's about how the police see blue cars.

Anonymous

7:02 PM

I'm not sure how to rephrase the original, though

Anonymous

I mean, if I were saying it I'd phrase it differently from the beginning

Anonymous

But then the which/that question wouldn't come up

Oh, based on your suggestion I think I can do a minimal repair.

Anonymous

Yay!

> I prefer orange cars because blue cars would be thought of as the police which/that is always aggressive.

> I prefer orange cars because blue cars would be thought of as the police(,) which/that is always aggressive.

Anonymous

7:03 PM

Yeah, the of helps!

Anonymous

I assume they want the comma. The comma does change the answer, though

I will leave a comma in parentheses, and let our answerers decide for themselves.

Anonymous

-1

Q: Words that changed meaning in past hundred years

I am looking for a list of words that were used to mean something different from for what they are used now. some words are such that whose meaning has changed completely and some words have more than one meaning, but earlier one meaning was in popular use and nowadays another meaning is in p...

word-meaning history

Anonymous

Wow! That is a difficult question to answer properly

I think it better fits ELU.

Anonymous

7:07 PM

"Let your shirt dry on you" sounds kind of gross.

Anonymous

It's certainly fine English

Umm... I think I did that way too often. :D

Anonymous

But if it were me, I might just say "Oh, you don't need to change, you only got a little bit of water on you. Just let the air dry it"

Anonymous

You know, I'm making up a scenario for that sentence so I can say something that sounds more natural to me

When I played badminton, my T-shirt usually became soaking wet, then dry, then soaking wet again.

Anonymous

7:09 PM

When I read the original question and the comment, though, that's not what I picture :-) I picture a shirt that's soaked through and through, and the other speaker tells them just to keep wearing it!

I used three shirts in a row sometimes.

Anonymous

I sweat, but I don't sweat terribly easily

Anonymous

My dad, though, he sweats like crazy

Yep. I told some of my friends doing that (in Thai) sometimes. :D

Oh, me too!

Anonymous

Your sentence is fine, though, to express what you want to express

Anonymous

7:11 PM

I feel a little reluctant to participate in questions like this sometimes because they're always bereft of context

Anonymous

And it's hard to tell what's natural without context

nods

Anonymous

I just have to imagine the right context for your comment . . . :-)

I think my longest badminton session was over six hours.

It was really fun!

Anonymous

The numbers on this page really are striking: lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/grammar/relwhich.html

Anonymous

7:14 PM

@DamkerngT. Wow!

So some of my shirts had to literally dry on me. :D

Anonymous

Yeek ;-)

user116848

I sweat a lot too. But that's just gross

Hehe.

It's not a sport if you don't sweat!

For example, I played snooker for a few hours and I didn't sweat. I don't know if I want to call snooker "sport".

user116848

Oh, so I decided today's topic in the Overlook Hotel room. Yay!

7:19 PM

Hooray!

Anonymous

This new Egghead user is doing a pretty decent job of answering questions.

nods -- I like their answers.

Anonymous

I might quibble with a couple technical details, but I think their answers are all useful to learners.

Anonymous

2

A: interested in/to: what's the difference?

Whether you use "in" or "to" depends on how you are using word that comes after it. Interested in When you use "interested in", you are usually talking about being interested in something (generally, a noun). For example, you can be interested in wine, or interested in cheese. Therefore, this s...

Anonymous

For example, here I would say that to is not actually part of the infinitive, but an infinitive marker

7:21 PM

Also, I think the answers are more focused on the questions, rather than on the answers.

Anonymous

It's clearly a separate word because it can have, for example, adjuncts placed between the two ("to boldly go")

Anonymous

Or because the following verb can sometimes be omitted: "Where would you like to go?" "Wherever you want me to go."

Anonymous

But aside from little details like this one, I find the answers to be quite helpful :-)

LOL -- where no man has gone before!

Anonymous

That's right! :-)

Anonymous

7:22 PM

Or no one.

Oh, I remember I had seen some people argue over this.

I'm not sure which one is the original.

Anonymous

To as an infinitive marker is grammaticalized from the preposition to

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Man, I think. I think they changed it to one in The Next Generation

Anonymous

Growing up our family watched The Next Generation every week while we ate our weekly meal

Anonymous

(Our family didn't eat together more often than that)

7:24 PM

Hehe -- Thanks for the info, too.

Anonymous

So even though that was during the part of my life when I rebelled against watching television, I ended up seeing that show!

Anonymous

All the time.

Anonymous

Don't trust my memory, though―it's been a long time :-)

Anonymous

And I've hardly ever seen the original Star Trek series.

Oh, I found something really strange today.

I heard one word on TV while I wasn't watching it, and I knew who said it.

Anonymous

7:26 PM

I just have a recollection that man was changed to one. What word did you hear?

But more than that, I was even able to tell which line and which movie it was from!

Anonymous

Ah!

"Yes"

Anonymous

Oh!

Just "Yes"!

Anonymous

7:27 PM

How did they say it?

I'm not sure. It was Tom Cruise on Jerry Maguire.

But it wasn't that movie. It was another movie which had that movie in it.

Anonymous

Oh! Haha.

Anonymous

I haven't seen that movie.

Really weird. :D

What happened to me, I mean.

I think it was rather a typical "Yes", but somehow I could tell its instance precisely.

Anonymous

It's on your mental tape recorder! :-)

Anonymous

7:30 PM

May, I ask why you have removed the vote ups beside my comment? This is very undemocratic of you. — asterisk Sep 5 at 11:52

Anonymous

A user can un-upvote a comment, but only for a few seconds after voting, as I understand it.

@snailboat Quite possibly!

Anonymous

Moderators can't remove upvotes from a comment.

Anonymous

So I don't think any undemocracy is going on here.

I think it happened the way it happened because we're rather the opposite of undemocracy.

Anonymous

7:33 PM

Some sort of unundemocracy, you say?

Yeah. Hehe.

Anonymous

Seems ununlikely.

So ununtrue!

user116848

in The Overlook Hotel, 3 mins ago, by Arrowfar

Once I was staying in the country side with full mountains, lakes and all the beautiful scenery. I was alone there for some adventure with the nature you know.
But the next night all the power went out in my hotel where I was staying and truth be told I coundn’t even see the back of my hand in the dark! After some time I got very thirsty and there was no water in the hotel too at that time (as usually I had to and fetch the drinking water from the nearest river!) I felt like I was in some open space prison but it was very beautiful there. So in the night with only a flashlight at my dispo…

user116848

Topic was "A Adventure story" :-)

user116848

7:40 PM

I love adventures BTW

Oh, like Indiana Jones? :-)

user116848

Until they are safe :-)

user116848

@DamkerngT. Yes! haha

Don't forget your whip before you go out there. :-)

user116848

hehe

user116848

7:42 PM

But better than Indiana Jones adventures are Tomb Raider's adventures:-)

LOL

user116848

Have you watched the Tomb Raider films

I watched the first one.

I think I still remember that funny line:

> I'm amused at my ignorance.

Anonymous

I haven't seen any Tomb Raider films.

user116848

I see. But they don't make new Tomb Raider movies these days :(

Anonymous

7:43 PM

@DamkerngT. Amused?

Oh, probably amused.

I'm not sure about the exact words.

user116848

You guys ever been on any good adventures?

My little adventure was when all my friends left me on the train moving away from the station alone.

user116848

Like camping and stuff. With crazy scenarios :)

user116848

@DamkerngT. Oh, so you were little then I guess? :-)

7:45 PM

All their bags and stuff were with me. :-)

Anonymous

Oh, no!

user116848

Just kidding

Anonymous

My life doesn't have very many adventures.

Anonymous

I wrote a little Choose Your Own Adventure once.

Hi

user116848

7:46 PM

@snailboat Why is that snail?

Anonymous

But it's fictional.

user116848

@fahdijbeli howdy

Anonymous

@fahdijbeli Hello!

See, I was the most experience one with the train, and I told them not to go to the toilet before the leaving time. No one listened to me. And that was what happened. :D

Anonymous

@Arrowfar I don't know. I think in my mind it's a good thing. :-)

7:46 PM

@snailboat Oh, I'm curious!

user116848

@fahdijbeli Oh, and salams :-)

Hi @fahdijbeli

@Arrowfar wa alaykom salam

user116848

hah :)

Anonymous

I guess the only thing it has in common with the topic at hand is the word adventure, though :-)

Anonymous

7:48 PM

@DamkerngT. Hehe.

user116848

@snailboat What has?

I had quite an adventure with all the belongings of nine people. :D

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. quarplet.com/groceries

user116848

@DamkerngT. Yes going to toilets often lead to an adventure in travel :-)

@snailboat Oh, what if I answered incorrectly?

Anonymous

7:51 PM

It's okay! You can either start over or cheat and hit the back button :-)

@Arrowfar I can still remember their faces getting smaller and smaller while the train was moving away.

user116848

@DamkerngT. lol

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Scary!

Anonymous

Well, depending on how old you were, maybe :-)

user116848

@DamkerngT. So were they messing with you? Or it just happened?

7:52 PM

I think I was 17.

user116848

@Nico Hello!

Anonymous

My first time traveling by plane on my own was when I was 14 or 15, I think.

user116848

I see

Anonymous

That was kind of scary for me. But there isn't much of a story to tell.

I have to learn the life insurance :'(

Anonymous

7:52 PM

Everything worked out fine :-)

Anonymous

@fahdijbeli That sounds like the opposite of fun.

@snailboat Are you afraid of flying?

user116848

Well the story I wrote above was kinda sorta, true

@snailboat yes :/

@Arrowfar I love countryside!

user116848

7:53 PM

But I exaggerated it a bit :-)

user116848

@DamkerngT. Me too. I love nature

entering the door of Food Land...

> Boy, that flesh wound made you hungry!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. No, but at that age I was rather afraid of going off on my own like that

Wait, does that usually happen? :D

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Probably most of the things I wrote there don't exactly follow :-)

7:56 PM

> You remember that you possess a mouth. Hooray for you!

LOLOTF

> Watermelon! The one food that could sustain you for life! If only you could have reached it before the wolves descended on you―but alas, it was not to be. Better luck next time, Ace. Game over. Turn to Page 1.

Ouch!

Anonymous

Oh, you were so close to the ending!

I guess I should've picked some other fruits.

Oh, oh, I got an idea!

> You'd just love to eat some lettuce! Unfortunately for you, as you walked toward the lettuce, a garden snail appeared and ate all of it. In the meantime, you died of starvation. Better luck next time, Ace. Game over. Turn to Page 1.

Oh, I really thought lettuce was it!

A garden snail appeared out of nowhere!

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