English Language Learners

@Man_From_India I'll take a look. I've just finished answering another question.

oh sure...just take your time ...no hurry at all :-)

Could u answer me first?

Because I'm now reading about telic/atelic, the question came in handy.

@Hanaa Yes. About the barriers?

9:05 AM

Yes

As Copperkettle said embankment is a nice word

No

It is like a lake but built not natural

Aryk

In Central Asia, an aryk (Turkic: arıq; Russian: арык) is a relatively small aqueduct supporting agriculture and providing water to inhabitants of the area. Various Aryks still exist and are frequently used, such as that of Tabarja, which has been continuously upgraded and expanded since the 16th century....

Do they look like this?

It distributs water to diffent cities

canal?

9:07 AM

Aqueduct (water supply)

An aqueduct is a watercourse constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term aqueduct is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose. The term aqueduct also often refers specifically to a bridge on an artificial watercourse. The word is derived from the Latin aqua ("water") and ducere ("to lead"). Aqueducts were used by the Ancient Greeks, Ancient Egyptians, and Romans. In modern times, the largest aqueducts of all have been built in the United States to supply the country's biggest cities. The simplest aqueducts are small ditches...

No

You can find an article in an arabic language wikipedia and then select the interwiki link in English

A ha ok

Thank u!

No problem (0:

10:13 AM

@DamkerngT. hi :) how are you? A little question: how should I say if something happened in the year 1900? I mean which wording should I use for 1900?

@Ilan The simplest expression is "in 1900".

no

what is the wording for 1900?

how do you prononciate this?

"1900"

Oh, okay. I usually pronounce 1900 "nineteen hundred".

"In nineteen hundred there were 3 people with two heads"

if I say it this way will I be understandable?

Yes.

10:23 AM

thanks!

great :)

Maybe if you want to write it spelled out like that, a hyphen will be nice "nineteen-hundred".

You're welcome!

just wanted to know how to say

thanks a lot

:D

Now I'm wondering about those two-headed people! :P

Probably like the giant in the middle. :D

yes

they exist

Oh, you mean it's real!

10:28 AM

yes

Aww

Gotta go. BBL

bye bye :)

10:49 AM

Hi :)

Happy to see u again @DamkerngT.

abdelaziz maroc

11:15 AM

hi

12:34 PM

@CopperKettle When someone said, "Просто подставка, ничего другого не могу сказать", was it a good or bad opinion for the product?

@abdelazizmaroc Hi!

infinitesimal

12:58 PM

Hi pal :-)

1:16 PM

Hi guys.

hi @MARamezani

I had a trivial question that I didn't see the need to post in ELL.

sure I will try...

go ahead

Look at the tab of hot questions. This questiongirl&utm_campaign=math.stackexchange.‌com-promo&utm_content=1143716

Ah nuts. I meant this.

Ahh both are directing to the same question :-)

1:20 PM

Ah, the first I posted was like that and I reposted it.In it I see the guy said: "Asked to my nephew."

"Asked to"? I've searched the Net and didn't find similar structure.

And sorry for the lousy spelling and stuff. I'm touching my mobile, not typing with my laptop.

I think there is no problem with the spelling...

Just in case...

give me some time...i think there is no problem...but let me think before saying it

Anyways, is "asked" being followed by "to" correct and grammatical?

yes it is here

1:24 PM

Yes what is here?

I mean this sentence is correct....somebody asked the question to his nephew.

And the sentence is passive

The question was asked to his nephew

Why not "from"? Or "of"?

Active voice: **Somebody asked the question to his nephew**
Passive voice: **The question was asked (by somebody) to his nephew**

from and of doesn't sound correct, may be it sounds like it's direct translation from other language

I'm going now. I'll be back and we'll either nag about it or I'll post something. :)

Bye.

sure..u can post it on ELL

1:32 PM

@DamkerngT. Good evening! Was it a rack? I mean, the product?

@DamkerngT. - the translation is: "This is just a support rack, there's nothing more to say"

@DamkerngT. "Просто подставка, ничего другого не могу сказать" - the key here is the letter k

@CopperKettle Ah, thanks! It's an iPad stand. :-)

If the word had no letter k, the whole meaning would've changed.

Oh, what would it become?

The changed meaning would've been "This is just a swindle, nothing more to say about it"

Hah!

1:36 PM

Hi @CopperKettle and @DamkerngT., just now MARamezan asked a question. In The question was asked to his nephew, why not from or of in place of to? Can you help?

"подстава" is swindle, "подставка" is a support rack

Ahh... I think they didn't mean swindle, then. Phew!

Hmm... I think it's sort of like The question was asked to his nephew (by his uncle), perhaps?

yes that is ture...but he asked why not from or of in place of to?

asked from would sound wrong.

asked of is interesting.

I think that is incorrect...or it might sound as a direct translation from another language.

1:39 PM

I think asked of might be possible, but it would mean something else.

@Man_From_India Possibly.

BNC shows asked of is also possible

I'm not sure if it would really make sense in that sentence.

Related: english.stackexchange.com/questions/38136/meaning-of-ask-of

It could make sense, I think. (After trying to wrap my head around it several times.)

but not that common I guess

nods -- I think ask of with the passive voice makes it really uncommon.

There in those example the meaning of ask is demand

1:46 PM

@DamkerngT. - do you by chance know if snailboat's okay? I've not seen her in the chat for some time.

so in this sentence that meaning is not possible, i think ask of here is not possible :-(

I think it's only about two days. I don't know how she is doing, either. Maybe she's just busy. (I hope.)

Oh, it's okay. Maybe she'd decided to read something tough (0:

@Man_From_India I'd just say it's quite unlikely.

yes I also haven't seen her for quite sometime

1:49 PM

"The question was asked to his nephew" - out of whack.

I would say "the question was posed to his nephew" (and probably I'd check in Google beforehand)

(Had I wanted to retain that to)

BBL!

Hmm... I think to is necessary because of the passive voice.

posed to is also fine, of course.

yes

ahh @DamkerngT. you remember that day I faced similar situation with preach. I was not sure whether to omit to in passive voice with preach. And snailboat correct me that that to is obligatory.

Ah, I remember.

Some verbs require to even in the active voice.

The most common one is perhaps suggest.

Q: "We can't do this any more than we can do that" - meaning?

hmm

Ohh wanted to discuss this question with you as well...hope u r not busy

how to better explain this question.

2

It is generally the case that there is no "natural" connection between a linguistic form and its meaning. The connection is quite arbitrary. We can't just look at the Arabic word vJ^ and, from its shape, for example, determine that it has a natural and obvious meaning any more than we can with...

sentence-construction

Ah, I think your explanation is good. (I upvoted it. :-)

1:56 PM

But the problem with it is that it really sounds like we are dealing with logic

not the language

The book is The Study Of Language, so that is to be expected, I think. :-)

It's obviously an assertion.

:-)

I think at least almost everyone would agree with his assertion. :D

correct :-)

It looks like nima had a problem with the parsing (of that sentence).

2:01 PM

seems so. but at the same time it's necessary to understand the underlying construction, so that he can write similar sentence on his own without making any error

Hmm... I remember that Automata looks a bit cooler than in the trailer I just saw on TV a moment ago.

@Man_From_India nods -- Parsing is very important, especially for writing, I'd say.

A movie?

Yes. I think I've seen its trailer on YouTube last year.

Which looked unlike what I just saw a moment ago.

I might change my mind again after watching the movie. :-)

ohh is that a good movie? which genre?

Sci-fi. Iirc, the director is the same guy who did District 9.

2:04 PM

ahh good...i will also try to catch it :-)

Yay!

I'm going to get something to eat. BBL

sure :-)

4:14 PM

"How long can one use an iPad with a cracked screen?" "Apparently, it's almost a year already! (Still looking good!)"

:-O

A book I am currently reading I found a sentence - How very French!! I can't understand the meaning. does it mean "it is typical of french"? The context is "The lawyer found the accused is not guilty. But apparently she made the crime. The public think the lawyer likes her".

"How very French!" could hint at many different things. Its exact meaning would be clear in the context. (I think I'll need specific lines, to be sure.)

Basically, it means that whatever happened or whoever mentioned reminds that speaker of "French".

I think I got it. Can't remember the exact line. But yes it's clear now.

5:48 PM

@DamkerngT. - I was reading this page about learning, specifically "Linking cognitive science to education: Generation and interleaving effects", and recalled your "great imitation" technique..

6:18 PM

@CopperKettle Nice! I wonder if we really need to learn from cognitive science that imitation really works. I mean most non-native speakers who can become fluent in speaking another language without having lived in a place that allows them to be in close and regular contact with native speakers must already know about this. They are the successful learners, even with their own disadvantages. And they are the evidence.

7:18 PM

Hello all !

7:32 PM

Hello, @Hana!

I wanted to tell @Man_From_India that snow goes down rivers and dams but only now that i found the word dam

Dam is good, I think. It's a common word for water reservoirs.