English Language Learners

Oh, hippocampus is hippocampus because of its shape!

Anonymous

Oh, I should've thought of hippogriff

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yes!

3:01 PM

Hippocrates

Anonymous

Right, I was skipping proper names, but that's a good one, along with Hippocratic oath

Anonymous

Ooh, I like hippology

:D

Anonymous

@MARamezani Maybe you'd like hippuric acid

By the way, I found this:

> a conclusion. In general, if you address the person by name, you conclude Yours sincerely. Using the form Dear Sir or Dear Madam, you conclude Yours faithfully. If you have addressed the person by his or her first name a number of forms are common -- Kind regards, Regards, Best wishes, for example.

> --Reader's Digest: How to Write and Speak Better, p. 276

3:03 PM

http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1475/can-we-get-flair-as-an-image/65224‌?s=3|0.0000#65224

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. What era is that from?

1991

Anonymous

@MARamezani Fear of a hippo with many feet?

I don't know. I'm still degrading that thing.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Surprisingly recent! Well, I was taught that stuff in school

Anonymous

3:04 PM

So, around that time.

Anonymous

If you actually used it in a letter it'd seem pretty old-fashioned, I think. Especially if you wrote it on paper

nods

Anonymous

@MARamezani Ah, I see, it's a joke word with a noncompositional meaning

Anonymous

But maybe I should have guessed from sesquipedalian

Anonymous

I should've also guessed one and a half feet instead of many :-)

3:07 PM

A coined word: hippocerf

Anonymous

What's that?

From a game, I guess.

Anonymous

Wow, there are 14 Final Fantasies now!

google.com/…

Oh!

Anonymous

3:08 PM

Not very final of them.

The last one I heard is 9!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I played that one!

Nice!

Anonymous

That was like ... sixteen years ago?

LOL

3:09 PM

@snailboat Donchu get it! Final is sarcastic! :P

Anonymous

Apparently fifteen years

Q: Words order in the question about time duration

3:32 PM

0

There is a mathematical model that can give a forecast for some duration (hours, days, years). But the forecast will not be equally accurate for different periods of time. How should I ask for what period of time the forecast is most accurate? What is duration, the model can give most accurate ...

questions

Robo-rephraser: In what duration does the model work best?

Q: "A Man Named "Rand" Thinks He Can Be President"

0

Why is there no article (a or the) in front of "President"? Is the title grammatically correct? Link to Gawker.com

articles

This one's goooood!

I remember that "I want to be pilot".

What do you wanna be? "I wanna be pilot." Pretty sure title's grammatically correct! Well, I think there was a "similar" question on this. Let me find it.... — MARamezani 5 mins ago

Whenever you encounter references to a software, you can be pretty certain the speaker/writer is German. Virtually no native speakers would ever do it, but this was covered on ELU long before ELL even existed. — FumbleFingers Mar 27 at 16:23

Heh!

In any case, similar usage is in the same article: Sen. Rand Paul officially announced his candidacy for president ...

Interesting!

A: Killed in battle / Killed in a battle?

10

A lot of nouns can be used two ways: As a concrete noun, illustrating a specific instance of a concept. These appear as count nouns. For example: a fierce battle an ancient culture three deaths a college education perpetrating a great evil a disturbing experience a close friendship my firs...

Hmm.

@Dam do you know any good LaTex editors?

(offline)

3:44 PM

Hmm... Sometimes I used Lyx.

Is there a really popular one?

(Doesn't matter if it's paid)

I think Lyx is popular.

I mean, there is Dreamweaver for web programming.

Paid, but a God.

Dunno. (I don't use DreamWeaver either!)

I remember that I opposed to it clearly in one meeting. I said, we should separate programming stuff from contents and styles.

Anonymous

I'd never use Dreamweaver personally

Anonymous

3:48 PM

But I'm more of a programmer than a designer

Oh, I got an idea...

> alternativeto.net/software/lyx

Ah, I used TeXmacs a few times! Too bad it didn't support Thai language.

Anonymous

I used LyX for papers in high school

Yay!

Anonymous

At the time I was the only one who didn't use Word

Hehe!

Anonymous

3:51 PM

I haven't used LyX this millennium though

Oh, wait, someone's pinging me.

Anonymous

I did try a bunch of different programs for writing

@snailboat What do you use instead? (I'm guessing Pages.)

Anonymous

Hmm, well, it depends on what I'm doing

Anonymous

But I actually started using LibreOffice Writer

3:52 PM

Hmm... Is it Page or Pages?

Anonymous

I often use vim :-D

Ahh

Oh, right! :D

Q: "A Man Named "Rand" Thinks He Can Be President"

2

Why is there no article (a or the) in front of "President"? Is the title grammatically correct? Link to Gawker.com

articles

Sometimes it's infuriating to see a rash downvote.

@MARamezani I don't think "I wanna be pilot" is correct. Sung, good question! The title sounds right to me, but I can't explain why. It also sounds right if you replace "president" with "king" or "mayor". But it sounds wrong if you say "senator". — DJ McMayhem 8 mins ago

What the...?

Anonymous

It's a bare role NP

2

A: "A Man Named "Rand" Thinks He Can Be President"

0

"President", like "king", "governor", etc, is a title and so doesn't need an article. No doubt confusing, it CAN be used with an article. You can say, "He wants to be president" or "He wants to be the president". If it's a job that many people have simultaneously, you'd normally say "a" rather th...

Double what the....

@snailboat I'm listening.

Anonymous

3:58 PM

@MARamezani Nothing wrong with "I want to be senator"

Anonymous

But DJMM might be imagining a context where senator has non-unique reference

@snailboat Now I wanna go ranting and say: Is this forum localized?

Anonymous

A bare role noun phrase is one that denotes a role or office and takes no determiner

Anonymous

It can be a predicative complement: She became treasurer.

Anonymous

But not a subject: *Treasurer resigned.

Anonymous

3:59 PM

It is not the same as a title.

Aha.

Anonymous

It can't be an object, either: She knew the treasurer. but not *She knew treasurer.

Anonymous

Because know takes an object, not a predicative complement

Anonymous

These examples are from A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

Oh boy, here we go again...

Anonymous

4:01 PM

The terminology varies a little bit, so you might see these "predicative complements" called other things

Anonymous

The verbs that take them are sometimes called "copular verbs"

Anonymous

@MARamezani Sorry, I thought you were interested

@snailboat No, not about that. I'm learning already.

I should italicize stuff when I'm not talking about here.

Anonymous

Oh, I see

I wonder how come it got two downvotes!

Anonymous

4:03 PM

A lot of verbs take objects, but only a few take predicative complements

Anonymous

The most common by far is be

Anonymous

And other verbs that are semantically similar, like become

Anonymous

One way you can tell is that an adjective can be a predicative complement, but not an object:

Anonymous

> She looked silly.

@snailboat Be-like verbs are called "attributive" words in Persian.

Also, linking verbs.

Anonymous

4:05 PM

Yeah, linking is essentially what copular means

Anonymous

So I'm talking about that sort of verb.

Anonymous

That's where these bare role NPs can show up

Anonymous

Not as subjects or objects. With those, you still need a determiner.

I remember the definition varies slightly between languages, and it ended up it lots of confusion.

Anonymous

Yeah, that sort of thing always has to be language-specific in the details

Anonymous

4:06 PM

Subject complement

In grammar, a subject complement (also called a predicative complement) is a predicative expression that follows a linking verb (copula) and that complements (completes) the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. In the former case, a renaming noun phrase such as a noun or pronoun is called a predicative nominal. An adjective following the copula and describing the subject is called a predicative adjective. In either case the predicative complement in effect mirrors the subject. Subject complements are used with a small class of verbs called linking verbs or copulas...

Anonymous

Some people are used to that terminology instead

Nods

@snailboat I remember that from Interchange books.

Anonymous

Someone must have already described bare role noun phrases on ELL

Anonymous

So that question is probably a duplicate

@snailboat I doubt that, but I hope someone did.

@MARamezani Ahh. Is that series popular there?

4:09 PM

@DamkerngT. Not popular. Very popular.

Oh! Thanks! I'll keep that in mind.

Anonymous

I've never liked learning languages using textbooks

Anonymous

It feels like such a drudge

Anonymous

It's nice having a reference or three when you need to look something up, though :-)

Q: Doing a chemistry experiment or work on a chemistry experiment?

@snailboat Just sticking to textbooks is very wrong.

I speak and write a lot.

But with myself.

Unfortunately.

Aaargh!

2

Doing a chemistry experiment or working on a chemistry experiment? Which one is correct? Did some google search but found nothing related. Should I use do or work on?

word-choice

How could I have missed that?!

4:14 PM

@MARamezani You seem to be doing great just talking to yourself.

Oh, I thought you've seen that.

meaning word-choice word-usage grammar word-meaning meaning-in-context modal-verbs

I wouldn't have emboldened chemistry, but it would get rolled back.

Sigh People don't know what to hail.

Aw Qirui Guo, Beijing, China

443 4 11

For me, it's hard to imagine someone "working on" a chemistry experiment.

Ninja! Oh, you can't see me.

Wait, the guy doesn't seem that deadly.

Maybe a doctor, or some related occupation.

@DamkerngT. Mwa too. It's like giving it thought rather than directly conducting it.

Anonymous

4:18 PM

@MARamezani Yeah, that was my impression, too.

Conducting it!

Anonymous

Like, "I'm working on a chemistry experiment. I haven't quite figured out what I'll do when ... blah blah blah"

Oh, good.

For a moment there I thought the answerers didn't mention conduct.

ELL isn't that crappy creepy after all!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. In some countries people use masks like those to avoid transmitting illnesses, or to hide their faces online, or as a fashion statement of a sort

On the other hand, I can imagine a group of people "working on" the LHC experiment just fine.

Anonymous

4:20 PM

In Japan the trend started as the first of those three, but they became common enough that the other two started being a thing too

@snailboat Oh, yes. You're right!

Anonymous

I don't know about face masks in China

Anonymous

But my impression was that it was true in various Asian countries

Anonymous

How about Thailand?

google.com/…

4:21 PM

@snailboat It had never been popular until the H5N1.

Q: is it correct to say " the author is not outright wrong."?

Akh. I should visit the page next time, rather than copying the Google link

1

I do not know whether the usage of outright is correct. Not having found this structure on Google search engine, I'm curious about it.

word-usage

The OP is Iranian! Yay!

Now we dominate ELL! Mwahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

Seems so.

With Nima's help, we'll defeat the aliens!

Specially the do|t ones

Anonymous

Sounds fine to me. Outright wrong, I mean.

Anonymous

If someone says 'specially there, it's an eroded pronunciation of especially

4:25 PM

@snailboat nods -- I think dead wrong is even likelier.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I think dead wrong might be less likely if it's negated

Interesting!

Anonymous

That's just my intuition talking. I haven't looked at numbers

@snailboat It could be regional, even!

Hmm, what is an all-star game?

Anonymous

4:27 PM

It's when you have like, the best of the best competing.

Oh, one of the lens of my eyeglasses was out of place. I felt something was off the whole day!

Anonymous

Like, you make a roster out of only the star players

@snailboat So the competition is starry?

Anonymous

So you end up with an all-star roster

@MARamezani I guess MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL all have their all-star games.

(I'm sure only about NBA and NFL.)

Q: Why it is changed from a man to the man?

4:29 PM

2

We does often use like this sentence. For example: : Jill is talking to a man. And we can swap object and subject . Then the sentence made like this. For example : The man jill is talking to. Here is my question. Why does it use the man instead a man?

articles

I thought the title was a proverb!

I think too much.

Anonymous

@MARamezani A good question!

Oh, tunny! I miss him.

Anonymous

Technically, the relative clause attaches to man and not to the man

Anonymous

The determines the entire nominal man [ ~~that~~ Jill is talking to ]

@snailboat Indeed.

Anonymous

4:31 PM

The relative clause specifies which man, so we want to use the, the definite article

Anonymous

Since the nominal, taken as a whole, is specific

Anonymous

Whereas in Jill is talking to a man, we're introducing man as new information. We don't know who the man is yet.

Anonymous

If we kept going, we could change to the: "Jill is talking to a man. The man is wearing sunglasses."

I learnt these in the basics of determiners in Arabic.

But have never practically thought of using them.

Anonymous

Well, if you were always taking the time to ponder which determiner is most appropriate theoretically speaking, you'd never get a sentence finished… :-)

4:34 PM

A (not so) random thought: Not OK: Jack is a man Jill is talking to. OK: Jack is one of the men Jill is talking to.

Anonymous

Jack is a man ~~that~~ Jill is talking to implies that Jill is talking to more than one man

Anonymous

It's grammatical, but maybe not as good as your alternative

Oh!

Anonymous

I'm not sure I can come up with a context where the a version would be better

@snailboat I'm sure.

Anonymous

4:36 PM

Seems kind of awkward

That I can't.

:D

Anonymous

I guess if you wanted to tell us that Jack was human and talking to Jill in one sentence

Anonymous

Hmm, it's still hard to invent the right dialogue for it :-)

Anonymous

But other people are better at that sort of thing than me.

4:38 PM

> Jack is a man talking to Jill.

@snailboat Yeah. Implication: Jacks are usually not humans.

Hmm...

> Jack is that man talking to Jill.

4 hours ago, by Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Oh, yes. Thanks. I shouldn't've missed that one. It's one of my catchphrases.

O.o

Anonymous

"Jack is a rabbit, right? Hiding in his rabbit hole?" "No, Jack is a man talking to Jill." (Three words with contrastive stress)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. There we go! That's a lot easier to contextualize :-)

4:40 PM

@snailboat Thank me.

Shouldn't've??

@JimReynolds o.0

@JimReynolds Does it sound wrong to you?

I've never written that.

Anonymous

It's not the sound, it's the spelling

Anonymous

4:40 PM

Everyone says "shouldn't've"

Anonymous

But only a select few elite write it

LOL

Anonymous

The clitic form of have has no problem following shouldn't

:-)

Anonymous

It's like writing gonna.

Anonymous

4:41 PM

The standard spelling is going to, even though going to is pronounced like gonna all the time.

Anonymous

But since we're here in chat, we can get away with stuff like that if we want. :-)

Your catchphrase, @MARa?

I say it's pronounced dia.

Anonymous

That doesn't mean anything.

Anonymous

There's a range of yod-coalescence and vowel reduction, not to mention the possibility of intervocalic flapping of the /d/

What color is the dress, anyway?

Anonymous

4:44 PM

So we have a huge range of pronunciations for d'you

O.O

Make some recordings!!

Hey, look, the top five starred messages are all snailboat's!

Anonymous

The stars are mine, all mine!

She is a fingersteller.

Anonymous

Or am I?

4:48 PM

Or are you?

I guess this question is going to be a long debate: ell.stackexchange.com/q/54308/3281.

Anonymous

@MARamezani Copier.

@JimReynolds Read the chat log do|t!

o.0

Oh... I will fall asleep. But first I will point out that @Dam misused (and abused) recommend me above.

@JimReynolds Ah, I know.

Anonymous

4:49 PM

Quote!

Anonymous

I missed it.

But I was too lazy.

I remember I said "recommend me something".

I think it was about Amazon Japan.

3 hours ago, by Damkerng T.

I'm sure they will recommend me lots of other music stuff the next time I sign in!

Robo-edit: I'm sure Amazon will recommend lots of other music stuff to me the next time I sign in!
(so Jim can sleep well.)

Anonymous

Say, does this look right? ã

Anonymous

Is the squiggly over the letter?

Anonymous

Or is it off to one side?

4:52 PM

@snailboat It looks perfect on my screen!

Anonymous

'Cause I was going to say What do you want? as [wəɾəjəwɑ̃ʔ]

Oh, that's an interesting sound: [ɾ]. [ɑ̃], too!

Anonymous

They're phones, so you won't see them in phonemic transcriptions

Anonymous

[ɾ] is the flapped /t/ or /d/ sound

nods

Anonymous

4:55 PM

[ɑ̃] is the nasal version of /ɑ/, representing the /n/ before the glottalized /t/

Oh, now the jiggling thing makes sense.

@snailboat I'm all in the favor of "thy real pronunciation".

Anonymous

The squiggly means it's nasalized

Rather than what our academics dictate.

Anonymous

But in rapid speech I don't actually pronounce an [n]

Q: What does 'second leg' mean in this sentence?

4:58 PM

0

President Bush and Laura Bush arrived in Benin and Tanzania today. It is the second leg of a week-long trip that also take them to Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. Mr. Bush will meet with African leaders to discuss security and economic development issues. What does 'second leg' mean?

meaning

It could be a GR question.

Q: How to use the word whatever (slang) to be cool among native speakers

0

My native friend uses the word whatever(slang) quite often in the sense of "anyway" I think. I would like to use it too but I am worried about sounding like "I don't care what you say"..So could you tell me where and how to use it "properly" to sound cool..This question could be controversial but...

word-usage

What!?