English Language Learners

Damkerng T.

10:14

@snailplane I saw you in the other room. :-)

Thank you for your concern.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Tiptoe, tiptoe --- *erp*, I'm spotted!

Ice Girl

@DamkerngT. Hi

@skullpatrol Hi

Ice Girl

10:40

:(

Anonymous

Pal seems like it should be friendly, doesn't it?

Anonymous

But as a form of address, I suspect it's used ironically more often than not

Damkerng T.

Oh, I turned my headphone off.

@snailplane It made me wonder too.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Well, it was clear that VijayaRagavan meant it in a friendly manner.

Damkerng T.

Yes.

Which is why I gave him the benefit of doubts, and re-interpret the word in a nice way. :-)

It would be very different when a native English speaker said that.

Anonymous

10:49

0

Q: The meaning of "is"

This is strange! Does this mean, "It is really strange!" or "This, as in This, not any other is strange!" Or both? I would like a native speakers opinion .

meaning

Anonymous

That's an interesting question. Although you can't tell from the defective oneboxing, which removed the italics

Anonymous

(My keyboard is dropping G's, not my brain. :-)

Damkerng T.

I think I said that line often enough. :-)

Oh, this is strange.

as a milder version of this is weird.

Anonymous

Whereas this doesn't really seem like a learner's question:

Anonymous

0

Q: Why Listen to Music, why not Listening Music

Maximum time I face this problem by saying listening music .Is there any traditional cause behind this . Can we use listen music or listening music ? Seems little bit difference but why Listen To Music is mandatory Thanks

phrase-usage british-english early-modern-english

Damkerng T.

10:52

Oh, looking at how the words were emphasized...

Different stressing will give different meaning.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Auxiliary stress is interesting.

Anonymous

Compare: "I like pears." "I do like pears."

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Oh, yes. It IS interesting indeed.

Anonymous

This is the same contrast observed in "This is strange." "This is strange."

Damkerng T.

And we also have "THIS is strange" in the question too.

Anonymous

10:55

But that's not interesting to me. :-)

Damkerng T.

^^

@snailplane I think this one is authentic.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I have no doubt that it's authentic.

Damkerng T.

It's about the confusion between infinitive vs -ing forms.

Anonymous

What I mean to say is I don't think learning how it came to be historically will seriously help a learner of English.

Anonymous

Which is what the question seems to be asking. They seem to already understand which form is correct for that verb.

Damkerng T.

10:57

Oh I see, traditionally.

Anonymous

Well, it's also possible that I've misunderstood the question.

Damkerng T.

Ouch! -1. Why?

Anonymous

On the answer?

Damkerng T.

Yes, I just refreshed the page.

Anonymous

I just edited that answer for formatting. If you looked at what they entered, they put stuff on separate lines, but it got squished together.

Anonymous

10:59

So I added a couple spaces to the end of each line to preserve their intended formattin.

Anonymous

That answer would be better if it used complete sentences.

Damkerng T.

I see. It's not the best answer. But I think he made a good point.

Anonymous

Hmm.

Anonymous

Personally, I don't downvote way too often. Maybe more than some people.

Anonymous

My ratio is about 10:1 upvotes to downvotes.

Damkerng T.

11:01

Ah, so you're the one who downvoted it.

Anonymous

I didn't say that.

Anonymous

I'm just thinking about how I should vote on it.

Anonymous

It seems like it misses the point to me.

Damkerng T.

At first glance, it looks like a bad answer. But putting his writing aside, I think he made a point.

Anonymous

Well, I'm content to neither upvote nor downvote.

Damkerng T.

11:03

Me too. Just wait and see.

But for non-native speakers, I think some teachers explained it just like he did.

For example, you shouldn't say I'm listening music.

Because you will sound like you are some kind of music. :-)

Anonymous

Hey! I'm a specific kind of music.

Anonymous

Not just some kind.

Damkerng T.

I see. I see.

Must be the listening kind.

:)

Bill Clinton's Is...

Anonymous

You could ask more generally about sentences with stressed auxiliaries. The contrast between "This is strange" and "This is strange" is the same contrast found between "I like pears" and "I do like pears", and between "I've taken the trash out" and "I have taken the trash out." — snailplane 10 secs ago

Anonymous

This is me, using bold, my favorite kind of markup!

Damkerng T.

11:08

Ah, I think you've made a good point, in bold.

Anonymous

I always make my good points in bold. That's why I bold so much stuff.

Anonymous

I'm busy making good points!

Damkerng T.

^^

Anonymous

Actually, I bold way too much. If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.

Damkerng T.

I think you mentioned that yesterday.

I saw Wendi's question on meta too.

Anonymous

11:10

Yes! I'm trying to convince myself to quit using bold so much.

Anonymous

Unfortunately, I don't appear to be listening.

Anonymous

I must be busy convincing myself that all my points are good ones :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailplane I think bold-ing is good for ELL.

It helps, really.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yay

Anonymous

ELL

Anonymous

11:11

It seems so imposing in bold.

Damkerng T.

LOL

Anonymous

Oh! Wow! LOL is quite imposing in bold, too.

Damkerng T.

I can LOL in bold too. :)

Anonymous

Striking quite a presence there.

Anonymous

(This is where I want to urge you again not to talk like me. :-)

Damkerng T.

11:13

^^

I think your warning couldn't help much.

Anonymous

No, probably not. But I'd feel guilty if I didn't try :-)

Damkerng T.

Don't worry. My talk "wouldn't seem so" anyway. :-)

Anonymous

My talk never seems very anyway.

Anonymous

I got my 275 reputation yesterday, then I put out 200 reputation of bounties.

Anonymous

I was looking for old unanswered questions.

Damkerng T.

11:18

Did it help lowering your reputation limit?

Anonymous

ELL is back below Japanese now :-)

Damkerng T.

I see. Yeah!

Anonymous

What surprises me is that featuring questions really works.

Anonymous

I offer a measley 50-point bounty and it gets a bunch of answers, like that!

Damkerng T.

I almost took the bait too. (Actually I did.)

Before I started to post my answer (the most/best question), someone else just did.

Anonymous

11:20

I don't know how to answer that question.

Anonymous

I think it's interesting, though.

Anonymous

I was trying to look it up the other day, but grammars is big things.

Damkerng T.

It took me to brought out all my grammar books, before I think I could answer the question.

Then, before I started writing my answer (I just wrote about 2 short sentences) he posted. So I thought, that's good, I can save my energy. :-)

Anonymous

(If I'm going to ignore grammatical agreement and say something plural is, I figure I might as well go for the gold and choose grammars as my victim!)

Damkerng T.

^^

Anonymous

11:22

@DamkerngT. Let's take a look at that answer.

Damkerng T.

Isn't the above one worse?

Anonymous

Oops, I got distracted by this one:

Anonymous

0

A: Why Listen to Music, why not Listening Music

"Listen" or "listening" is an important difference in verb tense; "to" is a preposition, as would be "with" if your meaning were different. Both your verb tense and choice of preposition determine the meaning of the sentence. For example, at first glance: "Listen to music" appears to be a comma...

Anonymous

See, I could downvote both of these answers and my conscience would be clear.

Anonymous

But I won't, because if I downvoted answers like these, I'd be downvoting a lot.

Anonymous

11:24

And I don't want to be the jerk who downvotes everything.

Anonymous

(Note to downvoters reading this: I don't think you're jerks. :-)

Anonymous

But it causes a little bit of strife.

Anonymous

Ooh, you can look at a big list of all your downvotes.

Anonymous

(Or a small list, depending on your proclivities.)

Damkerng T.

Can we?

Anonymous

11:26

You can't look at other people's, but you can look at your own.

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/users/3281/?tab=votes&sort=downvote

Anonymous

Does that link work?

Damkerng T.

I did only 5 downvotes.

Anonymous

It doesn't for me.

Damkerng T.

Yes, the link works.

Anonymous

11:27

Oh, well, I must seem like the site villain. I have 193 downvotes :-)

Anonymous

But 2126 upvotes.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane That makes you not a villain. More like a hero.

Oh, I miss Heroes.

Especially Season 1.

Anonymous

Oh, yeah?

Anonymous

Wait. How did you especially miss it?

Damkerng T.

I wish to watch 'em again.

The season 1 is the best, imho.

Anonymous

11:29

"I miss X." ← I liked it.
"I missed X." ← I never saw it (although perhaps I wanted to).

Damkerng T.

Ah, I see. Thank you.

Anonymous

The "liked" interpretation is not generally available for the latter because it would be so semantically odd: it would mean that at one point you missed it, but now you don't anymore.

Damkerng T.

That's true.

Anonymous

Of course, that is possible, but it's a rare sentiment, and you'd have to express it explicitly: "I missed Heroes. I don't anymore, though, now that I have amnesia."

Damkerng T.

But I really missed Heroes Season 1 in soundtrack.

Anonymous

11:30

Even there, the re-interpretation is jarring: the listener assumes the other interpretation until they see the following words.

Damkerng T.

And yes, I wanted to say "I miss it".

Anonymous

I talked to a student in Japan who got really good at English by watching season 1 of Heroes over and over on DVD.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane They might get the same idea.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I know. I'm just elaborating, because I like to and because I tend toward the prolix. ;-)

Damkerng T.

Your elaboration is good for me.

Anonymous

11:32

@DamkerngT. I couldn't do it. I watched that show, but the first season was really anticlimactic, I felt.

Anonymous

I loved the characters, but I don't think the writers knew how to write an ending.

Damkerng T.

How so? (Just curious)

Anonymous

Either that, or they didn't have money for a big superpower special effects battle.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I see.

^^

Anonymous

The finale could have been a big two-hour affair instead of one-, in my opinion.

Damkerng T.

11:33

So you didn't watch season 2?

Anonymous

A lot of my friends are what you might call comic book nerds.

Anonymous

As a result, I am called upon to watch as much comic book related stuff as possible.

Anonymous

Which I like--I've read a few comic books myself.

Anonymous

So I did watch Heroes. All of it.

Damkerng T.

You can call me that too.

Anonymous

11:34

Hello, comic book nerd!

Damkerng T.

Must blame Doraemon, and Dragon Balls.

Anonymous

It sounds mean when I say it that way. I like comics too, though.

Anonymous

Oh!

Anonymous

I haven't read any Doraemon comics.

Anonymous

I did read the beginning of the Dragon Ball comics.

Damkerng T.

11:35

I especially like more heavy stuff in Japanese anime these days.

Perhaps you might know about Ghost in the Shell.

Anonymous

I always thought it would be boring because, I was under the impression from those Dragon Ball Z cartoons that people just went around fighting and talking about power levels.

Anonymous

But I started reading the comics and it was surprisingly cute.

Anonymous

I have heard of Ghost in the Shell, but I haven't seen (read?) it.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane That's the reason I quit reading comic, for a while.

Anonymous

Oh!

Damkerng T.

11:37

But I have to admit that Japaneses are really good at their animes.

Anonymous

My brother was a big collector of comic books when he was little.

Damkerng T.

Wow!

Gingi

The truth is, you have a lot of different styles when it comes to manga, japanese mangaka (manga authors) tend to talk about anything and everything in their work. Dragon ball Z is not really representative of everything there is out there

Anonymous

He collected them, placing them inside plastic bags, I think, and into boxes called "longboxes" (I'm not sure if it's supposed to have a space or not)

Damkerng T.

@Gingi I see. I see.

Anonymous

11:37

I was never allowed to touch the comics, let alone read them.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane Hah!

Anonymous

But as an adult, I went back and got some of the same comics out of curiosity: I read through the entire comic series Bone, which I purchased in one omnibus volume.

Damkerng T.

I don't know this one (Bone).

Anonymous

It's cute, too.

Damkerng T.

A horror?

Anonymous

11:39

No.

Gingi

@DamkerngT. Have you tried Death Note? It is a very serious manga ("seinen") very well written

Anonymous

Bone (comics)

Bone is an independently published, epic comic book series, written and illustrated by Jeff Smith, originally serialized in 55 irregularly released issues from 1991 to 2004. Smith's black-and-white drawings were inspired by animated cartoons and comic strips, a notable influence being Walt Kelly's Pogo: "I was ... a big fan of Carl Barks and Pogo, so it was just natural for me to want to draw that kind of mixture of Walt Kelly and Moebius." Accordingly, the story is singularly characterized by a combination of both light-hearted comedy and dark, epic fantasy: Time Magazine has called the...

Damkerng T.

@Gingi I didn't read it as a manga, but I watched a couple of the movies.

Gingi

It is between fantasy and strategy I would say. Kind of hard to sum up with a couple of word

Damkerng T.

@snailplane I see. Bone is cute.

Gingi

11:40

Oh I see, I really recommand you read it though

Damkerng T.

@Gingi I can try that some day. Thank you for your recommendation. :-)

@Gingi What are your favorite ones?

Gingi

Are you all english natives here?

Anonymous

I am a native speaker of English.

Damkerng T.

I'm not. Hehe.

Anonymous

I'm not an English native, though.

Damkerng T.

11:41

^^

Gingi

Very nice, me I am French, and I have lived a couple of years in Japan (that's why I know about manga ;-) )

Learnt english in England, where I have lived for a while as well

Damkerng T.

I see. Nice to meet you.

I'm Thai.

Gingi

Same here Damkerng

Damkerng T.

And I try to improve my English. :-)

Gingi

Cool!

Damkerng T.

11:44

Which city in Japan? Tokyo?

Gingi

Nagoya

Damkerng T.

(I think @snailplane must know Japan a lot better than me.)

Gingi

(near Toyota city)

Damkerng T.

Ah, I see.

Gingi

^^

Damkerng T.

11:45

You mentioned sennai, right?

Oh, I need 5 minutes. My Hagu needs his food.

Gingi

I'm gonna go ahead and visit other chatrooms, it was nice talking to you guys. Have a nice day!

(seinen)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh, possibly.

Anonymous

"Japan" is a pretty big place, and a pretty big subject to know stuff about, though. :-)

Anonymous

By the way, I'm going to unpin your heroes message.

Anonymous

I'll give it a regular star, though.

Anonymous

11:48

It doesn't need to be above WendiKidd's announcement. :-)

Damkerng T.

I shouldn't be.

:)

Anonymous

I just unpinned and removed the stars from the message about the site self-eval.

Anonymous

That's over, too.

Anonymous

Well, it's not over over. But the actual formal review part is over.

Damkerng T.

What about the result?

Anonymous

11:51

You can go answer the meta post, etc.

Anonymous

The results are posted there.

Damkerng T.

I think I didn't visit meta often enough.

Anonymous

Well, it's hidden now.

Damkerng T.

:)

Anonymous

But the link to the review post itself is featured on the right-hand side of the page in the yellow box.

Anonymous

11:52

0

A: Let's get critical: Dec 2013 Site Self-Evaluation

Final Results What does “bookend the future” mean? Net Score: 12 (Excellent: 12, Satisfactory: 3, Needs Improvement: 0) Informal way of saying the computer mouse is not functioning well Net Score: 9 (Excellent: 9, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 0) Name of small company gifts (a...

Damkerng T.

Oh, my answer needs some improvement.

Anonymous

Which one?

Damkerng T.

2

Q: Adjective Order with Present & Past participle, and Compound Nouns

I have been trying to understand adjective order for many days; however, when there are present, past participle, or compound nouns in the same phrase, I don’t know how to order those adjectives. Could you please explain how to choose the order of these adjectives? These are phrases which I made...

grammar

Anonymous

Oh, well, it's a "comment"

Damkerng T.

Net Score: -1 (Excellent: 2, Satisfactory: 9, Needs Improvement: 3)

Anonymous

11:54

I don't know why people voted NI.

Anonymous

But!

Damkerng T.

^^

I'm not sure which score I gave to that Q&A.

Anonymous

Hey.

Damkerng T.

Maybe Satisfactory. Hehe.

Anonymous

I thought Gingi was Gigili. But now that I squint and look closer at the screen, I see that it ain't so.

Damkerng T.

11:56

Imho, I think even my own answer in that Q is not Excellent.

Nope.

Gingi.

Anonymous

Well, my apologies. I was confused. :-)

Damkerng T.

sounds like the power ball in Dragon Ball.

Anonymous

Does it? Power ball?

Anonymous

I'm not sure I read enough of the comics to see that.

Damkerng T.

I'm not sure. But here (in Thailand) they called in Gengi ball.

Anonymous

11:58

Oh!

Anonymous

Umm, 元気玉 maybe?

Anonymous

Genki dama

Damkerng T.

Ah, I think you're right!

Anonymous

Tama means "ball". Here the /t/ is voiced to /d/ through a process called rendaku ("sequential voicing"), but it's the same word.

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