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Anonymous
07:03
A frustrating number of questions on ELL look like this:
Anonymous
1. The title contains something like the actual question.
Anonymous
2. The body contains a quote and nothing else, probably not formatted as a quote.
I think it's a result of the user-interface.
In our "Ask a Question" form, basically, there are three input boxes: title, body, and tags.
I think it is the result of inexperience.
nima_persian is a strange user here
I mean she asks in a very unusual way
07:06
In the title input box, it says: What's your English language learning question? Be specific.
In the body input box, it's empty.
I asked her plenty of time to format/align but still... she has come with dozens of trivial queries leaving out answers as they are..never been chosen!
So naturally, a user would type his/her question in the title input box, and probably that's about it.
I see. I think most of our answers do not actually answer nima.
then?
Anonymous
07:09
Oh?
I was surprised yesterday when nima told me that nima couldn't understand rather.
yes...she's too novice...don't know the word for that
Anonymous
Oh, that was nima_persian who wrote that.
underdog wll be too harsh
It gave me a big long pause.
How could I explain it?
Anonymous
07:10
Underdog has a positive connotation. You root for the underdog to win!
Anonymous
Novice is okay. I would say "too much of a novice"
inexperienced?
Anonymous
That sounds like a good choice
nah..inexperienced is still with some knowledge
Anonymous
07:11
Now who's being harsh? :-)
haha
Nima can ask questions; don't forget that.
complete beginner?
but I mean... she does not understand anything... when explained and asks about complex tenses that even I'm learning these days
nods - complete beginner!
I was surprised because considering what nima wrote in nima's question, I expected nima knows what rather means.
Ah, perhaps that's another thing that surprised me as well.
07:13
another user is user(some number)
plenty of questions, almost same style, no research/homework and no chosen answers
Some of the questions are about nontrivial tense usages.
Anonymous
SE used to display the percent of answers each user has accepted.
Anonymous
They stopped displaying this information right before ELL launched, as I recall.
Here is a big question... Is ELL really for everyone learning English?
Anonymous
Can you explain what you mean?
07:15
@DamkerngT. I'm in fully agreement :P
Crystal, do you use the phrase 'full fledged'
for anything that's now fully functional?
I mean nima's case reminds me of the comments of that guy who criticized ELL.
Anonymous
0
A: Do you know the reason why there has been used this tense?

user4084Has been used because writer or speaker wanted to say that They are married since 20 years and still they are married and not divorced.

Anonymous
Is this very low quality?
Anonymous
@MaulikV Hmm. Can you give me an example? It's easier for me to judge an example than to outline when it's used off the top of my head.
@snailboat It seems like one, but essentially (putting grammar and phrasing aside) it's probably exactly what nima needs.
Anonymous
07:17
@DamkerngT. It's difficult to understand, though, so it could use an edit.
Okay... "Hey, what happened to that transmitter you were making? There were some issues of working it?", "Ah, that's all done. It's working fully-fledged."
Finally...
Anonymous
@MaulikV I think full-fledged is used as an attributive adjective. I'm not sure it can be inflected to fully-fledged.
both are adjective and they both exist
interchangeable
Anonymous
07:20
It looks like you were trying to use it as an adverb modifying working.
Anonymous
COCA has 1012 results for full-fledged and only 16 for fully-fledged.
Anonymous
So it does look like there is a rare variant fully-fledged
hhmm
but is it used
Anonymous
Though not an adverbial inflection
07:21
instaead of fully functional
A full-fledged hotel means fully functioning hotel
full-fledged is what I've heard/seen in software talks/documentations.
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I was unaware that anyone said fully-fledged until today, FWIW.
Me neither.
Anonymous
Full-fledged is significantly more common in AmE
Grrrhh...it's again AmE and BrE
07:23
:14385346 Is it real?
Anonymous
Is it?
Fully is BrE
Anonymous
Let's check BNC.
@DamkerngT. I just checked. It's not.
Anonymous
07:23
Yep! 79 to 14 in BNC
(Thankfully!)
Anonymous
In favor of fully-fledged
@ParthKohli It shouldn't, 'cause I read it a few weeks ago that he just removed it from the app store.
Anonymous
I'll amend my earlier comment. Full-fledged is significantly more common in AmE.
Anonymous
Thanks, @MaulikV!
07:24
my pet dictionary suggests it cannot be used for other than birds and people :P
@DamkerngT. Yeah - at first I thought it was after he removed it.
Anonymous
Really? Hmm...
But it's just a stupid hoax.
@snailboat Perhaps that gave me the bias toward full-fledged given my software background.
07:25
@ParthKohli This confirms the saying "Don't trust everything you read on the Internet."
And surprisingly, that sounds better and appropriate
a bird, fully-fledged...now ready to fly!
Anonymous
Oh, I remember that site!
Another news says that it's coming back to the store! This one is true.
Anonymous
It had some weird examples . . .
because fledge refers to the feathers of the bird
Anonymous
07:26
1
A: Which one is correct: 'escaped' or 'escaped from'?

Maulik VWell, it all depends which context you are talking in. Okay, I found something good for this. WordWeb has better clarification on the usage of this verb (escape): 1- Run away from confinement (The convicted murderer escaped from a high security prision). 2 - Fail to experience (Fortuna...

Yeah, WW is my favorite
:)
Anonymous
I'm not sure I put much faith in it, myself.
@MaulikV WW... Woodrow Wilson? Willy Wonka? Walter White?
Anonymous
> The largest objects grow rapidly, becoming full-fledged planets in a few million years or less - an astronomical blink of an eye
Anonymous
> a tentative whimper at first, then a yelp, then a full-fledged howl
Anonymous
07:28
> The first full-fledged presidential debates took place fifty years ago tonight when Democrat John F. Kennedy faced Republican Richard M. Nixon in front of a national TV audience.
@ParthKohli I'd go for Willy Wonka. :-)
Anonymous
> These nationalist sentiments freed up Beijing to go on a full-fledged witch hunt.
Anonymous
> This would be a full-fledged fete, brimming with the kind of ambition that promises either raging success or ego-crushing disaster.
Anonymous
> And perhaps, in the not too distant future, this qualified appropriation might lead to full-fledged liberation.
yes yes... that's what brought a question in my mind
Anonymous
07:29
> Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it had upgraded its inquiry into the backdating of stock options at Take-Two from an informal probe to a full-fledged investigation.
that's my fav but only the only source
Anonymous
This is the closest example I've found to "fully functional":
at times, it makes things clearest... that others try hard...so I have kept that as an option.
Anonymous
> Though a full-fledged, nationwide carbon credits system is years away, some states have already begun preparing.
ah...nima again!
Anonymous
07:31
> The medical teams that have been in place here say that they've been getting more supplies and more backups. They're able to handle a little bit more of the patients, although this is a field hospital. We don't want to give anyone the impression that they can do any kind of medical services here that you'd get in a full-fledged hospital.  (note the contrast)
Anonymous
> It's just the hypocrisy, folks -- it's blatant, full-fledged, 100 percent hypocrisy.
Anonymous
It seems to me that perhaps most of the examples in COCA are used for non-bird non-humans.
Anonymous
These examples are all from COCA.
Anonymous
I should check GloWbE more often.
Anonymous
Are you familiar with GloWbE, Maulik?
Anonymous
07:34
@MaulikV I left a comment. I see what you mean about the formatting, by the way.
hhmm
nope..not familiar
hey wow... @snailboat thanks
hey you again became boat
as the plane is missing LOL
?
Now, nima is asking about RATHER explicitly.
Anonymous
07:50
"Phrasal verbs" are such a pain.
Learning a new language without immersion is sure a pain.
Anonymous
Well, I'd say "exposure".
Anonymous
The less exposure you have to the language, the slower you'll learn. (It's possible you may forget faster than you learn, if you have little enough exposure.)
Anonymous
I did write a long-ish answer about phrasal verbs, although it was probably not terribly helpful :-)
Anonymous
I'm too lazy to write another.
07:59
Do we have a question about "phrasal verbs"?
Somehow I think nima's English's progress is going backward.
I remember I saw some of nima's posts on ELU last year, or maybe earlier this year.
The way I can remember, nima back then was better at English than our current nima.
I wonder what happened to nima?
Anonymous
4
A: When to add "up" after a verb and when not?

snailplanePhrasal verbs In your question, you give examples where a verb is used together with another word, and the combination has some idiomatic meaning. These are commonly called phrasal verbs†. For example, look at the definition given by Collins for the phrasal verb pick up. It gives a whopping s...

Oh, you should make it canonical.
Anonymous
Oh, it predated canonical posts.
Anonymous
The OP thought I wrote that in 9 minutes. (He posted his comment 9 minutes after I wrote it, so I guess he misunderstood the indicator :-)
Anonymous
It actually took me all night.
Anonymous
08:07
Besides, there are other analyses that are probably more useful for learners.
Composing something that long is not trivial.
Canonical answers force students to rote memorize also :-(
I offered a bounty!
Anonymous
Oh, dear.
Anonymous
I guess if the post is being bumped anyway, I'll make the minor edit I never got around to ;-)
08:12
@skullpatrol To me, canonical answers are for being bookmarked and coming back to read little by little.
@snailboat You could. I need to wait for at least 24 hours anyway. :-)
@DamkerngT. Indeed they easier to memorize little by little ;-)
That's why we do it for definitions in the vocabulary for math, etc.
You can't argue with a loaded canon :D
One thing I like about math is that students can get by rather well without having to memorize any jargon nor formula.
Especially if they know how to derive those formulas themselves.
Anonymous
Well, "math" is a pretty big subject.
Anonymous
08:19
It's true that it doesn't have to involve memorization, but you'll probably end up memorizing a lot of stuff anyway, don't you think? :-)
My "students" means pre-university level, of course.
@snailboat Give me the axioms, and I will derive all the rest. :-)
Anonymous
Akin to programming with no standard library!
Quite like so, I think.
Anonymous
Well, I suppose a standard library can contain some "axioms"--things you can't implement yourself.
So you see, I don't mind much about Lua not having a big battery included.
Anonymous
08:21
Well, I like Lua a lot!
@snailboat I think I need some way to put at least a character on the screen in any language. :-)
Oh, I can still remember how complicated it was when I had to do lots of outp just to get something out there.
It was a long piece of code, I think, in one of my labs, writing a code to display a number (which was fed into the system via toggle switches) on 3-digit LEDs!
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Watch out! Putting a character on the screen isn't a pure function!
It sure wasn't!
I was just glad that it didn't turn out to be a spaghetti code. :-)
By definition, it's side effects.
Anonymous
Side effects are evil. All code must be pure!
But we need these functions anyway.
Anonymous
08:27
0
Q: What does "rather" mean in "rather Jimmy Olsenish"?

nima_persianJimmy Olsenish means "similar to Jimmy Olsen": He is a nice enough boy - rather Jimmy Olsen-ish I thought. She has an unreal figure, rather Barbie-ish in its proportions! When you say, for instance, he is similar to Jimmy Olsen (in appearance, behaviour and character) you would say Jim...

Anonymous
How does my edit look? Too drastic?
I was hoping that nima would give some feedback and then it might be closed as a duplicate.
Anonymous
Oh, I'd vote to close.
Anonymous
I think.
My message was just arrived...
@DamkerngT. Actually, (see, I can use commas too) I didn't call her a goon; rather, (again) I called her complectified. Which isn't a real word so maybe I'm the real goon here. Anyway, maybe I should be nice to third parties, not only to participants. Anyway, maybe she participates too, who knows. So I'll delete the offending part. — D_Bester 1 min ago
Anonymous
08:30
I took away my downvote, but I don't think I can upvote it without further explanation.
Anonymous
That could be tricky for learners, I suppose.
Anonymous
Let me show you what I mean:
Anonymous
> to a fairly large degree
Anonymous
08:32
> to a slight degree
Anonymous
> "SMALL AMOUNT"
Anonymous
> To a certain extent; somewhat
Anonymous
> to a noticeable degree; somewhat
08:34
I used the one in Macmillan in one of my comments. I think it's not rather good. Then the OP posted this by OP's self. I'm sure where the OP got this rephrasing, so I thought the OP understand the word.
Am i CORRECTLY EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING? He is somewhat like Jimmy Olesen. — nima_persian 20 hours ago
Anonymous
You think it's not rather good?
I mean--to help OP to understand its meaning.
Anonymous
What does not rather mean?
Anonymous
Not very good?
To me, yes.
Anonymous
08:36
Ahh.
Anonymous
Not rather doesn't have an obvious meaning to me.
Hah!
@snailboat Or, not quite good.
Anonymous
I understand not quite! ;-)
the opposite of "rather good"
Anonymous
Well, that's non-obvious.
08:38
So I was confused by the OP.
Anonymous
Not quite means "almost!" It doesn't mean the opposite of "quite".
To me, not quite can mean anything but quite. ;-)
It's just like when people say, "He is not the best doctor in town."
Is he a good doctor? Well, maybe. Maybe not.
yes, the "rather" throws the meaning off...
Anonymous
Not quite is often used when something isn't almost correct, or almost whatever. But it means "almost". If it's used outside that situation, its meaning of "almost" softens the blow, making it sound like it's not as harsh as it is.
Anonymous
> Alice: 2 + 2 = 5.
> Bob: Not quite.
Anonymous
08:41
Here, Bob is being charitable. It's not almost true.
"rather not good" is clearer imo
Anonymous
@skullpatrol That does seem clearer to me. Although I think I prefer "bad" to "not good" in that scenario :-)
@skullpatrol Agree.
It think "I'd rather not ..." is also common.
Anonymous
That's an idiom, though.
Anonymous
It's not the same "rather not".
08:42
So, "it's not rather good" sounds unnatural?
Or ambiguous?
yes, to me
Anonymous
Well, it could work in context.
Anonymous
"It's rather good, don't you think?" "It's not rather good, it's horrific! A blight upon humanity!"
Isn't that similar to: "Do you like it?" "No, I don't like it. I love it!"
Anonymous
Sure, if you like.
08:45
But usually, "I don't like it" means something else.
Anonymous
Yeah.
Anonymous
Usually, your sentence is unnatural and (to me) the meaning is not obvious.
Discovery of the day: "It's not rather good" is rather not good.
Anonymous
Hee.
I found it!
I found it: "a bit" is informal.
Longman English Grammar 6.27.5
Anonymous
08:54
A bit, yeah.
Anonymous
Was this a previous topic of discussion?
Yes. I remember once we'd a question about "a bit" vs. "a little".
Anonymous
Not this one!
Anonymous
-1
Q: "A small question" versus "a little question"

serge.karalenkaWhich adjective should I use with question, small or little?

Anonymous
3
Q: What is "tad askew"?

Graduate Seinfeld, "The Raincoats." (Jerry and Elaine sitting in the booth) ELAINE: N-I know they're your parents Jerry an' they're very nice people. But don't you think it's odd, that a thirty-five year old man is going to these lengths to see that someone else's parents are enjoying t...

Anonymous
09:02
Hmm.
Anonymous
I can't find it!
It must be the last November or after that.
I remember you said something like you didn't think "a bit" is informal, and I said it is.
But "a bit" wasn't the essence of the question and answer, I think.
Hmm... probably the OP requested for a phrase that it can be used for postponing an interview.
Anonymous
It does sound informal to me.
A-ha! Hehe.
Anonymous
Where's the question? :-) I can't find it.
Anonymous
09:06
I found it!
Anonymous
Is a little more formal than a little bit? They seem about the same to me. — snailplane Dec 31 '13 at 17:23
Anonymous
A little bit and a little both seem informal to me.
Anonymous
That's probably why I wrote that.
Ah, yes. That's it!
Ah, it's "a little bit" not just "a bit".
Anonymous
I used a different detergent this weekend, and my laundry all smells funny now.
09:08
You will get used to it in a little bit. :-)
Anonymous
I hope so!
Anonymous
It gives me this feeling like something is slightly wrong.
Oh, what is an expression (in English) to make your new shoes comfortable for your feet?
In Thai, we have something like "bite it first".
(We call shoes "it".)
Anonymous
Wear them in. Break them in.
Anonymous
Maybe the latter is better.
Anonymous
09:15
I'm not sure.
Anonymous
Oh, that's a "phrasal verb" (verb + particle + NP combo):
> wear [ in ] [ your new shoes ]
> wear [ your new shoes ] [ in ]
> *wear [ in ] [ them ]
> wear [ them ] [ in ]
They are!
Anonymous
An unstressed personal pronoun must come between the NP object and the verb.
Anonymous
Same with break in. But with a stressed NP like "your new shoes", the particle can go before or after.
Anonymous
Hmm...
Anonymous
09:22
(Oh, no, the ellipsis police!)
Anonymous
(I'm piling up ellipsis tickets fast...!)
Anonymous
Definiteness is a difficult subject, isn't it?
Anonymous
People give simplified analyses of when to say the and a
For people whose first language has no concept of articles.
(I'm one of them.)
How can you describe the difference between colors to color-blinded people?
It's hard.
Anonymous
Well, I don't think this is the same thing.
09:25
Perhaps not exactly, but I think it's very similar.
Anonymous
In that you actually can describe when the and a(n) are used, if you like :-)
Oh, I think I read about someone who lost his sight when he was around 4.
Then with a modern medical miracle, he got his sight back when he's 30 something.
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I read about someone who had laser eye surgery who claimed that she saw many new, never before seen colors during her surgery
And he couldn't make sense of what he see!
@snailboat During?
Anonymous
You're awake during laser eye surgery.
09:29
Does she still see those new colors after the surgery?
Anonymous
I only recall "during", and I imagine she would have said so if she meant after as well
Anonymous
I don't know if the report is true.
Anonymous
But it's a fun thought, isn't it? Seeing new colors.
In my 30 something case, the guy can see the curb and the street but couldn't tell which is the curb and which is the street.
He can see everything perfectly, and yet he couldn't understand it in 3D.
@snailboat It could be if that's normal. :-)
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I bet he can learn.
Anonymous
09:32
The brain is more plastic than we once thought.
According to the documentary, it's over one year after his surgery, and it didn't improve much.
Anonymous
Ah, this is an answer I wrote about our topic from a few days ago:
Anonymous
-2
Q: "It is" or "it are"

Bram VanroyDoes it always agree with a singular verb? For example, does one say (i) or rather (ii)? (i) It is the birds he is chasing away. (ii) It are the birds he is chasing away.

Perhaps it's something like you can't hear foreign languages the way you could when you're very young.
Anonymous
Oh, your brain is definitely very different from a child's in terms of plasticity.
Anonymous
09:34
And in many other ways.
Anonymous
It's thought that learning many things is harder for adults than for children.
Perhaps it's just different, not harder.
But I think I have to admit that many things seem to be much harder.
Anonymous
Well, we have plenty of advantages over children.
And plenty of disadvantages.
Anonymous
Yeah. :-)
09:36
There really is not very much known about how the brain actually works.
Anonymous
I'm doing whatever the exact opposite of nodding is.
Hah!
(shaking head? ^)
You disagree then?
Anonymous
Having this discussion is beyond me for the evening.
09:38
me too pal
Anonymous
Yay! I'm somebody's pal!
I think we know much more than the last decades, but we still have much more to learn about our brains.
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I can agree with that.
Anonymous
We know an awful lot about how the brain works.
Anonymous
09:38
But there's an awful lot more we don't know ;-)
Anonymous
(Using the same phrase in both sentences is not intended as an assertion that we're "halfway there" or anything like that, by the way.)
I think the problem is we're (I'm) unsure about where we are in our way to know-it-all about our brains.
Quick question - In India, when someone doesn't feel like working but still has to, one jokingly uses a Hindi phrase which translates to - "I have to do it for the evil-doer stomach" which implies one can't survive without earning livelihood and to earn that, one has to do work. I'm sure there is an English equivalent of this phrase. Does anyone have any idea?
Anonymous
Oh! That sounds like it would make a good question for ELL.
+1
A good phrase right now is perhaps beyond me.
Anonymous
09:44
I'm no good at that sort of thing, myself. Answering that kind of question, I mean.
I owe, I owe, so off to work I go :D
Anonymous
But there are other people who are better at it, and your question will get their attention if you post it out there.
Anonymous
@skullpatrol Bad pun! ;-)
Anonymous
34
Q: Why is "Mary told the cake to be cut by John" ungrammatical?

Listenever Mary told the cake to be cut by John. A textbook says that this example is ungrammatical, but it seems to make sense to me: where does the sentence have its fault?

Anonymous
This is still a good question.
09:47
Me telling my cake: You're going to be cut by John. Heehee.
Cake: Yikes!
Anonymous
> ??Mary told the cake to be cut by John.
> Mary told John not to be fooled by fad diets.
> Mary expected the cake to be cut by John.
> Either my parents or my sister ARE/IS going to visit...
I would guess native speakers might use either.
Anonymous
So, different speakers will use different solutions to resolve the number conflict.
Anonymous
Some will prefer are, favoring agreement with greater number (with "my parents").
Aha! That's what I guessed.
Anonymous
09:57
Some will prefer is, favoring proximal agreement (with "my sister").
Anonymous
I think some will use either.
Here the OP asked: As a native speaker, which one is "certainly" correct?
@DamkerngT. and @snailboat, do you ever sleep?
I'm disqualified on both respects.
Anonymous
And some style guides recommend placing the plural conjunct closer to the verb because it satisfies both camps:
09:58
@Nico I sure will.
Anonymous
> Either my sister or my parents are going to visit.
Anonymous
This is not the only solution, but it is a decent one.
The more late hour it is the more ungrammatical sentences I will produce. :-)
Anonymous
And is never a preposition. — snailplane 7 mins ago
Anonymous
@snailplane one and one is two. Here, and is a preposition. but I'm removing from this — Maulik V 1 min ago
Anonymous
09:59
Hmm...
Hmm...
Anonymous
@MaulikV Why do you think that's a preposition?

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