English Language Learners

Jolenealaska

06:00

no, the z was placed on a normal square :)

Damkerng T.

Oh! :)

Jolenealaska

But since both ends of the word were on triple word squares...

Damkerng T.

I've already forgotten most rules of Scrabble. I can remember the board vaguely.

But I remember the triple squares! :-)

And I wasn't very glad when I got a Q.

Jolenealaska

It's very rare to cover two with one word. It's a Holy Grail moment :)

It helps to know that QI and QAT are words.

Damkerng T.

@Jolenealaska We get a bonus for a seven-letter word too, I think.

Anonymous

06:05

@DamkerngT. There are a lot of clones, but they usually use different layouts for the boards.

Damkerng T.

QI as in Chinese Qi? Is it okay in the game? (And what's Qat?)

Jolenealaska

50 points to use all 7 of your tiles. My Tzarinas got that too.

Anonymous

Yeah, qi and qat are kosher.

Jolenealaska

Some kind of bush I think.

Anonymous

Although it helps to remember that Scrabble has a peculiar word list. :-)

Damkerng T.

06:06

Oh, qat is a variant of khat ~ The leaves of an Arabian shrub, which are chewed (or drunk as an infusion) as a stimulant.

Anonymous

You have to memorize what works and what doesn't.

Jolenealaska

Yep. I go by the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary (OSPD) as the bible.

Step one, memorize two letter words!

Damkerng T.

I'm not very good at two-or-three-letter words. :-)

I know that there are tons of them in Scrabble.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yep! Unfortunately, memorizing the list won't really help you get better at English, but it's kind of a fun game :-)

Damkerng T.

Heck! I think AAA is a word.

Jolenealaska

06:09

There's a list. It's just rote memorization. Do that, and you're pretty golden in the game.

101 words if I remember right

Damkerng T.

Oh! AAA is not kosher, but AA and AB and ABA are.

Jolenealaska

do re mi fa so la ti do and almost all letters, like el

another good one to know - ZA, short for pizza, no joke

ex ax and ox - helpful too

Damkerng T.

Haha. It's sure good to know, especially when you've got a Z tile.

Hmm... how many Zs are there in a typical set of tiles?

One or two?

Jolenealaska

just 1

Damkerng T.

Thanks!

Jolenealaska

06:14

just 1 q, just 1 x

Damkerng T.

nods

Jolenealaska

I just looked up and saw a pet peeve grammatical error - and I wrote it. Too late to edit! AARRGGHH

Typo! I swear it!

Damkerng T.

I hope you can use AARRGGHH in Scrabble. :-)

Jolenealaska

You can! Some variations of it anyway! :)

Sandeep Dhamija

The con drugged the fellow passengers.

Jolenealaska

06:18

Sure, but that doesn't imply that they were made unconscious.

Sandeep Dhamija

@Jolenealaska google.co.in/…

Damkerng T.

@SandeepDhamija That works too. (Though I'm not sure if the con man deserved to be a fellow.)

Sandeep Dhamija

@DamkerngT. fellow- involved in the same activity[google.co.in/…

Jolenealaska

Are you pointing out something in particular in the definition?

Anonymous

@Jolenealaska I edited it for you. :-)

Sandeep Dhamija

06:21

@Jolenealaska Yes. Drug someone implies that someone was made unconscious.

Damkerng T.

Nope.

Anonymous

@SandeepDhamija I don't think so. It can mean that, though.

Damkerng T.

Do not mix up the verb drug with the adjective drugged.

Sandeep Dhamija

@snailboat a con could be a fellow traveler. It's not wrong usage.

Jolenealaska

@snailboat how did you do that?

Anonymous

06:22

@Jolenealaska Ah, I'm a moderator on another SE site, so I can edit chat messages without limitations.

Sandeep Dhamija

@DamkerngT. yes you are right. my bad. But in that particular sentence. It was implied.

Damkerng T.

@SandeepDhamija He could; I didn't say that it's wrong.

Jolenealaska

sneaky :) Thank you! I'll sleep better tonight.

Anonymous

Which is good, because my S key is angry at me.

Sandeep Dhamija

@DamkerngT. (Though I'm not sure if the con man deserved to be a fellow.) Why not?

Damkerng T.

06:24

I was just kidding. :-)

Jolenealaska

Does that make you a nailboat?

Sandeep Dhamija

@DamkerngT. Ok :)

@DamkerngT. Thanks for your support. Goodbye!

Damkerng T.

My pleasure. See you again. Goodbye!

Anonymous

@Jolenealaska Ometime :-(

Jolenealaska

:")

Damkerng T.

06:27

Poor uperman!

Jolenealaska

Or :) even. My keyboard never likes me. I'm beginning to suspect that I'm actually a poor typist.

I think I'm going to take my Kindle and very stupid AI opponent, and Scrabble myself to sleep. It's nice to actually be tired at a decent hour for a change. I'm usually such an insomniac. It's only 10:30, but I think I might actually be able to fall asleep.

So, goodnight all.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Are you making a joke about the word fellow?

Anonymous

Because someone who drugs you is certainly not your "fellow" (friend), but they may be a "fellow passenger" (they are also a passenger)

Jolenealaska

I was curious about that too.

Anonymous

Two distinct meanings.

Damkerng T.

06:35

Yes. As in a fellow Bangkokian should do no harm to another Bangkokian.

Jolenealaska

A fellow Ethiopian may still be a bad guy, and your enemy.

Damkerng T.

Ah, that's possible.

Jolenealaska

Even if you're both Ethiopian.

Damkerng T.

That's the case I gave my observation. :-)

Jolenealaska

on that note, this time I really AM going to bed. Once again, goodnight!

Damkerng T.

06:39

Ah, good night! And sleep tight!

"The fellow passengers" is tricky, I would say. if it happened in a train, it would be fair to say that they are strangers to one another.

If it happened in a school trip, it would be different.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Your fellow passengers may be strangers to you.

Anonymous

Presumably your fellow students aren't strangers to you.

Anonymous

Although I suppose some may be.

Anonymous

Where I went to school, I had thousands of fellow students. Certainly many of them were strangers to me

Damkerng T.

That would depend on the school, I think.

And I think most of them are not completely strangers.

Anonymous

06:46

No. But some.

Anonymous

In any case, that doesn't seem related to the discussion of the word "fellow" exactly.

Anonymous

Since "fellow passengers" doesn't imply that you know the other passengers.

Damkerng T.

Seems like my trying a pun didn't work very well.

Anonymous

Oh, when you first said it, I did think it was a joke.

Anonymous

But I thought for the sake of language learning I should talk about it to be sure :-)

Anonymous

06:49

My apologies for killing the joke and dragging it along the ground a ways into the future.

Sandeep Dhamija

@Jolenealaska I could smell racism here :)

Anonymous

Although, as they say, explaining a joke always makes it better.

Damkerng T.

+1 :D

Actually, another word that popped up into my head when I read "fellow passengers" was "companion".

I must have heard it from some movies.

Anonymous

I think fellow sometimes bridges the gap between those two meanings.

Anonymous

"My fellow Americans" in a presidential speech implies a kinship

Damkerng T.

06:52

@snailboat This one I heard often enough.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It's even the title of a somewhat amusing movie :-)

Anonymous

Have you seen it?

Anonymous

It's not what I'd call a great movie, but amusing enough.

Damkerng T.

Perhaps not. Searching...

Anonymous

Of course, The Princess Bride should be about 400 slots ahead of that one in the priority queue.

Anonymous

06:53

As I recall, you still haven't seen it.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I've seen its teaser, but not the movie.

Alas, I still haven't.

Anonymous

You should read it, too.

Anonymous

It's one of the few cases where the movie is as good as the book

Damkerng T.

Can I use Stardust as its stand-in?

Anonymous

But the book is good, too.

Anonymous

06:54

There are no stand-ins for The Princess Bride. But you may, of course, watch what you like :-)

Damkerng T.

Nah, I know that they aren't the same. :-)

The thing is The Princess Bride never came up on my cable. Strange.

(And at ratings 8.2, many people appear to agree that it's a good movie.)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It's a classic!

Anonymous

You've probably heard people quote it.

Anonymous

Although you might not have recognized them as quotes without having seen or read it.

Anonymous

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

Damkerng T.

06:58

I might have, though ... exactly!

Hahaha. Now I know where that Joke was from.

Anonymous

Yes!

Anonymous

I felt almost sure that with as much exposure as you have to English, you'd have already heard that, or a reference to it ;-)

Damkerng T.

On one trip with my friends, we got a frog crossing the road in front of our car.

One of us exclaimed, "You killed my father!"

I'm not sure he meant us telling the frog "Prepare to die!" or the frog telling us. :-)

Hmm...

0

Q: Could you please kindly tell me what is the difference between these? EACH AND EVRY

Would anybody possibly elaborate the differences between these? Or, when/where- in which situations- would you rather use the followings? Each student Every student

quantifiers

I'm not quite happy with this one.

It sounds like nima wants a few pages stripped from a grammar book as an answer.

I'm sure that nima has a grammar book.

Though I'm not sure which one.

I'd like to hear what J.R.'d say on this question.

Anonymous

08:11

@DamkerngT. Yep. You play a song on guitar, not with.

Anonymous

Of course, "played it with your guitar" isn't exactly wrong.

Anonymous

@NicolasRaoul "Still a bit fan of the tool" is ungrammatical in my idiolect. I could imagine it meaning "Still a bit [of a] fan of the tool", but Jolene's guess that it's a typo for "big fan" seems more likely to me.

Anonymous

Ah, I see now that you've already accepted the answer.

Anonymous

I'm just now catching up :-)

Damkerng T.

You've been away for a while. :-)

Anonymous

08:16

Ah, I have to rejigger my priorities for a bit, I'm afraid.

Anonymous

I can't dedicate my whole life to chatting. ;-)

Damkerng T.

I know. I just was missing you sometimes.

I can't do such a dedication, either, I think. :-)

Ice Girl

Hi my friends

Anonymous

Hehe, aw.

Damkerng T.

Hello

Anonymous

08:18

Hello!

Ice Girl

I need a short story. Can you introduce some links about it?

Damkerng T.

Hmm... How about Hemingway's Cat?

Oh, by the way, how short is your short?

english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/resources/seminars/activities/…

Ice Girl

Hmm.... not too long forexample 5 or 6 pages

Damkerng T.

Cat in the Rain is about right, I think.

It's two pages in PDF, but it should be about 5-6 pages in print.

Ice Girl

Is it easy?

Damkerng T.

08:26

It's rather easy. Tell me if you want something more difficult.

Ice Girl

@DamkerngT. OK. Really thanks

Damkerng T.

You're welcome.

Ice Girl

Can you tell me a very very short summary about it?

Damkerng T.

It was raining. There was a couple in this hotel. The wife(?) looked out of the window and saw a cat. She wanted the cat. She went down. The cat was gone. The hotel gave her a cat.

It's simple, but it can be deep if we think about it deeply.

Ice Girl

OK

war monument?

Damkerng T.

08:44

It's a monument. It had to be the monument about some war that happened to be near the hotel.

I should use the past tenses, I think. At least that's what Hemingway used in the story.

Ice Girl

The sea
broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the
rain.

Damkerng T.

Visualize yourself at a beach.

The sea comes up and then goes back down, again and again, right?

Ice Girl

I think I read this story before. Can you tell me another story?

Damkerng T.

Something simpler or more difficult?

Ice Girl

No not very simple and not very difficult

Damkerng T.

08:53

Let's see. I might need to take a while.

Ice Girl

OK

It's nice story

Damkerng T.

What if it's a fairy tale?

Ice Girl

What?

Damkerng T.

I'm thinking about Hans Andersen's fairy tales.

Ah, probably something typical like this is better for you: manythings.org/voa/stories/…

I haven't read it though.

Ice Girl

The house was very still؟

Damkerng T.

09:07

Nothing in the house moved.

Everything was still.

Ice Girl

"Muvver!"

Damkerng T.

Probably "Mother!".

The boy couldn't speak properly, I think.

Ice Girl

The Lady in Black.

What does it mean?

Damkerng T.

Normally, a lady in black ~ a lady wearing her black dress.

It's a short story, so it might be something more than that. You have to try to understand it yourself.

Ice Girl

OK

The Lady in Black looked at them with serious eyes, and her mouth hardened at the corners.

her mouth hardened at the corners?

Damkerng T.

09:18

Your mouth has two ends, right?

You can call those ends, corners.

Ice Girl

yes

Damkerng T.

Try to force them to be stiff.

That's how they're harden.

Ice Girl

OK

Parth Kohli

@DamkerngT. englishfrombasics.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/… would this one work for Ice Girl?

Damkerng T.

Should work. What do you think, @IceGirl?

skullpatrol

09:24

Hi everybody :D

Damkerng T.

Hello @skullpatrol.

Ice Girl

@skullpatrol Hi :)

Damkerng T.

Glad to see you patrolling in here.

skullpatrol

Thanks :-)

Damkerng T.

@ParthKohli Is it your blog?

Ice Girl

09:25

Now I read the lady in black

It's nice

Do you read it?

Parth Kohli

@DamkerngT. no, this story was taught in our English class.

Damkerng T.

@IceGirl I haven't read it myself. A bit busy with something at the moment.

@ParthKohli A-ha!

Parth Kohli

aww, that blogger misspelled "Wodehouse". What a shame.

Ice Girl

@skullpatrol How are you?

I saw the whole thing from the beginning, from the very day when the little boy here met with the accident.

very day?

@skullpatrol Can you read this story now? it's short (manythings.org/voa/stories/…)

Damkerng T.

"the very day" means the same as "the day". It's just got more emphasized.

Ice Girl

09:30

@DamkerngT. Thanks

@skullpatrol :(

Knock knock

Damkerng T.

Aww... no one played.

Well, "Who's there?"

Ice Girl

Nobody

Damkerng T.

Nobody who?

Ice Girl

Nobody answers me now :(

:(

Damkerng T.

I tried to sneak it and answered you once a while, didn't I? :-)

Ice Girl

09:39

Yes

OK

@DamkerngT. Can you read the story now?

Damkerng T.

I'm sorry. I don't have time.

Ice Girl

OK

np

Pe-eek!

DarkHorse

hi

Ice Girl

@DamkerngT. What does it mean?

@DarkHorse Hi

Damkerng T.

@IceGirl Perhaps, peekaboo. macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/peekaboo

Ice Girl

09:47

It's not peekaboo it's peeek

Damkerng T.

The boy said "Mavver!" for "Mother!", didn't he?

Ice Girl

yes

OK

I got it

@DamkerngT. Are you still here?

Damkerng T.

Yes?

Ice Girl

I need a context that it contains 3000 words in it

Damkerng T.

How many words in The Lady in Black?

Ice Girl

09:59

1000

Not story it should be something else

Damkerng T.

Like?

A Wikipedia page?

Ice Girl

biography about famous person

no not wiki

Damkerng T.

I think Wikipedia is good for biographies.

I don't know if you can find a biography in 3,000 words shortly.

Ice Girl

I will be back 20 min later

bye now

Anonymous

I'm changing the strings on my guitar :-)

Damkerng T.

10:08

Ah, bye @IceGirl.

@snailboat Is it because the mentioning of guitar earlier here? :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Not exactly, but that may be why I thought to mention it in here.

Anonymous

I put a little wedge I made under the Floyd-Rose, unwound and removed the strings, cleaned the instrument, oiled the fretboard, polished the rest, tightened the tuners very slightly

Anonymous

And now I'm putting strings back on.

Anonymous

I have three strings left!

Ice Girl

Hi again

Damkerng T.

10:19

@snailboat Wow! That's neat! I haven't taken care of my guitar that good. (It's a shared guitar. I haven't really owned one myself.)

Ice Girl

Can you help me for how I can find a good context?

Damkerng T.

Hi again, @IceGirl

Oh, I thought you headed out to find one.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Oh, really? Do you play much?

Damkerng T.

I was just an amateur. I still am, I'm afraid.

Ice Girl

Famous writer, poet,.... it's ok

Damkerng T.

10:22

@IceGirl Hmm... But you said not Wikipedia.

Ice Girl

Yes

Exactly

Damkerng T.

A 3,000-word bio is sure hard to find on the web. The web is for short reads, usually a 1,000-word is probably already too long.

Ice Girl

OK you can find anything except story. Whatever you find is ok

Damkerng T.

How about news?

skullpatrol

I'm sorry @icegirl but I am on mobile and can't answer any long questions right now :(

Ice Girl

10:26

The level about context must be advance

The good or interesting news is ok

Damkerng T.

Advanced, but short?

Hmm...

Ice Girl

No not short

3000 words is not short

Anonymous

@IceGirl By any chance, are you supposed to find this yourself? :-)

Damkerng T.

3,000 words is short for advanced stuff, I think.

Ice Girl

Yes

Anonymous

10:27

It's all relative. A 2,500-word essay can be quite long if the material is difficult.

Ice Girl

I searched but didn't find a good one

@skullpatrol np

Anonymous

Or it can be a few, short minutes of light reading, if the material is easy.

skullpatrol

:-)

Damkerng T.

nods

Also, I'm not sure how advanced is advanced.

Anonymous

If you're struggling with every sentence, three thousand words might seem like a long road indeed.

Damkerng T.

10:29

nods (again)

I'm sure about this one. It might be too easy: bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_shakespeare

Ice Girl

It's censored for me

:(

Damkerng T.

> William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire and was baptised a few days later on 26 April 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove maker and wool merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a well-to-do landowner from Wilmcote, South Warwickshire. It is likely Shakespeare was educated at the local King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford.

That's the first paragraph.

Ice Girl

I can't open this link

:(

Damkerng T.

It's a summary of a biography of William Shakespeare.

Hmm... strange that you can't open BBC's links.

Anonymous

Ice Girl doesn't have access to the real internet.

Anonymous

10:33

Learning about William Shakespeare is dangerous and must be prevented at all costs.

Ice Girl

Why dangerous?

Damkerng T.

Dangerous? I think not! :-)

Anonymous

That was another example of me saying the opposite of my real meaning. :-)

Damkerng T.

@IceGirl snailboat was just kidding.

Ice Girl

:)

Damkerng T.

10:35

Hmm... how can I find something good, when even BBC is censored.

That also rules out news.

Perhaps CNN is censored too.

Ice Girl

How about different kinds of sports?

Damkerng T.

I have no idea on that in 3,000 words.

Anonymous

Well, I didn't quite get three windings on each string, but I got about 3 or 4 on each string.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I imagine that your guitar must look neat. :-)

Anonymous

It does look very neat right now. Very shiny. :-)

Anonymous

10:40

I did just polish it and oil it!

Damkerng T.

It's an acoustic guitar, I think?

Anonymous

You do?

Damkerng T.

Yup.

Anonymous

How did you come to that conclusion?

Damkerng T.

Blind guess. :D

Anonymous

10:41

Ah, nice try! This one is an electric. :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, it's Floyd-Rose.

Anonymous

Yes, it has a FR.

Anonymous

That usually means an electric guitar.

Damkerng T.

I was busying looking for a 3,000-word piece. :D

Anonymous

This is my sixth guitar.

Anonymous

10:42

It is a fairly nice electric guitar.

Damkerng T.

Hey, I tried it a few times. :-)

Electric guitar gave me a strange feeling.

Without the amps, it doesn't make much sound.

But it's sure fun playing with the amps.

Anonymous

That's right. Most of the time you don't want to play a solid-body guitar without an amp.

Anonymous

Otherwise you'll get in the habit of hitting the strings really hard. :-)

Anonymous

Not that there aren't guitarists who do hit the strings really hard. But if you overdo it, you can pull the notes sharp.

Damkerng T.

I don't know how to connect it with the amp or amps myself. One of my seniors usually did that for me.

Anonymous

10:44

I will explain. It is simple.

Anonymous

First, you plug the cord into the guitar.

Anonymous

Then you plug the cord into the amp.

Anonymous

Ta-da!

Damkerng T.

Haha, only if I know where to plug exactly. :-)

Anonymous

Well, I simplified a little. But it really is very easy.

Damkerng T.

10:45

The amps looked very sophisticated.

Anonymous

You'll want to turn the amp off before plugging it in.

Damkerng T.

I take it that you have a set of the amplifiers.

Anonymous

Guitars use tip-sleeve 1/4" phone plugs. When you plug the guitar into the jack, you'll briefly bridge the signal to ground, and that creates a very bad loud sound.

Damkerng T.

Oh, that wee-e-e-... sound.

Anonymous

You don't want electricity to go over that path. In theory it's probably harmless, but it's a bad idea. So you want to turn the amp all the way off before plugging in or unplugging.

Anonymous

10:47

(Harmless but annoying :-)

Anonymous

The input jack is usually labelled something like "input", and in my experience it's usually at the left.

Damkerng T.

They told me not to play in the rain, I'm not sure if that's true.

Anonymous

In the rain?

Damkerng T.

I mean, I saw many rock bands did it just fine in the rain.

Yes, when it's raining, don't play (the guitar) outside, they said.

Anonymous

Well, you don't generally want water inside electronics.

Anonymous

10:49

For that matter, you don't generally want water on your guitar.

Damkerng T.

@Utkarsh Want some candies for your Birthday? :-)

Utkarsh

:D Yes!

Damkerng T.

[candies] <-- Here they are!

Anonymous

More electronicky types probably have something to say about water, electricity, and safety.

Utkarsh

<----Grabs all the candies!

Anonymous

10:53

I'm mostly a software type, though.

Damkerng T.

That was fast. :-)

@snailboat Someone also said something about lightning too.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Lightning, huh? Hmm...

Anonymous

We haven't had lightning here in over a year.

Damkerng T.

They probably didn't want their junior being fried in the rain. :-)

Hmm... No lightning at all. That's strange.

I think it's everywhere.

0

Q: What do you call a subcategory of a subcategory

What do you call a subcategory of a subcategory. Is there any particular term that can be used or should i use any other words such as group, set, collection etc., Edit: For Example if A is a category, B is a sub category to A and C is a sub category to B. How do you call C with respect to A

word-usage word-choice word-request word word-order

Reminds me of our yester-yester-day discussion.

I don't know how does sub-sub-sub-category sound in English.

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