English Language Learners

Anonymous

00:00

I don't want to cite a fictional character written by Orson Scott Card as an authority.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I like his novels, though.

Anonymous

Octapoid is neat.

Damkerng T.

It does sound neat.

Oh, I thought MI6 isn't real, but they do have it!

> MI6: Liaison with Secret Intelligence Service and Foreign Office.

They have MI1 up to MI19!

(I ran into MI6 because of Octopussy.)

Anonymous

You'll find references to MI5 in fiction, too.

Damkerng T.

They have a real MI5 too!

Anonymous

00:05

It's 28.6℃ out. Or 28.6°C, if you like.

Anonymous

I don't know which I like better.

Damkerng T.

That's very warm there, I think.

Anonymous

Life was easier when I only had the 26 letters. And numbers. And some symbols. And some other stuff. But I could pretend life was simple because I could only type a few things :-)

Damkerng T.

My thermometer reads 26°C. (I can't read it in higher precision than that.)

Anonymous

Now I have to decide whether I want my degree symbol separate or not.

Damkerng T.

00:07

Hehe!

Anonymous

I use Weather Underground

Damkerng T.

Life is full of choices!

Anonymous

wunderground.com

Damkerng T.

Strange. Everything looks Fahrenheit there.

Anonymous

Oh, that's just the default. I have mine set to Celsius.

Anonymous

00:09

And Japanese, just like I have everything else set. :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, it says Bangkok is at 28.6 °C.

So, what you wrote is the temperature here. :D

Hmm... I typed California, and it looks like it's rather warm everywhere.

Anonymous

I was trying to do some exercise on the treadmill, but it was too warm and stuffy to do it in the afternoon, so I stopped after only one mile and started chatting in here. :-)

Damkerng T.

Thermal 40 °C. Really?!

Anonymous

Well, a lot of California is desert.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I see.

Anonymous

00:11

We've got Death Valley.

Anonymous

One of the least pleasant part of California I've been to was Blythe. Palm Desert was hot, too.

Anonymous

I'm not really well-traveled, though.

Anonymous

Palm Desert is 39.8°C, according to WU.

Damkerng T.

It also says, "Atlantic Hurricane Season Begins Sunday".

Isn't that rather scary?

Anonymous

Ah! That's the other end of the country. I have friends who live in hurricane territory, though.

Anonymous

00:13

I'm by the Pacific Ocean.

Anonymous

As its name suggests, it's relatively calm.

Damkerng T.

A hurricane is calm... hmm... :D

Anonymous

Death Valley's record high is 56.7°C

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. No, no, Atlantic hurricane season.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I'm sure I will pass out.

Anonymous

00:14

Over there, several thousand miles away from here :-)

Anonymous

The Pacific is calm relative to the Atlantic.

Damkerng T.

I mean, for people on the other side of the country.

Ahh

Anonymous

We have had hurricane-force winds in California, though.

Damkerng T.

I'm glad that you're on the safer side. :D

Oh!

Now I'm not sure if it's really safer.

Anonymous

It's not very common.

Anonymous

00:17

We do have earthquakes.

Anonymous

They don't seem to have been as common lately.

Anonymous

Of course, there could be a new big earthquake any second.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I can recall a few movies with earthquakes in California.

Anonymous

There was a magnitude 6.9 earthquake of note in 1989.

Damkerng T.

I think it was quite popular around year 2000.

Anonymous

00:18

Before that, the most destructive was in 1906, I think.

Anonymous

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on Tuesday, October 17, 1989, at 5:04 pm local time. Caused by a slip along the San Andreas Fault, the quake lasted 10–15 seconds and measured 6.9 on both the moment magnitude scale and on the Richter magnitude scale. injured 3,757 and left some 3,000–12,000 people homeless. The earthquake occurred during the warm-up practice for the third game of the 1989 World Series, featuring both of the Bay Area's Major League Baseball teams, the Oakland A...

Anonymous

1906 San Francisco earthquake

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 struck San Francisco and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. Devastating fires broke out in the city that lasted for several days. As a result of the quake and fires, about 3,000 people died and over 80% of San Francisco was destroyed. The earthquake and resulting fire are remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States alongside the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The death toll from the earthquake and resulting fire is the greatest loss ...

Damkerng T.

That was a very long time ago.

I remember that 1989's highway!

Anonymous

The 1906 earthquake was very destructive.

Damkerng T.

It was something I hadn't seen before.

Anonymous

00:19

Damkerng T.

I don't know much about 1906 one though.

Btw, how would you pronounce 1906?

Nineteen-oh-six?

Anonymous

Yes.

Anonymous

Long form: nineteen hundred and six

Damkerng T.

Thanks!

Anonymous

I might use the long form in a formal context, but otherwise it's unlikely

Damkerng T.

00:21

Ahh... That's useful too, for formal occasions.

Oh, the 1906 earthquake looks horrible!

Anonymous

I've been in smaller earthquakes.

Anonymous

They were very scary, although none of them had appreciable damage.

Anonymous

But I grew up where there were no earthquakes.

Anonymous

When I was in my first earthquake, my housemate and I thought a train was going by.

Anonymous

We were used to trains, both being from the Midwest where, well, I guess we had trains like everyone else :-)

Damkerng T.

00:23

The strongest one I felt was maybe only around 4-5. I was in Singapore, I think.

Anonymous

We were outside, on the driveway. We remarked to one another: "Wow, that's a pretty big train going by!"

Anonymous

"That's kind of obnoxious. You can feel the ground shaking!"

Damkerng T.

I was on 30th something floor, so I felt it.

Anonymous

After about 30 seconds it subsided

Anonymous

Then it occurred to us to ask each other:

Anonymous

00:24

"Hey, where's the track around here, anyway? I thought it was at least a couple miles away"

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. What was that like?

Damkerng T.

I thought my head was spinning or something.

But then it happened too long.

About 20 seconds, I think.

Anonymous

The offices where I worked most of the last decade seemed to be earthquake-proof. Every time we had one, I didn't notice, even if it was really near.

Damkerng T.

Then it was gone.

Anonymous

00:25

But at home I'd notice, even smaller ones.

Anonymous

Of course, there are very small earthquakes all the time that I don't notice.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Some people can feel the lighter ones, I think.

Anonymous

Well, it depends.

Anonymous

The smallest ones, no they cannot.

Anonymous

But people vary.

Damkerng T.

00:28

nods

Anonymous

It's strange. It's now been years since I was in an earthquake that I noticed.

Damkerng T.

Isn't that good?

Anonymous

Probably!

Damkerng T.

:)

Anonymous

Though it could just mean that a big one is getting ready :-)

Damkerng T.

00:29

Let's hope that it's not. :D

I think I didn't have many new questions yesterday.

Probably because it was Sunday.

Anonymous

Weekends are always lulls.

Anonymous

Japanese.SE is down to 5.4 questions/day!

Anonymous

We were staying comfortably within 6-7.

Anonymous

Go back up, Japanese! :-)

Damkerng T.

ELL too!

Because there weren't many new questions on ELL, I started reading question #1. :D

Basically, it's similar to our recent question, a negative question.

> Don't you love me any more?

Tone in spoken English would also help the short answer to the negative form be understood correctly. — Ryan Leonard Jan 23 '13 at 20:57

It's odd because it sounds like tone could change the meaning of "No" into Yes.

Anonymous

00:48

I wasn't part of ELL in private beta. I did join soon after, though.

Anonymous

Our first question on Japanese.SE got closed as off-topic!

Anonymous

14

Q: What are good sources for streaming Japanese language television?

While learning Japanese I'd like to watch some Japanese television, whether it is children's programming, drama, or news. I've found a few places online that allowed me to stream snippets, but nowhere to watch full shows. Is there a service similar to Hulu that has Japanese programming?

resources

Damkerng T.

Hah!

Anonymous

During private beta and soon after, votes were very much inflated. This happens on all SE sites.

Damkerng T.

What a stack! :-)

> "We just opened a new Beta stack."
"Great! I posted a question."
"Thanks. But wait, it's off-topic." -- Whoosh!
"Alright, I posted another question."
"Thank you! Um, sorry, still off-topic." -- Whoosh!

:)

Anonymous

00:51

18

Q: Commonness of casual phrases like "あたし" and "ちっちゃい"

I came across a Japanese girl in Germany who talked using words like あたし instead of わたし, or ちっちゃい instead of ちいさい. When I asked her, she said that these words or usages of words are more common in Japan. Is this true? How does the majority of Japanese people judge this? Shall learners pay atten...

words colloquial register spoken-language diminutive

Anonymous

Our second question!

Damkerng T.

Ahh... It's not off-topic. Yay!

Oh, a Japanese girl in Germany.

I've seen many Japanese anime related to Germany in the story. I don't know why.

Anonymous

Oh, I have no idea.

Damkerng T.

But you feel that too, perhaps?

Anonymous

I can think of one example off the top of my head. Shingeki no Kyojin

Anonymous

00:56

You've probably seen some Japanese cartoons that I haven't :-)

Damkerng T.

Maybe because I like those mecha anime. :)

Anonymous

Ahh, I'm not sure I've seen any mecha anime

Anonymous

It's really nice that you can get anime and dorama with subtitles these days.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

I think it's good for learners. (Although you can be too dependent on subtitles! It depends on how you use them.)

Anonymous

00:58

I own a lot of Japanese DVDs that don't have any Japanese subtitles.

Damkerng T.

Psychological anime is also nice.

Naoki Urasawa's Monster was on my cable once. I like it a lot.

Anonymous

Ah, I've heard of that!

Anonymous

I haven't read or seen it, though

Damkerng T.

I think the setting was in Europe. That's for sure.

Maybe Germany again.

Anonymous

In Shingeki no Kyojin, everyone appears to be descended from the Germans, but two thousand years in the future. There's one girl who's descended from the Japanese, though

Anonymous

01:00

And they mostly have German names.

Anonymous

So that's what made me think of it when you mentioned that.

Damkerng T.

Really, I heard about Nietzsche because of Japanese's anime. :)

Anonymous

You may want to spell check that one

Damkerng T.

Oh, thanks!

When a character in anime starts to quote something strange, chances are it was from Nietzsche's. :-)

> Atashi is for females. Chicchai can be seen as more emphatic "tiny".

Somehow, chicchai doesn't sound like Japanese to me.

Chikai, maybe?

It would be nice if they added Hiragana to the answer too.

Anonymous

01:18

@DamkerngT. It is. In phonemic romanization, it'd be spelled tittyai. In kana, ちっちゃい.

Anonymous

►

Damkerng T.

Oh! Chicchai-ossan!

Anonymous

The /s/ is geminate (double length): ossan

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I see.

I didn't feel the longer /s/. I guess I'm naturally sensitive to longer vowels, but not longer consonants.

Oh, I can transcribe this line.

> "Oi!" "Hai, hai"

:D

Oh, that sound at 1:52 is neat!

Anonymous

Hehe! Bingo!

Damkerng T.

01:25

At 2:10 too. I think I've heard that very often in Ikkyusan.

Anonymous

I think it's a stock recording :-)

Damkerng T.

Ikkyū-san was very popular here two or three decades ago.

Anonymous

Ah! I'm not familiar with that

Anonymous

Somehow I'm interested in the set of Japanese shows you've seen that I haven't :-)

Anonymous

But there's just so much Japanese TV

Damkerng T.

01:27

nods -- Indeed!

But I'm sure you must've seen some of Doraemon. :D

Anonymous

I'm familiar with Doraemon, but I haven't.

Anonymous

My Thai friend has Doraemon comic books, I think.

Damkerng T.

Doraemon was very, very popular here, one to three decades ago.

I think most children still know Doraemon somehow. (I don't know how they know about him.)

> An, an, an, totemodaizuki Doraemon

I think one verse in the theme song sounds like that. (Not sure if it's correct.)

I don't know why they sing "An, an, an", but it sounds very cute!

Anonymous

I know Doraemon too.

Anonymous

Although Doraemon wasn't as popular here, it was still popular enough that I was aware of it

Damkerng T.

01:35

Do you know why "An, an, an"?

Anonymous

No

Anonymous

I think that would be totemo daisuki

Anonymous

Let's see

Anonymous

I found an old theme song but it doesn't have that line. Probably there were a bunch of different theme songs? :-)

Anonymous

►

Damkerng T.

01:38

Perhaps it's the beginning vs. ending theme song.

Anonymous

Oh, higher quality audio! youtube.com/watch?v=eY8zYN5dnaI

Damkerng T.

Let me find it.

►

At about 0:43

Hmm... it sounds like totemo daisuki indeed.

Anonymous

Yep! :-)

Damkerng T.

What does it mean? What does it mean?

Anonymous

Suki (da) is a predicate meaning "like, love", and daisuki is a stronger version of that

Anonymous

01:42

It uses that dai- prefix we talked about, 大

Anonymous

In Japanese writing, daisuki is 大好き

Anonymous

And totemo とても is a generic intensifier "very, really"

Anonymous

So it's like "an, an, an, [we] really love Doraemon!"

Anonymous

I think an, an, an is just supposed to sound cute

Anonymous

It's not really made up of words

Damkerng T.

01:43

I can remember this part really well, because it was repeated many times in the song. It's also the last verse of the song.

Ahh...

That sounds quite nice for Doraemon!

Anonymous

It's a very cute song :-)

Damkerng T.

I don't know its meaning, but I heard it more times than I can remember. :D

Anonymous

English is usually more or less backwards from Japanese, so you might have noticed I started by explaining from the end of the sentence, out of habit :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, I see. That's quite true!

Anonymous

Although English has modifier-head relationships in that order, too.

Anonymous

01:45

So sometimes phrases come out more or less the same way.

Anonymous

But Japanese is verb-final. (And in this case, predicate adjective final.)

Anonymous

In English, you hear verbs early on, and it typically shapes how you interpret the rest of the sentence.

Anonymous

You often know which arguments are coming up later in English after hearing the verb.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

In Japanese, you get the arguments first, and you build up a picture based on which arguments you get, as you're listening

Anonymous

01:47

Sometimes the verb ends up being unnecessary :-)

Damkerng T.

If Yodaish is sort of like Japanese, I guess I can guess what it feels like. :-)

Yodaish is quite charming.

Anonymous

Hooray for Yodaic!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, that means that they can drop even the verb, which is the heart of English sentences!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. There is no strictly necessary part of any Japanese sentence.

Anonymous

In English, we typically need at least a subject and a verb.

Anonymous

01:49

So we have things like dummy subjects. "It's getting late." (What's getting late?)

Damkerng T.

nods -- I think Thai works quite similar to English, though we can drop a few more things.

Anonymous

In casual speech, possibly more than half of Japanese sentences end up "incomplete"

Anonymous

That is, without a proper ending

Damkerng T.

Because they don't have to?

Anonymous

There are lots of reasons.

Anonymous

01:52

One common one is that the actual predicator (verb, adjective, etc.) at the end of the sentence is predictable

Anonymous

If you say ki ga, odds are the next word is suru "do", so you don't really need to say it

Anonymous

Suru doesn't really add much meaning to the sentence :-)

Damkerng T.

I guess that, in formal situations, they will always complete sentences.

Anonymous

Yeah, you'd be a lot less likely to end a sentence with ki ga formally

Anonymous

The more formal you get, the longer sentence tend to get (while expressing the same propositional value)

Anonymous

01:54

Is that like Thai?

Damkerng T.

nods -- Exactly!

Words will tend to be less and less common too.

Oh, we actually have a different set of words for the royal usage.

For example, the word I will get longer and longer as the formality increases.

Typical situation for I: [phom] ผม

Typically used with higher rank people (probably bosses) in formal occasions: [kra-phom] กระผม

Typically used for general formal occasions: [kha-pha-chao] ข้าพเจ้า

Royal usage of I: [kha-phra-phut-ta-chao] ข้าพระพุทธเจ้า

I guess it's quite similar in Japanese.

Anonymous

Ah, in Japanese, one of the main pronouns, originally watakusi, has any number of reduced forms

Anonymous

Watakusi, atakusi, watasi, atasi, atai, ate, wassi, wasi, assi, asi, watai, wate, wai, watti

Damkerng T.

The typical one is perhaps watashi, I think.

Oh, I see, it should be written as watasi.

Anonymous

Yes, which I just wrote watasi in a more phonemic romanization (si = shi)

Anonymous

02:07

Although watasi is a reduced form, the original watakusi is now less common and sounds somewhat stiff

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. There's more than one way to spell Japanese in Latin letters.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

The most common way is Hepburn's scheme, which attempts to reproduce some of the sounds in ways English speakers will expect

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Perhaps the same thing happens to [kra-phom] กระผม too.

Anonymous

So it has shi and tsu and chi and so forth

Anonymous

02:08

In a more phonemic romanization scheme, those would be si, tu, and ti

Damkerng T.

I think I haven't really heard anyone say it except in our congress.

Anonymous

I habitually use phonemic romanization because the most common reason I use romanization is to talk about morphology or such

Damkerng T.

What would be the sounds for tu and ti?

trying to think of words with -tu- or -ti- inside...

Strange that I couldn't think of one.

Anonymous

Well, /tu/ is [tsɯ], and /ti/ is [tɕi]

Anonymous

In Hepburn's romanization, tsu and chi

Damkerng T.

02:12

Oh, it's that tsu in tsunami.

Anonymous

Yes

Anonymous

Phonemically, /tunami/

Damkerng T.

And chi in that question on JSE.

Anonymous

[ts] is just an allophone of /t/ that comes before /u/

Anonymous

So Japanese doesn't natively have, say, tsa, tsi, tse, or tso

Damkerng T.

02:13

nods

I can think of lots of words with ta te or to.

Anonymous

Phonemic romanization is handy because:

Anonymous

Katsu "to win" has forms like katanai, kachina, katsu, kateru

Anonymous

Phonemically: katanai, katina, katu, kateru

Anonymous

The root is kat-

Anonymous

So we get the expected forms: kat-anai, kat-i-na, kat-u, kat-e-ru

Damkerng T.

02:15

Does it have anything to do with katana (the blade)?

Anonymous

Just like tatak-anai, tatak-i-na, tatak-u, tatak-e-ru

Anonymous

If we write ts and ch, it messes everything up and makes exceptions where there don't need to be any :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I don't think so.

Anonymous

Katana is from kata and na

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Anonymous

02:17

Na is an old word for "blade"

Anonymous

Kata here is "(one) side"

Damkerng T.

katsu makes me think of katsudon. (yummy)

Anonymous

Oh!

Anonymous

Don for donburi, and katsu from katsu(retsu) "cutlet"

Anonymous

It's funny. Katsu doesn't sound like it's from English :-)

Anonymous

02:20

It was borrowed back in the Meiji era, when a great deal of loanwords from Western languages started to enter Japanese

Damkerng T.

Oh, it's from English?!

Anonymous

Since Japanese has relatively few sounds, you end up with lots of similar-sounding words

Damkerng T.

It doesn't sound like English. :D

Anonymous

No, it doesn't!

Anonymous

And it wouldn't be borrowed in the same form today, most likely.

Anonymous

02:22

Wikipedia mentions the French cotelette. Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (the multi-volume historical dictionary) says it's from English cutlet

Anonymous

カツレツ

カツレツは、フランス料理のコートレット（Cotelette、英語ではカットレットCutlet）であり、洋食（日本の料理）の一つともされている。元々は、仔牛肉をスライスしたものに細かいパン粉をつけてフライパンなどで炒め焼きする料理であったが、豚肉など他の素材を使い同様に調理したり揚げ焼きしたりする料理も「カツレツ」と呼ぶ。概要明治時代に日本に伝来したフランス料理のコートレット（Cotelette、英語ではカットレット Cutlet）を原型とする料理である。もともと仔牛肉をソテーするなど目の細かいパン粉をつけて少量の油で炒め焼きまたは揚げ焼きする料理であり、東京銀座の洋食店「煉瓦亭」などで提供されている「フランス料理」もしくは「洋食」である。フランス料理のコートレットは、イタリア料理のコトレッタ（ミラノ風カツレツ）、ドイツ料理（ウィーン料理）のシュニッツェル、ロシア料理のコトレータなどとも関係がある。呼称について歴史的な記録としては、1860年（万延元年）に福澤諭吉が発表した『増訂華英通語』（広東語・英語対訳の単語集にカタカナで読みと訳語を書き加えたもの）に収載に記載された「吉列 Cutlet コットレト」や「吉列鷄 Fowl cullets フハヲルコルレッ」[http://opac.kufs.ac.jp/kufs/view/0002_A/v...

Damkerng T.

If I go to a Japanese restaurant, and I don't want to have sushi, I'll definitely order katsudon. :D

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yum!

Damkerng T.

nom nom

(Can we use nom nom with food?)

Anonymous

The cite on Wikipedia is earlier than in Nikkoku

Anonymous

02:24

Can you use nom nom with non-food? :-)

Damkerng T.

Maybe!

Anonymous

I'm only familiar with nom nom in the context of eating.

Damkerng T.

I'm only familiar with it in the context of snacks. :D

So I can use it with any kind of thing we eat, I think.

Anonymous

Snacks are food!

Anonymous

Even a Twinkie is technically food.

Damkerng T.

02:27

I mean, I was reluctant to use nom nom with katsudon because it's not a snack.

@snailboat Oh, Twinkie!

Zombieland made me know about Twinkies much better.

I haven't seen a real one, though.

Damkerng T.

04:25

Hello!

Somehow, the idea of a stack for correction/proofreading questions comes back to me again.

I know, I know, it's not what our ELL stack is for.

But it's really useful for learners. (At least I think so.)

This brings me back to the same old question: Why is proofreading off-topic?

I'm sure that we have good reasons to make proofreading off-topic.

I'm also rather sure that correction/proofreading is a great way to learn.

I'm trying to think of a good way to compromise these two seeming-to-be-in-conflict ideas, to make it work for everyone.

...

If "What doesn't kill you" and "Let's blow this clambake" can be on-topic, why a restricted class of correction/proofreading questions couldn't?

still keep thinking...

...

Ahh

We have this tag: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/practice-interpretation

Maybe we could try: practice-proofreading

(or: practice-correction)

Damkerng T.

Ah, this sounds fair enough: meta.ell.stackexchange.com/a/488/3281

> The second question, Please check grammar, illustrates why proofreading questions must be Off Topic: in the very short (56 words) passage OP submits I count at least 11 distinct errors of grammar and idiom—and that ignores matters of style and register, and the interactions between the errors. Addressing any one of them would require at least an ordinary Answer (say, a couple hundred words)—for a mere rewrite is of no value to anyone except OP.

> The error must be identified, a reasonably full account of why it is an error must be provided, suggestions as to how it might be remedied should be offered. And an ideal Answer would also invoke a larger context which could make the topic generalizable to future problems and of interest to future readers. Is it reasonable to ask our users to compose 2,000+ word essays? Would anybody read a 2,000 word essay?

Suppose... Let's suppose that for a mere rewrite is of no value to anyone except OP is not entirely true.

Hmm...

I believe that once our ELL stack has become mature enough. Most of the basic questions will have already been addressed in some questions. So, perhaps we don't have to explain the same basic thing all over again. Just giving the OP (and the future readers) a pointer to the related questions/answers is probably enough.

Hmm...

Another reason for why "proofreading" is off-topic is probably about the focus. We seem to prefer a question and is focused enough and narrow enough in scope to be answerable.

This is probably related to searchable thingy.

Some learners in the future might search for: fall into or fall under a category

And they could get to this ELL question via googling.

Following this reason, a proofreading question might not be focused/narrow enough; in other words, its "searchability" might not be as high as we'd want it to be.

But!

We could answer a correction/proofreading questions, which might result in 5-10 smaller points, by making those points into standalone, focused, up-to-our-standard questions.

So, we could have both the advantages of having proofreading questions around, and having narrow, focused, searchable questions around.

The only issue is perhaps we have to make this "restricted class" of correction/proofreading questions well-defined enough.

...

Doesn't that sound like a good idea? :)

Ahh

3

Q: Should proofreading questions be closed as offtopic?

I saw this question (What incorrect usages are found in my sentence?) which is fundamentally a question of the form: Here is some text. Please tell me what is wrong with it. My immediate thoughts were that this type of question is going to pretty much always be too localized to fit in prope...

discussion

Matt seemed to raise a similar question once.

reading...

Awal Garg

05:33

@snailboat username = changed! Yipee!

shrug

chat.stackexchange.com/messages/15847678/history

chat.stackexchange.com/messages/15847682/history

^see the difference?

Nico

08:58

@snailboat Sorry! I should keep my punk side on a tighter leash.

Fantasier

10:57

1

A: Speaking about a real event in the past when it has not happened

Your first sentence: If you had not lost the ticket, you would have gotten a million dollars. is talking about a condition in the past that did not happen which is why there’s no possibility for this condition. So we are thinking about an impossible past condition. Consequently both the con...

I can't see anything wrong with 'If you had not lost the ticket, you would win a million dollars'. (maybe win doesn't seem perfect here, but I see nothing wrong with using had not with would)

Fantasier

11:15

@Nico I think there's a typo in your answer--analyse.

Nico

UK spelling

Fantasier

Well you spelt it anylise.

Nico

oops

thx

Fantasier

Np :)

Nico

corrected

Awal Garg

13:06

He said to Bob that... <-- is this sentence ok?

Nico

yes, it is. See here goo.gl/UKc1YL

Awal Garg

thnx

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