English Language Learners

Damkerng T.

13:00

This is the first for me!

Anonymous

They're kind of fun. I took them back off, though :-)

Damkerng T.

It makes learning violin look much easier. :)

Anonymous

When you're teaching a small child violin, you can put strips of tape across the fingerboard

Anonymous

To indicate where the notes are

Damkerng T.

It's amazing to see how people find ways to teach and learn.

Anonymous

13:04

I guess you can do it for adults, too :-)

Damkerng T.

We sure can!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. When you play a fretted instrument, you want to put your fingers right up next to the fret anyway

Anonymous

So when you play a fretted electric bass, your fingers should be at pretty much the same spot they'd be if you were playing a fretless

Damkerng T.

If I could remember where I should place my fingers on. :)

Anonymous

If you have occasion to try sometime,

Anonymous

13:07

Try placing your finger directly up against the fret, and pick the string

Damkerng T.

A-ha! That's a good tip.

Anonymous

Relax your left hand as much as possible, press as lightly as possible…

Anonymous

You'll notice you can press very lightly and still make a clean sound.

Anonymous

Next, try moving your finger to the opposite end of the space, far from the fret

Anonymous

Do the same thing―you'll notice you have to press a LOT harder to get a clean tone

Anonymous

13:09

If you don't press hard enough, the note'll buzz out.

Damkerng T.

A-ha!

I usually place my fingers in the middle between the frets.

Anonymous

In the middle is better than that, but worse than up against the fret.

Anonymous

You want to play with a minimum of effort, as relaxed as possible, using no more pressure than necessary

Anonymous

That's one of the biggest enemies facing learners of guitar―tension

Damkerng T.

It sounds so simple once we know it, but if you didn't tell me, I guess I wouldn't come to know the trick myself. :)

I can relax enough, but it's never come close to those professionals. They make it look not just easy, but very natural.

Anonymous

13:11

Guitar is very unnatural.

Damkerng T.

Hahaha!

Anonymous

If it were natural, we could all do it well out of the gate :-)

Anonymous

But with some practice it can feel very natural.

Anonymous

The thing you want to do is:

Anonymous

1. Learn to sit right.

Anonymous

13:12

2. Learn to stay relaxed and focused.

Anonymous

3. Play correctly.

Anonymous

Or, to put it another way:

Anonymous

3. Don't play wrong.

Anonymous

It sounds silly, right?

Damkerng T.

Probably easier said than done. :)

Anonymous

13:13

But every time you play wrong, you develop muscle memory for playing wrong

Anonymous

The more you play wrong, the better you get at playing wrong

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I think this is quite similar to language learning!

Anonymous

It's much harder to unlearn something than to learn it right in the first place.

Anonymous

The problem is, you have to do a whole bunch of things at first, and you'll never get all of them right, so you'll always make some mistakes

Anonymous

And that's okay―making mistakes is actually helpful

Anonymous

13:14

Staying focused and realizing when you make a mistake, then correcting it, is how you learn

Anonymous

Mistakes are dangerous when you repeat them

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

You can't be afraid to make mistakes either―you've got to stay relaxed and focused, and you can't do that if you're shaking with tension because you're afraid to goof up :-)

Anonymous

So you end up with this seemingly contradictory advice ("don't be afraid to make mistakes" and "don't repeat mistakes")

Anonymous

Music teachers usually tell their students to play very slowly.

Anonymous

13:17

If you practice doing something slowly one day, slowly the next, slowly the next, slowly the next, slowly the next, THEN gradually do it faster

Damkerng T.

Most teachers of anything usually say that thing. :)

Anonymous

Then all that patience and focus you put in to practicing slowly (which kills students, since focus is so difficult)

Anonymous

And the patience you showed in not speeding up as soon as you felt like you could

Anonymous

Means that each day you built up more muscle memory doing it right

Anonymous

Which gives you a foundation to build on

Anonymous

13:19

Everyone always wants to play faster than they can play cleanly, rather than slower

Anonymous

So, they make mistakes repeatedly and make things harder for themselves…

Anonymous

I probably just made it sound like guitar isn't fun at all.

Anonymous

Which you know is not true. :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I do think what I've learned from music is applicable to a lot of skills.

Damkerng T.

Haha, this somehow reminds me of swimming. :)

I think swimming is another thing that you can't overcome with just blunt force.

Anonymous

13:22

Uh-huh?

Anonymous

Tell me. I never learned to swim.

Damkerng T.

I guess you've seen swimming in competitions.

Anonymous

I think I have.

Damkerng T.

What's very strange about swimming is the one who seems to swim slowest usually wins. :)

Anonymous

Oh, yeah?

Damkerng T.

13:24

In short, each stroke of the winner is more effective than others, so he or she would need fewer strokes (which in turn make the winner look slow).

Yes.

The next time you watch a swimming competition, you could try watching them closely, and you'll see. :)

Anonymous

Ah!

Anonymous

By the way, if you do start guitar again, I have one more suggestion

Damkerng T.

curious

Anonymous

It's way more important to practice every day than to practice a lot

Anonymous

In fact, practicing a lot at one time can be detrimental

Damkerng T.

13:27

Ah, that's true. I absolutely believe this one.

Anonymous

You need to be able to stay focused the entire time you practice

Anonymous

If you keep practicing once you've lost your ability to focus

Anonymous

You'll make more errors, less precise movements, and so forth, and you'll learn those errors

Damkerng T.

Ahh... That's a good point too.

Anonymous

It's got to be different for language learning, although focus is equally important, I think, because you just need so much input to master a language

Anonymous

13:29

But maybe there's common ground to be found there

Damkerng T.

I guess there are two important activities that we need in language learning. I summed it up as fast and slow.

I guess my slow mode, which is deeper and more concentrated, is quite like what you described guitar practicing.

The fast mode is necessary to gather that huge input.

Anonymous

13:49

That makes sense!

Anonymous

I just caught a new snail!

Damkerng T.

Ah!

From the wild?

Anonymous

Just up the block

Anonymous

Yes

Damkerng T.

:-)

Anonymous

13:50

She's cute! Very lively

Damkerng T.

Yay!

Anonymous

Getting picked up by a human didn't slow her down one bit, didn't go into her shell or anything

Anonymous

She just kept exploring her new, suddenly very mobile world

Damkerng T.

Sounds like she's an agile one.

Anonymous

Oh, yes

Anonymous

13:53

I forgot how fast young snails could be!

Damkerng T.

Oh, besides Frozen, they also promote Turbo, which is about a racing snail. :-)

Anonymous

Ahhh, I saw that!

Anonymous

I bet you're shocked that I, of all people, would go see a movie about snails

Damkerng T.

That's very shocking!

It looks like a fun animation film. :D

Nico

Hi everyone!

Damkerng T.

13:56

Hello!

Nico

I'm triying to translate something into Spanish and I need to know whether "to lie" as in "I lie in bed", is an stative verb.

I.e. does is it mean "to rest in bed" or it is the action to go into bed?

Damkerng T.

Hmm... snailboat would know better, but I think someone is lying in their bed sounds fine.

Nico

In Spanish we have "echarse en la cama" (go into the bed) or "estar echado en la cama" (rest in bed).

Damkerng T.

@Nico I would understand "Someone lies in bed" so (as "to rest or to stay in bed").

Nico

ok, thx.

Damkerng T.

14:02

Does "go into the bed" mean "go to bed" to sleep, or it's something else, like a doctor lays the patient down?

There is another related verb lay, but I guess you might already know that.

Nico

Probably yes, I wanted to stress, that I didn't mean "sleep". But there's no need to make the distinction, because I woudl say "go to sleep" is not staive either.

@DamkerngT. transitive verb :) just remided myself by reading PEU.

Damkerng T.

nods

Nico

I wonder if there is a verb in English to say "echarse en el suelo", "go to floor"? :p

> "To be lying"

> I'm lying on the floor (estoy echado en el suelo)

Damkerng T.

Probably, down or fall. :)

Nico

Hmm... this links neatly with the answer I'm writing.

> Me echo en el suelo

Damkerng T.

14:10

Two officers down!

Nico

> I lie on the floor?

> I go to the floor?

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I think I'm lying on the floor sounds more natural than I lied on the floor.

Doing a reality check...

Nico

It does, but it becomes stative.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I think we don't normally use stative verbs in progressive tenses (or aspect).

@Nico I think I have never heard "I go to the floor" before.

How would you go to the floor? By throwing yourself on the floor?

Ah, a quick check tells me that we don't normally use lie in the simple present, except for when we want to tell someone to "lie on" something (typically "the floor").

Nico

Sorry for all the noise. To give a bit of context, here's my answer:

0

A: I have two questions about spanish usage

The Nobel prize Camilo José Cela once said: "No es lo mismo estar dormido que estar durmiendo, como no es lo mismo estar jodido que estar jodiendo.". The anecdote surrounding this funny quote illustrates well how the usage of gerund ("dormido", "jodido") and past partiple ("durmiendo", "dormido"...

Damkerng T.

14:18

> "Not Sir, I'm not asleep; I'm only sleeping"

Hmm... Quite tricky.

Nico

I've tried ozdic.com:

ozdic.com/collocation-dictionary/ground

ozdic.com/collocation-dictionary/floor

as you suggested "fall to the floor" is the closest

Damkerng T.

I'd say "I'm only trying to sleep." or "I was just about to go to bed" might be better.

Nico

but it isn't the same, "to fall" has the connotation of bing accidental.

Damkerng T.

Another word is drop. You can drop yourself to the ground.

I think the Terminator would just simply say, "Get down!" -- (in Arny's accent. :)

Nico

Get on the floor?

Damkerng T.

14:23

"Get down" also implies that.

I'm not sure "Get on the floor" might also imply something else. -- checking...

Nico

Get down could also mean squatting.

books.google.com/…

just a silly example

Damkerng T.

How about "Get down on the floor"?

But if it's a command, "Lie down on the floor" or "Lie on the floor, face down" would be more precise.

Nico

I'm very pleased with myself that I quoted Cela's anecdote.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Lied is the wrong verb.

Damkerng T.

> The club must have this vibe, where you get on the floor and everybody's bringing it.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Floor
This is probably why I think "Get on the floor" could mean something else.

@snailboat Ah, a typo! Nico didn't even type that!

Anonymous

14:28

@Nico It's a dynamic, durative, atelic verb.

Nico

I'm sure this is gonna contribute to the idea Latin Americans have that Spaniard use explitives shamelessly.

Anonymous

So it resists the simple present under ordinary circumstances, but works fine in the present progressive ("I'm lying on the floor" rather than "I lie on the floor")

Nico

@snailboat durative = stative?

Anonymous

Stative and dynamic are opposites.

Anonymous

Or static and dynamic

Cerberus

14:30

The opposite of durative is...non-durative? I can't think of a proper antonym.

Anonymous

Punctual

Nico

... embarrassed ..

Anonymous

As in a single point in time

Cerberus

Hmm I have never seen that.

I think we usually say non-durative.

Nico

what is the oppossite of "durative"?

OK, cerberus read my mind.

Cerberus

14:31

Snaily just mentioned an antonym!

It is a good word.

Anonymous

@Cerberus That depends on who we is.

Anonymous

Comrie's dichotomy is between punctual and durative

Cerberus

We classicists.

Anonymous

See Aspect, chapter two.

Cerberus

And we say telic/terminative v. atelic/non-terminative, I think.

Anonymous

14:32

This is also the term adopted by Quirk et al. (1985) and Huddleston & Pullum (2002)'s reference grammars

Anonymous

It's also used in discussions of Japanese (e.g. Makino et al.)

Anonymous

So it has some currency among linguists

Anonymous

But it's not the only term.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I think I've seen about 60% of these "Get down". youtube.com/watch?v=xKXr3BZ0EFg

Anonymous

Actually, all the linguists I've seen discuss Japanese in English use punctual. Martin does in his 1975 reference grammar, too

Anonymous

14:34

But in Japanese, it's shunkan dōshi, which means "instantaneous verb"

Anonymous

I think shunkan may get the point across better than punctual

Anonymous

Stupid lexical priming.

Anonymous

I know I've seen other terms but I can't seem to think of them.

Anonymous

@Cerberus I'm used telic and atelic

Anonymous

Of course, I find myself explaining the terms most of the times I use them

Cerberus

14:35

Haha.

Anonymous

So I suppose to that end, I could call them anything I wanted :-)

Cerberus

Such is life.

Damkerng T.

I've been aware of the two terms only since a few months ago. :)

Anonymous

They aren't terms most English speakers know, probably.

Anonymous

I recently saw a comment on ELU on a question asking whether a verb was punctual or durative

Anonymous

14:37

The comment asked why the OP wanted to know, since it was not important to know in English

Nico

...afk...

Anonymous

(Their phrasing implied that it was a stupid thing to ask)

Anonymous

That made me slightly frowny

Cerberus

Hah.

Damkerng T.

@Nico Have a good time!

Cerberus

14:37

Most people are ignorant fools, alas.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I think it's really useful for non-native speakers to know about English.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I imagine so.

Anonymous

Of course, I can speak me some English good without knowing about that stuff.

2

Damkerng T.

lol

Anonymous

I learned a lot about aspect in Japanese.

Anonymous

14:39

I ended up learning about aspect in English as a side effect.

Anonymous

I mean, I'm still learning. I've always found aspect to be counterintuitive.

Anonymous

It's interesting to me the parallels but also the vast differences in aspect between languages

Damkerng T.

nods

It's quite obvious that different languages express the same idea differently.

Cerberus

What's counter-intuitive about aspect? You use it every day!

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus In another language, I think.

Cerberus

14:40

Oh.

Anonymous

Well, for example, Japanese has an aspect morpheme -te iru. When used with a durative verb, its most common interpretation is progressive. When used with a punctual verb, its most common interpretation is instead resultative.

Anonymous

So, for an English speaker who has learned that arui-te iru is "walking"

Anonymous

It can be confusing that it-te iru is not "is going" but "has arrived at"

Anonymous

Because the latter verb ("go") is punctual

Cerberus

Oh, sure, trying to map foreign aspects to your own can be counter-intuitive, confusing.

Anonymous

14:46

Yay, my new snail likes pear!

Damkerng T.

Ah, you can share your pears with her. :)

Anonymous

Uh-huh!

Anonymous

She was crawling all around and found her way on top of the red plastic house

Anonymous

So I put a little quarter-slice of pear and a piece of carrot near her to see if she'd eat them

Damkerng T.

-1

A: What is the difference between "barely" and " hardly" ?

They are pretty much synonymous - both mean 'only just'. You would not use either in the specific example you give regarding the translation of a book. That is because translation is a 'boolean' - either the book is translated or it is not. You can't 'only just' translate something. You would in...

Hmm... I couldn't see anything wrong with this answer. It looks better than our typical ones.

Anonymous

15:04

Damkerng T.

Somehow our pets look happy when they're eating something. :-)

Anonymous

I'm not very good at taking pictures but it's a cute snail :-)

Anonymous

I'll try to take cuter pictures later.

Damkerng T.

This one looks pretty good. :-)

Anonymous

Snails are cute when they eat. They pull their eyes in a little bit.

Anonymous

15:20

Oh, now she wants carrot!

Damkerng T.

Yay! An agile one would eat lots of things. :-)

Anonymous

15:43

Aww, she crawled onto the side of the carrot :-)

user8153

16:04

yo]

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It might be downvoted because they're not always interchangeable

Anonymous

Maulik's answer gives a counterexample where hardly means "not" and barely does not

Anonymous

(I didn't vote on either answer)

user8153

@snailboat how's your Japanese ?

what do you read to improve your Japanese?

Natsume?

Anonymous

At the moment? Linguistics papers :-)

user8153

16:07

Haruki?

what? Isn't it too hard?

No novels? or magazines?

Anonymous

Linguistics papers aren't really harder than novels, they're just different. You have to learn some technical vocabulary is all

Anonymous

I'm reading this paper on the double-o constraint: eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/14493/3/…

Anonymous

But I enjoy grammar. You should read whatever you'd like to read, so you can stay motivated

user8153

oh...I see

that's quite admirable.

I am sure most Japanese don't know this.

Japanese is so deep...

Damkerng T.

neither. "poorly." — djechlin 2 mins ago

To me, that is the answer.

Anonymous

16:15

Well, it doesn't describe the difference between the words, but it does answer the OP's irrelevant question of how to express that a book is translated badly

Anonymous

The OP has accidentally asked two unrelated questions, and that comment answers the second one

Damkerng T.

One problem of the users is they don't know how to explain their problems well, so it's usually ambiguous. (I haven't answered a lot of questions partly because of this.) To me, I guess that the OP asked about using either hardly or barely specifically in that question. General meanings are useful but secondary.

(Which is why I think Maulik's answer is irrelevant (to the OP), and saying they're synonymous in this context is fine. user8543 also pointed out that the OP should use neither, which is more important, imo.)

Anonymous

Yeah, when you're confused it's easy to ask a question that reflects that confusion

Damkerng T.

But the only one who can really say what the OP wants is probably the OP themselves.

Anonymous

Well, they did ask about various contexts

Damkerng T.

16:20

That's true.

I rephrase. I think that answer is incomplete, not irrelevant.

(Though I remember that we have a meta question asking if it's okay to answer questions partially, and the majority seems to think it's fine.)

Anonymous

I left a comment suggesting that Maulik answer the other portion of the question

Anonymous

(I imagine it's likely he missed it since it's not in the question title)

Damkerng T.

16:39

This is just a half answer! :) — Maulik V 1 hour ago

@MaulikV Considering that you said "This is just a half answer!" to another answer to your question, I think this looks like a 1/6 one. :-) — Damkerng T. 44 secs ago

Argh! I'm so fiend! :D

Let me rephrase. -- Argh! I'm so fiendly! -- TIL, fiendly is a word. :D

Damkerng T.

I'd say your second sentence should be: "This eighty percent is divided among a variety of ethnic groups." — Jim 12 hours ago

Hmm...

The original sentence of Man_From_India is:

> About 80 percent of South Africans are divided among a variety of ethnic groups.

Because of Jim's comment, it has been changed to this:

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. You don't really need to leave that comment… :-)

Damkerng T.

> *This 80 percent of South Africans are divided among a variety of ethnic groups.

Anonymous

His first version was better. Better, but still incomprehensible.

Anonymous

What are the other 20%? "Non-ethnic"? What does that mean?

Damkerng T.

16:50

Let's take a look at the real original by the OP:

> About 80 percent of South Africans are of black African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status.

Anonymous

Yeah, context could make a big difference.

Anonymous

That makes sense.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I see. Man_From_India tried to break it down into clauses, so using this or these or those would make more sense.

Anonymous

Sentence two would be okay if someone edited are to is

Anonymous

(Although I'm perhaps not uber keen on divided among)

Damkerng T.

16:52

I just did it. :)

Anonymous

Yay!

Anonymous

Hopefully Man_From_India didn't see the answer about proximal agreement the other day and think it meant it's automatically okay to write are because the closest word to it is plural

Anonymous

I'm afraid teaching learners about proximal agreement without defining clear boundaries or patterns in usage is potentially dangerous

Damkerng T.

lol -- That's possible. :D

Anonymous

15

A: IS or ARE? "The only thing that I want you to hit right now IS/ARE the books"

I'm going to provide support for a more moderate and, I believe, more accurate answer. There's a template idiom in the form "hit the noun" such as "hit the road" (something someone says before they leave in one's car for a trip or before going home late at night), hit the weights (go workout wi...

Anonymous

16:56

Wherein the answerer claims that the subject and complement must agree in number

Damkerng T.

Ah, this is one good example that having a lot of votes might not guarantee that the answer is a good answer.

(It would depend on what is good, too.)

Anonymous

In his latest edit, he gives an okay description

Anonymous

> Proximity agreement occurs when there's a plausible shift in plurality and the phrasing distances a copular verb (such as "to be") from the grammatical subject, resulting in a more natural sounding verb when it matches the closer, logical subject. This phenomenon is more pronounced as the verb gets further from the grammatical subject, the verb gets closer to the subject complement, and any intermediary phrases include plural phrases or semantics.

Damkerng T.

32 revisions. I think I missed the later ones!

Kabir101

Hello Everyone

Damkerng T.

16:59

Hello!

Kabir101

@DamkerngT. How are you?

Damkerng T.

I'm okay. Thanks for asking. How are you?

Kabir101

I am good too. Thanks

Can you proofread a para for me?

This is to inform you, that today my cab broke down during the pick-up hours, and I was informed by the transport that I will be picked up at 7:45.
I had been talking to Sunny from our transport team, as he was my informer about the incident. Sunny didn’t clearly mention that I need to hire a cab and come on my own. Hence, I reached at work at 10.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Umm... I already forgot, will the answerer be notified if their answer is edited?

@Kabir101 Looks generally fine. A bit colloquial, I think, but that's probably what it is, so it'd be fine.

Anonymous

If it's a substantial enough edit, yes.

Damkerng T.

17:03

I'm not sure about the phrase reached at work, though.

Kabir101

Good, thanks

Reached to work Vs reached at work. which goes better with this?

Damkerng T.

I normally say, "arrived at".

Anonymous

@Kabir101 Remove the first comma. Pick-up hours may be better than the pick-up hours. Change will to would. My informer about the incident is a strange phrase. Change need to needed. Change reached at work to reached work.

Damkerng T.

If we want to be a bit strict, I think This is to inform you that ... might be better as two sentences. -- This is to inform you. Today, my cab broke ... Also, if we want to make it sound a bit more polite, I think, I'd like to inform you that today my cab ... is better.

Anonymous

(I had to make some assumptions about the time relationships between different parts of the quote.)

Damkerng T.

17:09

@snailboat Ah, I guess you're right. Because the speaker used the past tense for the event happened at 10. I didn't notice this.

Anonymous

Maybe instead of he was my informer about the incident, you could say he was the one who informed me about the incident.

Anonymous

I'm surprised Sunny is a male name.

Anonymous

Is it a male name in India?

Anonymous

Maybe it's a male name here, too.

Damkerng T.

We have a male Sunny around here where I live too. :D

Anonymous

17:12

Wikipedia has male and female Sunnys both.

Anonymous

Sunny (singer)

Lee Soon-kyu (Hangul: 이순규; born on May 15, 1989), who uses the stage name Sunny (Hangul: 써니), is an American-born Korean singer, dancer, Radio personality(radio host or DJ), MC, TV presenter, promotional model, actress and member of the South Korean girl group, Girls' Generation. == Biography == Sunny was born on May 15, 1989 in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Kuwait while she was still an infant. Her family moved to South Korea around the time of the Gulf War. She shares the same birthday with her two older sisters (Lee Eun-kyu and Lee Jin-kyu). Her father was in the college band Hwaljooro...

Damkerng T.

Oh, I like this Sunny. She's very energetic! :D

Kabir101

:D Thank you very much for all your help.

:D

Damkerng T.

No problems. snailboat comments are also very useful. Don't miss them.

Ah, I didn't know that Sunny was born in the US!

Anonymous

Me either.

Kabir101

17:16

@snailboat thank you much :)

Damkerng T.

Ah, it just occurs to me...

> You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,

Probably this keep could mean throw away. :D

(or lock them up in some place, like a closet. :)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I think it means "There is no need for your black bowler hats or your sleek and tall top hats"

Anonymous

Maybe you can imagine an affinity between that keep and the keep here: "Do you want my bowler hat? It could be helpful." "No, you can keep it. This hat is much better."

Damkerng T.

That's exactly what I think, in more precise words. :D

Kabir101

For me it is a 'rhythmical phrase'. I have to Google it for better understanding.

Damkerng T.

17:28

I think it goes along this line: "You can keep them to yourself; you can keep them somewhere else; but you'd better keep them out of my sight," the Hat says. :-)

@Kabir101 Ah, I'm sorry that I didn't mention the source. It was from Harry Potter, which was referred to in one of our questions here: ell.stackexchange.com/q/29617/3281.

Anonymous

@Kabir101 Hehe, you're welcome :-)

Kabir101

Oh yeah. :) I am looking at it now.

Anonymous

17:49

-1

A: is 'the same to sb' better than 'the same for sb'

According to Cambridge Dictionaries Online same to you is an idiom and is used as un answer to someone who has greeted or insulted you in order to wish the same thing to them. Ex: Happy Christmas! - The same to you! Get lost! - Same to you! As for the same for you it means roughly the...

Anonymous

This is at -1. I'm not sure why. I have a guess: someone might think the negative connotation of "the same to you" is always present, and it's inappropriate in response to "Happy Christmas!"

Anonymous

My intuition tells me "the same to you" is more commonly used in response to insults, and "you too!" is more common in response to phrases like "Happy Christmas!"

Anonymous

(Of course, I'm from the U.S., where we say "Merry Christmas!" instead)

Damkerng T.

I think "Same to you!" as a sentence is different from "the same to you" in a sentence.

I didn't downvote that one, though.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. How would you use "the same to you" in a sentence?

Damkerng T.

17:57

It's in the OP examples.

Anonymous

Oh

Anonymous

I realize now I didn't read the question

Damkerng T.

> All people are the same to them.

At best, what LS quoted is irrelevant, I'd say.

Anonymous

I was looking for something inaccurate in the answer, but I wasn't thinking about it in the context of the question

Anonymous

It is irrelevant.

Anonymous

17:58

Now I understand the -1

Nico

@snailboat Thx for explaining how to classify verbs. Now, I have to dash, but some other time I'd like to ask you how can we tell that lie is a dynamic verb.

Transcript for