English Language Learners

Anonymous

18:00

That's my first time encountering "GP".

Anonymous

I was able to guess it eventually, though! :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I guess, "What say?" is shortened from "What say you?"

But I think you've already answered my question, in a way. :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I suppose that would be a decent guess, though since I don't personally understand it, I don't want to say so with any confidence

Anonymous

I think it might be dialectal

MARamezani

Look at the URL of this question:

1

Q: What does "Take on Me" mean in A-ha's song?

Doe it mean the same as "Take on your enemies" in this question? Or does it mean to confront me as an enemy? I can't figure out the meaning even from the context of the whole song...

http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/51437/what-does-take-on-me-mean-in-**a-ha‌s**-song

Anonymous

18:01

I'm not sure I've ever heard "What say we?" before, but it seems readily understandable on the model of "What say you?"

Anonymous

On the other hand, there's all sorts of sentences like "What say we go to the movies later?" which are perfectly natural to me, and not stilted / old-fashioned like "What say you?"

Damkerng T.

1

Q: “What say we [suggestion (verb phrase)]”

I would like to understand the history of the modern expression “what say we” followed immediately by a verb phrase, used to make a suggestion and common in informal speech, as attested at Oxford Dictionaries What say we take a break? used in publication Gillette Raises Bar With Five Blade R...

expressions contractions

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Immediately followed by a verb phrase, it's perfectly natural.

Anonymous

I don't know what "take on me" means

Anonymous

For starters, it's ungrammatical in normal speech, unless you're (rather exceptionally!) stressing me

Anonymous

18:05

But one might assume it means "Take me on"

Damkerng T.

But what's A-ha's song?

Anonymous

Take On Me

Anonymous

a-ha - Take On Me (Official Video)

►

Anonymous

Is it unavailable in your regions, out of curiosity?

Damkerng T.

Oh, I can watch it!

MARamezani

18:08

In mine, yes.

Damkerng T.

Oh, it's that song!

Anonymous

Oh, no! Not the pipe wrench!

Damkerng T.

Oh, they sing both "Take on me" and "Take me on".

Maybe it's just him, not a band.

Anonymous

I've never known what that song meant

Anonymous

Something about romance.

Anonymous

18:10

I love it, though.

MARamezani

Personally, I have to confess that I have never understood songs in my mother language, let alone English, or any other language.

Damkerng T.

:D

MARamezani

No really!

Anonymous

Different people have different aptitudes when it comes to that sort of thing. There's differentiation in the brain between singing and speaking

MARamezani

I never understand their mumbles over that music.

Anonymous

18:11

Sometimes stroke survivors can sing, but not speak

Anonymous

You know, I can hear most vocals automatically in languages I know without thinking much about it. But not all vocals

Anonymous

Some of it has to do with how it's sung, some of it has to do with how it's recorded, some of it has to do with how it's mixed

MARamezani

The same goes about movies.

Damkerng T.

I think it's sort of like captcha. :-)

Anonymous

I also think this is really funny―it was popular a few years back:

Anonymous

18:13

Take On Me: Literal Video Version

►

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. :D

Anonymous

It's a parody of the song but with the words replaced so they describe what's going on :-)

Anonymous

Wow, YouTube identified this song as Wintermute's Bad Company In a Sauna. Way to identify successfully, YouTube

Damkerng T.

@snailboat lol

@snailboat Identified?

MARamezani

Like the thing Google images does, I guess.

Anonymous

18:16

@DamkerngT. It says it at the bottom of the video description.

Mohammad

Hi Guys

how are you today ?

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Mine has no such thing!

Hello, @Mohammad!

Good, how about you?

Mohammad

I am fine thank you ?

I have another question today

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Mine says: 音楽 Wintermute の「Bad Company In a Sauna」 ( • • • )

MARamezani

Hi @Mohammad!

Anonymous

18:18

(I have YouTube in Japanese, so I translated it)

Damkerng T.

Ahh

MARamezani

Whoa, you guys are jets!

Mohammad

@MARamezani Hi

Anonymous

No, I'm a boat

Damkerng T.

I'm a robot.

MARamezani

18:18

A jetboat?

Anonymous

I suppose both robots and boats can have jets.

Damkerng T.

:D

Anonymous

I'm a rather leisurely boat, though, just sailing with the waves

MARamezani

I reviewed a first post in twenty seconds, and 7 messages popped up.

Anonymous

That's the sort of boat snails like.

Anonymous

18:19

Actually, some snails build their own rafts out of bubbles.

Anonymous

Like the violet snails, Janthinidae

Anonymous

Mohammad

I need your help to distinguish between the words "ridicule" and "scorn" and "despise" and "derision" and "disdain" :(

Damkerng T.

@snailboat They are making bubbles!

@Mohammad Hmm... The best way is to find them in their own contexts.

MARamezani

@Mohammad Three start with d, one with s, and one with r. Was that so hard? :)

Anonymous

18:20

Those bubbles last a long time! They use them to float in tropical waters

Anonymous

@MARamezani Grice!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Hah! Nice!

Anonymous

Cooperative principle

In social science generally and linguistics specifically, the cooperative principle describes how people interact with one another. As phrased by Paul Grice, who introduced it, it states, "Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged." Though phrased as a prescriptive command, the principle is intended as a description of how people normally behave in conversation. Jeffries and McIntyre describe them as "encapsulating the assumptions that we prototypically hold when we engage in...

MARamezani

@snailboat How?

How do the bubbles not blow up?

I'm a nerd, so I ask a lot.

Damkerng T.

@Mohammad First thing first. Avoid comparing nouns with verbs.

Mohammad

18:23

@DamkerngT. yes unfortunately I have this problem

Anonymous

@MARamezani Well, they do eventually.

Anonymous

Their bubbles are made of mucus.

MARamezani

Oh.

What is the mucus made of?

Anonymous

You could ask about them on biology.SE, perhaps

MARamezani

18:25

They'll close it in thirty seconds.

Damkerng T.

@Mohammad Dictionaries are very good at this.

@MARamezani Try Popular Sciences instead, then. :-)

MARamezani

Haha!

Majid, my friend, had his account suspended in there!

Mohammad

@DamkerngT. Yes but you will memorize them better when you negotiate them with others, that is why I come here always

Anonymous

Well, snail mucuses are remarkable substances with all sorts of interesting properties.

Anonymous

Slug mucuses, too.

Damkerng T.

18:27

@Mohammad Believe it or not, I've never tried to memorize words. (My vocab. size is not very big, though.)

Anonymous

@Mohammad I would actually try to learn each one on a different date, maybe at least a week apart

Damkerng T.

Hmm... Well, I think I might've tried, but it just didn't work for me.

Anonymous

That's the best way of keeping them from being confused in your long-term memory

MARamezani

google.com/…

Anonymous

Learning two similar things at the same time is actually counterproductive, though addressing a problem in how you've learned two similar things can be helpful

Anonymous

18:29

When I say "similar", I mean things you'll need to be able to distinguish.

Mohammad

Thanks Guys I ill take your advices into consideration

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani A-ha! My ICT dept. says, "This site has inappropriate content."

Anonymous

Though please, feel free to ask on ELL

MARamezani

It was censored here too Damkerng!

Anonymous

I'm not trying to stop you from getting your answer when I give this advice

Damkerng T.

18:30

Oh!

MARamezani

Wiki link would work actually:

Anonymous

Aww, what a good achatinid!

Mohammad

@snailboat yeah I know

MARamezani

Snail slime

Snail slime is a kind of mucus, an external bodily secretion which is produced by snails, gastropod mollusks. Land snails and slugs produce mucus, but so does every other kind of gastropod, from marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats. The reproductive system of gastropods also produces mucus internally from special glands. Externally, one kind of mucus is produced by the foot of the gastropod and is usually used for crawling on. The other kind of external mucus is designed to coat the external parts of the gastropod's body; in land species this coating helps prevent desiccation of the exposed...

Anonymous

That's a cute snail, too!

Anonymous

18:32

Anonymous

So many whorls!

Damkerng T.

The eye stalks look small compared to the shell!

MARamezani

Yeah.

Anonymous

Well, the fleshy part of the body isn't that big. It has to fit into the last whorl there.

MARamezani

That appearance of that snail is much more often here.

Anonymous

18:33

Did I show you this picture of Luna?

Anonymous

MARamezani

No.

Anonymous

And this one:

MARamezani

no.

Anonymous

MARamezani

18:34

Yes.

No.

Anonymous

That's a lot of answers for only two questions! :-)

Damkerng T.

I think both are new. :-)

MARamezani

Nah, the last one is.

Damkerng T.

But the first one looks like a cropped version of a photo I've seen before.

Anonymous

Oh, the first one isn't cropped

Anonymous

18:35

But it's probably on a similar leaf in a similar spot :-)

MARamezani

Gosh! I really write "is" as "us" today.

Damkerng T.

Maybe I misremember the size of it! :-)

Anonymous

The last one is cropped, though.

Anonymous

The full size picture is cute, but the snails made a bit of a mess on the wall, so I cropped out the mess :-)

MARamezani

Now, that's something I'd like to see.

Damkerng T.

18:36

I think Luna's body-shell proportion looks better than the one we've seen earlier.

@MARamezani Wow!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. She's growing quite large!

Anonymous

My guess is that she's four weeks from maturity

MARamezani

How many snails do you have @snailboat?

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Anonymous

Three right now

MARamezani

18:37

...And 3000 in the future.

Anonymous

Luna hatched from an egg the other two snails made :-)

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani :D

@snailboat What about the other eggs?

How many eggs do they hatch at a time?

I guess Luna's cousins are living in the nearby woods. :-)

Thank you for detailed answer. — gigs 21 mins ago

I hope they understand the answer.

Sometimes I wonder if our users really understand the answers.

MARamezani

They don't.

Don't wonder. :)

Damkerng T.

Aww

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. They don't hatch eggs, they lay them

Damkerng T.

18:42

@snailboat Oh, I see. I misused that word!

MARamezani

I didn't notice it!

Anonymous

They hatch up to a couple weeks after they're laid

Anonymous

The adult snails don't assist in this process like some animals do with their eggs

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. As a more serious note, they feel ashamed to ask for clarification, unfortunately.

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani It's a pity if that's the case.

Anonymous

18:47

I still think getting reputation on ELU is easier than on ELL

MARamezani

Of course.

Anonymous

I posted this after the hot network question window was basically over, and I've gotten 17 upvotes

Damkerng T.

But your answer is good.

MARamezani

Bigger communities mean better receiving worthy questions.

Or answers.

Anonymous

Even assuming that's the case, good answers don't usually get that many upvotes on ELL unless they're on hot network questions

MARamezani

18:49

Or comments.

Damkerng T.

(On the other hand, posting good answers on ELL is not the best way to get lots of rep points.)

MARamezani

:|

Anonymous

ELL doesn't have enough votes―I said earlier it needs more downvotes, but it certainly needs more upvotes, too

Damkerng T.

I wish I were an average voter on ELL.

Anonymous

Wow, that'd raise the bar quite a bit :-)

Anonymous

18:51

You're still our #1 voter!

Damkerng T.

Oh, I don't think it's really outstanding. :-)

Anonymous

You eclipsed me long ago, and I show no signs of catching up … :-)

MARamezani

It's pointless to talk about this and make ourselves angry.

Anonymous

Who's angry?

MARamezani

Me. :)

That's the sign.

Anonymous

18:52

Well, I'm not. I'm just making an observation

Anonymous

Usually when you're angry it's useful to take a break.

MARamezani

How to type "breathing"?

Damkerng T.

I think lately I read about 5-10 questions a day, and vote when I think the post I'm reading is good. And my weekly voting stat is still right among the top voters.

Anonymous

You mean like onomatopoeia for breathing? I don't really know of any, apart from things like huff, huff

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Eh, you just typed it.

Ahh

Anonymous

18:53

I can't think of anything appropriate to the situation

MARamezani

Hmm, I'd just go with deep breath.

Anonymous

The main thing that is affecting me psychologically at the moment is not ELL, but being sick

Anonymous

I'm shivering!

Anonymous

Sure, that works

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, no!

MARamezani

18:54

I'm shivering too, and I'm beside the radiator.

Anonymous

That and I've been listening to music and dancing in my chair :-)

Damkerng T.

Do have a fever too?

Anonymous

I have a fever.

Damkerng T.

Wait, dancing in your chair?

How could you do that!?!

Anonymous

Yeah! You know, bouncing slightly left and right to the beat :-)

Damkerng T.

18:55

Hehe!

MARamezani

:D

Anonymous

A good song should make you want to move.

Anonymous

And moving makes you feel good.

Anonymous

Of course, that depends on the type of song to some extent, but it's usually true.

MARamezani

I'm not a fan of songs, but a fan of movie soundtracks.

Or trailers.

Anonymous

18:56

I'm using song in its general sense

MARamezani

You know, instrumentally cool stuff.

Anonymous

Colloquially, it usually means any music, whether it has singing or not

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Like, soothing music?

MARamezani

I know.

Anonymous

Most people don't go by the strict dictionary definition unless they're discussing classical music

Anonymous

18:56

So everything you just said still counts as "songs" to me.

MARamezani

About soothing music, I usually go with Kevin Kern's works.

But I didn't mean that.

Anonymous

Mean what?

MARamezani

For example, Transformers: Age of extinction soundtrack.

Anonymous

Ahh, I haven't seen that movie

MARamezani

Or game soundtracks: Deus Ex.

Anonymous

18:58

Or played that game

MARamezani

You don't have to.

Anonymous

I like soundtracks, though.

MARamezani

In fact, I first listened to Transformers' soundtracks, then downloaded the movie.

Damkerng T.

0

Q: What parts of a sentence are here?

Only to think of it. To think - is a predicate,but what about others? Let’s look for a shelter. Look for - is a predicate,others I don't know. А shelter - object? Obedient little trees, fulfilling their duty. Obedient little trees- subject Fulfilling - predica...

grammar syntax

MARamezani

Again that guy!

Damkerng T.

18:59

Now I got an itch ~~to estimate their fluency level~~.

Anonymous

Do you think doing so will help answer their questions?

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