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19:00
I think an -ing is okay; an infinitive with or without to is also okay. (With to is safer, I think.)
@DamkerngT. Are there deleted answers in that question?
Yes, there is one.
Why is it deleted?
By the owner.
Any comments?
19:03
No. Maybe the answerer could sense that his answer was incorrect.
I can't see deleted comments anyway.
"So an adjective phrase or adverb phrase cannot function as the subject of a clause unless it is a noun."
Part of the deleted answer.
I think I can think of counter examples.
Anonymous
@MARamezani Gum
Anonymous
19:08
@DamkerngT. That sentence doesn't appear to make sense
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yeah. My bad. No no, pistachios' bad.
I don't know which grammar book he used.
@MARamezani You ate them, and yet you blamed them. Poor pistachios!
Can I have some?
@DamkerngT. Life's cruel.
@DamkerngT. Oh OK. Here. Wait. My hand. Ouch.
lol
0
Q: is it correct to use ‘belong' in this way?

rafi ur rashid The slum dwellers are often seen quarreling with each other which seriously affects the psychology of the children belonged to those families. I doubt about its use as a post modifer,if any objection please say.

Robo-edit: The slum dwellers are often seen quarreling with each other which seriously affects the psychology of the children belonged to in those families.
Works fine enough. Learners tend to overcomplicate things.
Star that.
19:19
nods
Your wish is sometimes my command.
@DamkerngT. That's what I like about you.
Anonymous
But your hope isn't.
0
Q: Am I saying "wanted to" correct in American accent?

Marco DinatsoliI am watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwyJlpgt4DI and I am trying to say wanted to in American accent. the n cancels the t the to becomes da the word become *waned da** the d in waned and the d in da becomes one d I recorded the way i say it here http://www.filedropper.com/...

If I see another Q with youtube links, I'll go....
Hmm... Oh, it's a different OP!
19:24
Was gonna say mad, but realized that wasn't even beginning to describe it.
3
Q: So tell me now - What am I?

Aggie KiddSo tell me know, can you figure out, The clues I'll give are all about A subject many really quite hate, The moment they hear it, from the gate. It really is useful, as science would say, Scientific conclusions use it every day. The chances too are great, can you see If you use it, or hear what t...

Damn they're smart!
Hmm... He makes it sound like "He wannid this bend. He wannid this bent. He wannid this bend. He wannid this bent. He wannid this bent"
@Dam do you have a friend named Tryth?
You do you liar!
7
Q: Picture Perfect

TrythMost people I know hang paintings and posters on their wall. However my robot friend instead hangs a page of binary on the wall: 00000000000000000000000000000000000100010111110111110111110000000010001010001010101010000000000001111101000101010101111100000000100010100010101010100000000000010001...

Ah, I understand. You were friends, right?
I guess a fixed font and a text editor with wrapping should help.
I agree with Jiminion!
Anonymous
19:33
@MARamezani Where is he recording that? Or is he adding reverb?
@JasonPatterson really? really? your last sentence gives me the power to keep studying all the night. you last sentence gives me the confident again that I may sometimes speak as Americans do. Thank you very very very very very very much. a date has been just canceled in order to study :P :P — Marco Dinatsoli 7 mins ago
Oh, someone just got a date cancelled!
Whoa, I wished I became that excited about learning English!
Anonymous
Maybe they could record in a closet to cut down on the reverb so we can give a better evaluation
I haven't experienced going on dates, though.
Positive feedback reinforcement is very important!
19:37
@DamkerngT. Wait a sec. I know what :P means, but what is :P :P? Is it sunglasses above a guy's head?
0.O
Anonymous
:P is sticking your tongue out
I guess it's just :P of two minions. :P
@snailboat So, is :P :P a person licking another, shorter guy's hair?
O.o
Anonymous
Pass
@snailboat Or is the taller guy licking the shorter one's eyes?
0.O
Anonymous
19:41
Also pass
Usually @Jim (Do|t god) is supposed to make those grosseries.
Wow, Do|t is even better than Do|t!
Anonymous
I'd prefer to stay out of that sort of discussion personally... :-)
Hmm, let's see: Do|t
Now it looks like ASUS's logo.
I mean the style.
I have to go and sleep now. Nighty night!
19:47
Nighty night!
0:52 Don't wanna hear you lie d'night.
An interesting way to voice the words!
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. It is interesting, but it also strikes me as a perfectly normal pronunciation of tonight
What about deadly?
I think all her stops (even /v/) are very much reduced, except for the /k/ sound.
Anonymous
20:11
I can't make out all the words
Hah!
I didn't listen until the end of the song, though.
Anonymous
> If you want it, take it, I should've said it before, try to hide it, fake it, I can't pretend anymore
Anonymous
> I only wanna die a lie (???)
Anonymous
What's that line?
2:37 No more, baby. <-- I think they must've done some tricks to the video! It looks odd.
Alive.
Anonymous
20:13
@DamkerngT. The video is just lip syncing the studio recording
Anonymous
Alive occurred to me too, but that didn't make any sense
Anonymous
"I only want to die alive"?
Anonymous
What else have I got wrong?
Oh, yes. I put my sensibility down before I listened to the song. :-)
@snailboat The part "try hide it" is controversial on ELL.
Anonymous
Lemme listen again
20:15
I heard "Tryda hide it".
Anonymous
Yeah, I forgot to type to
This question led me to the song: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/39036/…
Anonymous
I guessed tried would make sense there, though there's no hint of it in the audio
Anonymous
Her singing is very vocalic, with all the consonants shorn off
20:17
I think only the front consonants.
Anonymous
Not all of them
Yes. Some front consonants are pretty much standard, like /f/.
Anonymous
It's not totally consistent
Anonymous
Yeah, I was going to point out /f/
Anonymous
In break free
Anonymous
20:18
Is she a non-native speaker?
I checked it out a bit. Wikipedia says she's from Florida.
Anonymous
She definitely has some odd-sounding pronunciation in the song
Anonymous
But I guess it's just part of how she sings
nods -- The deadly struck me as odd!
Anonymous
Her voice is also heavily processed
20:21
I heard her It was lethal as It was lether! (So I thought leather!)
Anonymous
Where's that at?
Anonymous
Wait, it really is "I don't wanna die alive"?
Anonymous
So I could've guessed that if I hadn't ruled it out as gibberish
20:22
Sorry, it's I only wanna die alive.
(I overlooked the don't.)
Anonymous
Deadly is perfectly understandable to me, but it's not exactly the normal pronunciation of the word
Anonymous
Oh
Anonymous
I had only right
Anonymous
Sorry, it's hard for me to discuss this while I have the audio still playing
Anonymous
Listening interferes with my phonological loop
20:24
nods -- That's perfectly understandable.
It was also much harder for me on the loud speaker.
Anonymous
Yeah, that lethal could be easily misinterpreted
(Now I'm on my headset. Still I heard leather!)
Anonymous
I'm listening on my headphones
Anonymous
Let me try on my studio monitors
Anonymous
I'll be right back
20:27
The reverb also made me think of I don't want ya as I don't wanna a few times.
Anonymous
Okay, on my monitors I can hear all the /v/s
Anonymous
I can't hear the final /l/ in lethal
Anonymous
Wow, that video has a relatively high proportion of thumbs down
Anonymous
Thumbs downs? Thumbses down? Thumbs down?
20:31
Oh, I didn't look at the stats, but you're right!
Hmm...
I guess Thumbs downs. :-)
Anonymous
The sound effects aren't mixed in very well
Anonymous
The song is compressed super hard, which is part of the style
Anonymous
But the sound effects just don't mesh, they sound awful when it's pushed that hard
I don't know if it's because it's on YouTube.
Anonymous
Oh, well, it's true that you're never going to have super high quality audio on YouTube to begin with
Anonymous
20:34
It's also true that it doesn't handle stuff that's brickwalled to within an inch of its life very gracefully
Anonymous
So that could be it...
Anonymous
It's a pretty good track though
I think I can say that it's catchy.
Anonymous
Hey, she was on this show: languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=9695
Anonymous
20:38
I watched that when Language Log linked to it :-)
Oh, Nickelodeon!
Hmm... is "shawby" another word for strawberry?
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. I don't think so?
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. But I'm sure the album version won't have the sfx.
Anonymous
She's definitely saying strawberry, but
Anonymous
20:45
It does sound like the /t/ is dropped and the /s/ is palatalized
Anonymous
I still hear it as strawberry, whatever she does to it :-)
Nice to hear that!
Anonymous
I did notice her pronunciation was kind of weird
Anonymous
I was assuming that was part of her character
Oh, I forgot about tween!
I always wondered what exactly it means: before teens, or twenties.
> Tolkien uses it in "Lord of the Rings" for "the irresponsible twenties between [Hobbit] childhood and coming of age at thirty-three."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tween
Anonymous
20:58
@DamkerngT. I think it's usually something like 'preteen'
Anonymous
Of course, hobbits are a special case.
Yes! I kinda like the idea that Hobbits are coming of age at thirty-three. :-)
I must admit that I can't catch all the words he said.
Anonymous
> The frantic pacing―scene changes every eleven seconds―often leaves kids zoned out and spun up, unable to concentrate.
Anonymous
zoned is the hardest to hear
Anonymous
It has the wrong vowel
21:05
nods
Anonymous
I might suggest they try imitating a recording
The rhythm sounds all wrong to my ear.
Anonymous
Shadowing is supposed to be more effective than practicing reading something out loud
Anonymous
To me, it sounds like they read something out loud, supplying their own rhythm, intonation, and so on
Anonymous
If they actually did listen to a recording first, then I might suggest they compare their own recording to the source and try to hone it through repetition
21:08
nods
I didn't check the stresses, but I guess the stressing might be off, too.
Though it's obvious that they put a lot of effort into it.
yes i am really trying hard to speak good
Hi, @MarcoDinatsoli! Welcome to the chat room.
i won't stop trying
hi
did you get what i said?
was it correct please?
@MarcoDinatsoli That's very admirable!
It's obvious that snailboat can hear you alright.
what about u ?
are you American first?
21:20
The words scenes, every, leaves, zoned, spun are the part that I was more or less unsure about.
No, I'm Thai. snailboat is an American.
Hmm... Maybe I should ping @snailboat. :-)
I supposed that zoned and spun weren't correct, but you shocked me by leaves and every. they are basics words and I must pronouce them correctly
I'm sorry!
no no , that is my fault, not yours, good your told me so i keep trying
what about the intenation
was it completely wrong?
I think snailboat suggested something earlier.
I will check the older messages
21:24
18 mins ago, by snailboat
I might suggest they try imitating a recording
snailboat doesn't know whether you are male or female.
(Neither do I!)
OMG that is so funny loooooooooool
Oh, I think we should know that after listening to your recording.
i am a guy 26 years old
It common here in the chat room to refer users on ELL we're not sure about their genders as they.
So, sometimes we use they without knowing that we already know the gender!
is my voice a female voice? this i can't change sorry
21:26
@MarcoDinatsoli Thanks for the info. I'm male, by the way.
@MarcoDinatsoli Not that. It's just that we were careless. Sorry!
@snailboat suggested to do the recording again?
27 mins ago, by Damkerng T.
I must admit that I can't catch all the words he said.
See, I referred to you as he. :-)
thanks :P lol
Then I forgot that I knew that!
no problem
the problem that i am having is that i just read/listen to english
i live in Portugal and people here don't speak correct english
21:28
That's perfectly understandable. I was in your shoes a few years ago.
i speak in English with people but that doens't help to imporve the speaking as if i were living in UK
because i am getting used to wrong speaking habits
that is why i badly need someone who is a native speaker to speak with
i am trying to listen to podcasts and keep repeating and recording and then cutting the audio to keep listening
but that is becoming hard, so hard, i wish i have a native speaker to talk with. at least 20 minutes per day
@snailboat is here! Yay!
Anonymous
@DamkerngT. Oh, no, I was actually pretty sure, so I could've said he :-)
@snailboat did you understand what i said please? was it hard for u ?
Anonymous
@MarcoDinatsoli The part around zoned took me multiple listens
Anonymous
21:32
Everything up to often was easy to understand for me
i though that zoned out should be pronouced as zon + dout
Anonymous
Sure, that sounds reasonable
Anonymous
You should work on the vowel in zone
I think it's the vowel that threw me off.
Anonymous
I think
21:33
Yes, what snailboat said.
okay i will focus on the vowel sounds
Anonymous
Leaves kids was somewhat hard to understand. It sounded like leave skids
that is a good idea
Anonymous
Remember that the /k/ there should be aspirated
Anonymous
Which means it needs to have a puff of air
21:35
what is a puff of air?
When you pronounce the letter "t", like "tuh", that's a puff of air after the /t/ sound.
Anonymous
But in Portuguese, there's very little aspiration.
I don't speak Portugese
:)
Anonymous
Oh, I'm sorry
no problem, don't worry
Anonymous
21:36
What languages do you speak?
I prefer not to say, sorry
i don't live my native language
Anonymous
That's okay, it just makes it more difficult to talk about pronunciation
okay i will say, fuc+king arabic language is my native language
Anonymous
But we can describe these sounds without comparing to another language
@snailboat can we have a Skype conversation please? like 5 minutes every week? i just need to expose to a native speakers
hello :)
21:49
I'm afraid that neither snailboat or I use Skype.
It is okay then, if you prefer any other software, i am also ready. if not. no problem, i am sorry for asking.
22:28
Unable to get the file. The page requires Google Ads to be enabled. — TRomano 34 mins ago
Hmm... that's curious.
Anonymous
23:13
It'd be nice if ELL could get an integrated audio player of some sort
3
Totally agree!
@ColleenV Hello! Welcome to the chat room!
23:37
Dam! Awake?
@JimReynolds Yes.

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