English Language Learners

Damkerng T.

16:02

> 24. A method as in claim 19 wherein a first of the layers of the cylinder are formed by coil segments of the first group and a second of the layers of the cylinder are formed by coil segments of the second group.
http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20100090558

That is the first group and a second of the layers.

Anonymous

Seems ungrammatical

Anonymous

Also, it's too different from the example in the question to relate the two

Damkerng T.

> The MRAM cell includes a magnetic tunnel junction that has at least a first magnetic layer, a second magnetic layer, and an insulating layer disposed between the first and a second magnetic layers.
https://fr.linkedin.com/in/virgile

This one is the first and a second magnetic layers.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Should say the second

Anonymous

Or just second

Damkerng T.

16:04

nods

MARamezani

> A first duration is associated with the first group and a second duration is associated with the second group.

Nah, that's obsolete, I guess.

Anonymous

@MARamezani Hmm, that seems grammatical

MARamezani

> From the second group, one sample was classified in the first group and a second one in the third group.

Heh.

I'm not a biologist. Why does Google throw these at me?

Hmm, I'm coming to the realization that in scientific contexts, running into a the first group and a second [something] is highly feasible. Especially when there are experiments involved.

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

Sure, there's nothing wrong with the first X and a second Y

Anonymous

16:09

Nothing to do with science

Anonymous

They're just the and a doing what they usually do.

MARamezani

So, VTC is legitimate.

Anonymous

Hmm, I think the question is answerable, though it's not entirely clear

Damkerng T.

Robot: Abstain.

Anonymous

The motion fails

MARamezani

16:15

I misread it as abstein and said What? Is that German?

Anonymous

ab Stein?

Damkerng T.

:D

MARamezani

Whoa they're fast. I flagged something in meta.SE 38 secs ago, and the flag was approved ten seconds later.

Damkerng T.

nods

@snailboat Oh, was this kind of ads popular in the US? The "abdominizer" ads.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. ad

Anonymous

16:18

@DamkerngT. I don't know! When?

Anonymous

I spent a long chunk of my life avoiding TV as best I could :-)

Damkerng T.

Not sure, about 5-6 years back.

Anonymous

Hmm, five to six years ago I didn't actually have a television, though I had DVDs and iTunes!

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. What are these ads you're talking about?

Damkerng T.

I think iWatch is some kind of a reincarnation of those abdominizers!

(By the way, TYftC!)

This kind of stuff!

It comes in so many, many forms!

MARamezani

16:21

@DamkerngT. "Abdomenizer"! "Abdomen" is an insect part.

Damkerng T.

Oh, sorry, I misremembered its spelling.

Anyway, not all of them used the term "abdomenizer".

MARamezani

What if it's just a TM?

Damkerng T.

I guessed it was just a TM, yes.

Anonymous

Abdomenizer definitely sounds like a cheap infomercial product

MARamezani

Note to self:

> Dear Sir I want to write a letter to bank regarding my failed cash transaction in one of their atm machine. actually i wanted to withdraw 5000rs...

Rials are abbreviated as Rls, not rs

Anonymous

16:23

Abdomenizer

The Abdomenizer (or Abdomeniser) was an abdominal exerciser invented in 1984 by Canadian chiropractor Dennis Colonello and marketed through infomercials by the Fitness Quest corporation of Canton, Ohio. It was an almost flat, saddle-like piece of thermoformed plastic, about 2 by 3 feet, with handles and a depression for the tailbone. The infomercial, first broadcast in October 1988 and featuring Charlene Tilton, promised that you would "rock, rock, rock your way to a firmer stomach". By 1992, 1.5 million had been sold directly from TV advertising, and 2 million more had been sold in stores, but...

Anonymous

> Many people used them as snow sleds, and a warning label was affixed advising against this use.

Damkerng T.

:D

MARamezani

@snailboat Wikipedia can be phuunny? o.0

Anonymous

@MARamezani en.wikipedia.org/w/…

Damkerng T.

:D

@MARamezani I think they meant rupees.

MARamezani

16:26

@snailboat Don't you realize there are kids here? Now I'm not gonna be able to sleep at night.

@DamkerngT. Their name suggests their home country is Saudi Arabia.

Damkerng T.

I thought Count Chocula is supposed to be friendly. :-)

@MARamezani Ahh

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. That's how I read it, too. The rest of their question reads as Indian English

Anonymous

@MARamezani Could be!

MARamezani

@snailboat Maybe because there is no Saudi English?

Anonymous

What makes you think there isn't?

MARamezani

16:29

@snailboat Cuz there isn't Persian English

...yet.

Anonymous

That seems demonstrably false

MARamezani

(Give me a break. I don't have time for invention.)

@snailboat The OP of that Q is IMO a person from Saudi Arabia who has traveled to an English speaking country and recently shook hands with tough luck. Desperately, they post their problem seeking for help in an English learning community.

Anonymous

@MARamezani That sentence would be better with a modal expression such as probably or likely to be

Anonymous

Since you don't have firsthand knowledge

MARamezani

IMO has evolutionized. :P

Anonymous

16:33

You can use an expression that indicates a high likelihood if you feel certain, but adding some sort of modality would make it make more sense

Anonymous

@MARamezani Hmm, IMO doesn't work that way

Anonymous

I did get the feeling you intended it to, though :-)

MARamezani

Note to self: That's a he, possibly

But the tough luck part what we're sure of, kinda.

Damkerng T.

In my opinion, the OP can mail the text he wrote in the question to his bank if communication is his main goal. I think his English is perfectly understandable.

MARamezani

Yes.

I always end up with ten tabs open with Newest Questions as their title.

Damkerng T.

16:38

Mwahaha... That's not very many. :P

MARamezani

You think I wanna get banned?

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. No one can compete with Damkerng on open tabs!

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Anonymous

I have six tabs open.

Anonymous

Make that five.

Damkerng T.

16:39

Current status: 1110 tabs (only for this window)

Anonymous

How do you even tell? Does it give you a count somewhere? :-)

MARamezani

@snailboat Duh! ~~That's~~ He's a robot!

He is the computer itself.

Anonymous

He may be a robot, but he's right up at the top of the animacy hierarchy!

Damkerng T.

Actually, tes. If I click to close this window, FF will ask me: Are you sure you want to close 1110 tabs?

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Wow! What do you do if you accidentally click yes?

Damkerng T.

16:42

Or to be more precise: You are about to close 1110 tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?

@snailboat Ahh...

MARamezani

@snailboat Say Whir.

Damkerng T.

That's...

:P

Anonymous

@MARamezani whirrrr!

Damkerng T.

Somehow it never happened!

MARamezani

Whirr whirr whuuurr

Anonymous

16:43

clank, clank, raaaaattchetttt, claclaclaclaCLONK, baCLERNKK, dun, dun, dunnnn whirrrrrr CLANKonkonk

Anonymous

beep!

MARamezani

Finish this nonsense. Human's err. Not robots.

Or maybe they do?

Damkerng T.

Don't worry, if it ever happens, I know how to fix it.

MARamezani

0.o

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Do you have some kind of tab restorer extension?

MARamezani

16:44

@DamkerngT. Yeah that's easy. With a screwdriver.

Anonymous

Do you remember what browsing was like before tabs?

Anonymous

I bet you had lots of windows open.

Damkerng T.

1) Kill FF immediately 2) Make a copy of sessionstore.js and its .bak 3) move .bak to .js 4) restart FF

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Ya know, I first thought FF means FumbleFingers.

Anonymous

Wow! You're serious about your tab hoardin―I mean, er, collection!

Damkerng T.

16:46

@MARamezani Hehe!

Anonymous

@MARamezani Sometimes I think SB means Snail Boat, but it actually means StoneyB.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Hehe! Right now I have 36 FF windows!

MARamezani

@snailboat BTW, Tab mix plus has a session restore setting.

Star that.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Are your tabs arranged hierarchically?

Anonymous

@MARamezani You ran out of stars on command long ago.

Damkerng T.

16:47

@snailboat Just linearly. This way is the most efficient for me.

Anonymous

Ahh

Anonymous

I was wondering if perhaps you'd be interested in a higher dimensional organization

Anonymous

Since right now you've got quite a bit with just two dimensions! :-)

MARamezani

@snailboat NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO‌OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO‌OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!

Damkerng T.

I tried some, but they made my FF run even slower!

MARamezani

16:48

...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO‌OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. OK, what were we saying?

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Something beginning with N and ending with O?

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. I'm satisfied with Tab Mix.

Don't have a zillion tabs though.

Damkerng T.

I think Tab Mix should be okay for hundred tabs.

Anonymous

  crystal@sandwich:~$ grep -e '^n.*o$' /usr/share/dict/words
  nacho
  neutrino
  no
  nonzero
  nuncio

Damkerng T.

lol

MARamezani

16:50

Yeah, I meant neutrino alright. The three dots contained eutrin.

Anonymous

  crystal@sandwich:~$ figlet 'NEUTRINOOOOO'
   _   _ _____ _   _ _____ ____  ___ _   _  ___   ___   ___   ___   ___
  | \ | | ____| | | |_   _|  _ \|_ _| \ | |/ _ \ / _ \ / _ \ / _ \ / _ \
  |  \| |  _| | | | | | | | |_) || ||  \| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
  | |\  | |___| |_| | | | |  _ < | || |\  | |_| | |_| | |_| | |_| | |_| |
  |_| \_|_____|\___/  |_| |_| \_\___|_| \_|\___/ \___/ \___/ \___/ \___/

Damkerng T.

LOL

A cat is looking at its robot suspiciously again...

MARamezani

@snailboat That's a physicist saying N...O.

DEAL WITH IT!

Anonymous

No, they said N...O. If they said N...O, it'd look like this:

Anonymous

      _   __________  ____________  _____   ______  ____  ____  ____  ____
     / | / / ____/ / / /_  __/ __ \/  _/ | / / __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \
    /  |/ / __/ / / / / / / / /_/ // //  |/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
   / /|  / /___/ /_/ / / / / _, _// // /|  / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ /
  /_/ |_/_____/\____/ /_/ /_/ |_/___/_/ |_/\____/\____/\____/\____/\____/

Damkerng T.

16:53

giggling...

MARamezani

Yeah. That.

Damkerng T.

I think I could use some of those sounds sometimes. :-)

Damkerng T.

19:14

Let's see if I can ping @English.

MARamezani

@English

@English @English @English

That would ping him, I think.

Damkerng T.

0

Q: Questions about Grammar of English

As you know, there are some structures which let us make sentences by using make. like make + noun = adjective which I used to make the first sentence of mine but My question is that if there is a structure to make a sentence by using this pattern make+noun=noun which is used to make the second s...

grammar

MARamezani

I saw that.

Too lazy to put a comment.

Damkerng T.

I'm a bit concerned about the last paragraph:

> I asked my last question about make 2 weeks ago or so, but I really didn't get the answer of it.I mean it seemed people didn't understand what my question was.my question is that what you should say make tea or brew tea which verb is used by Americans.Imagine somebody wants to drink a cup of tea and you want to drink too,how do you say it . let's make some tea or let's brew some tea

I think English got stuck with the verb make (and its friends).

MARamezani

Yes. I was reading something, and missed the last paragraph. But now....

Damkerng T.

19:17

A simple solution would be: Let's have some tea!

Freddy

Instead we can ask him to join chat in comment area

MARamezani

@Freddy That's why you're Freddy!

Damkerng T.

Oh, I'm wearing the wrong glasses. BRB

Better. :D

Freddy

12354678910 Can u read? @DamkerngT.

Damkerng T.

Of course, I can. Now, I mean. :P

Freddy

19:21

can you spot the mistake? It's not in proper order

Damkerng T.

Oh, that's the problem. I don't have the focus power as much as I used to have when I was younger.

And my eyesight is not stable yet.

Freddy

@DamkerngT. Robot needs new virtual eye :-)

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. I think you should read your manual.

Damkerng T.

Probably!

Anonymous

It can be difficult to recognize that two of the elements have been switched

Anonymous

19:31

We tend not to read things one letter at a time

Anonymous

And taken as a whole it looks pretty similar to 12345678910! :-)

Damkerng T.

I think it's still fair to say that it's easier for younger people to spot this kind of abnormality.

Anonymous

Unfortunately I read the message right to left, so I saw the question first and the numbers second

Anonymous

So I can't tell if I'd've spotted it or not

Damkerng T.

Right to left... That's interesting!

Maybe it's the influence of Japanese.

Anonymous

19:36

Well, sometimes chat messages begin with a sequence of about that many digits, and that usually means someone made an error in replying to a message, so maybe I've been trained to ignore initial digits :-)

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Makes sense. :D

Anonymous

I don't know

Anonymous

I just scan quickly through chat history to look for interesting things, I'm not exactly sure how I do it :-)

Damkerng T.

> ...when he noted that civilization was a "vast edifice of sham, and the war, instead of its crumbling, was its fullest and most ultimate expression."
http://ell.stackexchange.com/q/54444/3281

I wish the OP would've taken care of punctuations a little more than he did.

But I brought it up because I was tempting to answer it. Then I realized that it's not easy to explain that in plain English.

I was thinking about boiling this civilization was a "vast edifice of sham, and the war, instead of its crumbling ..." down to "civilization was an illusion of goodness", but not sure if it's a good idea.

0

Q: Grammar stucture make so. sth

As you know, there are some structures which let us form sentences by using "make". Like make + noun = adjective which I used to make the first sentence of mine. My question is: Is there also a structure to make a sentence by using the pattern make + noun = noun which I used to build ...

grammar

Wow, that was a heavy edit!

Oh, two edits, even.

Anonymous

19:53

Nice question

Anonymous

0

Q: Present tense and past tense

Is there a difference between these two? Which one is more common? I was wondering if I ( needed / need ) to take my own towel.

grammar tense politeness backshifting

Damkerng T.

This part was gone:

> is my sentences correct?
As you saw today , they don't want to sell their home on that price anymore.we should offer them more money to get them to accept to sell it.

Anonymous

Six answers without upvotes, two of them deleted!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Very surprising!

Anonymous

Ah, I just took a look at the edit history

Damkerng T.

19:58

Oh, I see. The OP sentence is ambiguous, and it's difficult to analyze or answer without assuming a context, which the OP didn't mention anything about.

It could be about politeness: I was wondering if I need to take my own towel.

It could be a sentence in a narrative: I was wondering if I needed to take my own towel.

Anonymous

Or even: I was wondering if I'll need to take my own towel.

Damkerng T.

Eh, isn't my idea similar to δοῦλος's? (And δοῦλος's answer got 4 downvotes!)

nods

Freddy

In the above question i liked OP's avatar :-)

Damkerng T.

:D

Hmm... someone mentioned ELU in that question, but what ELU question?!

I wonder why the votes look so distorted in that question!

Anonymous

I didn't read Doulos's answer

Anonymous

20:16

Wow, it has two delete votes too

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I just realized that that answer also has 2 votes to delete!

Anonymous

I just read it

Damkerng T.

Ah, almost exactly the same time!

Anonymous

Seems kind of odd to vote to delete

Anonymous

If people think it's wrong, they can just downvote

Damkerng T.

20:18

nods -- I thought there must've been some kind of fight.

Anonymous

But it's clearly an attempt to answer the question, even if four people disagree with it

Damkerng T.

No revision history, even. So, the answer is like that right from the beginning.

Anonymous

It's not what Very Low Quality is intended for either

Anonymous

Yeah, I looked for that too...

Damkerng T.

This is why I think it's usually better to leave comments there. I believe that some comments are missing now.

Anonymous

20:21

I still haven't read most of the answers

Damkerng T.

I can't say that I really did, but I think the two by Khan are wrong.

It looks like FumbleFingers was coming from the wrong angle this time. The other three are fine answers, imo.

> Using "I was wondering if I needed to take my own towel" can be more polite. A listener doesn't need to feel compelled to accecpt it or handle it right now. I would use this sentence rather than the one using present tense.

Anonymous

I'm very much in favor of deleting comments when it's appropriate—the question is, when is that?

Damkerng T.

I think this answer by the OP got 4 downvotes because everyone thought he meant "I was wondering if I needed to take my own towel" can be more polite [than "I was wondering if I need to take my own towel". But what if the OP didn't really mean that.

More recent than 2 months ago.

Oh, actually a little older than 2 months! Sorry!

Anonymous

I meant more generally: when is it appropriate to delete comments? It's a difficult question

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

20:26

I think it's important to delete comment answers that are clearly wrong

Anonymous

People see them before the actual answers people can vote on

Damkerng T.

I wish we had some kind of option to flag it or downvote it.

Anonymous

and that's bad pedagogy

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

We can flag but the moderators don't agree that clearly wrong comment answers should be removed, so they stay up top

Damkerng T.

20:28

I was thinking about some kind of flagging that wouldn't need moderators' attention.

Anonymous

Like a downvote

Anonymous

That has unfortunately been rejected

Damkerng T.

Probably. Downvoting is probably the simplest.

Anonymous

I think each site on SE uses comments differently

Anonymous

But features are designed around the idea that we all use them the same way

Damkerng T.

20:31

Indeed.

Oh, I kept thinking about this one. Now it has two answers!

1

Q: present or present progressive for a repeated actions

Shall I say Every year I am going to France for my holidays. or Every year I go to France for my holidays Are both acceptable? As it is for holidays it is a temporary action (progressive) but it is also a repeated actions. It happens every year. (present)

grammar

> a) Every year I am going to France for my holidays.
b) Every year I go to France for my holidays.

Anonymous

Ooh, I found a lizard

Damkerng T.

My first thought, a) is possible in some limited contexts. Like, when someone wasn't able to afford it 4-5 years ago, but now they can go there every year. Or when someone knows that for some reasons they can't go there anymore sooner or later.

Anonymous

Yeah, possibly

Damkerng T.

Hah! Say hello for me! :-)

Or should I send Hagu there?

The real problem about that sentence is probably the part "for my holidays". Oh, and the fronting of "Every year".

Anonymous

I said hello!

Damkerng T.

20:38

@snailboat Thanks!

Anonymous

It didn't run away for me

Anonymous

From me

Damkerng T.

Is it a house gecko, or a big lizard?

Anonymous

They're very fast. They run many times faster than a human!

Anonymous

I don't know but when I get home I'll check it out!

Anonymous

20:39

I think it was a Western fence lizard

Anonymous

It was around my house. I'm just going for a short walk right now

Damkerng T.

I know that every once in a while, a lizard of the length of two palms lives in my garden. It's so fast. I can hear only its sound, and have only some glimpses of it a few times.

@snailboat Yay!

Anonymous

Wow! These are one pinky finger long, or a little bigger

Anonymous

Not much bigger than Luna

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Anonymous

23:44

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