English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

9:43 AM

@Vitaly Higher brain functions have to rest sometimes.

10:12 AM

@Mahnax Why did you even answer it?

For fame and glory.

He wants to get to 10k so he can read vgv8's stuff.

10:33 AM

2

Q: God save the Queen

I was wondering why this expression is not "God saves the Queen". According to my very first English teacher, when the subject is "he", "she" or "it", "to save" is conjugated "he/she/it saves". Is it an exception?

idioms conjugation

I could swear we've had this before. But I can't find it.

Q: Word for codes/applications that calls an API library

10:50 AM

0

I have an API library, what do I call codes/applications that uses it? I want to avoid "client" because in my context, it is ambiguous with another concept. Also it doesn't have to be a single word, as long as it's short and not awkward to repeat a lot of times in a formal document.

single-word-requests computing software

The word for "codes/applications that calls" is "ungrammatical".

In fact I'll go post that as a comment.

user19161

11:15 AM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 You are very funny today.

Q: "I hope this could help you" vs. "I hope it can help you" vs. "Hoped this may help you"

That's a very weird misspelling of "always".

user19161

0

Which of the following is grammatical when giving someone something they want? I hope this could help you. I hope it can help you. Hoped this may help you.

word-choice grammaticality

user19161

I don't like the answer there. "Could" is not just past tense as a verb. It can also be used to express possibility as a modal verb.

At any rate, all three alternatives are clumsy at best and complete tosh at worst.

Armen nailed it with his comment.

user19161

Some of the supposedly wrong answers sound so convincingly right.

11:20 AM

This is how Religion.SE works.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Hey, don't be surprised if it is the other way round. The answers are right but they sound wrong. I am saying that as a non-religious person.

Maybe I should propose Right-Sounding-Answers.SE.

Speaking of which, is Skeptics still alive?

user19161

I just learnt that a few beta sites are shutting down, hmm.

Yes, which is why we have been getting some Literature questions.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I looked for it under beta sites without knowing that it already graduated.

user19161

11:27 AM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I just managed to pass literature when I was 14. Maybe my answers were too brilliant for the teacher to appreciate.

user19161

Wow the skeptics site has cool colours.

It's to distract you from the uncool Paul McCartney questions.

user19161

Anyway I commented about "could" on that question.

user19161

I think articles and modal verbs are very confusing for non-native speakers.

user19161

The questions on this site make me rethink many issues.

11:31 AM

Well English has been simplified to a point at which not much less is left that could be confusing at all.

user19161

I think the world should all convert to one language.

user19161

What's the point of having different languages so that people don't understand each other?

user19161

What happened at the tower of Babel?

A thousand years ago you'd be wondering which case endings to use with your articles; these days you can only contemplate whether it should be "the" or "teh", and most people don't even go that far.

2

user19161

Also, why are there mosquitoes and cockroaches? What happened on Noah's ark?

user19161

11:35 AM

I know. All this is because someone stole a fruit in the garden of Eden.

user19161

I just protected 4 questions. That means 4 cookies for me.

I gotta go take a shower and then run errands.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Enjoy the shower and the errands. QED.

user19161

11:55 AM

-3

Q: I am not a happy camper

Yesterday I signed into chat to complain about the deletion of my Answer by Daniel δ and waiwai933 here. (Nobody had bothered to inform me.) Jasper Loy said he had flagged it for deletion because it "did not answer the question". Obviously I disagreed: the question was, "What is the correct pronu...

discussion

user19161

OMG, I just saw this meta post. I am very sad...

user19161

I try to answer people in chat, and this is what I get?

Well let it sink in and then answer.

Me, I'm out. Bye!

@JasperLoy lol, love it

user19161

OMG, I read Richard's answer there and I am getting even more upset...

user19161

12:22 PM

-12

A: I am not a happy camper

Here's my suggestion for becoming a happy camper: find a better website and pose your question there. These people seem pretty insufferable--a bunch of computer nerds whose intellects far outstrip their judgment and social skills. Check the number of questions they close--it's really astronomica...

12:43 PM

@JasperLoy Hahahahahahahaha

sorry, am I the only one finding that thread hilarious?

user19161

@Jez I posted an answer there. I like closure.

user19161

@Jez It's not funny. It is upsetting. I care about how people feel.

yeah but come on, people are speaking in such an infantile way

it's like a kindergarten

1:19 PM

> Who said anything about a "service agreement for EL&U"? Not I. What Jason's conduct came across to me as was, F U n00b, I don't owe you even the courtesy of a reply. And my Question is, is this kind of behavior standard practice on ELU?

lol this guy is priceless

Q: Describing the preference of the time that is closer to another time

0

Just asked this question on "Christianity", but feel asked it in a very awkward way: Do we have any evidence that Martin Luther considered some individuals of of the Roman Catholic clergy living in some centuries close to Luther's time (the closer centuries are preferred) to be the part o...

phrase-requests time

Proofreading. OT.

@Vitaly, @RegDwightB8 ^

A: Meaning of "take the lead out"

2:59 PM

Oh right. The Arena.

I'm still at some 5300 I think.

Now this is hilarious:

0

Urban dictionary probably ads to take the Led out indicates you are listening or liking something about the band... Led Zeppelin

Turns out Groucho Marx was a huge Led Zeppelin fan, huh.

Hi.

Wo?

Do.

I never understood this sequence but I'm just going along.

As with life in general.

Wow you speak Moselfränkisch?

Of course.

Muss i denn, muss i denn...

3:08 PM

@Cerberus this sequence has been explained to you three times already.

No doubt.

@Cerberus that is so not Moselfränkisch.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

Swabian, then.

But actually "do" is from a Dutch television programme.

Hm. I'd rather say Bavarian. Or Franconian.

About people whose German is bad.

3:10 PM

The Germans?

Muss i denn, muss i denn zum Städtele hinaus

> Friedrich Silchers Vorlage zu Muss i denn, muss i denn zum Städtele naus ist nicht überliefert. Silcher hat zumindest die Melodie übernommen, denn er erwähnte sie Ludwig Uhland gegenüber als „altwürttembergische Melodie“[1], oft wird auf das Remstal als Herkunftsort verwiesen. Der zu dieser Melodie ursprünglich gesungene Text ist nicht überliefert.

Muss i denn, muss i denn zum Städtele hinaus ist ein von Friedrich Silcher adaptiertes und 1827 erstmals publiziertes deutsches Volkslied, das durch zwei englischsprachige Adaptionen unter dem Titel Wooden Heart von Elvis Presley im Jahre 1960 und Joe Dowell 1961 jeweils als Millionenseller eine weltweite Verbreitung erfuhr und damit zu einer der international bekanntesten deutschen Volksweisen wurde. Entstehungsgeschichte Friedrich Silchers Vorlage zu Muss i denn, muss i denn zum Städtele naus ist nicht überliefert. Silcher hat zumindest die Melodie übernommen, denn er erwähnte sie Lu...

Also ich sollte mich zur Abfahrt fertigmachen.

Zur?

That doesn't sound right.

Eh Alter, isch mach disch fertisch!

Haha, wie kalt machen?

Sowas von!

Oder ist das nur Holländisch.

Fertigmachen, is das besser?

3:13 PM

Zur is okay grammatically but idiomatically you'd say für die.

Ah OK.

Q: Is this DFW line a run on sentence?

OMG

0

It this sentence from Infinite Jest by DFW a run on sentence? My guess is not, but it really is long and complicated. “(She) says that she's finding it especially hard to take when these earnest ravaged folks at the lectern say they're 'Here But For the Grace of God,' except that's not the ...

punctuation

stone the crows

no it's not. at least I didn't run on while reading it

that's proof reading right? we don't have to actually answer him

Gigili

Especially when he admitted it's very long.

3:31 PM

Hello dears.

Hello dahling

Why did you have to send your rain to us?

This isn't fun.

we haven't sent it all

Oh, dear...

just the run off, really

3:35 PM

Yes, I see tomorrow will be even worse.

we're helping your tulips

We don't need your stinking help!

We have enough rain of our own.

oh, you say that now! you wait till they implement "ho's pipe bans"

all those hos without pipes. it'll be turmoil

3:36 PM

Whose?

oh, we have hosepipe bans here

confused

I'm a bit hung over and I no understands your Englishes.

you know what a hosepipe is?

A garden hose?

yes :)

3:38 PM

Then yes.

they are currently under a ban by our water authority

Seriously??

oh yeah

not completely

firemen can still use them

I thought your "ban" had to mean something else because that would be inconceivable.

You lack water?

@Cerberus oh :D alas, no

@Cerberus in reservoirs, apparently. not in the streets though

also, most of the infrastructure is leaking

3:41 PM

Odd.

I mean, it's not even hot weather.

yeah

but there you have it. it was instigated when we had that brief spell of nice weather the other month

It sounds like the square wheels of our trains.

yes indeed

I suppose everyone is just crazy.

But I have to run.

See you in a few days!

Fleeing tous pollous.

Adios!

oh! see you! Have a good time :)

3:50 PM

Bai!

Ima eat me some cake.

BBL

Mahnax

4:18 PM

@Robusto Sometimes I just can't resist.

But usually I wouldn't.

4:57 PM

what dose the sentance mean?

Q: A word to describe the act of using one's head to moving slowing to the sex partner body while having sex

5:10 PM

0

I have to translate this from my language but i don't know in english. While someone having sex, he may moving his head wander around his partner's body. What is the words to describe this action.

single-word-requests

This one's even better.

simchona

wtf

I was just about to post that here

as a "what the hell is this even asking" example

5:33 PM

I am trying very hard to imagine moving my head around my partner's body during sex, but it just looks painful

> I had been enjoying the sunshine and blue sky of the day but as soon as we push open the door of the hangar, that pleasure ends brutally.

interesting switch of modes there

I'd tend to keep it all in the past tense or all in the present

ie. "I'm enjoying the sunshine and blue sky..."

or even "I enjoy"

yeah, me too

Q: Because we use the "to" before of the verb?

7:53 PM

0

I'm studying English. I'm always trying improve my English with help of you guys. I see very use the "to" before of the verb. For example: How to add ? How to do this ? I would like of know, because we use the "to" before of the verb. The an exception in this regard ? Thanks a lot!

grammar verbs

Funny, someone using "because" to mean "why". That's a first, I think.