English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

1:30 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I suppose they didn't use litres then

@MattЭллен you mean, the abbreviation for Litre? like, 43l?

yeah

0

A: Comparative adverbs

what about earlier..as an adverb?..is the only one tha follows the rule thar adverbs follow the same rules as adjectives?. is there any other like this one?...I´ve heard that would be correct to say slowlier, although is less used than more slowly. But what about the rest?...I'm almost sure that ...

in English it would have been cubic yard feet

just use an upper-case L, I guess, or hand-write in a cursive L

1:31 PM

I want to have ten dollars for every period I have to remove from that post.

Dumb Cow

Do you know what SUCKS? A vacuum cleaner.

@MattЭллен would you vote in a referendum to leave the EU?

@Jez I would, I would vote to stay in

@MattЭллен haha, I knew you'd answer that question that way.

@Jez is there talk of a referendum?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 :D my opinion on Europe precedes me!

user19161

1:33 PM

I think the whole world should be merged into the EU.

@MattЭллен No, I knew you'd interpret it as a Yes/No question on "would you vote", not "would you vote to leave"

user19161

There should be no countries and no wars.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I like to play games with words, it's true!

@JasonBourne ha, there were wars way before there were countries.

@MattЭллен a bit

user19161

1:35 PM

@DumbCow I suck too. Sweets.

my issue is that while I support some returning of power to Westminster, the people who want to leave the EU wanna do it so they can do things like revoke the Working Time Directive

@Jez interesting. similar to the UK/Scotland situation, then.

so you can't win really. stay in and accept corrupt Brussels, or leave and send kids up chimneys

i was thinking of voting for UKIP until i discovered they want to bring back hanging

on that alone they can fuck off

@Jez yes. I dislike centralised power. I would prefer no government. but I like people feeling like they can all work together. breaking away from Europe would lessen that. We would become weaker.

democracy fails, as usual

1:37 PM

@Jez jebus. that's just stupid

user19161

Politics is boring.

user19161

You guys know what I think about it.

not very much

@Jez Democracy fails again, but a proper democracy fails better than all the other kinds of government we have.

@MattЭллен actually at this point you're better off voting to get out. It's all just pro-forma nonsense. The UK never gave a shit about the EU, and now thanks to Cameron the EU starts to repay the favor.)))

user19161

1:40 PM

Jun 7 '12 at 20:02, by Jasper Loy

Seriously, this world will be full of shit until I take over.

@RegDwighт but then what about me? I give a shit about Europe

stupid Cameron

@MattЭллен I'm just saying it's like having a referendum on what you should have for breakfast tomorrow. Utterly pointless.

David Cameron? More like Stupid Stupidhead. Yeah, I said it.

And you only risk millions of people telling you to eat something you don't like.

@RegDwighт because it's a foregone conclusion, or because none of the politicians care?

@RegDwighт true

Q: What does "a success" mean?

1:43 PM

@MattЭллен because both.

ah

hi

hi

i have a question

0

I was taught "a success means a successful man and not achievement!" Is that right? I am novice of the language with a passion! please let me know..

words

Ali Qurbani

1:45 PM

why i have 0% accept rate?

because you've not accepted any answers to your questions

Do you even have an account on ELU?

I only see Maths.

this page has instructions about how to accept answers

Ali Qurbani

What can I do now؟

that's up to you

1:47 PM

Visit your questions, look at the answers, and if there's an answer that helped you, mark it as accepted by clicking the checkmark to the left of it.

you can accept answers, or not accept answers

Ali Qurbani

thanks from your hint.

@JasonBourne now you've answered the Success question, you have to edit the quesiton to make it worth keeping! :Þ

user19161

@MattЭллен That's your job. =)))

I'm not the one who thinks it's worth answering

user19161

1:52 PM

@AliQurbani Accept the most helpful answer and upvote all helpful answers.

user19161

This gives everyone more points. No need to be stingy.

user19161

Someone is flagging things unnecessarily.

indeed

user19161

But of course, if mods feel the need to remove it, just go ahead.

user19161

@MattЭллен I have edited the success question minimally to make it more of a success...

1:58 PM

I see

user19161

Can I have some love for my past 3 answers? =) They are still at 0.

user19161

@MattЭллен I wonder if she is the one who is flagging it while outside this room.

probably

Q: specific usage of a comma question

0

I'm wondering about the following sentence - is the comma required, optional, or unnecessary? "Until I get my laptop I have to do chores for a month."

comma

Dupe.

Also, what does he mean, "the comma"? There is no comma in that sentence.

user19161

Well, I think it's stupid to flag such things.

user19161

2:06 PM

Perhaps now they will flag the above line as well.

user19161

@RegDwighт I love to answer comma questions very much, but I am afraid nobody has studied commas for days like I have.

So ELL isn't going into beta until we call it ESL?

is that what's holding things up?

user19161

Someone downvoted my pros and cons.

user19161

Is it really a wrong answer to the question?

not I

@JasonBourne The question asked for a single word that means both pro and con

but I figure the idiom is fair enough

user19161

2:10 PM

@MattЭллен But single words may not suffice sometimes. So I don't take single word requests literally.

don't tell me! I upvoted the answer

user19161

If every question is meant to be taken literally, half the questions here are unanswerable.

user19161

And no comment for the downvote?

user19161

@MattЭллен Relative merits is also two words. Question says term in the body and title, not word. QED.

user19161

See, if one wants to argue with me along those lines, I can argue with him too.

user19161

2:19 PM

I have been getting many downvotes this year, sad panda.

think of them as up votes that don't increase your rep

user19161

It might be that someone like Carlo clicked wrongly.

user19161

Or maybe there are many people who think like Kris.

perhaps

Robusto

2:38 PM

@MattЭллен Sounds like a Cake song.

user19161

@Robusto What sounds like a cake song?

@Robusto perhaps

user19161

@MattЭллен What sounds like a cake song?

Quizás, Quizás, Quizás

"Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" (also known as "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" in English), is a popular song by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés. Farrés wrote the music and original Spanish lyrics for the song which became a hit in 1947. The English lyrics were written by Joe Davis and are not a translation of the Spanish lyrics. List of cover versions *1949: The Gordon Jenkins version, with Tony Bavaar as vocalist, was recorded on August 12, 1949 and released by Decca Records as catalog number 24720. *1950: The Greek singer Mairi Lo (Μαίρη Λω) recorded a version titled Γιατί γιατί γιατί in 1950. *...

@JasonBourne Cake is a proper noun there

user19161

So @matt if that success question is posted on ELL, what would happen to it?

2:45 PM

@JasonBourne it would be edited and answered

or maybe it would be closed as not a real question

user19161

@MattЭллен Will it be closed? See, so what's the point of having ELL?

I think answered, most likely

@JasonBourne let me just put on my future predicting hat...

user19161

@MattЭллен I can't see a question that can be closed here but not there.

user19161

If it is GR/NR/NC/ED/TL here, it is also so there.

@JasonBourne if you just the whole potential of ELL on one poorly worded meaning question, you miss the point of ELL, which is a place for teaching.

2:48 PM

@MattЭллен I knew you would say that

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 oh really? what will you say next?

user19161

@MattЭллен Yes, but see my last line. QED.

MετάEd

@JasonBourne It will be closed if posted on Super User, too. See, so what's the point of having Super User?

@JasonBourne no. GR is not necessarily reason to close at ELL

@MattЭллен I will say "I will say 'I will say ""I will say ''I will say """I will say '''I will say...

user19161

2:50 PM

@MattЭллен That means that ELL=GR. QED.

oh no! @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 is going to Stack Overflow!

@JasonBourne english.stackexchange.com/questions/30244/…

Great Question. Great Answer. 16k views. Got deleted here. Would be a perfect fit for ELL.

@MattЭллен Too late. I already did and unwound the stack to the nearest uncorrupted frame. I'm now 3 years old again. Wah!

In fact deleted by yourself, Jasper.

user19161

@RegDwighт No way! Now you are just MSU.

user19161

2:51 PM

@RegDwighт Yes, I was pissed it got so many votes.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 looks for Mr Shiny's quilp

@JasonBourne Wait, you delete all questions with many votes?

MετάEd

@RegDwighт Ah, that explains why he doesn't delete my answers.

So there you have your reason for having ELL. Providing a place for questions Jasper doesn't like despite them having many votes. QED.

@MattЭллен quilp?

user19161

2:53 PM

@RegDwighт At least that is a good reason.

Thank you.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I'm not sure where I picked that word up. it's like a small quilt used as a comforter

Hey @RegDwighт, Lego question for you. I am trying to sort pieces into boxes. It's clear that some pieces are going to need to share boxes with other pieces. But do you think it would be insane to put, eg, 1x3 plates in the same box as 2x3 plates? or 1x6 plates with 1x6 bricks? Have you ever tried that approach?

@MattЭллен ah. I've never heard it before.

I don't think it's a well known word

It may be localised to me

user19161

Do you know that mwahahaha is listed in ODO?

2:57 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I only ever did that out of space concerns. I try to keep all parts separate, but sometimes a stack of 1x8 plates just fits too neatly alongside a stack of 1x10 bricks rather than starting an all-new box that then just has that one stack of plates and is 99% empty otherwise.

Jan 14 at 13:43, by Jason Bourne

The word mwahahaha appears in ODO.

user19161

@MattЭллен Yes, I like to repeat myself.

user19161

That's why Reg says I say 50 shits per day.

Now, when I do mix parts, or even when I store them in adjacent cells, I try to not have the parts be too similar. So, say, 1x2 plates are more likely to have 1x4 plates as neighbors than 1x2 tiles, or be mixed with 2x3 bricks rather than 1x2 bricks.

@RegDwighт Right now I'm experimenting a bit because I don't know what quantity of boxes I will end up using. Nor even what kind of boxes I will end up using (I'm using cheap disposable food-storage boxes. Their cheapness makes up for their trapezoidalness). And I was thinking, maybe I wouldn't go insane if two similar, but easily distinguishable parts were in the same box.

2:59 PM

wow

it's amazing what some people will laugh at :-)

some guy is leaving today and he made some of the lamest sexual jokes I've ever heard, people were in uproar

he has the crowd with him

guess i'm not a sheep :-)

indeed

reminds me of that blackadder scene

"she pulled me across London to play the weakest practical joke since cardinal Woolsey stood at the end of the corridor with his knob out and pretended to be a door"

"oh shut up Balders, you'd laugh at a Shakespeare comedy"

ah! the good series.

user19161

3:06 PM

The Bourne series. Watch it.

you watch it!

user19161

Nike. Just do it.

MετάEd

¬̲⌐

Looks like someone taking a dump.

Which is only fitting.

yesterday, by RegDwighт

The Bourne Proctology.

‮copy paste

user19161

3:21 PM

Ladies and gentlemen, I announce that Thursagan has deleted his account.

user19161

However, Thursagen still has his account.

still not a backwards ¬

@JasonBourne funny, I was wondering if I should merge them just last night.

Looks like you and I came across the same answer, too.

user19161

@RegDwighт Funny, I just edited their answers yesterday.

Yes, it got bumped.

So we both run into it.

user19161

3:26 PM

Funny, I seem to have another fan now, but this one is probably smarter at upvoting.

> BNC has no hits for anything.

it's a sad state of affairs!

I worded it that way on purpose.

Q: How is a thought within a story within a story indicated?

:D

Robusto

3:44 PM

3

If a story is being told within a story so that it is italicized and a character within this sub-story expresses a thought, something normally italicized, how is that thought conveyed? I would think that one would place that thought in quotes.

italics

This is more a question for Writers, ne?

@tchrist An unfortunate choice of word.

Predation is hardly the communal thing to do.

Robusto

@Cerberus No, that's depredation.

Exactly.

Much better.

Like tithes.

I haven't worn one of those in ages

Do you have a lisp?

Do I have a lisp?

3:48 PM

elisp

Esee.

:D

are you looking forward to the impending snow storm?

Wha—

The sky is fairly clear here?

we're getting hit tomorrow. I guess you'll have the left overs in the evening

None have been predicted here.

weeronline.nl/Europa/Nederland/Amsterdam/4058223

3:52 PM

maybe it won't reach you then

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21064235

It will keep going around in circles around Matt.

I mean, dude. It's like you've never been to Britain before.

bah

I wanted a warm winter, to coincide with global warming killing off coffee

You should be thankful it doesn't rain porridge.

Or that weird red mash, what's it called.

yes, that would be painful and unsanitary

@MattЭллен Hmm we've already had snow, about 5–10 cm a few days ago.

3:57 PM

like that time it was raining men. And then whatshername made a song.

Killing off coffee?

We've been having snow for three or four days.

Everything's white outside right now.

We haven't seen any blizzard or other storms yet.

oh, we've had snow. just not a blizzard

@RegDwighт Everything is white here outside the cities, where people trample the snow and it disappears. But there is snow on unwalked surfaces here.

3:58 PM

we had a big snowstorm at christmas. Last weekend the weather was 13°C and all the snow melted. Now it's -16°C with the windchill and snow is in the forecast again.

Chutney.

That's the stupid word.

Chutney.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's insane. Make up your minds.

@Cerberus yes. in the places that arabica beans grow global warming is causing too much rain or not enough rain, depending on the place. also the temperature is causing a boom in the coffee bean weevil. Yields are at their lowest for 30 years