English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@JasperLoy two isn't that many. It isn't even a crowd.

Anonymous

I kept thinking "Aw, no air of respectability" every time I went back to Japanese or ELL, because those are beta sites with less air-of-respectabilit-y in their design.

@snailboat I liked the old beta look.

Anonymous

But then I used the mobile version of ELU, and it was missing the respectability too!

terdon

@snailboat compare to this:

programmers.stackexchange.com/questions

Anonymous

12:06 AM

@terdon Oh god, the whiteboard scribbles! It makes me want to do a better job erasing them than whoever left those marks behind :-(

Anonymous

All better!

Anonymous

Farewell, doodle-top and doodle-bottom

Bradd Szonye

12:40 AM

Howdy, all.

1:39 AM

@tchrist signpaintermovie.com Also, what is the diamond made of four diamonds in a diamond pattern called?

1:56 AM

So I just watched the last episode of Dexter.

2:20 AM

۰ᴥ۰

That's... startlingly cute.

what is that middle character? COMBINING_ACCENT_OCTOPUS?

Thank you! It's Latin letter ain.

Search for ain in char map.

I call it TEDDY_BEAR_NOSE.

Anonymous

Let's compromise. Latin letter teddy bear nose.

I can't discuss Dexter. I only saw a few of those.

@snailboat yes!

LATIN_LETTER_PEDOBEAR: ᴼᴥᴼ

Or that bear from that show that looks like Pedobear.

What's that show?

I'm so out of touch.

Anonymous

I don't know. What's what show?

2:34 AM

@snailboat I think it's an internet-only animated cartoon. Well, I know it's animated. Anyway, there's a bear in it who looks a lot like Pedobear, but is yellow.

Adventure Time LOLs or something.

Oh, it's on the Cartoon Network.

Adventure Time

Adventure Time (originally titled Adventure Time with Finn & Jake) is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Along the way, they interact with the other main characters of the show: Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch), The Ice King (voiced by Tom Kenny), and...

who knows why THAT pic is selected. Thanks SE's magic oneboxing.

►

That up there was my first time.

It's a dog!

5:36 AM

What'd be the grammatically correct way to combine the sentences: "I fell seriously ill. I met my family doctor."

When I fell seriously ill, I met my family doctor. OR When I had fallen seriously ill, I met my family doctor.

Anonymous

@its_me There are lots of grammatically correct ways to combine those sentences. What relationship between them are you trying to express?

@snailboat No. I am worried about the tense

should there be past perfect?

Purandaran

6:45 AM

Can anybody explain me the preposition 'of'. in which situation we should use this word

6:58 AM

Usually in situations that involve possession.

8:26 AM

@its_me check out the top answer to this question

@MattЭллен Thanks, I'll take a look

@MattЭллен Yeah, I know how tenses work. It's just that I am not so used to hearing past perfect in common speak.

So, is "When I had fallen seriously ill, I met my family doctor." the right way to combine the sentences?

It's fine.

@MattЭллен I don't understand. I feel that "When I fell seriously ill, I met my family doctor." is common in usage. Am I wrong?

8:42 AM

It is an unusal phrase either way

both are grammatically correct

heh!

ok

"I met X at time t" usually describes the first time you met someone

So, "I met my family doctor when I fell seriously ill" implies you hadn't seen your family doctor before

that's fine, if that's what you want to say

@MattЭллен Don't take it seriously; it's a phrase in my grammar text book :) I've got many more ridiculous sentences here!

The thing is, I never find myself using past perfect in similar cases. What if I was saying it wrong all this time! So I came here to confirm

"I met my family doctor when I fell seriously ill" also implies that it was the moment you fell ill when you met your doctor

whereas "I met my family doctor when I had fallen seriously ill" implies that you met your family doctor during the course of falling seriously ill, or after falling ill but before getting better.

so it all depends on what you want to mean

"I met my family doctor when I had fallen seriously ill" -- to put it another way, it means that, I met my family doc AFTER I fell seriously ill IN THE PAST. correct?

isn't that what you meant?

8:49 AM

yes

great! :)

Hize

yo

9:37 AM

morning

10:00 AM

Can anyone please tell me if I am phrasing this right: "I'm a man of many hats, but make a living from XXX."

it's OK but it's a bit awkward

10:15 AM

@Jez Yeah, I know. What'd be a good way to put it?

I mean, does it only look good with an "I"?

looks better IMHO

ok, thank you :)

Q: Why do you think the Oxford English Dictionary changed their definition of "of?"

11:47 AM

@Purandaran If you are interested have a look at this:

2

Of 'of': Expressing Possession and Being Possessed I would like to discuss changes made to the definition of 'of' in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) from the 1989 edition to the 2010 edition. Below are 2 discussion topics regarding 2 changes to the definitions of 'of' that I believe are sign...

12:16 PM

How can total douche bags can sleep at night without suffering from thinking about what they have done?

They don't drink coffee after 7pm

What?

ya?

Hey, what kind of mobile phone deals do you guys get in the USA?

I can't believe the value of the offer I'm getting here from Three

I get unlimited data, 2000 minutes, 5000 texts (or something), tethering allowed, for £15/mo

I could perhaps replace my regular internet connection with this

Guys, does "skeptical" generally mean "not easily convinced" or "having doubt"?

@Jez Is there a contract?

12:24 PM

dictionary.reference.com/browse/skeptical

When you search the word on Google Image, most of them look like they are doubting about something.

@cyberskull yeah, 12 months

why would you search for a definition of a word in google Images?

Not sure, I like to learn that way

@Jez Read the fine print carefully ;-)

12:25 PM

there will probably be a FUP yeah, still it's great value for a mobile deal

Americans seem to be talking about how they don't get enough data transfer included with their deal, well i get unlimited haha

I guess their free market didn't work so well

But you're converting a word into a search for images, then internally interpreting those resulting images in your own words.

kind of all sorts of misleading can go on at every step.

@cyberskull three.co.uk/Discover/Apps/Whats_all-you-can-eat_data

@Jez thanks for sharing

with tethering explicitly allowed, they aren't even expecting you to stick to a small amount of internet usage

they are basically expecting you to use this as your main internet connection, potentially

i still wouldn't use it for P2P or expect great latency

to put it in perspective, most landline contracts have a data cap

annoyingly i have to wait until Friday before I get switched over :-)

sorry but, i'm one of those few people who still doesn't have a portable phone

12:36 PM

moin

hi

@KitFox you use mobile internet much?

No, not much.

Mostly for dispute resolution at restaurants.

how so?

Right, like who was that actress in that movie where that thing happened.

You know, that thing ... with the...you know... and that other person was there.

12:40 PM

Yeah. That.

who was in the movie with Farrah Fawcett.

"No way is the population of The Congo smaller than the population of Delaware!"

Etc

MετάEd

@Mitch Fyre Hydrant?

What? No way!

As my bro says, "Ain't no point in arguing abut facts."

12:41 PM

@MετάEd Right, but no that's the -other- movie.

@KitFox I don't let facts get in the way of my opinions.

truth is the paint that covers the facts

yeah but you can basically use this mobile deal to replace your main internet connection

rather helpful right now as my local exchange burnt down and the internet on my ISP is out for my whole town

MετάEd

"Is that you, bowl of cherries?"

12:55 PM

store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS

Is Valve becoming a company that builds everything?

I wish they end up building SteamPhone

too

SteamPhone: "Best suited to deliver Steam games on mobile phones"

1:10 PM

@Jez I'm not in the USA, but I get "unlimited" data, unlimited texts, unlimited minutes, unlimited long-distance, tethering allowed, for $40. But the "unlimited" data is subject to speed-throttling after 5GB. And the coverage and speeds are awful. And that's the best price/specs plan in Canada.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 yeah i think it's even worse in the US. their telephony situation is awful.

it's gotta be because a few big corporations have the whole thing trussed up

surprisingly, it has actually improved slightly in the last few years

here too

the big vendors are starting to disconnect the cost of the service from the cost of the phone.

depends where you are

so you can save money by bringing in your own phone

but it's still ridiculously expensive overall

if I wanted a plan from one of the big carriers that, on paper, matches the current plan I have, I'd have to pay 2-3x as much.

throttling after 5gb = no replacement for landline

the fact that "big carriers" have crappy value is the perfect of the free market failing

1:14 PM

Our telephony situation is awful? That's news to me.

You can pay $10/mo to get "premium data" which has no throttling. But the speeds are still bad.

surely, a successful free market would result in the big successful companies having the best tariffs

@KitFox Your mobile fees are pretty awful compared to Europe

Oh, I thought he was talking about the infrastructure.

@KitFox from what i read it's generally awful yeah. how many ISPs do you have to choose from?