@Færd yes

@Cerberus if we're talking about style, too much frequency makes it a cliché. So frequency is one motivation of many for choice.

Or a fixed phrase.

right, can go both ways. you can get sick of it, or maybe it becomes a natural dead metaphor

@Cerberus hm...so those are one kind of mistakes, let's say tonguoes, that are not really mistakes?

Generation after generation people get used to newfangled abominations and they can creep their way into serious or formal language.

@Cerberus lately I've heard from multiple sources that 'literally' used as 'a lot' is not exactly a mistake. I find that hard to swallow

It doesn't happen overnight, granted. But there's no point opposing the flow.

@Færd I'm not so sure.

@Mitch Agreed, it can be a factor with regard to style.

@snailplane What about it? :)

@Mitch Sure they are mistakes; why wouldn't they be?

It's one thing to recognize that change happens, but when it the change impedes understanding, that's a problem.

@Færd Indeed. But we don't accept all of them, nor always without a fight.

@Mitch Waaaah. I hate that.

@Cerberus but it seems if they are called mistakes then they are a distinct subset of mistakes, that may have different acceptability rules.

Possibly, but so what?

Sorry, 'the the' is most assuredly a mistake, yes.

I just mentioned errors in speech to relieve you of the burden of doubt, whether the the was to be considered part of "language", as it is a mistake made in writing.

but maybe not the same kind of mistake, or 'problem' like using 'literally' for 'very'.

To @Færd's point, 'the...the' stuttering dysfluencies are not really registered as errors (the user doesn't mean 'the the'

@Cerberus If something sounds perfectly fine in casual or serious settings to a sufficiently large class of people during a sufficiently long period of time, they will carry on using it, and they'll be making no mistake doing that. If it doesn't sound right to others, they don't use it. That's what correctness, grammaticality, and style boils down to in my book.

I see no point in fighting.

Can't we all just get along?

(as long as you agree with me)

@Mitch Fighting change, not each other!

@Cerberus unless you change. then the gloves are off

@Færd Right, but that doesn't make for very good stylistic advice.

@snailplane Like 'mistake'?

Let's see what Garner has to say about be comprised of.

Who's Garner?

> Correct use of these words is simple, but increasingly rare. The parts compose the whole; the whole comprises the parts. The whole is composed of the parts; the parts are comprised in the whole.

> ...

hm...

Now, comprised in is another matter.

'is comprised in' is OK?

> The phrase is comprised of is always wrong and should be replaced by some other, more accurate phrase.

(From Garner's Modern American Usage, 3rd edition, 2003)

@Mitch I'm inclined to say yes.

suppose you're a foreigner learning these things and you make mistakes. isn't it as much a mistake if a native speaker says them the same bad way?

Now the fourth edition:

@Færd Fowler agrees, although he is somewhat milder.

@Cerberus The whole is comprised of the parts' is not OK?

This is the gradual change I'm talking about.

We know how language changes.

@Mitch I would say it's no.

It's the parts that are comprised.

Now ODO deems it perfectly standard, and it will probably be considered as such by style books too soon enough. Maybe after we all have died.

stupid latinism. the parts make up the whole.

To comprise means to grab with both hands.

@Færd It's been fought for centuries.

> It was not a frequent collocation until about 1950.

Many style books have become much laxer than in the past (the apply principles and logic less where others deem them appropriate).

@Cerberus Vaste wastelands lay testament to lesser conflicts.

@Færd and when younger people read the 'mistakes' they may have no idea it's a 'mistake'

Exactly right.

@Færd Oh, it could be more recent.

but it may still be a mistake.

google.com/…

Or perhaps not.

maybe all this mistake stuff only really matters for a culture with reading/writing. who cares about a noticeable change beyond one generation since great-grandparents and great grandchildren are not communicating.

@Mitch Destruction! Yay!

@Mitch Ah, no.

Incidentally, I wonder how old you are, Cerb. ;)

@Cerberus Destruction is so much easier that building things.

Maybe in your late forties?

@Mitch In speech the same issues exist.

@Færd I'm immortal.

Or so I am told.

But it is bed time...

@Cerberus but if you're not accessing recordings ... you're saying between one generation and the next?

Get ready for a rude awakening.

@Cerberus so far

@Cerberus likewise

Dream blue.

@Færd a garbage truck crashing into a fireworks factory?

That sort of thing.

Oh

bye y'all.

you're wrong.

@Mitch Yes.

The aversion to "toilet", for example, mainly manifests itself in speech, and it shows no signs of dying at all.

@Færd Almost older.

Than?

I don't like Fowler or Garner. I like the MW Dictionary of English Usage, which is what Huddleston and Pullum recommends in CGEL as the most well-researched usage manual.

Also, although the MW Collegiate Dictionary is small in size, it contains some words not found in other, bigger dictionaries, like the word jaspery.

The only thing bad about the MW books is that the front covers usually have a terrible design showing an ugly circle with some ugly colour combination.

@Færd It's hard to say when we will die, and after we die, we will live again, in different ways in different faiths.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Repeating characters in answer: What does this "ridiculous" mean? by Pradeepkumarnamani on english.stackexchange.com

@Færd Than formerly.

Better now? And there are some good answers in the comments waiting for the reopen...

>:-) >:-) >:-)

hm

What do you think?

reading

Thinking...

Not really: I'm unsure, so "I might be wrong" better suits "I might be talking out of my arse"

I just couldn't come up with the word "wrong" myself as I'm "unsure"

You're the mod, so up to you though...

I've got an answer for me anyway, just wanting a good answer for the other confused people out there...

:-)

Well, that's all very reasonable.

Not going to go against a mod's decision on it however!

> I know not whereof I speak.

:D :D :D

I don't think the Americans will understand that one!!!

(I should have added "globally understandable to the question" ;)

No worries: leave as is: less work!

;)

They will if they're native speakers.

I’m trying to let the accepted answer of blurt grow on me.

The mail has been sent already anyway and I'll remember "I might be wrong" for the rest of my life too! :D

I'm not a native English speaker, but blurt sounds like specific to talking, not writing...

There are any number of proverbial incantations related to words escaping the mouth before entering the brain.

I blurted out he was dumb

Yes. Very much so.

I don't know whether you can blurt something out when writing.

Well... In an email???

My point exactly!

I think you're right.

:-)

anyway... I need to go back to work!

Thanks for the opinion...

Sure, any time. Opinions are free, and worth what you pay for them.

Opinions of wise men are worth more then the fool's question!

:P ;)

for posterity

:D

hi @KitZ.Fox :D

Hi Matty

I'm meant to be helping with regression testing.

It's not going well.

Manual regression testing is ugly and tedious, but sometimes indispensable for things that are either impossible or implausible to automate.

In english can we precede "experience" with an? or is it always without an? here is a sentence: "I hope someone with an experience chimes in"

thanks in advance

@englishstudent yes. no, not always. but not like that.

"I hope someone with experience chimes in"

"Going abroad is an experience I'll never forget."

thank you. so why aren't we using an in the first sentence? I don't quite understand. or is it just a rule?

:35251802

The first is like "expert". The second is like "sensation".

Danke. (thanks) Kitfox.

Bitte

Hello @KitZ.Fox. I just got home after meeting two friends.

Hi @Jasper.

The side dishes at dinner just now were seaweed and pickles, and we had high expectations.

I'm getting tired of people not following process.

I like pickles.

But, they turned out to be cooked in large amounts of garlic.

So in the end, the dishes tasted of nothing but garlic, lol.

Oh garlic pickles, not dill, huh.

I hear it is a China style of cooking, I will never order them again.

Now, although I don't like living in Antarctica, I must say most of the food here is very nice.

I think sometimes people go to expensive restaurants and then say the food is very good because they paid a lot for it when it is actually not so good, lol.

@Færd I was under the impression that X is comprised of Y is commonly used. Now I will need to look that up more.

So far, one of my friends has gone out on dates with 3 girls on okcupid.com, seems very successful.

@Cerberus you haven't seen my toilet.

@JasperLoy they have very good data science backing them up. I don't know if users' expectations get met but okcupid's descriptive science is very public.

@KitZ.Fox is this where the question about selenium comes in?

I knew a software manager who did UI testing by fingersmashing the keyboard and closisng their eyes while randomly moving and clicking the mouse.

It sounds like the UL's (Underwriters Laboratory) methods of approving consumer electronics (like laptops and coffee makers) which has at least one battery of stress tests where they drop the item from a given height and see what happens.

I mean, that's a really useful test for some very specific circumstances... but...

@Mitch Yes.

@KitZ.Fox the best situation is to, when doing the regression (or otherwise) testing by hand, have selenium (or other automated testing platform) record your hand actions as a macro for the future. Doing that is a bit more difficult than it sounds (the one time I tried it with selenium).

while sending a curriculum vitae to a company in an email is it okay to start the email with Dear Sir/Madam?

how about just Hello?

Hello is probably OK, but less formal.

ok thanks

@JasperLoy Not a false impression.

Is there any good alternative to "Give my greetings to Uncle"?

That's pleasant.

You can also say "Give my regards to Uncle" or "Say hi to Uncle for me".

forum.wordreference.com/threads/…

Why Uncle?

It's being used as a name, like Mom.

Aha.

@KitZ.Fox What about "Commend me to Uncle"

or "Commend me to Dad"

That's a pretty big ask.

Commend is like asking that person to brag on your behalf and talk you up.

@KitZ.Fox i just thought of it since in Merchant of Venice Antonio said to Bassanio, "Commend me to your wife"

hahaha. I haven't read Merchant of Venice, but that sounds pretty saucy.

@KitZ.Fox Any other way to say that... I mean without slipping into Colloquial language usage ?

Same as the other suggestions. It doesn't make a difference that it is a person's wife, although you might want to be slightly more formal.

I think all the garlic just now is giving me stomach upsets, lol.

I've just gone to the loo a few times, lol.

I am going to think for an hour and then go to sleep.

@KitZ.Fox words meant different things back then

At night the absence of street lighting due to an abrupt power cut, would give _______ to thieves (Here I want to convey that it would give a sort of good chance to the robbers to break into houses)

(Short of words)

What words can I use at the place marked as_______

an advantage

@KitZ.Fox umm, I don't think it will give advantage but it will be advantageous for them

What about opportunity?

What would we call the opportunity that is good for the thief but bad for others in the area ?

It think it would give them an advantage.

I ended up writing this : At night, the absence of lighting on the streets due to abrupt power cut would give an evil opportunity to burglars to break into houses.

Is it gramatically correct and meaningful?

yes

@KitZ.Fox "evil opportunity" is right (just confirming)?

or should it be "good opportunity"

?

six of one, half dozen of the other.

either way is fine.

@Abcd grammatically correct, semantically strange. it doesn't sound right to have an opportunity that is evil. Only people or sentient beings are evil.

if you drop 'evil' it sounds much better.