English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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Tommy Tran

00:37

Hello!

2 hours later…

cpx

02:16

Hi. Is this sentence really correct? "If I didn’t work so hard, I would have much more time to study English." It doesn't seem correct to me because if conditional sentence with "would have" requires a past perfect as I learned.

Tommy Tran

Really? It seems to me that using the past perfect here with "If I hadn't worked so hard" would necessitate using the past perfect with "I would have had..." So "If I hadn't worked so hard, I would have had much more time to study English."

That's not really the same.

The original sentence looks fine to me. I don't know what you're talking about "would have" requiring a past perfect. Are you talking about the subjunctive mood?

cpx

I looked at the rule of third conditional which says you can't have "didn't". It is: if + past perfect, ...would + have + past participle

Oh right, that's not really "would have" I thought of.

Tommy Tran

What is the intended meaning of the sentence? It looks like what structure you use depends on whether the result is a "suspected past result" or a "suspected present result". Is it "I would have much more time to study right now" or "I would have had much more time to study back then"?

Judging from this website that I googled just now because I am not familiar with the rules for conditionals, lol.

I assumed it was "I would have much more time to study right now" which would use the rules for type 2 conditionals.

Which is why I said what I did. :P

cpx

The 'have' is main verb and not auxiliary here, right?

Tommy Tran

02:32

"Have" is the main verb if we're talking about "I would have."

It's auxiliary if we're talking about "I would have had."

cpx

So, in case of "If I hadn't worked so hard, I would have had much more time to study English." 'have' acts as auxiliary.

Tommy Tran

Yes.

cpx

This should be incorrect: "If I didn't work so hard, I would have had much more time to study English."

I thought it was this case ^

So, yes my original sentence should be fine then.

Tommy Tran

Yeah, I think your original sentence is fine.

cpx

I confused between main verb and auxiliary when I looked at the sentence.

Tommy Tran

02:38

"Have" is a main verb if it means "to possess". It's an auxiliary if it's being used to create the past perfect tense. It's normal to get them mixed up :P

Cerberus

I agree with Tommy.

By the way, the meaning of the sentences and the whole state of affairs you're describing also determines what tenses you can use.

In this case, didn't and would have had don't work together, but, in another sentence, they might.

cpx

> I also came around some quotes such as on Google:

"If I didn't choose art, I would have become an astronomer." - Peter Max
"If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens." - William Lyon

They don't seem grammatical to me now.

Formatting is so difficult for me, sorry.

Cerberus

Yeah, looks like sloppy English to me.

Tommy Tran

Same.

Cerberus

They should have said, If I hadn't chosen art...

@TommyTran By the way, looks like you're newly addicted to the site...welcome!

Tommy Tran

02:47

That's right! Thanks! :D

Cerberus

I remember answering tons of questions when I was new.

Tommy Tran

I feel like this is the grown-up version of Yahoo Answers.

Except it's combined with Reddit with the upvote/downvote thing.

And reputation is like Reddit karma, except reputation actually has a purpose.

Cerberus

Heh.

One might characterise it that way.

I think it is much cleaner than those sites.

Tommy Tran

Ooh, "characterise". The British spelling, eh?

Yes, Stack Exchange is much cleaner.

Cerberus

@Færd I heard about the attack. Do you think it's the Arab separatists that are responsible, as the government says? Have they carried out similar attacks in the past?

@TommyTran I suppose! Although some Brits use a z while others use an s.

(Sorry, we often veer off topic here...)

Tommy Tran

02:54

Lots of stacks (is that what you call them?) are very quiet, though. I checked out the chess and EL&A stacks and they're pretty quiet. :(

Cerberus

You mean the chat rooms?

The sites can be called stacks, I suppose.

Tommy Tran

No, the actual forums for them.

Cerberus

Ah.

Tommy Tran

Yeah, the sites.

Cerberus

Yes, the smaller the site, the fewer questions. Latin gets about two questions a day. English is among the larger ones.

(Okay, that was a tautology. Or perhaps circular reasoning.)

Tommy Tran

02:56

The writing forum is a ghost town.

Cerberus

How many questions a day does it get?

Tommy Tran

Actually, it got 5 questions today. Hm. I guess it's not a ghost town.

Cerberus

Yes, that's not so bad.

3 hours later…

Gigili

05:58

Thank you, @Jasper.

@Cerberus Please name some of them.

That sounds like a great way of killing two birds with one stone.

Feeds

-2

Q: Word for someone that has a hard time finding a girlfriend

"I used to be xxxx before I learned how to deal with women," for instance. Knowing a formal word for that would also be good, but I'm looking for slang with "loser" connotation to it, such as "incel". What would be the word for a woman? This title elicited another question: what better word wo...

Q: What do you call the revival of an obsolete word for a new meaning?

Let's say carrot for a shade of orange. Suppose carrot is not used for the color and I wanted one to describe the vegetable's color. So, I revive the displaced more for the color. What do you call such revival?

single-word-requests linguistics

1 hour later…

Tommy Tran

07:32

In "He taught her science," which is the direct object and which is the indirect object? I know that with sentences like "He brought her the keys," the direct object is "keys" because "What did he bring? The keys," and "her" is the indirect object. But I don't know if this is different or if I'm overthinking this.

"Who did he teach?" "Her."

"Her" has to be the direct object, right?

Wait. "What did he teach? Science."

Crap.

Mitch

@Gigili so violent. Can't we just tease them a little?

Tommy Tran

Okay, I've decided that "science" is the direct object and "her" is the indirect object just like it usually is. I was overthinking it.

Andrew Leach

08:04

@TommyTran Yes: ask the same questions about "He brought her the keys": What did he bring? Who did he bring them to? — What did he teach? Who did he teach it to?

The problem comes when you omit the direct object (science) because in "He taught her", her is the direct object. Teach doesn't need the preposition to like the verb bring does.

Feeds

08:34

Q: A single word to express something that has changed since the last time I checked it?

A single/double word to express something that has changed since the last time I checked it?

single-word-requests

1 hour later…

Feeds

09:39

Q: To spell a word using words

I'm wondering if there was a word that would describe: spelling out a word using a word e.g. Pear = Pineapple Energy Apple Red

single-word-requests

1 hour later…

Jasper Loy

10:44

@Gigili Just to add, Ancient Greek is not the same as Greek spoken today, and I assume you wish to learn the latter.

There are Biblical Greek and Modern Greek, and similarly Quranic Arabic and Modern Arabic.

Feeds

11:16

Q: My question is about fire

If you have one match and you are in a Dark and Cold Room and there is a Oil Lamp,Oil Heaterand a Candle what would you light first

single-word-requests

2 hours later…

SmokeDetector

13:31

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected, potentially bad keyword in answer, toxic answer detected: "Injure" vs. "damage" by user317320 on english.SE

2 hours later…

Curio

15:28

Can I say : "I was standing about"?

Feeds

16:09

Q: Is there a word for when a logo uses an image for one of the letters?

There's a million examples of this, but the one that comes to mind is "smoke shop" with images of pipes in place of the "S"s, like this: Is there a word for this?

single-word-requests nouns vocabulary typography

Q: Is there any difference between "Crowd" and "crowd"?

I'm having some troubles understanding the meaning of "Crowd" in this context. Is there a specific need to write it with capital letter? I guess that here "the Crowd" is the gang of college mates but I'm confused. I can’t really remember how I met Tommy. I recollect him first as a smooth...

single-word-requests word-usage meaning-in-context

Færd

17:03

Yellow.

@Cerberus It's very likely that it was an Arab separatist gang or group. The one that claimed responsibility for the recent attack is called Al-Ahwaziyya (Ahwaz is the name of the city and the county they claim).

They claim to be based in Holland, and they have their own TV, called Ahawzona (our Ahwaz). On it, they've presumably broadcast various programs from Arabic courses for children to setting the houses of non-Arabs or non-native Ahwazis on fire, to attacks on banks (I've not checked this myself).

They released a threat (not on that channel) nine months ago that non-Ahwazis (more than half of the populous there, I think!) must not appear in public places or ceremonies or whatever, or else they would suffer brutal consequences.

Some ISIS affiliate has also claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack, but that seems more like a bluff.

As to a possible alliance between the two, I don't know. One is predominantly Shia but doesn't project itself as a religious endeavor, and the other, Sunni. But they probably receive finances from similar or the same sources.

(Did I use bluff incorrectly?)

1 hour later…

Feeds

18:35

Q: what word best describes self-improvers, growth seekers, people who love personal development?

I am looking for a word that describes people who are committed to personal development, self-improvement, etc.

single-word-requests

1 hour later…

Feeds

19:57

Q: Is there a word for a person that does things because people said they would be bad at it?

Is there a word for a person that does things because people said they would be bad at it? Ex: The man was told he would be the worst husband in the world so he set out to be the best. I was told spite but there is no ill intention.

single-word-requests

JBis

Should this be "Afterwards" or "Afterward"?

_______, they have a different sense of reality than the person they were before.

Cerberus

20:17

@JBis Bother are usually interchangeable.

But your sentence seems somewhat odd, what with the present have.

I would expect a past or future tense.

JBis

@Cerberus yeah working on the sentence. Its a little bull shitty (another essay).

Thanks

Cerberus

Without context, there is little to say.

Feeds

21:02

Q: Word for the perception of an unexpected taste

We've all had moments like this. Taking a sip of what we believe to be iced tea, but is in fact Dr. Pepper, for a moment the liquid in our mouths surprises us, and doesn't really taste like either one. Is there a word or phrase that specifically describes the "pseudo-taste" that arises from the c...