English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

00:00

@Chappo Hmm that's odd.

I would expect a moderator to accept the flag even if he feels it's not the right category.

Chappo

@Cerberus This one maybe deleted by the OP?

Cerberus

@Chappo No, it was 'deleted from review' by eight people including you.

Chappo

@Cerberus It comes up in my flagging history as declined. It says: "not an answer – Chappo 2 days ago declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it"

Cerberus

It gives no reason.

Chappo

@Cerberus I don't doubt that deletion was appropriate, and I suspect I might have flagged it as NAA first and subsequently found it in the LQP queue where I then voted to delete (but without giving a comment, as I'd already added a personal one). So the question is, why's it showing up as "declined"?

Chappo

00:23

Similarly, this one, which has since been closed as POB. My flagging history says "off-topic – Chappo Sep 3 at 2:02 declined." My recollection is that I thought it was seeking literary analysis, which is off-topic.

Cerberus

00:39

@Chappo Yes, I have no idea.

Perhaps a system error?

Jasper Loy

Hiii

Chappo

@Cerberus Well, the declined ones are a tiny fraction of my total (7 out of 435 post flags) so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. But I was concerned that maybe when I flag a question as off-topic for not showing enough research, it's being rejected for the other half of the flag (i.e. consider ELL instead).

Jasper Loy

@RegDwigнt I just saw your latest video. It is very strange that every time you upload a new video, within an hour there is already one like. I wonder if that is from Robusto or someone else... It must be a very big fan of yours. I have a big fan too, in the living room.

Chappo

Hi @JasperLoy. Nice to meet you :-)

Jasper Loy

@Chappo Hiii. Nice to meet you too. You can check out my youtube channel if you are bored. The link is in my profile.

Chappo

00:53

@JasperLoy Great voice!!!

Jasper Loy

@Cerberus It could be a human error too. Sometimes, people just click on the wrong button, especially when they are using a touchpad and not a mouse, or worse, when they are using a mobile phone.

I remember there was once I edited a post on SE. After it was done, some tags were changed, but I did not change them, and the edit history didn't show anyone else doing edits, so I had no idea how it happened.

That edit removed a relevant tag and added an irrelevant tag, and I had to explain that I had no idea what happened, especially when I was using a mouse on a big computer.

Chappo

@JasperLoy I'm in a youtube video too, for a catch I took at an international cricket match as a spectator. Interview is at about 1:20.

Jasper Loy

@Mitch The lyrics of that song A Flower's All You Need made me cry. Some of it means a lot to me.

@Chappo I just saw it. I have never worn a hat myself.

@Chappo Oh, I would like to ask you since you seem to be Australian. Is the Macquarie Dictionary the most popular dictionary there? Also it seems that there is no way to buy the dictionary except from Australian stores and websites. For example, Amazon doesn't even carry it!

Chappo

@JasperLoy Sadly most people (probably globally) consult an online dictionary nowadays, and the Macquarie is paywalled. So my answer would be no, very few Australians would own one. Most homes probably have a dusty old Pocket Collins, or Concise Oxford.

I've been thinking of buying one though, both for professional purposes and for fun.

Jasper Loy

@Chappo I see. Well, Oxford does publish a two-volume Australian National Dictionary, but it is a rather old edition. I have the 2007 two-volume Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and also the 2010 Oxford Dictionary of English.

Chappo

01:09

The great value of the Macquarie is in all the uniquely Australian (or Aust/NZ) words and expressions. When I get the time, I'm planning on asking a well-researched question here about the etymology of "blowing a foofoo valve" ;-)

I have the Australian Concise Oxford but it's a 1989 edition :(

Jasper Loy

Well, if you are interested in Scottish expressions, you should see the Chambers Dictionary.

And a new edition of Collins English Dictionary will be published next month.

Chappo

I dinnae ken that.

Jasper Loy

Some history about the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

At first it was based on the Oxford English Dictionary, but the last few editions have been based on the Oxford Dictionary of English, which represents current English only and not historical English.

So OED is a different dictionary from ODE.

And the website oxforddictionaries.com where you can check words for free is actually the ODE, while oed.com is actually the OED of course.

I am very interested in all kinds of dictionaries, which is why I read up on them.

Chappo

I've been planning to see whether there's a way for me to access the OED via a subscribing library's online portal.

Jasper Loy

The personal subscription is very expensive for individuals.

Chappo

01:17

Otherwise I could spend more time physically in my local library - there's a thought.

Jasper Loy

And the 20 volume 1989 edition costs a lot.

Chappo

I think Mary-Lou recently posted (on Meta?) about a special discount subscription offer?

Vague recollection it closes end of October??

Jasper Loy

I find the SOED a good abridgement of the full OED. It is also affordable.

However, it omits all words obsolete before 1700, and contains only 85,000 quotations intead of a few million, but it is good enough.

And it is more updated, being published in 2007.

Chappo

"S" stands for shorter?

Jasper Loy

Yes, so you might want to look at the SOED and the ODE too.

The ODE is excellent for examples of current English. I find that more important than historical quotations.

Feeds

01:22

2

Q: Is there any synonymous word in English to describe an inoffensive girl?

In Asian countries, such as China and Korea, populace's aesthetic is quite different from the US. We prefer a girl who is more sweet, pure, and inoffensive, (my translation is not authentic in English, since sweet can be used to describe any kind of attractive females). And in Asian countries, i...

single-word-requests

Chappo

I was a dictionary geek in my teenage years, loved reading it for new words. I was a champion user of little-known two-letter words in scrabble!

Jasper Loy

@Chappo Collins English Dictionary is now the official dictionary of Scrabble. It used to be Chambers though.

Chappo

I'm glad - I never liked Chambers!

Jasper Loy

Chambers has humorous definitions for several words, but its fans like them.

Its definitions are too short to be comprehensible sometimes.

Collins has slightly better defintions, but the ODE has the best among the British dictionaries.

Chappo

Been a pleasure chatting. GTG. :-)

Jasper Loy

01:31

Bye!

JBis

02:06

When injecting a quote into a sentence how do you handle case change? For example:

> While he was in home...

The man claimed that the event occurred "While in his home..."

vs

The man claimed that the event occurred "while in his home..."

The man claimed that the event occurred "[w]hile in his home..."

Cerberus

Unless it is something extremely precise, just do "while...".

JBis

@Cerberus I don't have to use []?

Cerberus

Not unless it is something like quoting from some document as part of a lawsuit.

Or unless it is a linguistic research paper about spelling.

It's language, not computer language!

JBis

@Cerberus Sorry, I am a programmer XD

@Cerberus Thanks again!

Cerberus

Heh.

You will often see people use [w]hile in texts where there is really no reason to.

Under a false impression that such things are necessary in a normal text.

Just because they have seen it somewhere.

JBis

02:15

@Cerberus Yes, thats where I got it from. Although I do use it if I need to explain something, within the quote, for context.

Cerberus

For example, newspapers habitually (and by convention) correct spelling and grammar errors when quoting people, unless there is some special reason to keep errors intact in that particular situation.

@JBis You mean the square brackets for comments? Yes, but that is something else entirely.

JBis

@Cerberus Yes. Content vs grammatical/spelling change.

@Cerberus I didn't know that. Figured they quoted exactly.

Cerberus

Nope.

JBis

(Besides, umms)

Cerberus

At least not good, traditional newspapers. Unless there is a special reason.

So if there is any doubt at all as to whether the correction might change the meaning of what was written or said, then they won't correct it.

Then they can use (sic) if necessary.

JBis

02:22

sic, learned a new word!

Cerberus

Yay.

But don't overuse it!

Normally, when you quote someone's text that contains an error, fix it to save him from embarrassment, rather than emphasising the error by sicking it.

JBis

Probably why its not used super often (or at least I have never seen it)

Cerberus

Yes.

It is a bit like [w]hile: only used in contexts where you really need to be 100% exact, to indicate that something odd in the text is not your error/addition, but the original author's.

"He really write/said it like this!"

Sic is Latin for "so, like this".

JBis

@Cerberus Do you know Latin or just some stuff?

Cerberus

03:00

@JBis I have read classics at university, so yes.

JBis

@Cerberus Nice. Would be interested, but I am bad at language :(

Cerberus

03:31

@JBis I'm sure you could learn it fast!

Latin is very exact, in a way a bit like a computer language...

If you ever want to start learning some Latin, some recommend Ørberg's Lingua Latina per se Illustrata.

See whether you can read this...

SmokeDetector

04:11

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected (80): What is proverbial town pump? by Merrill C on english.SE

Feeds

04:33

0

Q: What's the hand stacking gesture called?

What is it called, the gesture whereby a team stack their hands on top of each other's with their palms face-down, then swing their arms quickly backwards, and go "Yeah!" or something, before they enthusiastically engage in some sort of teamwork activity?

single-word-requests expression-requests

RegDwigнt

09:10

@JasperLoy well, maybe it's you, then. You always tell me you watched the video within 20 minutes of me uploading.

Jack M

09:35

I have a question that didn't quite seem suitable for the main site

it's about this line in The Raven: "Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly"

whenever I get to that line, I stumble

I just can't seem to pronounce it in such a way as to fit the meter of the poem

The Raven is in trochaic octameter, and if you try and pronounce that line in that way, you get

Much-I mar-velled this-un gain-ly fowl-to hear-dis course-so plain-ly

so you have to put the stress on the second syllable in "discourse"

am I missing something?

or do you just have to say it that way

RKURBAN

10:25

hi

Jasper Loy

11:20

@RegDwigнt Although I subscribe to channels, for some idiosyncratic reasons I usually don't like videos, so the like is not mine. Not that I don't like them. I am guessing it's Robusto then.

Feeds

12:35

0

Q: Word encompassing the words "above" and "below"?

The word "sideways" can encompass "left side" and "right side". Is there a word to encompass "above" and "below"?

single-word-requests

Gigili

13:08

@Cerberus Oh? So why did you choose silence when I asked for a good reference to learn Latin?

Well, at least now I know a reference to take a look at, other than the ones @JasperLoy recommended.

RegDwigнt

13:49

@JasperLoy well, if you don't even care about the likes that you leave, I'm not quite sure why you would care about Robusto's.

And no, it's most definitely not Robusto, but again: what do you care. Likes are meaningless to you. As they should be, mind.

It's just a number on the Internet. And it's not even your number.

Robusto

Why are you bandying my name about? It doesn't like to be bandied.

RegDwigнt

I am not bandying it, I am Al-Bundying it.

Ever since I became an Arab.

To spite Trump.

Robusto

I see. Cutting off your nays to spite your fascist.

RegDwigнt

Also, I'm not bandying anything, period. Jasper is. Which is like his favorite hobby. Which is why I'm telling him to get a new hobby.

Robusto

What am I alleged to have/not to have done?

RegDwigнt

13:55

He's trying to find out what videos on YouTube you upvote. And I'm laughing in his face, because he's not a fucking secret agent. And because I fucking am.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Why would he be interested in that?

When you scamps get together you're worse than a sewing circle.

RegDwigнt

Yeah that was my question until realized I wasn't even interested.

@Robusto Keep your ugly fucking goldbrickin' ass out of my beach community.

Robusto

Wrong film.

RegDwigнt

Very much so. But we've quoted every single line of TBL like 42 times by now.

Robusto

getyarn.io/yarn-clip/5a3608c8-0cf3-458b-a68e-6bfd1564ec15

RegDwigнt

14:00

Yes, yes, honey bunny. This is a strawberry.

Mitch

Feb 16 '11 at 12:35, by Robusto

I'm actually not interested in rep. I wanted the frequent-flyer miles.

RegDwigнt

And he doesn't even fly.

Robusto

True. I bike.

RegDwigнt

He is more like into frequent-nonflyer miles. Or frequent-liar miles.

Or just John Miles, period.

Robusto

Flying these days is an ugly mess. And it was never very pretty to begin with.

RegDwigнt

14:02

Yeah, but at least everyone around you smoked incessantly.

And now you don't even get that.

And they search your arse instead.

Mitch

They literally can't catch a breath

RegDwigнt

That's like the worst of three worlds.

Or the worst of the third world, rather.

Robusto

Getting felt up by a TSA agent is something I'd rather avoid.

@Mitch What brought that quote to mind?

RegDwigнt

How long do you plan on keeping that nonsense up, anyway? I thought you've won Iraq and also Afghanistan. And hey Osama is dead.

So I'm not like even trying to be funny, this is a genuine question. Is anyone thinking about stopping this shit that started for a specific reason that's been dealt with?

Like, even half the Patriot Act has expired by now. Something we used to think it never would.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Because once a bureaucracy is established it is self-perpetuating.

Bureaucracy is like abstraction in programming: the only thing it can't fix is too much of itself.

Mitch

14:07

@Robusto I was always thinking that that would make rep a reasonable real-life target if it were convertible to something, and frequent flyer miles is about as intangible, but then I searched for my previous mentions and yours showed up years earlier. Which proves that you're a time-traveler stealing my ideas from the future.

argh. again...

RegDwigнt

@Robusto well yes, but this time it's every single American's ass on the other side of the seesaw. Like, literally every single American's ass could get searched, and not a single American's ass is liking that.

Mitch

Jul 29 '13 at 19:21, by Robusto

@Mitch No. I am plagiarizing from the future, so I will be young-fashioned before too much longer.

Go back to your time old man.

RegDwigнt

It's not like some minor thing about milk package sizes that you just give up complaining about because you only get to deal with it like once. This is something that affects everyone all the time.

Robusto

@Mitch Hehe, try and make me.

RegDwigнt

Half your television is now TSA jokes. It's on everyone's radar. So what gives.

Mitch

14:09

haha I already did will

Robusto

@Mitch I have already thought of everything you will ever imagine, either in the past or cribbing from the future.

Mitch

searches chat

RegDwigнt

I bet he never imagined you would say that.

Mitch

again

Robusto

You left out the best one:

Jul 29 '13 at 19:23, by Robusto

Sorry, I don't permit dead naked women in my kitchen. They have to be alive. My house, my rules.

Mitch

14:11

Jun 1 at 19:04, by Mitch

May 17 '17 at 19:08, by Mitch

there's nothing new under the sun

RegDwigнt

There is no under the sun.

Robusto

@Mitch That one is so old the bible stole it from you.

RegDwigнt

There's no up or down in space.

Robusto

In Thrace no one can hear you dream.

RegDwigнt

But of course the bible never went to school.

Robusto

14:13

You don't have to go to school to cheat.

RegDwigнt

But it's only in school where they teach you that best.

Robusto

Some people are just naturally gifted.

RegDwigнt

Most people are naturally gifted with stupidity.

Mitch

An expensive gift

RegDwigнt

No, it's starting at only $0.99, off Amazon. Name's "Dan Brown".

Robusto

14:16

> Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

@Reg, one thing I was wondering: do your colleagues perceive you as having any kind of accent, or is your German echt enough for them?

RegDwigнt

Oh but we've discussed this on multiple occasions by now.

Always an accent in every language.

Jun 16 at 15:27, by RegDwigнt

"I don't have an identifiable accent.
In any language.
I have an accent in every language, however slight, but you can't pin it down.
I've been deemed a French, a Lithuanian, you name it."

Mitch

Not French!

RegDwigнt

Well not by the French.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Yeah, but who has time to read all your shit?

Mitch

I would not insult you by claiming you to be French.

I'd use other methods to insult you.

There are limits

RegDwigнt

14:19

@Robusto last time we discussed this, we discussed this the two of us. There was nobody else there. We had to talk to each other because we had nothing else.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Still ...

RegDwigнt

@Mitch shall you remind you of the Marseillaise?

You get to insult the French once you become as fucking epic as a French.

That said, my German is better than that of most Germans.

Kind of like my English is better than whatever most people from England speak. That's because I actually learned English. And they never did. They only speak some local bullshit dialect that only twenty people understand.

I had that discussion on Xbox Live once. But then again, that's another thing I've told you before.

Feeds

1

Q: Single word for "enclosed in parenthesis"

X(1) The number enclosed in parenthesis in the superscript signifies the first slice of the tensor X This is my sentence. I want to replace the italicized phrase with a single word that demonstrates that the number is inside the parenthesis. I'd write the sentence as it is but for some ...

single-word-requests

RegDwigнt

That word is [closed], mate.

You are looking for [closed].

Robusto

I wish more questions would get [closed].

RegDwigнt

14:25

Yeah most of them ask for other things, sadly.

Robusto

too-fucking-awful-to-be-multicollider-bait

RegDwigнt

Tee hee.

That one really got your knickers in a twist.

Which is why I let it up for another day and only closed it this morning.

Just to mess with you.

And I'm not even joking.

Robusto

I figured.

RegDwigнt

But it was so fucking awful, it really was too awful even for the multicollider.

I looked today, and it had like 3000 views.

And I was like WTF mate, your mom gets more than that on a single night.

Robusto

Enter the Bikeshedder

@RegDwigнt More like 4000.

RegDwigнt

14:28

Is the thing, he never even did. It was too boring even for The Bikeshedder.

@Robusto your most popular question probably got a hundred times that by now. Even your least popular question probably did.

Multicollider is like 10k, in an hour, 100k in a day.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Sure, for values of 100 that are equal to 12.

RegDwigнt

Which any sufficiently low value of 100 is.

Don't be so self-deprecating. Cerberus doesn't like it.

Oct 12 at 21:36, by Cerberus

Self-deprecation is hardly sexy!

You see, boy's here looking for sexy times.

Robusto

Funny, but EL&U chat is the last place I'd look for sexy times.

RegDwigнt

I agree. Which is why I'm here. I'm done finished looking everywhere else.

Robusto

"I'm done finished"?

RegDwigнt

14:36

That is grammar, dude. They don't teach that in your country.

Robusto

If you want to sound like a hick, try "I done finished" instead.

RegDwigнt

I specifically did not want to.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Since when is non-grammar grammar?

RegDwigнt

I have a better question :since when is Trump president?

Robusto

That's hitting below the belt.

RegDwigнt

14:37

Not the bible belt it's not.

The corn belt maybe.

Robusto

Now he wants to go to war with Mexico over immigration. Seriously, he threatened to call out the military.

RegDwigнt

Oh is that a fact.

Robusto

Nobody will build him a wall, so what other choice does he have?

RegDwigнt

I stopped following the news and now like every once in a month people surprise me with all kinds of funny things.

Though by now a "threat" by Trump, well, everyone knows its value, let's put it that way.

Robusto

" ... Trump threatened to deploy the military and close the southern U.S. border on Thursday ..."

RegDwigнt

14:41

Oh I believed you the first time round.

I bet he more than once threatened to raise his employees' wages, too.

Robusto

I doubt that one.

RegDwigнt

My point is, like when Putin threatens you, like even when you think haha dude's insane and talking bullshit, but even then you're thinking if push comes to shove and he's lost everything and has nobody left in the world entire, he still might just snap and just walk up to you and kill you with his bare hands if nothing else. But when Trump threatens you, you know that the worst thing that ever happens is that you walk up to him and he shits his pants.

Being threatened by Trump is like being threatened by Teresa May, except in a much worse accent.

And now I shall threaten commute upon you.

And no puns with communism, I'll threaten that one on a separate occasion.

Robusto

Laters.

Mitch

14:59

@JonathanMerritt Google Books is a fiasco. How many papers have been written using Google Books as some true representation of culture? How many offhand observations have been made?

Tweeted by compstorylab on October 18, 2018 at 12:31 AM in reply to compstorylab

Tonepoet

@Mitch I don't see the problem to be honest. Google Books has a such a large collection of texts that it is comparable to a literal library, and nobody would be complaining if somebody used a library as a representation of culture.

Perhaps a museum would be a better representation of culture than a library, but libraries are not very far behind museums in that regard, if at all.

Tonepoet

15:28

Cerberus

@Tonepoet I recognise it!

I was there a few years ago, very nice.

Zebrafish

18:18

Wish I could visit libraries with painted ceilings

Hey does anyone know what happened to user Wordsmith? I saw he's been suspended, and thought it was until this October, but it says October '19!!!!!

He's been suspended for for a whole year?

RegDwigнt

18:41

No idea.

I only handle suspensions of 3 years plus.

The rest is dealt with by my minions.

And I have no idea what they're up to at any given time, but I've been told they like banana a lot.

So maybe Wordsmith really, really hated banana.

As to painted ceilings, next time you go to a library take a brush and a bucket with you.

As long as you do it very silently, they are okay with you doing whatever.

Feeds

0

Q: Proper technical/ financial term for CDs, DVDs, and USB drives

I'm just curious -- In a business setting with native English and non-native English speakers. Most revenue is software based, but there is a significant category that includes physical CDs, DVDs, and USB drives (containing software). Currently it's called "physical devices" -- however in a fin...

single-word-requests

Cerberus

18:58

@Zebrafish Who has been?

RegDwigнt

Ah I forgot to say. Cerberus can only remember one line at a time.

Cerberus

Yes.

RegDwigнt

Where?

Cerberus

DO

RegDwigнt

Appreciated.

KannE

19:02

I think I done been parenthe...motized [David Letterman].

RegDwigнt

Da Doo Ron Ron [The Crystals]

Cerberus

@Gigili Oh, when did you ask? I don't remember seeing that question?

RegDwigнt

6 mins ago, by RegDwigнt

Ah I forgot to say. Cerberus can only remember one line at a time.

Cerberus

Indeed.

KannE

*edit...parenthe...motized (David Letterman).

MetaEd

19:17

@KannE Is that like pismotized?

KannE

@MetaEd Or bapmotized...I always get those two mixed up.

MetaEd

@KannE Baphometized?

And is that what it's called when you're run over by the Baphomobile?

KannE

19:36

@MetaEd Holy...shizmotized.

MetaEd

This reminds me of a game we used to play here a lot.

"No, no, not"

@Mitch remembers

Mitch

@KannE edumacated

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive body detected, offensive title detected (100): "Typical liberal bullshit" or "typically liberal bullshit"? by the_scheining on english.SE

Mitch

@MetaEd used to? just a momentary hiatus. No, no, not a hiatus, more like a chiasmus.

KannE

Question (see Questions): Would that be typical liberal shizmo? Or typically liberal shizmo?

Mitch

19:44

No no not a chiasmus, more like a sudden jerk.

KannE

Haha, the SmokeDector caught it before I could finish tattling.

MetaEd

@Mitch No, not a myoclonus. You're thinking of single leaved plants.

KannE

@Mitch That's a real word...here.

Mitch

@MetaEd no no not monocotyledon, you're thinking about all those papers that @CowperKettle is translating (in between writing poetry) that discuss the magical new medication to combat disease by actual creating elements of our immune system directly against the offending problem.

MetaEd

@KannE See how this works?

KannE

19:49

*SmokeDetector...why do I like Dector better?

Mitch

Smoke Dedexter? It kills off questions that kill other questions?

MetaEd

@Mitch No, no, not uh ... immunotherapy? Were you maybe thinking of how we make the world end?

Mitch

@MetaEd well I was actually truly thinking of another word (monoclonal antibodies) but let's go with immunotherapy, which for the sake of the game I expect you were not really thinking of but rather those flowers that the coral are named after. Wait, it was catastrophe that you were not thinking of?

Well then, no, not catastrophe. You were probably thinking of another word for the same thing having to do with stars.

MetaEd

@Mitch No, no, not disaster. Maybe you were thinking of that cartoon character that's named for punctuation.

Mitch

No no not Astérix. I think you're talking about his dog who has trouble letting go.

KannE

20:04

Catasstrophy--award for having the most cat ass in your face...while trying to type Detector.

Or catatrophy--wasting away with a cat--I'm not sure which.

Jasper Loy

Well, I got about 200 points for answering a word request answer today with the word demure.

KannE

@JasperLoy Then you're 10x better at this game than I'll ever be. Rewording is hard.

Gigili

@Cerberus Hmm, actually it was on Sunday Sep 23 at 5:58 AM, if I recall correctly.

Jasper Loy

Hello @Gigili why do you want to learn Latin?

KannE

@MetaEd It's like every conversation I've ever had with my uncle. He's smart too; I can't keep up. It's like playing Monopoly for six hours and ending up in the poor house.

Gigili

20:15

@JasperLoy Hi. To improve my English language skills?

Jasper Loy

@Gigili Hmm, I didn't know learning Latin can improve English. I would just learn English to improve English.

It is raining heavily here now, very touching.

I am glad my laptop battery can last about 10 hours. That's a huge improvement over the last one which lasts only 4 hours.

MetaEd

@Mitch Do you like French or Englatin better?

Jasper Loy

I used to like the sound of French, then I didn't like it, then I like it now. Same for Spanish.

But I have always liked the sound of German and Italian.

Cerberus

@Gigili No link?

I see you asked about Greek.

A learner's book in Dutch about Greek would be of no use to you.

But, as you wish: I will mention Pallas.

The Latin book I mentioned, however, is all in Latin, so it would be of use to you.

Mitch

@KannE That's life

I mean that that's 'Life'. The game of 'Life'. There's a spot on the board in 'Life' that is called 'The Poor House'. In real life, you're lucky if there's such a house at the end to go to.

In Monopoly however at the end of the game, every body is just angry. Maybe not the winner. But even then everybody is so made at the winner that the winner can't enjoy themselves. Do you remember ever winning at monopoly? Nobody has. Because everybody hates that person because they cheated so horribly (it was so obvious), and the winner is ashamed to admit it later (both the winning and the cheating).

@Cerberus Wait...what was the name of that book? All language learning books should be like that. I now know where the Rhine is. It is definitely not in Africa.

Cerberus

20:33

17 hours ago, by Cerberus

If you ever want to start learning some Latin, some recommend Ørberg's Lingua Latina per se Illustrata.

17 hours ago, by Cerberus

@Mitch You could read it?

Gigili

@JasperLoy You'd be surprised to know my English was improved considerably by learning German.

Cerberus

Learning Latin helps a lot with more abstract English words, too.

Mitch

@MetaEd I'm sort of torn. I grew up with English and use it every day, but French was my first foreign language. Latin however just covers so much (but frankly the children's stories are kind of bland). What did they say about Aeneas? Something like 'Aeneas is the most boring hero in all of literature'

Anyway, It's hard to choose my favorite. I'm kinda liking Spanish right now.

Cerberus

His interaction with Dido, however, is far from boring.

Gigili

@Cerberus I can learn both Dutch and Latin that way, if that's okay with you.

Cerberus

20:37

@Mitch And the story of the Trojan horse? The version you will know is from the Aeneid.

@Gigili Uhh you can't learn Latin from a Greek book.

And you can't learn two languages from one book not intended for that use.

Mitch

@Cerberus thanks.

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Q: Looking for equivalent of Indian (Marathi) saying "Makdach ghar" which translates "Monkey's house"(never ready when you expect it should be)ed)

I am looking for equivalent of Indian saying "Makdach ghar" which is "Monkey's house" the meaning is a monkey always starts to built his house only after it starts to rain. It has the analogy of "Ants and the grasshopper" where the monkey = the grasshopper I am not looking for the saying like "S...

single-word-requests phrases expressions idioms pejorative-language

Mitch

@Cerberus It's great if you become a doctor or lawyer in English. It also helps with a lot of academic words. But for newspapers and news? I think that's its own slog in any language. What's the difference between the national security advisor and the secretary adjutant for national security? danged if I know.

Also Latin won't teach you what 'danged if I know' means.

MetaEd

@Mitch Then I'm going to say: no, no, not Idéfix. Perhaps you were thinking of a building. A nice, lovely big one. Any building.

Mitch

@Cerberus I kinda know where the Rhine is already. So that part was easy. (also I had year of Latin in high school which covers 'Ave atque vale' and how to conjugate the pluperfect but stops before the ablative absolute.

@Cerberus I quit Latin well before we were supposed to start reading the Aeneid. I've only just read that Aeneas the character was boring. They didn't say that the Aeneid itself was entirely boring. (but I did infer that)

@Cerberus Isn't she the girl that sings with Eminem?

@MetaEd Oh. I see. That's why you were asking.

I think I've said too much already

But no, not an edifice, but rather that fancy word for toothpaste, the one where I can never remember where to put the 'r'.

@Cerberus I think that is bit strong. Kind of limiting. Who's to say who can or cannot learn what from a text. Im learning two things from what you wrote: 1) You can't learn two languages from one text ... not intended for that use. and 2) You aren't being imaginative enough.

Cerberus

20:50

@Mitch No: many of the words you mention learners would not know. But they will know if they know Latin.

That is the point.

Difference, national, security, advisor, secretary, adjudant: a learner might be able to guess those words knowing Latin.

In addition, more difficult words in English, ones that most native speakers don't know, are easier to guess for those native speakers of English that do know Latin.

@Mitch Aren't heroes always boring?

They are vessels through which the story is told and the virtues are exemplified.

Mitch

@Cerberus Then you just made a great case for @Gigili for learning Latin

Cerberus

@Mitch sigh. No, you cannot as a beginner learn Greek from a Dutch book on Greek, let alone Dutch and Greek both.

@Mitch Of course. All of this is common knowledge.

Mitch

@Cerberus As drinking companions? They are probably the ones who start all the bar fights. So not boring but not in a good way?

@Cerberus OK smart boy, how do you do it for German? Just learn German?

@Cerberus Well that takes the challenge out of it, just one at a time.

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Q: Are there words to describe depth of a solid object?

I just used the phrase "narrow wall", and it occurred to me that, even though my meaning was clear, the word "narrow" usually refers to width and not to depth. Are there words like "tall" and "short" for height and "wide" and "narrow" for width that describe the extent of depth specifically? I'm ...

single-word-requests phrase-requests adjectives vocabulary

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Q: Looking for a word that describes a little known but nevertheless influential person, group, etc

Heard an old joke about someone trying to namedrop. The person they were talking to didn't know who they were talking about, so they said, "Well, they really are very famous, even though most people don't know who they are." But there's a kernel of truth in that old joke, namely that someone no...

single-word-requests

Cerberus

@Mitch Do what?

@Mitch It's challenge enough for anybody.

Gigili

20:59

@Cerberus I'll be your counterexample. winks

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…