English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

SmokeDetector

06:31

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, potentially bad keyword in body (295): Tevida Canada have the capacity by redericnueva on english.SE

hbtpoprock

08:32

@KannE How is it going? Are there many mistakes in the post?

@Mitch

SmokeDetector

09:45

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, pattern-matching product name in body, pattern-matching website in body, potentially bad keyword in body, repeated url at end of long post (395): Meilleure Formule Pour Perdre La Graisse Du Ventre en 2 Semaines by pritikhamohli on english.SE

Curio

12:39

They've corrected me "Lots of money" with "A lot of money"

I disagree, do you?

Where's the mistake?

Robusto

14:44

@Curio It's not a mistake, it's a difference in register. "Lots of money" is informal, but it's not "wrong" per se. If you link the item in question I'll take a look.

Mitch

15:02

bloop blorp

RegDwigнt

Why is Mitch a dalek now.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer (94): Is there a collective name for pieces of metal that hold wood together? by asseater on english.SE

Robusto

15:33

@RegDwigнt A dalek? I thought he was Dr. Who.

Mitch

16:15

@RegDwigнt Bleep?

I was speaking bloopary

I realize now that I was slipping into my native blorpary dialect.

Very uncouth

Toby Speight

cv-pls descriptive-grammar Belongs on ELL Degrees of comparison - “is the” vs. “is more” - ROBEL‎ - 2018-11-13 12:47:35Z

Curio

16:32

@Robusto it was a test. I'll show my professor your comment

Robusto

16:56

@Curio If it was on a test, and he was the professor, then he is the single arbiter of what is wrong and what is right in his class. If this was a test of English, he may have expected you to adopt a more formal style.

KannE

17:14

@hbtpoprock Sorry for the delay. My second suggestion:

In the second example (#2), the relative clause in the first sentence is not defining. It just gives additional information (it is non-restrictive) unless there is more than one person named Clare.
Clare, who I work with, is doing the London marathon this year.

Curio

17:30

@Robusto The fact is that he told me that the mistake was about the number

<<Lots of is used for plural nouns>>

WHAT? I thought

Not about what you said

Robusto

@Curio "Lots of" is also used for mass nouns as well. What is the class you are taking?

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in body (98): 2018 Beste männliche Verbesserungslösung für Männer by sanskritmohli on english.SE

KannE

Recall that non-restrictive clauses are offset with commas.

KannE

17:58

@hbtpoprock Consider the meanings of the following sentences:

hbtpoprock

@KannE Can we still omit the "who" in the Clare sentence then?

l'm going to bed now, it's 1am here in Thailand. You can leave me messages, and l'll online again tmr. Ty :)

Mitch

3

A: Shouldn’t we use "lots of" with plural nouns and "a lot of" with singular ones?

A lot of things means a large number (plural) of things, hence you will use a plural noun (unless the noun is uncountable, then singular). A lot of apples, a lot of chairs, a lot of questions, (but a lot of water, a lot of sand). Lots is just the plural form of lot. And so more than one set o...

KannE

18:13

Clare, whom I work with, is doing the London marathon this year.
The Clare (whom) I work with is doing the London marathon this year.
Object pronouns can be deleted in restrictive relative clauses:
The Clare I work with is doing the London marathon this year.
Clare, (who is) my co-worker, is doing the London marathon this year.
Subject pronouns with “be” verbs can be deleted in non-restrictive clauses:
Clare, my co-worker, is doing the London marathon this year.

Mitch

@Curio I found that by searching ELU. The trick is to look through a number of those questions and all the answers. Some of the answers are crazy. There's no guarantee that you'll get a correct and complete answer here.

KannE

Or, more simply...
My co-worker Clare is doing the London marathon this year.

Mitch

Your coworker is really the international traveler, isn't she.

I'm currently listening to a webinar where the speaker consistently pronounces the word 'origin' as ...

'oh RIDG in'

unless every time I've heard this has been wrong forever

KannE

18:30

@hbtpoprock It all depends on whether the relative clause is restrictive or non-restrictive. I think you may have missed that point in the link I sent you.

Restrictive relative clauses can be reduced in two ways:

1. Subject pronouns can be deleted if –ing is added to the verb.

I like the paintings that hang in the SASB North lobby.
I like the paintings hanging in the SASB North lobby.

2. Object pronouns can be deleted.

I like the bike that my father gave me.
I like the bike my father gave me.

Non-restrictive relative clauses can be reduced in one way:

Subject pronouns with “be” verbs can be deleted in non-restrictive clauses.

I am moving to Louisville, KY, which is home to the Muhammad Ali Museum.

KannE

18:45

Keep in mind that these are general rules...not absolutes...language evolves, you know.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto yes on who, not sure about the dr. bit.

KannE

19:10

@Mitch Not really, by London marathon she means everybody in the London Marathon who stops by (with virgin money), so she's pretty grounded...of course.

Will Hunting

@RegDwigнt I guess you must be busy these days. No videos for 9000 years already. I have 5 now. My latest one is hilarious. kthxbai

Curio

19:43

@Mitch @Robusto I'm confused. They should be the same!

Aren't they synonyms? So have I been using them so far incorrectly?

RegDwigнt

20:13

@Mitch what are you on about, any complete answer would also have to be correct. Any incorrect answer is by definition also incomplete.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt Oh my effing blorp

an answer that is correct (not wrong) may well not be complete.

also a complete answer may well have some incorrect items within.

it's a math thing.

if you want to ignore math altogether, not a necessarily terrible thing to do, then you can blorp the effing daylights out your bleep bloop

giggles

(because a blorp = eat)

(bleep = mother's)

(bloop = ...

Chicken Pot Pie!)

That stuff is the best

But if you don't do it right it'll burn off the top of you mouth

also the top of your tongue

and you'll have a hard time enjoying the rest of your chicken pot pie

and that, sir, is a tragedy

RegDwigнt

22:06

@Mitch true, but that does not contradict my point. In fact it is utterly unrelated to it.

Robusto

RegDwigнt

@Mitch also true, but then it's more than complete. A complete collection of Beethoven's works should not also contain Justin Timberlake.

Robusto

@Mitch Depends on the kind of pot you use.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto that's not the worst alphabet book ever. The worst alphabet book was discussed on ELU a couple years ago, where the picture for Y was a hammer or something like that.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt That one was just stupid. This one is at least intentionally funny.

RegDwigнt

22:10

428

Q: Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture?

My 1-year kid has a plastic ball that is decorated with all 26 letters from the English alphabet and besides each letter is an image. I suppose the images are of words in English that begin with each of the letters. That works for all of them, except for the Y, which image looks like an axe to me...

single-word-requests

Well. That one had 428 upvotes and your book has none.

Robusto

This is pretty cool:

Block-stacking problem

In statics, the block-stacking problem (sometimes known as The Leaning Tower of Lire (Johnson 1955), also the book-stacking problem, or a number of other similar terms) is a puzzle concerning the stacking of blocks at the edge of a table. == Statement == The block-stacking problem is the following puzzle: Place N {\displaystyle N} identical rigid rectangular blocks in a stable stack on a table edge in such a way as to maximize the overhang. == History == Paterson et al. provide a long list of references on this problem going back to mechanics texts from...

RegDwigнt

So put it in a yipe and ymoke it.

@Robusto it's also like every other video on YouTube.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Oh, so I suppose your music on YouTube isn't as good as some of these idiot videos that have a million views and 10,000 likes?

RegDwigнt

That is what I suppose as well.

Robusto

I'm glad we worked that out.

RegDwigнt

22:11

But for the record I do listen to Gangnam Style way more than to my own shit, so there's that.

I can't blame others for doing likewise, you know.

Robusto

That's because K-pop is vastly more popular than your own shit.

RegDwigнt

The Brick Balancing Challenge

►

Robusto

I think K-pop is actually way more popular than any other single thing.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto ooooh I have a spectacular video on K-Pop. If you ever want to get really really depressed.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt I'm new to this world you call the Internet. Cut me some slack.

RegDwigнt

22:14

The Late Capitalism of K-Pop

►

Seriously though that is one fucking good video.

@Robusto sorry I have no videos on cutting slack. But I'm sure you can follow SlackCutterer on Twitter or something.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt You just like bouncy Asian girls dancing to music. I think we call that K-porn.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto there's very few of those in there. Lots of black-and white revolution footage though.

Robusto

Figures a Russian would like revolution porn.

RegDwigнt

Also for the record, Korean girls do nothing for me. But we discussed actually, I faintly seem to recall.

@Robusto I knew you would say that.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt You said Chinese girls. Nothing about Koreans.

@RegDwigнt Lies.

RegDwigнt

22:18

I know nothing about Chinese girls at all. Zhang Ziyi is literally the only one I can even name.

Well, and Fa Mulan, but that kinda doesn't count.

Robusto

That's two more than I know.

RegDwigнt

It takes one to know one. That's how I got to two.

Robusto

So they're conjoined?

RegDwigнt

Well they're both Chinese, so I can't tell them apart.

Robusto

BTW, you don't do anything for them, either. They prefer Asians with shiny clothes who can dance in a video.

RegDwigнt

22:20

They actually don't. If you watch the video.

Robusto

Do you believe everything you see on YouTube?

RegDwigнt

That said, I am a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, so there's that.

@Robusto no, but I certainly don't believe anything that I don't.

Like, last I checked, God wasn't on YouTube.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt What about dark matter?

That's not on YouTube.

RegDwigнt

It is if you forget your charger at work.

Robusto

I mean, the actual dark matter isn't. Not that you can see anyway.

RegDwigнt

22:23

How can you tell actual dark matter from unactual, that's what I want to know.

Especially if you say both aren't even on YouTube.

Robusto

I know it when I see it.

Girls' Generation

Girls' Generation (Hangul: 소녀시대; RR: Sonyeo Sidae), also known as SNSD, is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group is composed of eight members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun. Originally a nine-piece group, Jessica later departed from the group in September 2014. Girls' Generation debuted in 2007 with their Korean eponymous debut album. Though the album gained some attention, it was not until 2009 that the group rose to fame with the single "Gee", which claimed the top spot on KBS's Music Bank for a record-breaking nine consecutive weeks...

That's pretty dark right there.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto No, that is porn, Justice.

Robusto

OK, I know it when I don't see it.

RegDwigнt

You don't know it in the Biblical sense, though.

Robusto

Nobody does. There was no screwing in the Bible.

RegDwigнt

22:25

> Originally a nine-piece group, Jessica later departed from the group in September 2014.

Now that's a nice dangling modifier.

That's the other thing that confuses me about Korean girls. They all have that gender question mark dangling over them. Or dangling under, rather.

@Robusto yeah, especially if you were a carpenter.

Who wrote that shit.

Robusto

I think Queen did.

Queen - We Will Rock You (Official Video)

►

RegDwigнt

Oh right, hence the Queen James version.

Mitch

@Robusto like an impacted colon

Robusto

@Mitch The colon was destroyed in the process. It became a semicolon.

RegDwigнt

Does MathOverflow have Single Number Requests?

single-number-request I need a number between three and six. I am certain I've heard it before.

Robusto

22:38

That's stupid. They should have the imaginary-number-request instead.

RegDwigнt

All numbers are imaginary.

MetaEd

@RegDwigнt Not the one I just made up.

Mitch

Count von Count

@CountVonCount, Sesame Street

I love to count!

2k tweets, 88.1k followers, following 10 users

He does all the numbers

RegDwigнt

Oct 29 at 22:38, by RegDwigнt

The Count Censored (ORIGINAL)

►

Yes he does.

Robusto

@Mitch I used to do numbers, but then they made pot legal and it became boring. Why do something if it isn't forbidden.

RegDwigнt

22:42

Yeah that's why nobody likes them apples anymore.

Adam was literally the last man that did.

Mitch

Didn't Microsoft patent the number e back in the 90's?

RegDwigнt

Lol good luck with representing that on an 8086.

Robusto

@Mitch There is no e in Microsoft.

Mitch

@Robusto very secretive

RegDwigнt

There was in the original French, MicroSofte.

Robusto

22:44

They might have cheese logs, though.

Hmm, what exactly is the log of cheese?

RegDwigнt

All my logs are of wood.

Robusto

We should ask Peter Shor.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt pfft..I can do that in ... 6 digits

Sorry...7

RegDwigнt

See.

Failing already.

Robusto

See, what's wrong with YouTube is too many numbers.

RegDwigнt

22:46

That does remind me of that swr on some sister site that asked how a computer could possibly display a number with more than 32 digits.

Five trillion upvotes, of course.

Robusto

"The 5 things mechanics don't want you to know." "The 10 most important moments in music history!" "The 15 things not to put in your anus!"

RegDwigнt

Never occurred to them to ask how it could display a single letter, mind.

Mitch

Use 33 digits?

RegDwigнt

No, that cannot be possible in 32-bit arithmetics. That was the question.

Robusto

Actually, there would be far fewer digits in decimal, since 32 bits must refer to binary numbers, bitches.

Mitch

22:48

@RegDwigнt stupid question

RegDwigнt

@Robusto "the three lists that list the same things"?

Robusto

Hell, when I was younger I remember when we could only represent 8 numbers because all processors were 8-bit.

RegDwigнt

Ikr.

And yet even then people would write BOOBS.

Mitch

@Robusto that's why one-hot is idiotic

RegDwigнt

Alas, millennials don't grasp such advanced concepts as BOOBS.

Mitch

22:49

I think they do

RegDwigнt

366

Q: If 32-bit machines can only handle numbers up to 2^32, why can I write 1000000000000 (trillion) without my machine crashing?

32-bit computers can only store signed integers up to 231 - 1. This is why we have run out of IPv4 addresses and have entered the 64-bit era. However, the number 231 - 1 (2,147,483,647) is not as large as the number 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) which I seem to be able to display fine without...

memory 64-bit cpu 32-bit computer-architecture

There you go.

Prepare your palms and faces.

Mitch

It's a good question if you don't know 1) about 64 bit and/or 2) floating pt

RegDwigнt

It's a good question if you don't know that 1) "question" is not a number at all and yet you can write it on your machine without it crashing.

Robusto

We should @tchrist if there is such a thing as floating-point type.

RegDwigнt

If that is super user, I don't want to know about the users that are not super.

Mitch

22:52

Like with anything, if you learn by repetition (rather than reading a book that teaches the stuff) there'll. be all sorts of weird gaps

RegDwigнt

How can I read a book if my Kindle is only 64-bit. I'm sure books are longer than that.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt It's funnier to write B00Bs using zeroes /nod

Mitch

Glasses.

Put on your glasses

RegDwigнt

What happened to Google Glass anyway.

It just silently vanished.

Robusto

I gave it the finger.

RegDwigнt

22:54

Well everyone did.

But still, they're digging up all those copies of E.T. from the Mexican desert, but no Google Glasses?

Mitch

@RegDwigнt they'll be coming out with contact lenses instead

Robusto

I'm waiting for Google Ass. Free porn glasses.

RegDwigнt

There's no such thing as free porn glasses.

Robusto

Maybe not now. But there used to be.

RegDwigнt

If you're desperate for Ass, ask EA. They put not one but two of those into every single one of their titles.

Robusto

22:56

There are cycling clothes by a company called Assos. Seriously.

Mitch

Uh oh traffic moving

Robusto

That's unusual for Boston. Especially in the dark.

RegDwigнt

Aug 6 '12 at 14:32, by RegDwight АΑA

@tchrist so that one time, I met one Aaron Marshall, who was with Microsoft, and he gave me his email, and it was [email protected]. Little did he know that "am Arsch" is German for "my ass".

Robusto

Well ... not exactly.

RegDwigнt

It actually is.

Robusto

22:58

am Arsch is "on the ass" ...

The "me" part comes from mich.

RegDwigнt

No, it is the exact equivalent to my ass in the figurative sense.

Nobody even says "on the ass". Learn English.

Robusto

I didn't say they did in English. I said auf Deutsch it's what they say.

Not that I ever heard it, um, in Germany, ya know.

RegDwigнt

When they say "am Arsch" in German, they mean "my ass".

Robusto

I know that.

RegDwigнt

See.

A less offensive synonym being nixda.

Robusto

23:01

Why do you have to give me a hard time? Must you incessantly gainsay me about every infinitesimal thing?

RegDwigнt

Ja und ja.

Robusto

The first question can't be answered in German.

RegDwigнt

Well. I just proved the opposite, I suppose.

Robusto

Nope. The jury is still out.

RegDwigнt

There's no juries in Germany, duh.

Robusto

23:02

Whatever you call them.

RegDwigнt

All the juries are out of Germany.

@Robusto judge.

Robusto

Anyway, you guys have been great. I have some sausages on the grill that may be burning already. Cyaz!

RegDwigнt

Ein Wurst-Käs-Szenario.

Bai.

Mitch

23:44

He's running. https://twitter.com/countvoncount/status/1060594699730333696

Tweeted by glentickle on November 12, 2018 at 2:43 AM

haha politics

KannE

23:55

@Cerberus, I would like to ask you a question regarding this:
"For future hypotheticals we use the simple present."
It's from an answer that you commented on.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/19418/speculative-conditional-why-does-it-use-the-past-tense-or-past-perfect-tense/19419#19419

Cerberus

@KannE Hello.

You can always ask questions.

But it seems I typoed in that comment.

KannE

Does that tense have a specific name?
As you said in your comment...
"There is no difference in form, but that shouldn't be a reason to stop differentiating between these tenses..."

Cerberus

I should have said, "there is no present subjunctive in conditionals" (and even that statement I should have qualified).

@KannE What tense?

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…