English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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user19161

19:04

@Monica its, not it's

user19161

@Monica minimized, not mimimized

user19161

@Monica Perhaps you have invisible spaces at the end of the text.

user19161

@Mahnax Brilliant arithmetic there.

Monica

That it's is their mistake not mine

I copied and pasted it from a site

Ha ha no. No invisible spaces, I am probably typing too fast and I am very tired

user19161

@Monica Why would you do that just to answer Mahnax?

user19161

19:09

@Monica Go to sleep then.

Monica

Just to show him what problem I had

No, I would like to stay

Where are you from, Clark?

user19161

@Monica Singapore. And Clark is not my real name. I am Jasper, as you may have figured.

Monica

How could I have figured that?

user19161

@Monica From reading the transcript?

Monica

I didn't notice that

What time is it there now?

user19161

19:14

@Monica 3 am.

Jez

@Cerberus looks like it should be yeah

Monica

you should go to to sleep too

user19161

@monica If you are writing in AmE, I recommend you read through grammarbook.com.

user19161

It has a good guide on grammar and punctuation with emphasis on AmE.

Monica

Thank you, Jasper

Yes, I am interested in AmE only

How did you guess?

user19161

19:17

Most people here use AmE, that's all.

Cerberus

@Jez Cool!

Where is it? Far away?

Monica

It must help with translations

user19161

Q: Does "so far, so good" carry a negative connotation?

As a follow up to this etymology question, does "so far, so good" carry a negative connotation? For example, after having her sonogram, my wife asked the technician if everything was okay. The technician replied, "so far, so good." My wife later remarked that she didn't like that the technicia...

connotation

user19161

Seriously, why does this have 10 votes?

user19161

I think everyone is nuts.

Monica

19:21

What languages are spoken there where you live?

user19161

@Monica English is the common language. Most people speak one other language, like Chinese, Malay or Tamil.

user19161

Q: What is the equivalent word for "compile" in an interpreted language?

In C, we say: GCC compiles foo.c. For interpreters (such as Lua), what is the equivalent verb? The Lua interpreter ____ foo.lua. When I write instructions for users of my Lua script, I often say: Run the interpreter on foo.lua. I think this can be said more succinctly: Inte...

word-choice

user19161

Also, a compiler compiles. An interpreter interprets. QED.

Jez

@Cerberus about 20-30 minutes car drive

Cerberus

@Jez Oh that's doable.

So are you accepting it?

Monica

19:29

Have to go now

Bye

user19161

@Monica Bye!

Jez

@Cerberus as long as there are no major contract problems, yeah

Cerberus

Woohoo!

user19161

Woohoo!

Gigili

I realized that ELU makes Reg Reg, he's not Reg in other chat rooms.

More Reh, or even Rei.

Cerberus

19:38

Is that so?

I have never seen him named otherwise.

Gigili

Not his name, silly.

Cerberus

Hmm.

Do all those names mean "king"?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

A: "I will appreciate your help"

You are all wrong. "I will APPRECIATE IT if you can" is THE only correct form.

Since the only other answer is by @robusto, I guess "you are all wrong" is directed directly in his direction.

Matt Эллен

you don't want to ask this guy to make you a drink:

►

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Hm. Looks Ukrainian.

Matt Эллен

19:50

I have to wait long enough at the bar as it is.

not only is he serving all the girls first, he's showing off for half an hour too!

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I must say I hit stop halfway through. I hate this moronic format of all these X Got Talent shows.

Every two seconds they will show you some stupid reaction from some moron bozo bimbo. Who fcking cares. I do not. Show me the act or gtfo.

Matt Эллен

I watched all the way to the end. I couldn't leave not knowing if he actually made the drinks, or not :D

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

See, now I can just ask you.

I've outsourced the suffering to Britain. Clever me.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Yeah, the blonde judge seemed so fake in her reactions.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 lol.

Gigili

What a pft nose.

1 hour later…

Robusto

21:09

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Well, I'm not all wrong. For example, I'm right-handed.

1 hour later…

Mahnax

22:11

@ClarkKent Gee, thanks.

cpx

22:46

If I say, I had eaten my food would it sound incomplete or incorrect?

Cerberus

23:05

Depends on context.

@David: OK thanks, so they are always appointed in some way.

cpx

For example, in which context?

Cerberus

> I was waiting for my mother to clear the table. I had eaten my food. Then my father came home.

cpx

I'm comfortable with making simple past tenses, but I have to think twice when using 'had' in sentence.

Cerberus

The past perfect is used to describe something that was finished by the time the things in the main story line happened.

The "main" thing here is "father came home".

"I had eaten my food" was already finished by then.

So it is always relative to (and earlier than) some point in the past.

cpx

23:24

So, when we talk in past perfect there are always two events that happen i.e. "main" thing that happens after the action that has happened in past and the action itself.

After learning that rule, somehow, still the question comes to mind when to talk in past perfect tense.

Maybe that eventually comes with more practice.

Cerberus

@cpx Yes. But keep in mind that the "other" event can be implicit.

Mahnax

Woooooooooo!

I capped.

dances

Cerberus

@cpx Example: Samsung is now the largest manufacturer of telephones in the world. Nobody had expected this tremendous growth.

@Mahnax Congrats!!

Mahnax

And literally, right as I said that, someone downvoted my answer.

Cerberus

Whom have you knee-capped?

Aww...

Mahnax

23:32

So now I haven't capped.

shakes fist

Cerberus

There is still time.

Mahnax

Just 27 minutes or so.

Cerberus

@cpx: The implied "event in the past" is the growth (or the onset of the growth) of Samsung's telephone sales. However, you also use the simple past there (nobody expected this), because the implicit event is not very strongly present in the imaginary context.

Mahnax

Oh well. How is everyone today?

Cerberus

Huh 27 minutes?

When is the counter reset?

Mahnax

23:34

Yes, it's UTC 23:33 at the moment.

Cerberus

UTC?

Is that GMT?

Mahnax

Yes.

Cerberus

Are you sure it is reset at midnight?

Mahnax

Fairly certain.

Cerberus

And how come I am two hours ahead of GMT?

Mahnax

23:35

Eh, something silly with daylight savings, most likely.

Cerberus

Oh, well, let's see what we can do about this, since you're begging for it...

Mahnax

No, no. Don't!

Cerberus

There you go.

I picked an answer that I liked.

Too late.

Mahnax

Well, fine.

But just this once!

Cerberus

Of course.

I normally don't do this.

Especially not for beggars.

Mahnax

23:38

Please direct me to the place where I begged, since that seems to be what you're hinting at.

Cerberus

Of course you did it subtly.

Mahnax

I don't think I did.

But it doesn't really matter.

Cerberus

I was teasing you.

Mahnax

I know.

Cerberus

OK.

Mahnax

23:45

But I don't like being called a beggar, I want to work for things.

Cerberus

And that's exactly why I teased you.

Punch 'em where it hurts.

Mahnax

Kinda figured as much.

Cerberus

Is that an expression?

Mahnax

Well, kinda is kind of.

I dropped the "I".

It's sort of an expression, I guess.

Cerberus

No I meant "punch 'em where it hurts".

Mahnax

23:47

Oh!

It's usually hit 'em where it hurts.

Cerberus

Ah. That was the first thing that came up, but somehow I found "punch" more graphic.

Mahnax

It is, but it's used less.

Cerberus

I forgot what the exact expression was.

OK.

Mahnax

You know, I'm getting sick of ads on YouTube.

But then again, Sony was even considering putting ads in the middle of video games.

If that ever happens, I will denounce Sony as trash forever.

Despite the fact that their PS3 is better than the Xbox 360.

</minirant>

Cerberus

I totally agree.

Is there a reason you're not using Adblock Plus?

Mahnax

23:52

Safari…

Wait a second…

Cerberus

Oh wait, you had some reason you were using Safari.

You could install an add-on in Safari that automatically opens Youtube pages in a Firefox tab? Does such an add-on exist for Safari? Similar add-ons exist for the other browsers, I believe.

At least they exist in Firefox.

Mahnax

Apparently there is adblock for Safari.

Cerberus

Is it Adblock Plus?

Mahnax

No.

Cerberus

Hmm.

Well, you could try it.

Mahnax

23:55