English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

I bet the other transitional preps that look like participles are subject to the same.

There was.

10:48 AM

Didn’t I vote to close that as dupe?

Oh.

Oh right.

I know the problem. The other is closed too.

Why did I search? The link is right there in your comment.

One can go by bus or on foot, not on bus or by foot. I mean, not really. That sounds foreign.

By foot is marginal.

On bus needs a determiner.

On the bus, on a bus, on this next bus.

On my bus.

On the 6

}} On the 6 is the debut studio album by American recording artist and actress Jennifer Lopez. It first released on June 1, 1999 by Work Records in the United States. Lopez, who was well known only as an actress, began working on the album in late 1998. On the 6 debuted at 8 on the Billboard 200 charts in the United States, selling 112,000 copies in its first week. The album spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "If You Had My Love", the top-ten hit "Waiting For Tonight", and three other singles which achieved moderate chart success, "Let's Get Loud", "Feeling So Good" and "No Me A...

10:53 AM

wha?

Subway line number.

She used it every day to get from the Bronx or something to somewhere else or something. When she was a poor ghetto girl. Or something.

11:18 AM

A: When can "very" modify a prepositional phrase?

Well.

I have to shower and FMuteH.

I did this:

0

It is a bit tough to find cases of very modifying individual prepositions, but it is easy to find case of very modifying entire prepositional phrases just as it does other adjectives and adverbs. I think it’s very out of character for him. Things can be very out of place. Or very out of date. A...

I kept it short.

And didn’t even bend the truth.

I'm xblasting, will check later.

11:44 AM

@RegDwighт Hahaha. Nice.

11:56 AM

@tchrist Short by your measure. I upvoted you anyway.

0

Q: Where versus were

New York Times editorial today says: The Bronx district attorney should be applauded for refusing to prosecute bad arrests that officers were unable to prove were warranted. Should it be: The Bronx district attorney should be applauded for refusing to prosecute bad arrests that officer...

past-tense

Needs but a vote to close this mess.

@RegDwighт Didnt I say Jasper?

@Noah What happened to your "cK" question?

12:12 PM

@JohnJunior Oh, that. Nothing really. Placed an order...

@JohnJunior A friend said they carry good stuff

@Noah A bit over priced.

@JohnJunior Righty. There is a 40% discount on everything

@Cerb: Now WP is also blocked. Next they'll block me.

@Gigili Which part of the world is that?

A small part of it.

12:15 PM

@Gigili With no name?

@JohnJunior Did you have anything specific in mind you want to share(related to ck)

@Noah You are paying for the name with "cK" and the quality is not that good, in my opinion :)

@JohnJunior Honestly, I dont give a damn about name. I just want some good quality stuff.

@JohnJunior Went to JC Penny and they charge the same amount...

@Noah It barely has one.

@Noah You have to wait for the good quality stuff to go on sale at the higher end department stores, at least that's the way I do it.

@Noah Don’t go on looking at me like that.

12:23 PM

@JohnJunior I do that often. And you are right specially on BFs.

@Gigili That's just part of the story:)

Hello, I've a doubt that's been troubling me for quite some time, hope I can get some help here. Rule or Law? The new __________ requires every taxpayer to possess a special ID card.

@Noah I found the rest of it more exciting.

@its_me both are possible...

@its_me That depends. If it's a rule enacted by a legislature, it's a law.

@Robusto by the govt. yes.

12:25 PM

@its_me That's why we need context...

@Noah That's how it is in my book. :P

@its_me Law

Thanks!

> If it's a rule enacted by a legislature, it's a law.

Good point. Noted!

@its_me and it could be rule if it was in an organization...

@Noah Yeah. But the context is "government" vs. the "employed class" (or something like that.)

12:30 PM

@its_me I can see that. and my comment was just a side note...

I understand. Just put it in my notes. Thanks!

I don't have words to describe how this answer helps a non native speaker in understanding the differences between "in" and "on" in this case. +100 — Carlo_R. Jun 28 at 11:35

vignesh4303

how can i call my mom's younger sister

@RegDwighт No conduplicatio in chat.

@vignesh4303 She is your aunt. As are all your mom's sisters.

vignesh4303

aunt any other word for it?

12:39 PM

You'll have to ask her phone number first.

lol

Q: difference between less and lesser?

3

These two seem very similar. What are the major differences between the two? For example, in the following sentence, "substitute the lesser punishment for greater one." Can one use "less" instead of "lesser" here?

adjectives

What a pointless question, and all answers dance around the actual difference.

@vignesh4303 the only way to do it is the way you just did, mom's younger sister. The closest in English is aunt, which is sister of either parent (mother or father). In your native language there is probably a different word for maternal aunt who is older, paternal aunt who is older, maternal aunt who is younger, etc. In English, they're all just aunt.

@RegDwighт I wonder about the difference between more and moré.

Exactly.

Likewise, blue car and inadvertently are easily interchangeable if you change the rest of the sentence, too.

12:51 PM

@vignesh4303 See english.stackexchange.com/questions/51616/…

makes notes

Car and care and cave are all similarly interchangeable, given other words and meanings surrounding them.

When the car hits Popeye like a blue pizza rye, that's a Moiré.

@vignesh4303 Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.

Hits him in the I? How egotistical.

That letter is usually the easiest to hit because it's the tallest.

12:55 PM

@Mitch No advertising one's answers in this chat.

A: Paucity of words for relationships

Right.

9

You have noticed a very peculiar aspect of English vocabulary. As rich as it is in comparison to many other languages, due to its almost creole history, it really is impoverished in comparison to other languages in kinship terms. But 'why' is always a difficult question, especially when mixed wi...

Let me advertise someone else's answer.

ɭ is taller than I. In fact it is so tall that it has sunk below the baseline.

Low is not high, duh.

I was gonna clean my room, but then I got low.

I was too low to clean my room, so I got high and forgot all about it.

Trololow.

12:58 PM

@Gigili yeah I know. but I realized I was repeating something I had already said. If I really wanted to advertise, I would have intentionally put the link on its own line to expand it... like Reg just did.

Also, I believe the semi-cursive 18th-century "s" and "f" were taller than the capital I.

@Mitch (OK.

But I can't find those in my special characters thingy.

You are 18th-century.

) :)

12:59 PM

No UR.

I didn't want to be in parentheses! Stop this.

You are in loco parentheses.

@Robusto I was referring to the fact that the I is always capItalIzed In EnglIsh. You Incognoscento.

@Robusto viva la vida loca parentheses!

@RegDwighт To extend my gaucheries de matin, I also spelled out the obvious for the obviousness compromised.

Given RegDwight's comment, to simplify things for the reader, the answer is 'no'. Anyway, 'lesser' is a bit formal, 'the lighter punishment' is the more likely way to say it. — Mitch 4 mins ago

@RegDwighт Then you should have said that. Pro tip: Always use the right words to convey your meaning.

✎ Here is a pre-edited comment. Also post-edited.

1:02 PM

@Robusto of course that's what they brainwashed you to use in America, right words. Everywhere else, people use left words.

bows to master How did you...

..do that?

Fakery. Pure fakery.

Here is a comment that is pre-starred. ★

Oh crap.

I'm too slow.

I was posting the exact same thing.

Except of course I posted it a year ago already.

The oily bird gets the Würm.

Jul 26 '11 at 13:10, by RegDwight

Let me star a couple messages of mine. ★

1:04 PM

⚑ This one is pre-flagged. OH NOES!

Jul 27 '11 at 18:33, by RegDwight

@JasperLoy Yeah my stuff gets auto-starred. I thought I mentioned that. ★

@Robusto all your messages get pre-flagged. No need to explicitly indicate that.

Haven't you learned?

You're now pre-suspended?

@RegDwighт also my answer is wrong in the strict sense. English is not -that- peculiarly deficient in kinship terms. So maybe some other European languages have an extra word to differentiate maternal and paternal grandparents, but that's about it.

You have done everything first. I thought we all knew that already.

@Robusto I thought that first!

1:05 PM

See?

I saw!

Here, I'm going to pin my own starred message: ☆

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

@Robusto you need one of these ★★★★★★

The train from Vienna to Salzburg has free Wi-Fi!!!

Actually, I can't even see that I saw something.

1:07 PM

I pin my messages using linch pins. 舝

@Noah Your score so far: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

I just read my answer and I do say something about how English isn't that peculiar.

I used to know things that I've now forgotten.

@Robusto in comparison to what?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 back to the salt mines?

@Noah in comparison to not your score.

1:08 PM

@RegDwighт !LMAO

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 The walk here from Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts has free Wi-Fi...

"Back"?

when walking in front of the free wifi place.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Mebabus also has free Wifi

Q: What's the difference between 'cute' and 'cutest'

0

For example in the sentences: Will is a cute baby. Will is the cutest baby. What's the difference between the two?

meaning grammar meaning-in-context

1:09 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 'front' sounds wrong.

are you with a group?

(envious of the tourist thing)

Everyone is a tourist, almost everywhere.

@Mitch "Forward".

No, my wife and I are just on our own.

You are, you adorable wittle thing! Yes you are! Yes you are! pinches cheeks — Robusto 1 min ago

@Gigili well, if you work in a salt mine, it is sort of 'negative' progress.

1:12 PM

Tchrist told me to look out for wallabies. But I guess that notion might be more widespread than I thought because there are shirts for sale here that say "No kangaroos in Austria"

@RegDwighт Sounds very sinister.

@RegDwighт And yours is ★★☆☆☆ in comparison to @Robusto's

@Noah that retort took you so long? Bravo.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 apple cider or even apple juice. sounds lame but it is the -best-.

But we are almost at the station so I have to go

1:13 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 they were eradicated.

They are no longer a problem.

 Tamil mobile app developers

“To accomplish your mission, first sharpen your tools.” Succes...

This room is weird.

Haha

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Has fun.

@RegDwighт No, had to finish my bowl of cereal

Bye

1:14 PM

✓ This comment gets the check mark! I win!

$ This comment gets the dollar. I'm rich!

@Robusto Checkmark in favor of Romney, huh?

Ayatollah Romney?

@RegDwighт Who's that?

Why ELL is a sister site and not a brother?

1:17 PM

@Noah Got Mitt? Uns? Nö.

@Gigili political correctness. We all know that of course she's a he.

@RegDwighт Willard Mitt Romney

@Robusto Willard Mitt Romney

Billiard Ohne Romney.

Should be Wilfred Mitt Romney, but he put the dog on the car's roof.

Right Said Wilfred.

1:18 PM

Gotta go... running late for everything :)

How can I turn this off?

@Noah hold on...we have something important to say.

@Noah there's a button on the side.

✂ This comment is running with scissors. Look out! You'll put your eye out!

@Mitch Cant. have a meeting with the President in down town New York...

no, not that side.

Bye...

1:20 PM

the president can wait. he's always making everyone else wait.

wrong button

OK there's a software solution, just hold on a sec.

@Noah Tell him to stop sending me emails about my "last chance" to have dinner with him.

Tell him he's doing a great job, but then ask if you can borrow five dollars.

♹ This comment is recyclable, but could be hazardous to your health.

∫ I found the funny s. It was in the Math symbols. D'oh! I don't remember any calculus at all.

That's so not the funny s.

I had the actual funny s in my name for some time.

Well, of course it wouldn't make you laugh.

vignesh4303

1:24 PM

@Mitch thanks

Mar 31 at 12:04, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

I can close OVER 9000 questions, and still have closed a couple.

There.

There's your ſ.

It's on its way, too.

@RegDwighт Were they married?

@Robusto Willard the Weird.

Billiard the Beard.

Why you didn't tell me Reg is blind.

1:32 PM

Gotta fly. Laters. ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈ ✈

I would prefer being a lot more accusative than Mitt admits.

I am amused that @Rob is at long last starting to use more trans-ASCII codepoints.

Later is a funny word. It resists inflection, because it switches classes.

1:52 PM

What? It's just your run-of-the-mill agent noun.

@RegDwighт @robusto Why close Where versus were [closed]? Wouldn't an explanation of why it was correct be a useful answer on the site?

Yes, but the explanation is that one word makes sense and the other doesn't. There is an infinite amount of sentences that can be turned ungrammatical by replacing a word randomly. We can't host them all.

In other words, we can go with "too localized" if you don't like gen-ref for some reason.

All the poster would have to do to figure it out for themself is look up each of the two words in a dictionary.

@RegDwighт Well, I though an explanation that parses the sentence would point out the relationships among terms, each of which I suspect he understands. I miss those tree-branching sentence charts we had in Catholic school!

Yes, these are cool.

But isn't it up to the OP to provide a sentence chart that supports his parsing?

We do have questions about sentences that are truly ambiguous.

Also, I think I did at least point him to ELL...

2:05 PM

Aren't the answerers (?) supposed to be the experts? A glance at the reps of OPs (no apostrophe) suggests that they are coming to the Higher Authorities for some insight.

Yeah that's always hard.

We have to walk a line there.

Anyway, he did get an answer.

So he has what he wanted, and nobody else will ever want the exact same thing, so no harm done.

I see that many Qs (no apostrophe!) are too basic or lack even reasonable research, but it seems that we close a lot of Qs, perhaps more that need to be.

A crappy question can absolutely be salvaged by a stellar answer, true.

Also, most sentences are idiosyncratic when taken as a whole, but the analytics often have a broader application

If crappy qs where outlawed, teachers would have little to do

I mean crappy Qs

@RegDwighт Hard to have a reversal on a closed question. Highly negative questions are always closed, and oft deleted.

2:16 PM

Yeah. Haven't we had that discussion?

Yep.

Okay so I don't misremember.

Off to less intellectual stimulating stuff

Lies.

2:30 PM

@RegDwighт That question and others by Essen look suspiciously like NS.

@RegDwighт What is the difference between lies and ties?

Hi-ho.

ho-ho.

asi-asi

What what?

2:33 PM

Man, I'd love a ho-ho about now.

little debbie just doesn't compare

asi-asi, Spanish for so-so as in response to 'how are you?'

Oh.

my universal translator wasn't on.

kicks your translator

elbows back

It's on now.

2:35 PM

Fui de Bahrein hasta Beirut, fui desde el Norte hasta el polo sur y no encontré ojos así como los que tienes tú.

:(

mi ojos.

@RegDwighт I thought you were blind.

You used your fingers?

mis ojos han visto la gloria de la venida del ho ho.

so hungry....

@RegDwighт how is Pnin pronounced? puh-neen?

A more clipped 'p'?

2:42 PM

No uh.

Why would you add a vowel where there's none? Russian destroys vowels whererever there are any.

The only other way seems to be a silent p.

creates distraction these are nice

/pnʲɪn/

destroys distraction, vowels

not actually able to do it, but you just do one right after the other, like in 'ptosis'

looks for ho hos

Cameron

Hi all

2:46 PM

@RegDwighт prstrk

howdy @Cam