English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2012-11-29 (page 7 of 9)

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4:00 PM

@RegDwighт Ÿ̧ȩ̈ş̈: p̧̈ü̧ţ̈ţ̈ï̧ņ̈ģ̈ ḑ̈ï̧ä̧ç̈ŗ̈ï̧ţ̈ï̧ç̈ş̈ ö̧ņ̈ v̧̈ö̧ẅ̧ȩ̈ļ̈ş̈ ï̧ş̈ ȩ̈ä̧ş̈ÿ̧: ņ̈ö̧ẅ̧ p̧̈ü̧ţ̈ ţ̈ḩ̈ȩ̈m̧̈ ö̧ņ̈ ç̈ö̧ņ̈ş̈ö̧ņ̈ä̧ņ̈ţ̈ş̈, ä̧ş̈ Ï̧ ḑ̈ï̧ḑ̈.

Matt Эллен

Michael auditioned for a part in the vegetable version of Chigago. It was his desire to be a carrot whore actor.

@Cerberus ¡ʞןɐʇ ɹǝsoן s,ʇɐɥʇ

@tchrist Can you quickly type a capital alpha with spiritus asper, trema, and circumflex?

@RegDwighт Huh are you David?

"a capital alpha with spiritus asper, trema, and circumflex"

See? No problem. And fast.

@tchrist ẃhiçh cońsonants? These consonantś?

4:01 PM

Well.

Yes, thems.

I don't believe you typed that.

I call copy-paste!

Matt Эллен

zalgo'd

Nodeadkeys makes no distinction between consonants and vowels.

Fix by shell-escape.

4:02 PM

@Cerberus Stop whining and recognize that I am just better at typing than a dog with three heads.

@RegDwighт Qu'est-ce que c'est?

@Robusto NOU

:r!perl5.16.0 -Mutf8 -E 'say "Yes: putting diacritics on vowels is easy: now put them on consonants, as I did." =~ s/\w\K/\N{COMBINING CEDILLA}\N{COMBINING DIAERESIS}/gr' | nfc

@Cerberus it's a feature that enables me to týpè this right here right now in this textfield in my browser.

I still don't see your alpha.

@Cerberus: See what you started?

4:03 PM

@RegDwighт A feature? How does it work?

Tchrist has to resort to tricks.

As he admits above by posting the trick.

ἆ

I said capital.

And quickly.

Technique.

And trema.

4:03 PM

Ἇ

The superposition of clock hands occurs eleven times every twelve hours: at 1 ¹⁄₁₁ o’clock, 2 ²⁄₁₁, 3 ³⁄₁₁, 4 ⁴⁄₁₁, 5 ⁵⁄₁₁, 6 ⁶⁄₁₁, 7 ⁷⁄₁₁, 8 ⁸⁄₁₁, 9 ⁹⁄₁₁, 10 ¹⁰⁄₁₁, and 11 ¹¹⁄₁₁ (the last of course being 12 o’clock). If I were coining a word for this in English, I would probably use elevenses: The time is now ten elevenses. — MετάEd 2 mins ago

@Cerberus that's a trick question. You can't tell a capital alpha from a capital not-alpha.

It's all in the transcript.

Where's the trema? And how quick?

@RegDwighт They are identical.

ᾎ

Okay, I see a nice iota subscriptum, but no trema...

4:05 PM

ÁÀÂÃÆÄ

Eleven keystrokes.

Ἂ Ἃ Ἄ Ἅ Ἆ Ἇ

Trema, schtrema.

@tchrist And what method do you use to type that?

How long does it take?

Matt Эллен

ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÁ

‭Ἂ ‭Ἃ ‭Ἄ ‭Ἅ ‭Ἆ ‭Ἇ ‭ᾈ ‭ᾉ ‭ᾊ ‭ᾋ ‭ᾌ ‭ᾍ ‭ᾎ ‭ᾏ

4:06 PM

Oh no, not Cerberus with his backwards-through-the-eye script.

What?

You with your hotkey scripts.

You know exactly what I mean.

Probably about as long as it took for them to re-open my question in order to edit and close it. Really guys, beyond the pale.

I don't have a script for this.

You will start and not stop talking about it in a second.

So I opt out for some time.

4:07 PM

I wasn't planning to, honestly.

I was just wondering what methods you use.

@Cerberus a textual file that has to be read by a program before you can type shit is a script, for all intents and purposes.

If they are fast and convenient, I might use them.

U+1F0A U+1F0B U+1F0C U+1F0D U+1F0E U+1F0F U+1F88 U+1F89 U+1F8A U+1F8B U+1F8C U+1F8D U+1F8E U+1F8F

Matt Эллен

@Chris But it's a duplicate, so you have your answer.

Oh. But I like @belisarius's eclipse. The time is now ten eclipse. — MετάEd 34 secs ago

4:08 PM

Well I told you all I knew about nodeadkeys the last time around.

@RegDwighт I have no such file. I cannot type Greek, period.

Type `, type A, you have an À.

And I got someone on the phone...

I don't get it.

What is "nodeadkeys" exactly? A setting in your browser?

gives it to @Cerberus

And how is that not a dead key?

4:09 PM

Now you’ve got it.

@tchrist Ah, so you type unicodes by hand.

Cerberus tried to help me make an AHK script for that.

If I may call them that.

@Cerberus Ah, so you are on a first name basis.

@Cerberus Almost never.

4:10 PM

Ḩ̧̧̟̝̹͍̖̩͕̳͉̩͙͎͍̺̻̭̫͕͛̏ͧ͑̐̌ͫ͐̂͋́E̸̱̳͇̘̤͓̗͊̃͛̆ͥ̍̍̄́̕͠ ̆ͧ͒ͫͣ̀̈́̀҉͔̠͇̻̪̗̤̞̻̲͙̙̭̟̼̱C̫̞̱̰̜̉͐͑͒̽ͣͨͦͦ̈́ͥ̃̆ͦ̉͋͠ͅÖ̸̝͙̬̳͉̝̼́̎ͨ̂͋̈̓̆̊̃̌͌ͫ͆̒̔̅ͮ̀͢͝͡‌͙M͍͈͓̝͍̘̋̂̈́̌ͦ͊͌̀͢E̵̡͈̹̲̘̖̱͕̖̣̳̦̦̪̩͂ͨ̽ͦͭ̎ͯ̽̐͌̂ͣ͜S̖̩̳̻͑͆͌̏̉̅̃̇ͯ͑͌́́̚͘͝

@MετάEd Yes, and we did away with capitals too.

@MετάEd Helped? So didn't it work?

@SF. Obscene.

@Chris Tchrist said he edited something in your Meta question, that seemed mean.

0

Q: IN or OF for a location?

Would I say Human Services IN New York or Human Services OF New York if the Human Services serves and is located NY but is not actually owned or governed by NY?

grammar names usage places

Worst tags ever.

worst-tags-ever

4:11 PM

@tchrist It's just that having to memorize and remember those codes is a bit unconvenient for me.

But hey, if it works for you...

@Cerberus And for everyone. I virtually never ever ever type them.

Yeah exactly.

But you asked for things I never type. So I did what I would do in such a rare case.

Yes.

I was just wondering how quick/easy that was.

Now I know.

If it isn't quick, it's dead.

4:13 PM

Uhuh.

Oct 27 at 13:48, by tchrist

quick-action, quick-and-dirty, quick-aught, quickbeam, quick bread, quick-break, quick buck, quick-build, quick-cake,
quick-change, quick-clay, quick cut, quick death, Quick Dick, quick-disconnect, quicken, quickened, quickener,
quickening, quickening-grass, quick-eyed, quick-fingered, quick-fire, quick-firer, quick-fix, quick-foot, quick-freeze,
quick-freezing, quick-frozen, quickgold, quick-grass, quickhatch, quick heel, quick-heel, quickie, quicking,
quick-in-the-hand, quickish, quick kick, quick kill, quick-knit, quicklike, quicklime, quick-loader, quick-look,

Matt Эллен

is "The Quick and The Dead" a film?

$ uninames CAPITAL ALPHA WITH AND | perl -pe 's/1.*//' | grep -v : | perl -ple 's/\x{202d}//g; s/\s+//g'

Oct 27 at 13:42, by RegDwighт

The funny thing is, IIRC, quick is related to zoo.

@MattЭллен Yes. But it's much more than that.

4:13 PM

It's also a video game!

Matt Эллен

And a nutritious breakfast cereal!

Where do I find all the fancy markup for quoting, linking in comments, highlighting as keywords etc? The standard help contains only bare essentials.

@Cerberus I never got it to work.

@SF. It is lore that is only passen through informal conversations...

@MετάEd Huh?

How odd.

What happened?

It worked on my PC.

Matt Эллен

@SF. english.stackexchange.com/editing-help

4:17 PM

I used it on a list of a thousand pairs, and it worked.

Virus scanner?

@MattЭллен The big secret, never divulged, is how to do strike-through in chat.

~~Never indeed.~~

@MattЭллен: thanks

---word---

Matt Эллен

@SF. no problem!

4:24 PM

~~esting~~

Heh.

Matt Эллен

also chat formatting

youʼre-it

Ahah!

Look what I did!

Matt Эллен

interesting

Good luck with that one, folks.

Matt Эллен

when you follow the link it removes the apostrophe

except not in the url

4:28 PM

@tchrist whatʼs-the-problem?

Matt Эллен

~~this is not struck through~~

Bye and thanks for all!

Matt Эллен

CU

@RegDwighт Few know the proper magic.

Matt Эллен

itʼs-your-face

4:32 PM

I only know black magic. Never cared if it's proper.

Not my face, whatever SE tells my browser to use.

Racist.

Matt Эллен

well, copying it is easy.

@Cerberus Ailurophobe.

tagːrecursive

Guilty.

4:35 PM

Now that is odd. It must be a Singleton.

Recursive is the worst cursive.

No, U+0374 ‭ ʹ GREEK NUMERAL SIGN is the only GC=Lm Singleton.

*I *Simpleton

This isn't Bridge.

@MattЭллен It is the apostrophe “letter”: U+02BC, whose General Category is Modifier Letter, unlike the normal ones, which are punctuation.

Matt Эллен

I see. Interesting

4:39 PM

So you're basically pasting vector images in chat and thinking you're all that...tsk, tsk.

@Cerberus Oh but this is Bridge. Of Khazad-dûm.

Say what?

Greek has too many Singletons.

@RegDwighт Hello Mr Staff-Stamper.

It also has many Simpletons.

There are 21 Greek Singletons, and only 12 non-Greek Singletons.

Matt Эллен

4:40 PM

does that mean I'm on the opposite side?

whatʼs-supposed-to-be-the-difficulty?

Matt Эллен

Reducing Greece's deficit.

> History

> On January 15, 3019, the Fellowship came to the Bridge of Khazad-dûm pursued by Orcs and a Balrog of Morgoth. Gandalf stopped on the Bridge to confront the Balrog in order to allow the others to escape.

This is funny on so many levels.

[tag:ɔɔʰ-lʊk-ɑʲm-ə-kʊl-tæg]

~~Greece's deficit~~

4:42 PM

Sissies.

It won't even accept simple IPA.

Route Sissie-sis.

Yeah.

With her pretty dresses.

simple-ipa

I wonder why.

Sure it will. There. It did.

4:43 PM

Or rather, why not.

By the way. I, too, would accept a simple IPA.

[tag:\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O}\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER OPEN O}\N{MODIFIER LETTER SMALL H}-l\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON}k-\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER ALPHA}\N{MODIFIER LETTER SMALL J}m-\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER SCHWA}-k\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON}l-t\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER AE}g]

I don't know why, as Norah Jones would put it.

It's not the superscript letters.

I see nothing whacko there.

4:44 PM

I may in fact have one in my car.

Hm.

You are using modifier letters from Script=Latin, not from Script=Common as I did.

@tchrist Okay, smart guy. What we really need here is overstrike.

What is overstrike?

The ordinary meaning.

In typography, overstrike is a method of printing characters that are missing from the printer's character set. It was widely used around the early 1990s. The character was created by placing one character on another one — for example, overstriking "L" with "-" resulted in printing a "Ł" character. Many font renderers in computer programs invent missing bold characters by overstriking the normal character with itself, slightly horizontally offset. The horizontal offset is essential, since unlike a typewriter, where repeating a letter in exactly the same space will make it darker, most ...

Sorry.

Matt Эллен

4:47 PM

user image

'n joy

W⃠ h⃠ a⃠ t⃠ i⃠ s⃠ o⃠ v⃠ e⃠ r⃠ s⃠ t⃠ r⃠ i⃠ k⃠ e⃠ ?W⃠h⃠a⃠t⃠ i⃠s⃠ o⃠v⃠e⃠r⃠s⃠t⃠r⃠i⃠k⃠e⃠?

Jul 11 '11 at 15:51, by Kosmonaut

@aedia IPA, the beer of linguists.

Matt Эллен

when you hit something too much.

> Back in 2010, Intel launched a small-scale experiment with its Pentium G6951 CPU. The idea was that users could buy computers using this CPU, and then at some later date purchase a code that could unlock latent features in the processor. Users could thus "upgrade" their processor without physically needing to upgrade their processors.

Absurd and perverse.

Jun 9 '11 at 14:33, by Kosmonaut

@RegDwight I actually really dislike IPA.

Matt Эллен

4:49 PM

on disc DLC, anyone?

Insane.

@MattЭллен Exactly, but at least that's software.

W̸ h̸ a̸ t̸ i̸ s̸ o̸ v̸ e̸ r̸ s̸ t̸ r̸ i̸ k̸ e̸ ?

Software is insubstantial anyway.

Matt Эллен

you're insubstantial!

Not!

> Depending on how Intel consolidated its product lineup, it could also be costly for the chipmaker: if it sell[s] a load of CPUs that can be upgraded via software to have more cache, more cores, Hyperthreading, or other features that end users rarely take advantage of, that could add up to a whole lot of wasted silicon (and thus, money).

This is why it is perverse.

4:51 PM

̳C̳a̳n̳ ̳y̳o̳u̳ ̳d̳o̳ ̳u̳n̳d̳e̳r̳l̳i̳n̳i̳n̳g̳?̳

> The best example of this is probably AMD's triple-core CPUs, which are just quad-core parts with one of the cores turned off—manufacturers often take this approach early in a new processor's manufacturing run so that they can still sell a CPU even if all of its cores aren't working as they should (a trick to increase yield rates and avoid wasting silicon), but in many cases enthusiasts can unlock these disabled features without issue.

Now selling a quad-core CPU as triple-core if one core is malfunctioning is efficient.

@MattЭллен Nice.

I like that.

@RegDwighт They’re talking about you again.

Who now.

4:53 PM

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/…

@RegDwighт Them thems.

Oh come on.

I have no patience for this.

You all agreed it should be reopened.

I wasn't even there.

Had I deleted it after leaving my comment, that would have been a mean thing to do.

A lose-lose.

He’s just a whiner.

Who thinks that it is ok to use inverse video monospace instead of italic.

I just don’t think it should be lost.

And he deleted it before he got any kind of answer in chat, so that is disingenuous.

Hm, can we use <code>foo</code> in lieu of backticks on the main site postings? If so, I have an idea.

You can!

So now I know how to solve the problem. Cool.

We can leave <code>foo</code> do the ugly inverse video monospaced thing for those rare times that you actually need monospaced computer code, and make backticks map to italic here. Not sure why that wasn’t done that way in the first place. This solves the problem of people using backticks for italics, yet gives us a way to still do computer code if need be.

Too many people from other SE sites think that the way you make what we use italic for is to use inverse video monospace. So I think that this could be fixed, if the community thought it a good idea.

Probably worth a feature-request on Meta.

At least it could be discussed, so that everyone could have their say.

You use "in lieu of" in lieu of "instead of" why? — MετάEd 10 secs ago

@MετάEd I was out of s’s.

5:12 PM

@Chris: I did produce such guidelines without being derisive or belligerent. The only way for me to do so was to undelete this post and close it as a duplicate of said guidelines. "It was re-opened so it could be edited, down voted, then closed by the same moderator that I'm referring to" is dishonest at best. I didn't downvote your question, I didn't edit it; I have no idea what your beef is. I honestly do not. — RegDwighт 13 secs ago

And now I have to go to have actual fun with actual people, so forgive me.

Spieleabend!

Done.

0

Q: Should we fix backticks?

Often, new users to ELU come here from one or another computer-code–based StackExchange site like StackOverflow itself. Programmers who are used to using monospaced inverse video for code segments are often unaware of the typographic conventions and expectations of actual English, such as are exp...

discussion feature-request formatting

When you're close to home
    And you want your readers to see
How well you've formatted your pome
    Then SE fixes your font — for free!

Just click the old fixed-font button.

Yup.

Which is easier than doing it the pretty way.

Real programmers never do it the pretty way.

@RegDwighт Oooh.

5:25 PM

When you’re close to home
‭ ‭ ‭ ‭ And you want your readers to see
How well you’ve formatted your pommes de terre
‭ ‭ ‭ ‭ Then SE fixes your font — for free!

@tchrist Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.

I fixed your formatting for you, is all. :)

FTUFY, you mean.

@Robusto ♫ Plagiarize! Let no one else’s work evade your eyes! Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, so don’t shade your eyes, but plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize! (Only be sure always please to call it “research”.) ♫

@MετάEd Tom Lehrer?

5:29 PM

@Robusto ¡Sí!

I am going to lunch, and Tom Lehrer is playing me out. ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫

5:54 PM

0

A: Should we fix backticks?

I am against. For one thing, I really need code formatting sometimes, as in Proto-Indo-European roots, where Markup (or what is it called?—asterisks and such) messes up my words. Then there are other uses. This is not a serious problem (just looks) and removing any kind of functionality will not ...

I read.

Nothing would be going away though. Perhaps I was unclear.

I do use the special asterisks because of that problem, BTW.

You can also use *asterisks like that, which is written _*asterisks_.

See? If you use surrounding underscores, the asterisks are no longer a problem. Otherwise, you either escape them with \* or use ∗ or something.

@tchrist Those are which code?

@MετάEd I do not understand the question. The line you replied to is 100% 7-bit ASCII.

@tchrist Does it really? Because I assume the backticks and the <code> tags end up rendered the same, and therefore get styled the same by the stylesheet.

@tchrist I want to know what you mean by the "special asterisks".

Ah!

6:04 PM

And why not just *asterisks? Which is written **asterisks*?

Sometimes it does not work. I forget.

@tchrist Huh.

‭ ⁂  2042       ASTERISM
‭ ⁎  204E       LOW ASTERISK
‭ ∗  2217       ASTERISK OPERATOR
‭ ✱  2731       HEAVY ASTERISK

I use asterism, but that's where an asterism would be appropriate:

‭ ﹡ FE61       SMALL ASTERISK
‭ ＊ FF0A       FULLWIDTH ASTERISK

6:05 PM

metaed.blogspot.com/2012/05/i-noticed.html

3

There are more, but I usually use the operator.

What the hell is the Unicode committee thinking.

With respect to what?

Some days they are all "no duplicates, they're the same really". But a million asterisks are apparently okay.

There are 36 code points whose name contains the string /ASTER/.

6:07 PM

Is it really that hard to refrain from name calling, tchrist? Just disagree! You needn't be a jerk about it. Really!

Or 31 with /ASTERIS/.

Maybe 28 that are usable.

That does not counts the stars.

@tchrist I am just annoyed by the way they treated MICR. They added all MICR characters except the numerals, because apparently that would be a duplication. But they added the MICR dash. And they added a million asterisks. I suppose I am influenced by how horribly they screwed up the MICRs they did add.

@Chris That is the pot calling the kettle black.

MICR?

@MετάEd This is great, thanks for sharing

@MετάEd Really? Can you illustrate where I've been hostile to tchrist or any other user?

Genuinely, I am concerned that anyone would perceive me in that way.

@Chris I was alluding to the word "jerk" in the complaint just posted. It just kind of jumped right out at me.

6:10 PM

 ★  2605        BLACK STAR
 ☆  2606        WHITE STAR
 ☪  262A        STAR AND CRESCENT
 ⚝  269D        OUTLINED WHITE STAR
 ✡  2721        STAR OF DAVID
 ✢  2722        FOUR TEARDROP-SPOKED ASTERISK
 ✣  2723        FOUR BALLOON-SPOKED ASTERISK
 ✤  2724        HEAVY FOUR BALLOON-SPOKED ASTERISK
 ✥  2725        FOUR CLUB-SPOKED ASTERISK
 ✦  2726        BLACK FOUR POINTED STAR
 ✧  2727        WHITE FOUR POINTED STAR
 ✩  2729        STRESS OUTLINED WHITE STAR
 ✪  272A        CIRCLED WHITE STAR
 ✫  272B        OPEN CENTRE BLACK STAR

 🌃  1F303       NIGHT WITH STARS
 🌟  1F31F       GLOWING STAR
 🌠  1F320       SHOOTING STAR
 🍮  1F36E       CUSTARD
 🔯  1F52F       SIX POINTED STAR WITH MIDDLE DOT
 🝒  1F752       ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR STARRED TRIDENT

CUSTARD is the best.

@Chris Otherwise I agree with your point of view (but have not seen what @tchrist said, so I am just making a general comment).

@Chris Oh and thank you for noticing it. I was just using it as an example of asterism. But it's nice to be appreciated.

Okay, fair enough. I'm frustrated by the condescending way this has all played out. Of all my experiences with SE sites, this has really been the first negative encounter I've had, and on the first day at that!

@Chris I'm sorry you had that experience. FYI the EL&U etiquette guidance is here: english.stackexchange.com/faq#etiquette

The style guidelines are actually what I was originally after. But then things devolved, to my dismay.

@tchrist Good god. I think the Unicode committee can just retire on their laurels now. Or on their custard.

@Chris The community does not have one strict set of style guidelines, but basically leaves it to the active editors. The active editors, of course, answer to one another, so basically you can describe the house style as "whatever someone else doesn't edit away".

6:18 PM

You can count the number of active Copy Editors on your hands.

And still have room for more.

As much as I loathe to drag this out into yet another day, or spend more time discussing this essentially meaningless "dispute", if tchrist had taken the time to answer in such a neutral and reasonable tone, I'd have shrugged and went on with life.

Editing my post to replace the apostrophes, for example. What was the motive there? Trivial browsing through other questions reveals this isn't conventional. This leads me to the conclusion that the motive was spite. Essentially, trolling. And here, the open derision of a new user who has the audacity to ask for guidance to avoid future missteps. This is all so petty!

So anyway, thanks for the poem, and for the discussion. tchrist, please stop mocking me, and consider my suggestion that you withhold your contempt for people you don't know. Be well.

@Chris Yeah that seemed like trolling to me.

@Cerberus You weren’t watching the context. Reg said he edits just to fix a single misplaced hyphen into a dash. The posting I edited had not one but two, which I duly corrected. The ugly straightlaced apostrophes I did simply because I was already in there.

6:40 PM

Could you help me to punctuate this question?

`"How to burn ISO -file to USB -stick in OSx, with Disk Utility?"`

Moderator privately contacted me and he is saying that it is not English here http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/73183/how-to-burn-iso-file-to-usb-stick-in-osx-with-disk-utility .

I am not sure whether he is trolling or I know very little English puncutation.

@hhh try How to burn an ISO file to a USB stick in OSx with the Disk Utility

neither ISO file nor USB stick is normally hyphenated

furthermore, when you do use hyphens in English, you never put a space before the hyphen

and you don't need a comma after "OSx"

@JSBձոգչ It has different meaning -- the comma makes a line between priorities -- the last part more like speculating.

the comma is not correct for written english, regardless of the meaning

Removing the comma makes the meaning of the sentence totally different

what do you think that the meaning of the sentence is?

you want to use the Disk Utility to burn the ISO file, right?

6:46 PM

1. "I play ice-hockey, for fun, because of --."

2. "I play ice-hockey for fun because of --.

The meanings with sentences are totally different for example, the comma has a clear purpose: (2) I skate mostly for fun while (1) I just skate for whatever reason.

@hhh because of is not the same thing as with

because is a conjunction and my be preceded by a comma

(taking comma out is changing the meanings too much)

with is a preposition and may not normally be preceded by a comma. (there may be exceptions, but this isn't one of them)

listen, @hhh. the comma is wrong. taking the comma out does not change the meaning of your sentence. if you aren't going to believe me, then why are you coming here for help?

@JSBձոգչ What do you mean? You see there are more people, not just you. My native UK teacher taught me this comma -thing, I doubt whether he is wrong (ofc I may have misunderstood but I doubt it because he stressed then that comma has a more-meaning like priorization in English -- not grammatical thing like in Finnish, Swedish or Germany)

i think you misunderstood something.

let me restate this as a simple rule: prepositional phrases are not set off with commas in English

there is no difference in meaning communicated by your choice to add or not add a comma

i don't perceive any difference in meaning in your ice-hockey example, either, though in that case i believe that the comma is required

it is true that some commas in english are optional, and that their presence or absence may make a difference in meaning, but this is not one of those cases. the comma in your title is simply wrong.

6:52 PM

@hhh You are misled. @JSBձոգչ is correct.

You don't need a hyphen in ice hockey. Just thought you'd like to know.

Which English have you studied?

“Which” English?

What an odd question!

It is almost . . . not English.

US or UK or something else?

Don’t get suckered in.

No such critter.

6:54 PM

@hhh Why you put hyphens in front of -random words?

i'm not aware of any significant differences in the comma rules between the US or the UK. (unlike the quote rules, which are significantly different.)

@hhh If you don't trust ELU, why ask?

ELU?

One does not study particular dialects of English in general studies.

Only the extremely specialized ever study English dialectology.

It does not apply here, and no such loophole will be found.

You must be from States :)

6:56 PM

No.

And you are just asking for trouble.

Please do not do that.

@tchrist Random observation: Curly quotes are ugly in Web fonts, especially sans-serif faces.

No, I am not -- what is the punctuation rule in UK English? Some native here?

I mean the ice-hockey -example for example

@Robusto Studied observation: anything is ugly when the angels are against you.

@Sim Could you please help this not to get worse?

@hhh you seem to be ignoring both my and Robusto's advice about extraneous hyphens

@Hhh, If you're not going to listen, please leave.

6:58 PM

@hhh Look, you are clearly either a very poor native speaker or a non-native speaker, or someone who is just out to disrupt this chat. I think you are trolling in here, and I think you should leave.

Meanwhile, I am leaving.

@JSBձոգչ One thing at a time. I don't know the hypnation rule but I do know the punctuation rule.

That's it. I'm kicking.

Merci.

@hhh it's fine to have questions, and it's fine to be wrong. it even happens to me sometimes. but there's no point in coming in here and asking a question, then refusing to believe the answer

If he comes back and does the same thing, ping me.

6:59 PM

Ok, thanks.

no, i think we scared him off good

@Robusto Do you have a list of misdesigned fonts that suffer from this flaw?

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