English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

3:00 PM

@MattЭллен Right, yes.

I just say Fah-vee-kon, because that's the German pronunciation and I'm not switching just to be fancy when everyone perfectly understands me anyway.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен pukes

Cerberus

U-Haul?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus because they're moving in together

KitFox

@Robusto That is so true.

Robusto

3:01 PM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Shouldn't it be fah-fee-kahn?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto no it shouldn't. And it isn't.

KitFox

I think I might be feverish. Can someone check for me please?

Cerberus

So this is a company that moves your stuff?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox checks Kit

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I think it should. Whether it is or not is immaterial.

Matt Эллен

3:01 PM

gets a thermometer

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@KitFox you have a fever. And the only prescription is, more cowbell.

Cerberus

stands by the sickbed awkwardly

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto then y u aks me?

Robusto

Hey, watch out. I just dumped the North Sea on Kit.

Should be cooling off any second now.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

What about the global warming?

53 mins ago, by KitFox

That is sooo hawt.

Matt Эллен

3:03 PM

@Kit raise your arm and keep this in your pit for a minute or so. hands Kit the thermometer

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

KitFox

hey...there's an app for that.

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Blame Kit for that.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto BTW, who is against "the" wrong decision by moderator"s"? So many people are so much against so many things these many days, I'm much losing many track.

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 There is only one decision by moderators, and unfortunately it is wrong. Deal with it.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:06 PM

That was not my question.

Robusto

Try again in English then. You've thrown a monkey wrench into the works.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

You might wish to look up "who" in a corpus of your choice.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Hahahaha.

Robusto

Sorry, a "monkey spanner" for all you Brits playing along at home.

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I am for it!

Especially without the article.

Robusto

3:07 PM

In England a wrench is called a spanner. In Germany, a Spanner looks at wenches. That's the difference.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto In Germany, "Engländer" means "monkey wrench".

Engländer (Werkzeug)

Ein Engländer ist ein Verstellschlüssel zum Lösen und Anziehen von Schraubverbindungen. Regional werden verstellbare Schraubenschlüssel dieser Art auch "Hesse" oder anders genannt. Ebenso wird der Begriff Engländer häufig auch für andere Werkzeuge verwendet. Durch Drehen an einer Gewindespindel im Werkzeugschaft kann der Abstand der Spannbacken stufenlos verstellt werden. Er kann wie ein Gabelschlüssel für Vier- und Sechskantmuttern verwendet werden, durch die Verstellbarkeit auch für Befestigungsmittel nach metrischen, zölligen und proprietären (Werk-)Normen. Einordnung und Gesch...

Robusto

Klar wie Kloßbrühe. (sp?)

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Wurks.

I'd go with ß but I'm weird like that.

Actually I have no idea what the neue Rechtschreibung is.

The O is long, so it must be, um, what?

Robusto

Sorry, forgot I had an esstzet on me keyboard.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

It was supposed to be all logical and shit.

Wiki sez, Kloss is "Schweiz und Liechtenstein".

Robusto

3:10 PM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 That is a picture of what in America would be called a "crescent wrench."

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto the picture is all wrong anyway.

Robusto

google.com/…

KitFox

The main wiki pic is correct.

Robusto

The crescent wrench is the sexiest of all the wrenches.

KitFox

Nuh-uh.

That's not a crescent so much as an adjustable wrench, anyway.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:13 PM

@KitFox and @Rob actually under that picture in the article it says that that thing is "sometimes mistakenly called Engländer". Emphasis mine.

KitFox

Ratcheting socket wrenches are the sexiest. They make that click-click noise when they slip.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Once again the SE inlining mixes everything up.

Matt Эллен

I prefer socket wrenches with that direction changing mechanism

jinx @Kit :D

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

That thing is actually this:

Rollgabelschlüssel

Ein Rollgabelschlüssel ist ein Verstellschlüssel zum Lösen und Anziehen von Schraubverbindungen. Durch Drehen einer Rändelschraube kann der Abstand der Spannbacken stufenlos verstellt werden. Somit kann er für verschieden große Vier- oder geradzahlige Mehrkante (6, 8, 10...), z. B. für Vierkantmuttern oder -schrauben, als auch für verschiedene Einheitensysteme (metrisch und zöllig) als auch nach proprietären Werknormen verwendet werden. Erfunden und patentiert (am 11. Mai 1892 unter der Patentnummer SE4066) hat ihn der Schwede Johan Petter Johansson in seiner Werkstatt Enköpings Mek...

JSBᾶngs

Kit is correct about a ratcheting socket wrench

KitFox

3:14 PM

rests on laurels

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Which is interwiki'd to "Adjustable spanner".

KitFox

Hmm. Sounds familiar.

Robusto

Wrenches are just a sublimation for sex. Obviously.

KitFox

sublimates for sex

It didn't work.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

What kind of mates?

Robusto

3:16 PM

@KitFox Were you using an Engländer?

KitFox

@Robusto No. Should I try that?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Isn't sublimation when you turn from a solid right into a gas? Like mexican food does in my stomach?

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Yes!

Robusto

@KitFox Go ahead. We'll wait.

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 The subly kind.

@Robusto I haven't one handy. I'll try tonight.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:17 PM

Subliminal, liminal, superliminal.

Robusto

sublimate 1 [ with obj. ] (esp. in psychoanalytic theory) divert or modify (an instinctual impulse) into a culturally higher or socially more acceptable activity.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Eww, "with object"!

If you wanna sublimate with objects, be like that.

Robusto

I like to sublimate my wrench play into actual sex, which I find to be culturally higher and socially more acceptable.

KitFox

makes notes

cornbread ninja

blanches

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:19 PM

cates

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

At noon I'm going to sublimate some chili.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@KitFox when will they be finished? You keep making and making.

Robusto

tells reg the cates is a lie

Matt Эллен

@MrShinyandNew安宇 is chewed chilli a culturally higher form?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Cate lies? With whom?

Robusto

3:20 PM

Anyone she can.

cornbread ninja

katy lies

you can see it in her eyes

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен No, it will be sublimated into a gaseous form.

Robusto

katy did lie

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 In the end, the notes you take are equal to the notes you make.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@KitFox you mean I should start taking?

KitFox

3:20 PM

Or toking. Your choice.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox I feel like listening to that album now.

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 No. It doesn't work if you're not in Abbey Road.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto my wife has spent the last three days looking at the web cam on Abbey Road.

I have spent the same amount of time listening to it. No, not the album. The cars.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 has been eating, or is this a vigil?

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Sounds like you guys have a great marriage.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:22 PM

I knew you would say that.

Robusto

You can get counseling, you know.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Protip: it's the man who won't let you do nothing for three days you shouldn't be keeping.

Robusto

He: She just wants to look at webcam videos of Abbey Road for days on end. She: Well, he just wants to listen to cars. [Turns to him] You like cars? Well, get your frickin' cars to make dinner for you!

Matt Эллен

Protips: hookers' nipples

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Actually I'm the one who cooks. She's the one who bakes.

Robusto

3:25 PM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Feel free to substitute actual facts where applicable.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I have no idea what you are trying to say, so you might as well not bother.

Robusto

No bother.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Very good.

KitFox

I am trying to say that I would like to ogle pictures of your wife.

Duh.

Matt Эллен

Ha! If I took that advice, I'd never speak

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

3:26 PM

@KitFox No, you are remarkably silent.

cornbread ninja

1:64 scale dinners

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 What? Sorry, you're on my deaf side.

cornbread ninja

would be stupidly labor-intensive

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Oh crap. The bus.

Laters!

Matt Эллен

CU

ohai!

cornbread ninja

3:27 PM

grabbed the bus in seconds flat

Robusto

Later.

KitFox

Can I take this thermometer out now?

Robusto

OK, can we all agree that it's time to move on from Beatles references now? For the next half-hour the only permissible references will be from Modest Mouse.

cornbread ninja

>_<

Matt Эллен

@KitFox yes, tell us the reading

Robusto

3:28 PM

Which is good news for people who love bad news, btw.

cornbread ninja

I'm going back to steely dan, then

KitFox

@Robusto Float On was our wedding recessional.

@MattЭллен It's Psalms 127. Does that even makes sense?

Robusto

@KitFox Sweet.

KitFox

This was our processional:

►

Robusto

And we'll all float on OK.

Matt Эллен

3:30 PM

@KitFox according to this guy, yes.

Robusto

@KitFox If you ever get a divorce, the recessional should be Bukowski.

►

KitFox

Hahaha. That would be great.

Well, not the divorce part.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен That guy can't be serious.

> A Biblical Christian has a basis for knowing the laws of logic are real and true. No one else can say that... and in fact any argument attempting to justify belief in the laws of logic will be based on Biblical principles.

Matt Эллен

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to[a] those he loves.

3 Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame

Robusto

Well see what you wanna see. You should see it all.
Well take what you want from me. You deserve it all.
Nine times out of ten our hearts just get dissolved.
Well I want a better place or just a better way to fall.

KitFox

3:33 PM

But we liked the idea "we'll all float on OK"

Matt Эллен

@MrShinyandNew安宇 yeah, I WTFd at that whole article

Robusto

Well, all that icing and all that cake,
I can't make it to your wedding, but I'm sure I'll be at your wake.

KitFox

We also used "Let's Stay Together" for our first dance.

JSBᾶngs

@Robusto got to remember to remember to forget you forgot me

Robusto

Here's one for @Cerberus:

►

Anonymous

3:37 PM

I have question about the English language.

Robusto

Well, why on earth did you come in here? This is The Incomprehensible Room.

Anonymous

ABC is not a good company. It just laid of its employee. or They just laid off their employee.

Robusto

@Anonymous They only had one employee?

Anonymous

No, ABC has more than one employee.

KitFox

It just laid off half its employees.

Anonymous

3:39 PM

I just want to know should I use it or they when I refer to a company.

Robusto

You can say either. "It just laid off its employees" or "They just laid off their employees."

Anonymous

I thought employee is plural form like stuff.

This is new knowledge for me.

Robusto

I would go with it if you have just referenced a company by name.

They would be more informal, and would imply that you are addressing the company's management team and possibly all of its employees taken as a group. "Microsoft? Yeah, they suck."

Anonymous

Ahh, I see.

So I should use it to be more formal and not misleading that I talk about the management team.

Robusto

If you are talking about the company as a single entity, use it in formal writing.

"Microsoft gained 2.5% in active trading after it announced better-than-expected earnings."

"I hate Microsoft. Their customer service sucks!"

"I love Microsoft. Their products are awesome."

Anonymous

3:45 PM

Thank you :)

These example help me A LOT.

Matt Эллен

"I am ambivalent about Microsoft. Their business practices worry me, but their software is very popular"

Robusto

Microsoft

KitFox

Microsoft is out to get me. Its charting controls are not well-documented.

Robusto

"Primarily in the 1990s, critics contend Microsoft used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics."

@KitFox It's not personal. It's just business. Like in The Godfather.

KitFox

I always thought of myself as the Michael of my family.

Robusto

3:48 PM

You seem more like Diane Keaton than Al Pacino.

KitFox

Not so.

My therapist laughed and made notes when I drew that parallel.

I was never sure what to think of that.

Robusto

Al Pacino doesn't giggle. QED.

Anonymous

I will buy a car "in" next week or "on" next week?

JSBᾶngs

@Anonymous neither

"I will buy a car next week."

Anonymous

Thank you. I have trouble with in, on, at, etc.

I don't know what to call them - preposition?

Robusto

3:59 PM

They like it when you call them prepositions.

JSBᾶngs

HOTT

Robusto

If you call them postpositions they will think they're at a racetrack. Or in Japan or something.

KitFox

Nah, that's pole positions.

vroom vroom

makes car noises

Robusto

@KitFox Nah, that's for strip clubs.

KitFox

That was the name of my strip club!

Robusto

4:02 PM

Bada-Bing!

I'm still thinking about opening a drinking establishment for geeks, which I will call The Progress Bar. There will be a wait to get in, of course.

And the wait will vary indiscriminately.

KitFox

And the doorman will tell you it'll be three hours, but let you in after ten minutes.

Robusto

@KitFox And then he'll just freeze up and you'll have to reboot the whole bar.

Matt Эллен

So you'll be sponsored by Microsoft

KitFox

PBR on tap.

Robusto

No. The bar will have no Windows. It will be lighted only by neon and glow-stix.

KitFox

4:05 PM

bumping

Matt Эллен

is that American for high latency connection?

Robusto

@MattЭллен What, bumping?

Matt Эллен

yeah

Robusto

I thought Bumping was a town in northern England. Bumping-on-Tyne, or something like that.

KitFox

I think I might possibly throw up. Or maybe I really need some food. What an unfortunate dilemma.

Matt Эллен

4:07 PM

oh, probably, we have all the words as town or village names, and then we ran out and started making up words

Robusto

@MattЭллен Surrey-ously.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox what do you prefer throwing up? Bile or food?

KitFox

Water.

Or bile.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox good choice

KitFox

There's not much grosser than food chunks getting lodged in my sinuses from profuse and strenuous vomiting.

Robusto

4:09 PM

I was Woking down in Surrey the other day ... damn me if I didn't feel like doing a couple of Somersets. But then I would have had to take a Bath.

Matt Эллен

no. I suppose not goes a little green

KitFox

Oh lovely. Now it smells like PVC cement from the work they're doing down the hall.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto and that's not what you Wantage

Robusto

@MattЭллен What, only a single reference? That's a little bit on the Cheapside, innit?

Matt Эллен

yes

I had to drop some kids of at the Poole.

I met a Welsh vet, who specialised in avian vision. He could make a Swansea

Robusto

4:14 PM

@MattЭллен Did that give you any promising Leeds?

BTW, don't forget: I have a loaded Winchester and I'm not afraid to use it! I will Bury you!

Matt Эллен

@Robusto Well, it did lead me to a garden of cooks, or as we call them, a Sheffield

Robusto

Ouch. Make it stop.

Matt Эллен

:D

KitFox

There's a man from the University of Sheffield who I am quite fond of.

He very brazenly pinched my ass right before he left for a year.

Robusto

@MattЭллен Do they specialize in cooking Leek?

KitFox

4:19 PM

I was impressed with his boldness.

Robusto

@KitFox Well, I hope he pinched it a whole year's worth in that case.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox saucy! Were you in Sheffield, or was he in America?

KitFox

He could have gotten in tremendous trouble for it.

@MattЭллен He was in the States. He alternated years between the States and the UK.

Robusto

Pay no attention to Matt. He keeps making Callow remarks. Next thing you know, he'll have thrown you into the Goose Pool.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto well, they're bad Chinese chefs, so they Birmingham

Robusto

4:21 PM

@MattЭллен Much Birch it will do them.

One thing I never understood. There's Manchester and then there's just Chester. Does that make Chester female?

And do they both lose to Winchester?

Matt Эллен

@Robusto Nothing Cambridge the gap between our languages. Wooton it be great if we could all get along?

Robusto

@MattЭллен Nothing could be Worcester.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto And Chichester has a stutter

Robusto

York-York-York.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Mianus.

Wait, what are the rules?

Robusto

4:26 PM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 You mean Oldham?

Matt Эллен

lol

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Hmmph. Someone hasn't been keeping up with his assignments.

WTF do you do on the bus? Commute? Don't you know you're supposed to use that time to study up on what to say in chat?

2

Anyway, Mahlzeit, so I gotta be Bolton.

So you may both get Stoughed.

Matt Эллен

Slough down!

Robusto

Ought!

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

4:39 PM

@Robusto it's a long way from Mianus to Uranus. 1.86 billion miles, to be precise.

Better now?

You get what you ask for.

And of course it is in this precise moment that we get guests.

Hello @JedOliver

Jed Oliver

Hi @RegDwightB8

Carry on everybody. Just pretend I'm not here...

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Oh that we will. I'm just following Rob's example and grabbing me foodstuffs.

Jed Oliver

mmmmmm...foodstuffs...aaaaaahhhhgrrrhhhh

KitFox

Pizza. Mmmmm.

Matt Эллен

5:04 PM

@Cerberus - is this translation?

0

Q: Instantly satisfying and cosy

Is there an English word to match the Danish hygge (meaning "instantly satisfying and cosy")?

single-word-requests

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

It's worded not in the best possible way.

Take out the part about Danish, and it falls apart.

Not enough context without it.

Oh haha, it's LC.

Well then I'm not saying a word.

Cerberus will handle it.

Matt Эллен

Aye, hence why I asked Cerb ;)

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Now I understand!

2

Q: "Would you mind to do something?"

Is it correct to say "Would you mind to do something?". I've seen this usage in a few places, but it doesn't sound right to me. I would guess that it's proper to use "Would you mind doing something?" instead. Yet there are other verbs we could substitute here that make it sound correct with "to...

grammar grammaticality

This is dupey, see my comment.

Ultimately depends on what kind of answer the OP accepts.

Matt Эллен

Why are all teh good questions dupes?!?!?!

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

If he accepts LC's, then it's an outright dupe, as LC's answer is identical to the answers on one of the questions linked.

Matt Эллен

5:26 PM

it feels very much like the same question that FF asked. I'm voting that way

KitFox

Damn it. I jumped on the bandwagon too soon.

There's no accepted answer for FF's question.

He did ask it better though.

imho

Matt Эллен

Hmmm. I didn't take that into account

Mehper C. Palavuzlar's question has a detailed answer

it seems to amount to the same as John Lawler's answer on Marcin's question

KitFox

@MattЭллен But it is a list and not an explanation.

Matt Эллен

true

KitFox

I think Vit's question and psmears answer are quite good, but less related.

Matt Эллен

5:33 PM

yes, I agree

KitFox

FF's is really the closest.

Although, you could generalize psmears answer...

Matt Эллен

@KitFox heh, I remember reading it now

it has the word infinitival in it.

KitFox

pouts

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Infinitival? Is that like Festivus?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox pourquoi le pout?

KitFox

5:40 PM

moue

Too much work, not enough play.

And I still feel really sick.

Matt Эллен

ah. that's a bummer

that too :(

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@MattЭллен Hey! White space before question mark! And pourquoi!

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 there is not!

the history tells no lies

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

The French history tells otherwise.

KitFox

copypaste tweak copypaste tweak copypaste tweak copypaste tweak copypaste tweak

Matt Эллен

5:42 PM

I R clumsee

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@KitFox you mean he ~~pangs~~ ~~pongs~~ püngs you too often?

Matt Эллен

there might have been white space around question marks, but I never inhaled

KitFox

Qui me puge? LaBeouf?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Oh come on. You should know to put a white space before the question mark.

KitFox

Je suis hedoniste.

Matt Эллен

5:44 PM

OIC. Cos IR mimicking le French

?

there, that enough white space
?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@KitFox Pas de hédonisme dans ce chat.

KitFox

J'ai dit "je suis," pas "j'ai."

Mais ce qu'il me pense, peut-etre je l'avais en la chambre.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Ugh. Look at that ,"

It's bad enough not to use the guillemets, but the comma is the equivalent of showing the wrong three fingers to August Diehl.

KitFox

Je ne peux pas les faire.

Je ne sais pas le alt combo par les guillements.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@KitFox Ctrl-C Ctrl-V.

Guillemet

Les guillemets sont des signes typographiques de ponctuation. Leur principal usage est de mettre en exergue une expression, un terme ou une citation. Les guillemets s’emploient aussi pour le discours rapporté et les dialogues. Ils sont parfois utilisés pour indiquer que le terme ou l’expression mis en exergue n’a pas sa signification littérale ou habituelle — on parlera alors de guillemets ironiques. Les différentes formes de guillemets Il existe différents guillemets : on distingue en premier lieu le guillemet ouvrant du guillemet fermant car ce signe typographique ne s’utilise que pa...

Oh merde.

Ctrl-C Ctrl-V : « »

Matt Эллен

5:50 PM

KitFox

rigole

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…