English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Cerberus I haven't seen the latter but the former's happened to me a lot.

@Gigili So the OK stuff happens to you regularly, but not the bad stuff?

One I was going home by bus and there was this guy trying to get me to turn on Bluetooth on my phone to ask questions and have my number.

@Cerberus Yeah.

OK, good.

Robusto

12:55 AM

@Cerberus I'm not a woman so I can't really give testimony as to what a woman experiences here. But I can tell you that, living in white suburbia as I do, I do not notice any of this kind of behavior whatsoever. When I've lived in different neighborhoods in cities I would sometimes witness overt sexual commentary, but never any physical advances.

@Gigili But do you ever visit bad neighbourhoods?

@Robusto Okay, so you don't hear complaints from young women among your relatives, friends, their daughters complain about this? Do you have any idea whether they go to bad neighbourhoods regularly?

The thing is that we have no ghetti in Holland or Belgium, or no real ones, nor do we many campi, so that especially student girls often live in a bad neighbourhood for a few years.

Q: "There is/are more than one". What's the difference?

I have just been a bad person. I answered this question
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/77089/theres-or-there-are
but then I found a seeming dupe at http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/8854/there-are-so-many-vs-there-is-so-many Now what? The seeming dupe really does not have a very good answer at all.

And there are more, too.

6

While adding to an Answer to this question, I needed to use the above phrase, and I suddenly realised I was unsure whether to write "is" or "are". There is more than one way to skin a cat. If there are more than one species of cat, we will flay each species differently. I don't think that sec...

Link all questions but the one with the best answers to the latter?

Oh, I see my answer!

Robusto

@Cerberus Women in general have a different experience from men. They always have to be on guard against sexual advances, however innocent-seeming. As a man, I don't think about that. I don't worry about going out at night, walking to my car in a dark parking lot, etc. But I'm sure that is on most women's minds.

Q: Should I say "there is a handful of..." or "there are a handful of...."?

0

I want to write that I have handful of somethings. Which of these is the correct form? There is a handful of somethings. There are a handful of somethings. Are both correct?

grammaticality

1:00 AM

@tchrist This one is quite different, it is about one.

@Robusto Same here. But I do hear complaints from girls.

Q: "'There is'/'There are' several ..." in this sentence

4

I was interested in the following sentence which appeared in an article titled “HORSE MARKET" in The New York Times (Dec. 4, 1861). There is several first-class draught horses in market, held at $150@$175 each; very slow sales. Can someone clarify if the fragment "There is several first-c...

verbs

9

Q: "There are a couple of apples" or "there is a couple of apples"?

You have only one couple of apples, so it's singular. There are multiple apples, so it's plural. Which one is right, "there are a couple of apples" or "there is a couple of apples"? I have seen both used. In Dutch you would say "there is a couple of apples" because you only have one couple of a...

grammatical-number couple

10

Q: There are no comments / There is no comment

Which is correct? * "There are no comments." * "There is no comment." Which would you use for a web application, i.e. what to display when a blog post or an article has no comment attached? Actually, I am trying to fix an application that says: "There is no comments" ! Would that ever be righ...

grammatical-number

Although I would be a bit scared walking around a really bad neighbourhood at night.

Q: "Is there" versus "Are there"

1

Are there any questions I should be asking? Is there any articles available on the subject? My instinct is that in the two questions above, it should be 'are' as the subjects of the sentences (questions/articles) are plural. However I also recall being told that the singular 'is' is valid...

meaning word-choice grammar differences uncountable-nouns

Blah.

I’ll stop. There are more, too.

Should I vote to close? Flag and leave a note saying I think some should be merged?

You must be sure they are exactly the same. At least one question is not the same at all.

Where is @RegDwightАΑA when you need him? :)

Robusto

1:04 AM

@tchrist There must be 15 dupes of the number question already.

Secondly, it is not a good idea to vote to close a question that has a great answer.

@Robusto Zactly.

@Cerberus I don’t know my answer is great. I just like it better than I do the others.

This is the question:

1

Q: There's or There are?

I wanted to get the usage of "There's" clarified. I have read sentences like: There's a lot of projects on that topic. It appears to me that "There's" applies to "a lot" of projects, rather than the projects themselves. Is that right? If that's the case, is There's many students standin...

confusables

Then don't vote to close yet, except on questions that don't have great answers.

Yeah ok.

And don't flag any for mergers unless you are 100 % sure that it is exactly the same as another question.

1:06 AM

This happened because the SE search sucks.

Again, you showed me at least one link to a question that is very different.

And I didn't go to Google Search till after posting.

@tchrist Tell me about it.

If I make a list of merges, I'll look at them carefully.

OK.

By the way, do you like palaeography?

1:06 AM

Sure. What little of know of it, or don't.

@Cerberus I have, my sister used to live in a bad neighborhood.

@tchrist Good. I may bother you with some when you feel like it.

@Gigili Ah, and they did not bother you much there?

@Cerberus They did. I wouldn't go there alone, I needed someone to go with me.

OK.

So then the experience may be similar.

How did your sister handle them?

1:26 AM

There. I just added a dozen SEE ALSOs.

That should hold ’em.

She moved out.

@tchrist Did you mean to repeat the two examples at the end or to rewrite them into plural or what?

@Gigili I did so, no?

Whoa, that's a lot of reading.

Oh, I wrote there’re instead of there are so maybe you didn’t notice.

Fixed.

Good, good.

1:44 AM

Good evening, everyone.

Hi.

Any hurricanes today?

No, no rain at all, surprisingly.

Some wind, though.

Aww.

I know all about wind, though.

Hello!

1:50 AM

Hi!

English vs Metric

Hi!

That shows we had 52.6 mph winds today in English, or 23.5 m/s winds in Metric.

This is what temperatures look like in my browser.

Click the Foothills site for the downtown version.

Really? Interesting.

I wonder how that works.

1:52 AM

It is a Greasemonkey script, I believe.

It also does C to F.

Silliness.

Why is it silly?

It is very convenient.

Especially when browsing recipes.

That means it will do the wrong thing when people say it was 10°F warmer.

That's quite convenient, actually.

See the problem?

1:53 AM

@tchrist Of course, but I'm not stupid. I can read.

Exactly.

There is no problem.

It is a great added feature.

I wish it also worked for miles and ounces and all those unusual measurements.

And inches, most of all.

Yeccch, ounces.

Notice the opposition English–Metric. That is part of why Americans stick to English: because to do otherwise is perceived of stripping them of their part of their identity, since they are English-speaking to the core.

@Mahnax You don't have those either?

1:54 AM

If it were phrased as Standard–Imperial, that would change everything.

@Cerberus I don't use them often.

He’s too young.

I'm too metric.

I think an ounce is somewhat close to a litre or something?

Gods no.

1:55 AM

No!

@Mahnax And very measured.

8 ounces to a cup.

2 cups to a pint.

@tchrist But who calls that "English"? That's silly. It is Imperial.

2 pints to a quart.

@Cerberus Thanks?

1:56 AM

4 quarts to a gallon.

$3.17 to the gallon.

In America, they are English measurements in opposition to Metric measurements.

@Mahnax It was nothing.

@Cerberus Oh my, I must be really tired.

Do you see why it is tied to identity?

You guys aren't running Macs, are you?

1:56 AM

I never see the opposition characterised as anything other than Imperial v. metric but OK.

I had a car once with an E/M button.

@tchrist Of course not.

?

@Mahnax Why?

@tchrist I would never use Apple stuff.

@Cerberus Oh, nothing, I guess.

1:57 AM

Unless it were better or cheaper...so never.

@tchrist I am.

@Mahnax (Sorry for the Apple bashing, but I was provoked.)

@Cerberus Oh, it's fine. I'm getting a bit angry at them myself, actually.

@Mahnax Then if you pop open a Terminal window, you can run the "units" program to do really cool conversions.

(Many, many of my friends have Apple stuff. Probably the majority, silly as they are, so perhaps it is my fault. I also hang out with smokers.)

1:59 AM

@tchrist Oh, that is neat!

@Mahnax Really?

units '100 miles/hour' 'furlongs/fortnight'

* 268800
/ 3.7202381e-06

@Cerberus Goodness yes.

@tchrist google.com/…

Google > Apple.

@Mahnax You mean tobacco smokers, don't you?

2:00 AM

@Mahnax Why? I believe Apple's OS is generally fine?

@tchrist Pardon?

@Cerberus The new one has disappointed me.

@tchrist Do you know how the grey arrow works?

@Cerberus I don't care. I just want a freakin' Unix shell, ok right?

@Mahnax Really? Is it not as good as you hoped? Surely it is no worse than the previous?

@Mahnax I assume you mean cigarette smokers, not pot smokers.

2:01 AM

@tchrist OK, OK, fair enough!

@tchrist So why does it use a minus/hyphen there?

How then does it mark a negative power?

@tchrist I have no idea what you're talking about.

@Mahnax You said you hung out with smokers.

@tchrist I said something about smokers, not he.

Oh!!!!

Sorry.

You’re in Europe.

That makes more sense.

Even the best purple square stumbles sometimes.

@tchrist Why?

2:03 AM

@Cerberus It uses scientific notation for very big numbers.

D'oh.

If I hadn't realized that, I would have asked about the e, wouldn't I?

@Cerberus Or the worst one… ahem, Carlo

Haha.

@Cerberus Smoking rates are worse in Europe than in North America.

@Mahnax Haha, that is more like continuing to squirm lying on the ground.

2:05 AM

@Cerberus Or repeatedly shooting one's self in the foot.

@tchrist Really? By how much?

You're talking to northern Europe, as you know.

Dunno. Varies. Smoking rate very low where I live.

@Mahnax That too.

@Cerberus Seven.

That is significant.

2:06 AM

I remember lots of cigarette smokers in the Low Countries.

Smoking rate where I live is ~14%, but that is not evenly distributed by age, education, etc.

Northern Europe is allegedly 26%.

Canada is now down to 17% overall. Good for them!

Yay us!

@Mahnmax Which province do you live in?

@tchrist Alberta.

2:10 AM

That's about 2% over the Canadian average.

I'm not going to lie, I kind of enjoy the smell of cigarettes. I would never smoke, though.

@Mahnax Try this dataset.

*these

@Mahnax phew

@tchrist Nice.

@Cerberus Yeah, you were worried, werencha?

2:13 AM

More than half of Canada’s smokers live in Ontario and Quebec (62%). While the northern territories have
the highest smoking rates, only 0.5% of Canadian smokers live in the northern region.

@Mahnax Almost!

@Cerberus I'm glad I've allayed your fears.

@Mahnax No wonder you know about wind.

Yes. You are too old to start now anyway.

Smoking is for kids.

They start at ages 12–14 normally.

@tchrist That was the point, yep.

I know someone who only smokes when she's angry.

2:15 AM

Haha.

Many people like to smoke when they are stressed out.

If you’re close enough to the Rockies, you get chinooks, the snow-eaters. If you’re further east in the plains, then you get howling prairie winds like a banshee.

@tchrist Banshee sounds about right.

@tchrist For you.

Part of the will we are transcribing.

Cool.

Is that English?

2:18 AM

Isn't that a nice puzzle?

How does one go about reading that?

Does it have scribal abbreviations, too?

@Mahnax You try to find some word or words that you recognize first.

Then you establish what language it is.

Then, with the letters you know from the words you recognize, you try to find out more words.

@tchrist Always.

Those can be rough.

Any old document will have them.

2:22 AM

What language is it?

Guess!

I want to say Latin, but I can barely read any of it.

The first word has two letters.

@Mahnax Ding!

@Cerberus Yay!

The second letter of the first word is easy.

The first one is the giant elaborate capital.

It is basically a decorated vertical line.

2:24 AM

This makes me sad.

In nomine...?

@Mahnax Very disturbing.

@Mahnax Haha, this cannot be serious?

@tchrist I agree.

@tchrist Ding!

@Cerberus Gosh, I hope not.

2:25 AM

See, you can do it.

@Mahnax It doesn't even look like it is trying to teach you anything.

@tchrist So what would you expect after in nomine?

patris

et filii

Possible, yes, but not a conventional beginning of a document.

etc

Right.

But it is a word with a similar meaning.

It is abbreviated.

The upward curl is used as the general mark of abbreviation in this document.

I have to grab a carryout. BRB.

2:28 AM

@Cerberus This is neat. How long will a document like this take you?

@Mahnax Quite long, because parts in the centre and on the right have been partially erased.

@Cerberus Oh, that's not good.

Many hours?

I'm assuming you don't actually have a physical copy.

Well, I've just now cast my votes in the election.

Oh yes, I noticed that RiMMER changed his username.

@Mahnax That's right, we don't, alas.

2:33 AM

@Cerberus Darn.

Erasures and stains make it rather difficult.

So the transcription took about 5 minutes per line.

@Mahnax Oh? Into what? I must say it was an infelicitous name.

@Cerberus Uh, František Stanko.

Odd...

But an improvement.

It could be his real name.

He's from Slovakia.

Yes.

Cool.

2:38 AM

Ayup.

Apparently my mother isn't feeling well.

Oh, dear.

Not very well, or terrible?

Not very well.

OK.

Nothing worrisome, I hope?

Not worrisome, thankfully. She's just a bit nauseated.

OK.

I'm sure she will feel better in a moment.

2:40 AM

Uh, I don't think so.

This always takes a long time to pass?

Well, it's been around for an hour or two.

Hmm.

Anyways, hopefully she will feel better soon.

Yes.

2:48 AM

@Cerberus Whose will is it?

Oh yeah, my great-grandmother who is 88 years old recently caught pneumonia, and the doctors expected that she would pass away.

@tchrist Of a certain ancestor of our client's.

However, she's made a full recovery.

@Mahnax Oh! Congrats!

I know pneumonia is very dangerous at that age.

She's Dutch, which made me think of it.

2:50 AM

Ah, good. We're tough.

Okay, bed time.

I hope your mother will feel better soon.

Thanks, and good night.

Night!

@Cerberus Do you specialize in transcribing inscrutable wills because you're guaranteed to always find some way of figuring out what it means?

@tchrist We will certify the will, confirming that it means we get € 100,000 from someone, yes.

Do you always go about it the same way?

Do you ever do forensic recovery, like using UV or some such?

@Cerberus That’s 1–2 orders of magnitude more than I was thinking it would be!

We don't normally have the original on hand. Nor do we need it!

3:04 AM

I imagine not: where there's a will, there's a way.

It's fun. You will love it.

@tchrist I am talking about an inheritance that we appropriate through our version of the will, not to our transcription fee.

Oh.

(I should be noted that this appropriation is as of yet wishful thinking, but one day!)

But how could someone hope to make a claim that's centuries old?

We haven't worked out the details yet.

Perhaps treasure maps will have to be involved.

3:06 AM

Haha.

Why do they need it translated, anyways?

This is for some guy who is researching his ancestry.

Are you writing a novel? :)

@Cerberus Cool!

@tchrist Nope.

@Mahnax Yeah, and it isn't too humble either.

One of my relatives made a book of our family history on my mom's side.

@Cerberus How do you mean?

3:08 AM

Though his own name is not remarkable.

The treasure maps thing conjures up incredible visions of adventure.

A rather elaborate will?

@Mahnax His ancestor was probably close to upper middle class, or even higher.

@Mahnax No, the people named in it, rather.

@Cerberus Ah OK.

@Mahnax That does mean he isn't lower class, absolutely.

3:11 AM

@Cerberus Neat.

Though I'm not exactly sure how one would designate the classes in those days.

But it is bed time for me.

Good night!

Yes, good night!

Bye!

Night!

Déjà vu...

Good night!

4:01 AM

@Cerberus I flipped back to your page, and quondam just popped out at me. I think I spy some Tironian et signs, too.

Q: Suggestions for my new startup

5:51 AM

-1

I am just thinking to have my new startup and I am not able to choose a creative name for my business. The names I think of have already been chosen by somebody else. I just need suggestions or few examples of unique company names. I working in softwares firm but the name can be anything as lon...

names

Gah.

8:16 AM

Hello

everyone

Jez

8:47 AM

noah. how was the ark?

9:11 AM

@Jez- It was good.

They are still looking for it...

user19161

9:42 AM

@Robusto Oh, I was talking to another rob.

How many robs have we got?

Looks like everyone is dormant;)

user19161

@Noah There is one main one here, but there are others elsewhere.

user19161

9:58 AM

@matt Boo!

halloo!

is away: gaming

Hi, Matt

Did you just get up?

user19161

@Noah There is also a Matt in another room.

So?

user19161

Nothing, just telling you. It's called conversation.

10:04 AM

Alright, tnx.

Where is Notorn S

I can still see his troll up in the chatroom

user19161

@Noah I forgot all about him already. He is not worth thinking about anymore.

Well said.

DId you participate in the election?

I got up an hour ago or so

user19161

@Noah I voted, that is all.

Who did you vote for? lol

user19161

10:10 AM

I voted for Matt and two more people.

Okay, good. I am gonna vote too

user19161

@Noah Who are you voting for? lol

well, I just did.

Matt, J.R, and Simchona

Thanks @Noah :)

user19161

@Noah LOL, you misspelled.

10:18 AM

Yea, Simchona

Not that I think you should, but votes can be changed all the way up to the end of the election

@MattЭллен- You welcome.

Thanks for the info

ΜετάEd

12:28 PM

Next time we have an election we should have political parties.

3

RegDwight АΑA

@RegDwightАΑA top answer right now uses eight fewer words, reducing the count from 29 to 21. That doesn't seem like a purley typographical solution. — Abe 13 hours ago

Who would say this? Who would upvote this? Geezis, people.

@tchrist Very good! Quondam is correct. Where do you see the Tironian et?

user19161

12:52 PM

@ΜετάEd Besides electing moderators, we need to elect a president as well.

We should probably bring Newt Gingrich on board