English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

WMD

2:00 AM

what was I expected to do?

@Cerberus Hah!

Cerberus

Go mind some binary questions, lest they lose their minds?

tchrist

@Cerberus I’m of two minds on that question.

Cerberus

I'm of three.

tchrist

@WMD Would you really say it without an extra syllable? Honestly???

WMD

Seriously, Will? If I said to you "would you like something to drink" and you said "I wouldn't mind a glass of water", you wouldn't expect me to bring you one?

user19161

2:02 AM

@Cerberus You would say in and not of in BrE.

tchrist

A room full of curs.

And mudgeons.

Cerberus

I'm in three minds?

tchrist

That was the cur part.

WMD

A cursed room.

Robusto

0

Q: Asking someone to let you know something

Is there a grammatical point difference in the following 2 sentences: Please let me know what is the plan. Please let me know what the plan is. I am so used to the first method that I think that it is actually the wrong way of saying it, due to habitual direct translations from my mother tongue.

questions

Didn't we just have a question like this?

Cerberus

2:03 AM

Hmm I didn't really know "in two minds" was English.

tchrist

@Cerberus It’s not. The phrase is of two minds.

Cerberus

"In" is used as well.

tchrist

@Robusto What, you mean lame? :(

WMD

@tchrist I would say "in two minds" every time. But I am not American.

Robusto

@Cerberus No, it's not.

tchrist

2:04 AM

@Cerberus Don’t think so.

Cerberus

I never realised there was a geographical distribution.

But it is.

You guys aren't English.

Robusto

Neither is WMD.

Neither are you.

Cerberus

No, but he would obey his Queen should the time come.

Robusto

So would you. That doesn't make you right.

Cerberus

It does make him more right about the Queen's English!

Robusto

2:06 AM

Fallacy!

Cerberus

And I have my own Queen.

WMD

If this is a question about American English, I defer to tchrist and Robusto every time. If the question is whether "in two minds" is used, then I do no such thing. It absolutely is!

Cerberus

Just let them be.

user19161

Come on, just CTFD!

user19161

In two minds is BrE.

user19161

2:07 AM

Of two minds is AmE.

user19161

QED.

tchrist

Robusto

Yeah, I see.

Still, "of two minds" is in the ascendancy.

tchrist

Gads.

Robusto

What a crappy ngram.

tchrist

2:09 AM

"in two minds" appears to be before our times.

Would you like more smoothing?

user19161

Ngrams mean nothing!

user19161

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/be-in-two-minds

Cerberus

WMD

An Ngram is at most as good as the corpus from which it draws.

Robusto

tchrist

2:10 AM

user19161

I remember this distinction because when sim first came to ELU she commented on my answer that it should be of two minds and not in.

Cerberus

Have you searched the British corpus?

WMD

If you don't identify your corpus, then your Ngram is meaningless.

Cerberus

Jinx!

Robusto

Anyway, I grant that Brits talk funny. Next topic.

My corpus is English, period.

user19161

2:11 AM

Americans spell funny eg license/practice.

WMD

Aha! That would be the language of England, then?

Cerberus

It is.

tchrist

English is the language of America as well, and moreso.

Robusto

Also the language of America. And New Zealand (which is not England, just so you are aware).

Cerberus

England and its empire!

user19161

2:12 AM

Barrie has an empire?

Cerberus

Haha.

WMD

Australia, India, South Africa, Singapore,

Cerberus

He may think he has.

Robusto

Barrie created Never-Neverland.

WMD

Ireland.

user19161

2:13 AM

But Rob is Captain America!

WMD

Canada.

tchrist

So prisoners of her majesty talk funny. We knew that.

WMD

Uganda.

Robusto

If you think they speak English in India, you should hear the Indians at my office. Like today morning.

tchrist

@Robusto Don’t . . . get . . . me . . . started!!!!!!

user19161

2:14 AM

@Robusto That's because they lost their skills after hearing you!

Robusto

Hey, the queen's had her jubilee — with 50% more boats on the Thames! In the rain! Wheee!

user19161

They saw the weird spelling and they got confused!

tchrist

Cherries jubilee

Cherries jubilee is a dessert dish made with cherries and liqueur (typically Kirschwasser), which is subsequently flambéed, and commonly served as a sauce over vanilla ice cream. The recipe is generally credited to Auguste Escoffier, who prepared the dish for one of Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations, though it is unclear whether it was for the Golden Jubilee of 1887 or the Diamond Jubilee in 1897. There have been many variations on the idea of flambéed fruit since Escoffier's time, the most famous being Bananas Foster. Other variations include Mangos Diablo (mangos flambéed in tequ...

Robusto

So intimates of the queen call her "Cherries"? How droll.

user19161

@tchrist Looks very good.

tchrist

2:15 AM

awaits whozitz’s flags

Cerberus

@Robusto That's pleonastic.

user19161

@Cerberus I thought it was neoplastic.

Robusto

@Cerberus I would have called it euphuistic, but have it your way.

tchrist

@Robusto Makes me droll, too. That’s why I wear a bib to eat it.

WMD

@tchrist please?

Robusto

2:16 AM

drolllll

WMD

thank you

Robusto

@tchrist You eat the queen? Wow.

Cerberus

Euphues, I see.

@Robusto I meant your "in the rain".

Robusto

@Cerberus So kenne ich.

Cerberus

@Robusto Flag! Sacrilege!

tchrist

2:18 AM

@Robusto I only eat dairy queens.

Robusto

@tchrist You should keep that on the DL.

Cerberus

@Robusto As in, "I know"? That sounds funny.

Robusto

I don't doubt it.

tchrist

With nuts.

And whipping cream.

And a big fat cheery cherry.

Helluva mess, though.

user19161

How did doughnut become donut?

tchrist

2:20 AM

Entropy.

Robusto

It dropped the "ugh" — duh.

WMD

Same way colour became color, I suspect.

I still write doughnut.

Robusto

You are entitled to all the superfluous letters you think you need to pretend to be English.

WMD

Thank you.

user19161

I like the spelling of diarrhoea.

Robusto

2:22 AM

You misspelled smelling.

user19161

Why remove that?

tchrist

The -ugh is part of the word’s ablative shield. English routinely dispenses with the ablative.

WMD

It could be construed as offensive. Did you notice sim removing the cat sex remark earlier? (I assume it was she).

Robusto

Anything can be construed as offensive. Kiwi! (I'm talking about the brand of shoe polish.)

tchrist

listens to Rob’s melodious cooings

WMD

2:25 AM

Don't call me a fruit!

Robusto

Kiwi (shoe polish)

Kiwi is the brand name of a shoe polish, first made in Australia in 1906 and sold in almost 180 countries. Previously owned by the Sara Lee Corporation since 1984, it was sold in 2011 to SC Johnson. It is the dominant shoe polish in some countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, where it has about two-thirds of the market. The polish was developed in Australia by William Ramsay who named it Kiwi after the flightless bird endemic to New Zealand, the home country of his wife, Annie Elizabeth Meek Ramsay. Its success in Australia expanded overseas when it was adopted...

user19161

@Robusto I used it too.

user19161

I ate the fruit as well.

Robusto

You ate the shoe polish?

@Robusto Oh!

2:25 AM

I use that.

I was wondering where that went.

Cerberus

Kiwi is like the cheapest shoe polish here, I think.

tchrist

10

A: What is the origin of "kiwifruit"?

Because, you see, the fruit actually comes from the Kiwi bird from New Zealand:

user19161

@tchrist This is nohat's answer to a question. I flagged as not an answer.

user19161

2:26 AM

But they kept it for comedy I guess.

user19161

But seriously I think it should be removed.

tchrist

NO FUNNING!

user19161

There are some such answers on other sites too that are kept because they are deemed too funny to be deleted.

tchrist

You people were irreverent to POP , is it correct? — guru 48 mins ago

Cerberus

We are not a machine.

tchrist

2:31 AM

Who does that sound like?

Cerberus

The rules are there to serve us, not to rule us.

tchrist

Yes, Rabbi.

WMD

@Cerberus Then why aren't they called serves?

Robusto

Night.

Cerberus

Bai.

@WMD Because they know we are unable to focus on anything else when food is mentioned.

WMD

2:43 AM

hah!

Cerberus

Is it not true?

cornbread ninja

@Cerberus youtu.be/rdIWKytq_q4

Cerberus

@cornbreadninja Yeah that's hilarious!

Reg already posted it, sorry.

@cornbreadninja But it was good enough to watch again!

ChairOTP

Hello?

Cerberus

Hail!

ChairOTP

2:52 AM

Can anyone help me out with a simple question?

Cerberus

Sure!

If we know the answer.

WMD

If we don't we'll make something up.

Cerberus

Yeah!

ChairOTP

What do you think is the best way to learn proper grammar besides reading books? And of course avoiding having to learn every rule by heart.

PS, I'm not a native speaker so tell me if I'm not being clear.

Cerberus

Writing, speaking, and listening all help as well.

WMD

2:56 AM

Umm, if you ever find out the answer to that question, could you share it with all of us please?

Cerberus

There are no shortcuts that we know of.

ChairOTP

I try speaking to myself whenever I'm all alone. But sometimes I just think I'm not doing it right, and I always screw it all up.

I start doubting whether what I'm saying makes sense or not, and I end up thinking it doesn't.

WMD

Actually, in all seriousness, the best idea is lots of practice.

Talk to native speakers at every opportunity that you get. And ask them to correct you when you make errors.

Talking just to yourself is probably not a great idea, because if you're getting something wrong, you'll just re-inforce it in your mind, then keep getting it wrong.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…