The occasional English Language thread
 

This thread is meant to be the place for off-topic grammar (and other) questions for all those (like me) who have no native english speaker handy.

I'll start with two questions.

In an other thread, I posted the following, important sentence:
[QUOTE=hhh;90043]The word is forensic, stupid.[/QUOTE]
It was meant to sound like when Peter says to Lois: "Haha! You said nuclear, it's [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular"]nucular[/URL] dummy, the 's' is silent".
Does the final "stupid" sound offensive or more like a gentle insult, say, a child would use? I thaught it would be the equivalent of "Dummkopf" in german, but in fact, I am not sure.

Second, can somebody please explain (or give some random examples) of the following mess:
On the telephone: Who is this? - It's me!
In the kitchen: Who ate the cake? - It is I who did it.

Right?

Now, I wonder how we could keep this thread, if it is going to persist, grammar-clean. I suggest that people correct ANY, even small mistake, and the mistaken is supposed to edit his post and colour his faults [COLOR="Red"]red[/COLOR]

Thanks in advance, everybody, Yours H.

[QUOTE=hhh;90666]This thread is meant to be the place for off-topic grammar (and other) questions for all those (like me) who have no native english speaker handy.

I'll start with two questions.

In an other thread, I posted the following, important sentence:

It was meant to sound like when Peter says to Lois: "Haha! You said nuclear, it's [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular"]nucular[/URL] dummy, the 's' is silent".
Does the final "stupid" sound offensive or more like a gentle insult, say, a child would use? I thaught it would be the equivalent of "Dummkopf" in german, but in fact, I am not sure.[/QUOTE]
I don't think it was a grammar error, you probably should've added a smiley though. --> :smile:

[QUOTE=hhh;90666]The word is forensic, stupid.[/QUOTE]

I think "silly" conveys your meaning:

The word is forensic, silly.
The word is forensic, you silly.

Willem.

[QUOTE="hhh"]I suggest that people correct ANY, even small mistake ...[/quote]Okay, since you don't mind ..[QUOTE="hhh"]I thaught it ...[/quote][COLOR="Red"]thought[/COLOR][QUOTE="hhh"]... and the mistaken is supposed to edit his post and colour his faults [COLOR="Red"]red[/COLOR][/QUOTE]I think only the mods can edit posts. So the editing thing only works for some people.

[quote=retina;90695]I think only the mods can edit posts. So the editing thing only works for some people.[/quote]Users can edit their own posts for one hour after they post it, after that, only mods can edit it.

[QUOTE=jasong;90667]I don't think it was a grammar error, you probably should've added a smiley though. --> :smile:[/QUOTE]

:smile: You mean 'grammatical' error.

Mally :coffee:

You are right about the editing thing. And thank you for the correction.

[QUOTE]"Their homework is so hard these days," Beckham, 30, said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday. "It's totally done differently to what I was [COLOR="red"]teached[/COLOR] when I was at school, and you know I was like 'Oh my God, I can't do this'."[/QUOTE]

I [COLOR="Lime"]thought[/COLOR] even about whether I was [COLOR="lime"]taught[/COLOR] like this or not.

Well, I [COLOR="Lime"]hopefully[/COLOR] encourage people to post their questions here so that [COLOR="Red"]hopefully[/COLOR] this thread is going to be a success.
H.