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Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

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Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#71

Post by spicerguy »

bloak wrote: post #70
Animats wrote: post #5

The 60 words: to see, saw, seen. thing, something, what. this, these. the other, another, else, is the same as, be, am, are, being, was, were. one of. two of. person, people. many of, much of. inside. not, do not, does not, did not, some of. all of. there is, there are. more than, live, alive. big. small. very, kind of. if, then. touch. far from. near to, in a place, someplace, where. above. on a side of, hear, heard…

One of those words is not a word in British English. (Why do I mention that? Firstly, perhaps it's a fun puzzle for non-native speakers of American English to identify the word. Secondly, it's surprising that a difference between British and US English is apparent in such a short list of such basic words, considering that sometimes it's possible to write whole paragraphs of English without it being apparent which var…

British English speaker here - I'm having difficulty identifying the word you're referring to here. Or are you referring more to definition and statistical presence in common usage?

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#72

Post by pbhjpbhj »

bloak wrote: post #70
Animats wrote: post #5

The 60 words: to see, saw, seen. thing, something, what. this, these. the other, another, else, is the same as, be, am, are, being, was, were. one of. two of. person, people. many of, much of. inside. not, do not, does not, did not, some of. all of. there is, there are. more than, live, alive. big. small. very, kind of. if, then. touch. far from. near to, in a place, someplace, where. above. on a side of, hear, heard…

One of those words is not a word in British English. (Why do I mention that? Firstly, perhaps it's a fun puzzle for non-native speakers of American English to identify the word. Secondly, it's surprising that a difference between British and US English is apparent in such a short list of such basic words, considering that sometimes it's possible to write whole paragraphs of English without it being apparent which var…

I know the word you mean (no spoiler tag, so I won't say it, just 'it could almost be German' {to use a linguistic stereotype}) but I wouldn't recognise it as _not_ en-gb, just unusual.

I'm en-gb native.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#73

Post by pbhjpbhj »

yorwba wrote: post #62
raldi wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't follow. If we're communicating with aliens that we somehow know are made of matter, we tell them that right is the direction a horizontal wire carrying positive current away from us gets pushed by a vertical magnetic field.

That just shifts the problem to specifying the direction of the magnetic field, and you can't use the concept of left vs. right in that definition without creating a circular dependency.

Vertically up it's just too a higher local gravitational potential, no? Sure, we flip right-left when we look at things upside down, but that's a nuanced usage.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#74

Post by mrob »

bloak wrote: post #70
Animats wrote: post #5

The 60 words: to see, saw, seen. thing, something, what. this, these. the other, another, else, is the same as, be, am, are, being, was, were. one of. two of. person, people. many of, much of. inside. not, do not, does not, did not, some of. all of. there is, there are. more than, live, alive. big. small. very, kind of. if, then. touch. far from. near to, in a place, someplace, where. above. on a side of, hear, heard…

One of those words is not a word in British English. (Why do I mention that? Firstly, perhaps it's a fun puzzle for non-native speakers of American English to identify the word. Secondly, it's surprising that a difference between British and US English is apparent in such a short list of such basic words, considering that sometimes it's possible to write whole paragraphs of English without it being apparent which var…

That word is informal even in American English. It's less common in British English, but it's growing in popularity in both versions, and I wouldn't call it "not a word" even in British English. But I disagree with its inclusion in a first lesson, because its main use over the more common standard alternative (rot13: "fbzrjurer") is signaling casual speech.

Google Ngram Viewer lets you compare popularity of words in British vs. American English, so it's useful for investigating this.

https://books.google.com/ngrams

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#75

Post by mcbits »

spicerguy wrote: post #71
bloak wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of those words is not a word in British English. (Why do I mention that? Firstly, perhaps it's a fun puzzle for non-native speakers of American English to identify the word. Secondly, it's surprising that a difference between British and US English is apparent in such a short list of such basic words, considering that sometimes it's possible to write whole paragraphs of English without it being apparent which var…

British English speaker here - I'm having difficulty identifying the word you're referring to here. Or are you referring more to definition and statistical presence in common usage?

Since "gotten" isn't in the list, I'm going with "someplace". It even seems unusual to me as an American, as I would write either "some place" or "somewhere". If the phrase is also unusual in British English, that's definitely something I had never noticed.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#76

Post by yorwba »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #73
yorwba wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That just shifts the problem to specifying the direction of the magnetic field, and you can't use the concept of left vs. right in that definition without creating a circular dependency.

Vertically up it's just too a higher local gravitational potential, no? Sure, we flip right-left when we look at things upside down, but that's a nuanced usage.

How do you determine whether your magnetic field is pointing up and not down?

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#77

Post by psychoslave »

fit2rule wrote: post #69
skeoh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From http://learnthesewordsfirst.com/Lesson-12F.html#12-21 12-20. right. [X is on the right side of your body.] = X is on this side of your body: Most people write using the hand they have on this side of their body. [I use my right hand when I draw pictures.] 12-21. left. [X is on the left side of your body.] = X is on this side of your body: Most people do not write using the hand they have on this side of their bo…

I once had to describe left and right to my kids as they grew up, and the best [ * ] way to do that in my opinion is with this sentence: "Left is on this side of the sentence, and at the end of it is right." [ * - as in: they didn't 'get' it until I formulated it this way]

Can you come with the Arabic translation, please? (-:

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#78

Post by kieckerjan »

Tangential, I have always wondered why compact or pocket dictionaries (the single language ones) contain the simplest words. If space if of the essence, why not skip the words that everybody knows (like "table" or "shoe") and use the saved space for difficult words? After all, those are the ones you are likely to look up.

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#79

Post by bmn__ »

mcbits wrote: post #75
spicerguy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

British English speaker here - I'm having difficulty identifying the word you're referring to here. Or are you referring more to definition and statistical presence in common usage?

Since "gotten" isn't in the list, I'm going with "someplace". It even seems unusual to me as an American, as I would write either "some place" or "somewhere". If the phrase is also unusual in British English, that's definitely something I had never noticed.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/englis...

Re: Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

#80

Post by spicerguy »

mcbits wrote: post #75
spicerguy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

British English speaker here - I'm having difficulty identifying the word you're referring to here. Or are you referring more to definition and statistical presence in common usage?

Since "gotten" isn't in the list, I'm going with "someplace". It even seems unusual to me as an American, as I would write either "some place" or "somewhere". If the phrase is also unusual in British English, that's definitely something I had never noticed.

Thank you. Appreciated.
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