User Comments - newtonvsleibnitz
newtonvsleibnitz
Posted on: Long Leg, Short Leg
January 29, 2015 at 10:00 AMActually I didn't guess that. I am a non-paying member, so I had to hijack someone's thread in order to post. But now that I know - which country do you support? Just wondering if it is appropriate for me to boast about the Ashes?
Posted on: Long Leg, Short Leg
January 29, 2015 at 9:50 AMThis page lists the English-speaking population of every country:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population
Germany's English-speaking population is 51.6 million.
Germany's total population is 80.6 million.
That is 64%, without even considering the "under 50" stipulation.
Since 65.3% of the population is listed as aged 0-54, that would pretty cover what I said.
Posted on: Breaking News - 4.0 Earthquake
January 29, 2015 at 9:42 AMGo to "Library", and on the left side of the page select "List".
At the top of the page you will get a filter option where you can type in a keyword.
Posted on: House Hunting
January 27, 2015 at 8:46 PMGrammatically, this is definitely Newbie. But they have included vocabulary that is beyond Newbie. If you used the same sentence structures with simpler vocabulary, this would be a trivial lesson.
Definitely NOT above Elementary - it would be a simple Elementary lesson.
But there has always been a need to plug the gaps between levels. The Newbie-Elementary gap is the least concern, but it's a start.
Posted on: Long Leg, Short Leg
January 26, 2015 at 9:19 PMAlmost any German under 50 would understand because they learn English at school.
Why do the French continue to resist being taught English at school? It is anything more than misplaced pride?
Posted on: Who's Been Spending My Money?
January 26, 2015 at 8:30 PMYes, I'd never actually heard the term 'mass noun' before my post, only collective nouns. When I looked it up, I skimmed and completely misinterpreted what they were. So no, they can't be pluralized.
Posted on: Who's Been Spending My Money?
January 26, 2015 at 6:20 AM"flocks are collections of non-threatening animals that one encounters on land, or in the air"
So one wouldn't refer to a "flock of pterodactyls" ?
But back to the language ... "flock" and other collective nouns have one property that doesn't seem to apply to Chinese measure words ... because they are nouns and not measure words, they can be modified while in this quantifying capacity ... "a scary flock of pigeons". I'm pretty sure the closest Chinese would be "a flock of scary pigeons" which is not quite the same thing.
Posted on: Who's Been Spending My Money?
January 25, 2015 at 11:34 PMThe correct term is "collective noun".
A "mass noun" is something different.
And "flock" is most definitely a collective noun. (No-one claimed that "sheep" is one)
Most collective nouns CAN be pluralized (as can mass nouns), so that is not relevant.
[And why does my comment finish with "x minutes ago from Android"? I have never owned a smart phone. It seems all sub-comments inherit their 'source' from the parent comment.]
Posted on: Long Leg, Short Leg
January 24, 2015 at 9:40 PMLooking at the title of this lesson - do they also have vocabulary for fine leg, silly leg and square leg?
Posted on: Deposit Dispute
January 30, 2015 at 3:49 PM他被这个房东骗了 means 'He was cheated BY this landlord". Your English translation suggests that "he" and "the landlord" are the same person.
The second translation would be correct if "he" was changed to "him".
The 3rd translation is also missing BY, but this time has NO meaning (not even an incorrect one) without this BY.
The 4th translation is also meaningless. It should just be "They finished a bowl of noodles". "Put" means nothing in this context.