The English Language

Your opponent has disconnected and will lose if not able to reconnect within two minutes.

Me too, Al.

Spoken to a person that one is waiting upon to finish narrating a story that should be shorter or doing something that could have been finished by now, "None of us are getting any younger." Other contexts also.

 

According to Google Translate, this is in the French language and means "Time overflowing".  For those who may not be aware of Google Translate:

Highlight the phrase in the language you wish to translate, then hold down the CTRL key and press "C".  Then go to Google and type in "translate".  Now point to the left box.  Then press CTRL "V".  This will insert the phrase to translate.  It will detect what language it is, and give the translation in your language.

I use dictionairies, but never Google translate. When google translates English into Dutch the translation it is horrible to say the least. Words are translated indeed, but the grammar isn't and quite often is the translated word not the meaning intended and with expressions it is even more harder.

If you would translate 'it is raining cats and dogs' in Dutch, everyone not aware of this expression in English would frown upon the translation. Yet, if it would be translated as 'it is raining pipe stems' we would understand. I don't know how you came with the idea of raining cats, dogs and men. We got the idea from the resemblance of pipe stems and the form of the big rain drops when it is raining real hard. :-)

Good translation requires understanding the context. When I type the word 'tegel', then finds Google that it is German instead of Dutch. Those words in German and Dutch have a different meaning. You were not precise enough with overflowed time. If you try it again, then will you see that beneath the word there is a suggestion from google. It actually knows the expression and will return with a different translation: beyond time.

I still don't know if that is correct. Red Lady might know.

Steve Miller may have said it best....

I couldn't help but giggle a little when reading the forums top post, but "they" is the correct term to address Johnny. 

Ey luv da inglish lanauge.

Glad to know that it's so cut and dry, so completely untroubling. Always great to see an authoritative response!

Tis as gret!

Thanks for the guidance. I saw the error the instant I posted it but decided to leave it their.  Nonetheless, there's a difference between an obvious typo, on the one hand, and usage that demonstrates lack of understanding of normal conventions, on the other. I have not graded any one in this thread, nor in any other.

In any case, I've tried to make the points through several posts here that the OP's objections are understandable, even though "they" is not technically incorrect except in formal prose. Valorizing "they" as correct without suggesting alternatives--recast the sentence without a pronoun or render everything plural--is lazy.

A plural pronoun that refers to a single person is one of several solutions to a problem in the English language. It is not always the best solution. It remains a solution that is impermissible in some contexts.

You gotta' be careful when you spell words incorrectly on purpose.  Goldendog is often attacked for his love of "looser" when it can't get any more loose.

I am saddened to report that we must conclude that bigpoison is a looser's.

:)

g-dog, I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next word.

What really annoys me about English is phrases like these:

The bear attacked the farmer with an axe.

I went:

HUH? The bear had an axe??? How the heck does that work? I'm so confused!!

Of course, it was the farmer who had an axe.

Anyway, I wish there was some way to distinguish things like this, such as:

The bear attacked the farmer, who had an axe.

Or

The bear attacked the farmer - who had an axe.

The farmer, who had an axe, was attacked by the bear.

(is probably how the phrase should be written)

I guess so.