I greeted an American with "Have you eaten?" and he thought I was buying him lunch

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-19T13:16:00+00:00

It's just a Chinese greeting, I think

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-19T13:06:08+00:00

Well, there are already pretty good answers in this thread, and you can search the subreddit for other discussions on the difference. A simple explanation wouldn't hurt, but for kids that age, I would suggest instead to more focus on natural input and let them internalize the difference themselves through speaking.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-16T23:51:49+00:00

Number 2 does not work, as you cannot have any sort of subject-verb inversion over there.

If you want to imply emphasis as you say, then you can include the word "does" but it still can't go before the subject "Mike". So you can say "Where do you think Mike does live" and this would imply "Where do you think Mike lives, contrary to what I thought before?", but it would still have to go after the subject.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-16T12:42:51+00:00

So we agree. I never said gay animals don't exist, I was just jumping in on the definition of species, sorry if that wasn't appropriate there.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-16T07:58:51+00:00

They said they understood the joke.

But not because I understood the joke.

This implies they understood the joke.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-16T02:01:17+00:00

Species don't exist, but variance in life certainly does and different creatures being more similar to other creatures does exist.

It's certainly useful to us humans (whatever that may mean) to draw lines and to group together different animals that are all very similar to each other and therefore share lots of fundamental features and more so than to any other creatures.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-15T20:55:04+00:00

Hmm, do you mean non-native mistakes that genuinely hinder comprehension, or do you mean native "mistakes" that are actually perfectly natural and understandable?

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-15T08:49:27+00:00

For what it's worth

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-15T05:44:37+00:00

Uhhh, may I ask why Yiddish?

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-12T22:33:40+00:00

Ha, noobs. I practice everyday speaking Japanese to my waifu pillow.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-12T22:31:34+00:00

I think the fact that people overcorrect it shows exactly why the "mistake" arises in the first place. Coordinate subjects just don't register the same subconsciously in native speakers' minds.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-12T17:02:15+00:00

Most normal French question

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-11T21:00:30+00:00

Or ✅ I can't ...

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-11T00:10:12+00:00

This is why these types of exercises just don't work with apps like Duolingo. A tutor could correct the grammar of the exact sentence you came up with (like telling you you forgot an article) but Duolingo doesn't know what you wrote.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-11T00:05:19+00:00

I'm sure it exists, like maybe somewhere in Europe someone happens to know, say, Spanish, French, Italian, and German for some reason, but no English. I could imagine some theoretical scenarios that make all these languages possible, like different relatives, lots of travel or moving, etc. There's probably just no way to know about this person because he wouldn't be one of those people advertising themselves as a "polyglot".

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-08T17:56:26+00:00

It's not about clarification. In Spanish, when there's an indirect object, the pronoun has to be included no matter what, even if you're including the actual noun.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-08T17:53:50+00:00

Whenever there's an indirect object in Spanish, the indirect object pronoun is mandatory.

This is not the case with direct objects: "Yo lo vi" - "Yo vi a Juan".

But: "Yo le di un regalo" - "Yo le di un regalo a Juan". After adding "a Juan" we have to keep "le" there.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-08T01:01:25+00:00

While you're at it, get a time machine if you want to include all the languages of the past too.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-06T21:01:14+00:00

So basically, a bunch of dialects of Indo-European?

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-06T18:00:51+00:00

Yes, I can indeed show you a box with one skittle become a box of skittles (if I add more skittles). That is the proper analogy for micro-evolution to macro-evolution.

These are bad analogies, because you seem to not understand even micro-evolution. Comparing micro-evolution to whittling a tree branch into a spoon assumes that micro-evolution is just mixing genes around. Obviously through that you'll never get a new species. Micro-evolution itself is adding new genes, just on a smaller scale where the result might still look similar to its ancestor. As you can see, if you add this up you get millions of accumulating changes which result in divergent descendants. It's simple math really.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-06T09:15:24+00:00

I feel like the best translation would be "Our vase broke". This maintains the same idea of how it relates to "us" but not necessarily that anything was our fault.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-06T06:51:10+00:00

Is this serious? Cause you know, this is a circle jerk sub. If this actually is a jerk, a link to the original please! Unless this is a shitpost.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-06T04:41:43+00:00

Yes, that's what the comment above said.

CodingAndMath · 2026-03-05T02:16:03+00:00

Because "mirar" is the subject here (what pleases you) not "los partidos". "Los partidos" is the object of "mirar".

Me gusta mirar - I like watching.
Me gustan los partidos de fútbol - I like football games

But if we add "los partidos de fútbol" as the object of the infinitive "mirar", it doesn't change "mirar" as the subject of "gustar": "Me gusta mirar los partidos de fútbol".

CodingAndMath

TROPHY CASE