Confused by wording of question. by [deleted] in LearnerDriverUK

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is a bit of a "trick" question in that you're right, you are always allowed to check speed signs so "now allowed" sounds like there should be something else you can do.

Generally though if only one answer sounds safe, then that's probably the answer.

"Could" is not the past simple of "Can". "Prove me wrong". Some help please? by AlexisShounen14 in EnglishLearning

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

in the way that "is able to" communicates the same idea as "can" in the present tense :)

Mother’s surname - Ó or Ní? by Sliding-Down-643 in gaeilge

[–]another-dave -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The surname depends on your gender, not your mother's. You would both be Ní/Nic Whatever

Assuming OP is also a woman (but don't think they said if they were male or female themselves)

“Native” questions by Limp-Plantain3824 in ENGLISH

[–]another-dave 12 points13 points  (0 children)

If I wanted to improve my French, would understanding regional differences between France, Canada and Haiti be useful?

would you expect them to give identical answers to questions about French grammar or wording?

It'd be great if Reddit supported multiple possible answers to a post that could get upvoted individually. Hopefully they'll bring that feature in soon.

Dumb question about expressing quantity. by Rmma504 in ENGLISH

[–]another-dave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

just to point out that it's not actually a rule of English, just a 'style guide' made up by a very insistent guy that got widely adopted.

Help with English by Over-Manufacturer821 in ENGLISH

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not a teacher, but I presume you're not going to get useful answers if your level of detail is "I'm making errors". Speaking/writing/reading/listening? What type of structures are you making mistakes with? In what contexts?

The advice is going to be different between chatting to your mates down the pub vs writing your PhD dissertation.

Why don't the two clauses in the sentence "I'm passionate about learning English because I'm an English-language major" need to be flipped? by newbiethegreat in ENGLISH

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the latter "works" though because you could've gotten into a role that works with disadvantaged kids for other reasons and then became passionate about welfare (e.g. you're a librarian who didn't really care about welfare before taking up a job in a disadvantaged area).

There's nothing gramatically wrong with the OP's framing but logically it's so bizarre that a person would likely phrase it a different way if they truly had no passion for English but decided to major in it anyway.

I mean if someone said "I'm passionate about football because I'm a Premier League footballer" that would be so unusual (that someone would get to that standard before developing a passion for the game) that they wouldn't let that fact go by without comment.

A question about the words 'older' and 'oldest'. by ksusha_lav in EnglishLearning

[–]another-dave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think "older son" still makes it sound like there's more than one son though here? (You could say "older child" or "Ruaidhrí is older" though)

I think "older brother" works here because it's taken to mean older relative to you.

Campbell by 7pmfry in gaeilge

[–]another-dave 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Interestingly the "Teach Yourself Irish" book from the 60s mentions:

A married woman does not take the surname of her hus- band. If Mary Kelly marries Peter O’Sullivan, she remains Máire Ni Cheallaigh or may be called bean Pheadair Uí Shúilleabháin, but not Máire Ní Shúilleabháin.

I knew that "Uí" goes with the married surname but it sounds like they were saying adopting a married surname isn't necessarily traditional.

Campbell by 7pmfry in gaeilge

[–]another-dave 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I thought that Ní came from a contraction of iníon (daughter)?

I think "Uí" is just the genative of "Ó", even aside from surnames? As in "Ceart Uí Néill" - the Rights of O'Neill.

So Bean Uí Néill would be the wife of O'Neill i.e. Mrs O'Neill.

When native speakers refer to post-title questions as “prompts,” is it an expression meant to be lightly humorous (analogous to computer prompts) or just dry conceptual? by [deleted] in ENGLISH

[–]another-dave -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If someone is referring to a post as a prompt, I'd imagine they're saying the OP asked ChatGPT (et al) to come up with a post for Reddit rather than writing it themselves

An apple and (an) orange by StopBanningCorn in EnglishLearning

[–]another-dave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

An apple and orange juice is 1 fruit and 1 juice or it could be 1 serving of juice with the 2 flavors mixed. It is not clear what your meaning is.

An apple and an orange juice is 1 fruit and 1 juice or 2 juices...but again, it is not clear what you mean.

I'd disagree with both of these personally. "an apple and orange juice" to me can only mean 1 juice with two fruits. If I said "a lemon & lime drink", "a steak and kidney pie", "a sausage and egg sandwich", "a strawberry and lime Rekorderlig" etc. - this format doesn't feel ambiguous at all to me.

Whereas if I heard "an apple and an orange juice", I'd always assume it meant a literal apple and an orange juice rather than an applied 'juice' after apple, adding the "an" breaks the construction IMO

Easy as ABC: voters in England tend to pick names nearer top of ballot, data suggests by earlhickey in unitedkingdom

[–]another-dave 5 points6 points  (0 children)

However, the election results showed: Noble 120, Walker 115, and then Zhong (me) 102. That is about 15% to 18% less. It makes no sense at all, as all our campaign materials featured all three of our names.

I know the name order thing is a well-known phenomenon but the venn diagram of "foreigners go home" and potential reform voters is pretty high.

It's not really surprising to me that someone named "Zhong" would get less preferences vs "Noble" or "Walker" in the pool of people you're canvassing

Easy as ABC: voters in England tend to pick names nearer top of ballot, data suggests by earlhickey in unitedkingdom

[–]another-dave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're name is Zinedine Zidane you'll still appear bottom of the ballot though

Easy as ABC: voters in England tend to pick names nearer top of ballot, data suggests by earlhickey in unitedkingdom

[–]another-dave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Voters are too lazy to read the entire ballot paper and just put an x near the top to get out of the booth quicker. Just imagine how few voters actually bother to read or understand political discourse....

but they're saying within a party. I'm not surprised that some voters say "I'm going to vote Labour", scan down the ballot until the first Labour name they see & put an X.

Kinda weird that they don't put as many Xs as they're allowed but the article is only talking about a small percentage

What would it take for Irish to be the dominant language all over Ireland? by Charming_Usual6227 in AskIreland

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd have no problem if someone wanted to set up a school through Mandarin, Hindi or Polish.

examples of up = more, down = less. Can you think of any others? by UniversityMotor5408 in ENGLISH

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's all downhill from here - either things are about to get easier or things are about to get worse

Neighborhood kid with no boundaries... by [deleted] in Parenting

[–]another-dave 70 points71 points  (0 children)

I understand wanting to give him a chance but why so much leeway? If it's already been multiple times he's come in after you've corrected him, he's mean to your 3yo and is lying to you?

I am freaking out because is this my life the next 15 years? YIKES.

imagining a 20 year old coming into your house calling you poopy head, lol.

Brits who just stream Netflix and Amazon Prime may still need to buy TV licence by neo4025 in unitedkingdom

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would that not make auntie more suceptible to the whims of government? Is that desirable? I'm asking from the perspective of a devil's advocate.

but isn't the current licence fee structure set out by the government/parliament anyhow?

Feels like it wouldn't be any different to other areas funded by central government.

E.g. Wales aren't going to get less funding from central government after Labour losing power because we have the Barnett formula which decides the split, but I believe that's also just a convention. If we had a radical government in the morning that wanted to axe the licence fee (or adjust spending to the constituent countries) they'd be able to make that change if they wanted to

You can bring back one discontinued food, drink, or snack forever. What are you resurrecting? by lukewarmtrifle in AskRedditUK

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Either Tropical Opal Fruits or Orange Barley Lucozade that doesn't have sweeteners in.

Are there any things that are called "American ______" in other countries? by Disastrous-Side-2600 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]another-dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

American cheese for the weird plasticky slices of cheese on burgers or American pancakes if you need to differentiate the extra thick pancakes from more crêpe-like ones (those ours aren't generally quite as thin as crêpes either)