Editing Talk:1444: Cloud

Jump to: navigation, search
Ambox notice.png Please sign your posts with ~~~~

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 3: Line 3:
  
 
:As I understand it, its an american bastardisation of the english language. Alongside others such as 'Can I get a...', 'I could care less', 'Do the math', and 'Legos' --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:25, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
 
:As I understand it, its an american bastardisation of the english language. Alongside others such as 'Can I get a...', 'I could care less', 'Do the math', and 'Legos' --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:25, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
::The English language is more flexible than Her Royal Highness' Loyal Subject Pudder implies. I am a native speaker of the American dialect. "A way to go" and "a ways to go" both sound alright to me, but I prefer the latter. If anyone wants to go all dilettante or get priggish about it, I recommend looking up what Grammar Girl has to say. I've learned quite a lot from her. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:46, 7 November 2014 (UTC)''
+
:The English language is more flexible than Her Royal Highness' Loyal Subject Pudder implies. I am a native speaker of the American dialect. "A way to go" and "a ways to go" both sound alright to me, but I prefer the latter. If anyone wants to go all dilettante or get priggish about it, I recommend looking up what Grammar Girl has to say. I've learned quite a lot from her. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:46, 7 November 2014 (UTC)''
:::I agree, language is incredibly flexible, and the language and phrases you are around regularly always have a big impact on what you percieve as 'correct'. My examples were mostly tongue in cheek (I'm no language pedant), and I know that the majority of this sites visitors are probably going to be american! However, I will never understand how anyone could deny that 'I could care less' is grammatically the opposite of what is usually being implied. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:00, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
 
::::Thanks for the insight. Do you agree (for my understandings sake) that the sentence has the same meaning as my suggestion "Cloud computing has a long way to go"? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:04, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
 
:::::Yes indeed - those mean pretty much exactly the same thing, Knyde.  [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 14:16, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
 
:::::I agree, though the inclusion of the word "long" in my mind makes that phrase imply a possibly longer timeframe than the "ways" phrase, where the length is less defined.  That would fit in with "a ways" being a more relaxed/colloquial/less specific way of saying "a long way".[[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:23, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
 
::::::"...a way to go...", without the "long" is a thing, and of equivalent lack-of-definition. Including "long" may have confused matters, methinks.  (Also can I submit "Write me!" instead of "Write ''to'' me!" as an Americanisation I understand but dislike.  While "I could of done something" (also he/she/they should/would/might, etc) is sheer laziness that I actually detest, because it is not anywhere near as legitimate, w.r.t. the natural evolution of English language.  (Comes from badly misunderstanding of "X have"->"X've"->"X of".) But that one seems to exist in Ol' Blighty as a homegrown corruption, without necessarily being an import. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.112|141.101.99.112]] 14:46, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
 
::::I've always taken 'I could care less' to be a sarcastic phrase. True, it is opposite, but the precise meaning is not meant. As long as the message is understood, we're fine. [[1028: Communication]][[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.173|199.27.128.173]] 04:38, 8 November 2014 (UTC)
 
:::::I've read up on this before and I accept that sarcasm is the only way to legitimately explain it, but I don't think a majority of non-pedants are aware of any irony in the phrase. Though it's an idiom rather than a word, I think it, like [https://www.google.com/search?q=moot 'moot'], has simply been misspoken and misused over many many years and now people use it incorrectly - part of the evolution of language, I think -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:14, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
 
::::I do not deny it is illogical, Pudder. But it's an idiom. Idioms are illogical. Consider ‘head over heels’ and ‘have your cake and eat it too.’ I perused ''Yes, I Could Care Less'' by Bill Walsh, [http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/could-care-less as excerpted by Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl], to come to that conclusion. I was also amused to find this snobbish quote from Isaac Asimov in that excerpt: “I don’t know people stupid enough to say [I could care less].” Meh. I couldn't care less, dead professor. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 13:21, 8 November 2014 (UTC)''
 
Does anyone else see this as related to 1263: Reassuring? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 02:25, 8 November 2014 (UTC)
 
 
 
Even the English are speaking a bastardization of English, otherwise were would all talk like Shakespeare. Language changes folks, when cultures are isolated it changes in different ways. Being pedantic over which variant is "proper" disregards the fact that if by "proper" you mean the way it was then none of us speak that way.
 
 
 
The phrase "pip pip cheerio" comes to mind as a counter example. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.12|108.162.241.12]] 17:26, 8 November 2014 (UTC)
 
 
 
Given that Randall has [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24 made suggestions to Google in the past], I have to wonder if this is calling them out to dedicate a chunk of servers for extrapolating what the cloud shapes look like (once it's determined to be a cloud) -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:30, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
 
 
 
It seems like Google [http://psychic-vr-lab.com/deepdream/ figured this one out]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.49|108.162.221.49]]
 
 
 
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.175|108.162.249.175]] 04:41, 27 September 2015 (UTC) It should be easy to identify a cloud. Define it as any amorphous object set against a blue background (since most people take photographs of individual clouds when the sky is clear). {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.175}}
 

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)

Template used on this page: