Language desk
< September 28	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 30 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 29

Crash Dive

what is crash dive? I changed it to crash-dive174.3.110.93 (talk) 00:15, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I imagine a "crash dive" is what is described in the article called Crash dive. rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 01:04, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Difference

What's the difference between "?!" and "!?"? Jc iindyysgvxc (talk) 10:10, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"?!" --> a very emphatic question, or a question that's really more of an emphatic statement

"!?" --> expression of astonishment with an added questioning tone --71.111.194.50 (talk) 12:05, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a source for that? I don't think such a distinction is widely used. The distinction in chess punctuation between ?!=dubious move and !?=interesting move is fairly well established, though. Algebraist 12:10, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have a source, but I agree with the distinction as described. It needs to be added that any combination of two or more "!" or "?" marks is only an informal usage; in "proper" writing only one mark is allowed. See also interrobang. --Anonymous, 20:35 UTC, September 29, 2009.

mirror under car

Security guards at hotels use a long-handled mirror to check under cars for bombs. Is there a name for this kind of mirror? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.39.152 (talk) 17:11, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"Bomb search security mirror", according to these guys who sell them. --Sean 18:24, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

--Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.20.216 (talk) 07:12, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A mirror like that could have any number of uses. Where can I get one? →Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 12:29, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

He He, you could use it to see where your voice is coming from. Caesar's Daddy (talk) 16:13, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's a good one. Just don't give up the day job. →Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 17:30, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note: Caesar[1] was apparently 61.95.140.188 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) before creating his user ID. →Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 12:59, 2 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Such a tool is a great help if you're an Official Kilt Inspector ...

DaHorsesMouth (talk) 20:55, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Aye, and especially for all the bonnie lasses in Riverdance. →Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 12:57, 2 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Genitive case for possessive pronouns in Russian

I'm confused here. In the table of "possessive pronouns" it has categories for the nominative (my apple is ruined), accusative (the dog ruined my apple), dative (the dog used its teeth to ruin my apple), etc. What confuses me here is the inclusion of a separate pronoun for the genitive case. As I recall (and some en.wp research confirms), the genitive case refers to possession with nouns (my apple was ruined). So wouldn't all possessive pronouns be modifying something in the genitive case? (This is probably going to be a difficult question, because the answer will reveal my complete misunderstanding of grammatical cases and raise about eighteen more questions) Z S 16:52, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the genitive construction denoting possession, it's the possessor who is in genitive, not the other way around (apple of mine was ruined, using your example). So, possessive pronouns replace this genitive, whereas the noun which governs the pronoun may be in an arbitrary case. — Emil J. 17:02, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Could you take the tables from the page I linked and replace the Russian pronouns with English ones/examples of their use? I can't find a table anywhere. Z S 17:13, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Try these
"my apple is red" - nominative: моя яблока ...

"she ate my apple" - accusative: ... мою яблоку

"the colour of my apple is red" - genitive: свет моей яблоки ...

"the mouse approached my apple" - dative: мыс <verb governing dative case> к моей яблоки (in this case, "my apple" is accusative/objective in English, but dative in Russian)

"thanks to my apple, which was rotten, I have a stomach ache" - instrumental: ... моей яблоки ...

"the worm was in my apple" - prepositional: ... в моей яблоки.

~~It would be a little clearer with masculine examples, where there's more variety in the case endings. -- JackofOz (talk) 20:59, 29 September 2009 (UTC)~~[reply]

Яблоко is neuter, not feminine, and you have tons of other mistakes. Here's the corrected version:

"my apple is red" - nominative: моē яблокo ...
"she ate my apple" - accusative: ... моē яблокo (for neuter/inanimate it's the same as nominative)
"the colour of my apple is red" - genitive: цвет моего яблока ...
"the mouse approached my apple" - dative: "мышь подошла к моему яблоку" (preposition к requires dative)
~~"thanks to my apple, which was rotten, I have a stomach ache"~~ (this is not instrumental)
This is instrumental: "I hit it with my apple": "Я ударил его моим яблоком"
"the worm was in my apple" - prepositional: ... в моём яблоке.

--Ornil (talk) 04:13, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ouch! I was rustier than I dared fear. Sorry. I've struck it out now. -- JackofOz (talk) 12:27, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yiddish

Is the Yiddish translitteration at Komtsukunft correct? --Soman (talk) 21:44, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. HOOTmag (talk) 01:04, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

thanks, --Soman (talk) 18:01, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's my pleasure. HOOTmag (talk) 19:58, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]