Language desk
< November 4	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 6 >

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.

November 5[edit]

Translation please[edit]

I would like to have a quote translated into Italian if someone could help me.

I love you to the moon and back — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.209.233.186 (talk) 00:46, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

First tell me what it means in English, and then I'll give it a go :-) --Trovatore (talk) 03:28, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It reminds me of a Russian army joke: An officer commands to his soldiers, "Dig from the fence until lunch."--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 03:52, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's actually a quotation from Guess How Much I Love You. --Viennese Waltz 05:42, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I might try something like ti voglio un bene da andare alla Luna e tornarne, but I'm not a native speaker and I'm not sure how well it really works. Also it might be too literal, or more precisely, too explicitly connected to one possible meaning of the English phrase. I doubt there's an idiomatic close translation. --Trovatore (talk) 05:47, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The book was also published in Italian so that will give an answer.[1] This seems to be rather a popular question on the web. Here it is classified under astronomy! Thincat (talk) 11:16, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Language and body size[edit]

Too vague to answer.

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

From biggest to smallest, how do you rank the following adjectives?

plump
curvy
fat
obese
gargantuan
large
overweight
average
thin
fit
slender
muscular

140.254.136.158 (talk) 14:44, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

At the top of the page it says "We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate." --ColinFine (talk) 16:26, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a request for opinions, but it could be homework. If you speak English at all, you can make a start on it. Put "average" in the middle. Thin goes last. Some of the ordering is debatable, e.g. plump and curvy seem pretty similar. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:07, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Some of those terms are slippery, as well as overlapping. Maybe the OP could put next to each type, the names of one or more celebrities that qualify, in the OP's opinion. Then, it should be easy. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:54, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And that will start a debate. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:57, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Then box this section up and be done with it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:58, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For/Since/Because[edit]

I have heard and read several sentences that use for and since instead of because. Why is that? Can I replace them in any sentence and will mean the same? Miss Bono^{[hello, hello!]} 18:12, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, you can't. Off the top of my head, for in the sense of because can only come after the clause being explained, not before it, and is a bit old- or formal-sounding: "God gave liberty to his creation, for he wished not to be surrounded by slaves", but you can't reverse the two clauses.

"Since" can be used either before or after, but you have to be careful to avoid it in situations where it might be understood as giving a time sequence. "Since I like chocolate, I buy it whenever I go to the store" is OK. But "since I shopped at Wal-Mart that one time, my friends all make fun of me" is ambiguous — it could mean that your friends have made fun of you ever since, or it could mean that it's the cause of them making fun of you. Our British friends are apparently not very fond of this use of since. --Trovatore (talk) 19:01, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oh thank you Trovatore. Miss Bono^{[hello, hello!]} 19:47, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sentence needed[edit]

I'm looking for a sentence (or a group of sentences) fulfilling the following criteria:

It must be a question.
It must contain all of the characters I (capital i), &, l (lowercase L), a, g, k, y, w, f, and e; and as many other alphabetic characters as possible.
If it contains either of b or d, it must also include the other, and likewise for p and q.
Ideally it should contain both majuscule and miniscule Q, but I understand this may not be feasible.
No letters or characters may be repeated. Majuscule and miniscule are not the same character.
The capital i and the lowercase L should be as close together as possible.
It should be as coherent as it can be made! Sentence fragments are okay, but avoid them if you can.

Pokajanje|Talk 23:56, 5 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I like "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:09, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the closure: The reference desk has had fun questions, puzzles and word games before. How about trying to answer this one anyways? --Theurgist (talk) 01:09, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Fine, whatever. Good luck answering it. If you get it, maybe the OP will share whatever prize he expects to win. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:17, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You may be interested in List of pangrams. A few of those almost, but not quite meet your criteria. Perhaps one could be modified.

You're going to have difficulties. If 'u' can't be repeated, you're not going to have a valid English sentence containing two Q's unless you allow abbreviations. APL (talk) 01:49, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Quite Iraqi road. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:51, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Take a look at the list of English words containing Q not followed by U. --Theurgist (talk) 01:53, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The answer can include IQ and many other acronyms. (The word minuscule is often misspelled.)

—Wavelength (talk) 16:16, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Constrained writing is of interest, and so are the articles listed there. --Theurgist (talk) 23:02, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The puzzle is too hard for me (a non-native speaker). The sentence must contain all these consonants: Q, q, p, l (ell), g, k, f, w, and either both of b and d or neither of them. It may contain up to seven possible lowercase vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u, y, w (as in cwm), and must have a capital I (eye) - keeping in mind that a syllable is sometimes represented orthographically with more than one vowel letter. In order to be a natural-sounding question, it must begin with a capitalized question word, auxiliary verb, or vocative expression followed by either of the former two. No character must be repeated. By the way, do you mean that the sentence must contain the conjunction and represented as "&"? --Theurgist (talk) 23:35, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]