playBunny: LMAo.well i had to buy some soda crystals today, and all the instructions are in foreign, i dont know the dosage or how to use the dame things lmao

playBunny: This time I got the joke part.  However, my Oxford Dictionary does say that the 'r' in 'word' can be omitted! And so can be both R's in 'furthermore.'

What does this mean?

BARBITURIX,le gaulois qui vous endort à petite dose et vous envoie au nirvana à forte dose ..
attention personnes sensibles s'abstenir ..

playBunny:And what does this mean?


BARBITURIX the Gaul: Who deadens you in small doses and sends to you to
Heaven in large amounts. Warning: Sensitive people keep away.

playBunny:Very interesting.  You are very informative. 

Mad April Hare: I'm a teen! I'm supposed to be disrespectful!

in french "offered draw by mistake
sorry, I clicked on offer draw and didn't mean to and sent it as I noticed it."
Merci de votre aide

aiki kiki: I means 'thank you for your assistance.'

Rose: merci

 aiki kiki:  Bienvenu!

Marfitalu:   My university professor really expects me to understand all this, but I have no idea what it says.  Let me see how much I remember:

It's something about you creating a new button?
And you don't want something!

Good, my mother should be proud of his son

Marfitalu:Naah, it's OK.  So I didn't guess even that little correctly?  If my professor would know, he'd kill me! 

Marfitalu:Rose maybe!  But I wouldn't understand any more 

par erreur  = by error?

King Reza: ... or, in this case, "by mistake".

Marfitalu:As far as I know, error and mistake are different in english.  A mistake is made due to lack of attention or concentration for example, but an error occures because of the person's lack of knowledge.  So an error is not avoidable while you can avoid making mistakes.  Any English speakers willing to correct me if I'm wrong?

There are more nations playing on this game-site than you have "up-front" flags showing. I think it would be wonderful to have a flag for each and ever country that plays on this site, put (at least) on the main page and/or have a link to all country flags. This is just one example and I'm sure there are others;
"South Korea" has like 7 (maybe more) people listed that play, but I see no flag on the site, only under the player list. Can we update this oversight, soon..????? :)

Mystery Man: Those flags represent language, not nacionality. When you click in one of them you are taken to the version of BrainKing translated to that language.

Do you know someone willing to translate the site to Korean? If so have him/her contact Fencer to start working on it ;)

King Reza: That's not necesarily true about error. Sometimes an error is made when you are able to do something correctly, but fail to do so. An example is a ground ball hit to the second baseball who fields it cleanly and, having plenty of time to throw the ball to the first baseman, instead throws the ball way over the first baseman's head into the stands. This is an error, and the second baseman will be charged one for his mistake. The second baseman certainly has plenty of knowledge about what to do in this instance, he didn't do it.

I hadn't thought of the two words to compare them before. They usually mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably. I'm trying to think of other times when they mean differently enough from each other that only one would be proper.

He made an error. He made a mistake.
He spoke in error. He spoke mistakenly.

Least ways it's hard for me to tell them apart. Perhaps you can give an example where only one would be proper? I can't think of an example and the words seem to have the same meaning.

While building the model airplane, he made a mistake putting the propeller together.
While building the model airplane, he made an error while putting the propeller together.

Walter Montego:I don't know for sure where only one of them can be used.  But I can give you several examples from my dictionaries so that you can see if in all cases they can be interchangeably used:

This isn't my bill.  There must be a mistake.
I made a mistake about Julie.  She's nice, really.
It was a big mistake to send her to boarding-school.
A week after the wedding she realized she had made a terrible mistake.
Make no mistakes, we're facing a major financial crisis.

The accident was the result of pilot error.
Rising costs have left us very little margin of error.

Walter Montego: You can make an error in judgement, but can you make a mistake in judgement as well?

I think another useful addition to the BK dictionary would be somthing "you too" or "likewise".

King Reza: You did find some examples! :)

This isn't my bill. There must be an error.
I made an error about Julie. She's nice, really.
It was a huge error to send her to boarding school.
A week after the wedding she realized she had made a terrible error.

>Make no mistakes, we're facing a major financial crisis.<this is a different use of mistake. Kind of idiomatic and it won't look or sound right putting error in its place.>The accident was the result of pilot mistake.<
This might be a legitimate sentence, but as you have it is the way I always heard it.

Rising costs have left us very little margin for mistakes.

Czuch Czuckers: It seems like you can, or am I making a mistake judging it so?

:)

playBunny: Yeah, that "s" was throwing me off too. Hard to say which books and professors are teaching him English. And then there's your English as compared to my English. I bet Reza can speak as well as someone that grew up in an English speaking place, though he might have an accent. He certainly knows grammar better than most people I know.

playBunny: I checked both words, error and mistake, with my Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary amd this is what it says:

MISTAKE: 1.An action or opinion that is foolish or wrong; and error in judgement.
                     2.A word, figure, sum, etc.,that is not correct.


Error: 1.A thing done wrongly, a mistake.
           2.The state of being wrong in belief or behaviour.


And this is what I just now found on the next page.  I hadn't noticed it before:

Note: Compare mistake, error, blunder, fault and defect.
         
They all refer to something that has not been done correctly or properly.  Mistake is the most      general and used in most situations: The letter had quite a few mistakes in it. Error is used when talking about calculations and in technical or formal contexts: I think there are a few errors in your calculations.  A blunder is a stupid or careless and quite serious mistake made because of bad judgement: A hospital blunder led to 500 cancer patients getting the wrong radiation treatment.  Fault emphasizes a person's responsibility for a mistake: Tom broke the window but it was my fault for letting him play football in the house.  A fault can also be an imperfection in a person or thing: There was a design fault in the train doors.  A defect is a serious imperfection:  The causes of many birth defects have not yet been discovered.

**********************************

I cannot fully understand the meaning of this sentence:

"Accidents are caused by errors. (Though you could mistake something in
error, lol, eg the pilot error could be that he mistakenly pressed the
ejector seat button instead of the seat adjustment button.)"

What do you mean 'you could mistake something in error?'

If I understand it correctly, you may mean that here 'error' has a stronger meaning than 'mistake,' but I'm not sure.

Thanks for the etymology of the two words.  One of the main problems that I have with English is choice of vocabulary.  Here's an example:

I see a very beautiful scene.  I want to show how much I'm impressed with it.  There are many words that I can use:

Wonderful, magnificent, fabulous, incredible, marvelous, fascinating, unbelieveable, terrific,etc..

Now suppose I use 'wonderful.'  We move on and we see a more beautiful scene.  Now I have a problem to deal with.  I no longer know which word to choose because I don't know which one shows that I am more impressed with this scene than the previous one!

Or, when there are some words that I think have the same meaning, I am not sure which one to choose, because they may not really have the exact same meaning:

Probably, perhaps, possibly, maybe, may, might, likely.

Like I don't know if I see the sky's cloudy, which one of the following sentences I can use:

• Probably it'll rain
• Perhaps it'll rain.
• It'll possibly rain.
• Maybe it'll rain.
• It may rain.
• It might rain.
• It's likely to rain.

Well, I guess I will never be able to solve these problems unless I live among native speakers.  When I see what they use in what situation, I can learn that too!

Walter Montego:I apologize for the extra 's' that I had typed.  Looked it up now and there was no 's.'  It was 'make no mistake, .... .'

Well, about the books and professors, I use Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary as the main source.  What it says, I consider to be the reality and truth.  I use Websters Advanced Learner's Dictionary too, but not as frequently. 

As for my professors, I listen to what they say but never try to learn it before I check it with a more 'reliable' source such as a Native Speaker.  After all my profesors are Farsi speakers just like I. 

I am good at grammar, yes.  I use Practical English Usage, and English Grammar in Use as my main sources.  Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar and Oxford Guide to English Usage are very good and informative books that I use very often too.

And, as for whether or not I have an accent, I have always wanted to know whether a native speaker can easily understand I'm not a native or not, but I've never had the chance of speaking with a native.  maybe if one native speaker here would volunteer and listen to my recorded voice, I could understand that and let you know too! 

I especially appreciate an American and a British native speaker if possible.  

By the way, by 'And then there's your English as compared to my English.' did you mean that his English is different from yours? 

King Reza: Another shot at it from a non-native:

1. Probably it'll rain and It's likely to rain. are similar, I believe, and indicate a very strong possibility that it will rain. The sky is probably very cloudy as you say that.
2. It may rain., Perhaps it'll rain. and Maybe it'll rain. indicate that you believe that is some possibility for rain. Maybe in a decreased degree of confidence in that probability, though I'd say they may be used interchangeably.
3. It might rain. a bit like the previous one. But may also indicate a wish, like "I wish it would rain, the plants are thirsty and rain would help".
4. It'll possibly rain. doesn't sound right to me, especially with that contraction. But I'd say it accounts for a strong possibility too...

King Reza: Yes, his English is different than my English. Spoken differently, spelled differently, and even some of the grammar is done differently. Years ago someone said this of the two languages and countries. "Two countries seperated by a common language." It's kind of nonsensical, but there's some truth to it. Our cultures are different too. There's lots in common. Someday I'll travel to England to see for myself. The make some of my favorite beer there, so it's got a lot going for it from the start. :) Perhaps you can save up and travel there yourself? I think you're closer, but I'd have to check a map. I saw that it was around $750 to fly there from here the other day. I'm not sure if that was round trip or one way.

You might want to get more dictionaries. There's a tradition of them in the United States. I can't say which one is best. The American Heritage Dictionary has a lot of words in it that most of the dictionaries leave out that are common words. Perhaps some web searching would give you a few to choose from. Next to this computer I have a medium size dictionary called Webster Illustrated Contemporary Dictionary. That's my spell checker. I use it when I need to spell a word I don't know too well. Luckily I know how to spell rendezvous already because I'd never be able to find it in the dictionary without searching every "R" word in order. Just who put the "Z" and "S" in it? And why is the second letter an "E" instead of an "O"? Yeah, blame the French for English spelling. It seems like the only reason I know of. Them two countries have quite a history between them. Lots of wars and conquests. English changed a lot. More of those extra words with the same meaning playbunny alluded to. I wonder if French changed as well? How complete is that Oxford dictionary? I've never seen one of those. Does it have words in it like snafu or fubar? If so, does it say what the "f" means? And then there's this internet. I suppose that's another way to find out about languages all around the world.

playBunny& bouncybouncy:
brilliant transbabelation of course, but there´s one or two things open to interpretation:

a schoonmaakkarweitje is sometimes refered to in English as any cleaning chore, such as stone floor tiles and wall tiles (and sure flags too if you want, and if you rinse those well as well :) and, well, if it works on incited pans, it´ll definitely do its magic on sticky pans. You could be inclined to use some water instead of what water and heat it briefly....it all depends on what you feel like on the spur of the moment:)

i do hope you haven´t finished the bottle already or gave it to some thirsty child....

you have to choose one which is good looking by the context

Could someone here translate "You are too good for me." into French for me?

forweg: "Tu est trop fort pour moi"

gogul: Thanks!

Here is one for you great multi lingualists!:

meraba acaba benım dılımı anlıyormusun


Any thoughts?

Rose:Sounds Turkish to me.  But I don't know!

King Reza: I can't locate an online Turkey to English translation site either. Thanks though. I wont fret on it

Marfitalu:I wasn't sure.  I have listened to some Turkish music and the text looks like what I have listened to.  But I may be wrong.

Rose: Ebru has translated BK into Turkish and she's a very kind person, I'm sure she'd help you with this if you ask her.

I did a small research myself though:

"Merhaba" - Hello
"Acaba" - I wonder, if, do you mind
"Benim" - my
"Dilim" - strip, sector, piece, slice
"Anlıyormusun?" - Do you understand?

So maybe the sentence means: "Hey, got any problems with my pieces, huh?" LOL

Ebru and all: Thanks so much every body who replied. Most helpful and very fast!

Ebru could you translate this:
1. su oyunu hanı konusarak oynarız dıye dusunmustum de
2. tsekkur ettım

I feel absolutely lost in a game with a player here. All I can say in reply to them is "Bol şans."

Rose:Never forget the smileys!  I'd reply:

Hey, you there, I can't understand what you say

King Reza: HAHA! That will work, maybe!

Ya Allaha baş eğersin kimseye baş eğmessin Ya herkese baş eğersin hiç bir şeye değmezsin

Ebru:

Thank you. It was included in a message left for me on another site as part of a user name.

Ebru: Hi Ebru, I would like to know how difficult it is to distinguish between the i, ı and y. Do native Turkish-speaking people make mistakes in this or is the usage of them quite clear? We have just i and y in Czech, being pronounced the same way, and you'd be surprised how often Czechs make mistakes in using them.

Pedro Martínez:As you know Patrik, we have 3 kinds of /s/ on Farsi.  You may find it strange that many many people don't know when to use which.  I was walking on the streets yesterday just browsing the windows and noticed this:

قیمت های استسنايی

While it should be:

قیمت های استثنايی

It is only a matter of education.  People need to be taught these things.