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I Googled it just now for examples and while the majority refer to computing (e.g. "Stand-alone DSL", "stand-alone server") several do not (e.g. "stand-alone dental coverage" [medical care], "stand-alone Star Wars movie" [entertainment], "stand-alone credit course" [education]). I definitely don't associate it with one field in particular.IpseDixit wrote:Can the adjective stand-alone be used in any fields? I'm asking this because, after consulting a few on-line dictionaries, one could believemight think this adjective can only be used to refer to computers.
IpseDixit wrote:So, a question about tenses:
is it's the first time + simple present always wrong? E.g: it's the first time I drive a Bugatti. I know it should be it's the first time I've driven a Bugatti, but is the simple present really never acceptable? Not even in colloquial speech?
Dormouse559 wrote:The simple present there feels marginal, like there might be some specific case where it works, but I can't think of it. You can use the simple present in the opposing construction: "That's the last time I drive a Bugatti". Usually, that's a declaration; you're deciding that you won't do that again.
Ciarán12 wrote:If you said "The first time I drive a Bugatti I always feel like eating a sandwich" I would interpret that as "every time I drive a new Bugatti for the first time I feel like eating a sandwich". Also, when you said that you would say "The first time I have driven..." I'm not sure that's right. I would say "the first time a I drove..." if I wanted to discuss the very first ever time I was the driver of a Bugatti, "the first time I have driven. .." only sounds idiomatic in the sentence "This is the first time I have driven a Bugatti in ages" or similar.
Present perfect sounds acceptable to me in this context. Like I can imagine a talking head on car show being shown driving a Bugatti and saying something like, "This is the first time I've driven a Bugatti and I feel like eating a sandwich." Present progressive works, too: "I'm driving a Bugatti for the first time and I feel like eating a sandwich."IpseDixit wrote:So what tense do I have to use when I'm doing the action in that moment for the first time, and not for the first time in ages, but actually for the first time?
"Louvers" are "a series of sloping overlapping slats or boards which admit air and light but exclude rain etc." They can be placed on any kind of opening. That is, one can have louvered doors, louvered shutters, louvered drains, etc. If you speak of "a louver", what I picture is a fixed louvered cover that fits over a window opening. It might or might not be possible to adjust the space between the slats, but the entire array is locked in place and can't be easily removed.IpseDixit wrote:What's the difference between a louver and a shutter?
And what do you call "Venetian blinds"?IpseDixit wrote:louvered shutter = persiana (Persian)
roller shutter = saracinesca (from Saracen)
linguoboy wrote:And what do you call "Venetian blinds"?IpseDixit wrote:louvered shutter = persiana (Persian)
roller shutter = saracinesca (from Saracen)
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