shouldco

shouldco t1_ja7lo3t wrote

Gold is very non-reactive so it will basically never naturally rust/tarnish. It is rather soft so it can be easily worked into things like jewelry without a forge. It's fairly rare, and has a unique color.

And in modern times it is very electrically conductive.

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shouldco t1_j0k1vlh wrote

Yeah. Sir/ma'am is weird. It's basically the only formal pronoun we have and the only place you are universally expected to used them are in the presence of authoritarians like the military and the police.

Otherwise it can be used to show extra respect or to sarcastically mock somebody for acting authoritarian.

I would say the general guidelines would be always use it with police/authority figures. And it can be nice to add to a "thank you, sir/ma'am" (typically not toward children). And basically avoid it everywhere else until you feel more comfortable worth the language.

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shouldco t1_j0juc8z wrote

I would actually avoid "can"/"could" when asking something of someone. It will be fine 99% of the time and everyone will understand what you mean but some people are pedantic about "can" being used to ask if something is capable of being done where "will" /" would" is asking the person to do it.

For example if I have a heavy box and I am not sure if you can lift it I would ask "can you carry this box?" in which I want to know if the box is too heavy for you to lift. Where if I already know the person is capable of lifting the box and I want to request help from them it would be more correct to ask "will you carry this box?"

Again it's not a big deal, and even native speakers use the two interchangeably but it's a subtle difference that occasionally can cause confusion.

As for other things :

"Please" for requesting something. You mention using it at the beginning but it can go at the end as well, or even after the subject and before the verb. "please, will you carry this box", "will you carry this box, please", and "will you, please, carry this box" are all fine.

"Thank you " to show gratitude/ appreciation. Just a "thank you" is fine. But if you want to show extra gratitude you can embellish. Stuff like: "thank you, very much", "thank you, I could not have done it without you ", " thank you, you have been such a great help " sometimes adding a little to your thank you can make someone feel more appreciated.

The standard response to "thank you" is "you're welcome" (shortened form of "you are welcome") but you will also hear things like "no problem", "my pleasure", "any time", "it was nothing", or and this one may seem strange "you do not have to thank me". They are all meant to convey that your request was not a burden to them and that they were happy to help you. These alternatives are considered informal but there are no real rules for formal/informal in English "you're welcome" is what everybody is taught and the others people just pick up from use and are sometimes used to add sincerity.

There is also "excuse me" which is used when you need to get somebody's attention. So if someone is blocking your way you can say "excuse me" and they will usually realize they're blocking your way and move. But they also may turn to you and expect you to say more. So "excuse me. Do you know how to get to the train station? " you can also use it to interrupt your own conversation so if you are talking to somebody and you get an important phone call you would say "excuse me, I need to take this call" and then step away to get some privacy.

And "sorry" or "I'm sorry" (I am sorry) which which kind of means the same thing as "excuse me" but is used as a simple apology. So if you bump into somebody at the market a simple "sorry" will be said. They are sometimes used interchangeably but as a guideline I would say "excuse me" tends to be used before you do something that you need to do but feel it would be rude if you didn't tell someone first. "sorry" is used after you do something accidentally.

I hope my explanations didn't confuse you there is a lot of nuance in language that can be hard to describe in asynchronous text. And I didn't add much more than anybody else but sometimes different phrasing can help understand a new concept.

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shouldco t1_j0jkd2k wrote

I think it comes from being "extra polite" in English tends to mean some amount of flattery is getting thrown in. Which is also a great technique to start manipulating people. If someone comes up to me and says "excuse me sir, you look like a kind good hearted young man..." they aren't about to ask what subway stop they need to get off at they are about to tell me how their mother is sick and they need $10 for a bus home.

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shouldco t1_isgah1l wrote

Yes and no.

The prominence of the patten varies to the point of not being discernible. In theory you could have a single crystal but let's just say that is practically impossible for anything commercially produced.

Basically each section of the pattern is a single crystal of zinc. Which means there was basically one nucleation point every 1/2 a square inch or so. In order to get that few you need a pretty smooth piece of steel so it is more prominent on things like cold rolled steel and sheet metal. Stuff like cast steel has a very rough texture and can have thousands of nucleation points per sqin and as such you will basically just see a flat gray color with the naked eye.

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