5 ms·

“Ten” is a word, “10” are digits. I’m not a native English speaker, how would you write it? FWIW the LLMs get it right many times, but fail other times.

MichaelZuo 2y ago
If your not a native English speaker, why are you even expecting the LLM to understand even 80% of the time? Just ask it in your own native language.
- Xenoamorphous 2y ago
  First of all, the texts the rule has to be applied to are written in English. Second, I believe English is by far (by far) the most prevalent language in the training dataset for those models, so I’d expect it to work better at this kind of task. And third, I’m not the only one working on this problem, there are others that are native speakers, and as my initial message stated, there have been many variations of the prompt. None work for all cases. And lastly, how would you rewrite my sample prompt? Which BTW bad a typo (unrelated to my English skills) that I’ve now fixed.
  - MichaelZuo 2y ago
    To be frank the response itself indicates that you don't really get what was being asked, or maybe how to parse English conversation conventions? I.e. It doesn't seem to answer the actual question. They seem to be half responding to the second sentence which was a personal opinion, so I wasn't soliciting any answers about it. And half going on a tangent that seems to lead away from forming a direct answer. Run these comment through a translation tool if your still not 100% sure after reading this.
    - Xenoamorphous 2y ago
      Alright man. So was it a quip when you said “if _your_ not a native English speaker”? Ok then. Very funny, I get it now.
      - MichaelZuo 2y ago
        I really recommend to use a translator, instead of relying purely on your English comprehension skills.
        Xenoamorphous 2y ago
        [flagged]
        MichaelZuo 2y ago
        I've read this three times and it still doesn't make a lick of sense. How does this relate to the parent comments?
        Last5Digits 2y ago
        Your English is absolutely fine and your answers in this thread clearly addressed the points brought up by other commenters. I have no idea what that guy is on about.
bxparks 2y ago
I couldn't understand the original wording either, but after reading one of the sibling comments that explains it, it suddenly made sense. I think you left out a few words that most English writers would include. So instead of: > "ensure that numbers from one to ten as written as words and numbers greater ten as digits in the given text", something like the following might be better for most people: > "ensure that the numbers from one to ten are written as words, and the numbers greater ten are written using numerical digits in the given text" There are multiple ways to write this, so other people may have better versions. I'm not an English grammar expert, so I cannot explain to you why the addition of those extra words helps with the clarity of that sentence.
- blowski 2y ago
  It’s a common style guide in newspapers.
- jiggawatts 2y ago
  Hilariously, you can ask GPT 4 to explain the “why” of arbitrary grammar fixes.
- mkl 2y ago
  Much better, but still missing "than" after "greater", which seems kind of critical. "Using" is important as a number greater than ten can't be written as a digit, but can be written using digits ("with" would be just as good). Repeating "written" makes it clearer that there are two instructions.
  - bxparks 2y ago
    It's funny, I didn't notice the missing "than" until much later. After I learned the intended meaning of the original sentence, my mind just seemed to insert the missing "than" automatically.
    - vsnf 2y ago
      Mine as well. After understanding the meaning thanks to the other posters, the sentence magically looked fine. But before knowing the meaning, it was gibberish. I’ve become aware of this before, and it makes me wonder just how often I’m interpreting grammatical nonsense on a daily basis without realizing it.

MichaelZuo 2y ago

If your not a native English speaker, why are you even expecting the LLM to understand even 80% of the time? Just ask it in your own native language.

Xenoamorphous 2y ago
First of all, the texts the rule has to be applied to are written in English. Second, I believe English is by far (by far) the most prevalent language in the training dataset for those models, so I’d expect it to work better at this kind of task. And third, I’m not the only one working on this problem, there are others that are native speakers, and as my initial message stated, there have been many variations of the prompt. None work for all cases. And lastly, how would you rewrite my sample prompt? Which BTW bad a typo (unrelated to my English skills) that I’ve now fixed.
- MichaelZuo 2y ago
  To be frank the response itself indicates that you don't really get what was being asked, or maybe how to parse English conversation conventions? I.e. It doesn't seem to answer the actual question. They seem to be half responding to the second sentence which was a personal opinion, so I wasn't soliciting any answers about it. And half going on a tangent that seems to lead away from forming a direct answer. Run these comment through a translation tool if your still not 100% sure after reading this.
  - Xenoamorphous 2y ago
    Alright man. So was it a quip when you said “if _your_ not a native English speaker”? Ok then. Very funny, I get it now.
    - MichaelZuo 2y ago
      I really recommend to use a translator, instead of relying purely on your English comprehension skills.
      - Xenoamorphous 2y ago
        [flagged]
        MichaelZuo 2y ago
        I've read this three times and it still doesn't make a lick of sense. How does this relate to the parent comments?
        Last5Digits 2y ago
        Your English is absolutely fine and your answers in this thread clearly addressed the points brought up by other commenters. I have no idea what that guy is on about.

bxparks 2y ago

I couldn't understand the original wording either, but after reading one of the sibling comments that explains it, it suddenly made sense. I think you left out a few words that most English writers would include. So instead of: > "ensure that numbers from one to ten as written as words and numbers greater ten as digits in the given text", something like the following might be better for most people: > "ensure that the numbers from one to ten are written as words, and the numbers greater ten are written using numerical digits in the given text" There are multiple ways to write this, so other people may have better versions. I'm not an English grammar expert, so I cannot explain to you why the addition of those extra words helps with the clarity of that sentence.

blowski 2y ago
It’s a common style guide in newspapers.
jiggawatts 2y ago
Hilariously, you can ask GPT 4 to explain the “why” of arbitrary grammar fixes.
mkl 2y ago
Much better, but still missing "than" after "greater", which seems kind of critical. "Using" is important as a number greater than ten can't be written as a digit, but can be written using digits ("with" would be just as good). Repeating "written" makes it clearer that there are two instructions.
- bxparks 2y ago
  It's funny, I didn't notice the missing "than" until much later. After I learned the intended meaning of the original sentence, my mind just seemed to insert the missing "than" automatically.
  - vsnf 2y ago
    Mine as well. After understanding the meaning thanks to the other posters, the sentence magically looked fine. But before knowing the meaning, it was gibberish. I’ve become aware of this before, and it makes me wonder just how often I’m interpreting grammatical nonsense on a daily basis without realizing it.