texts: Is there a word or phrase for voluntarily deteriorating a product to drive customers to a new one?

texts:
When a company releases a new product they may try to deteriorate their older products to attract their customers to the new shiny thing. This can include:

Releasing fewer updates for an older software or stop updating it altogether
Removing features from the old product and add them back in the new one
Making the old product slower, or breaking the workflow of existing customers

I already know of planned obsolescence but it suggests that the deterioration of the old product was thought of and conceived in the past whereas I want to imply active, present deterioration.
I am looking for a way to say "This company is now making their old product worse than before to promote their new one". Is there any word or shorter phrase for that?


texts: Etymology of the expression "to entertain an idea"

texts: The expression to entertain an idea/thought/etc. has perplexed me for a while now. Given the meaning of the verb entertain, I find it quite weird for it to be used in such a way. So, how did this come to be?


texts: How to call articles, online courses, educational videos with one phrase?

texts:
I want to write a sentence "You can put any ... on our platform". ... is a phrase that would mean articles, online courses, educational videos, etc.

1) What would be the appropriate phrase?

2.1) Is "learning materials" too narrow for the intended meaning?
2.2) Is "educational content" too formal?


texts: Is the usage of reside for non-living objects correct?

texts:
Is the following usage of reside correct?
"If we deform a sphere to points, those points must be in a region where the sphere used to reside."


texts:
From Programmer Q&A website, I came across the following line, which was a reply/answer to the question Design Patterns: Should I learn them?:

  It depends on how disciplined you are as to whether you will apply the
  patterns once learned correctly, and not go nuts like the proverbial
  man with a hammer

What does "proverbial man with a hammer" mean in this context? Is it an idiom?


texts: Common Word including animals and humans?

texts: I'm creating a youtube channel where i will upload interesting videos of animals and humans. But don't know the name. Anyone please let me know common word including animals and humans?


texts: How do you punctuate "Are you Mr. Jones?" Is that correct or should it be "Are you, Mr. Jones?"


texts:
Which of the following sentences are correct?

Although it lives in all oceans and most seas, it prefers temperate and polar regions.
Although it lives in all oceans and most seas, it prefers the temperate and polar regions.


texts: Does it sound weird to say " I hope I can be of any use (help) to you" in a cover letter?

texts: Which one is better? Are they acceptable or do they sound weird in English?


texts: Word for conclusion arrived by ruling out all possible alternatives, however absurd this may seem?

texts: Word for conclusion arrived by ruling out all possible alternatives, however absurd the final conclusion may seem? This has links to philosophy-logical fallacies-arguements etc.


texts: Can I say "It’s neither humanitarian or environmental, nor political or ideological, nor economic or management crisis." Is it ok to use "neither ..or.., nor ..or.." or perhaps it's better to say "neither ...and..., nor...and..., nor...and..."?? I just dont want to write so many "nor"-s: "It’s neither humanitarian, nor environmental, nor political, nor ideological, nor economic, nor management crisis."


texts: Pronunciation of street/road/avenue/etc. names

texts:
About three decades ago I read a book on English usage that was already quite old at the time—I think it was a 1940s book—which pointed out a pronunciational habit that I hadn't noticed before. The word "street" in any location name would have the stress on the other word—BOND Street, OXFORD Street, DEAN Street—while with any other kind of generic topographical descriptor it would be the other way round: Hyde PARK, Leicester SQUARE, Angel LANE, Dollis HILL, Edgware ROAD, Portland PLACE, Crouch END.

The book limited itself to UK referents, but it seemed to me the same was true elsewhere. In the US people would say, FOURTH Street, TENTH Street, etc, but Madison AVENUE, Times SQUARE, Central PARK, Dealey PLAZA. And I think all other English-speaking countries followed the same rule. It was even true of fictional names with a figurative purpose: GRUB Street, EASY Street, but Fat CITY, Lonesome ROAD, Tin Pan ALLEY...

But I wondered whether it was still true today, or completely true. Because I do notice one strange pronunciational development, which I think of as the "leftward-drifting stress". This is more noticeable in the US than elsewhere. I've seen pre-war American films where people can be clearly heard talking of cigarETTES and magaZINES, in contrast to modern renderings, CIGarettes and MAGazines. More recently, we've had olive OIL and soy SAUCE becoming OLIVE oil and SOY sauce. One of the clear-up crew after the Twin Towers attack spoke of "powdered CEment" (and he wasn't even from the south, where you might expect it). And only last week I heard a news report mentioning PAKistan and BANGladesh. There seems to be this trend of shifting stresses leftwards of where they are supposed to be, and I wondered if this might start infecting the pronunciation of the kind of place names I listed above. Is anyone tempted to say, "I visited TIMES Square"?


texts: Does turning a noun into an acronym always change its indefinite article (a/an)?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Do you use “a” or “an” before acronyms?

Take "StackExchange" and its acronym, SE, as an example:  I read a StackExchange thread the other day about the history of bananas!

If you were to use the "SE" acronym instead of "StackExchange," you would probably write: *I read an SE thread the other day about the history of bananas!*  The way in which this differs from my situation is that it's very reasonable to assume that when you write "SE," that you are perfectly fine with the two letters "ess" and "eee" standing in for "Stack Exchange," much like FCC, SEC, NASDAQ, NATO, etc. completely stand in and are even far more well-known than their longer, official names.

Let's say, however, that you're talking about "solar-powered asynchronous communication transmission," which you abbreviate with "SPACT" because you don't want to keep retyping "solar-powered asynchronous communication transmission," not only because you want to be lazy but also because reading those words more than one time every sentence can get in the way of comprehension.  Now, if you were to pronounce this "ess-pee...etc." then, of course, you'd say "an SPACT device," but let's say you don't want "SPACT" to be referred to, phonetically, by its letters (or even "SPACT") and are simply using it as an abbreviation?  Does it retain its indefinite article ("a") from its original version ("solar-powered asynchronous communication transmission")?


texts: How common is the French loanword "métier"?

texts:
Our daughter lives in Leeds and is a scientist too, although not in my field, her speciality is haematology. My son lives in Manchester at the moment, for the music scene, he says. He writes his own songs. I think he's quite gifted of — course, I'm his mother — but he hasn't quite found his métier yet, perhaps.
  Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty (2013)

I think it is the first time I ever come across this French loanword,  it's easy to understand—it's almost identical to the Italian mestiere—but I have never heard any English native speaker use this term aloud.  Métier is very different from any of the alternatives I came up with which could fit in that excerpt:  profession, vocation, trade, calling or forte. The last is yet again a French loanword but in my opinion it is far more common in speech and in writing than métier, although forte may be pronounced in three different ways, people understand it.

Because the protagonist of the story is a highly-educated, high-flying professional, does   métier sound appropriate, intellectual, or pretentious? Is it a term which the majority of English native speakers are familiar with? My English companion claims it to be old fashioned, is he right? Finally, is métier interchangeable with profession and/or vocation?


texts: Is there a word that means "doing the right thing for the wrong reason"?

texts: Is there a word that means doing the right thing for the wrong reason or getting the right conclusion from the wrong set of presumptions?


texts:
At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages.
–– Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

As far as I understand from CGEL (p.251, 262~3), it seems like stupid is a predicative adjunct whose predicand is them all; while in Kim seemed uneasy, uneasy is the predicative complement. And stupid modifies the predicator, bored. Is this the correct interpretation?


texts: Meaning of "intriguing" in the following sentence

texts:
Reading comprehension is one of the most important parts of any management entrance examination and a bit intriguing as well.

Does it mean:

Challenging?
Interesting?
Provocative?

All these are meanings of intriguing at The Free Dictionary and all these fit well into the sentence.


texts:
Adele recently posted sth on Instagram. Apparently, she has cancelled two concerts and she is explaining why

In that post she says : I'm sorry for the nights you WOULD HAVE HAD with your loved ones and the memories you WOULD HAVE MADE together.

Now, I know she is talking hypothetically but what confuses me is whether she is talking about a hypothetical scenario in the FUTURE or in the PAST?

We normally use would have + pp for past time but in this case , the time of the concerts cancelled seem to not have passed since she says "I'm unable to perform over the weekend".


texts: in the coming days or in the next following days

texts:
My assignments will be due on April 24. I want to write to my professor that "I will try my best to do my assignments in the next following days." Or," I will work harder on my assignments in the coming days."
Which one is better?
Thank you.


texts: What semantic notions underlie 'sand, dust, earth, gravel' with 'pluck, spirit, firmness of mind'?

texts:
grit (n.)
[3.] Old English greot "sand, dust, earth, gravel,"
[2.] from Proto-Germanic *greutan "tiny particles of crushed rock"
(source also of Old Saxon griot, Old Frisian gret, Old Norse grjot "rock, stone," German Grieß "grit, sand"),
[1¸]from PIE *ghreu- "rub, grind" (source also of Lithuanian grūdas "corn, kernel," Old Church Slavonic gruda "clod").
[4.] Sense of "pluck, spirit, firmness of mind" first recorded American English, 1808.

How can [1] and [2] metaphorize 4? How did the shaky, easily movable "particles" in [1] and [2] that can be wafted by waft, semantically generalize to  4? Don't the semantic notions of "tiny" and "crushed" in [1] and [2] contradict those of "pluck" and "firmness of mind" in 4.


texts: I do like a green tie/ a man in a tuxedo

texts: I've scoured the internet but couldn't find anything on this. Why this particular way of phrasing? Is there any difference between using the singular and using the plural, that is? For instance " I like green ties" and " I like a green tie".  IS it just a matter of emphasis, or what? Does it imply something that I miss, how does the subtext change?


texts:
In the Netflix film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, there is a tune called When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings, which contains these lines:

  When they wrap my body
  In the thin linen sheet,
  And they take my six ounce
  Pull the boots from my feet...

What does “my six ounce” mean here? I’ve searched for the phrase on the Internet and asked an American friend who is a native speaker, but with no result. Is “my six ounce” an established phrase in English?


texts: Which article do I use for a "concept" that introduces the actual thing

texts:
Which article do I use for something that has't yet been made or introduced.

For example, consider a new website being built and the designer tells me, "We need to create an/the author's page for the new site."

Both the designer and I know about the author's page (we discussed it previously), but it only exists in idea and the final version may differ a lot from how we might have envisioned it.

I appreciate your answer.


texts:
From a course website for Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus

  Recommended Reading: R-Rated

  Stochastic Differential Equations: An Introduction with Applications (6th edition) by B. Oksendal
  Brownian Motion by P. Morters and Y. Peres

  Recommended Reading: X-Rated

  Continuous Martingales and Brownian Motion by D. Revuz and M. Yor
  Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus by I. Karatzas and S. Shreve

I was wondering what R-rated and X-rated mean here? I only know a little that they are normally used for film ratings. But I suspect the reference books are rated according to their rigorousness and/or difficulty?


texts: Didn't understand joke about No Child Left Behind

texts:
I was watching this video.
At around 30:00, Chomsky exaplins that he never went to Chemistry class nor to Chemistry lab and he got a A nevertheless. Then he makes a joke: "This approach has a name. It's called No Child Left Behind" (31:12 into the video).
Can you explain the joke to me?
I know that No Child Left Behind is an act of Congress, but I still can't get the joke.


texts: "Posting in all its branches" in the nineteenth century: travel, mail, other?

texts:
"Posting in all its branches" is a phrase I've seen a number of times in 19th century British sources.

A google search (regular and books) gives context mostly in reference to traveling or communication, but I can never tell exactly what is involved (it's understood by contemporary readers, of course, so no need to explain!). 'Posting' makes me think it might be mail or a telegram, but it be by coach or train or horse, I don't know what else (why mention all the branches if there are only two? I'm expecting a number of branches, just I don't know what all the possibilities could be).

Context:

From google books - mostly located in advertisements for lodgings.
In a biography about Jane Austen:

  ...it is only at very large establishments, or those in the most out-of-the-way districts where trains come not, that "posting in all its branches" forms part of the land lords boast

What I hope to find out is:

What is being posted? Is it mail things like letters and packages, or is it travel?
What are the branches? Does it mean train, carriage, horse, foot? Or does it mean local, national, international? Or does it mean letters/small packages or traveling individuals with luggage? or what?
What would be advertised if the posting were not available in all branches? 'Limited posting' ?
If it is not so literally meant, what does the phrase mean?
What is time frame for this phrase being used? (Google ngrams, despite having ostensibly the same data source as books.google.com, gives -0- instances of the phrase, so I can't see a usage timeline).


texts: Word for "getting careless and slacking"

texts: Can you suggest some words which can describe a person who is starting to get careless and who slacks, or the very action of becoming careless? A person who was efficiently and elaborately doing their job but with time started to be careless and their performance started to deteriorate.


texts: Is 'feeble' used correctly in this sentence?

texts:
Sentence:"This belt is too feeble."

Google search shows it as an adjective, curious if it can be used in another way.

Edit: I mean to say the belt is weak.


texts: What is the word for "money I want to spend in the future"?

texts:
What would be the short English term for "money I want to spend in the future"? I ask because I've created a simple app for personal finances, where a user can add all the predicted spendings. Right now I call them "Predictions". I'm not sure if it's the right term. Someone suggested me "Expected Outgoings" or "Future Expenditures" but I would like something short and self-describing.

For example:

Fun 300
Lunch 200
Groceries 10

Each item from this list is a prediction.


texts: What is the difference between 'framework curriculum' and 'curricular framework'?

texts: I know that curricular is an adjective and curriculum a noun, but are they both used in exactly the same meaning? Or are there some differences concerning what they imply or apply to? Being a non-native English speaker I would say that they are the same or at least are used as synonyms. I would prefer to use "curriculum framework" but quite often the translation e.g. from German 'Rahmencurriculum' is made with "curricular framework".


texts: Is 'multiple-choice question' a misleading term?

texts:
In a multiple-choice question there is usually only one correct answer.

In other words, you make a single choice from a list of options.

However, 'multiple-choice' suggests that you should be choosing more than one option, so is 'multiple-choice question' a misleading term?

Would it be more appropriate to describe multiple-choice questions as multiple-option questions?


texts:
I am looking for an English proverb or idiom for the following sentence.

Talking in the day time spoils one's business ; talking in the
night time spoils one's sleep

Something like chatting/gossip is a waste of time. But, that just seems to be a phrase rather than proverb or idiom. Kindly help me with the appropriate one.


texts:
From searching online, I haven't found any dictionary entries for this phrase, however it seems it has something to do with Tryon's rat experiment, and it's often used in HR to describe a certain type of attractive hire. I'm not sure what exactly this phrase means though, or what it doesn't mean, because there could be several possibilities from what I've read about it:

Genetically adapted to something
Quick to learn
Intelligent
Good at running mazes

Does anyone have more information about this phrase, its definition and etymology?


texts: Why is 'while' sometimes a synonym of 'whereas', and sometimes of 'although'?

texts:
The north of the country is mountainous while the south is flat.

= The  north of the country is mountainous whereas (although would be incorrect) the south is flat.

  The north of the country while it is mountainous is more densely populated than the south, which is flat.

= The north of the country although (whereas would be incorrect) it is mountainous is more densely populated than the south, which is flat.

Why is it impossible to use 'although' in the first sentence, and 'whereas' in the second, where 'while' can be used in both?


texts: What's the difference between "established" and "founded"

texts:
In this sentence:
"CARE was ...... in 1945 to help people after World War II."

A. founded
B. built
C. established
D. constructed

The answer is C. But why don't we use "founded" in this case, I think they have the same meaning. Can you help me to give a reason for that?


texts: "At Amararaja Batteries Limited" vs. "in Amararaja Batteries Limited"

texts:
I have done my internship at Amararaja Batteries Limited.
  I have done my internship in Amararaja Batteries Limited.

Which of the above sentences is correct? I want to know when to use at and when to use in.


texts: "IT projects gone awry..." Qualifying a reduced relative clause rule

texts:
"IT projects gone awry because they were conceived on too massive a scale, and good money thrown after bad, are financial nuisances far from unique to the Beeb." ['Beeb' = BBC]

I've been trying to unpick this sentence and it seems to present some interesting questions regarding reduced relative clauses. I believe that I am right in thinking that it contains two reduced relative clauses, 'gone awry...' and 'thrown after...', which are reductions of 'which have gone awry' and 'which has been thrown after'.

Despite a fair amount of research, I haven't been able to find a comprehensive account of the rules governing the use of reduced relative clauses, with many books simply suggesting that one should use the present participle for active clauses, and the past participle for clauses that have a passive meaning.

Whilst 'thrown after' follows this rule, I am not sure how to classify 'gone awry'. The past participle is used and yet technically-speaking this is not a passive clause. Indeed, it is not possible to use the verb 'go' in a passive sense because it is intransitive. So my questions are: firstly, can we say that where the verb is intransitive a past participle can substitute for an (active) perfect tense? Secondly, can anyone think of other examples of this? And thirdly, where can I find a comprehensive account of the rules governing relative clause reductions as everything I have seen so far has been massively unsatisfactory?

...And if you are not fed up with my silly questions: is 'financial nuisances far from unique to the Beeb' also a reduced relative clause?

Apologies if any of these questions seem naive...


texts: Difference between "before" and "in front of"

texts:
Which one is correct?

  The patterns swam before her eyes.

OR

  The patterns swam in front of her eyes.

I know that "before" is mostly used when we talk about the time, but is it right to use "before" when we talk about space? I'm most interested in spoken usage.


texts: Word for the act of accepting something only because it is the unquestioned, traditional standard

texts:
I am looking for a word for when someone accepts something into their way of life, not because of any personal agreement with or liking of the idea, but solely because it is what is conventionally accepted and welcomed as societal normality.
For example,

Samuel never felt distinctly masculine throughout his upbringing, but since his town was very conservative to traditional gender roles, he took on a more masculine appearance throughout his life, and without thought to question, he ____. / , he showed ____.


texts: Can "this" and "that" be used interchangeably in some contexts?

texts:
As I understand, in English, when we are talking about something so close that we can (literally or figuratively) point our finger to, we can use "this".

This cake is great. (implies the participants are near the cake)

If we are talking about something that is not very close, or the place/time is not very specific, we can use "that".

That cake is great. (implies the cake is far away)

In my native language (Portuguese), a translation would be "isto" ("this") and "aquilo" ("that").
The problem is that there are many instances of English sentences using "that" that I would use "isto" in my native language instead. For example:

A: Let's eat some cake.
B: That would be great.

I understand that translations may not perfectly capture the nuances of different languages. My question is if using "this" would be OK in that instance. More generally, is English more lax regarding the use "this" and "that" ("isto" and "aquilo" are very strict in Portuguese).
P.S: my question is essentially the same one as this one, but the accepted answer does not really answers the issue of using both words interchangeably (I'm looking for a yes/no answer).


texts: Is there a word that means both "listen" and "read"?

texts:
I am looking for a word that encapsulates both listen and read.

  I enjoy _______ poetry, rap, etc.

Since poetry and rap can both be read and listened to, I wasn't sure what word to use.


texts: Is there an "opposite" to the idiom "throwing the baby out with the bathwater"?

texts:
"Throwing the baby out with the bathwater" means that something essential is lost in the process of getting rid of something unwanted (and relatively minor).

I'm looking for a phrase that means that one brings something greatly negative upon oneself in the process of obtaining something that is wanted (and relatively minor). Is there one?

EDIT: Slight elaboration: The phrase should mean that the process of obtaining A (the relatively minor positive thing) unavoidably brings with it B (the big negative thing). It is entirely possible that A might be obtained in another way, by the way.

As I write that, I think I know the phrase, but I'm not sure it exists in English (I'm Swedish). It is something to do with fixing minor problems with hand grenades, e.g. "Like fighting house rats with hand grenades". I don't know if there is an original, standard version however. Has anyone got an idea?


texts: PETA wants workers to “bring home the bagels”

texts:
On December 4, the animal rights organization, PETA, asked anglophone speakers (in the US) to quit using anti-animal idioms cold turkey. In a Tweet they proselytized:

Words matter, and as our understanding of social justice evolves, our language evolves along with it. Here’s how to remove speciesism from your daily conversations.

and in a follow-up Tweet, they argued:

Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start ‘bringing home the bagels’ instead of the bacon.

It's tempting to think that this might be some sort of hoax but PETA is deadly serious. In fact, every Tweet posted by the organization has the tagline “Bringing home the bagels since 1980”.

Unfortunately for PETA, the new crusade was not received well by Twitter users, and many Tweets have since been issued mocking the animal protection society. The animal-friendly idioms that attracted most scorn seem to be: “feed two birds with one scone” and “bring home the bagels”. As a matter of fact, my spellchecker is underlying scone at this moment and telling me to spell it stone, but that would mean feeding two avians with a stone, which frankly sounds more horrific.
In any case, hold your horses before dismissing PETA's campaign to reform anti-animal idioms. There are examples of expressions and idioms that have fallen by the wayside, especially in the US, for fear of being misconstrued. For example, call a spade a spade, which Wikipedia says “The phrase predates the use of the word "spade" as an ethnic slur against African Americans, which was not recorded until 1928; however, in contemporary U.S. society, the idiom is often avoided due to potential confusion with the slur”. Another expression, used exclusively in the US–to the best of my knowledge–that is  now heard less and less is cotton-picking  as in “Just a cotton-pickin' minute” and “keep your cotton-picking hands off of me” with its clear historical references to black slaves and cotton plantations in the Southern United States.

My Questions

Why are the idioms listed speciesist?

How likely will we be seeing or hearing anti-animal idioms replaced with the ones suggested by PETA in the future? Why/why not?

In the history of English have there been any similar campaigns to remove or replace sexist, racist or ableist proverbs/maxims or idioms, and how successful were they?


texts: Neither (conjuntion): before the first of two or more coordinates or clauses linked by 'nor'

texts:
When either is used as a conjunction, no paraphrase with any is
available, and so either is unexceptionable even when it applies
to more than two clauses: Either the union will make a
counteroffer or the original bid will be refused by the board
or the deal will go ahead as scheduled
https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=either

However ahdict defines the conjunction neither as

"not either; not in either case. Used with the correlative conjunction
nor"

Can't the conjunction neither be used before the first of more than two coordinates or clauses linked by nor?


texts: How to say "generating errors" in one word?

texts:
Erroneous means containing errors. I wanted to say about files that generate errors in a computer program, so I posted on a public mailing list: errogenous files. Could it be better? By better I don't mean more amusing.

Maybe the construct I used is correct, but unfortunate. Is it? Actually you won't find any "errogenous files" on the net except those of mine :)

  The program scans files, and the files in question contain characters
  which trigger error messages in the scanning program.


texts:
just encountered a sentence that begins with the word 'that'. I haven't seen this approach before. May I ask how we can decipher its structure? What special emphasis / feeling does this struture convey? Below please see that sentence. Thanks!

//That the girl consented and/or that the defendant believed the girl was over 13 years’ of age are not defences to this charge.//

Source: https://youth.clic.org.hk/en/topics/Sexual-offences/


texts:
Wiktionary defines delegetable as capable of being delegated, which seems correct to the French speaking that I am. However, the same Wiktionary also defines delegable as that can be delegated.

Does delegable exist? Is it a synonym for delegatable? If not, what does it mean?


texts: Where's the irony? Truth and falsity are reversed?

texts:
Hamilton quickly focused on the last part of his opponent’s argument as support for his attempt to
  introduce evidence of the truthfulness of his client’s publications. Hamilton offered the following
  brilliantly ironic response:

    Well, suppose it were so, and let us agree for once that truth is a greater sin than falsehood:
    Yet as the offenses are not equal, and as the punishment is arbitrary, that is, according as the
    judges in their discretion shall direct to be inflicted; is it not absolutely necessary that they
    should know whether the libel is true or false, that they may by that means be able to proportion
    the punishment? For would it not be a sad case if the judges, for want of a due information,
    should chance to give as severe a judgment against a man for writing or publishing a lie as for
    writing or publishing a truth? And yet this (with submission), as monstrous and ridiculous as it
    may seem to be, is the natural consequence of Mr. Attorney’s doctrine that truth makes a worse
    libel than falsehood, and must follow from his not proving our papers to be false, or not
    suffering us to prove them to be true.

I'm trying to apprehend why this rseponse is 'ironic' and confirm my reading comprehension.

I'd summarise this to have reversed the importance of truth and falsity, so is this swap the irony? Here, Alexander Hamilton first hypothesises (for the sake of this argument) that truth is worse than falsehood, then argues that it would be a 'sad case' if judges by chance punish a liar more severely than a truthteller? Finally, Hamilton submits that this is a monstrous counterargument, because he's trying to confute "Mr. Attorney's doctrine." Did I read this 100% rightly?

Source: P38, America on Trial by Alan Dershowitz


texts: What word means "to speak something into existence"?

texts: If someone says "the Yankees are going to lose", and everyone starts believing it, including the players, and it actually happens — what is the word for that?


texts:
Should I captialize the word after a colon if its a dependent clause? For example

You are banned: violating our Terms and Services.

OR

You are banned: Violating our Terms and Services.

Which one is correct?


texts: Opposite of "to put a good word in for"? "Backstab" doesn't work

texts:
I know that when I have an associate who I think highly of and is very capable of performing the job (or person for a relationship) [s]he is pursuing, I will want to find the "recruiters" and put a good word in for my friend/associate.

What if I want to make it tough for someone to get a position? I would want to go to those "recruiters" and convince them that my associate sucks and is not cut out for it. I would be dissuading those recruiters. But what word would fit "I would be _ my associate"? Backstabbing doesn't really cut it for me.

The same word would work in this sentence: "I feel my current bosses don't like me, and I'm afraid that they'll __ me to any prospective employer." or this one: "People think that I'm a slob that they would probably __ me to that hot girl I want to pursue."

I'm tempted to make up a word - decommend - the opposite of recommend where the direct object is that poor person you would be putting a bad word in for.


texts:
Is it ok to say is not advised meaning it is not recommended to?

Something like:

  It is not advised to lay cables in channels

I know that be advised means be prepared/informed, but I'm not sure it can mean "not recommended".


texts:
Where does this expression come from?

I understand when it's used, but I was wondering about its origin.


texts: What punctuation do I use here? (A comma gives a grammar error in MS Word)

texts:
So I'm writing a narrative for LA class, and there's a spot in my introduction that, in my opinion, should have a comma, but returns a grammar error by MS Word whenever I try it - hence why I am a little confused as to what to put there. When I put a semicolon, it does not return an error, but the semicolon does not separate two distinct clauses, so it's incorrect as far as I can tell. Here's the relevant part of my introduction (italicised):

In an alternate life, Mark would’ve lived a life considered by many to be somewhat normal. He could’ve been president of his country, the United States of America. He could’ve been a millionaire, a businessman, a scholar, a politician, a doctor, a scientist, anything… but here he was<,> an American infantry soldier of 1916, stuck in a dirty, bloody hole.

Note: the incorrect punctuation is the <,> (the symbols are only there to show where the comma is), and the two parts of the sentence that need separation are emboldened.

Thank you for your help.


texts: "do [something] now". How to interpret this?

texts:
I am not a native English speaker, and for some reason, when my superior at work tells me to "stop what you are doing, and do this now" through internal channels online, I feel it has a negative tone to it, as it's commanding.
I specifically don't feel comfortable with the word "now". There is no life-death situation to use it. I feel like she is giving me orders like a child. Like "do this, NOW". I think saying "stop what you are doing, and do this instead" has a more positive tone to it. But since I am not a native English speaker, there is a chance I am not interpreting the former sentence the right way.
Is it normal to say something like that ("stop what you are doing, and do this now") to someone with the intention of being polite and by using the right words, or it can be intentional to convey that she has power over me as my superior and I am her subordinate, and I have to obey?


texts: I've heard something like "young pop" as a synonym for "young man/people". Is it right? How do you spell "pop" in that context?


texts:
Zwicky and Pullum (1983: 507) state that "n't cannot be attached to words containing simple clitics ['s/'ve], although the simple clitic 've can do so." As such, they don't think (1) is acceptable:

(1) *I'dn't be doing this unless I had to.

but

(2) I'd've smoked more dope when I was young [my example]

However, to my native ears (1) doesn't sound so unacceptable. How would one go about determining its acceptability objectively? Corpora, perhaps?


texts: Have started to do something OR be starting to do something?

texts:
I have come across such sentences many times but it is difficult to understand the difference between these two types.
Examples:
"It has started to rain." OR "It is starting to rain."
"I have started to hate iPhones." OR "I'm starting to hate iPhones."
Is there any difference?


texts: Term for convincing yourself words are spelled incorrectly?

texts:
Sometimes I'll look at a word for too long and I become convinced that it's spelled or pronounced incorrectly.  This happens most frequently with "spider" (I think that should be pronounced "spih-dur" [like "spitter"], not "speye-dur") and happened just now with "finger" ("fin-gur", not "feen-gur").

There's a similar variant to this (discussed here), but that's related to a word losing it's meaning.  To me, the word just looks incorrectly spelled, or I convince myself that everyone's pronouncing it incorrectly.  Is there a difference between what I'm describing and Semantic Satiation?  If there is a difference, does this one have a name?


texts: Should even a large number be spelled out when used as a pronoun?

texts:
I have learned somewhere (or maybe decided ) that any number used as a pronoun -- that is, X standing alone to represent the already stated group of X nouns -- should be spelled out, no matter how big the number. Do you know of such a rule? I see no mention of it in the Chicago Manual, which is our house manual.

The sentence I have before me is something like: "From age 54 until his death, he wrote some 271 theological works in addition to the 142 in science." I'm thinking that "142" should rightly be spelled out to give it the physical weight of its thing-ness. Yes?

Note: In this case I will simply rephrase it as "his 142 works in science" rather than spell out so big a number, but still I'd like to know whether this number-as-pronoun rule even exists. Thanks.


texts:
I am composing a problem for my students. It goes something like this:

  You are writing a software for an observatory. You have a database of near-Earth objects that contains the following information about each object

  name
  category (asteroid, planet, comet, etc)
  ...
  the probability of impact with Earth
  devastativeness (?) in case of impact

  ...

I don't seem to be able to find "devastativeness" in dictionaries. Its meaning is obvious, but I would like to use an actual word here. Any ideas?

To be explicit, I am looking for a word meaning the extent of being devastative /catastrophic.

P.S. In Russian I would use the word катастрофичность, which means "catastrophicality", exactly what I need, but google translated it as catastrophic, which can't be right.


texts: Equivalent of Spaniard for other nationalities

texts:
In English, the term for a person of Spanish descent is (at least traditionally) a Spaniard.

Its etymology is, as far as I can tell, pretty unique among modern words:

  c. 1400, from Old French Espaignart, from Espaigne "Spain," from Latin "Hispania", from Greek Hispania "Spain"
  (Etymonline)

Now-a-days, for different nationalities we use all sorts of suffices:

-ish (Danish†, Spanish)
-i (Iraqi, Israeli)
-an (American, Australian)
-ese (Japanese, Chinese)

Using these we can either form an adjective and bung person after it or, as with those in bold, use the adjective as a noun, e.g. an Israeli

†It is interesting to note that the terms 'Dane', 'Swede' and 'Fin(n?)' are all in use and one presumes that there is an Anglo-Saxon link here

My questions are as follows:

Why can we use the adjective as a noun with some countries and not
others?
Why do some countries have a traditional noun form and others don't?
(Excluding epithets and slurs)


texts: There was this moment in some guy's video where a warrior swings a sword at some other guy. Then the other guy says "oi lad!" parrying the sword. What does that mean? why would he say that.


texts:
In the sentence "Brianna was voted the co-captain" is "was voted" a linking or action verb phrase?
I believe it is action and "co-captain" is the direct object (co-captain as a title/position), but it is difficult to explain to students as they view it as Brianna = co-captain.


texts: What is the difference in meaning between "proposal" and "proposition"?

texts: These two words have similar meanings, however in certain contexts only one of the two can be used or is used most frequently (fits better idiomatically). Can you give examples of such contexts and if possible explain the difference?


texts: Is "The requirement is that it only report once" valid?

texts:
As opposed to "The requirement is that it only reports once"?

What are the grammar terms you would use to describe the reason it's one or the other?

edit: Another option: "The requirement is that it will only report once"


texts: What's a politically neutral word for having only one permitted set of beliefs?

texts:
I'm looking for a word where people are critical of an opposing idea, usually without examining it, simply because it's different from what people already believe.
I thought that fascist (of or relating to fascism) was the word I was looking for, but Wiktionary defines fascism as:

Noun
fascism (usually uncountable, plural fascisms)

Any right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist ideology characterized by centralized, totalitarian governance, strong regimentation of the economy and of society, and repression of criticism or opposition.

The only part of the meaning I want is "repression of criticism or opposition", without the political implications of the remainder of the meaning.

To refuse to admit the possibility that contrary ideas could be valid is ___.
The oppression of people who believe differently is ___.

It doesn't necessarily have to be an adjective; a noun would probably be workable too.


texts: Which one is better, "natural things" or "natural objects"?

texts:
Natural things  ought to be respected as “natural” beings , which
  means that we should try our best to avoid interfering with their
  natural existence and when it is necessary, to restore them into their
  natural state.（self-made）

Obviously, here I use "nutural things" to mean things like trees,flowers, animals,fish. But "thing" has such a broad  range of meaning, that "natural things" may cover human body and human imagination, human emotion. So does anyone have any better alternative? Maybe "natural object" suits to my purpose? But it seems too technical a term?


texts: What term means "words that look alike and mean alike, across two languages"?

texts:
Is there a term, perhaps used by linguists, that refers to two words that have a similar form, either written or spoken, and almost identical meaning or at least relatively similar, but appearing in two languages?

I found some terms similar to this meaning, such as "cognate", which requires that the words have a shared origin, and "false cognate", which requires that the words have no shared origin. Is there a single term that includes both cognates and false cognates, as I have no concern for whether the words share an origin or not?


texts: What do you call the date you stop doing something?

texts: What do you call the day or date you stop doing something? Something like graduation, what is the formal description of that date?


texts: The difference between "really that upset" and "really upset"

texts:
Could someone explain to me, what is the difference between "really that upset" and "really upset"?

I came across the sentence

  Sheila’s not really that upset, she’s just putting it on.

Why did the writer use "really that upset" instead of "really upset"?


texts:
Is "This is me being an idiot" correct?
"This is I being an idiot" sounds weird to me, but what about the subject complement?


texts: meaning of "to immigration" in this sentence?

texts:
Does it mean "climate change for immigration" or "climate change" and "immigration" are 2 different issues?

In areas that range from occupational safety to climate change to immigration, legislators might benefit if they can delegate authority to others – and blame them.


texts: In "And, today, we're..." why would "today" be offset by commas?

texts:
I am in the middle of a debate and am hoping some of you can help me understand. Why would the word “today” in the sentence below be offset with commas? Some say the word is nonessential; therefore, it requires a comma before and one after. Some say it’s an introductory word; therefore, it only needs one comma after “today.”  What say you?

  And, today, we're going to be talking about repairing some...


texts: Adjective after Verb in "He looks tired"

texts:
How do we call the verb "looks"? Is it stative verb?
How do we call the adjective "tired"? Any linguistic term to call it? Is it attributive adjective?


texts: What's the difference between the AA (ɑ) and AO (ɔ) sound?

texts:
I'm working with the CMU pronunciation dictionary and I can't comfortably say I can understand what difference in sound they're trying to indicate by splitting AA and AO into different phonemes.

Wikipedia gives "balm" and "bot" as examples of the AA sound and "bought" as an example of the "AO" sound, but I don't detect a difference in vowel sound when I say the three words.

I also went through the CMU dictionary to look for examples of AA and AO words and still can't figure it out.


texts: what is the simple subject in "Here, then, is the crux of the matter"

texts:
What is the simple subject in the below sentence ?

Question:

  Here, then, is the crux of the matter.


texts: A person who cannot understand that there may be other perspectives

texts:
I'm searching for a word to describe a person who cannot understand that there may be different perspectives. I initially thought of single-minded, but that pertains to determination.

One example of several perspectives could be the difference between a process and an action. Please assume that a process is composed of several actions. A process may be composed of other processes, but these processes would be actions in this greater process.

If you accept my definitions, then depending on the holistic or granularity level, we may consider something a process or an action, depending on whether we are considering its parts or how it's part of a greater thing.

A person may have trouble understanding that it's not true or false that something is a process or an action, it depends on how it relates with everything else from the perspective that we take. From one perspective it's a process, from another it's an action. For some people, things seem to be in one and only one absolute way, which is wrong, IMHO.

Is there a word to describe this kind of problem that some people seem to have?

PD: It's like definition 1b for monism in dictionary.com. But I don't think most people know the word monist.

Here are some other, superficially similar terms that actually mean something quite different. A racist is (approximately) someone who considers other races inferior. A narrow-minded person considers other perspectives wrong or irrelevant, or may not consider them, but is aware that they exist. A monist would not even understand that there is more than one race or multiple perspectives; there is simply one reality, and that's it.


texts: Help in demystifying the meaning of 2 sentences from an academic journal article!

texts:
1.) This is basically an english translation of a section of a Hittite Law code:

"If someone wounds a man and makes him ill, he shall nurse him. He shall give a man in his place who will work in his house until he is well. When he is well, he shall give him six shekels of silver and he shall pay the doctor's fee"

The bold-italic part is that which I'm having trouble understanding; what does it mean exactly? That the perpetrator should supply some kind of servant/worker for the victim's family until the victim is well?

Apologies if it's a daft question, it's just a case of too many "him" and "he"s!

CE, CH and Exodus are  ancient legal codes

2.) "The responsibility of the owner of an ox that has caused a person's death by goring is discussed [...] CE and CH set fixed ransoms at the very low rate usually associated with vicarious revenge (CH 251: '..if it gores the son of a man and causes his death, he shall pay half a mina of silver'), whereas Exodus insists that the culprit be killed, or 'if ransom be imposed upon him he shall pay all that is imposed upon him to redeem his life' i.e. ransom is limited only by the plaintiff's discretion, as in aggravated homicide. Furthermore, vicarious revenge is excluded even when the victim is a subordinate member of the family: 'if it gores a son or a daughter, the same rule shall be applied to him.' "

Sorry, English is neither my first nor second language; could anyone possibly break down the meaning of the bold-italic part?


texts: Past 10 Week Performance or Past 10 Weeks Performance

texts: Simple question: I have this title "Past 10 Week Performance", and someone is telling me that it's supposed to be "Past 10 Weeks Performance". Which one is correct? My gut tells me it's the 1st one.


texts: Is it correct to use "yonder" as equivalent to "those"/"these"

texts:
I want to write: "The methods can be divided according to the theories underlying the process and also differ on the statistical methods to evaluate those theories." Would it be correct to use yonder instead of those in this sentence to refer to a word used in the first part of the sentence --> theories? On the other hand I am not even sure if those is correct or if any I had to use these. I am always confused about the their difference.

Thanks for any suggestions!


texts: Word for rhetorical style where different arguments get progressively weaker

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe the rhetorical style where one uses different arguments that are not additional, but rather get weaker and weaker. I'm not explaining it very well, so let me give an example.

If Alice argues that X is true because of Y, Bob might say:

X is not true.
Even if X were true, it's irrelevant
Even if X were true and relevant, it doesn't speak in favour of Y.

I'm quite sure I've seen a word to describe such a kind of reasoning, but it was a long time ago and I don't have a clue what it was (I'm not even 100% sure the word was in English). Is there a word to describe this?


texts: Is “Paul’s and my ideas” *really* the correct possessive?

texts:
Do you always have to put other people before yourself?

When you are telling a story about yourself and another person, it is correct to reference the other person first.  For example,

  Tim and I went shopping.

Given that rule, then is this also the case in the following type of sentence, where you’re forming a possessive of two people, one of whom is you yourself:

  Please see attached Paul's and my ideas on this subject.

This doesn't look at all right to me, but aside from rearranging the whole sentence I can't see how to make it right. Can I write:

  Please see attached myself/my/mine and Paul's ideas on this subject.

or does that go against the whole rule about putting the other person first?

I know I can make the sentence work by changing it around but I would like to know if there is a rule for this type of sentence.


texts: Is there a word for a question asked despite knowing the answer, but meant to elicit a response for the sake of the audience?

texts:
In journalistic writing I often see writers, correspondents, and interviewers use questions in non-literal ways.  Of course there are rhetorical questions designed to make a point and not meant to literally elicit an answer.

Instead of that, I have in mind when an interviewer asks a correspondent, "why did she not go to the police?" when the interviewer already knows the story and knows the answer to the question, but wants the correspondent to articulate the answer for the audience's benefit.

Is there a commonly used term for this sort of a question?  A "leading" question generally implies an attempt to manipulate the respondent into giving certain responses, which is not exactly the same as what I'm describing.


texts:
I meet this sentence:

  In the early days, very few people interacted directly with database systems, although without realizing it they interacted with databases indirectly — through printed reports such as credit card statements, or through agents such as bank tellers and airline reservation agents.

Does they here stand for very few people who interacted directly with database systems?

If it is, then the first part of this sentence means they interacted directly, but the second part means they interacted indirectly.

I am a little confused.


texts: Can you use a semicolon after an interjection/exclamation?

texts:
The usual form for using interjections involves following them with a comma, period, or exclamation point. For example...

"Well, I honestly have no idea."
"Dude! Where's my car!"
"Wow. I have nothing to say to that."
You get the idea. So! Can one use a semicolon after an interjection?  I had never seen it done, prior to  today, and I was curious.


texts: What is a word to describe holding two opposites at the same time as truth. To believe  and hold opposing truths or doctrines both as true at the same time, though they are completely in opposition.  Example.  "I believe that  women are  equal to men even though they are inferior to men."


texts: When I ask one company if they have some products which have been produced, should i ask " How many AA kits in stock?" or "How many AA kits on hand?"


texts: Word for destructive light from a nuclear explosion?

texts: Nuclear bombs are harmful in proportion to their distance from you when they explode. I believe that, at short distances, the radiation (visible or not) from the bomb is so powerful and destructive that it burns things up right away before they're even hit by the shockwave. Is there a word for this destructive light?


texts: past continuous, past perfect continuous

texts:
If I say "someone has been reading a book for a while" it implies that he is still reading the book. Now if I say that person has read the book it means that he has already finished reading it.

But if I wanted to join two clauses in one sentence, what would be the correct way to say that he was doing it for for example two hours and that he has just finished reading it? My guess is one of these:

My friend was reading a book for two hours; he has finally finished it.
My friend had been reading a book for two hours; he has finally finished it.

Is either of these correct? Or what is the correct way to say it?


texts:
I'm making a simply typography design which would either say LOVE NOKIA or NOKIA LOVE.
I want to use one of them to convey : I love Nokia / We love Nokia / We all love Nokia.
But for some reasons I can't use I/We/We all.
So any of LOVE NOKIA / NOKIA LOVE can convey same meaning? Or these seem grammatically incorrect?
PS: Nokia is a tech/communication company/brand.


texts: Is it "get" or "gets" in "Nobody move and nobody get(s) hurt"?

texts:
Which of these is correct?

1.) "Nobody move and nobody gets hurt."

or should it be,

2.) "Nobody move and nobody get hurt."

Here's some related info in wikipedia.


texts: What does "has been described in other work" mean in this sentence?

texts:
I'm currently reading a book about chemistry. Here is a sentence that I faced and didn't understand:

  This procedure has been described in other work from our laboratory

I don't get what it means by "describe in other work"! The only thing came to my mind was that it was probably "in other words" and it's a misprint or something.
Sorry for my bad English


texts: Using multiple "and" and "comma" in one sentence

texts:
I'm trying to write an "About Us" page of a blog, where I'm facing issue of using multiple ands and commas. I don't know if it's correct grammar or not. Can I use the following sentence? Is it correct?

  We analyze, review, compare and discuss the latest trends, releases and popular topics.

Use of multiple ands  here seems a bit odd to me.


texts:
Are they synonymous, or not?

Looking at wake up as a phrasal verb it seems that the more correct way is

  "I will wake up Joe"

rather than

  "I will wake Joe up",

but the second rolls better off my tongue…

I had a look around but could not find a rule.

Interestingly enough, Kosmonaut points out it is suddenly very obvious when using a pronoun instead of a name:

  "Wake up him" vs. "Wake him up".

Update: I assume I am really looking at two situations: Using the known phrasal verb vs NOT using the phrasal verb.


texts: Which is correct word "Log in" or "Login"

texts:
Which word is correct Log in or Login?

For an employee's daily log, to fill it's in and out timing.
What word is preferable in that context?


texts:
I read a book about articles and can't distinguish the difference between two rules.

A can be used to mean "any":
A cat (any) is domestic animal.

The can be used when we talk about the entire category of people or objects through the name of one of them:
The taxi is a car with a taxi meter.

The following is an example in which the author had in mind the meaning of any, although I think it would be possible to use the (according to the rule above):
A camel can carry heavy weights.

How to distinguish these 2 rules?
Then we can say the following using the same logic:
A taxi (any taxi) is a car with a taxi meter.


texts: What is the English word for a person who spends too much time thinking about philosophy and stuff and never actually gets anything done

texts:
I came across a word-of-the-day in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in late 2019. It described a person who gives a lot of his time to philosophising and stays away from the actual world and his responsibilities.
Does anyone know what this refers to?


texts:
...absolutely 100% our doing, not the Restaurant's.

or

  ...absolutely 100% our doing, not the Restaurants.

The first one feels right, but looks a little odd.

I think it's the first, because you would say

  ...the Restaurant's doing.

even thought it might not look right.  And, I think you have to show possession, right?

Can someone clarify, and hopefully point me to a resource?


texts: What's the difference between 'ignorant' and 'silly'?

texts: while an ignorant person will flounder and encounter difficulty


texts:
I have recently seen "sister site" being used and I am wondering if there is a gender-neutral equivalent for it.
In my native language (Romanian) expressions like "brother X" or "sister Y" feel natural because the language is gendered and there is a gender match (although the "sister" tends to be used more often despite the noun gender).
I am thinking of sibling as a replacement, but I am not sure about it.
Question:  Is there a gender-neutral version for expressions like "sister site"?


texts: “Sir,' I said to the universe, 'I exist.' 'That,' said the universe, 'creates no sense of obligation in me whatsoever.”

texts:
'Sir,' I said to the universe, 'I exist.'

  'That,' said the universe, 'creates no sense of obligation in me whatsoever.'

Does the statement mean the universe does not care about you existing or not? Is there deeper meaning to that quote?


texts: Word for indecipherable, confused, non understandable, convoluted beyond hope of untanglement

texts: There’s this word that I heard in the context of blood feuds and long standing ethnic conflicts, like Israel vs Palestine or the conflict in the Balkans. The word implies that a conflict or situation is so convoluted, so complex, so layered, indecipherable, as to be pointless to even attempt to untangle the web of conflict. That any attempt to explain one part of the issue is doomed to miss so much context and counter point as to render the attempt entirely pointless. I feel like it’s a three or four syllables and is an English word.


texts: Meaning of "For, as to their own happiness, it is but trash"

texts:
What is the meaning of the sentence in bold?

  I don't think happiness is important. For, as to their own
  happiness, it is but trash. To what end is happiness?, I say. Henry
  Jacobson (Happiness)


texts: Phrase for hosting or supporting children activities

texts: Is there a phrase or word that would fit the activity (verb or noun) of hosting or supporting an activity for your children etc. Such as coaching the soccerteam, or perhaps just taking them to a party/sport/activity and staying there with them.


texts:
which of these phrases is correct?

  his practice ends before the dawn/sunset of a day in June

or

  his practice ends before dawn/sunset on a day in June


texts: Spelling out numbers in written dialogue

texts:
I cannot locate accurate answers anywhere regarding these. My explanations are below each example. I believe that all examples may be correct but am unsure. I'm just looking for some confirmation. In which, if any, would you change the punctuation?

(1) Mike said, "The team needed ten point five million.” [No hyphens because 'ten point five million' isn't modifying anything. Good as is?]

(2) Mike said, "The team needed ten-point-five-million dollars." [Hyphenate because 'ten-point-five' is modifying dollars, correct?]

(3) Mike said, "The figures represented a ten-point-five-million-dollar-a-year increase in revenues." [Hyphenated because 'ten-point-five-million-dollar-a-year' is modifying 'increase'. Good?]

(4) "Mike said, "The figures represented a ten-point-five-percent increase." [Hyphenated because 'ten-point-five-percent' is modifying 'increase', correct?]

(5) Mike said, "The figures represented a ten-point-five-percent-a-year increase." [Hyphenated because 'ten-point-five-percent-a-year' is modifying 'increase', yes?]

(6) Joe said, "She displayed one-hundred-and-ten-percent commitment." [Hyphenated because 'one-hundred-and-ten-percent' modifies 'commitment'.]

(7) Dave said, "I'll give it one hundred and ten percent." [No hyphens because 'one hundred and ten percent' isn't modifying anything.]

(8) Louise said, "The interest rate is at twelve point seven." [No hyphens because 'twelve point seven' isn't modifying anything, correct?]

(9) Louise said, "The interest rate is at twelve-point-seven percent." [Hyphenated because 'twelve point seven' is modifying 'percent', right?]

(10) Louise said, "I need one-hundred-percent commitment from you." [Hyphenated because
'one-hundred-percent' modifies 'commitment', correct?]


texts: Is there a word for discontent with the present in favor of the past?

texts:
What would you call the belief that the present is a bad time and the past is the example of how it should be? Not that the past was a perfect or even necessarily good age, but that the present is much worse.

Suppose that you were given the chance to go back to any given era. Some people would choose to do so because that era is the lesser of two evils. These people might be described as ____s, ____ist or ____ish, and their social trend might be described as ____ism.

Amish people might be a good example, but too specific to be a satisfactory answer. ____s might not all have rules they're socially expected to follow or live in communities of the like-minded. They might not even agree on which point in time in the past was better. In fact, there is no official ____ism movement. This word simply describes people who constantly grumble about this particular topic.

I found a related question, but it asks for an individual, and the most upvoted answer, "nostalgic," doesn't quite fit the bill. I think of nostalgia as fond remembrance rather than discontent with the present. However, if there is some way to qualify the word nostalgia so that it could be understood to mean a cynical view of the present as compared to the past, that might be acceptable.


texts: Did I hear rightly – “Shiite Houthis are stated in to return the President to office.”

texts:
The answer would be very likely "No."

I’ve been listening to AP Radio news, and heard the news of May 15 reporting the outcome of cease-fire negotiation between Saudi-led forces and Shiite Houthis as follows:.

  “The problem is the talks are not happening in Yemen. They are in
  Saudi Arabia, which just happen to be leading a coalition launching
  air-strikes on the rebels, who’ve taken over Yemen’s capital and sent
  the President packing. So the Shiite Houthis rebels aren’t interested
  in the U.N.-led talks, nor they are stated (in / realm?) to return the
  President to office.”

I’m not clear with the last line, “nor they are (stated in / realm) to return the President to office.” It doesn’t seem to make sense to me. I suspect I heard it wrongly.

Though I regret absence of my knowledge to include actual voice of the news in this question, could you suggest any words that sound similar to “stated in /realm” and would fit here?


texts: What word means what I think "implorements" means?

texts: I'm looking for a title for a section of things I implore people to do. After choosing it, I found that Implorements is not a word. Is there a word that fits the definition "A list of acts I implore others to do"?


texts:
In my writing I often use a comma and the past progressive tense (I think) to make sentences more concise.

For example:

  The new design was more intuitive and user-friendly, reducing user errors.

Is this grammatically correct? Are there better alternatives?


texts:
This is spoken by a man describing a certain brand of a car.
He said, "Pretty straightforward apple pie car, all guts."
What does "all guts" mean in this sentence?
And the following sentence starts with "Guts that, in part, come from a multi-generational work-force."
Is the second "guts" different from the first one?
Please help me.


texts:
Hi, there!

When we describe the fuel consumption, how should we pronounce the '/100km'?

e.g: This car has a fuel consumption of 100 gal/100km.

Is it pronounced as 'per one hundred kilometers' or 'per hundred kilometers'? Or do we say 'every hundred kilometers'?
Or any other solutions?

I appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you a lot!

I've read all the comments, and thank you for your detailed answers.

I searched for some materials and found that there are varies ways to express fuel consumption:

Miles Driven divided by Amount of Gas Used:

Units:

Miles per gallon (mpg, mi/gal, MPG, used in the U.S.A and the U.K.)
Kilometer per liter (km/L)

Amount of Gas Used divided by Miles Driven:

Units:

Liters per 100 kilometers (L/100km)
Liters per mile (L/mi, used in Norway and Sweden)

Thank you all again for all the comments!


texts: Is it appropriate to use "so much so" at the beginning of a sentence?

texts:
She is terrified of flying…so much so that often she has to fight an inner turmoil even to step on the plane.

So much so that Lenin commissioned a leading party organizer and Georgian, Josef Stalin, to write a counter-attack (Both are from BNC).

I favored "so much so"  in the first sentence more than that in the second. I think it is not good to start a sentence with "so much so".


texts: Good term for a business partner and competitor?

texts: In our line of work we often work with other companies as partners on some jobs, and then compete against them on other jobs.  So they are partners and competitors.  Is there a good term for this, along the lines of "frenemies"?


texts: "Would you like me to show?", or "would you like to have me show?"

texts:
I have two sentences similar in nature and form.

'Would you like to have me show you how it's done?'

And

'Would you like me to show you how it's done?'

The first seems a little less used and... odd, but to my understanding is correct.

If someone could explain these sentences to me - as to how they work and why - that would be very much appreciated!

Thank you.


texts: Diagramming and use of please as interjection

texts: When diagramming the sentence, "Simon, would you please sing now?", should I diagram Simon or you as the subject? Would you be diagrammed as pronoun and please as an interjection? I am trying to help my son diagram real-life sentences and am getting stuck myself.


texts:
I was once told not to end "firstly [point 1], secondly [point2], thirdly [point 3]" in -ly and to leave them as first, second, third etc. Is this always true or only in certain situations? Is it ever correct to use the word "firstly"?

I came accross this article where the author writes

  Firstly: hogwash. (True, the oboe doesn’t have a built-in tuning
  slide. But an oboist can “tune” by switching reeds, and can humor
  individual notes sharper or flatter on the fly, just like any wind
  player.) Secondly: if we tune to the principal oboe because it can’t
  be tuned, then what is the second oboist expected to do?

Is it correct to separate the ordinal numbers into different sentences like this? Is there a specific name for the speech pattern where people are making multiple arguments to prove a point?


texts:
Most scientists believe that when we sleep, we allow time for essential maintenance work to be done. Any ________ there is can be
  put right more quickly if energy isn't being used up on other
  things.

In this FCE multiple-choice cloze I need to pick between harm and damage.

From the research you can find in the hyperlinked sources, both words can be used metaphorically. However, why does only the latter work? (At least that's what it says in the key)


texts:
How can I see "complex input" in english. For example when talking about a calculator:
This one is simple: 1+2
This one is Complex: (4+4+1*5)^2+12/2
I am looking for a word to replace complex, something that matches more and is natural.


texts: Pronunciation of "t" after "c" and before "l" ("act like")

texts:
"Do you know why they act like that?"

Do native speakers pronounce the "t" after the "c" and before the "l" in the sentence above? I'm under the impression that they don't do it and just say "ac like that." Is this just my impression?


texts: Is there a term for sounds that are spelled with multiple letters?

texts: Is there a word or term to describe sounds (phonemes) that are spelled using multiple characters (graphemes)? Examples would include the English ch, sh, or German dsch, tsch, etc.


texts: What grammar value of ‘taut’ in the next sentence?

texts:
“Something like that," Oshima said, and stopped, his lips taut.

It’s sentence from ‘Kafka on the shore’ novel.

I think ‘lips’ is subject and ‘taut’ is verb in simple past tense. But I cannot find infinitive of that word. Help me, please!


texts: “The men at the shop, two of whom John knows, are helpful.” Is the relative clause restrictive or nonrestrictive?

texts:
The men at the shop, two of whom John knows, are helpful.

Is the relative clause nonrestrictive or restrictive? Or ambiguous? (For written English)

(1) If it is nonrestrictive, the interpretation should be "The men are helpful and John knows two of them."

(2) If it is restrictive, the interpretation should be "Only two men are helpful, whom John knows, among the men at the shop."

If it is the first one, how can the sentence be made for the second interpretation? (Using a restrictive relative clause.)


texts: A word for 'calculator' (the old meaning)

texts:
Back before electronics took over calculations, a calculator was a person's job title (and you needed skill to do that).  What's that skill called?

A term for someone who can juggle many numbers, routes, and other information in their head at the same time, while re-arranging / re-assigning them to different workers.


texts: Is it common to describe one’s life stage in English, like “Stage III Hemingways”?

texts:
I found the word, “men who looked like stage three Hemingways” in the following sentence of Maureen Dowd’s article, titled “Farewell to Macho,” in the New York Times (October 15):

“Diliberto recalled that when her Hadley bio was first published in 1992, she was surprised to find her book readings filled with men “who looked like stage-three Hemingways” with white beards and safari jackets straining over their bellies. They all wanted to be Hemingway, to live his outdoorsy, action-packed life.”

When I hear the word, “Stage three” in Japanese, I instantly associate it with the significantly progressed or serious stage of cancer at the “Stage III,” where surgical operation might no longer be so helpful, but “Stage three” in the above quote seems to simply imply a life stage passing the prime of age.

Is it a common wording, “stage I, II, III, and IV of a person”, like “Stage three Hemingways”? Is President Obama now on his “Stage II”?


texts:
The expression “woe is me” (meaning) looks strange. On the surface, it seems to mean “an unhappy event is me”. Sure, it's an old idiom, undoubtedly reflecting vocabulary or grammar that is no longer productive in modern English. But what old language feature does it reflect? Is woe used as an adjective which is the complement of the verb and me an inverted subject (in which case, why isn't it “woe am I”)? Or does it mean “misery is me”, as in, “misery fills my soul so that I am misery personified”? I understand “woe betide me” (ok, not the most common object) and “woe [is] unto me”, but “woe is me” puzzles me.

Grammarphobia states that woe is the subject, but it isn't clear how the rest of the sentence is constructed. As a shortening or evolution of “woe is unto me”? How did that happen?


texts:
Is the phrase "I'm glad it helped" grammatically correct?

And if it is, does it express correctly that I am more than happy that I could help someone?


texts: Meaning of various valedictions or closing expressions

texts:
Related to, but I believe distinct from, the following questions:

What does the "yours" in "yours sincerely" mean?
Which expressions can be used to close an email?

What do various valedictions mean in the context of a written (business) letter, and what do the following typically convey?

  Best,

Best what? Is this short for best wishes or best regards?  If this is a shortening of the phrase, is it rude?

  Regards,

Also unclear what this means in a valediction.  Does this mean I'm thinking of you?

  Best Regards,

  Cordially,

  Good Wishes,

  Many Thanks,

Is this more or less formal than "thanks"?

  Thanks,

Am I right that this is a rude way to close a letter?

  Most Sincerely,

Is this expression too much?

  Sincerely,

  Thank You,

  Yours truly,


texts:
In a phrase like the usual yadda yadda, what does yadda yadda mean?
What is its origin?

  Please read, this is not the usual yadda yadda! Three things:

  Because the dumps are quite a bit of work for us, we’re moving to a bi-monthly schedule instead of monthly. Meaning, you can expect dumps every two months instead of every month. If you have an urgent need for more timely data than this, contact us directly, or use the Stack Exchange Data Explorer, which will continue to be updated monthly. —Creative Commons Data Dump Jan ’11.
  […]


texts: Why aren't optical illusions called visual illusions?

texts:
It seems to me that "optical" relates more to the mechanics of light and vision, whereas "visual" is a much broader term.

For example, hallucinations are classed as "visual" or "auditory", rather than "optical" or "acoustic". Other examples are visual puns, visual cliches, visual metaphors, etc. I notice on the Wikipedia page on optical illusions uses the terms interchangeably.

Is there a semantic reason why the term "optical illusion" is used instead of visual?


texts: Phrase with similar meaning to "don't suffer fools gladly/lightly"

texts: I am looking for a phrase that is similar to "he doesn't suffer fools gladly" it is something like "he'd sooner walk through you, than around" likely UK/Irish in origin.  I read it in an Irish paper a few years ago to describe someone who was impatient w people and didn't suffer fools lightly.  I cannot remember the exact phrase though.


texts:
I am building a platform that will have a similar structure to Twitter and I am tirelessly looking for something that could replace the terms for connections between users.

On Twitter the terms "Follower" and "Following" are used to describe such relationships, however, those terms were established in the Twitter ecosystem and I feel like it might not immediately be clear to users what those terms refer to. Do you have any suggestions/synonyms for terms that convey the meaning of the aforementioned words ?

In Twitter's ecosystem the term "Following" describes a unidirectional relationship between user A and user B, where A is interested in events of user B, but not necessarily the other way around.

The term "Follower" describes the inverse relationship, where user B is interested in events by user A, and not necessarily vice versa.

Bonus question: Can you name a term that depicts a bi-directional relationship between user A and B, where both A and B are interested in each other's events ? (Bi-directional connection).

I tried to come up with terms that seem quite... obvious ... but they might not be semantically correct.

Followers: Connecters/Connected [users]

Following: Connectees (not an official english word)/Connected to

Bi-directional relationship: Connections

While very abstract, do you think these terms would convey the intended meaning ? I ask this because English is my second language and I cannot afford to gamble on those essential terms.


texts: Can you say "events that have impacted their lives"

texts: Can you say the characters are struggling with "events that have impacted their lives" or would you have to say events that have impacted on their lives?


texts:
Is there a word in English that encapsulates the condition of being blasé, sort of in the same vein as "weariness" encapsulates the condition of being weary?

  blasé: having or showing a lack of excitement or interest in something especially because it has become familiar Merriam-Webster

I would like a word that captures that idea of disinterest due to routine or familiarity.


texts:
MY main interest is in the mathematical context, where one defines objects by a formula. I can imagine 2 cases :

Direct case, "direct definition": The function f is defined by/as f=a+b+c
Implicit definition: The number x is defined by/as a = g(x)

I would tend to use as for the case 1 and by for the second one.


texts: What is the Implied Meaning Behind when someone answers a Question with "Because."

texts:
I was watching Season 3 of "The West Wing"(# the Greatest show on TV). Episode 9: Bartlet for America.

The premise is that Leo McGarry, the White House Chief-Of-Staff is

   under an Congressional Hearing in relation to the President Hiding his MS

And he discusses his alcoholic Past with the Lawyer; below is the excerpt

Leo: My father was an alcoholic, his father was an alcoholic. So in my case...

Lawyer: ...Ain't nothing but a family thing.

Leo: That's right.

Lawyer: Who knows?

Leo: Josh Lyman and the President.

Lawyer: Why nobody else?

Leo: Because.

Lawyer: That's a little boy's answer.

Leo: I went to rehab, my friends embraced me when I got out.
You relapse, it's not like that.
"Get away from me," that's what it's like.

Can anyone explain to me what is Implied by that answer. Because. at first glance doesn't answer anything. Or is it something to be gleaned by yourself.


texts:
I love the show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but I can't understand the meaning of this sentence:

  We eat a bag of dirt, pass it in a kiddie pool, and move on...

What does pass it mean? Is it to share or something else?


texts: What do you call someone who has been in custody as a prisoner of war?

texts: In Persian, someone who has once been a prisoner of war and now is free and not a prisoner anymore is called "Azadeh", literally meaning liberated, free(d). What is the English equivalent for this sense?


texts:
When the weatherman makes a prediction, we call it a "forecast"
When economists make forecasts about the current condition of the economy, we call those estimates "nowcasts"
If a scientist makes an estimate about something in the past (ex. the cost of a candy bar in 1850), what do we call it?


texts:
I got a note from a fortune cookie, which says:

" Never gonna run around and desert you"

I was wondering what does "run around" means here. Similar to runaway?


texts: Where does the phrase "flag it" come from

texts:
Where does the phrase flag it come from, as in

  Oh, flag it, it's not working, I'm going to bed.


texts: Which is correct: "your -ing" or "you -ing"?

texts:
Which of the following is (more) correct or are they both acceptable?

  I apologise for your receiving emails.

or

  I apologise for you receiving emails.

I think I read somewhere (but can't find the reference) that the first one is more correct.


texts: Are possessives determiners(his, my, her...) preferred to the definite article ('the')

texts:
I have a question regarding the usage of possessives in substitution of “the”: Are possessives preferred to the definite article 'the' in some occasions and why?
For example, I found the relationship between 'children' and 'parents' is always denoted by possessives instead of 'the' when these two are used in close proximity. While in the case of the relationship between a human and his or her body part, both 'the' and possessives read natural to me, although 'the' seems more preferred to possessives, as shown below:

1.
a) The government helped these children to meet their parents.
b) The government helped these children to meet the parents. (?)

2.
a) He hit me on the head.
b) He hit me on my head.


texts:
What do you call when someone is doing something bad in the name of something he believes to be truly good and even greater than his individual actions?

war in the name of freedom
murder in the name of god
lie to congress to fulfil the destiny of your country

etc.


texts: Definition of "differentiate": Difference "in" and difference "between"

texts:
I've seen online dictionaries defining the word differentiate as (along with other definitions):

to mark or show a difference in : constitute a difference that distinguishes

To perceive or show the difference in or between; discriminate.

Now, I understand the meaning difference "between things." However, I don't understand what "difference in" means. Does someone have an example usage that can help my understanding?


texts:
I understand what 'used to' means

What is the origin of the 'used to" as in "I used to go to Brighton".

I understand what it means but why 'used to'


texts:
Which of the following is correct ?

1)  A, B, C and D

2)  A, B, C, and D


texts: Customer (delivers?) precious metal bullion to the bank

texts:
A customer want to place his gold to bank account. He shows up in a bank with his gold bars and says that he wants to put it to his gold account.

I was unable to choose the correct word here.

Customer delivers his precious metal bullion to the bank.
Customer leaves his precious metal bullion in the bank.
Customer gives up his precious metal bullion to the bank.
Customer leaves out his precious metal bullion to the bank.
Customer leaves his precious metal bullion to the bank.
Customer submits his precious metal bullion to the bank.
Customer puts away precious metal bullion to the bank.
Customer ... precious metal bullion to the bank.

Which word should I choose?


texts:
Which of these is correct/better?

1) In the Final Argument of the Phaedo, Socrates proves that the soul is immortal by....

2) In the Final Argument of the Phaedo Socrates proves the soul is immortal by ...

3) In the Final Argument of the Phaedo Socrates proves the soul is immortal, by...


texts: Meaning and use of phrase "proverbial bucket"

texts:
I can't understand the meaning of the following sentence and need a short description of the content with an example:

  The proverbial bucket has not been constructed that would carry my pitiful attempts.


texts: Can the words Pub, Bar, Tavern and Public House be used Interchangeably?

texts:
Is there any difference between a pub, a bar, and a tavern (now or at any point in the past)?

Where does the term "public house" come from, and does the history or etymology of the terms "pub", "bar" and "tavern" help in clarifying any differences in the various modern usages of these terms?


texts: A phrase or neologism which describes obsolete technology-related neologisms

texts:
Neologisms and slang that are inspired by technology are increasingly commonplace, e.g.:

'Why don't you just google it?'  or
'Text me.'

Some of these neologisms leave our lexicon as quickly as they enter it, e.g.

'Page me when you get there.'

Is there a phrase or neologism which describes the antiquated nature of another neologism, like the verb 'page' in the above example?


texts: What kind of emotion does a phrase "lotsa luck" convey?

texts:
In Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction movie the phrase conveys rather sarcastic emotion:

  I'm here to help. If my help's not appreciated, lotsa luck, gentlemen.

Can I use lotsa luck to convey positive emotion? For example in a phrase

  and lotsa luck in the year to come


texts: I have the feeling that luggage is more closely associated with vacation travel, whereas baggage is for general transportation.  Or... are they just exact synonyms?


texts:
Assuming the reader knows who is being referred to, what do you think is the effect on the reader when possessive pronouns are dropped in fiction. For example:

  Brown hair is pulled back into a tight bun, giving cheeks a stretched look.

Seems to me (note the subject pronoun drop), the result is that the reader focuses more on the narrator than the character being discussed.  All reactions will be appreciated.


texts: "Disjoint toolsets" vs. "disjointed toolsets"

texts:
I have only ever heard the expression there are disjoint sets, never that there are disjointed sets.

I believe it should be disjoint sets, but I don't have a good reason why. Does anyone have a more general rule that applies here?


texts:
How should "Churchill" be hyphenated when it breaks across two lines?

Chu-rchill,
Chur-chill,
Churc-hill, or
Church-ill?


texts:
I am actually asking about the spelling of this word, not whether it exists... which in fact makes it rather difficult to write about. I will spell it as "whoever's" for the purpose of explaining the question.

Take these examples inspired by colloquial US speech:

  *Whoever's umbrella this is, please come take it!

Or:

  Write down *whomever's name was on the form we got.

How, morphologically (and also plain logically) speaking, would the asterisked word best be spelled?

I've never seen it in written form outside of casual text-chatting, where it's oft rendered as I wrote it above, but this feels slightly off to me taking into account that who's is incorrect. Would "whoevers/whomevers" be more reasonable, if at all?

...I suppose it would also be relevant here to inquire why, exactly, the 's clitic/affix appears to be reserved for nouns in English and never pronouns (as would be in "who's", "he's", "she's", "they's"...?).


texts: Help...is it "Consumer's Needs" or "Consumers' needs" ? or "Consumers Needs"?

texts:
I am doing a presentation for a packaged goods company...is it "Consumer's Changing Needs" or "Consumers' Changing Needs"  or "Consumers Changing Needs" ?
Context:  It is for a slide headline that is referring to "consumers" and category information.

Need answer asap if possible...thank you!!!


texts:
Is "family-owned-and-operated business" punctuated correctly? Yes or no?

Certainly looks better than:

a family-owned- and -operated business

And in predicative position, is this okay? "The business was family-owned-and-operated." Or drop the hyphens altogether in this construction?

Thanks.


texts: Having or has? What is the best way to say that sentence

texts:
I have one question, what is the best way to say that sentence below? Are both grammatically correct?

  He has been working on mobile development for 4 years and has published more than 15 apps.

or

  He has been working on mobile development for 4 years, having published more than 15 apps.


texts: What does ‘a woman with seriously good hair’ mean? Is “Good Hair” primarily applied to American-African ladies?

texts:
Further to my question about the use of ‘MFF’ on New York Times article ( Jan.29 ) titled “As State of the Union Nears, Congress Plays Musical Chairs,” I have a question about the meaning of the phrase of ‘members of the Senate with seriously good hair’ in the following sentence:

  Mary from Louisiana asked Olympia from Maine because they are BFFs, but had a backup in Bob from Tennessee in case she was rebuffed. Kirsten from New York went the Sadie Hawkins route and asked John from South Dakota, and thus the deal between two members of the Senate with seriously good hair was sealed.

I was intrigued by the phrase, ‘good hair,’ in the above sentence. So I checked Urbandictionary to find its real meaning and found the following definition:

  A popular term in the African-American community, used to describe a black person's hair that closely resembles the hair of a typical white person (i.e. soft, manageable, long, as opposed to "nappy" or "bad" hair). The closer your hair is to a white person's, the "better" your hair is.

I was confused. On YouTube, both Sen. Marry L. Landriey and Olympia Snowe are clearly white, one with bland and another dark hair. Is Urbandictionary’s definition - 'used to describe a black person's hair' wrong? What does "Senators with seriously good hair” really mean? Is it a praise or does it involve sarcastic insinuation?
Please teach me.


texts:
I am supposed to make a translation for a session to be submitted, but I'm stumbled upon this. We say "content is fed from a centralised location", right? How about "hundreds of websites' content"? Is it still "is", or is it now "are"?

Thank you in advanced :)
K.


texts: Is the sentence "A lot of resources is available" correct?

texts:
I recently came across this sentence :

  A lot of resources is available:

quoted from the webpage http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/rvm. Since this is a very reputed website, I don't think that can be a wrong grammar.

From my understanding of grammar. I think that the sentence should be

  A lot of resources are available:

Please guide me.


texts: With what prepositions can I use the word "pain"?

texts:
How should I write in correct way these sentences?

He... groans of pain or Groans in pain or Groans from pain?

I wanted to also look for words that can be replaced or formulated in another way.
For example "He groans of discomfort", "He hisses of pain". I would like to find more ideas. Is the word "groans" can be replaced by "moans" and can means the same?


texts: How to describe the orientation of something in relation to two points?

texts:
Using simple English, how would I describe the orientation of an object in relation to two different objects -- one that's located on a vertical plane (object V) and another that's located on a horizontal plane (object H)?

  It's vertically oriented with object V, and it's horizontally oriented with object H.

This is the gist of what I'm trying to get across, but I feel like this is convoluted and not really as clear, simple, or elegant as it could be... I'm not sure what other constructions I could use.

EDIT 1

To be more specific, I'm looking for a different construction than the one above. Are there any better ways to express this type of an orientation?

EDIT 2 -- Illustration

I'm trying to describe the location of the thalamus in relation to the eyes and ears. So I might say:

  The thalamus is in the middle of the head, lined up vertically with the eyebrows and horizontally with the ears


texts:
Do these two sentences have the same meaning?

Of this spiritual world, our world is an imperfect image.
Our world is an imperfect image of this spiritual world.


texts: What is the name of the type of sentence that's formatted like "performing an action"?

texts:
So I am sure the title of this question makes little sense, but I don't know how to ask it (feel free to edit it to make it more direct, but not so direct that it answers the question).

There is a certain sentence format that's used mainly in movie titles that's not really a complete sentence, but more along the lines of a clause of sorts.  You've seen movie titles like:

  Being John Malkovich
  Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  Driving Miss Daisy
  Gleaming the Cube (good one, right?)

It seems to me that this fragment of a sentence has a name or is at least identifiable in some way.

Edit:  The only tag I can think of is grammar, so feel free to add additional tags.


texts:
According to usingenglish.com "all the rage" means the following:

  If something's all the rage, it is very popular or fashionable at the moment.

I understand this primary meaning. However, I was told that this idiom also implies popularity of something short-term that will soon decline, leaving no tangible results.  Is it so? Are there any other shades of meaning of this idiom?


texts:
I used to think PM/AM was correct, but at some point, I switched to using p.m./a.m. for reasons I can't recall. I know that in practical, casual writing, people tend to use whatever form is most convenient to them, but I'm curious about what the official usage—should it exist—actually is.

What is the correct or official form for these initialisms?

Are they capitalized?

4 pm
4pm

Is there a space before them?

4 PM
4PM

If the correct usage is a.m./p.m., how does this affect punctuation at the end of a sentence?

Should we meet at 4 p.m.?
Let's meet at 4 p.m..

(Let me know if these should be split up into individual questions, but I figured that because they were all related to these initialisms in particular, it might be okay to ask them all in one question.)


texts: When to write number and word combinations?

texts:
I have two puzzles here. Whether to use 'and' or 'to' AND should it be 100,00 or 100 thousand.

(a) There used to be 10 million but it is estimated that numbers have dropped to between 50 to 100 thousand.
(b) There used to be 10 million but it is estimated that numbers have dropped to between 50 to 100,000.

OR use 'and'
(c) There used to be 10 million but it is estimated that numbers have dropped to between 50 and 100 thousand.
(d) There used to be 10 million but it is estimated that numbers have dropped to between 50 and 100,000.


texts:
I am writing a story in which a man has ambivalent feelings about a woman.  He often goes out of his way to disrespect and disparage her.  My question is whether this behavior counts as aggressive.

I know that disparage means to treat as unworthy, literally from its origins, not (dis) + equal (par), but dictionaries list denigrate as a synonym.  Denigrate means to use words to attack, and an attack is the key idea behind aggression.

So does aggressive necessarily imply a physical attack, and if not, does that make it redundant when used with disparage?


texts: A person who moves from place to place in search of opportunity

texts:
I move in search of opportunity.

When I was young, my father worked for the government, and we moved because of his posting.

Then I moved to a different city so I could get cheap education. Later, I moved to
 yet another city to get a job. I have lived outside my home state more than inside, which makes me wonder if I can call it my "home state" at all.

Is there a (single) word for people like me who move in search of opportunities?

I found in Macmillan the phrase 'bird of passage' which is a hypernym, but not an exact match:

  bird of passage [noun] [literary]

  someone who keeps moving from one place to another


texts: Is there a word for something (a parameter not a person) that is being affected?

texts:
My sentence reads something like, "These parameters are being affected on varying a and b conditions."
I want it to sound like, " The affectees of parameters a and b are ... "
I don't know if I can use affectee here or if that is even a word.  I have found rare usage of this word affectee and never for a parameter. Any suggestions?


texts:
I have a line graph which illustrates beef consumption. Beef sales peaked at 200 grams per person per day in 1986.

Can I say that "The zenith of beef sales came in 1986, when they reached the highest point of/at 200 grams per person per day"?


texts: Is there another word for a "Correct Prediction" or "Correct Answer"?

texts:
This word probably doesn't exist, at least I can't think of anything that would possibly fit,

I'm making a leaderboard for a little game where I'm having my players guess (or potentially knowingly choose) answers

It'd look like:

or

But I don't like having 2 words in the header there, and I also want to be a little fun.

For example, in this question:
What is a word for 'answered correctly'?

there was an answer: "Nailed"

so maybe "Nails" would work, and would be funny, but it may be a little too cryptic

I've tried looking at synonyms for "Predictions", but no word also implies correctness

I've tried looking at synonyms for "Correct", but couldn't find anything that also covers predictions/answers


texts: Spelling and pronunciation of singular possessive names?

texts:
Singular possessive

Jones's glasses
My lawyer's fee

Plural possessive

The Joneses' house
Their lawyers' fees

1) Are these possessive forms correct?
2) Is there any difference in the pronunciation between each pair of words?


texts:
In the sentence:
"Great helm was worn with a hauberk which also covered the neck and the head of warrior."
The word "which" refers to great helm or hauberk?


texts: A word that desribes different ways of teaching a topic

texts:
I am looking for the a word that describes the teaching approach a teacher/course may take"

So the word that would describe  Applied, Practical, Experimental, Theoretical etc. in "Applied Calculus". "Practical Demon-Keeping", "Theoretical Physics", "Applied Chemistry", "Experimental Top-Spinning"...

As always, help is greatly appreciated! :-)


texts: What to say to someone who is going to eat

texts: In French "Bon appetit", in German "Guten Appetit" or "Mahlzeit", I also know it exists in Arabic and Japanese. As expatriate speaking English daily, I often get confused when I want to say that to my roommates and I end up saying "Enjoy your meal" or "Have a nice meal" which sounds weird to me. Is there anything else one can say?


texts: Is there a word for someone who tends to find faults in others?

texts:
I'm looking for a single word, for someone who...

keeps seeing everything that is wrong with everybody else.
never seems to see the good of other people, only the bad things.
points at others, as if he forgets he has weaknesses himself.
does not brag about himself, he just seems to be dissatisfied with everyone else.

I prefer a word that is as unambiguous and clear-cut as possible.


texts:
I was wondering whether it is correct to say 'this is my son's photo' meaning a photo of my son?

Can the phrase 'this is my son's photo' imply a photo in which one can see someone's son or can it only mean that the photo belongs to someone's son? Or are both options possible?

Thank you in advance!