texts: Revising a Sentence for Brevity while Maintaining Eloquence

texts:
I am working on an article / story about legal cannabis in Colorado, and I have written this sentence regarding the smell upon entering a large, industrial grow room:

The only way I know how to describe it is as if the very essence of the best, medicinal grade cannabis in the world were fused into my olfactory receptors via stem cells, and this was simply the way things were.

This seems very long and tedious, and though it is eloquent, I want to edit it down a bit to reduce the number of words. It isn't technically a run-on, but it definitely looks that way, and something about it seems incorrect (maybe I'm overlooking something obvious).
The general template I'm looking for is:

(The only way I can describe it)
is
(as if the very essence of the best, medicinal grade cannabis in the world had been fused into my olfactory receptors via stem cells),
and
(this was simply the nature of my reality.)

First of all, is the original sentence actually grammatically / syntactically correct?
If so (or even if not), how can I shave it down while still maintaining its original level of sophistication and eloquence?


texts: What preposition properly collocates with "chuffed"?

texts: As an American of upper middle age, I have noticed younger people using different (and to my ears, wrong) prepositions—for example, "bored of" rather than "bored by."  So, hearing the word chuffed in the many British TV shows and movies I watch, I wondered: Is one chuffed by, with, to, or about? Or are any or all of these combinations acceptable?


texts: Why is wiretapping called "bugging" and since when?

texts:
For eight years, Trump bugged (annoyed) Obama with questions about his birth certificate.  Later, Trump claimed that Obama bugged (wiretapped) him.

Merriam-Webster offers this "legal" definition of "bug," but gives no etymology:

  to plant a concealed microphone in — compare eavesdrop, wiretap

It's been used this way as both a verb and a noun:

  Trump wiretapping claim: Did Obama bug his successor?

The BBC

  The reason the Administration insisted on "secure and controlled conditions" for reconstruction was because the bugs were planted into the walls of the embassy by Soviet Government construction workers.

The New York Times

A search on etymonline for "bug" says the use in the sense of "wiretapping" dates to 1919, but I can't find a reference to exactly how or why the meaning originated.

Given how frequently the topic of "wiretapping" has been in the news in the U.S., how did wiretapping come to be called "bugging?"


texts: A single word for 'something that always works'?

texts: What is a single word to express about a solution or a particular thing which always works/gives fruitful results/solves the problem?


texts: 'contribute to achieve' or 'contribute to achieving'?

texts:
I have the following sentence and I need your help:

"Renewable energy sources can contribute to achieving the climate goals"
Is this correct or do I have to write:
"Renewable energy sources can contribute to achieve the climate goals"

I'd appreciate every comment.


texts: Alternatives to "this doesn't add any value to that"

texts: What are alternative ways to express that something that was added to a thing doesn't add any value to it?


texts:
Which degree of 'less' is correct in the following sentence -
"Seats in this room are much less/lesser in comparison to the adjacent one."

Also please state any general rule of English if it is being applied here.
Thanks.


texts: Synonyms for the "not...but..." construction

texts:
I am looking for proper alternatives to the "not...but..." construction, which is used to refute an assumption and draw attention to a new point. Example:

  The park was known not for its amenities, but for its location.

It could be rephrased like this:

  The park was not known for its amenities; it was known for its location.

but this sentence doesn't contain all of the nuance of the original.

Is there an interesting way to rephrase my example sentence, while still retaining the emphatic effect of "not...but..."?

My reason for this request: I've used this construction numerous times in a piece of writing, and repetitious structures can bore the reader. I am trying to switch my sentences up.


texts: Weak or strong? Auxiliary verbs + not/been and dummy subject there

texts:
I read somewhere that auxiliary verbs are always strong (stressed or pronounced with full vowels) when combined with not. I'm not talking about contractions but when they're fully enunciated: You are not, she has not, they have not, etc. As native speakers, do you pronounce them weak or strong in these situations?

Also, when combined with been: do you use weak auxiliary or strong auxiliary forms as in she has been, they have been, etc? Plus, is been normally weak, pronounced with KIT vowel, or strong, FLEECE vowel?

Lastly, there, as a dummy subject, do you pronounce it weak, with schwa, or strong, with SQUARE, as in there to be, there are a, there is, etc? If it can be weak or strong, when would you normally use it strong and weak? Like at the end or beginning, middle of sentence, etc. Tag question is there? does it has weak or strong there?

I would greatly appreciate any answer or input, and forgive me if the question is too long. Also, I would like to hear especially from natives, and especially from how they say it naturally, and not by rules from manuals, etc, and if they're British, American, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.


texts:
If I write mispelling as supposed to misspelling why does it matter?  The meaning still exists.  Everyone knows what I meant to write.  There is no ambiguity.

Why do  some people consider the proper use so important?  Isn't language flexible?  Can't I use it as I wish?

I don't say these things to irritate or insult people, I'm saying them to convey meaning, meaning is achieved, so isn't the purpose of language in that instance satisfied?


texts:
I was watching a grammar video discussing participial phrases.  The following sentence was being parsed:

"The numbers given were wrong."

The instructor said that "given" was an adjective modifying numbers.  "What kind of numbers?  Given numbers."  Seems reasonable, except "given" isn't in the traditional adjective slot.

I thought "given" was a passive.  It follows the subject.

What's the best way to view this?


texts: What is the original meaning of "moonshot" and who used it?

texts:
The term today is used mostly to refer to attempts to achieve a lofty if not impossible goal such as curing all disease or colonizing Mars. Many tie this term to the Apollo 11 mission, but several sources credit baseball play by play commentator Vin Scully for coining it (in 1959, according to the Dickson Baseball Dictionary), to refer to the towering home runs that Wally Moon hit over the left field wall of the old Los Angeles Coliseum (Moon was a left-handed hitter and had a nonconventional, uppercut swing, which inspired Scully to pay homage to Moon's home runs in particular).

Some sources indicate that the term dates to 1949 (see, for example, http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/1961_words/), but I can find no such earlier usage, and am curious about what exactly it meant before Scully began using it.

I am aware of the phrase "shooting the moon," which precedes "moonshot" by many years, but I'd like to get more insight into the single word "moonshot"--anyone?


texts: Taking both sides of an issue for personal gain

texts: I'm looking for a word or two for a person who would support or defend either side of an issue for personal gain. In other words, a person who is not interested in truth for truth's sake but for personal gain or advantage.


texts: What Percent of English language consists of the verb "to be?"

texts:
I have searched normal internet sites, and have not found data that show what  percent of any given written English language sample (not dictionary) is comprised of the verb “to be?” I am seeking either actual statistics, or a program that can scan a sample and identify the verb "to be" in all its forms.

I intended to include both lexical and auxiliary forms. However, given that this may be too broad, I would just like to see any statistics at all on percentage of use of the verb to be

The same goes for different types of written English: I would like samples from varied sources, including time, but will settle for what I uncover. Any piece of this puzzle will be appreciated.


texts:
I have a graph that shows some statistic for the period 1930-2010.

I then have another graph (for the exact same statistic) which I introduce by saying: "Let us zoom in to the period 1960-90."

I have been told that "zoom in" is too colloquial. What is a better word or phrase?


texts: What's a word that means to force something to fit?

texts:
Is there a verb that means the act of forcing a square peg into a round hole, so to speak?  More specifically, in my case I'm facetiously suggesting that we take an absurd notion and try to fit the facts to the assertion.

  What's a teensy bit harder to ____ [about/to/for] this assertion is [contradictory evidence].

The best I've come up with are reconcile and rectify, but those have more to do with our response to these facts than the act of mashing them into a space in which they cannot fit in the first place.

Explain away works, but I'd rather have a single word, if possible.

Conform is probably the most exact word I've found for what I mean, but doesn't fit into my sentence structure, and it's not particularly playful.

If I cant find a single word, I'll probably just use...

  What's a teensy bit harder to square-peg into this round-hole assertion is [contradictory evidence].

...as it fits the playful, sarcastic tone, but again, I'd rather have a single word if possible.


texts: If I write two phrasal verbs with difference prepositions consecutively, can I omit the first preposition?

texts:
Give or take away something from someone.

The problem in this sentence is that normally one would say "Give to" or "take away from" someone, but what should I write when I want to refer to both alternatives?


texts: I may not be a great writer, but i am a better writer

texts:
is that grammatically correct?

I think I am going to contradict myself. how would I state I may not be the best writer... but I have improved


texts: Amass vs accumulate - is there a difference or can these be used interchangeably?

texts:
These two words mean pretty much the same thing.
But I couldn't understand the difference.

I picked these two examples from google translate:

  investigators have yet to accumulate enough evidence
  starting from nothing he had amassed a huge fortune

Can I swap amass and accumulate in these examples?
Any explanation about differences and distinctions would be nice.


texts: ending a sentence with a preposition 'of'

texts:
I know many questions have been asked for ending a sentence with a preposition  in this community. However none of that seems to be providing the answer which I am looking for in this scenario. Please consider following sentence.

Traditionally celebrities have been considered as one of the very few people who enjoy really luxurious lifestyles where many of us can only dream of.

Is it grammatically correct to end the sentence with the proposition 'of' ? or should I have used something like 'about'.

Pls consider that my English is not that great and I feel little awkward about this sentence I wrote. But unfortunately I can not find a reason. Have I made any other grammatical mistake ?


texts: What word would work as a better substitute for "Stalker"?

texts:
Context
I am working on a game and one of the Classes in it is "Rogue". (Original, I know.) I'm trying to find a term that accurately describes and can serve as a name for one of the Subclasses. (Preferably a single-word term, if possible.)
Needs
The term ideally needs to describe somebody who excels at 1) following a target, 2) breaking into locations, and 3) collecting information without being caught. It should ideally be able to work as an adjective if at all possible, but an attributive noun could work (with some leniency for other nouns, but if possible, please avoid as such), potentially; however, the term should not imply an occupational aspect to the behaviour (such as "Spy" or "Investigator"). It shouldn't be inherently a very negative term either, as is the case with "stalker" or "prowler". It shouldn't imply theft such as with "thief", "burglar", or "robber". I'd prefer one word, but a two-word option could work as well, but please, nothing larger than that.
My Effort
Due to personal reasons, my first thought was "Stalker", but that word conveys too heavy of a connotation. My second thought was "Lurker", but it had a similar issue, alongside the fact it doesn't imply most of the conditions. I tried "Trespasser" but that feels too heavy on the Breaking & Entering side with little implication of following a target.
"Scout" doesn't work because it is too generalized (ignoring occupational implications, of course).
Conclusion
I know I am asking for a tough answer. If you can help me, I'd appreciate it. I'm still trying on my own to find a good word, but if anyone can suggest something that helps, I'd be so grateful! I know this comes across as super picky, but I tried to be specific so not to waste anyone's time. Please and thank you!


texts: Is the use of "-based" ending acceptable for two words expression?

texts:
When describing something as being based on a major element, one can use the "-based" ending. How does it work when the major element is an expression formed by two words, such as body tracking?

Is it ok to write

  ... body tracking-based interaction ...

Or would it look better reversed?

  ... interaction based on body tracking ...


texts: Can I use 'measurable' to stress that the concept must have numeric quantity?

texts:
I am describing certain self-organization technique, which has the concept of goals (duh). These goals must manifest themselves in certain quantities (e.g. 'go outside for 30 minutes', 'read 10 pages' etc), never as simply done/not done items (e.g. 'take out the trash' would not be an acceptable goal).

Can I say, "the goals must be measurable"? Does measurability imply there is a number, or yes/no questions can still be considered measurable? Is there a better single word describing this constraint? (I thought of countable, but it just doesn't sound right).


texts: A proverb for when one starts taking action after losing many times

texts:
Is there a proverb for "when one starts shaping up after losing many times". For example, I have failed in Maths Test many times, but now I am taking it serious and working hard to pass next time. The essence is that, we react after having much loss, rather than taking actions before.

Moreover, that proverb can be like the situation when a frog keeps regulating their body temperature in the boiling water, but in the end gets cooked.

There's a proverb in Urdu:

  ﺁ ﺑﮯ ﺳﻮﻧﭩﮯ ﺗﯿﺮﯼ ﺑﺎﺭﯼ‘ ﮐﺎﻥ ﭼﮭﻮﮌ ﮐﻨﭙﭩﯽ ﻣﺎﺭﯼ

Translation: to shape up after having much loss, or continuous failure.

In addition, I thought that the following words would define it but not pretty sure about it as it looks like a quote:

  "never leave for tomorrow that which you can do today."

I hope there's a English proverb for which I am asking here.


texts: What is the difference between 'can', 'could', 'may' and 'might'?

texts:
I'm a native English speaker and I've been doing some research into English grammar for a programme I'm working on. However, on looking into modal verbs, I've only just come to appreciate how subtle and complicated they are.

What is the difference between these sentences? What possible different response might one have to each?

  I can go to the cinema tonight.
  I could go to the cinema tonight.
  I may go to the cinema tonight.
  I might go to the cinema tonight.

Granted, the first of these looks more like a statement of ability or possibility than the three that follow. But in what ways does it differ from the others, since all suggest ability and possibility? And crucially, what distinguishes the other three.

Perhaps it's a matter of tone, of context, of the speaker... The question may appear quite simple but I haven't found a satisfactory answer elsewhere.

One answer looked quite useful in that it covered levels of confidence and certainty but it was talking about the potential state of something rather than the possibility for the person who is speaking. Are there any differences in that sense?

Another looked at these verbs used in question form (e.g., differences between 'Can I...?' and 'May I...?') but I'm not so interested in that for now.

Any thoughts appreciated.


texts: Expressions that are not words, but sounds

texts:
Jamaican-style patois and derivations thereof seem to be on the rise again in British cities after a lull (I remember it being very popular in the 70s and early 80s). While on a trip to London I was struck by what native speakers of that idiom refer to as kissing teef [sic] - a sound made to indicate disapproval by sucking the tongue through clenched teeth.

This is analogous (I think) to 'tutting' in British English which although not strictly speaking a word, has become one and is included in the OED. Do these parts of speech have a name? And can anyone offer other examples of these in English or any other languages?

UPDATE: Just found an academic paper on the subject which refers to them as oral gestures.


texts: Can colons and semicolons be interchangeable in joining independent clauses?

texts:
I understand that colons can join two independent clauses if the second independent clause expands on or explains the first. I understand that semicolons can join two independent clauses if they are closely related in subject matter. What I do not understand is why so many grammar guides online say that the colon and the semicolon are in no way interchangeable.

For example, this following sentence is from the novel God's Demon by Wayne Barlowe:

'Adamantinarx was not dissimilar, in its composition, from many of the cities of Hell; its flagstoned streets ran red with the blood of its souls, its soul-bricks sighed and blinked as one passed them, and its countless low buildings groaned and shuddered like any others in any other infernal city.'

The second independent clause in this quote both expands on the first independent clause AND is closely related to the first independent clause in terms of subject matter; thus, could the semicolon not be replaced with a colon? In this instance, are the colon and the semicolon not interchangeable?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm a writer who consistently has to choose between a colon and a semicolon for the purpose of joining two independent clauses, however, in a lot of cases, they seem interchangeable, such as with the above example.


texts: What is an appropriate term for being habitually put down by criticism?

texts:
When people you encounter tell you that

  No, you will never be successful.
  You suck at everything.
  You're a failure to society. etc.

And you are terrified of the fact that they may be right, so you try to stay away from them, so that it doesn't affect your psychological thinking of being great. That may lead you to feeling belittled. And every other weak preconceptions you may have relating to it.

Examples:

“Hey don't drink that, you'll fail your test tomorrow if you do.” — and they believe it because they are so insecure about themselves.
“Hey don't tell your boss you live by yourself or he'll fire you.” — and you believe it.
“Taking these exams is all about luck; it's never about hard work.” — and you believe it.

But in reality, you're in control of everything. You know anyone in your path is an obstruction to your greatness, and you shouldn't be so "weak-willed" and "weak-minded" in permitting other people's opinions to control and belittle you. This is actually something that you can definitely just dust off your shoulder; it is you who has just made a big deal of it.

It's not weak willed is it? Weak-willed means "lacking the ability to resist influence or to restrain one's own impulses; irresolute." Per Google.

Much help needed and appreciated. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!


texts:
I remember reading an article discussing the idea of paying for medical care - it used a term I can't quite remember, but essentially it described this term being a purchase that people would have to make without considering the actual cost of the purchase because it directly influences their life / longevity.

Can anyone think of what this term was? It was something like a(n) 'XXXX good'. Thanks in advance!


texts: Umbrella term for travel 'ingredients': hotel, flight, car rental, ...?

texts:
What's the catholic/encompassing/general term for these travel essentials? 'Travel items' is wrong; they refer to actual physical objects. 'Travel necessities' is also wrong; they technically aren't mandatory for travel. To wit, what are some nouns that can replace all of the bolded:

  Could I please return to you about attending your ceremony only after you decide on its location? I ask because the availability of hotels, flights, car rentals, .... might prove difficult to book once I learn about the location at a later date.

Please also advise if I can improve the writing in the  above quote, especially the last sentence?


texts: On a certain pejorative in contemporary British English

texts:
According to the OED https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/67623) "faggot" and "fag", used to refer to gay men in a derogatory way are "originally and chiefly North American". And in this wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(slang)#Use_in_the_United_Kingdom it is claimed that

Use of fag and faggot as the term for an effeminate man has become understood as an Americanism in British English, primarily due to entertainment media use in films and television series imported from the United States.

This chimes with my experience. In much of my lifetime, in British English, "fag" was more commonly used to refer to a cigarette than it was used as a slur to refer to gay men; in fact, I have only begun to hear "fag" and "faggot" being used by native British English speakers in a derogatory manner in the last 12 or so years. In the past, "poof" or "poofter" were the words usually used to insult gay men in British English. I have the impression that this is changing.
I am thus wondering when the usage of "fag" and "faggot" as derogatory terms began to be more widespread in British English, as opposed to "poof" or "poofter", or other slurs.
British English speakers, or any English speakers who have lived in the UK since at least the 90's: when do you remember the terms "faggot" and "fag" becoming more commonly used as a slur against gay men in British English?
Can you refer to a particular experience? Do you remember what kind of people tended to use the expression? (were they, for example, younger people?)

Edit:
Someone below points out that "faggot" is used in the lyrics of the song "Money for Nothing", by British band Dire Straits. This is not incompatible with what I was observing in my question, for I only observed that, in my experience, "faggot" and "fag" used to be quite uncommon in British English as derogatory terms for gay men.


texts:
MS Word is underlining the word myself and I am now wondering if I should be using me instead, seeing as the subject is not I. Which one is correct? Are both possible?

At this point, putting as much distance between myself and John as possible is the only thing that matters.

At this point, putting as much distance between me and John as possible is the only thing that matters.

It shouldn't be “between John and I” should it?
I have another question about whether to use I or me in the sentence below:

The tension is heavy between John and I as we find ourselves alone in the driveway...

Or should it be:

The tension is heavy between me and John as we find ourselves alone in the driveway...

Any advice would be appreciated!


texts: Determining main verb of a sentence which match with subject + verb + to + verb pattern

texts:
If I have sentences

Member is allowed to change himself back
I want to go to school
He needs to stop

What are the predicate of these sentences? Are they allowed - want - need, or change - go - stop?
What do we call this subject + verb + to + verb pattern?
Thanks,

Edit:
What I really want to know is the main verb of sentences which match with subject + verb + to + verb pattern. Based on three sample sentences above, we can say that the main verb are second verb, i.e. verb after to.
Do this assumption apply to all sentences which match with pattern above?


texts:
When using conjunctions in a question to connect two sentences, should I add a comma before the conjunction?
For example,

Why did you leave me to be like this ,and disappear without a single trace?

Or,

Why did you leave me to be like this and disappear without a single trace?


texts: Is the plural of 'a friend's book' 'a friend's books' or 'friend's books'?

texts:
this question concerns only the INDEFINITE article, I don't care for the definite article or 'of' forms here.

In the following construction

a friend's book
a boy's toy
a guy's car

Question: do you still write the indefinite article if the noun following the possessive noun is plural?

a friend's book >> a friend's books / ø friend's books?
a boy's toy >> a boy's toys / ø boy's toys?
a guy's car >> a guy's cars / ø guy's cars?

If the 'a/an' article is removed, why?

Thanks.

P.S if anyone could cite a link to this particular topic, that would be be great.


texts: A question asked by Lupilum about "all" or "none" of his "first" attempts prompted me to think of two common expressions that always make my head spin. We often hear "one of the first" or "one of the last." My thinking and my dictionary say there can be only one item or event in "first" or "last" place; unless you specify a tie or you indicate the "first five" or the "last group." Am I wrong to be dizzied by this usage?


texts: Single or two word(s) for Task Assigned to me and its status

texts: I need to maintain work sheet,For that I need to mention Project name in one column and in 2nd column i need to mention Task Assigned to me and its status. So I want to know how can I name 2nd column with Single or two word(s). Can someone help me?


texts: Is 'The longer the prediction period, the more easy and accurate is the knowledge of the water and trees' a conditional sentence without if?

texts:
the following sentence:

  The longer the prediction period, the more easy and accurate is
  the knowledge of the water and trees.

Is this a conditional sentence without if? Could I rewrite it as "if the prediction period becomes longer, the more easy and accurate is the knowledge of water and tress"? Or do I misunderstand something here. I was mainly thinking about this to understand why a comma is used.

Thank you for any help


texts: A proverb or idiom in English for people who pick up a new language very quickly

texts:
There's a proverb in my language which goes like --he/she spent just one night with the hen and ended up clucking the following morning. This saying can be used either positively or negatively.

I'm looking for a proverb or idiom about learning a new language very quickly.


texts:
These are from dictionaries, and it is hard to distinguish "make somebody/something + adj" and "get somebody/something + adj" and grammar books seldom talk about them

Get
18 MAKE SOMEBODY/SOMETHING BECOME SOMETHING [transitive] to make
someone or something change to a new feeling, situation, or state
Sometimes she gets me so angry!
Don’t get the children too excited.
He was terrified of getting her pregnant.
It took them 15 minutes to get the boat ready.

====

make
make somebody/something/yourself + adj. to cause somebody/something to
feel, show or have a particular quality; to cause somebody/something
to be or become something
The news made him very happy.
She made her objections clear.
Technology promises to make our lives easier.
He made it clear that he objected.
The full story was never made public.

What is the difference "I made him angry" and "I got him angry"?


texts: Whether you need the word 'to' in the sentence - Which place do you want to go to?

texts:
Which sentence is correct and why?

Which do you want to go to?
Which do you want to go?

I am a native English speaker and was asked this by a Japanese person. I think number 2 is not correct but I don't know the reason why, or if in fact I am actually right.

Thanks!


texts: How do Latin etymons that end in English in *-tion* nearly always name a process?

texts:
I don't think the emboldening is correct, because -ing gerunds name a process. See https://english.stackexchange.com/a/444498. -tion just names a result of that process. What do you think?

        In English and many other languages the word for transla-
tion is a two-headed beast. ‘A translation’ names a product
– any work translated from some other language; whereas
‘translation’, without an article, names a process – the process
by which ‘a translation’ comes to exist. This kind of double
meaning is not a problem for speakers of languages that pos-
sess regular sets of terms referring both to a process and to
the product of that process (as do most Western European
languages). Speakers of English, French and so forth are quite
accustomed to negotiating such duplicity and can play games

Page 21

with it, as when they say walk the walk and talk the talk. More
specifically, words derived from Latin that end in English in
-tion nearly always name a process and a result of that process:
‘abstraction’ (the process of abstracting something) alongside
‘an abstraction’, ‘construction’ (the business of building struc-
tures) alongside ‘a construction’ (something built), and so on.
In a related kind of word-use, the teacher of a cordon bleu
cookery lesson hardly needs to explain that the French use the
word cuisine to name the place where food is prepared (the
kitchen) and the results of such preparation (haute cuisine,
cuisine bourgeoise, etc.).

Page 22
David Bellos gained his doctorate in French literature from Oxford University (UK) and taught subsequently at Edinburgh, Southampton and Manchester before coming to Princeton in 1997.. Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything


texts: In Vs On Vs At (when talking about streets)

texts:
I have found many sentences with street names and some of them have these three prepositions. I Don't know, but I believe that Americans use (on + name of the street) and British use (in + name of the street). So if I am correct about this, are these sentences correct?

  He lives in Oxford St.

  He lives on Oxford St.

I also came across that "in" is not used when we want to talk about exact location, you'd use "at" instead. So, are these sentences correct?

  He lives at 4732 Marshall Drive.

  Alice's office is at 26515 Main Street.

These last two sentences I've come across them using the prepositon "on", but if "at" is used to exact location, I think that "on" would be incorrect. I don't know if there is any difference between British and American English in this case.


texts: Would a semi colon be appropriate in this sentence?

texts:
We previously ordered Flood insurance coverage for you to cover our interest in the property above; however, this coverage has been canceled. Please review the enclosed Evidence of Cancellation effective as of the date indicated above.

Would this be correct usage? Please explain why or why not. I read up quite a bit on the independent clause situation, but I just want to make sure I am making sense of this.

Thank you!


texts:
Which is the correct way of saying the following sentence (if there is a "right" way)

I used different symbols to make it great.
I've used deifferent symbols to make it great.


texts:
What does "in transports" mean in the cherry tree story from The Life of George Washington by Mason Locke Weems:

  "Run to my arms, you dearest boy," cried his father in transports, "run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold."

https://books.google.ca/books?id=jnZGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA14&dq=inauthor:%22Mason+Locke+Weems%22+%22in+transports%22


texts: Revising a sentence to make it more clear

texts:
I'm making revisions on a book from an archaeological museum.

As I was reading through, this sentence stroke me as a bit odd and I need your help correcting it.

  Pottery shaped as horses, ducks, boats, wheels, horns, houses, and shoes were excavated from Silla burials, as were vessels with human and animal figurines attached and pottery with geomatric designs.

I'm not quite sure what the author meant by

  as were vessels with human and animal figurines attached and pottery
  with geometric designs.

Here's a revision I made:

"Pottery shaped as horses, ducks, boats, wheels, horns, houses, and shoes were excavated from Silla burials, so were vessels with human and animal figurines attached and pottery with geometric designs."

My question is:

Is the original sentence grammatically correct?
Does my revision make sense?

Thank you in advance,

Appreciatively

Yeseul Shin


texts: Is there a term for a behavior irrationally linked to an outcome?

texts:
Experiments on lab animals have found that they sometimes associate an action with a reward because it coincided with a random food drop.  For example, a pigeon looks over its left shoulder, then a food pellet drops, and the pigeon spends the next week constantly looking over its left shoulder trying to make more food appear.

Is there a term for this in humans?  "Superstition" and "magical thinking" are close.  "Irrational behavior" covers it but is very broad; is there something more specific?

I'm most interested in a term or phrase that refers to acquiring this kind of behavior, but a term for the behavior itself would also be appreciated.


texts: What does the phrase *order of tens* mean?

texts:
I've encountered the following paragraph in a paper

Fortunately, the task can become much simpler if we restrict the
domain to the set of all graphs on maximum k nodes, where k is fairly
small (in practice up to the order of tens).

I was wondering what order of tens means in this context? Up to 100?

What I found in the dictionary:
MATHEMATICS
the degree of complexity of an equation, expression, etc., as denoted by an ordinal number.


texts: Which is the correct spelling: "grey" or "gray"?

texts: What is the difference? Or is there any? Which would be more British English?


texts: using "the" before "adjective + name of the country"

texts: Do I need to use "the" if I say "mysterious Japan" or "vast Russia"? Will it be "the mysterious Japan" or just "mysterious Japan"?


texts: What does the phrase “even a fool gets to be young once” mean?

texts:
In the movie American Gangster, Frank Lucas said

  Even a fool gets to be young once.

What does this phrase mean?


texts: "Has been" in conjunction with "prior to"

texts:
Is it correct to ever use has been and prior to in the same sentence?

For example:

  The symbol has been respected prior to its official use on the state flag.

I'm hesitant to instead write "had been respected" because I feel that would imply the symbol is no longer respected following its inclusion on the state flag, but at the same time I cannot think of an example where "has been" has been properly used in conjunction with "prior to" or "before."


texts: What do we mean by "the decision was finely balanced"?

texts: To me it can mean either that the decision could have gone one way or the other or that it was very carefully considered "weighing up" all possibilities and outcomes.


texts: Sometimes people say "etc., etc." at the end of a list to whimsically suggest many more items. Is this grammatical? Is it acceptable in a professional or academic context?


texts:
Should I write (n-1)th or (n-1)st
Relatedly, is it "n minus oneth" or "n minus first".

Thanks!


texts:
I'm not sure how to use the following words correctly in finance.

Until now, I've used lend and borrow to represent acts that are relative to loans. Today, one of my friends told me that lend or borrow is not the correct way to speak about the money, but didn't recommend any other words to use. Can anybody point me in the right direction on this?

Moreover, I know the word repayment is the act of paying back money that I've borrowed, but don't know the word that represents people returning money that I've lent them.


texts: Punctuation for a list of names in the middle of a sentence

texts:
Under the direction of General Manager, Rian Wagner, a motivated project team, including: Edison Ven, Gary Bon, Justin Bembi, Marco Conch, Leo Bold and Richard Trolo, led the effort to bring the area up to the Inner Messa standard.

Is the punctuation in this sentence correct?  Should there be a comma at the end of the list (after "Rich Triolo")?


texts: Why are there are so many words for "zero"?

texts:
Null, nil and naught are all synonyms of zero, and to my knowledge, zero is the only number that has this many cognitive synonyms, if not more. Why is this?

Does it have to do with English being significantly influenced by both Germanic and Latin, leading to many synonyms with different historic roots, this number being an example of that? Or are there other factors at play? Zero is more than just a number, it is a concept, the concept of nothing, which would probably warrant many entities putting a name on it; does it have anything to do with that?


texts:
Is the use of the colon correct in this sentence?

  She pushed the thought aside because she didn't want to ask herself
  questions like: Where did he go? Was he even real? Was she going crazy? She just wanted to pretend like it had never happened.

This is in a work of fiction. I know a colon should come after an independent clause, but are there exceptions to this rule, especially in fiction? This seems like the simplest way to structure the sentence, and I like the placement of the punctuation because it clearly sets off the list of questions, but I also want to make sure this is correct, or at least passable in fiction.

I have both the Chicago Manual of Style and MLA as references, but neither suggests this structure is explicitly incorrect.

Thank you for your thoughts!


texts: Can I 'propel somebody to do something'?

texts:
As the title states, I would like to convey the idea that a specific event urged some people to do something. The phrase as I would formulate it is:

The advent of computers propelled scientists to seek new methods to solve the problem.

Is this form correct?


texts: How do you say to "connect nails with heads"?

texts:
I was chatting with a non native speaker and they said "we will connect nails with heads" or something along that line, and asked if that was the right way to say it in English. I knew what he meant: "get things done" but wasn't sure if that was a common thing to say.

So is there a colloquialism involving nails and heads (or hammers) that means to get things done or produce results, and what is the common way of saying it?


texts: T-glottalization in West Country accents -- is it a south-eastern influence?

texts: English speakers from the West Country seem to glottalize their tees just like Estuary English speakers do. I can't find a word about T-glottalization in the West Country accents on the internet. I'm guessing it must be a pretty recently acquired characteristic. Am I right? Is it spreading from around London?


texts: What part-of-speech would a vehicle's year/make/model be?

texts:
Suppose I were to say this sentence: "I own a 2003 Ford F-150."

Would 2003 Ford F-150 be a compound proper noun?
Would Ford F-150 be a compound proper noun and 2003 be an
adjective?
Would F-150 be a proper noun and 2003 and Ford be adjectives?
Am I way off, and there is some other term for this?

It's been a while since I've taken any sort of grammar course, so I'm admittedly rusty on some specific instances like this. I honestly don't think #3 is the correct answer, as Ford seems like it would definitely be part of the proper noun, but I included it just to be thorough.


texts:
I was reading a sentence:

  The Governor was a good-for-a-giggle, gullible man, that was all.

The english that my chapter deals with is "BRITISH", so i want to know the meaning of "good-for-a-giggle" from britishers because google gave me nothing so good.

Note: Meaning of:

  for a giggle: as a joke or prank; not seriously.(source:CollinsDictionary)


texts: What is the name for the thing we search for?

texts:
For example I'm looking for a specific string in a list of files. Is there a single word for a-thing-that-I-search-for? I could only thing of a Holy Grail, but that's too sophisticated for normal use. I would prefer a common noun.

I tried to use Google, but it's hard to find information that relates to searching process itself...


texts:
It was an inaniloquent chat room.

But is it common to use the word inaniloquently in another context? for instance:

He speaks inaniloquently.


texts: "of" Vs "at" is it something idiomatic or there is a grammartical rule?

texts:
What is the rule that I can follow to decide when to use "of" or "at"
When they are both used for causes.

1- I'm ( surprised/amazed/disappointed) at you.

2- I'm (afraid/sick/tired ) of  you.


texts: Shouldn’t the sixth “buffalo” in the famous buffalo sentence be in the third person and thus take an “s”?

texts:
The famous

  Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

means:

  Buffalo from Buffalo – whom other buffalo from Buffalo bully – bullies buffalo from Buffalo.

So, the sixth buffalo should take an s, and then the sentence is not a that homonym any more!

On Wikipedia, a sixth buffalo is taken as plural so that it does not need an s. But the subject of that verb (the sixth buffalo) is the second buffalo and thus is singular. Have we intentionally ignored a rule in the language so to make a homonym?


texts: Is the use of semicolon applicable anywhere in this sentence?

texts:
Here's the sentence -

  On further statistical analysis, these benefits were found to be both
  short term (0-30 days) and long term (31-360 days) and in both STEMI
  and UA/NSTEMI patients, irrespective of whether PCI was done or not.

I was tempted to write this sentence in the following way:

  On further statistical analysis, these benefits were found to be both
  short term (0-30 days) and long term (31-360 days), and in both STEMI
  and UA/NSTEMI patients; irrespective of whether PCI was done or not.

Any thoughts on what the right way is?


texts:
Are there any firm rules for separating a participle phrase with a comma? I rarely place a participle phrases close to the noun it modifies and wonder whether a comma is required.

Do either of these sentences require a comma?

  In their dressing gowns, Rose and Martin stand by the window (,) watching the scene unchanged from the night before: the storm continues.

Rose and Martin watch the storm, not the window, but I think that would be understood.

  They view the top of the cliffs where scores of youths are positioned (,) using the advantage of height for an aerial bombardment of rocks.

Here there is no object or indirect object, so I think the comma is unnecessary.


texts: What is the meaning of "You've never met a graph you didn't like?"

texts: From an article that recommends things to read to help students too focused on exams and disconnected from the rest of the world.


texts: Word for the love of participating in new worlds?

texts:
I'm searching for a word that describes being passionate about participating in and building new things in other worlds or communities. Note that this is unrelated to the exploration of those realms.

Some examples would be:

A fascination with building a colony on Mars. (But not necessarily exploring the planet.)
Passion for building things in Minecraft, or role playing in other virtual worlds.
Longing to travel, not to see new places, but to experience or influence different communities, places, or cultures.

The word could be descriptive, "He loved to _______, that's why he went to Mars." a title, "He was a ________, that's why he went to Mars." or any other term that fits, usage is not a restriction.


texts:
Is there a more commonly used phrase or idiom other than

  I've punched several tons above my weight

Of course, I know the original expression is "I've punched above my weight" but I need to emphasise just how much!

The context of this:

"Hey guys, I just had a date with [X], I have to say I've punched several tons above my weight!" meaning that I went out with someone who is much more attractive than someone I could usually date due to my relatively less nice appearance.


texts: Differences between "in a list" and "on a list"

texts:
Generally speaking, is there any difference between saying "in a list" vs. "on a list"?

There's already a similar question, but that was about one specific example with a specific answer; if possible, I'd like to know if there's a general rule or if there are situations where one form would be preferred over the other.

Examples:

"to be in the list" vs. "to be on the list"

"to save in the list" vs. "to save on the list"

"to put in the list" vs. "to put on the list"

etc.


texts:
In this sentence, the noun savings is in plural form:

  I have one savings account.

It is like a gerund or maybe it is a gerund, I am not clear about
it. But when I searched the Internet, I found somewhere claiming that a
gerund is always singular, but somewhere else claiming that some gerunds do
have plural forms.

I am confused. As far as I understand it, saying that a gerund is a verbal
noun means that it is a verb as well as a noun at the same time, but that
it is also not a noun.

The Internet suggests that gerunds iwth plural forms like drawings,
meanings , and so one do not seem to be gerunds at all but they do seem
to be nouns.

I want to know:

Do gerunds have plural forms?  If so, could you please give me some examples?
Are the nouns drawing, meaning, etc. actually really gerunds, or are
they actually really nouns?
What is the difference between a gerund and a noun?


texts: the apparent distance created by an angle, the "size" of an angle in 3D space

texts:
I can measure things in the distance, like really tall buildings, by pinching my fingers in front of my eyes.

The "perceived distance" between my thumb and forefinger is the same as the "perceived distance" between the ground and the top of the skyscraper.

E.g.

Even though in reality the pen is much closer to the laptop than it is to the guitar, the guitar and the laptop are the same angle from my eyes, so are two-dimensionally equidistant from the pen.

What is the name of the length of this two-dimensional line created by an angle in 3D space?

Apparently the angle is called the angular diameter, wikipedia has this pic:

I want the name of d/2. Wikipedia (on that page) called d the diameter, but I bet there's a more specific term.


texts: Is there an umbrella term for fictional and non-fictional works?

texts:
I'm trying to find a word that describes movies, books, poems, plays, and basically anything that is either fiction or non-fiction. "Media" doesn't work because that includes songs and paintings.

Anyone have any ideas?


texts: Single word (Preferably) for phenomenon when two persons who are at not good terms with each other and involve third person to correspond between them

texts:
What is it called (Preferably single word) for phenomenon that is taking place when three parties are involved such that first two persons (Group of people, party or Departments, etc) are at not good terms with each other. And so first party involves you (or your department) as the third person to talk (Converse, correspond) to the second party and vice versa. The question is about what kind of phenomenon is happening between all the three parties and not what the third party party is doing individualistically.
The point of this is to highlight to the management the amount of work that the third party (its department or members of its group) have to undertake is a overburdening our department (third party).
Example:
________ is causing excessive work burnout, disgruntlement, disengagement in our department (within third party) since the XYZ department (first party) is reluctant to correspond with ABC department (Second party) and vice versa. And we (third party) have to pay the price.


texts: Is Australian English closer to US English or British English?

texts: It would seem obvious to me that Australian English is closer to British English due to the historical events that led to English people living here. But it seems when differences occur that US English aligns more. Is this due to content from the US vs. Great Britain?


texts: Is there a name for words rhyming from two different stanzas?

texts:
Im analyzing this poem, and I noticed that none of the words rhyme with each other in a stanza, but words rhyme with another word from tge next stanza. I understand rhyme scheme is supposed to be within each stanza. Is there a word when rhyming occurs outside the stanzas???

“I heard the screams above the blood-fire street
Echo  sickly through disease  vestibules

The reaper gathers as he ridicules
 The paddlers of flash, the buyers of meat.

Tonight the reaper walks with silent feet
 To visit we’re friends who sleep in gutters.

Near refuse cans. They awaken and utter
 Nothing, as if they knew their life’s complete...”

This is not the whole poem by Enrique B. Del Rosario.
I noticed that..
Street and meat and feet and complete
Vestibules and ridicules
Gutters and utter
Rhyme, but each word that rhymes is from a different stanza.
Is there a term for something like this?


texts: How to form questions with causative 'make'?

texts:
Take a sentence like "The mom made her son read a book."
How would you form a question whose answer is "her son"?
Is this correct?
"Whom did the mom make read a book?"
It sounds odd to me, probably because of that "whom" at the beginning... but maybe is the way to say it. Would "who" be also be correct in this case? And is there any other way you would frame this question that sounds more natural to you?


texts: word for a condescending, snarky, yet awkward and jealous, person

texts:
i'm looking for a word for a person who is cynical, judgmental, nitpicking, condescending but also flawed, gawky and timid (in an unfamiliar setting), and is harboring some kind of jealousy towards other people, especially those whom he/she hates.

An example of this kind of person is Lizzy Caplan's Janis in Mean Girls. you know the girl who first befriended Lindsay Lohan's character and convinced her to get along with the the plastics in order to exact revenge on Regina george?

Also, the word (or words) could be formal or slang.


texts: Why don't dictionaries list "burnout" as spinning tires?

texts:
None of many official and authoritative dictionaries I checked online describe "burnout" as does this Wikipedia article. What I'm talking about is this:

I checked:

Cambridge Dictionary
American Heritage Dictionary
Random House Kernerman Webster's Dictionary
Oxford Dictionaries (at lexico.com)
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Collins English Dictionary
Webster's New World College Dictionary
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online
Macmillan Dictionary
Oxford Learner's Dictionary

The only place I've seen this definition is in Wiktionary where it is the last and fifth definition given, after definitions 2 and 3, which would seem to suggest these meanings are more frequently encountered:

  (US, slang) A marijuana addict; one whose brains have been burned out.
  (aeronautics, space) The shutoff of a rocket motor following the complete exhaustion of its fuel supply, or having been irreversibly throttled after the application of a planned delta-v.

The Wikipedia article says that a "burnout" can also be called a "peelout" or "power brake", but from what I've seen "burnout" seems to be much commoner than either of those two alternatives. "Peelout" or "peel-out" and "power brake", if found in dictionaries at all, often have inconsistent meanings among each other. One I saw gave the definition of "peelout" as what I would call a skid (as in coming to a stop with the wheels stationary). Wiktionary doesn't list this "peelout" as a "burnout", other dictionaries list "peel out" as a phrasal verb meaning to depart quickly and noisily in a car or motorcycle, and "power brake" gives results like this:

  A motor vehicle brake assisted by a power mechanism operated by the engine that amplifies pressure applied to the brake pedal.
  American Heritage Dictionary

What I find surprising is that to my knowledge "burnout" isn't really slang or informal. The Wiktionary entry listed definition 2, a marijuana addict, as US slang, but didn't mark spinning tires meaning at all. If I were giving testimony in a court I would most likely use this word instead of saying "He spun his wheels and blew up smoke from his tires."

Is "burnout" not the overwhelmingly commonest word for this action? Is it slang or informal? And if it isn't, why isn't this meaning defined in dictionaries? Even informal and slang terms are defined in official dictionaries, and I thought "burnout" was a very common term. It's something I thought all of us see and hear all the time. And I'd bet some of us do little mini versions of this when we take off too fast, especially in front-wheel drive cars.


texts: Word/ expression/ idiom for "when you realize the good deeds someone has done after their departure/ death"

texts:
Oftentimes there are people that do good and people don't respect them (and/or rebuke them), but when they leave the place or die, people realize that they were a good person and that what they did was great and good.
Examples:

There was an employee (A) in a shop who used to keep the shop organized and tidy but the owner of the shop wouldn't respect it and would rebuke him. After A left the job and the owner assigned his job to someone else B, the B wasn't so organized and the shop would always be messed up, the owner realized that the first employee A was much better and what he did was good and he was a nice employee.

Sometimes there are wise people that people don't respect much but when they die, people realize how kind and wise they were.

Is there an idiom in English to convey/express that?
Edit: I am not sure as to how my question lacks details. I have provided two examples and have explained the situation. Can the close-voters explain how else could I explain and clarify my question?


texts:
I'm looking for a word used in interaction design and probably in other fields as well.

It's used for the following purpose:

  If a door has one handle which is a flat surface and another hanlde which is a bar then the bar has a ___ for being pulled, and the flat surface has a ___ for being pushed.

What is this word?

It would be used to describe that an object complies with its "desire" or not to be able to make the user experience as intuitive as possible.


texts:
Can you say "I can have had been..." doing something?

Example:

  I can have had been reading a book if I could send a letter back in time to tell myself.

So, not could have had been, specifically can. Like, I can be doing something, but the something has already happened.

If you can not grammatically express the idea like that, how can you?


texts: What do native English speakers mean by "Russian"?

texts:
When you're translating a text containing the word Russian from English to Russian, you must be aware of the context, because it can mean "a citizen of Russia, regardless of ethnicity" (россиянин), or "an ethnic Russian, not necessarily a citizen of Russia" (русский), or both, in which case there is no single word for it in Russian.

What do native speakers of English usually mean when they use the word Russian (when referring to a person or people)?

As I understand it, native English speakers are not acutely aware of the distinction between the two meanings, but it's very important in Russia.


texts: "There's a bear here"- is there a better way to say it?

texts:
It is very common for people to say something like "There's a bear here".  However, I don't think that this is correct, because a bear cannot be both "there" and "here" at the same time (barring any creative physics concepts).

Is there some better way to say it?  "Here's a bear" sounds like I'm presenting a bear as a gift.


texts: Do I need another 'which' in this sentence?

texts:
I'm trying to make the sentence below sound better:

  As a first year undergraduate, I am keen to explore possible careers which, I think, would challenge me and (which) would allow me to create positive change in the world.'

Do I need another which before would allow me to create...? Or is it optional?


texts:
When we search for digital copies of oil artworks, it is often exist many different variants varying in color and size. For example, below are two variants of The Boyhood of Raleigh by John Everett Millais. (Source: WikiArt.)
The first copy, 25% of its size on WikiArt:

The second copy, the original size of the file:

Is there a word to describe such copies? I mean, the word should stress the fact that it is the same painting but different attempts to convert it to digital form.
The words "copy", "variant", or "digital image" are too broad, to my opinion. The word "digitization" seems to be describing the process rather than its result.


texts:
I am teaching English to my cousin, but I am not sure how to explain phrasal verbs correctly.

For example "take off". I explain it as two words but a single entity. When I ask her to name a verb in the sentence The plane is taking off, I expect to hear "to take off", not "to take".

Do I understand this concept correctly?

Update: In the sentence "She put her hands around her hear and squeaked." Is "put around" a phrasal verb or there are separate verb and preposition?


texts: visitors IP or visitor IPs or visitors IPs

texts:
Which one is correct?

visitors IP
visitor IPs
visitors IPs

To make things clear: a number of users visit a website. I want to say each IP of each visitor as a whole.

In other words what do you call this pack:
[IP1, IP2, IP3, ...]


texts:
I think my question would fit better in stackoverflow, but as it isn't a technical question I'm posting it here.

For a CV-type document I need to "headline" my role in fixing an issue.

I did some modification on the front end of an software tool, but I think the term front end developer is a bit to "high" as it already existed and I just edited minor things. Is there a good way/word to describe my having done this?

Any suggestions would be welcome.


texts:
Which sentence is correct?

I have read the books that you had introduced me.
I have read the books that you had introduced to me.


texts:
I found an example in that particular structure which is:

  During a night-terror episode, the person will partially wake up screaming, moaning, or gasping for air.

It is clear that it means the first thing the person will do after waking up is screaming, moaning, or grasping for air.

I want to use the same structure but with the verb (dream):

  I wake up dreaming of ...

As the process of dreaming is known as a fact that it happens during the person's sleep and stops the moment the person wakes up, would my sentence mean that the dream stopped immediately after waking up, or would it mean, like in the first example, the moment I wake up, I started dreaming?

I want to convey the first meaning.


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "another string to your bow"

texts:
Specifically - what kind of bow? I assume it refers to an archer's bow, but I guess it could relate to a bow used to play a stringed instrument (like a violin).

Also, I've heard it used in the sense of an additional skill, as well as a new achievement - I'm not sure that it makes so much sense in the latter but that probably depends on the origin...


texts: What does ex - muslim pakistani mean grammatically. Does it mean ex muslim ex pakistani?

texts: If ex is followed by two words or adjectives, then does ex imply to the first adjective only or it will be applied to second adjective aswell e.g, ex-muslim pakistani.


texts: It is worth pointing out vs It is worth noting

texts: Im writing an article and I have already used the phrase "It is worth noting that..." If later on I use another phrase "It is also worth pointing out that..."  is it redundant?


texts:
Trying to understand what seems to be a very subtle difference in written and spoken English.  Recently, I've seen articles that use 'to + gerund' and 'to + infinitive' in the exact same situations, especially when preceded by an independent clause with a subjective complement:

Editor's Corner: There is no silver bullet to solve homelessness

'There is no silver bullet' to solving N.D.'s worker shortage, officials say

These exist in relatively equal distribution on google, (16k for 'no silver bullet to solve' and 13k for 'no silver bullet to solving), and I'm having a tough time understanding syntactically what might be going on here.

I thought a good analogy might be the "I look forward to hear/hearing from you" mistake than many English language learners make, but this doesn't seem to be that same situation, both in the sense that to my native ears one doesn't sound much better than the other, and I'm not sure they're the same syntactically.

In my (probably misguided) syntactic reading of the first sentence ('There is no silver bullet to solve homelessness'), I think that 'to solve homelessness' is an infinitive clause acting as a prepositional phrase:

And therefore is syntactically similar to something like, "There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's."  This, to me, seems correct.  Does this seem on base?  And if so, why do these two different approaches exist equally on the net?  Is there any potential syntactic reading for 'to solving' that makes sense here?


texts: Can I say "get out from the train" or do I need to use only of there? Are there any rules about this?


texts: Word for corrupt middlemen/landlords during the Roman era?

texts: I happen to know about this word, but presently it escapes my memory. Basically, I'm trying to communicate to someone about how does working in a large bureaucratic software company feels. The managers in those companies today are pretty much like these Roman overlords of the past who just made a living out of exploiting the poor farmers and taking advantage of the disconnect between them and the royalty.


texts: Use of "as" when describing circumstances

texts:
In a sentence with four parts,

As sharing crime statistics for
the year 2011, the Commissioner admitted that
there had been an undue delay in
the setting up of an anti-narcotics cell.

I am told there is an error in part 1: as should not be used. But I don't understand why that's so.

What is wrong with as, and what should go there instead?


texts:
Is this question written correctly?

  Has the problem been solved already?

or maybe is this way

  Has the problem already been solved?

are both correct?


texts:
I read this sentence in a book review. I can understand the sentence but, I am confused by the globe over.

  Human history? Global economy? Her evidence for women the globe over
  consists of thin, small facts cherry-picked to support outsize claims.

What part of speech is "the global over" in the above sentence and what does it
mean?
How about  cherry-picked?


texts: Is there a name for a non-ambiguous statement that contains unresolved ambiguous details?

texts:
Yearless dates can be ambiguous.  "04/07" for instance is understood as "April 7" by Americans, but as "the 4th of July" by most other nationalities.
This ambiguity is frequently resolved by the context it was written in, but often not.
I recently wrote something using this date format, saw that it would be ambiguous, and then immediately realized that it didn't matter.
The two dates were individually ambiguous, but together they weren't:

Each year, 05/09 and 09/05 fall on the same weekday.

It doesn't matter whether one reads these as MM/DD or as DD/MM; the sentence is equally correct, even though the two dates each remain ambiguous.
Is there a name for this phenomenon of ambiguous details that together produce a non-ambiguous result?


texts: "I am thinking to invest" or "I am thinking investing"?

texts:
Which of the following sentences is correct?

  I am thinking to invest in stocks.
  I am thinking investing into stocks.


texts:
What is the term for animals that live under water (not necessarily in an ocean)? Ideally this would include sharks, dolphins, crabs, seashells, salmons and pet fish. Here are some I can come up with, but none sound right:

Aquatic Animals
Ocean Creatures
Ocean Animals
Marine Lives
Marine Animals
Marine Creature


texts: Is there a word to describe the feeling of wanting to be someone else

texts: Is there a word that describes having a deep desire to have a different life ( because the current life is bad), or a word that describes a longing to forget the past or just forget everything in general?


texts: What does “Be weird about something” mean?

texts:
According to the article of Washington post (August 18) titled “O’Donnell Walked off CNN interview,” the former Senate candidate from Delaware and tea party favorite walked out during interview by Piers Morgan in his ‘Piers Morgan Tonight’ on August 17 night, when she was asked about her stand on gay marriage by the host.
The hot scene went like this:
When Morgan asked O’Donnell whether she supports gay marriage, she asks about the relevance of the line of questioning.

“You’re getting, you’re borderline being a little bit rude,” was her first response.
Morgan asked her why she was “being so weird about this.”
“I’m not being weird about this, Piers,” she responded, saying she was not running for office. “I’m not being weird, you’re being a little rude,” she said.

As I was unclear about the meaning of “Be weird about something,” I checked a couple of dictionaries and came to the definition of “weird” in Dictionary Cambridge Org. being “very strange and unusual, unexpected or not natural,” together with the examples:

Her boyfriend's a bit weird but she's all right.
That's weird - I thought I'd left my keys on the table but they're not there.

However, neither the above definition nor example seems to me to just fit to the phrase quoted in the above exchange of tense words. It appears to mean “being weird’ here means “being very irritated, get excited, or vexed” to me. What both Morgan and O’Donnell meant to say with this phrase?  .


texts: Why is "do" used twice in the quotation, "do you do as the Queen has bidden"?

texts:
The extract is from B. Shaw's play "Caesar and Cleopatra".

  CAESAR [cutting her short] I speak to the Queen. Be
  silent. [To Cleopatra] Is this how your servants know their
  places? Send her away; and do you [to the slave"] do as the
  Queen has bidden. [The slave lights the lamps. Meanwhile
  Cleopatra stands hesitating, afraid of Ftatateeta].

Why does do appear twice?


texts:
Say, you buy some new office furniture. You get the furniture parts delivered including the service to put the different parts - for example the desk top and the desk legs - together to complete furniture ready for usage.

Is the person who carries out this service called "Assembler", "Installer" or "Fitter" and is his service called "Assembly", "Installation" or "Fitting"? Are the words interchangeable? Do they have different connotations? Are there other contexts where they are not interchangeable?


texts:
Can you tell me what does not in small way mean in following context :

  To work at this company you really have to have just desire to do something, and not in small way.


texts: What's a word for someone with low level of knowledge in an area, and no intention of going further?

texts:
Over on Photography Stack Exchange, people often describe themselves as "beginners" or "newbies". Nothing at all wrong with that — in fact, it's great. Both of these terms have the implication of starting at a low level now, but with the general expectation of gaining knowledge.

I want to distinguish this from someone who doesn't really want to begin at all. In photography, they may just want to take a decent picture for social media but don't actually want to learn anything or, heaven forbid, practice. But I also don't (always) mean this negatively: if that's not your interest, you're just needing to do this thing in the course of something you do care about, why should you become an actual beginner?

The same could apply to computers — I may be not very skilled at spreadsheets, but, also I don't consider myself a beginner, because I have no intention of getting better. I just sometimes find myself needing to edit them and send them around to people for my job.

Is there a word for this concept? I was thinking "tourist" — but, hopefully something less metaphorical. Sometimes people say "not a professional" or "just an amateur" with this kind of meaning, but particularly in photography that's really not the right distinction — an amateur may in fact be an expert.

This also isn't the same as "dilettante" — which does seem a perfect match for the full text of the question What word means someone who’s satisfied with superficial knowledge?, because that has a) an implication of showiness I don't mean to imply and b) doesn't apply very well at all to the case of someone just wanting a basic question answered so they can get a different job done. A dilettante has — or feigns — interest in a topic (and even may pretend expertise), but doesn't really have the will to learn. I'm looking for a word for someone who doesn't even have the interest or pretense of one.

In usage: "I just want a camera that will do everything for me — I don't want this as a hobby... I'm just a _____".


texts: Is there a synonym for participant suitable for a research paper? I have seen words such as colleague, member, party, etc. in various thesauruses, but these do not fit with the meaning I am trying to convey. I am looking at using participant as “someone who participated in an experiment”.


texts:
I read this sentence somewhere today, but I think that the of would fit better here than for, don't you think?

  The cause for the original problem will be analysed in the normal maintenance hours.

I find myself sometimes thinking when I should use for and of and I cannot reach a conclusion. A few guidelines on this subject will be appreciated.


texts: Use of the word "panic-stricken" for self

texts:
which would be the correct use of the word "panic-stricken" in the two sentences below:

  I was panic-stricken at the thought of missing my trip to usa

OR

  I got panic-stricken at the thought of missing my trip to usa

Also, please explain why! Because I'm trying to improve my English vocabulary and usage of words in everyday English.

Thank you


texts:
I'm looking for a phrase that says "even though the voters have chosen someone in the short term who was quite toxic - there are hidden long term benefits that come out because of the collective corrective wisdom of large groups of people".

The phrase might be:

guiding hand of democracy
wisdom of crowds.

My question is: What is the term for 'guiding hand of democracy'?


texts: I've often wondered about the phrase "safe and sound." It seems like a common phrase that most English speakers understand, but it also seems quite old-fashioned to me. I read about it, and I understand it goes back all the way to the 14th century, but I've been unable to find its first use. Are people aware of any other popular usages over the years that would explain how it would remain commonplace after all these centuries -- despite "sound" not commonly meaning "whole" in modern times?


texts: Why can go take a gerund? (eg: go shopping; go fishing, go dancing)

texts: I am trying to figure out why go can take a gerund, which is a verb doing the job of a noun, as an object yet the verb go is always intransitive and therefore cannot take an object. I need to make sense of this in order to explain to my class.


texts: Future-In-The-Past Form of 'Should [subject]…, or should [subject]…?'-Type Sentences?

texts:
     Consider a present-tense sentence in which a story's narrator expresses a situation in which the character in focus is considering which of two alternative choices he or she should make in the near future.  Such a sentence can be constructed as follows:

  [a] Should he or she…, or should he or she…?

  [b] Should he or she…, or would it be better if he or she…?

  …, et cetera.

Here's an example of this kind of sentence:

  [a] Should he eat the sandwich, or should he save it for later?

  [b] Should he eat the sandwich, or would it be better if he saved it for later?

  …, etc.

Now suppose the person who wrote that sentence and its surrounding text decided to change his or her work relative to the past tense.  How would he or she then alter a sentence like the one presented above as an example to make it fit in right alongside his or her newly revised content without needless linguistic contortions on his or her part?  Would the author use the 'future in the past' tense in some way, shape, or form?  If so, then how?  I haven't, for the life of me, been able to figure that out by myself.


texts:
I’ve finally decided to take a look at my English pronunciation and it is being an awesome new world. I am focused on Received Pronunciation (British Standard) and one question comes to mind for which I can find no answer on the internet.

The a spelling on CAN and THAT should have the same pronunciation according to the pronunciation symbol ‘æ’, but they don’t.

The pronunciation of that as /ðæt/ seems quite right, but  shouldn’t can be /ken/ not /kæn/?


texts: Origins and meaning of, “Ham and Egg it”?

texts:
This term was used by a MLB sports announcer yesterday (5/10/2015 - Padres vs. Diamondbacks @ 2:10:41) talking about relying on relief pitchers.

  “Diamondbacks today trying to ham and egg it with that bullpen.”

I guess the idea is that the bullpen personnel are very expensive, so just rely on that investment to get you out of a jam???

Is this idiom “a thing”?  Is there an origin or more logical explanation to visualize what this idiom means?


texts: What is the name for the music or sound played when a key character appears in a play, movie or show; like in "Peter and the Wolf"?


texts: How to write: "submit to review" or "submit for review"?

texts:
How to say more correctly: "to submit to review" or "to submit for review"?

Ngrams says that "submit for review" is more frequent usage. But I still see a lot of "Submit to review" in software related topics.

Could you help and say is it correct to use "submit to review" phrase or this is completely incorrect?


texts: A word for "always looking for self-improvement"?

texts:
Is there a word which describes a person that is always looking for self-improvement (i.e. is aiming for perfection, never satisfied and is always looking for areas of improvement)?

Thank you.


texts:
I have just turned in a paper on engines, but I keep thinking about a sentence I wrote:

Plug-in hybrids offer a variant since they work with the electric engine for longer periods, being still more eco-friendly.

Is it acceptable to use "offer a variant" in this context? What I meant was hybrids are an alternative vehicle.


texts: Word or expression for the noise in a busy house with kids?

texts: Need words or expression that get the meaning right without resorting to using simple ones like "shouting" . I'm trying to describe a house with kids where a lot of activity is happening


texts:
What is the meaning of the following sentence, said from a person that is at home, and is going outside?

  I will go up to the stores.


texts: multiple words connected using multiple hyphens or one?

texts:
There are many topics here related to multiple hyphen use, which seems to depend on various factors.

  human-voice controlled system
  human-voice-controlled system
  human voice-controlled system

Which is correct? Typically, human voice when used without the word controlled, need not be hyphenated.

  software and finite-state-machine -based approach
  software- and finite-state-machine -based approach
  software and finite state machine-based approach
  software- and finite-state-machine-based approach
  software and finite-state-machine-based approach

Which of the above are correct and incorrect, and why?


texts:
The only link on Google is to this Wikipedia page on a "Poetic Retelling of Genesis". I gather Lēoþ means "song", but there is no definition of the other word. Does is just say "In the beginning" or something?

BTW, where did that Poetic Retelling come from? Side note.


texts: Evaluating a sequence of logical clauses that are chained using "and" and "or"

texts:
How do you evaluate a logical statement that has multiple condition clauses "If A or B and C"?
From method 1 & 2 below, which is the correct/common interpretation?

If A is true, or both of B and C are true, then the statement is true.
If either of A and B is true, and also if C is true, then the statement is true.

Using parentheses, the method 1 & 2 would be:

A or (B and C)
(A or B) and C

Coming from a programmer point of view, most programming languages use the method 1, where all 'and' are evaluated first before the 'or' are evaluated. Is it also true for English language in general usage?
To use a concrete example, consider the following A, B, C:

If it is morning or it is evening and it is Monday, then I will bring an umbrella.

Do I bring an umbrella if it is Tuesday morning?

Yes
No

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Let me add additional information why I insist on not adding additional commas to resolve the ambiguity.
I'm designing a system where a non-technical user can define rules using English language with specific formats, for example:

today is sunday
date is 1st of june
user's age is not less than 18

And the rules can be combined using "and" and "or":

today is sunday or date is 1st of june and user's age is not less than 18

Can I rely on a common interpretation in English using a well-known precedence of "and" and "or", or do I have to either:

introduce commas into the rule grammar
put a disclaimer on how the "and" and "or" will be interpreted by the system?


texts: "I didn't hear back from you about [something]" - Correct use?

texts:
This is my first post.

Background: I applied for further studies, to one of collaborators lab and he replied with a very positive e-mail, asking about time to talk on phone. But after that I never received e-mail from him, so I am following up.

I am starting my response like this:

  I am sure you are very busy, but I didn’t hear back from you about the
  convenient time to further discuss xxx position in your lab.

But I am not sure if:
1) I can add "about ...." after "I didn't hear back from you"? and
2) if its rude to mention that I haven't heard from you?

Your responses will help me use "didn't hear" correctly in future.

Bade


texts: Can we have a noun after "being able to"?

texts:
Currently reading "Taiwan's brain drain prompts worries," by Austin Ramzy from International New York Times (January 14, 2016), I came across the following sentence:

  but I do not see the D.P.P. being able to, or promoting, a radical overhaul of the economy.

My instinct says it means, "but I do not see the D.P.P. being able to promote a radical overhaul of the economy nor actually promoting it."

However, since "or promoting" is inserted--and separated by a set of commas--shouldn't it be grammatically correct even after it's removed?

But then,"I do not see the D.P.P. being able to a radical overhaul of the economy" doesn't make grammatical sense to me. I've never seen a noun or noun phrase after "able to."


texts: Can "apocryphal" be used to mean "not true"?

texts:
I always thought that apocryphal should just mean "of doubtful authenticity". But more and more I am noticing that people use it positively to mean mythical or untrue, especially in phrases such as "This is probably apocryphal, but...".

The use of probably here is what seems to indicate a difference in understanding of the term. If something is doubtful, then it is just doubtful, not "probably doubtful".


texts: nouns to introduce the subjunctive mode (?)

texts:
Is it possible to introduce/form the subjunctive mode with a noun?
Are all the sentences below formed correctly?

eg

Mike recommended that Suzy not be at the meeting - ok

recommendation that Suzy not be at the meeting - ok??

He suggested that I leave immediately - ok

suggestion that I leave immediately - ok??

etc


texts: What is the British meaning of the word, "bloody?"

texts: What does bloody mean in the British language?  I hear it used all the time but I do not know the meaning of the word, "bloody."


texts: "Keep the bed from running away"; equivalent idiom in English?

texts:
In my country, when someone is sick, they might say they are keeping the bed from running away. That would mean, they feel so sick, they literally stay in the bed most of the day.

Is there an equivalent in English that depicts the humorous nature of this one?


texts: What is right way to write this (break-down)

texts: I prepared report on total spending in month along with break down by items.


texts: Why can 'X as well as Y' be written as 'as well X as Y'?

texts:
Prof. Brooks Landon, U. Iowa, Ph.D., U. Texas at Austin, Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love to Read (Great Courses), 2013, p 193:

         More on Dr. Johnson shortly, but it’s useful to note the extremes to which Lyly took parallelism. And a little Lyly goes a long way. Here’s a brief excerpt from his dedication of Euphues to his patron, Sir William West. Lyly is making the case for the essential honesty of his depiction of the youth Euphues:

Whereby I gather that in all perfect works as well the fault as the face is to be shown. The fairest leopard is set down with his spots, the sweetest rose with his prickles, the finest velvet with his brack. Seeing then that in every counterfeit as well the blemish as the beauty is coloured I hope I shall not incur the displeasure of the wise in that in the discourse of Euphues I have as well touched the vanities of his love as the virtue of his life.

          So patterned and so mannered, paralleled and balanced was the prose in Lyly’s Euphues that it has given us the rhetorical term euphuism. Terming euphuism “the rhetorical prose style par excellence,” Richard Lanham explains in his Handlist of Rhetorical Terms that it “emphasizes the figures of words that create balance, and makes frequent use of antithesis, paradox, repetitive patterns with single words, sound-plays of various sorts, amplification of every kind, sententiae and especially the ‘unnatural natural history’ or simile from traditional natural history.” Somewhat discouragingly, Lanham adds: “Lyly’s style has been studied largely to be deplored.”

I'm assuming that  “as well X as Y” = “X as well as Y”. The latter is a constituent and can’t be decomposed.

But why does English permit “X as well as” allowed to be decomposed into “As well” + X + “As”?

Can anyone explain why “as well X as Y” is obviously less readable, and is unnecessarily burdensome? I think that a reader processes X first as the noun, not "as well".


texts: What is the meaning of “What a box to sweat in!”？

texts:
I have started to read "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway. I stumbled a lot shortly after the beginning, as I'm a middle-aged Japanese dude who is struggling to learn English. I need someone's help.

The first problem is the meaning of the sentence “What a box to sweat in!”. It occurs in the dancing scene.

The context is as follows:

  "It was hot and we came off the floor perspiring. “My God,” Georgette said. “What a box to sweat in!”".

I can guess why Georgette exclaimed that it was so hot. But what is "a box"? Is that the dancing room or the floor? What is "to sweat in"? What is the object of the "in"?
Did they "sweat in a box"? I can't get the nuance.

Thank you in advance for your help. Any comments and/or corrections on my questions are also welcomed.


texts: Is there a word for "making someone notice you"?

texts:
The other day, I was in my car, waiting for a traffic light behind a pedestrian crossing. A friend of mine crossed the street right in front of me. For some reason, I didn't try to get his attention. I didn't do anything to make him notice me.

Is there any verb to replace "try to get his attention" or "make him notice me" in the two previous sentences? "Notify" and "inform" are tagged as formal in my dictionary. What other verbs will a native speaker use in this case?


texts: Using articles before the subject of a sentence?

texts:
"Smartphone is very useful"

  "Dog is loyal animal"

are these sentences incorrect? or do they require articles before the subjects? if yes, how to decide which article to use, definite or indefinite?


texts: Is this grammatical? "You are who I love."

texts:
I've just got wondering if this sentence is grammatically correct:

  You are who I love.

This is what I am thinking:

Let's focus on the who clause, then you can find that the missing element from this clause is actually an object after the verb love. Therefore, who should be changed to whom, which is an object relative pronoun.

You are whom I love.

Now, the whom clause has no problem, but you can see that whom clause works as an object. However, there is the place at which a subject complement should be. So, I should either change the whom clause back to a who clause or make you into an object.

You is whom I love.
It's you whom I love.
Whom I love is you.

After all that, I came this far with these three sentences and I think the most appropriate sentence is the second one, but I'm not sure if my assumption is right; the way I fixed the sentence, is it right?


texts: Reordering a complex sentence without changing its meaning

texts:
I came across this sentence while watching a TV show on time travel:

  I want you to go and see me when I was a sophomore in high school.

In this, the speaker is asking somebody to go back in time.

However, if I put the dependent clause at the start:

  When I was a sophomore in high school, I want you to go and see me.

The meaning has clearly changed by moving the dependent clause to the start, as it doesn't refer to time travel anymore - it now simply refers to a wish that the speaker had when he was in high school.

Is this expected or am I overanalyzing? I'm wondering if there is a way to reorder this complex sentence without changing its meaning.


texts:
Intended Meaning: Suppose I am feeling upset. There is a clear cause for this feeling, but I also know that if I wasn't also in a particular circumstance, I would be better equipped to temper my unhappiness. Therefore, the circumstance only changes the magnitude of how upset I feel, but it does not explain the cause of the feeling.

Connotation: Positive. I'm trying to suggest that the circumstance made visible the cause, which might have been suppressed otherwise. The function of making the cause visible is useful.

Context: In a discussion, someone tried to discount how I felt because of this circumstance: "You only feel upset because X was happening at the same time." I'm trying to say that X only helped me realize some underlying discontent.

Non-example: A word like exacerbate does not include the "making visible" aspect that I'm looking for.

What is a good word to describe the circumstance? I will accept an answer which can describe the role of amplifying in order to make perceptible.


texts: Word for someone preferring homeopathic treatments to western medicine

texts:
Similar to an anti-vaccinationist, I'm looking for a word that means someone who prefers homeopathic treatments instead of prescription drugs or refuses (or even simply distrusts) medical treatment altogether possibly for religious or personal beliefs. This may or may not be hypernymic to anti-vaccinationist.

I realize this question could attract terms that could be considered derogatory, but hopefully there's a term that isn't.

Example sentence:

The Simpsons episode "Brother's Little Helper" shows certain cynicism for prescription drugs as opposed to homeopathic alternatives, the writers may be ________.


texts:
I saw this sentence today as the motto to a meeting of English teachers:

  What’s in store for us teachers?

Although I think I can grasp the meaning of this sentence — something like “what is being kept for us?” — I can’t understand what it means when used in the song “I get along without you very well”, as made famous by Chet Baker:

  What a guy! What a fool am I?
  To think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

  What's in store? Should I ’phone once more?
  No, it’s best that I stick to my tune.

So — does it just mean “what is being kept for me?” or does it have a more idiomatic, nonobvious meaning? As a bonus, if anybody knows what is “stick to one’s tune”, please let me know.


texts: Name of the fabric towels are made from - flannel or terry cloth?

texts:
Background: I was asked to apply "hot flannel towel" by my optician; to alleviate a mild eye lid inflammation, not important. My question is what she meant by the "flannel towel".

Terry cloth (or terrycloth) - this is the fabric towels are normally made of. As Wikipedia puts it: fabric with loops that can absorb large amounts of water. It's surface is coarse, it's made for rubbing. In my language we use froté, from French frotté, meaning rubbing.

Flannel - this is the fabric shirts can be made; and also blankets and bed sheets. NOT towels. It's soft and smooth and not a great water absorbent.

Thinking that "flannel towel" would mean a towel made of flannel, that is a special type of a towel, I started to search on Amazon. But to my surprise, all the results terry towels labelled as flannel towels.

Flannel even seems to be even used as a synonym to towel.

Is it something historic? Like that towels used to be made flannel before terry cloth was invented? Please, can someone shed some light on this?

And back to my optician advice, should I keep searching for a towel specifically made of flannel?

UPDATE:
The optician is British English.

UPDATE 2019-09-06:
So I simply emailed the optician. Their answer was:  A small face cloth will help or any small terrycloth towel also.


texts: Why is "the" used here? I would use not article in this dialog

texts:
It upsets Sheldon when you play with the food...It upsets Sheldon when you play with the Sheldon. First sentence I kinda can justify the, second one - just don't get it.

(The big bang theory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCK6ZwpNICQ)


texts:
Suppose someone (let's call him Alex) is bad at playing soccer, but he does not want to hear that.

Now if someone says to Alex in his face, "you are a really bad soccer player", what would be an apt word for that? In my mother tongue it is called "unqualified truth" for Alex. Is there an equivalent English term?


texts: Meaning of "it is only a small percentage of whom this would be true at present."

texts:
In the extract

  It will be said that men will not work well if the fear of dismissal does not spur them on. I think it is only a small percentage of whom this would be true at present.

could the second sentence be rephrased as

  I think this would be true only for a small percentage of men at present.

?


texts: That was mandatory as of or is mandatory as of

texts:
The sentence for reference:

  Learn about commercial wireless lighting controls that will help
  satisfy the new NEBC2017 that was mandatory as of January 1, 2019.

In this sentence, the usage of was seems correct since the date the new lighting standard - being the NEBC2017 - had been enacted was in the past. However, I can't shrug the feeling that using is makes more sense since the standard is still in place today.

Are both usages correct? If so, what are their different connotations?


texts: I'm designing a data structure that disallows inserting the same element twice, and I want to give it a name. Is there a single word for "fear of duplicates?" "Dupliphobia" sounds wrong.


texts: Can the term divorcée apply if a woman has not only divorced, but subsequently remarried? The definitions I have perused do not address the matter, but I would think the answer is "no."


texts:
What is the meaning of Freddy's?
Why did put apostrophe s at the end of the word Freddy?
What is the grammar rule behind this?


texts: Is the adjective “nothing loath” still in common usage?

texts:
Google  Ngram Viewer shows a decline in the use of “nothing loath” since the 1970s unlike its  antonym “loath” which is still widely used.

Would it be appropriate for me to use it or has it become obsolete?


texts: What is the origin of the word "copper" for referring to a police officer?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What are some slang words for “police” in countries besides the US?

What is the origin of the word copper for referring to a police officer? There is no shortage of explanations available on the Web, and as near as I can tell they fall into three categories:

It is a variation of the Latin capere, meaning, to grab or apprehend — a meaning preserved in expressions like “cop a feel” — that came into use in Britain in the 1700s.
Early English police forces had very large copper helmets (or, in some versions, buttons).
The badges worn by early New York police officers were made of copper.

In addition, some sources have the word arising from “the color of the early police or sheriff cars in the western states”, and even from an acronym for “Constable On Patrol”.

What I can’t find is an authoritative reference on the matter. The OED entry seems to support (1) as an application of the word, at least for cop, but is ambiguous about its origin and says only that “other conjectures have been offered” for copper.

Is there a generally agreed to origin for the use of copper for referring to a police officer?


texts: what does "pinned post" mean in Chinese?

texts: I came across a phrase "pinned post" in this web page - https://purecss.io/layouts/blog/. I tried to find out its corresponding meaning in Chinese, however, I got nothing. I hope someone can explain it for me. Thanks!


texts: Word to describe a person who can express their thought accurately in words?

texts:
I am a fan of Jordan Peterson. If you know him you will know that he can express his thoughts very well in language. He can give words to thoughts. Is there any word which can describe a person who can express his thoughts in words?
Word tried: outspoken
But it is not exactly hitting home. It emphasizes on frankness and controversial ideas.


texts: Byname or patronymic names for daughters?

texts:
Bynames in various texts and genealogies include the suffix -ing to indicate the son of. Example would be Cynric son of Cerdic written as Cynric Cerdicing.

Was there a similar practice for daughter's "bynames?"


texts: The most suitable verb for the expression "print a book"

texts:
I was wondering whether you could help me in choosing the most suitable word.

Can I say that "a book is currently being printed" or is there a better expression? What I am trying to say is that the book will be available in a month or two but the people need to wait until it is "printed".

The word "print" doesn't sound too good IMHO, but as I am not a native speaker I suppose an advice from a person more fluent in the language than I am would be quite helpful.

Thanks!


texts:
What would be a a linguistic term for those nouns ending with -ing?

Examples: building, scaffolding, ending.

What are some other examples, and what do they all share in common semantically?


texts: Alternative word/phrase for for company branding, logo, image, colour scheme used, etc

texts:
What is an alternative word or phrase to describe a company's branding, logo, image, colour scheme used, etc.
A while back I read this but cannot remember what it is.


texts: "...demands of us that we not lose sight..."

texts:
What are those weighty moral and intellectual demands? For one thing, I think the Holocaust demands of us that we not lose sight of the fact that it was not just another tragedy in war-torn Europe amidst clashing nationalisms.
Source: LA Review of Books

I have a question regarding the form of the subordinate clause "that we not lose sight…" from the excerpt above. Would the sentence have the same meaning when there would be "that we do not lose sight…"?


texts: Is "anybody's guess" origin anybody's guess?

texts:
I was looking for the origin of the common expression "anybody's guess" but I couldn't find any much evidence. Checking with  Ngram  it appears the expression become suddenly popular during the 30's and that it has retained its popularity since then. The similar expression "anyone's guess" followed a similar but slower pattern.

Questions:

1) What is its origin? Was it a theatrical, journalistic or fictional expression for instance?

2) Why did it become so popular during the 30's?


texts:
My question is why :a: is used in the following structure.
A + ving  such as in “a bringing together, a coming together of …”
Ving should be treated as an uncountable, or if an article is required “the” should be sued instead. Thus, “the bringing together, the coming together of …”
Thank you so much in advance for all the answers.


texts: Should it be "A visit to the ancient city of Rome"? Because "A visit to the ancient city Rome" doesn't sound correct.


texts: What is "sun up" in the shopping situation?

texts:
Probably, I heard it wrong. When I bought a candle in the glass cup, at the cashier, a lady asked me "do you need sun up?". But I couldn't understand what she was trying to say. Could you tell me what this is?

Probably it was "sum up". But I still don't get this. I only bought one candle by the credit card...


texts:
and the choice of what to include and what not to include was necessarily a personal one

Could it be said: "...was necessarily personal"? Which is the "one" to substitute, "choice"?


texts: Does "egoistic" and "egotistic" mean the same thing?


texts:
Which form is correct: "in detail" or "in details"?

I want to use it while describing an algorithm. First I give a general description of an algorithm and then more detailed description.