texts: Sorry for the ridiculous question, but I can't understand the difference between fap and masturbation. Does fap mean the whole progress?


texts: What is the meaning of "I have attitude"?

texts: what does the phrase "I HAVE ATTITUDE" mean in this picture?


texts: Is there a word for someone who forgets people's names?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes a person who is unable to remember people's names.
An example would be:

  You can't blame her though, she is a [forgetter of names].

In terms of a condition I found aphasia, which the OED defines as the "loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage" but this isn't quite what I'm looking for.

Which word would be best suited?


texts: Is "swimming" a gerund in "I went swimming"?

texts:
What is the function of swimming in the following sentence?

  I went swimming with some friends yesterday.

Is swimming a gerund here? If it is, what is the grammatical function?


texts: Noun to name the never ending struggle of getting better at doing something

texts:
In my company we are trying to apply a set of techniques to shorten software release delays (among others).

When starting to work toward this goal, we had a set of tasks grouped in a category   called "CI/CD readiness", meaning that we are trying to get up to speed with the basics of this way of working ("CI/CD").

Now, a few months later, we have made some significant progress in implementing some industry standard techniques, but there is still some work to be done, and probably will always be.

For this reason, I'm looking for the last few days for a word to name this: the never ending task of getting better and better at CI/CD.

Also I would like to convey a meaning that we are embarking boldly on this journey.

So far, I have a few ideas but none that seems to describe this exactly: "art", as in "martial art", "proficiency", "improvements".

Do you know of any word that could express all this?

Thanks,


texts: What kinds of words or phrases would you use to describe this situation?

texts:
As a teacher I am obliged to look after children during the recess/break.

How would you call this situation in English? Let me elaborate a little bit: Each lesson lasts 45 minutes, then students are entitled to a break. During that break, usually two teachers take care/look after  the children in order to prevent any dangerous situations to happen. I am curious about how we can describe this situation. I would go for 'I have a break duty after my 4th lesson on second floor'.

Am I correct when I use 'recess/a break duty' term?


texts: Is "sustain the tuition fee" correct English?

texts:
Searching for it in google yields just 9 miserable results. So, I am puzzled - is it bad English, or is the opposite true - too good to be widely used?

EDIT

The complete sentence is:

  However, having our children attend a good school is also very
  important to us, so I have been using the School Report Cards by
  Fraser Institute as a guiding tool in my search for a good public
  school (unfortunately, we are unable to sustain the tuition fee for a
  private school).

English is not my native language, so Google is my primary guide to what is widely used and what is not.


texts: Which one is right, "The text to search for must be typed in the ..." or "The text to be searched must be typed in the ..."?

texts:
Which one is right,

"The text to search must be typed in the ..." or
"The text to search for must be typed in the ..." or
"The text to be searched must be typed in the ..." or
"The text to be searched for must be typed in the ..."

Also, what is the topic in English grammar for such a sentence form?


texts: What does "common stake" mean in this sentence?

texts:
What does common stake in the sentence below mean?
Does it mean a common role?

  Such overgeneralized beliefs will also be resistant to change, because
  individuals develop a common stake in their perpetuation.


texts: "If you was to . . ." vs "If you were to . . ."

texts:
Good day. I've been learning modal remoteness and the irrealis were, and I understand that the irrealis were is limited to 1st and 3rd person singular subjects. Now, my quesiton is, what should I use with the 2nd person singular? I've seen both "if you was" and "if you were" used in published books.

What's the difference between "If you was to crack it open" and "If you were to crack it open?"

Is 'you was' primarily used very informally? Like in this passage from Discworld: “An’ if you was a troll, he’d have all your teeth knocked out an’ make cuff links out of ’em.”

Thanks.


texts: Do I need to use quotes when referring to something?

texts:
Do I need to use quotes here?

  You can find those terms under the separate section called “Earthquakes” later in this chapter.

If no quotes are needed, must the word Earthquake still start with a capital letter?

Or must I set only that word in italic — and if so, then do I still need quotes or is there no need to start with caps if I do so?

I want to use no quotes, no capitals, and no italics, but is that ok?


texts: How does 'shrift' connect with the idiom 'short shrift'?

texts:
Please explain the intuition and connection behind the definition of shrift and short shrift?
How does the former imply the latter?


texts: Word/phrase for country's Ideology /political syst., whose governing bodies keeps tight control on media, on leak of info regarding mishandling

texts:
Looking for a reasonably official Word or phrase for Ideology /political system of a country, whose governing bodies keeps tight control of its media, its internal affairs and does not let any interference whether human rights or international pressure on their self serving policies. Where laws are passed by parliament tightening media control. Mishandling in the country is beyond scrutiny from outside (international) forces. Pretty much everything is insulated as in "insulated country"
An '...ism' or '...logy' or "...cracy" or "insulated country" like listed word or listed phrase. I believe dictatorship could have been used. But it is rather outsider pressure which is intolerated while internally there is either amicable agreement owing to plain cultural similarities or simply forced cultural obedience typically like a monarchy.


texts: parent vs parents, which is the correct word to use?

texts: i would like to know which of these is exactly correct or is both allowed ? i see people use parent and also as parents in day to day communication.


texts: What is an idiom for overcoming a life obstacle?

texts: It's on the tip of my tongue -- something related to a tool like "to pass through a vise". The meaning is along the lines of overcoming a character-defining struggle in your life; the kind a person only goes through once a lifetime.


texts: Word for well-intended compliment that offends you?

texts:
For example, if someone says “I love your art. It reminds me of that movie, Avatar” and you happen to think Avatar is a horrible movie.

I wouldn’t say it’s a “backhanded compliment”, because it was well-intended.


texts: How can I say four different colors for five different items using “one”, “another”, “the other”?

texts:
Am I saying this correctly?

  There are five items in four different colors. One is in red, another is in yellow, another is in green, and the others are in black.

Also, can I say:

  Two items are in black, and each of the rest is in red, yellow, and green.

And, can “the” be omitted before “two items”?


texts: What is it called when you coin a different version of a word that already exists?

texts:
I was in a college class the other day and someone was struggling to think of the word "invalidate". Much to my amusement, they landed on "devalidify" instead.

Is there a word or phrase for such a phenomenon, where you coin a word that is technically wrong, but still makes perfect sense?


texts: Pronunciation difference between "cycle" and "psycho"

texts:
When I speak English, I can't tell the difference between cycle and psycho, I pronounce them the same.

And it's not only cycle vs. psycho; when words end in -le or -o, I always confusee them.

How to pronounce them correctly?


texts: Is there an alternate term for "the power behind the throne?"

texts:
NOAD describes a figurehead as

  a nominal leader or head without real power.

I'm wondering if there's a complementary one-word term for the person who does wield the power in such a situation. I'm aware of the phrase, power behind the throne,

  a person or organization that exerts authority or influence without having formal status.

I'm just hoping there's a way to refer to such a person more directly and succinctly.


texts:
Consider two sentences -
1) I didn't know that X is a Russian.
2) I didn't know that X was a Russian.

My question is, under the condition that X is still Russian, can sentence 1) be used ?

Thanks.


texts: How should you read proper nouns aloud in English?

texts:
When people don't know how to pronounce a word in English, they can look it up in the dictionary. However, lots of proper nouns usually can't be found, for example, English names.

Here are my questions:

When people want to read some English texts out loud, what do they usually do when they get a proper noun that they don't know how to pronounce? Are there any general rules of thumb for such a situation?
Are the students in English-speaking countries required to read English texts out loud in elementary school? And how are they told to deal with the problem I mentioned above?


texts:
I often see people complaining about a politician, e.g. "X is terrible". But instead of evaluating X in an absolute sense, X should be compared with the other available options. So if X was running against Y, the correct question to ask would be "How good/bad is X as opposed to Y?". Or even better "How is X compared to other candidates past or present?"
Would this be a false monochotomy?


texts: Is there a difference between "keep on doing" and "go on doing"?

texts:
Keep on: "to continue doing something, or to do something many times."

Go on: "a) to continue doing something or being in a situation. b) to continue without stopping".

From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English


texts: Looking for synonymous expressions for - to throw someone away like a used toothpick

texts:
In my native (Georgian) language we have this colloquial saying - throw someone away like an eaten apple, meaning- to get rid of someone after having taken advantage of him/her in a dishonest way.
I have come across a few such sayings in English as well, like- to throw someone away like an old rug or used toothpick or spit someone out like a cherry stone, etc.
I have a question, are there any other such sayings and which one is used more frequently in English?


texts:
A news reporter is giving some tips about how to tackle the spread of fake news.At the end, she gives her final tip and says" that sort of leads around to our top tips for stopping..."
Why does she use the preposition "around" ? Is "lead around' considered as a phrasal verb?


texts: Why does "Baby Daddy" TV series have a very difficult accent?

texts:
I can hardly understand  Baby Daddy TV series season 2, so I downloaded the script. Now, I can recognize words and sentences because I read along as I listen. But I still find it a very fast accent. I watch many English videos on YouTube such as TED talks and they are not that fast. Why is there a difference? Does Baby Daddy have a special accent?

As a native speaker, what do you use in your daily life, and what is the accent spoken in the American street? Is it as fast as Baby Daddy?


texts:
My textbook set a test question:

Check the usage of the word "insert" in the following sentences:

It is his habit to insert new topics in the discussion.
The country is planning to insert a new satellite into the orbit.

According to the book, the answer is to use "introduce" instead of "insert" in the first sentence as it is more apt.
For me using "launch" instead of "insert" in the second sentence should be correct, as it is most often used in this way.
Am I wrong in assuming this? And is the book correct? What is more apt ?


texts: A word to use sarcastically for "An invention which is amazing but not useful in any way"

texts:
Let's say that two people are talking about an invention which is amazing in that it is beautiful or proves an impossible concept but hardly has any use. How can one refer to it in a sarcastic manner, as if saying that the invention was the need of the day ?

Sample Dialogue -

  Thawed out caveman : I must say the science of your times is quite
  amazing. I never quite could have imagined something like this.

  Modern day scientist : Yes...Modern technology has grown by leaps and
  bounds...We have X, Y and Z

  Thawed out caveman : And then there is cloning

  Modern day scientist : Yes, truly one of our "_________"
  technologies in this day and age of overpopulation.


texts: Will (for certainty) and Going to (for evidence)

texts:
According to my grammar, when we talk about predictions, "will" can be used when we are certain something is going to happen and "going to" for evidences. I think that when we are talking about evidences, we are certain something is going to happen. Am I not right?

When the forecasters forecast the weather, I believe they use "will". Well, they are almost 100 sure and they say this because they have some evidence about this because of the satellites and stuff. So why not "going to"?

When I am 100 % sure about predictions, I use "going to" and when about true facts I use will.

  Look at the sky. It looks as if it's going to rain.

  His birthday will fall on August 12th.


texts: Origin of “I'm an idiot. Comes from upbringing. My father was an idiot. My mother was an idiot”

texts:
I'm an idiot. Comes from upbringing.
My father was an idiot. My
mother was an idiot too.

I've traversed all the Monty Python I know. Maybe something French?
I've used this 100+ times for comedic effect. Is it original?


texts: What's the proper form of "As a judge of your parents actions"?

texts:
A grammar checker is saying I have two options, but which one is proper since you have two parents:

parents'
parent's

Note: this is for a Theology Masters paper that I hope to eventually publish into a book.


texts: Position of comma relative to quotation marks: "You're wrong",... vs. "You're wrong,"

texts:
Below, I have written two sentences. Can you comment on the positioning of the first comma in each case. Are both sentences correct?

"You're wrong", Eddie replied.
"You're wrong," Eddie replied, "that's not what I said."


texts:
I found this phrase in a translation studies textbook,

  Veeraphol Nakonluang-Promotion put on a very impressive display to knock out defending champion Joichiro Tatsuyoshi of Japan to become the new World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight champion in Japan yesterday.

I know the meaning of the phrase.

But I wonder...
Is this a fixed phrase?
Are there any good (perhaps better) alternatives?


texts: Is this a valid way of implementing a continuous element into the sentence regarding "ashamed"?

texts:
"He should be ashamed to be laughing at his friends with the bullies."

I am quite aware that usually and most of the time the adjective ashamed is followed by "of doing", yet can that be substituted with "to be doing" in order to imply a progressive action?


texts: What is the origin of "one's eyes are bigger than one's stomach"?

texts:
What is the origin of your eyes are bigger than your stomach? Does it only refer to taking more food than you can eat?

Online dictionaries such as Webster's and Wiktionary define the phrase, but don't offer any information about its origin. They also don't say anything about using the phrase in broader applications, similar to how bite off more than one can chew is rarely used in a food context.


texts: Why are some latin phrases often abbreviated in english?

texts:
Most of the common latin words are almost always used in an abbreviated form, even when the word is short, like id est -> i.e.. I can't picture anybody thinking that it would be ok to abbreviate "that is" to t.i  or something like that.

Additionally why are some  abbreviated in lower-case, but not all?

Examples
i.e.
e.g.
MO (for some reason usually written like this :/)
etc.
id.


texts:
I need a term that establishes connection between a person and a certain object. As an example, if one of my friends(not with me now) used to have one particular chocolate bar, say X, and now I get reminded of him whenever I see th bar X or hear of X, then what could that connection be called?

likewise, if some particular event or object has the same reminiscence or connection, what can such a relation or situation be called?


texts: How many demonstrative pronouns are there really?

texts: Are there only four demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, and those in English, or are there more like thik which is a variation of this and that?


texts:
I'm preparing for an exam by answering some questions in an assignment, however, I am writing the answers in the same document as the questions. I would therefore like to name that file appropriately.

Solution seems misleading, as the file does not contain only solutions, but the questions as well!
Assignment seems like it's the opposite of one above, and therefore doesn't fit either.

What word is used to describe both questions and the corresponding answers?

The current name of the file is questions and answers, which is a bit too verbose.


texts: The difference between "only one" and "one and only one"

texts:
A teacher announces, "There is only one student who failed the course."

Does the teacher’s statement mean anything different from the following version?

"There is one and only one student who failed the course," said the teacher.


texts: Is there one word for "selfless to a fault"

texts:
What one word describes someone who spends so much time and effort looking after others, they neglect their own needs?

The other question/answers does not address the neglect of one's own needs.

I'll think about a sample sentence.


texts: I can not understand a sentence with "zoo of the new"

texts:
I am a statistics student. The following is extracted from my textbook:

The study of probability and expectation shows one way of coping with randomness and this book will build on probabilistic foundations to find the strongest possible links between claims and their random underlying stocks. The current state of truth is, however, unfortunately complex and there are many false trails through this zoo of the new. Of these, one is particularly tempting.

The above is the full sentence, and I especially can't understand the following parts. What is meant
by "zoo of the new"?

The current state of truth is, however, unfortunately complex and there are many false trails through this zoo of the new.

Is the meaning of "zoo" similar to "field"? Thank you!


texts: Meaning of "Green" and "GreenBack" in American english?

texts:
I found 2 new words on my American Slang book (Talk the way americans do).

1) Green

2) GreenBack

Meaning of these words on my book :

Green : money (Referring to the color green seen on U.S. paper currency). How much green do you have?

GreenBack : U.S. paper currency. The greenback is accepted almost everywhere around the world?

So ,my question is : Are these 2 words used in place of the word "money" in US?

Does the following sentence make sense in US English?

I had to spend 300 greens to buy the movie ticked in San Fransisco.

?


texts: What is the adjectival form of "primate"?

texts: To say a man is close to a primate, what should I use, "primatic" or "primative"?


texts: "Consent" in passive voice to refer to subject giving consent?

texts:
I noticed a usage I consider odd while copy editing, and I'm hoping someone can explain it. Here are two examples from published academic work:

Participants were consented to the study between 13 July 2009 and 14 February 2013, and randomised between 15 July 2009 and 18 February 2013. (link)

Thirteen patients were consented to the study. (link)

Based on the context, I understand them as meaning that the participants consented to the study. However, I find it curious that these samples write in the passive voice rather than the active voice because

I thought consent was only an intransitive verb, which means it can't be passive voice. That's how Merriam-Webster classifies it. To my knowledge, "the researchers consent participants" or "participants consent the study" don't work; "participants consent to the study" does.

Other verbs could work in the passive voice, like "participants were enrolled in the study." But multiple writers have decided to use this phrasing with consent.

My question: Is passive-voice consent a trend or something that is approaching accepted usage, a kind of error that happened to make it past some editors, or something that has been long accepted but not noticed?


texts: Is there a word for the sum of one's beliefs?

texts:
A manifesto, from what I've read, would be the sum of one's beliefs that one presents to the public prior to an election.

However, these principles may or may not be slightly, or significantly construed from one's actual beliefs. Is there a word which describes the sum of all beliefs, with which one cannot deny the existence of?


texts: I was looking for a prefix I could prepend to a word to mean an infinite amount of the thing the word describes. I eventually found someone with the same question, and since there were no answers, I offered a "close enough" one. But I got curious and tried to research some more. I didn't find a good list of amount-related prefixes (Wikipedia has an article on number prefixes, though), so I built one. But I found no prefix for infinity. Is there one?


texts: Meaning of "just about everybody else has" in this context

texts:
— I ever tell you how much she depends on you?
  — I ever tell you what an asshole you are?
  — Nah. But that's okay, just about everybody else has.
  They both laughed.

Is it "...everybody else has told", or what? I cannot be sure.

Actually, I wanted to ask about the meaning. Is it saying that "... everybody else has told me that I am an asshole" or something else?


texts: Confusion over “family name” in English: What about double-barrelled last names?

texts:
How do you fill out an official form in English that asks for just one last name  when you instead have a surname which comprises more than one word?

I currently live in a Latin country, where we have names which have “two last
names”.  One of these “last names” is the father’s surname and the other is the mother’s.  The order can vary between countries and even individuals.  Sometimes you see these written with a hyphen or an “y” to connect them, but sometimes you do not.

For example,

John Perez-Espinosa
Gabriel García Márquez
Federico García Lorca
Isabel Pérez-Espinosa González-Lobón
José Ortega y Gasset
José Aznar López
José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa
José Maria de Eça de Queirós

I am filling a DS-2019 Form because I am moving to the U.S., but for the name they ask for

_______________    _______________        ________________
  (Family name)      (Given name)          (Middle name)

That may map well to someone with a name like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, where you have one one given name, one middle name, and one family name (and in that order), but what about when you have more than one of one of those, like George Raymond Richard Martin, George Iain Duncan Smith,  or Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca? Put them both — or all — in the one field? Invent new fields?

So, given the Latin name (with two last names), how do you fill this field?  My last name has two names, so do I give them both, or choose just one, or hyphenate them, or something else like using one of the two last names as the middle name?

So under the last idea, the answer will be

____Perez_______    _____John_______        _____Espinosa___
  (Family name)      (Given name)            (Middle name)


texts:
Okay, I'm not quite sure if i'm allowed to post this here. I had a look at the linguistics SE, but it seems that questions there have to be research-level, and this is extremely elementary however I guess it is language related so I'll try my luck. My questions necessitates reading this passage:

  ...
  (11)
  A or B
  Not A
  Therefore B

  These schematic representations of arguments are called argument schemata. The letters A and B stand for arbitrary sentences. Filling in actual sentences for them we obtain an actual argument. Any such substitution into schema (11) results in a valid argument, which is why (11) is said to be a valid argument schema.

  The form we said that could be represented by (11) is more than just a syntactic construction. The first premise is not just two sentence linked by a conjunction, for it is also important what conjunction we are dealing with. A different argument schema is obtained if the conjunction 'or' in (11) is replaced by another conjunction say, 'if'.

My questions are:

What is meant by a 'syntactic construction'?
Why is the argument schemata represented by (11) "more than just a syntactic construction"?

As syntax is essentially the structure of a sentence, I believe a syntactic construction is merely a schematic representation of the structure of a sentence as in (11). The confusion I seem to be experiencing stems from when the author says "The form we said that could be represented by (11) is more than just a syntactic construction". What makes it more than just a syntactic construction? I then believe he goes on to offer a reason: "for it is also important what conjunction we are dealing with"; surely the conjunction we are dealing with would be important in a syntactic construction too?

Could someone help me understand this please. Thanks.


texts:
I myself am not a native speaker and my english therefore is likely not the best. I recently noticed a trend of people using the phrase "Could off done X". Which irritates me a lot. This has become so frequent, that I am starting to doubt myself and think whether I am wrong here. Other people on the internet don't seem to me as irritated, as I have not found anyone complaining about it (neither on ELL). Please help me out here:

  It is "could have done" and never "could off done", right?


texts: Listing independent clauses as effects in a conditional sentence

texts:
I have a sentence of the form "If X, A will B and C will D," and there is some disagreement of how to punctuate it.

On one hand, it is a dependent clause followed by two independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction. In this case, there should be a comma before the "and"

On the other hand, it is a conditional clause followed by a list of effects. Since there are only two effects, a comma would be unnecessary.

How should the sentence be treated? Which punctuation is correct?

Sources would be especially appreciated.

Here is an example sentence:

  If John goes to the party, Mary will bake a cake (,) and Bob will be unhappy.


texts: What would you call a person who is not a student, but takes interest in exploring academic topics?

texts:
A person who is not formally enrolled as a student, researcher or faculty in some university or college but who takes interest in exploring academic topics/stuff.  For e.g. Such a person could be someone who is working in the corporate & has interest in & explores his academic fields. What could be a simple, 'easy for all to understand' term to refer to this person?

I believe there is, perhaps, no easy single word for that, I can accept answers which propose a phrase that can describe this in a short and better way (must be easy for anyone to understand).

A not-so-good example: "A learner or academic enthusiast".


texts: Should I use a comma or a period in this sentence

texts:
Which of the sentences below is correct? My friend said the comma between holiday and can is correct, but I disagree. I feel like the sentence is better structured when you have a period between holiday and can. Please give me some advice. Thanks

We noticed you reported working hours for the 4th of July, while most companies observed that day as a holiday, can you please confirm?

We noticed you reported working hours for the 4th of July, while most companies observed that day as a holiday. Can you please confirm?


texts: How would you properly show deletion of unnecessary text in a quote?

texts:
I assumed you would use dots to show left-out unnecessary text in a quote, such as in

  The definition of used oil is "oil ... that is xyz".

The deleted portion is non-useful text that would confuse my readers, but I want to show them that the cited passage is a direct quote from regulations except for leaving out some words.  Are dots the correct way to do this?


texts: Looking for origin of sentence "Yep, it's a XY, all right!"

texts:
Just saw an episode title (Legacies, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14178112/?ref_=tt_eps_cu_n) called "Yup, It's a Leprechaun, All Right".
This reminded me of an old game I used to play, where you click on a cow and it says "Yep, it's a cow, all right".
This kind of sentence seems to be used prety often, so I was wondering if it is maybe a reference to some famous quote I don't know that native speakers maybe all know?


texts:
In my grammar book I've got a sentence

  The woman to talk to is over there.

and this is the only example of that type. That makes me believe I can say things like:

The packages to deal with will arrive tomorrow
The foreign student to help to practice his Norwegian isn't here anymore
Sorry! The guy to fix such things doesn't work today
My time to talk has come
The wish to call her waned after some time

Am I getting the hang of it or am I really off?


texts: Is "thanks to" now used also in negative contexts?

texts:
Recently I saw some uses of the idiom thanks to in negative contexts. They sound strange to me, probably because thanks express a grateful feeling or acknowledgment of a benefit, so I thought thanks to would be used only in positive contexts.

Searching ELU I found this 2010 question and the accepted answer clearly states that

  Thanks to has a positive connotation (unless used sarcastically).

Other answers in the same question also say that thanks to should be used in positive contexts.

Contrariwise, today I read this headline:

  Memorial Day parades canceled, thanks to wet weather.

Also Dictionary.com show a negative context for thanks to:

  The case went poorly thanks to the lawyer's incompetence.

I know that sarcastically thanks to can be used in any context, but at least the headline about the Memorial Day does not seem sarcastically to me.

Perhaps the question I mentioned earlier is outdated, as 6 years have passed, and now thanks to is also used in negative contexts? How does that sound to a native speaker of English?

TL;DR, Is thanks to (as a synonym for due to) used in negative contexts?


texts: What does "if and when" mean, and is it the same as "when and if"?

texts:
Rather than trying to describe my beef with this idiom, I will give a bunch of successively objectionable examples. None of these are taken from real life.

As I see it, if (and when) both "if" and "when" are used, they should both describe the following statement.

  (in an argument) If and when you admit defeat, I will be gracious.

This example is a perfect instance of this: "you" have not admitted defeat and it is not certain that you will, but "I" am promising to receive it with grace when it does happen.  "I" am not offering to make an exchange (which is what "if you admit defeat, I will be gracious") would imply), nor am "I" expressing bravado (which is what "when you admit defeat, I will be gracious" would imply).  The combination of circumstance and syntax produces a perfectly neutral conditional.

  (planning a war) If and when this country is invaded, we must be ready to fight.

This is more or less equally good at expressing unbiased uncertainty, though I suspect the speaker really meant to say "We must be prepared for an invasion", and thus, "We must be prepared! (Because we are at war and might get invaded)".

  (concerning a pregnancy) If and when we have a boy, we must name him after my father.

This has some false confidence leaking through, since with a pregnancy underway, whether or not the child is a boy is not in question (even if it is unknown).

  (family planning in general) If and when we have a boy, we must name him after my father.

This is actually expressing an agenda, and has very little to do with conditional action.  The speaker intends to continue trying for a boy until one is born.  Indeed, no pregnancy is yet extant, so the pure "if" statement is at best wishful thinking, while the pure "when" statement is expressing false certainty about an event over which one has no control.

  (preaching caution) If and when this country is invaded, we must be ready to fight.

This is worse than the 2nd example because the speaker is actually raising from nowhere the possibility of an invasion, and simultaneously elevating it to certainty.  You, the reader, may have the intended reaction to the statement "If and when the dollar becomes worthless", which can probably actually be heard these days.

  (estate planning) If and when I die, I want you to have everything.

This is silly: everyone dies.  There is no "if" about it.  On the other hand, in circumstances where untimely death is a possibility, it would be inappropriate to say "when".

  (sarcasm) If and when I ever learn the meaning of life, I will let you know.

This is even sillier: there is no possibility of "when".  Without the possibility of "when", the "if" also means something else: it is no longer a true conditional or even a counterfactual; such a statement can only be sarcastic.

Here's my question, then: what connotation is this idiom "supposed" to have?  What, at least, does it usually have?  Does the "if" or the "when" dominate or are they intended to be balanced, as I think?  And finally, as the title suggests, what difference does it make if their order is reversed?


texts: How does one tell the difference between long and short syllables?

texts:
Limericks normally use a meter consisting of a long syllable followed by two short syllables, or vice versa.

My question is, how do you differentiate? Is it by ear? I'm a native speaker but my experience with poetry and meter is very lacking.


texts: Do we have any academic adverbs that mean "as it can be inferred or deduced"?

texts:
I am in the middle of writing an academic document.
My question is, do we have any academic adverbs that mean " as it can be inferred or deduced"?
I want this adverb to use at the beginning of my sentence.
Example context:

We need money to buy food. [adverb or adverb phrase], money is also
important to keep us alive.

I am not sure if I can use the words inferentially and deductively at the beginning of my sentence or not. Also, please kindly let me know if you have any other suggestions.


texts: Welsh mother, Iraqi Dad: Welsh-Iraqi / Iraqi-Welsh? Or no difference?


texts: What are differences between a "panel" a "board" and a "think tank"?

texts: I am sorry if my question is stupid, but I can't figure out the difference between these three.


texts: What does "dullness" mean in the following context?

texts:
I understand that we strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, and long life. But what does it mean to strive for dullness?

  We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness.

Context: Thinking Like a Mountain By Aldo Leopold


texts:
Is it

  The process now can be calculated just like in the book.

or

  The process can now be calculated just like in the book.

?

Best regards (and feel free to edit if I missed something)


texts: “Page 6 of those two documents is/are significantly different.”

texts:
Page 6 of those two documents is/are significantly different.

I think is is correct, but what is the rule for this situation?


texts: “He said, X” vs. “X, he said” vs. “X, said he”

texts:
I’ve long wondered how in reported speech, what sort of change in nuance is produced by switching around the normal order of the subject (that is, the speaker) and the “speech-related” verb (such as say, ask, or mutter) used for simple declaration of whatever was said.

Assuming that QQQ below stands for any quoted speech, what — if any — subtle shifts of meaning are there between the following three formats?

  He said, “QQQ.”
  “QQQ,” he said.
  “QQQ,” said he.

In particular, in what situations is the “inverted” VS1  order of said he preferred over either or both of the two versions that use he said in the “normal” SV2  order?

Are these nothing more than three equal options that vary by individual writers’ personal tastes?

If not, then what  rules exist for choosing between and distinguishing these three variants?

1.  VS means verb–subject, or with object, VSO or OVS.
2.  SV means subject–verb, or with object, SVO or OSV.


texts:
The following sentence is taken from the series Shameless.US.S06E09, min. 7:00,

  We can't run this bar without her. Not, and raise two kids.

I don't think such an use of not is described in any conventiona dictionary, is it?


texts: "UID" (unique identifier) - half abbreviation, half initialism. What it is?

texts:
According to Your Dictionary¹:

Abbreviations: St. for Street and Saint, Mr. for mister
Acronyms: radar for radio detection and ranging
Initialisms: aka for also known as, FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation

The difference between acronymns and initialisms is that acromyms form new words, while initialisms are pronounces letter-by-letter.
People who are familiar with programming, databases, or library science are well familiar with the ID abbreviation, which stands for identifier.
But there is another one "thing", UID, which stands for unique identifier. It doesn't look as a pure abbreviation (because there are two words) or a pure initialism (because the first words is trimmed to two letters). So what it is?
¹ https://abbreviations.yourdictionary.com/articles/what-is-the-difference-between-an-abbreviation-and-an-acroynm.html


texts:
E.g:

"Reference of the actor who is granted access" vs "The reference of the actor who is granted access"?

Should we put "The" at the beginning of the sentence?


texts: When considering titles of scientific papers, why are definite and indefinite articles omitted sometimes?

texts:
Is it a rule or is it a sign of bad English among foreign researchers and scientists?

Example: Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array

I think there are at least three indefinite articles missing, and possibly some definite articles.
1) Through a nonlinear transuranic crystal
2) an extremely long wavelength pulse
3) a mode locked source array

I'm a non-native speaker, so any thoughts on this topic are very welcome!


texts: Difference between extraterrestrial and alien?

texts: What is the difference between extraterrestrial and alien in terms of the usage of these two words?


texts: Meaning of "save with swords for tickets"

texts:
I am unable to understand the phrase "save with swords for tickets". What is the meaning of the sentence?

  She will never attend Sunday-school or learn to vote save with swords for tickets.


texts:
The phrase "gentlemen and gentlewomen" has some usage between 1586 - 1591 after which it just petered out.

At the same time "gentlemen and ladies" seems to have more prominence and that continues to this day.

The etymology of lady says "wife of a lord", so how come it's become a fit into the phrase "Ladies and Gentlemen" as opposed to "Gentlewomen and Gentlemen"?


texts:
Should there be a comma after 1975?

  Peter Singer wrote Animal Liberation in 1975, igniting the modern animal movement.


texts: Intransitive verbs with preposition in passive sentences

texts:
The words listen, shout, etc. are intransitive verbs, but why are they used in passive sentences with preposition to, at, etc.?

e.g:

  she was never listened to.
  I don’t like to be shouted at.

When intransitive verbs are used with preposition, are they considered as transitive verbs?


texts: sow the seeds for (whence definite article? )

texts:
I have a quote from an article in The Economist:

  But they could re-establish a grip on large parts of the south and
  east of the country, give succour to al-Qaeda, and sow the seeds for a
  new civil war.

Please explain why we need to put the definite article before "seeds": it seems to be a generic reference, and so either "the seed" or "seeds" seems to be OK. There's no particular species of seeds that lead to civil war, a civil war may be caused by all kinds of "seeds" in the metaphorical sense; so why "the"? Do we need the THE because it is idiomatic usage in this case?


texts: How do I say that an infection was transmitted to me by droplet contact without sounding weird?

texts:
There's a list of ways an infection can be transmitted from one person to another: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_(medicine)

I can say, "This infection was transmitted to me sexually".
In the same way I wish I could say, "This infection was transmitted to me dropletly (or airbornely)", but obviously that's not proper English.

What is the proper way of saying this? Or is saying, "This infection was transmitted to me by airborne/droplet contact" good enough?


texts: Why is the answer “Again with the string?” funny when you pulled the string of a talking doll of your mother?

texts:
I know it’s boorish and unsophisticated to ask why it is funny on a joke, but I venture to ask.

New York Times’ theater review (May 20) of “Old Jews telling jokes” carried the following Jewish jokes;

  ’They’re, going to sell a talking doll of my mother,’ goes a setup, ‘You pull the string and it says, ‘Again with the string?’ Another one: ‘Why don’t Jewish mothers drink?’ ‘They don’t want to dull the pain.’ .

I understand the spirit of the second joke, but I don’t understand what ‘Again with a string’ of the first joke means, and why this line is ‘typically’ funny.

Does it have something to do with the idiom, ‘no string attached’?

It’s always difficult for a foreigner to get an idea of the meaning of foreign jokes, whatever it is Jewish, American, Irish, or Russian. Can somebody tell me what the essence of humor of ‘Again with the string’ is?’


texts: Is there a word or a term for when a story's ending is very similar or the same as its beginning?

texts: In the novel Perfume, by Patrick Süskind, it is notable that the main character appears in the same setting and scenario in the beginning of the novel and in the end. Is there a word for when this happens in novel or TV shows?


texts: What is the correct way to possessivize (if that's a word) a compound noun?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Preferred way to apostrophise in case of dual or multiple ownership by distinct entities

When forming the possessive of a compound noun, does one add "'s" to both or just one of the nouns?

For example,

  Jim's and Huck's raft

or

  Jim and Huck's raft


texts: What is the difference between straight line and line?

texts:
Since I belongs to mathematics. I always uses the word straight line in my field. According to us straight line is a locus of all points in which the moving point does not changes its direction or rate of changing direction is constant. Whereas in curve it changes its direction. So we can strictly divide geometrical figures in 2D as straight lines and curves.
My question is what is the use of including straight in straight line. Because we already have words lines and curves to differentiate.


texts:
Is it incorrect to say either of the following?

  In regards to your previous email

  In regards to your previous emails

I was asked this by a non-native speaker, and after thinking about it I decided that in regards to sounds more natural than in regard to.  Google confirmed that I have the same intuition as most speakers by returning 73 and 110 million results for the singular and plural expressions respectively.

I came here and found the related question What alternative would you suggest to "in/with regard(s?) to"?  Although my question was asked as a part of that, no one gave much of a defense of their opinion.  The closest was this comment:

  No, I think that's just wrong. You have to watch out, people love to make up "just so stories" about grammar. This arises in part from the very common misapprehension that all points of grammar make some kind of rational sense, when in fact a lot of the details are purely conventional. For instance, you can still say "In regard to the strawberries..." The plural there is just another (probably incoming) variant. If you don't want pedantic people to be irritated with you, then by all means don't use it. – Alan Hogue

Is this a case where the most common intuition is wrong?  Can someone better explain the rationale behind the use of the plurals?

A comment mentioned Google Ngrams and I'ved posted the graphs below.  In my opinion, Google search results or any other kind of Google result are only misleading if you're taking it to imply something more than what they're giving - raw data from some source.

Firstly, here are both in regard to and in regards to in the same search.  The plural doesn't show up because it's so low.

Now here is just "in regards to" in its own graph so we can see it.

I suppose I should refrain from offering interpretation.  I'd like for people to do that in their answers.  Nonetheless, this does absolutely beg for certain conclusions to be drawn.

As a final note, Google Trends shows in regards to winning out of the two with about the same ratio as the search results.


texts:
I'm studying Spanish and I have some questions about the grammatical parallels in English.

  Le gustan cocinar y hornear.

  He likes to cook and (to) bake.

When an infinitive is used in Spanish, there's no ambiguity, because an infinitive has a unique spelling from the rest of the forms of the verb.

So my question is this:

  I'm here to help.

Is to part of the infinitive help or is it a preposition?

In Spanish, this type of construction would use a preposition:

  Estoy aquí para ayudar.

or

  He yells to alleviate stress.

  Él grita para aliviar el estrés.

You could rephrase these sentences to say "for alleviating..." or "for the alleviation of..." which is what really makes me want to say it's a preposition, but I'm still doubtful.

This obviously isn't a major issue but it's a thought that pops into my head a lot.


texts: I've looked for a job VS I've been looking for a job

texts:
I'm not a native english speaker and I'd like to understand the difference between these 2 sentences:

I've looked for a job for 2 years.
I've been looking for a job for 2 years.

Does the first one mean I've just stopped ?


texts: I always have a hard time with the use of on and upon. I have looked at the general comments made in this question, but have the following specific use case in mind that does not seem covered to me: in the sentence we study the influence of anion size on/upon localisation, is one more common than the other?


texts: Is 'that-clause' an adverbial clause or a complement clause?

texts:
"I’m glad that we’ve won the match."

An English-Korean dictionary says that-clause above is an adverbial clause. However, from the definition for complement by Oxford - “one or more words, phrases, or clauses governed by a verb (or by a nominalization or a predicative adjective) that complete the meaning of the predicate” - I can guess this that-clause might be said as a complement clause. Can both be proper for this case?


texts: Why does "everyone" pronounce "spigot" as "spicket"?

texts:
There are many words that are commonly mispronounced, such as "recurring" being pronounced as "re-occurring," but that one at least has some logic to it, as something that is recurring is, in fact, re-occurring.

But why in blue blazes does seemingly everyone pronounce "spigot" as "spicket"?

AFAIK, there is no logic to it. Is there any background to this I'm unaware of, or underlying reason why this would be the case?


texts: "professions' and "occupations" what's the differnce?

texts:
"professions' and "occupations" difference

"Transborder activities and the general dynamics that
they produce can be performed by socioeconomic categories, such as professions, occupations, or classes,"


texts: What does "feeling a little precious" mean?

texts:
I ran across this phrase in a video made by an Australian walking the Camino de Santiago. He describes a horrible sleep-deprived night and suffering from food poisoning, and states that he's feeling a little precious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dqOI87nSU0 at 1:09:25. I assumed from the context it meant wasted or shaky. In this blog entry there's a similar use, I believe also from an Australian:

  It was a good night as everyone celebrates throughout the city just as we do at home.   Woke up the next day feeling a little precious and was having a coffee and looked at a stamp I had on my hand from a bar we went to.

But then, in this blog, which is also an Australian, it's used a bit differently:

  Matt is feeling a little precious about a couple of scams he's fallen in to over the last couple of days. The first one was when he asked me the time one morning and I mistakenly read my watch as 6.30am - off he went running at 5.30am. He was a tad confused to get back at 6.20am. The second I will let him explain but when you read it bear in mind how many years he spent dealing with reps and suppliers getting the best possible price for shop stock. Right Matt here. Absolutely gutted yesterday got conned by a gypsy woman about 4 foot 6 and with only one tooth.

In that case, it seems to mean disappointed or embarrassed.

So, what's up with this?


texts: Sequence of tenses missing - not in Reported Speech

texts:
SITUATION: A year ago, my friend had some financial problems of which his relatives were aware.

Why do we say:

They believed he was in debt.

but:

He was believed to be in debt instead of: He was believed to have been in debt?

Or do we?


texts: How to pronounce '-ing' followed by a vowel

texts:
I'm getting into English recently and I'm a little confused by the way people pronounce a word that starts in a vowel right after a word ending in -ing.

For example:

  You have to bring it up now?

I don't know if I should pronounce it as:

bring /ŋit/
brin' /nit/
bring /git/

Another example would be "I'm coming out".

Likewise, what about the ending -ang? For example:

  We can just hang out and have a good time.

And to round it all up, what about a combination of the two? For example,

  He got sick of hanging around waiting for you and went home.

I've been asking myself these questions for weeks.


texts:
In the beginning of the first chapter of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain I read:

  The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service -- she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well.

So what does state pair exactly mean and what is the etymology of this collocation?


texts: What is another idiomatic way to say "have a trick up my sleeve"? This "trick" is the last resort.

texts: I am translating a Chinese short film. In a dialogue, a soldier suggests to the king that they should activate a sacred time-travel item. The king knows full well that the time-travel item as their last resort. But he does not want to use it until he absolutely has to. So when he hears the soldier says, "we still have a trick up our sleeves -- Actus (the name of the item) ", the king is enraged and offended.


texts:
Is there a good single word for 'less expensive'?

I often see people using 'cheap' to describe it, but I feel it does not express the intention. For example, I prefer to say 'Flight tickets are less expensive.' instead of 'Flight tickets are cheap'.


texts:
When a sentence ends with a parenthetical statement which itself ends with a period, does the sentence also need a period? Example:

  I love eating vegetables (carrots, peas, etc.).

The two periods don't look correct, but seem technically correct.


texts:
Good day, Friends. Could you help with a test question?
The question is a ‘fill the gap’ type:

We had expected that they _______ fluent English, but in fact they didn’t.

a)  were speaking
b)  would speak
c)  had spoken
d)  spoke

I’m going to take the IELTS exam quite soon, so I decided to go to a language school in order to get some help in preparation. As it usually happens in these cases, I was asked to undergo the school’s testing so they would be able to offer me a proper study course. Everything went fine, but I stumbled at one question (above).
I told the teacher that it’s reported speech and went for the d)-option, having mentioned that the statement of the question isn’t quite clear so the b) and c) are also possible (depending on what the ‘speaker/thinker’ had in mind).
The school said I gave a wrong answer, with which I disagreed and wanted to argue a bit out of pure interest, which ended up with a little bicker and conclusion that I know nothing about subjunctive mood.
The school insists that this is a subjunctive mood/imaginary situation, because !!!!!, there is not a ‘say' verb :))  so the only right answer is b)-would speak.
Could you please help and judge who’s right?


texts: Why do we say 'commentator' instead of 'commenter'?

texts:
Another thread addresses the Englishness of the words. My question is different and a lot more convoluted: I hope I can make it plain and simple.

I. There are straightforward nouns of action and agency with roots in English verbs: procrastinator, loafer, snoozer. And other nouns that arise from augmented (let's say) forms of the verb. 'Commentator' is one such word: there's no verb 'commentate.' 1

'Orientation' meaning 'guidance' or 'adjustment' ("student-orientation week") is another, though hugely more vexed because there actually is a verb 'orientate' meaning to face eastward (both transitively and intrans). But I convolute.

II. Not long ago, we had a thread about meter and foot in prose: iambic, trochaic, and who knows what else that I've forgotten since college. Arguably, as speakers and writers, we seem unconsciously to choose the iambic (say) over boring spondaic. As listeners, we perhaps naturally find the iambic most pleasant and (umm...) euphonious.

III. Finally, the question. Let's suppose that we do in truth prefer rhythm that we can grab, that we can lean on and stand on.

Do we then invent and manufacture made-up verbs just so as to give us corresponding made-up nouns that feel better to speak and write? That sound better to our ears? 'Commentator' sounds a lot better than 'commenter'. 'Orientator' is somehow easier to say than 'orienter'.

Not to go all Chomskian on y'all, but is there an impulsive, inborn, irresistible way to speak?

A natural way of locution? 2

1 Not by our lights, anyway. Right? Right?
2 Or am I merely dredging up fragments of Aristotle from dim recall?


texts: What do you call someone who starts arguments for their own satisfaction?

texts: I was wondering if there is a word used to describe someone who starts arguments just because they get enjoyment/satisfaction out of it. And I don't mean a friendly debate I mean actual arguments, like a fight. I feel like there is a word for it but I can't think of it and if there is no word then I am going to make one for it :). P.S. "Devil's Advocate" is not the word I am looking for.


texts: Can "for" be interchangeable with "since" in this sentence?

texts:
"For I do not know his name yet, I will acknowledge my new friend as James for now."

Also, is the word "acknowledge" suitable in this sentence?

Thanks!

(I'm trying to not use the word "since" here because I have already used it)


texts:
Is there a single-term for the Change or Update for the future?

I am currently developing an application where the user will add an entry with an effective date but I am having a difficulty labeling that button.

Let's say I label the button as

  Add New Entry

This doesn't seem right because the user will not add a new entry on the list of active entries but rather he/she will create an entry that will be active on a certain date, or one-at-a-time.

  Update Entry

This will not work because the action will not immediately update the entry, the entry will change on the effective date specified by the user.

What is an appropriate label for such button?


texts:
I am not a native speaker of  English. Could anyone please tell me which sentence is correct?

  If I had money, I would fly to Spain.
  If I had money, I would have flown to Spain.


texts: Reading of the article “an” preceding quotations

texts:
Speakers often add “quote” or “quote, unquote” before quotations.  But when a quotation is preceded by the article “an”, how should that article be pronounced?

As I understand, the choice between “a” and “an” is determined by what phonetically follows the article.  When “quote” or “quote, unquote” is inserted between “an” and the quotation, the extra “-n” becomes unnecessary.  So should I really pronounce “a” instead?


texts:
I am reading 'The old man and the sea.'
I've read this sentence as follows.
'But the bird was almost out of sight now and nothing showed on the surface of the water but some patches of yellow, sun-bleached Sargasso weed and the purple, formalized, iridescent, gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man-of-war floating dose beside the boat.'

In this, What's the meaning of 'dose'? In dictionary I have, It only is remarked as 'a measured amount of it which is intended to be taken at one time.'
With this meaning, I can't make sense of above sentence. please help me.:)


texts:
I'm not been able to make up my mind

or

  I'm not being able to make up my mind?

Which one is the correct sentence? Why is it correct and why is the other one incorrect?

Edit 10/09/2012:
What if I'm talking about a present action? Like:
"I'm not been able to make up my mind now, so I'll try to decide it later.


texts: Usage of the English language in judgements

texts:
Having read judgements, again and again, I keep stumbling upon this construction which really irritates me, as I do not understand how people so well-educated can use the verb find in its wrong form.

  Is it sufficient to found a conviction of murder?

Wouldn't it be better to say:

  Is it sufficient to find a conviction of murder?


texts: "Decorated with taste" or "tastefully decorated"

texts:
Which sentence should be used when referring to good quality?

  The house is decorated with taste.

  The house is tastefully decorated.

Is there any difference?


texts: Difference between Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous

texts:
I know this question has been asked a lot, but I still don't fully understand the difference between Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous (if there is one).

  Sometimes the two tenses are interchangeable[...]. But sometimes they are not. Essentially, it depends on whether the action denoted by the verb is regarded by the speaker as completable or not. By this definition, living and learning, for example, are not completable, in which case both tenses are possible:
  -I have been living in London since 2001.
  -I have lived in London since 2001.

Is one of these tense carrying more sense regarding the fact that I am/am not currently living in London?

  It has been 13 years I am living in London

Is it grammatically correct? If yes, would it be closer to Present Perfect or Present Perfect Continuous? Does this mean that I am still living in London?


texts: Changing verb tense in a quote after ellipsis

texts:
I am using a block quote in my manuscript. The sentence starts off something like this:

  Our approach provides a general procedure to deal with this problem by
  using...

The block quote is a bit long and I'd rather cut it down to:

  Our approach [...] uses...

but now I've changed the tense of using to uses. Is this appropriate? Do I need to make this clear, as in us[es]? That looks really bad.

What is the preferred way to deal with a change in verb tense created by the use of ellipsis?


texts: while he works or while he working or while he is working

texts:
I want to tell my friend "please take photos while the painter does something" but I don't know which one is correct way to say it.

"Please take photos while the painter paints"
"Please take photos while the painter painting"
"Please take photos while the painter is painting"

If these sentences are related to grammar rules please let me know too.


texts: Is "Most of it's in English" normal English?

texts:
The phrase "Most of it's in English" is grammatically correct (it's short for "Most of it is in English"), but it doesn't feel right. Is there a reason it doesn't feel right?

Edit: The thing I'm concerned about is "it's" versus "it is".


texts: Describing an unprecedented event with surprising result(s)

texts: What's the best word for describing an unprecedented event that comes with surprising result(s), such as a new scientific achievement (e.g. journey to moon).


texts: One word to describe 'living in the moment'?

texts:
Title says it all - I am looking for a single word to describe 'living in the moment' or 'appreciating the now'.  Something similar to 'Carpe Diem'.

I've used a thesaurus, but only can find multiple word answers.

A simple sample of how I would like to use it:

"Enjoy your life through _________"


texts: Why is it Englishman, Frenchman, etc. (one word) but British man (two words)?


texts: Antecedent of "whose common theme is death of fathers" in Hamlet

texts:
Here's from Hamlet, Act 1. Scene 2
Claudius:

Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd; whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day,
'This must be so.'

I'm wondering about the antecedent of "whose".
Is it "heaven", "nature" or "reason" or all of them?
It seems to me that it's all of them because of the word "common".
However, "who still hath cried" suggests that it's singular.


texts: How did 'damages' semantically shift to mean 'money awards which respond to wrongs'?

texts:
Etymonline and OED don't expatiate what semantic notions underlie the ordinary meaning of 'damage' to this legal one.

I quoted p. 800 Contract Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (2018 8 ed) in this post's title.

  The aim of this chapter is to examine the entitlement of a claimant to recover damages in
  respect of a breach of contract committed by the defendant. Every breach of contract gives
  rise to a claim for damages. In the case where the claimant has not suﬀered any loss as a result of the breach, he is still entitled to recover damages but damages will be nominal. Te
  word ‘damages’, as used in this chapter, is not tied to compensatory damages. As Professor
  (now Justice) Edelman suggests in his book Gain-Based Damages: Contract, Tort, Equity and
  Intellectual Property (Hart, 2002), p. 22, the word '“damages” can only mean money awards
  which respond to wrongs’. On this view the word ‘damages’ is not tied to any particular
  measure of recovery. There is a range of measures available to the court, all of which can
  be described as diﬀerent types of damages. Thus we have nominal damages, compensatory
  damages, restitutionary (or disgorgement) damages, and exemplary (or punitive) damages.
  This chapter will focus on compensatory damages but it will also explore the circumstances
  in which a claimant can recover ‘restitutionary damages’, ‘disgorgement damages’, or ‘an
  account of profits’ (the three labels being synonymous for present purposes). Exemplary
  damages make only a ﬂeeting appearance. English law does not, as yet, recognize an entitlement to recover exemplary damages for a breach of contract.


texts: One-word synonym (instead of compound adjectives) for "time-consuming" and "less time-consuming"

texts:
For 'time-consuming', I tried http://thesaurus.com/browse/time-consuming.

For 'less time-consuming', I tried researching synonyms for 'productive' (http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/productive).

But none of the above results  pertain to time.

Example of '(less) time-consuming' upon request:

As Googling each bus route (e.g. in Hong Kong, London) is too  time-consuming, what are some less time-consuming methods to see all the bus routes on the same map?


texts: Strange use of the past tense by Dr. Watson in the Sherlock series

texts:
I’m trying to correctly identify the reason why the past tense of ‘’to be’’ is used in the following context:

Sherlock Season 3 Episode 3

The scene:

Dr. Watson is about to enter a drug den. His wife spots some kind of weapon tucked into his trousers and the following dialogue takes place:

  – What is that?
  – It’s a tyre lever.
  – Why?
  – ‘cos there were loads of smack heads in there and one of them might need help with a tyre.

The only guess I’ve got is that ‘were’ is used to express uncertainty and therefore add sarcasm, and the intended meaning is ’’there is a slight possibility that there may be a lot of smack heads in this drug den’’.

But I’m not sure if this is the right interpretation, as I’ve never come across this kind of tense use before.


texts:
I am writing a poem about a coach. Is this comma necessary?

  Without doubt, one of the best!


texts:
I'm confused about how to use the 'that' demonstrative in the following sentence:

  Finally, in Part 4 we analysed the results that obtained in the parts mentioned above, and we showed further experiments we have done to contribute to the topics of those parts.

In the first bold clause, I used that because results is defined in the context before. And in the second bold clause, I didn't use that after the word experiments because further experiments were not defined.

Is this correct?


texts: In the sentence, "He loves to travel," "to travel" is described as a nonfinite clause (source). However, one of the rules regarding clauses is that they must at least contain a subject and a verb. So how can "to travel" be a clause? Or is the subject of "to travel" implied? And, why isn't "to travel" a prepositional phrase?


texts:
As far as I know, decimals smaller than unit can be read, for instance:

"0.38" -> "Point 3, 8"

But, in one of the IELTS sample listening tasks (around 1:30), they say something like

"0.75" -> "north? 7 5"

"0.5" -> "north? 5"

What does he really say?, cause I am pretty sure he does not say "Oh" for the zero.

Feel free to move this question to ell, since I am not sure where to ask this.


texts:
There is a difference between

  A believes P.    >>> Alan believes what you say.

and

  A believes that p. >>> Alan believes that she will come
  back.

It is thus common in philosophical texts to say "one's belief that P" when P is a whole proposition.

Now which of the the followings are correct?

Alan forms the belief that P.

or

Alan forms the belief P.

The "belief that p" seems to be way more common. Source But it sounds a bit awkward, doesn't it?


texts: Passive voice in academic writing; why is it not recommended?

texts:
When writing academic papers in English I use three different spelling and proofreading tools: Word, Grammarly, and Ginger. In the settings of all these tools, I specify that the document is an academic article, where possible.

Before I posted this question, I had a look at the question «Is using passive voice "bad form"?», but there they discuss more general cases, regular texts, while I'm interested in a subject «the passive voice in academic writing», which usually has different rules and recommendation, comparing to general essays.

What is strange for me, why do all these instruments mark the usage of passive voice as a style error? What's wrong with the passive voice in terms of academic writing? I know, that passive voice is not optimal for regular texts and difficult to understand, comparing to the active voice, but I always assumed that for the academic writing passive voice suits well, isn't it?


texts: I am allowed back in a week, am I banned or suspended?

texts: The past few years I have noticed the increase of the word "banned" when a person gets suspended, especially in the context of American sports.  10 years ago I never heard that someone was banned for 1 game for doing X.  Now it is a common headline.  When and why were the two words swapped?


texts:
I received the following sentence from someone which read:

  "Is there a reason I /wouldn't/ want to go?"

What is / / used for in this context? My guess is a textual representation of upward intonation for emphasis but I cannot find anything on it.

Note: I've seen many articles that say "it's for a programming comment." I'm a programmer and am aware of that but it doesn't seem to be used as a comment in this case.


texts: What is the name of a word that doesn't mean what it says?

texts:
Like the group "Anonymous," they are not REALLY anonymous since they are all over media outlets. Is there a word for that?

Edit: Autoantonym almost sounds right but that seems to imply it has two meanings like left the airport vs going left. This one doesn't mean well known, it is the complete opposite of the actual word.


texts: Does the word "accommodate" come with the meaning of "provide" or "adapt"?

texts: I'm a little bit confused with the word "accommodate", since that the common usage is "to provide lodging or sufficient space ...", but I found out there's another meaning of this word is "to provide something with desired or needed". So I wrote a paragraph of a product page with using the phrase "accommodate...with..." for a substitute of "providing...with". Can I write "This unique product accommodate certain models with greater extend of its applications."


texts:
Is "looking into potentially.... " a redundant statement?

Ex: We are looking into potentially moving our development from one source to another.


texts: Is there a word like "inherit" for when a widow(er) takes full ownership of the shared estate?

texts:
Inherit/inheritance seems to apply to heirs, successors, and new owners. Maybe new owner could apply, but it is strange to think of it that way, as it might suggest that the widow(er) didn't have a share in it until the spouse died.

Is there a better word than inheritance to describe the estate with respect to the surviving spouse? A better word than inherit to describe the widow(er) taking full ownership?


texts: What do we call someone who eats earthworms?

texts: Odd question, but I wonder if there is a word for someone who eats earthworms. I tried hard to find if there is such a word, and I found none. Thank you.


texts: Does one top up or top off rechargeable batteries?

texts:
While writing a forum post on proper lithium-ion battery care, I started wondering whether the proper term for recharging them while still fairly full is called topping up or topping off.
Perhaps both are accepted?


texts: What's the underlying grammar of the bold part of this sentence?

texts:
As of 2014, 38 percent of the world's human population has used the services of the Internet within the past year—over 100 times more people than were using it in 1995.

According to what I've learnt, I would write "...more people than that using it..." to avoid run-on structure since there already exists one verb in the front part of the sentence. Is it an omission of "...more people than people were using it..." for simplicity? What is the real grammar or sentence structure underlying it?


texts: Could "according to" be a synonym of "as agreed to"?

texts:
If I want to indicate agreement between both parts, it is correct to write a sentence like:

  I will be working from home tomorrow, according to John.

Usually, I would say to use "as agreed with" instead, but will the example be correct too?


texts:
I get the main idea in phrases like "L is for the way you look at me" and "A is for Apple", but I don't know the exact meaning.

If you were to use other words instead of "is for" which synonym would you use?
I understand the meaning is slightly different in the above phrases, but can "is for" be replaced with one word or phrase that would work in both cases?

Are there any popular examples with "is for"(like the above line from Frank Sinatra's L.O.V.E), fixed phrases or collocations?


texts:
What is the proper name of the person who gives subsidy to someone?

Most times this is given by some Ministry, but an individual can also give subsidy to someone.


texts: What is the most common adjective used to describe objects that can be tied. I would think of tieable but it does not seem to exist in the wiktionary.


texts:
First off the word dream in most contexts does have positive connotations. When talking about dreams that people experience during sleep though the meaning becomes fairly neutral, at least as far as I'm aware.

The word nightmare means bad dream, of course. What, though, is the word for a good dream?


texts: What's the English for Chinese word "敏感词"？

texts:
The Chinese word "敏感词" is translated into "sensitive words" somewhere, but I think it's not exact. What's the exact expression in English?

In Chinese, "敏感词" is the word which is not allowed to be displayed on the website or when you search it by search engine you got nothing but the warnning that it is a "敏感词" related to politics or porn etc... according to the local laws.


texts: Is it "close the door" or "shut the door"?

texts:
I am confused about which one to use. Do the phrases have the same meanings or different meanings?

Close the door.

Shut the door.


texts: Is "write down an addition" grammatical?

texts:
Is this sentence grammatical?

Write down an addition.

(I am trying to avoid saying "Write down addition equations/sentences" to describe writing of "3+2=5" for young children.)

Appreciate advice.

Thank you!


texts: Does "is potentially faster" imply "is not slower"?

texts:
Someone said to me, "X is potentially faster than Y". Without any clarification at that point, I immediately assumed that the speaker thought that X was at least not slower than Y.

It was revealed in a further discussion, however, that the speaker did not know much about the current performance of either X or Y. What they meant was that, if both were given equal opportunities for optimisation, X would certainly end up faster (and, probably, that it might already be the case).

I agree that "potentially so and so" can certainly translate that way, i.e. something merely has the potential to be so and so. My question, however, is about an implication of "potentially" when it is used in a comparison.

So, when I hear, "X is potentially faster than Y", is it normal, without more information on the subject, for me to assume that X is at least not slower or should I wait for more information before jumping to a conclusion? Does it depend on the situation (e.g. heard in a conversation vs read in a technical article)?


texts: Is “In following, ...” acceptable in place of “In the following, ...”?

texts:
In editing a recent question, I wrote:

  In following, realtype stands for ...

Later, it got edited (two words were added) to read:

  In the following example, realtype stands for ...

The latter edit is incorrect because realtype stands for the same thing in the whole question, not just in the example; but for the purpose of this question, that's minor and doesn't matter.  The real question is whether in following is acceptable; is there any semantic or grammatical error with using in following instead of  in the following?

I realize that in following is used only infrequently when in the following might be used in its place.  In instances I looked at after a Google Books search, it was used mostly by Indian or German speakers of English; for example:

  ... the most relevant constraints ... are summarized in following. – Valuation of Network Effects in Software Markets, Andreas Kemper, 2009

Note, this question is not about how frequently one phrase or another is used; it's not about personal preferences or other ways to say the same thing; instead, it asks if use of in following violates any important English-language tenets.


texts: Is "Not enough of these objects were available" correct, or should it be "was available"? I think the former sounds correct, but if I omit "of these objects" then I tend towards "was".


texts: “Push” is to “pushable” as “enable”/"disable" are to what?

texts: If you can push something you could say it is pushable. What do you say about something which you can enable and about something which you can disable?


texts: "Password will expire" versus "Password expires"

texts:
Every 30 days Windows prompts me to change my password here at work. And every 30 days I wonder why the folks at Microsoft chose the phrase

Your password will expire tomorrow.

instead of

Your password expires tomorrow.

Is one more correct than the other?


texts:
This of course wasn't the only functionality that came with iCloud, but regardless, developers weren't exactly enthusiastic.

or

  This of course wasn't the only functionality that came with iCloud, but, regardless, developers weren't exactly enthusiastic.

Are both correct?


texts: What does “Press the point” exactly mean?

texts:
The New York Times (March 14) Fashion & Style column reports under the headline, “Walking the Walk to Increase Diversity” that Bethann Hardison, the fashion industry gadfly is to receive the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Founders Award in June, and comments “Most thorns get plucked. This one is getting a trophy. (I like this line)”
It follows;

“She then became a modeling agent, founding Bethann Management in
1984. It was, she said, a “white agency,” but it also represented many models of color, among them Veronica Webb, Roshumba Williams and Tyson
Beckford. When designers were disinclined to at least consider any but
white models, she was inclined to press the point.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/fashion/Fashion-diversity-bethann-Hardison-diversity-coalition.html?hp&_r=0

OED carries “press the button,” meaning “pressing an acupressure point,” but not “press the point.”
CED carries “pressure point,” meaning “a place on the body where an artery is close to the surface of the skin, where it can be pressed to partly stop the flow of blood,” but not “press the point.”
Google N Gram shows the incidences of “press the point,” which peaked during 1920 through 1960, and has been tapering off to a low 0.0000054780% level (in 2007).
To me “press the point” is strongly associated with acupressure point because of the Asian familiarity with Chinese medicine, but what does it mean otherwise?


texts: Is there a proverb/saying which means "someone in authority can break the rules"?

texts:
Is there a proverb or saying or expression that means "someone in authority will do anything they want"?

Eg: My boss used to warn me about coming late to work, but he was late to work yesterday. I guess _________________________ (someone in authority/or of a superior rank can break the rules, but we are not allowed to).


texts: What's the etymology for the term "greensheet"?

texts:
I've been looking for the etymology of the word greensheet, specifically when used in the context of academia.

I know it's just another way to say "syllabus",  but where did the "green" in greentext come from? I've searched Google multiple times using different keywords, including greensheet word etymology, origins of greensheet word, where does the word greensheet come from but am having no luck at all.

In the U.S., the greensheet is the syllabus all college professors will give out or ask students to take note of in the first few days of classes.


texts: comma/comma-splice in "inexpensive, but effective, resources"?

texts:
Is comma needed here?

"inexpensive, but effective, resources"

Can comma splices be used instead of "that" and "and" here?

It is clear, X destroys homes, businesses.


texts: Can anyone tell me the meaning of this sentence "They lick around the edges of the firewood."?

texts:
Does "lick" here mean like "pass the tongue over"?
I just start learning English, so i don't get this well.
Here is the original:
"The flames and embers look so pretty as they lick around the edges of the firewood , the tips of the bonfire reaching up to the sky."
Please help me! Thank you!


texts: Word to describe person who popularized a sport

texts: What is the word to describe a person who popularized a sport? The person does not need to be one of the original players nor even currently active. An example is Arnold Schwarzenegger popularizing competitive bodybuilding. There were many superstar bodybuilders before him, like Eugen Sandow, and he has been inactive for a decade. Arnold is, no doubt, the reason why many people started bodybuilding.


texts: Usage of the phrasal verb "to wind down"

texts:
-Barclays to wind down commodities trading. (from Financial Times, April 21st)

-Senate Bill seeks to wind down Fannie Mae in five years.(Bloomberg, March 17th)

Is the use of to wind down  becoming more frequent also in less informal contexts? Plus, could this expression be used in a intransitive way?


texts: Does “8am” mean  08:00:00.000 in the morning, or does it just mean any time closer to that hour than to either 7:00 or to 9:00?

texts:
Suppose I wanted to indicate the range of time from exactly 8:00am to exactly 8:30am. Should I write “8:00am” for explicitness, or is exactly 8:00am implied by “8am”?
Also, is “2:15pm–2:45pm”, for example, an acceptable formatting of such a range, or should I be writing it differently?
(I am using am/pm lowercase with no space which I am near certain is correct, along with an en dash with no spacing, which I am pretty sure is a standard way of writing ranges.)
I was perhaps not specific enough in my first iteration of this question. I am mainly interested in meaning and aesthetics as elaborated upon in my reply to a comment hereunder.


texts: Why is there no form of "do" in questions of the type "who knows?"

texts:
I'm wondering whether expressions like the ones below are correct or not. I've seen them several times but they don't seem to follow the typical grammatical structure.

  Who comes? (instead of who do come?)
  Who knows?
  What happened? (instead of what did happen?)

So why are they constructed in this way? Are there many other expressions of this kind?


texts:
What is the difference between :
1- He was working.
2- He has been working.

I am confused.


texts: What is more common "table booking" or "table reservation"?

texts:
What is more common and natural, "table booking" or "table reservation"?

Is there a big difference between these two?


texts: Am I imagining the Warshington (Washington) accent?

texts:
So my wife grew up around Vancouver, Washington, USA. Every once in a while she will say words in peculiar ways that I have jokingly taken to call her "Warshington accent" because it makes the beginning of "Washington" sound like "War". That said, I have never actually heard or read anyone else bring up this accent outside of her family; but I also don't know where I picked up the term either, because I certainly knew it before we met. Am I just picking at my wife/in-laws particular peculiarity, or is this actually an accent?

Besides me personally teasing her about a random vowel change in her accent here and there, I have noticed a consistency in adding an "r" sound to many words. Examples are of course "Warshington" (Washington) like above, but also "propersal" (proposal), and "suffercate" (suffocate), and more along these lines. I sometimes joke that Washington took all of the Rs that Massachusetts didn't want.

Interestingly enough, when I have teased her about it and tried to help her say the same words more clearly she has still managed to keep the "r" sound in nearly the same spot, but these words now sound more like "proprosal" and "suffricate". I am certain she isn't just messing with me because she legitimately gets upset with me for bringing it up now.

Other than these particulars, her accent sounds like a pretty standard West Coast US accent. I myself lived in Portland, Oregon (which is just across the river from Vancouver) when I was young. I never picked up this accent, nor really noticed it as a kid, but my wife's parents are from Tacoma, Washington, which is much more inland and may have an affect on that.

UPDATE: After describing the Midland accent and the intrusive "R" to my wife she responded with,

"Ha! now you can't make fun of the way I talk. HA HA HA HA!"

I immediately replied with,

"Don't you mean HAR HAR HAR HAR..."


texts: Would a restaurant name of "Punjab House" be offensive?

texts:
We are looking for a good name for an Indian restaurant that specializes in Punjabi food.  We have heard that naming the restaurant "Punjab House" would be offensive.

What specifically makes it inappropriate or offensive?  I was told it is a derogatory reference, but I don't see examples of that anywhere.

I'm specifically asking for any ways that it may be taken offensively, or any explanations why it would be regarded as an offense.


texts: a single word for a person who wins prize

texts: I would like to know a word that stands for a person who gets on the stage and receives award.If I were an announcer or a presenter,how would I invite persons who win prizes to the stage...Can I just say...First prize winner, Mr...., Please come on over to receive 1st prize?


texts:
I can't understand when to put 'the' before words.
Which one is correct and why?

I clicked yes to Google Calendar invitations.

I clicked yes to the Google Calendar invitations.


texts:
What is the correct preposition to use in this sentence: for, of or about, and why?

  I feel nostalgic __ my childhood.


texts: Word for "done slowly because of bad mood/lack of energy"?

texts:
Example:

  [...] he pulled out his phone and cancelled
  his flight to Hawaii.

The only word I can think of is languishly. But I think it's not used very often in that way.


texts: Number agreement between subject and object

texts:
The other day, my father and I were expecting my brothers to come home. Upon hearing a car enter the driveway, my father said, "Your brothers are here."
When I looked at the door, I could see that it was actually my sister who had arrived, and not my brothers, so I responded,

She's not my brothers.

This seemed like a very awkward construction, but I could not think of any reason that it would be ungrammatical, other than the subject being singular and the object being plural.
I can think of several examples of sentences where the subject and object are different in number (with an intransitive verb: obviously there is nothing wrong with a transitive verb like "kick" having a subject an object differing in number) that do not seem to have any grammatical awkwardness.

We are a family.
His mind and body are one.
God is three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Is the sentence, "she's not my brothers" grammatically correct, and what makes it different from these other sentences?


texts: Handling ranges where the unit prefixes the number

texts:
If the unit follows the number, then according to the accepted answer of the Including units of a measure in a range , you can skip the unit for the first value, such as "1–5 ℥".

However, that question, and the section of the source cited in the accepted answer, doesn't describe what should happen if the unit prefixes the number. Should it be

  Jeans cost $10-100

or

  Jeans cost 10-$100

or is only

  Jeans cost $10-$100.

acceptable?


texts: Present Perfect Simple vs Present Perfect Continuous

texts:
I came across some present perfect language exercises that I question.

Choose Present Perfect Simple or Continuous:

  The place looks like a bombsite! What _____________ (do) all day?

Well, I've chosen "have you done" but the answer is "have you been doing". Why?

Next:

  The British Museum has also announced a forthcoming exhibition of artifacts from the Stonehenge period which they _________________ (gather) over the last five years.

The answer is "have gathered", but I can't understand why. If you have "over the last five years" it seems to me this action was in progress during this five years.

Please, help me.

Thank you in advance!

Well, thanks for the comments, but to me, it isn't a duplicated question because I understand each tense separately and the idea of completion of the present perfect and the ongoing idea of Present perfect continuous. My question is: where is the completion idea in the second example? Let me explain myself, I thought in the second example the artifacts were being collected like in different events for five years. Some artifacts were collected, then after a given time more were collected over the period of 5 years they haven't collected all at once. And they won't stop collecting after the exhibition. I don't know if I'm making myself clear enough. But I've been looking for an explanation for this and I found one on Martin Hewings' advanced grammar in use book: "present perfect suggests that the activity happened only once or on a specified number of occasions".


texts: Is "discuss about" grammatically incorrect?

texts:
Someone told me that I shouldn't use the phrase discuss about, but should say, instead, discuss  (the topic).

He said discuss means talk about and using discuss about is like saying talk about about, which is redundant.

Is he correct? Could somebody elaborate on this?


texts: Difference between portable, mobile, handheld and wearable devices

texts: What are main differences in portable, mobile, handheld and wearable devices in technical area and what are some examples of devices from each category?


texts:
Let's say I have two objects that I want to bind together (just in abstract manner - matching abstract object).
Now, let's say I have an object that is not bound to any other object. Can I say that this object is "unbinded"?

Thanks.


texts: What's the difference between "why do ... have" and "why do" when used in a question?

texts:
It's there a difference between the two forms? Or they mean pretty much the same?

Example:

  Why do family members have to look so alike?

  Why do family members look so alike?

Or maybe the difference is a very subtle one?


texts:
A search in google clearly shows that the word tantalum is the correct spelling of the word and is widely used today. What made me curious was this Wikipedia entry wrote:

  Previously known as tantalium...

So, I searched when this word come into usage. A search to google Ngrams shows this:

This clearly shows that a spike in the usage of the word tantalium in around 1802 which is about when 'tantalum' was discovered. Then slowly into the future closer to modern times, tantalium is now classified as obsolete.

I have a few questions relating to this:

1) Why is tantalium obsolete and made tantalum surpass it?

2) There is a spike in usage of the word tantalium just after the discovery of this metal. Could the word originally be named tantalium?

3) There was a small amount of usage of the word tantalum in 1747 and 1754, well before the discovery of such metal. What could be the cause of this?


texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes the entire region of land on which a company or organization resides. For example:

"Make sure to not smoke any cigarettes while on Boeing's ___!"

I've heard the term campus being used to this effect, but this has the inherent problem of being ambiguous: is Boeing perhaps a university, then?

Are there any alternatives? Headquarters isn't the connotation I'm necessarily trying to convey, and the phrase "Boeing's grounds" just sounds awkward.


texts: Meaning of "medicine bringeth double care when the malady is past cure"

texts:
This is an excerpt from John Lyly 'Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit, does anybody know what does it mean?

  Search the wound while it is green; too late cometh the salve when the sore
  festereth, and the medicine bringeth double care when the malady is past
  cure.


texts:
I'm having trouble with the adjective "dorsal", as different authorities have seemingly conflicting opinions.

Tortora and Derrickson write in Principles of Anatomy and Physiology that the adjective for things pertaining to the upper surface of the foot is dorsal. They also claim:

  Posterior (dorsal): Nearer to or at the back of the body. [...] The terms posterior and dorsal mean the same thing in humans

Merriam-Webster writes:

  relating to or situated near or on the back especially of an animal or of one of its parts
  situated out of or directed away from the axis

Wiktionary writes:

  (anatomy) With respect to, or concerning the side in which the backbone is located, or the analogous side of an invertebrate.
  An anatomical term referring to the top surface of either foot and/or hand.

What does the word mean?


texts:
Is the plural form of thematic "thematics"?

I did some researches and it is very rarely written with an s. Also, word considers it a mistake and underlines it. Yet, I found it in some online dictionaries (but they were not really reliable websites).


texts:
Key to exercises.

Today I saw the quoted sentence when looking at the keys to exercises, and afterwards that sentence got me thinking why the preposition to is used here
instead of for.

The way I see it is that the key purpose is to match our answer with the correct one; hence, for would fit here nicely.  Am I right?


texts: "peered out the plane" vs "peered out the plane window"

texts:
Is it OK to omit window in the following sentence:

  Mary relaxed her body as she peered out the plane. Clear turquoise water and miles of white sand started appearing on the horizon.

Is it apparent that the person is peering out of a airplane window?


texts:
The idiom "Don't shit/defecate where you eat" means:

  One should not cause trouble in a place, group, or situation in which
  one regularly finds oneself.

[Wiktionary]

I always understood what it literally means is you should not make a trouble in a place you regard as the most important place in your life.

If you watch this clip of the Big Bang Theory, it sounds like I don't understand the meaning of the idiom 100%.

Questions:

When did this idiom become popular? The word used in the idiom is not pleasant and I wonder when and how people started to use this idiom. (I believe its equivalent is used in Asia)
Is there any better replacement for it when you don't want to use the word "shit/defecate"?
Is Amy (the female) telling the truth or is it just a joke when she said "don't have a romantic relationship in the workplace." I don't see a strong correlation between the idiom and the romantic relationship in the workplace.


texts: Is it a correct sentence? Can noun phrase be a sentence's apposition?

texts:
“Eye contact and smiles” can signal availability and confidence, a common-sense notion supported in studies by psychologist Monica Moore.

Is “notion” the apposition of the first sentence? Or "which is" is omitted after the comma?


texts:
I don't understand the grammar in this question:

  Doesn't Denise do enough talking already?

I know gerunds can be used with some verbs, as a subject. But in this sentence, I don't know why a gerund is used or if it can be written in another way.


texts: Academic phrase / alternative phrase for "neatly arranged" or "orderly manner"

texts:
I am asking for an academic or alternative formal phrase for:

The findings and analyses should be "arranged in an orderly and clear form" on papers or for a presentation.

I found the following:
 - orderly manner
 - transparent
 - neatly arranged

I assume that there are more formal and common alternative expressions
to express in short words the necessary of a good structure and clarity in preparing a report, reviewing something, or for presentation.


texts: Other expressions for "Don't give up (or quit) your day job"

texts:
"Don't give up (or quit) your day job"

I am sure everyone has heard of this overused retort. It is generally used in the context where one feels the performance of an act has failed miserably.

Are there any other expressions that can be employed instead of this?


texts: Is it correct to change the common structure in these phrasal verbs?

texts:
I just read a book to learn English. And the topic I read is about the phrasal verbs, but a big doubt has come up to my mind.

Is it correct to change the position of the preposition (putting it with the verb instead of after the direct object)?

As in:

Common structure:

My wife backs me up over my decision to quit my job.
We have to blow 50 balloons up for the party.
I need to break these shoes in before we run next week.
Please help me out to get this job done.

So, would it be correct to do the following:

My wife backs up me over my decision to quit my job.
We have to blow up 50 ballons for the party.
I need to break in these shoes before we run next week.
Please help out me to get this job done.


texts: Opposites, when dealing with adjectives and objects together

texts:
If we have the sentence,
"Bob had blinding love for Susan."
would the opposite be:
"Bob had blinding hatred for Susan"
or:
"Bob had clear hatred for Susan"?


texts: If this is a correct past perfect sentence "As Scheduled , Rahul and I had a discussion over roll off dates"?

texts:
I am trying to learn past perfect tense as tried one of them as

"As Scheduled , harry and I had a discussion over party".

Is this sentence correct ?


texts:
One of the things that I've always been hung up on is explaining the length and distance of my commute.

Example 1: "I had a 25 mile commute by car" does that mean 12.5 miles there and 12.5 miles miles back?

Example 2: "I had a 30 minute commute by car" does that mean 15 minutes there and 15 minutes back?