texts:
Though not a native speaker I have the impression that some native speakers overuse progressive verb forms.

An example I have just read:
My cat is gaining too much weight, how often should I be feeding her?
I would have said " how often should I feed her".

Is my impression correct or has the use of this progessive form a nuance I don't see.


texts: Expressions connected to heavenly bodies

texts: Do these expressions,Saturnine personality,mercurial temperament,lunatic,venusian arts,martial arts,attribute their origin to astrology?


texts: What is the word for when members of the same group attack each other?

texts:
I've noticed this in a few South Park episodes, so that's what I'd like to give an example from. I'm sure other artists have depicted something similar.

Note that I'm not necessarily agreeing with the opinions depicted in the following, I am merely using it as an example of what I mean.

In an episode called Go God Go they have depicted a future with no religion. In this future, there were only atheists and they were fighting each other over how they should be called. The rest is irrelevant.

In another episode, It's Christmas in Canada, in one scene, they depicted French Canada folks singing something along the lines, "there's no Canada like French Canada, the other Canada is hardly Canada". Again, an example of one nation fighting "itself."

Is there any word, phrase or term for this?


texts: Word for with and without the aid of tools

texts:
I'm looking for a word describing that something has been done without the help of tools, and an antonym, preferably both without an "un-" negation. They should fit in a classic high-fantasy setting (orcs, elves and wizards).

The specific use I'm looking for is to describe whether or not an elemental construct has been summoned with the help of a physical object, like an idol or a focus specifically made for that purpose (or a ter'angreal, for those familiar with the Wheel of Time), to help sustaining the construct. This focus is only there to anchor the construct to this plane of existence, to keep it from unraveling. Without it, the construct disintegrates quickly, with it, it can be kept alive for some time. The summoning itself is still managed by the mage.

The words "bound" and "free" give associations to the degree of free will exhibited by the constructs, rather than whether their existence is bound to an object. "Assisted" or "aided" falls very quickly into the "verbed-unverbed" category, and the former doesn't fit the fantasy tone very well.


texts: Not using "is" in a sentence but it still being correct

texts:
sorry for the vague title, i'm not sure how to explain it in short.
It pretty much comes down to a lyric but i just want to know if it's grammatically correct and if there is a certain word for it.

So it's about Frank Ocean's chanel where the first lyric is:
"My guy pretty like a girl"
Shouldn't it be "My guy is pretty like a girl"? Please help me out, is there something that allows you to remove certain verbs and still make it a correct sentence? thanks in advance


texts: What does the phrase "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish" mean?

texts:
It was Steve Jobs's ending comment in the Stanford Commencement in 2005, and Jobs mentioned:

  Stay Hungry.  Stay Foolish.

What does this phrase mean?  I understand this may also seem philosophical, but when studying English, often we not only study the words, but we often study what the meaning is, and what a phrase or writing may mean or imply.


texts: Is using "both of you" along with "each other" redundant?

texts:
OK, things are going well, both of you are enjoying each other's company,
  and both of you are attracted to each other.

Is the usage of "both of you" correct? Sounds a bit off to me.

BTW what part of the language "both of you"?


texts:
He reached out and pressed an invitingly large red button on a nearby panel. The panel lit up with the words Please do not press this button again. He 'shook himself'.

What is the meaning of 'shake oneself' here?


texts: inversion: From this hardship emerged a country

texts:
I'd like to know how to analyze the inversion structure below.
Has the prepositional phrase from this hardship exchanged its position with the subject a country that is more capable of coping with inflation?
Or has from this hardship moved to the front, followed by switching around the verb emerged and the subject a country that is more capable of coping with inflation?
The end result of both proposals seems to be the same. Still, I'd like to know which makes better sense.

From this hardship emerged a country that is more capable of coping with inflation. (This seems to be derived from below.)
A country that is more capable of coping with inflation emerged from this hardship.


texts: Past tense or present tense to describe something that 'happened in the past' but is still true?

texts:
For example:

"Last week, I found out that NASA stands for 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration.'"

or

"Last week, I found out that NASA stood for 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration.'"


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When should the word “God” be capitalized?

I thought god is a common noun, but many people capitalize it when it is not the first letter of a sentence or a title.


texts: Do "Devi" and "Devil" have related roots?

texts:
I understand that "Devi" is feminine of "Deva", meaning "heavenly, divine, anything of excellence", and is also one of the terms for a deity in Hinduism" according to Wikipedia and is from Sanskrit.

Meanwhile, "devil derives from the Middle English devel, from the Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of the Latin diabolus" according to Wikipedia.

Considering they both refer to divine beings, but of opposite ends of the spectrum, is their similarity just coincidence, or was there any attempt by Western people to discredit Eastern religions?


texts: Adjectives to describe a big human achievement vs. a quick achievement

texts:
Premise:

  It took 13 years and 3 billion dollars to sequence the first human
  genome by scientists.

What would be an adjective to describe this feat?

  However, now a new software can do the genome sequence in two hours, thanks to computers.

What would be an adjective to describe this feat and it in contrast to the above?

Basically, is there a word or phrase to demonstrate such a massive variance in effort and its corresponding achievement.


texts: Grammatical number of Latin nouns used attributively before other nouns

texts:
I read a paper today that kept using "multistrata" to describe an object with multiple layers.  For example:

  I love multistrata cakes.

This sounds wrong to my ear, I think "multistratum" sounds better, even though the plural of stratum is strata.  Certainly "multilayer cakes" sounds better than "multilayers cakes", which is the analogue to "multistratum" and "multistrata".

Are there definitive rules for forming adjectives from Latin nouns?


texts: A noun meaning the 'elision' of whole words rather than sounds [ellipsis]

texts:
Elision refers to dropping sounds or syllables from words.
What is a similar term (noun) for dropping words from a phrase?
Example
I will give you a period of time lasting from now until 10 February to complete this task.
I will give you until 10 February to complete this task.
Because of idiom and familiarity we can drop the direct object of "to give", which would have been "a period of time" - it's understood.


texts: What is the word for a deep desire that was prohibited?

texts:
What is the word a deep desire that some external force has kept you from gaining it?
For instance in the movie Foxcatcher, the rich guy always wanted to be wrestler but his mother didn't let him because she thaught it was a low sport and it was beneath him and this made a 'deep desire' in him to be a wrestler.
Is there a word for that? The word I'm looking has some kind of negative meaning. This 'deep desire' makes you do stupid things and kind of has a bad effect on your personality.


texts:
The word "safer" can refer to several different meanings such as well-being, which would usually be placed as an adjective. It is similarly associated with being cautious, trustworthy, or reliable as the same part of speech.

As a noun "safe" can refer to the very same meanings. As a noun the word "safe" can have the same meaning if the sentence is structured differently. It is a physical thing where one can keep one's valuables.

My question is can the word "safer" be used as a noun in any context? I cannot think of any. Can anyone else?


texts: What is the word for someone who doesn't appreciate their culture/heritage?

texts: I met a person the other day who was overly critical about her culture/heritage when she described it. Is there a word to describe such a person or behaviour?


texts: Are there English equivalents to “Samurai uses (show off) a toothpick, even he hasn’t eaten anything (for a day)”?

texts:
There is a Japanese proverb, 武士は食わねど高楊子、of which literal translation is “Samurai uses (show off) a toothpick, even he hasn’t eaten meal,” meaning a Samurai glories in his honorable poverty. Samurais were esteemed as a warrior class, but many of them lived on meager salary. I’m curious to know if there is a similar saying in English.

Yahoo Japan Glossary lists “Better go to bed supper-less than rise in debt” as the equivalent expression, but I don’t think it well conveys the notion of Samurai’s self-esteem and honorable endurance of poverty.

By the way, “have eaten” meant “to fare well," in the Oriental world, as I heard that Chinese people used to exchange "你, 吃了飯么?" – “Did you eat (finished) meal (breakfast)?” each other as a day-to-day salute up until early 20 century. I wonder this concept and expression – having had a meal implies to fare well – applies to western culture and English language or not.


texts: Can I use contractions on multiple nouns like this?

texts:
Can I use contractions when I want to apply them to multiple nouns?

I want to say this:

  Sally and I will go to the beach.

Can I say this?

  Sally and I'll go to the beach.


texts:
Most definitions of "stubborn" appear to require the person in mind of being wrong on the matter discussed:

"having or showing dogged determination not to change one's attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good reasons to do so."
"determined not to change your mind, even when people think you are being unreasonable"

And examples:

"They have huge arguments because they're both so stubborn."
"He was famed for his stubborn resistance and his refusal to accept defeat."

What I wonder is whether the stubborn person has to know themselves that they are wrong, or whether it is enough that they are wrong from some third-party or objective perspective?

Can a person be stubborn if they are arguing in good faith, or does it require that they are arguing something "they should know better"?

For example, if two people keep arguing a point for too long, must that be because both of them are stubborn, or can it be that just one of them is - the person who is wrong?


texts:
Ablation studies are commonly used in academic publications to investigate the individual impact of a smaller subset of changes.
In this context, I would like to know when do we use "ablation on" or "ablation of"?


texts: What do we call the words which are inherited from other languages (like avatar,yoga etc)? Is there a single word for the class containing these words? As for example, in hindi, some words are directly taken like school, and we call these "videshaj" in hindi meaning taken from foreign(videsh).


texts: Should I use the formula or the name of the chemical in a sentence?

texts:
In a scientific paper, when quoting a chemical, is it more appropriate to write its formula or its name?

For example:

  Ion exchange removed nitrate ions from solution.

Or:

  Ion exchange removed NO3- from solution.


texts: Is any utterance in English used only by men or only by women?

texts:
In my native language, there are some interjections used only by women. For example Va (pronounced /vʌ/), is an exclamation used to express surprise only by women. If any man happens to use them, he will be either laughed at and humiliated, or will be considered a man with female characteristics.

Are there any similar things in English which should be avoided to be used by men (or women) and one should be aware of?

The example I used was an interjection, but your answer might be any word, phrase, idiom that could be thought of.


texts: How do you say "take away from someone else"?

texts:
I am not a native speaker of English. I want to know if there is a verb that means "take away something from other people".

For example: If you say I take it away do you understand that (in most cases) you take something away from other people? Removing it from the other person?

Is there a better verb than take away?

In Spanish the word is quitar. In most cases it means "from other".


texts:
What do we mean by be when we say for e.g. be brave, be mindful.

Does it mean that you are not brave or mindful but become?

Thanks


texts: This website shows a picture of a "Wideawake Hat" or a Quaker Hat. How on earth did a hat come to be named "Wideawake"?


texts:
I consider the second sentence more a statement than a question and have used a period. Is the following  correct?

  Is she drawn back into the past for a reason? Or is it all simply a horrible accident.


texts: Is there another word for individual letters of the alphabet, perhaps a typographical reference?


texts:
I am looking for a single noun similar in meaning to weekly contributor, but possibly of Latin or French root. (I am thinking that there has to be some version of French semaine used in English.)

The goal is to have a name for a participation badge on my website (think of Stack Overflow badge system). The badge would be awarded to those who participate in a weekly contest (for a number of weeks, without missing a week).

So, I am looking for a noun that describes somebody who does a weekly action. Ideally the noun would be derived from a verb to imply action.
Something like "Weekly contributor" (or just "Weekly"), but in a single word and with a dash of grandeur and loftiness if possible.

Edit: I would accept a word that just hints at "weekly". The contributor part would be nice but isn't a must.


texts:
To my knowledge, force can be used as a noun or verb, but cannot be used as an adverb.

However, google tells me:

there are over 72,000 results for "force kill a process"

while,

there are only 9200 results for "forcibly kill a process"

Why?


texts: Who is the speaker and what is the figure of speech?

texts:
"A neighbor of mine in the village

  Likes to tell how one spring

  When she was a girl on the farm, she did

  A childlike thing."

  (Complete Poem is here)

These lines are from the poem "A Girl's Garden" by Robert Frost. It is a narrative poem. The poet introduces the narrator as his neighbour and now she is a grown-up woman. She talks about a 'childlike thing' (a garden making) that she did when she was a little girl. These are the things I understand from the poem.

The poem has already been taken into certain school text book and there is a question as to who the speaker in the poem is. To this question, some say that the speaker is the poet himself; but some others say that the poet's neighbour - the protagonist- is the speaker. When I googled, I even found that "The speaker is a neighbor of the girl, who is now an adult woman living in town".

I would like to know: Who is the speaker in the poem? If it is the poet himself, can this style be an example of the dramatic monologue? If not, what poetic device is used? Thanks.


texts: What do you call someone who desperately needs (or better said craves) everyone to like them?

texts: I have this friend who is in constant search for approval - and not only from his peers, but every single person he meets. He also needs to be the center of attention.


texts: Intensification of Consonants in English Pronunciation

texts:
In many languages, my mother tongue included, you frequently encounter words that have an intensified consonant within them, especially if the consonant is between two vowels.

A good idea to demonstrate how intensification of a sound works, is to repeat the respective phonetic symbol, ie: to write it twice. For example, teammate can be pronounced /tēmmāt/, with an intensified /m/. Sometimes, in informal writing, a letter is typed repeatedly to imply intensification: "What the ****** (with three f's) are you doing?"

What I've recently noticed is that intensification is not used in English as much as in the other languages I know (about). Particularly, seldom is a sound naturally intensified inside a word. To be clear, these are (some of?) the occasions where I've come across intensification in English:

when two words meet, the first ending in the sound that the second begins with: hot tub, teammate.
when two words meet, the first ending in the sound  similar to the one that the second begins with: hot chocolate (with intensified /tʃ/).
when emphasizing a word: This is absolutely unacceptable (with intensified /l/), She's my (bbb)best friend (with intensified /b/).

But almost never inside a word.

My questions:
1- Are there any words in English that have internal intensification?
2- If the answer to the above is negative, then can we ask why? ?
3- Was it like this, say, in Old English? Maybe intensification was a common feature of English, but got gradually worn away?

Perhaps it doesn't seem an important issue, but it strikes me as very odd, because intensification is such a naturally and statistically probable thing to happen. Suppose we are to construct words by choosing sounds and chaining them together, abiding by the human limitations of articulation. After a consonant /x/, one of the nearest, and thus most probable consonant sounds to come is /x/ itself, isn't it?

EDIT:
In phonetics, a sequence of two identical sounds is called a geminate. "Intensification" might be misleading, because it also implies a change in the pitch and/or volume of the voice, which don't necessarily happen when geminating a sound.


texts: Why do we use the pronoun "that" in this situation, not "it"?

texts:
1)The climate of Busan is milder than that of Seoul

2)The climate of Busan is milder than it of Seoul

I know that #1 is right. But I wonder why we don't use a demonstrative pronoun "it", a pronoun which usually refers to something already mentioned in a sentence or piece of text.


texts: Is there a term for speaking English with a foreign accent to make it easier for foreigners to understand?

texts:
I was just recalling Joey Barton's interview with the French media in which he speaks with a French accent, seemingly to make it easier for his audience to understand.

As humourous as it may be, is there a term for this?


texts: Is “Mind-meld” analogous to “Brainwashing”?

texts:
U.S. media are now abuzz about Presient Obama’s remark, “I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks” at the press conference after sequestration meeing with Congressional leaders at the White House held on March 1st.

The Atlantic complains that President Obama confused the Jedi of “Star Wars” and the mind-melds of “Star Trek,” and predicted that the President shatters his “nerd credibility.” Reference to Jedi mind-meld came in the following statement:

  "Most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree
  that I’m presenting a fair deal. The fact that they don’t take it,
  means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right. ---The Speaker of the House and the
   leader of the Senate and all those folks have responsibilities. What I
  can do is present the best possible case for why we need to do the
  right thing.”

As I’m unfamiliar with the plots of both “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” I’m not sure of what “I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks.” means. But I guess it means that most Americans think the President should change the mind of both the Speaker of the House and the Sanate leader and other “ramaining on their ass.”

What is the exact translation of “Do a mind-meld with somebody”? Does it mean to brainwash somebody?

Is “do a Jedi, or do mind-meld” a stand-alone English expression that most English- speaking people understand and use?


texts: Repeated structures vs. repeating structures

texts:
I'm writing a paper about data mining. When I find some pattern periodically occur in some dataset, should I say:

  Repeated structures are found in the dataset.

or

  Repeating structures are found in the dataset.

I find myself end up with both forms in my paper so I doubt I really understand the difference and know when to use which.

From the Ngrams both forms seem to be correct.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
Which is correct: “prefer X to Y” or “prefer X over Y”?

Which is correct?

I prefer tea to coffee.
I prefer tea over coffee.


texts: What is the more accurate word for "lazy" in Bill Gates' quote

texts:
Bill Gates said that

  “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

I have a lazy brother who is

lazy to take a bath and brush his teeth
lazy to clean his room, let alone our house
lazy to study
lazy to help others

I also have a friend who is

lazy to help others voluntarily
lazy to work hard with a low salary
lazy to go to church because he does not want to meet his ex girlfriend

Question

It seems to me, the word "lazy" in Bill Gates' quote is similar to ones I used for my friend. In order to exclude the meaning of "lazy" that I used for my brother, what is the more specific, accurate word instead of "lazy" for Bill Gates' quote?


texts: Help identifying the word(s?) that describe or define this description:

texts:
An apple is a fruit,
but a fruit isn't an apple.

This is not about the Definite and indefinite articles.
But this is about the subject of:

We are able to call something like an apple a fruit.
We are not able to call a fruit an apple (because not all fruits are apples.)

What do you call this aspect of the English language?
I remember learning about this particular Topic in either English class, or in a Grammar class.


texts:
I'm looking for a sports-related term in English, that means that one side had won without the other side having scored a single point, e.g. 1:0 or 5:0.

Is it "a clean win", or does a clean win mean anything with a large gap between the winner and the loser?


texts: When Harry met Sally - idiomatic expression

texts:
In the 1989 movie "When Harry met Sally" the expression:

  When X met Y

Has some other meaning other than the obvious one, or there's a hidden idiomatic expression or a pun?


texts:
Just read that "Flourishing as a standard" is not a meaningful expression. However, I've found several usages of the expression in published books.

Any idea on acceptance or rejection of its meaningfulness?


texts: Can "liable" and "likely to" convey opposite connotations?

texts:
Liable is often loosely used in colloquial, nonstandard AE for likely: "My favorite horse is liable to win" -- but discriminating use generally applies liable only to what is undesirable: "An overheated radiator is liable to explode."

And so -- with this latter sense in mind -- can a phrase like "At this rate this horse is liable to win" mean pretty much the same as saying "At this rate this horse has a serious chance to win and I gotta say I don't like the idea"?

Analogously, can someone say "At this rate this horse is likely to lose the race" and mean by that: "At this rate this horse has a serious chance to lose the race and I gotta say I love the idea"?


texts: Rule for if a verb can take -ing (simple present vs present cont.)? eg. I love vs I am loving

texts:
As a BrE. speaker, there are come constructions using verbs in their present continuous form which just sound wrong. The best example being, "I am loving Stack Exchange."

After reading around the internet, all the information I can find seems to be addressing the difference in usage and meaning between -ing and infinitives such as "he went on to sing the National Anthem" and "he went on singing..."

Is there a rule as to which verbs can or should be used in a continuous form "I am drinking tea" and those which shouldn't, "I am loving this tea so much right now*"

Thanks

*In a thick Californian accent!


texts:
The words typography (the craft of designing the appearance of printed text) and typographer (one who designs the appearance of printed text) are well-known in English.  Both have the form of derivations from a hypothetical base verb, *typograph, but that word is vanishingly rare. (Google Ngrams shows it nearly 10x rarer than typographer, itself 7-10x rarer than typography; Merriam-Webster lists the word only as a technical term for letterpress printing; etymonline doesn't show it at all.)  It seems to be a genuine lexical gap.

Given that, what would you suggest one use as the verb with the meaning "to design the appearance of printed text"?  (I am aware of text design but this is rare outside the publishing industry, and has a slightly different denotation there; people employed as "text designers" may or not consider themselves to be "typographers.")


texts: What's that word meaning 'thus more strongly for X'?

texts:
What's that word meaning 'thus more strongly'? As in X applies to Y, and thus even more strongly to Z. E.g.:

  The body's immune system needs warmth, so adequate heating is good for you (and [this conclusion follows with even more force] for sick people)

I seem to remember that there is such a word, and it's Latin, though I could be wrong.


texts:
"the 90s were the best decade ever" or "the 90s was the best decade ever"

"the 90s" and "decade" are both referring to the same singular period of 10 years, so "was" seems to make more sense. "90s were" rolls off the tongue better though.


texts:
What is the difference between the sentences
"I would love/like to play cricket" and " I want to play cricket." Is there any difference in the moods?


texts: In the sentence 'She seems nice', is 'nice' a subject complement, verb complement, or both?

texts:
In the sentence below, is nice a subject complement, verb complement, or both?

  She seems nice.

According to this page, it’s a type of verb complement; but it also seems to me to fit with the description of a subject complement, as explained on this page.


texts:
The word "tomboy" is used to express the idea of a girl who behaves in a boyish manner.  It's not usually considered a negative term, or at least not very negative, and generally just means the girl enjoys more athletic activities and doesn't concern themselves with acting very 'feminine'.

On the other hand, the nearest term I can think of for the reverse idea, of a boy who takes pleasure in more feminine activities, and who doesn't concern themselves with manliness, is "dandy" (like a fine dandy boy), which carries some negative connotation that I wish to avoid.

Is there a better, less negative term that refers to a boy who acts in a feminine manner, or who enjoys activities that are more female-oriented?


texts: Word for "taking advantage of a second chance or opportunity"

texts: Say a person doesn't act the first time around but gets a second chance and makes the right move. Is there any word that would describe such a situation or action?


texts: Is there a term for the amount of time one devotes to a job, as in full-time, part-time, half-time?

texts:
This question came up when I was posting job openings on a website and needed to list the various aspects of each position using label/value pairs, like so:

Benefits: Included

Availability: Immediate

_________: Full time

I struggled to fill that blank.  What's a suitable and succinct label for a field that indicates how much of your work day a job occupies?  Time worked?  Work level?  (Perhaps "occupational temporal commitment"? j/k)  Nothing I came up with seemed quite right, so I was curious if anyone knew if there's an accepted term for this.


texts: Slashes and line breaks in tables or text

texts:
I need to typeset a table in a relatively reduced space (it's a two-column document format) and I wanted one of the column headers to read "Static / Dynamic" (or "Static / dynamic"?). I don't think I can have that in a single line, which will already make for an uglier header, so maybe I should just try to find an alternative like "Type" or "Nature" or whatever. But anyway I was curious, I have not been able to find any recommendation about what to do with the slash in this situation, that is, whether I should prefer:

  Static /
  Dynamic

Or:

  Static
  / Dynamic

Seeing them actually written I think I'd favor the first one, but neither looks good really. I guess the same issue arises with slashes at line breaks in general (whenever one thinks it is okay to use slashes). Also, I know different style guides have different recommendations about the use of spaces around slashes, and I don't know how that may or may not affect this problem.

Again, I know that maybe the best recommendation is to just replace it with something else, in this case another word or even just something like "Static or dynamic", but is there any specific recommendation to this situation?


texts: "We are all of us engaged in..." What does 'all of us' mean here?

texts:
I read the following sentence in Chicago Sun-Times's review of the movie In Time:

  We are all of us engaged in the trade of buying and selling time.

The sentence sounds grammatically weird to me. It seems to me that it should be:

  All of us are engaged in the trade of buying and selling time.

Another way for me to make any sense of this sentence is adding a couple of dashes (or maybe commas, I'm not good at punctiation):

  We are — all of us — constantly engaged in the trade of buying and selling time.

Or does "all of us" have an adverbial meaning? Or maybe "we are all of us" is a set phrase? Please throw some light on this curious issue :)

Update: If it is a grammatically correct sentence, how is it parsed? I assume "We" is the subject, "are engaged" is the predicate. What is the function of "all of us"?


texts: Should I use "grid connectivity" or "grid connectivities"?

texts:
I am confused whether I should use connectivity or connectivities in the following sentence:

  This processor analyzes the statuses of various switches and circuit-breakers in
  the system and determines the grid connectivity among different electrical nodes (i.e., buses).


texts: Usage difference between "Have got" and "Have gotten" in AmE

texts:
In the following AmE examples:

(a) I have contacted them. I haven't got their answer
(b) I have contacted them. I haven't gotten their answer

My first interpretation would be that in (a) I could have obtained an answer, but I don't have it handy, whereas in (b), the answer was never received.

Is this a correct interpretation of the difference between these two examples?

Thanks!


texts: "The superhero is you" vs. "The superhero are you"

texts:
I know there was already a similar question asked before, but I don't get it completely.
So, as I take it, you can exchange "The superhero is you" with "The superhero are you" without a big change in their meaning. For me, as a German native, the first one sounds wrong, but I actually see the reason why it is correct. In German, you would always say "are" because it doesn't matter which one is the subject:

Der Superheld bist du (literally "The superhero are you")

Is it true that "The superhero are you" is also correct?
When I change the order of the sentence, can I also say it in both ways?

"You are the superhero" (This is correct, right?)
"You is the superhero" (Can this also be correct? Sounds wrong to me)

In German, there is no change:

"Du bist der Superheld" (literally "You are the superhero")

I really have to say, some things in the English grammar really confuse me as a German speaker. ^^
Thank you for your help.


texts: What is the origin of "nerp" or possibly "nurp"

texts: In the 1970s I asked a clerk at the lumber yard in Laguna Beach, California, whether I could have a hole drilled in a door hinge so I could put a set-screw in it. That would prevent the removal of the hinge, an action which would permit a miscreant to open the door even though it was locked.The clerk said, "So you want to have it nerped?" I have not had occasion to learn whether that word is still in use... or its origin.


texts: When saying "making a donation on behalf of somebody" who has the money acually?

texts:
I was wondering when saying "make a donation on behalf of someone" does on behalf mean in the name of ? or it means someone who owns the money?

Thank you .


texts: Is there a single word or phrase for something that looks/sounds wrong, but is right?

texts:
Is there a single word or phrase for something that is so commonly spelt or said incorrectly, that when said properly looks or sounds odd? E.g.

"Company staff is expert in management..."
Saying the champagne Moet as "Mo-waaay" (rather than "Mo-wet")

Any ideas or other examples appreciated!


texts: Universe, controverse, controversy, universy

texts:
Why isn’t it "a controverse"? Or why isn’t it a "universy"?

Etymonline implies that the "verse" part of controversy and universe come from the same Latin root: versus, past participle of vertere.

Collins says "controverse" is obsolete and has been since before 1800 (Google books start).

Is there any reason that controversy gets a "y" but universe doesn’t?


texts: Formal email/letter writing : correct usage of "issue which pertains to" / "issue pertaining to" /"issue that pertains to"

texts:
In my humble attempt at writing a classy formal letter, I am stuck with a bug in my brain .. probably due to my background of a non-native speaker of English.
I am trying to draw the reader's attention to an issue related to my mobile device causing heating issues.
I wrote the below:

Dear Sir,
I would like to draw your attention to an issue pertaining to my recently purchased XYZ mobile overheating....

Should it be, instead:

I would like --"-- an issue that pertains to my recently purchased --"--


texts:
If I say : "It is hard to choose which to eat between a candy and a chocolate."
Or

"If not stealing my stuff, I don't care about him acting like a thief."

It sounds so unnatural. Is there a grammar problem? Or if there isn't any, why does it sound unnatural?


texts:
For an interface I'm working on, there's a command available to a user called "Put Item On Hold." Or possibly it should be "Put Item on Hold," since the style guide I'm using says that prepositions shouldn't be capitalised unless they're part of a verb phrase.

Is "on" part of a verb phrase in "Put Item on Hold?" Is it a preposition? I think the answer is yes, but I can't help but think there's more to it that I'm not thinking of.


texts: Are there terms for the Dutch 'meewind' and 'tegenwind'?

texts:
In the Netherlands we have a term for when for example you're biking on the streets and you have the wind in the back. We call that wind meewind, and we say we have meewind (translated as wind with).

We also have a term for when we have to cycle against the wind. We call that wind tegenwind (literally translated as wind against). We arrive faster at our destination via bike when we have meewind.

Does the English also have two words to describe these two versions of wind?


texts: Meaning of "a few lost beams of latent light"

texts:
What does a few lost beams of latent light mean?

  I think it's summer still outside
  A few lost beams of latent light
   – moi Caprice


texts: "The place where is near my apartment" - Why can't we use 'where' there?

texts:
This question here asks about where as a subject in relative clauses:

Can "where" ever be used as the subject of a relative/adjective clause?

As can be seen from my specific questions at the end (as opposed to the back-story), the specific question here is more fundamental and more general.

I have a Taiwanese friend who asks me for English help with some regularity. I believe I am almost always able to furnish them with the correct answer, but the latest topic is one of which I'm unable to explain the 'why'.

The sentence in question:

  The office will be moved to a place which/where is near my apartment.

I said it should be

  The office will be moved to a place which is  near my apartment.

(or: a place that is near my apartment ).

My friend asked '"Why? Doesn't where indicate a place?"

Erm, ... yes, but no... I can't explain the why of it, and now I'm really curious. When should we use where and when which or that? Any input will be much appreciated!


texts:
[[The question has been edited in an attempt to address the reason it was originally put on hold.]]

Suppose that several individuals are speaking. There are two conversations occurring at once in the same place. Both are heard simultaneously by each person that is present. Each person participates in one and only one conversation.

How does one write dialogue so that it is obvious without explanation that both explicitly quoted speeches occur at once, but without violating conventional grammar?

  QUESTION: Specifically, does (1) or (2) as literally heard by the perspective character (PC) violate modern grammar? Which one if any---and in that case, how can it be rewritten without such a violation, yet without rewriting it into (3)?

*COROLLARY**: Are there published modern precedents in novels or short fiction regarding dual but explicit dialogue?

1) There is the em dashery from Tristram Shandy:

"So I told him---This salad is floating---that he doesn't know how---in its dressing!---to fix cars. I look at it and---He needs to get---it's disgusting!---a professional to look at it." Tom spits in the salad and goes on complaining. Janice continues speaking to Bob---who nods and smiles periodically. I don't believe that he can hear what she's saying.

OR

2) There is the symbolic indication of simultaneousness via brackets:

"So I told him that he doesn't know how to fix cars," says Janice. ("This salad is floating in its dressing," Tom complains. "I look at it and---" he spits in the salad.)

"He needs to get a professional to look at it." ("It's disgusting.")

Bob looks at Janice and nods and smiles periodically. I don't believe that he can hear what she's saying.

OR

3) One can summarize who says what and when, or write explicitly the loudest dialogue and summarize what is also said, or separate the speeches and join them with a while clause.

"So I told him that he doesn't know how to fix cars," says Janice. "He needs to get a professional to look at it," she tells Bob.

"This salad is floating in its dressing!" Tom complains while Janice speaks. "I look at it and---" he spits in the salad. "It's disgusting."

Bob looks at Janice and nods and smiles periodically. I don't believe that he can hear what she's saying.

  However this cannot achieve the effect which simultaneous dialogues can achieve:

  @P.S. I agree: following several overlapping conversations at once is typically confusing if not usually impossible. That's also the point.

  "It's noisy and she cannot understand anything that is said ..." is unclear and vague; the reader isn't given the information they need to visualize any realistic group interactions that cause the noisiness mentioned---if that's all the writer tells them.

  Several conversations at once that are described as they are heard by the PC is a technical device. It allows the author to reveal information where the PC is present and yet the PC is plausibly unaware of this information despite they fact that they are present there in fact. They hear it but they also have a reason in that context to be insufficiently attentive or incapable of parsing it. (That is not true about the readers, who are made aware of it, because those conversations which are difficult to follow in real time are typically more easily parsed and followed if they are read not heard.)


texts: Is there a word for identifying oneself with a brand?

texts:
The title seems clear to me but I'll add an example:
There are several different apps for Telegram (Android, iOS, PC, etc) that all have the name Telegram and use similar Logos, designs and have a similar general appearance, making them "identify with" the telegram brand.
Is there a word for such behaviour in the english language or should I use "identify with"?
If yes is there a distinction between the subject being alive (a salesperson) or being not-alive (an app or a car)?

Example sentence: "George uses the app that is _______ for Telegram."

I am not talking about piracy but rather about a company enforcing/having certain style guidelines.


texts: What is the prototype of “Place blame where it is deserved / Blame where it’s due / Blame only where blame is due”?

texts:
New Yorker (June 13) carries an article written by John Cassidy under the title, “The Iraq mess: Place blame where it is deserved.”

I thought the phrase, “Place blame where it is deserved” is a popular, fixed saying, and checked it on Google. I wasn’t able to find this phrase in the headings. Instead, I found the headline, “Teachers: Blame only where blame is due” in the article dealing with teachers’ responsibility for students’ performance in Washington Post’s archive (April 19, 2011), and “Blame its due” dealing with the growing problems of colony collapse of bees in MYRMECOS (May 1, 2014).

Obviously all headlines are saying the same thing with slightly different wordings. Are they simple variations of a popular idiom or cliché? If so, what is the "prototype" or standard phrasing of “Place blame where it is deserved / Blame where it’s due / Blame only where blame is due”?


texts: "From an attic of a building" vs. "from the attic of a building"

texts:
Could you choose the most natural sentence, please?

  As a kitten, she fell from an attic of a nine-storey bulding into a ventilation shaft.
  As a kitten, she fell from the attic of a nine-storey bulding into a ventilation shaft.


texts: "Not that I heard of". Is this a somewhat shortened form of a full sentence?

texts:
"Not that I heard of."

I understand its meaning, but It sounds like a somewhat shortened form of a full sentence. Am I wrong?


texts: Comma or no comma for restrictive clause in quotations?

texts:
From what I understand, clauses that restrict the subject it is modifying are not preceded by a comma.

  The dog Charlie has brown fur.

I am unsure about how commas interact with these clauses when the clause is quoted material.

  The line "I love cats" is shocking.

In the example above, "I love cats" seems restrictive. It is specifying exactly what line (out of many) that we could be referring to, similar to how "Charlie" specifies exactly what dog (out of many) that we could be referring to. I would not put a comma here. However, once I add another modifier to the subject, the sentence looks strange without a comma:

  The line that the boy wrote "I love cats" is shocking.

"The line that the boy wrote" now becomes the full subject, and "I love cats" is still restrictive (because the boy wrote many lines, and "I love cats" clarifies the exact line that he wrote). If I wrote it with commas (which seems more natural to me), then that suggests that "I love cats" is nonrestrictive, which it isn't.

  The line that the boy wrote, "I love cats," is shocking.

Any ideas?


texts:
I am trying to figure out which of the following sentences is the correct one.

"A place where family becomes friends" or "A place where family becomes friend"


texts:
So, I'm a student in a high school in Turkey. I have a class called "English Literature" which what we do is basically read texts from a book called "Select Readings Pre-Intermediate" and answer questions about them.

A few days ago, I had the exam of that class. And there was a True/False part from a text in Select Readings. And in that part, there was this sentence that said "Mariko thinks that Japanese people always appreciate what they have." and since I know that it's false, I chose false. But yesterday, the grades were announced. Apparently it was true. I open the book, go to the text and read the only paragraph that contains Japan. It reads:

  The people also helped us appreciate the more valuable things in life, such as spending time with your family;... and appreciating what you do have. These things are sometimes forgotten in an affluent country like Japan.

I thought that because of "sometimes forgotten", that'd be false. Can you explain why it is true or your reasons of why it shouldn't be true?


texts: "Had been engaged when they married" vs. "were married" vs. "had married"

texts:
Which of the sentences below are grammatically correct?

  The couple had been engaged for five years when they married.
  The couple had been engaged for five years when they were married.
  The couple had been engaged for five years when they had married.

Only (1) sounds correct to me, but I am unable to explain why (2) and (3) are grammatically wrong.


texts: Help me understand the meaning of a phrase I use regularly- "just ducky"

texts:
When people ask me; "how are you"? I love to answer with "just ducky" (sp?) and it usually gets a disarming smile and sets a light-hearted tone for conversation to follow. I adopted it as part of my personal argot when I was a kid watching the classic 70's sitcom Night Court. (Moose always used to say it).

I believe it's a British phrase but unfortunately, if the person happens to ask me what it means, I can only admit That I don't know. I'm pretty sure it is a sarcastic way of saying "fine" (e.g.; F.I.N.E.)but really wish I knew for sure and how the phrase came into the fringe if the English language.

Does anyone have a definitive answer?

I'd be happy as a pig in a poke if you do.


texts: Why is 'spatial' written with a t instead of a c?

texts:
The word 'spatial' is obviously derived from the word 'space'. So why is it usually written with a 't' instead of a 'c'?
Is there a historical reason or is it because of some grammar rule I do not know about?


texts:
I added a bunch of B. In some cases, B replaced A. In other words:

I added B, and replaced with B.

How can I write that more succinctly?

Added and replaced B

The above is not correct, because it implies B was replaced with something else.

Added and replaced with B

The above is ambiguous, as it could be interpreted as "Added with B, and replaced with B". "Added with B" is not something I did.

Is there a single word I could use instead of "replace with"? Is there another way to formulate the sentence without repeating B or adding A?

Edit:
More verbosely:

  I added MyNamespace.MyInterfaceFunction to classes which did not already have a similar function, and replaced the similar functions with MyNamespace.MyInterfaceFunction in those that did.


texts: Is "remains" in "Xenophobia remains in our society" a linking or intransitive verb?

texts:
Yet another grammar question.

I know that 'remains' can be a linking verb in many contexts, but I'm undecided on whether it is  linking in the sentence "Xenophobia remains in our society".

I feel that "in our society" doesn't restate or rename xenophobia, and I feel it answers the question "Where does xenophobia remain?", making "in our society" an adverb of place. But certainly you can describe some societies as xenophobic.

So what characterization is appropriate in this case?


texts: A word to describe a day where I learned a lot

texts: I want a word to describe a day where I learned a lot. I can't think of many good choices. I was thinking productive or industrious, but that describes more the act of doing rather than learning.


texts: What is wrong with the sentence “There put a student an amazing answer to the test”?

texts:
Why is this sentence ungrammatical?

  There put a student an amazing answer to the test.


texts: What do you call a combination journal / diary / portfolio / design notebook?

texts:
I have a busy, complicated life.  I'm an engineer, but I'm also an artist (painting, photography), I like to travel - mostly solo, which requires extensive planning, I have several serious health problems; I'm a homeowner, and a widower who recently started dating several women.  I also like to write and I've had some nonfiction articles published and even a few poems published in obscure literary journals.

I've kept a personal journal for a long time, but because I have separate journals and logbooks for artistic, engineering, household, travel, and medical progress, I don't feel my personal journal really captures the sheer complexity, color, richness and difficulties of my life.

So I'm starting a new document with daily entries that will have elements of a personal journal, along with projects, medical procedures and status, travel research, artistic ideas, lists, and records of all kinds.    Some of it will link to other documents but I WANT it to have a cluttered, eclectic quality that reflects how my life really is.  It will be mostly text, but also images, video, and sound.

I was thinking about this when I saw this question:
What's the difference between "diary" and "journal"?

... what is the right name for this?   It's not a logbook, exactly, although it will have many elements of a logbook.   I think of it as a cross between a diary and a logbook and a design notebook.

Is there a good word for this?


texts:
My question is a bit hard to explain, but I was wondering about whether or not there was a rule for how subject and objects should be pluralized. This is the sentence that sparked my curiosity:

  ... thin strips of metal lined every other tread.

For context, there is a metal strip or bump on every other stair in a staircase. It's just decorative architecture. Anyways, take a look at this second example, which is a rewrite of the first.

  ... a thin strip of metal lined every other tread.

The meaning is the same, but the subject noun is singular rather than plural.
I have looked at other questions, but I cannot understand and apply those answers to this sentence. Pardon my lack of sense, but is there a rule for when the subject and object both need to be plural, and how can I tell which I should use?


texts:
Which of these sentences is correct?

  You mentioned having been in a hospital last year.

  You mentioned being in a hospital last year.


texts:
I am writing some technical documentation and I got confused when I saw the following paragraph title:

  Steps to creating a new thing* in production

I think the correct title should be:

  Steps to create a new thing* in production

But I'm not an English native speaker, the person who wrote it is, so I'm no sure.

* Replace thing with the real thing we do on production :)


texts:
Explain please the meaning of this phrase in the title. Macroeconomic models do not deal with the optimizing behavior but leave them in the background. I don't understand.

The source is the book "Macroeconomics" by Gregory Mankiw.
The context:

Yet the model does not focus on how these microeconomic decisions are made; instead, it leaves these decisions in the background. Similarly, although microeconomic decisions
underlie macroeconomic phenomena, macroeconomic models do not necessarily focus on the optimizing behavior of households and firms, but instead sometimes leave that behavior in the background.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Why is "primer" pronounced with a short "i" sound?

texts:
This word—used to mean an elementary textbook, not a painting material—annoys me to no end. Does anyone know why, exactly, "primer" is pronounced with a short "i" sound? I don't know why, call it intuition, but I can't see why this word isn't spelled "primmer." Are there any particular etymological reasons for this spelling/pronunciation combination?

EDIT: Apparently this situation is only recognizable to American English speakers. I've only ever heard it pronounced with a short "i," but this seems to be completely unheard of to British English speakers.


texts: order of magnitude of words describing the size of a group

texts:
Are there any definitive, or even generally accepted guides which indicate the order of magnitude of:

pack
party
throng
rabble
horde
drove
swarm
plague

There is some agreement that "couple" is 2, and a "few" is usually 3-5, with these words I'm seeking a rough indication rather than an exact number range (though that would be good too!)

update

Lets say:

4 < x < 8
2 < y < 20

And their values are randomized and sampled (a large number) of times so that we get an average and a standard deviation for x and y.

Which is greater, x or y? Of course, there are circumstances when x > y and conversely when y > x. But, if you were told you had to fight your way through a number of zombies (and you didn't enjoy it and thus want to fight as few as possible), and you could choose to deal with x or y of them, x is probably going to be "less".

Similarly, these words are "subjective". But despite their subjectiveness, there is a consensus on approximately how large they are. Can throng mean a trillion? Probably not it is usually used to describe a smaller number. Can throng mean zero? or one? No, it usually means a larger number. Well well. looks like despite the subjectiveness, there is an approximate region in which throng exists.

We aren't going to get an exact, perfectly defined answer here. We may only get:

pack, party  ≈ 30 ± 25
rabble, throng ≈ 100 ± 60
horde, drove ≈ 10,000 ± 9,000
swarm, plague ≈ a million or more

Notice that the symbol used is the wiggly equals sign, which means approximately equals (although that might be subjective, its used with numbers so its in context). This hasn't defined a full order, it grouped them to give partial ordering. These numbers are just as an example. I am expecting someone to reason that e.g. horde and throng should be switched, or that drove is more like somewhere between 200 and 2000 etc.

Even if you are very knowledgeable with english you may not be able to answer, I'm hoping that in the next year or two, someone will emerge who will cite numerous classical texts (for example) and explain that these words originate from there and are approximate equivalents to military groupings, e.g. roman soldiers who saw a legion's worth of barbarians would refer to it as (e.g.) a horde, as although it was the size of a legion it lacked the rank and discipline. Thus, please refrain from angrily stomping on this question as you do not have an answer, someone will. THIS question will become the approximate reference for poetic writers to approximate which word is most suitable to describe the scale of what they are writing of.

There is no exact answer, but that does not mean that we have to surrender with: "oh well if we can't get an exact answer better just put its subjective".

It is subjective, of course.
George Boole said "All models are wrong, but some models are useful". This is merely a guide, a rough model. Please, think of the writers trying to decide whether to describe 10,000 orcs as a horde or a rabble; do it for them, if not for me.


texts: A word for the fear that everyone can read your mind?

texts: When I was young, I had an irrational fear that everyone in the world was an actor who could read my mind. This fear was highly specific, and I felt that I was the only one who had it, especially since I couldn't find a word for it on phobia websites. One day I was randomly browsing a small website dedicated to phobias, and I found this exact same fear. I have since forgotten the term for it, though.


texts: Term, blend-word, or metaphor for being social but with boundaries

texts:
I'm looking for a term, word or metaphor for being social but within rules or boundaries.

I don't like the word privacy as it has a negative connotation. I think the word social is overused or misunderstood, especially in the online realm. I assume real social interactions operate on trust and that certain behavioral rules must be followed. But doing things together bonds people, and they learn more about each other. Etiquette is too stodgy and doesn't encompass all that I am trying to say.

Any thoughts on how to combine all of these ideas into one word, a blend-word, or a metaphor, please?


texts:
In an answer of an interesting question, Is mathematical history written by the victors?, professor Paul Garrett wrote:

  Again, "winning" is certainly not a reliable sign of absolute virtue. Could be a PR triumph, luck, etc. In certain arenas "winning" would be a stigma...

What is a PR triumph? By searching online, I'm sure it's not his own invention. But neither wiktionary nor my dictionary give me much clue on this issue. I can't see any reason that PR here could stand for public relation, proportional representation, or Puerto Rico as it usually does.


texts: Is there a word for 'saying what others are thinking'?

texts:
Is there a word for 'saying what others are thinking' ? I'm just looking for a shorter way of expressing it, ideally in a word or very short phrase. I've searched online but am having difficulty finding out, so am guessing there may not be one.
Thanks in advance.


texts: The meaning of 'stop-start' in this phrase

texts: This year it has been far more stop-start, from the high of the Champions League games against Real Madrid and their 4-1 win over Liverpool, to performanaces that have been so poor, they have been pretty shocking.


texts: Where is the right place for the adverb 'well' in a sentence?

texts:
I want to write: "I understand something."
But I want add emphasis by including the adverb "well".

Which is the right place for it?

I well understand something.
I understand well something.
I understand something well.

I suppose the 3rd option is right, but I still have my doubts.


texts:
Sorry for the dumb question, but can someone please explain the subject and verb in this sentence?

"There is a house in new orleans whose veranda is lined with satin"


texts: Should comma in front of colon be omitted?

texts:
Should the comma in the sentence below be omitted?

  A comes in two forms, depending on how often they do B:

  X
  Y
  .


texts:
I came across the sentence, "I rejoice to hear it," and wasn't exactly sure how to read it. So I looked up "rejoice to hear," and found it again in a poem by Isaac Watts:

  How did my heart rejoice to hear
  My friends devoutly say,
  "In Zion let us all appear,
  And keep the solemn day!"

Does my original sentence, "I rejoice to hear it," mean, I rejoice at having heard it, or I rejoice to hear it -- I rejoice so that I may hear it.


texts:
Could someone explain to me the difference between these two phrases (if there’s any at all)

According to Cambridge Online Dictionary

to be in the mood means to feel like doing something
I am not really in the mood for shopping.
to be in a mood means to be not friendly to other people
Ignore him - he is in a mood.

And is there a phrase: It just goes on my mood (with a context: it depends on my mood)? I watched an interview with Hailey Baldwin the other day and she was talking about her everyday outfits, saying that the pick of the outfit goes on her mood.
Thanks in advance!


texts:
The city Tokyo was sometimes called Tokio, as can be seen in ngrams, and as one example, the WWII anti-Japanese movie Tokio Jokio.

Why was Tokyo sometimes called "Tokiyo"?

The Japanese hiragana for Tokyo is とうきょう, and according to Wikipedia's article on the romanisation of Japanese, the "きょ" component would be romanised, under all of the Hepburn, Nihon-shiki, and Kunrei-shiki systems as "kyo".

The section on historical romanisations has "kio" as a romanisation of "きょ", but that was a romanisation suggested in the 1600s. Were those romanisation schemes still in use in the 19th century, for a city renamed in 1868?


texts:
I've seen questions and answers about the "when", but I don't really understand the reason to use this Horrible Way to Type Sentences Which Obviously Hinders Readability. It's really bad when in a newspaper or on a site you see an article with a long title with names and unique terms which are normally capitalized, and in certain contexts may look ambiguous and confusing, especially when common words are used in product names. Sometimes you don't know right away where a thing's name starts and where it ends.

Why was title case invented in the first place? What problem does this style  of writing solve? Does that same problem exist still in the modern world? And does it apply to electronic media which didn't exist back then?


texts:
I noticed a contradiction in Cambridge Dictionary. It says that "We don’t use until or till to talk about distance; we use as far as", but at the same time it cites "as far as" as one of the meanings of "until". How can both be correct?

According to English Grammar Today (from Cambridge Dictionary):

  We don’t use until or till to talk about distance; we use as far as:

  We had to drive as far as Liverpool for the last hockey match that I
  played.

  Not: We had to drive until Liverpool …

But the dictionary itself says:

  Until = as far as: You should stay on the train until Manchester and then
  change.


texts: "Hot cakes" or "flapjacks" in 1890s American South?

texts: Which term is more likely to have been used by my main character, a young man from a wealthy Macon, Georgia family, in 1893?


texts:
Full can be mistaken for a description of a whole as opposed to a part.
For example:

  "The [full] frog hopped back to its lily-pad."

Can be understood as:

  "The frog [that had eaten recently and was no longer hungry] hopped back to its lily-pad."

or:

  "The frog [no longer a tadpole or other "pre-frog" stage] or [not a piece of the frog but the whole frog] hopped back to its lily-pad.

What is a way of saying someone or something is "full" without that possible misunderstanding?


texts:
The word lift generally means for car. Then what is for bike?

Eg: Can I get a lift?

Meaning, can I ride in your car?

Similarly, I want to know how can we say for "Can I get a lift with you on your bike?" or simply asking a lift on bike?


texts: Why is "man" used where a plural might be appropriate, and not "men"?

texts:
There is a saying in Bioshock which goes like this:

  No Gods or Kings. Only Man.

Why do they use the singular "man" and not the plural "men"?

Ok, I know that man = mankind. The saying could go like this as well

  No God or King. Only Man.

but it doesn't. For the first two words the plural form is used, why not for "man"?

Edit: Maybe this is not a question about the language but rather one about the meaning in the game's context.


texts: What does the abbreviation 'compl.' mean in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

texts:
*Note: One might (understandably) think my question off-topic because the OED should list the abbreviations it uses, and if not, surely Google will have the answer. Please bear with me while I explain.*

I wanted to learn more about the word, bespeak, so I turned to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED).1 Definition number 7 for bespeak reads in part:2

  7.

  a. To speak of, tell of, be the outward expression of; to indicate, give evidence of.

  1629   J. Earle Micro-cosmogr. (ed. 5) xx. sig. E2v   His very
  countenance and gesture bespeak how much he is.

  1814   Wordsworth Excursion i. 42   But her House Bespake a sleepy
  hand of negligence.    1863   C. C. Clarke Shakespeare-characters
  iii. 65   Hamlet's proneness to soliloquy bespeaks the reflective man.

  b. with compl.

  a1704   T. Brown Oration in Praise Drunkenness in Wks. (1707) I.
  i. 47   Such whose smiling Aspect bespeaks them Friends.

  1815   Scribbleomania 18   Symptoms bespeaking me rash.

QUESTION: What does 'compl.' mean in definition 7b?

My Research

I looked for a list of abbreviations in the OED itself, but if it's there, I could not find it.
I Googled "compl." (with and without the quotation marks);
I Googled ("compl." AND abbreviation) - with and without the parentheses;
I searched several abbreviation sites; and
I reviewed publishing terms and their abbreviations in the BlueBook (citation guide for law reviews and other legal writing).

What I learned

In the publishing world, 'comp.' stands for compilation or compile.3
In the legal world, 'compl.' stands for complaint.
AcronymFinder indicates that 'compl' stands for complete or completion.
AllAcronyms.com informed me that 'comp.' can refer to compound or composition.
TheFreeDictionary.com instructed me that 'compl' refers to a 1966 article in The Computer Journal, titled "The COMPL Language and Operating System". 4

Unfortunately, I did not learn what the OED means by 'compl.'

~ Mark

Footnotes

Subscription required. However, most university and public libraries provide their members with access to OED Online. There are also the Oxford Dictionaries, abbreviated ODO (Oxford Dictionary Online). The URL for Oxford Dictionary - English is https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/
'in part' - I did not include all the examples of historical usage (quotations) because the OED (print or online) is protected by copyright, therefore I did not want to copy and paste the entire definition verbatim.
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation 517 tbl.T.14 (Columbia Law Review Ass’n et al. eds., 20th ed. 2015).
A. G. Fraser, J. D. Smart; The COMPL Language and Operating System. Comput J 1966; 9 (2): 144-156. doi:10.1093/comjnl/9.2.144


texts: Pluralization of nouns left out with conjunction

texts:
Can a repeated noun be left out in a conjunction? The particular example I am thinking of is a sentence that starts:

  Element A and element B....

Which I would shorten as:

  Element A and B...

I know I can do this with a definite article or a normal modifier, but if you can't leave out the noun, it should actually be:

  Elements A and B...

Which is correct?


texts: How could I translate the Italian "non so cosa ho combinato"?

texts:
How could I translate a sentence like the Italian:

  Non so cosa ho combinato!

?

I've translated it into

  I don't know what I've done!

but it seems to me that something's lost in translation.

The sentence could have two meanings:

Non so cosa ho combinato (ma sono riuscita a farlo) = I don't know how, but I managed to do it
Non so cosa ho combinato (ma ho fatto un disastro) = I don't know how, but I did a mess.


texts:
This change has no impact in the system's current behaviour.

Is the preposition in grammatical here? I think we should have used on instead:

  This change has no impact on the system's current behaviour.

But I'm not sure if both are acceptable and have their own meaning.


texts:
Why do we refer to the floors of buildings as stories? Example:

  I live up on the sixth story.


texts: Can "the problem is" be replaced by "the issue is" in this context?

texts:
Issue and problem in many occasions are interchangeable, but they have differences. I wonder whether in this sentence "the problem is" can be replaced by "the issue is".

  Alice said a lot on some topic and then Bob replied, "What you said can be a good argument on its own, but the problem is you have not figured out against what the author is discoursing."


texts: What is the difference between swing by, drop by, and stop by?

texts: Do drop by, swing by, and stop by all have the same meaning? Is there a difference in usage?


texts:
The phrase "to no avail" describes something that is futile or ineffective.

His efforts to stop the thief were to no avail.

Commonly, the phrase is separated from the independent clause of the sentence by a comma. Is this a violation, seeing as the phrase is not independent per se?

She tried to brush the tangles out of her hair, but to no avail.
She tried to brush the tangles out of her hair but to no avail.

Even when writing, I myself would not worry about throwing in the comma as I have never met any reader who finds something to pick at in a sentence like the one above. In a slightly more formal context, would the phrase be connected with or without a comma?


texts: When to use “Get Well Soon” and “Feel Better”, I mean in what situations? Should “Get Well Soon” be used only when person is unwell for many days? And should I use “Feel Better”, if colleague message me that she will take off as she is not feeling well.


texts: What do you call those "observation" beds you see in vet clinics?

texts:
What do you calls these "observation" beds?

I think they aren't hospital beds because a veterinary clinic isn't technically a hospital?


texts: "Expectations from" vs "Expectations for"

texts:
I have good expectations from traveling.
I have good expectations for traveling.

Which one is correct? From this post, it seems that "expectations for" is correct because we are talking about an "anticipated result in store with the future." However, "expectations from" sounds natural to me too.


texts:
If you will have dinner at home, tell me.

  or

  If you have dinner at home, tell me.

What is the difference between the two sentences? Which one sounds natural?


texts: What can be understood from the question "what are you putting on"?

texts:
What are you putting on?

What are the comprehension options I have for this question when it's out of a clear context?

Is it correct to understand it as "what are you up to?"?

Edit: For those who have voted my question to be closed for being "too broad", I'd like to make it clearer than I did before. My question came up exactly because I read this sentence/question isolated on a book as an example for phasal verbs with "on", and it didn't help me at all. So, when I checked on as many dictionaries you can think of, I saw way too many definitions for it, but no one which could be clearly understood when out of context. So, yeah, this is precisely what I want to know, and this is why my question was, again:

What are the comprehension options I have for this question when it's out of a clear context?


texts: "How to NOT create own company. Case study." Is it a correct title for presentation?

texts:
I want to create a presentation, in which I will tell people about my mistakes which I made, when I started my own company.

I have a difficulty with defining a title in English :( I have a gut feeling, that this title do not represent what I want to tell people. And I want to say:

those are my mistakes, do not do that
this and that should be done in different order
avoid doing this, etc...

But I don't want to say:

do not create own company

To be honest, presentation will tell something completely opposite. Small help from native speakers would be for sure tremendously helpful.


texts:
"Safe Drive Save Life" is the name of a program initiated by the Government of West Bengal, a state in East India. You could look it up here and here.

Every time I go to the capital of West Bengal, Kolkata, I can't help but notice this expression on bumper stickers and billboards. What bothers me is that it does not sound right.

Is the expression "Safe Drive Save Life" correct? Is it missing any punctuation? Why does it sound so incorrect? Or is it just me?


texts: What's the word for telling on someone, or inform against them?

texts:
The informal word for telling on people is "dobbing" (and we call that person a "dibber-dobber", at least here in Australia.

Is there an actual word for it?

Example: Sue went to my mother and told on me when I said that I was having an abortion. Sue is such a [insert word].


texts:
Usually, I send to a client "Cover Letter" with phrase "May I get the details?", if I need to get more information about his project. Suddenly, I have discovered that it is not very polite. And now I can not understand - which phrase is best to polite and formal request for the information?

I found some variants:

Could you please give me the details?
Could I please get the details?
May I please get the details?
Do you mind if I get the details?

I can not decide which is best to use in this situation, and will be acceptable both in US and British English.


texts: From the age or ages of fifteen to twenty-one?

texts:
Are both examples correct or is there only one way to write it?

  The program is for people from the age of fifteen to twenty-one.

OR

  The program is for people from the ages of fifteen to twenty-one.

To me ages (plural) makes sense because I am talking about more than one age but I am not sure if it's correct.


texts: "It took me all of ten minutes to find out" - what does "all of" mean?

texts:
The sentence: "It took me all of ten minutes to find out"

What does "all of" mean here exactly?

Is it mainly used in a sarcastic context?


texts: How are plural forms like "status" pronounced?

texts:
The question What is the plural form of "status"? caused me to think about how plural forms like "status" are pronounced. There seems to be some variation, and I had a hard time finding out what exactly the existing variants are and when each was first used. (This is probably because plural “status” seems to be mostly a theoretical word, not one that’s actually ever been in common use.)

I've posted an answer with the results of my research, but I'd appreciate any corrections or further information.

Background

In Classical Latin, the singular of the word status was pronounced something like [ˈstatus] or [ˈstatʊs], and the plural was pronounced [ˈstatuːs].

But there is no direct contact between present-day English and Latin. Latin words entered English via a mixture of transmission over centuries (with some pronunciation changes naturally occuring during this transmission), and learned borrowing (with some pronunciation features established as conventional standard spelling-pronunciations).

In addition, English doesn’t even have the exact same sounds as Latin.

For these reasons, English speakers don’t as a rule pronounce borrowed Latin words with their original pronunciations. (Some people try harder than others, but even the people who try to do this generally only approximate Latin vowel sounds with the closest English ones.) The pronunciations people actually use are based on various additional factors such as custom, spelling-pronunciation and analogy.

For example, the word matrix has the plural form matrices; according to the OED, this is typically pronounced /ˈmeɪtrᵻsiːz/, but has the variants /ˈmætrᵻsiz/ and /məˈtraɪsiːz/. None of these is the same as the reconstructed Latin pronunciation, /maːˈtriːkeːs/ (which would be approximated according to the English "restored" pronunciation of Latin as something like /mɑːˈtriːkeɪs/).


texts: Is there an English word for a fear of salt?

texts:
While terms like arachnophobia and agoraphobia are well-known, after a quick internet search I wasn't able to find a term for a fear of salt.

Does one exist, and if so what is it?

P.S. If this isn't the right stack exchange site to ask such a question, please point me in the right direction!


texts:
I am writing a short formal acknowledgement in a paper, and I would like to thank two people at the same time. The phrase I'm using is essentially:

  Coffee was paid for by John and Anna, to both of whom I express my sincere gratitude.

I am not sure if the expression "to both of whom" is correct. Should it be "to whom both"? Maybe a small variation of the phrasing would work, but I can't think of any that is short and formal.


texts:
"I am off it"

What does this sentence mean generally? I am not well, interested etc?


texts: What exists between tolerant and enthusiastic?

texts:
The use of tolerance comes with varying degrees of indifference to something, with often unstated or deliberately understated degrees of disapproval for that thing. For example, "While I'm tolerant of those that eat meat, I don't personally do it."

Enthusiasm, on the other hand, conveys endorsement. "I'm excited that people are eating meat, though I don't personally don't do it."

Ambivalence immediately comes to mind, but that negates any inclination toward the subject, be it positive or negative.

What word indicates "I think that's fine, but it isn't for me", without the sort of negative connotation that tolerance lends, yet lacks implied or enthusiastic endorsement? What word exists between tolerance and enthusiasm for something?


texts: Is there a common abbreviation for "with or without"? e.g. _w/wo_ or _w/w/o_

texts:
Is there a common abbreviation for "with or without"? e.g. w/wo or w/w/o
Obviously, something this complex is best written in full form, but I'm looking for something to use in space constrained applications. For example, I use a product management system that limits the length of product feature titles, and I'd like to convey in the title that this feature could be used with or without another feature.
Could anyone recommend a preferred substitute?
Related topics:

Are "w/o", "w/", "b/c" common abbreviations in the US?


texts:
What is a correct way to say it: I hope you live for many years. or I hope you will live for many years?
I am really confused by it since I've seen quotes of famous writers that said live but an English teacher I know says it is not the correct way.

Edit: a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald:

  I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find you're not, I hope
  you have the strength to start all over again.


texts: Questions about choices of tenses and plural/singular (scientific writting)

texts:
We assumed that the annual device scrape rate is/rate was/rates are/rates were 10% from 1960 to 1979, 30% from 1980 to 1999, and 60% from 2000 onwards.

I know if mentioning hypotheses, we need to use present tense in the clause. Not
sure if assumptions belong to hypotheses or not?
The 'rate' refers to data in the past, should I use past tense?
Also not sure if I should use singular or plural form for 'rate', which have different values for different time periods.


texts: Synonym for "do you mean" without negative connotations

texts: Whenever I use the phrase "do you mean to say", I notice that the word "mean" has a variety of negative connotations (cruelty, harshness, etc.) Is there any alternative for this phrase that doesn't have such unpleasant connotations? ("Do you mean to say this" sounds very similar to "what you said was mean", despite having a completely different meaning - that's why I'm concerned about the connotation.)


texts: What's the word for someone who espouses "rather fail than wonder"?

texts:
Is there some word/term/phrase for a person who takes risks or just tries (something) without worrying about the failures just because he/she doesn't want to give up without trying?

Risk-taker might be a potential candidate for such a word but I don't think it is apt enough.

  Getting into Oxford isn't a piece of a cake by any means, as it is world's top ranked university; but Oxford couldn't resist this __________ lad, who didn't want to wonder all his life whether he could have secured admission.


texts: What is the etymology of "duck" meaning a score of nought in Cricket?

texts:
Duck is defined as:

  a batsman's score of nought.

How did "Duck", mysteriously, come to mean a score of nought?

Here is the earliest reference in OED from 1868:

  1868   St. Paul's Mag. in Daily News 24 Aug.   You see..that his fear of a ‘duck’—as by a pardonable contraction from duck-egg a nought is called in cricket-play—outweighs all other earthly considerations.

OED has a separate entry for "duck's egg" with a reference to 1863

  1863   C. Reade Very Hard Cash vii,   Now you and I, at Lord's the other day..achieved..the British duck's-egg.

A NYT reference from 1859 antedates references in OED to "duck-egg" as well.

  He is the secretary of the Montreal Club, and was the means of getting the Eleven out, so of course he could not be sent home with a duck's egg."

The New York Times 28 Sep 1859, Wed (paywall)


texts: "Are you a man or a mouse" phrase origin

texts:
Robert Burns associated the fates of mice and men in his poem "To a Mouse" (1785):

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,

But this seems to suggest that mice and men have a lot in common. In contrast, the phrase "Are you a man or a mouse?" seems to invite the idea that mice and men are quite different. What is the origin of this phrase?


texts: Word for "stealing things during natural disasters"

texts:
What is the word for "stealing things during natural disasters"? For example, two guys are listening to the news and hear that there will be a huge typhoon tomorrow, and that there will also be no electricity. So, these two guys decide to steal things from a shop on the day of the disaster.

Is there any single word for "stealing things during natural disasters"?


texts: What does "...you would rather we have the meeting..." mean?

texts:
I recently received an email which had a sentence:

  "Let us know if you would rather we have the meeting next week with
  just Alisa and Bob."

This grammar ("you would rather we have") looks weird to me. I would just say "Let us know if you would rather like us to have a meeting...". Yet the person who wrote is a native speaker and insisted that people actually use it all the time. Can anyone explain how to use it and give more examples?


texts: Word to describe sending of personalized message to all?

texts:
I have 3 different kinds of sending a message in my system.

Send specifically - I will send a message directly (Like one on one chat)
Send All - Something like a general message (All can receive my message)
Send to all but specifically - I will send a message to all of my users but all of them will receive their own, individually personalized message.

An illustration is like this:

Send specifically

Server: (Send) Hi -> Client A: (Received) Hi

Send All

Server (Send) Hi -> Client A: (Received) Hi
   -> Client B: (Received) Hi
   -> Client C: (Received) Hi

Send to all but specifically

Server (Send) Hi Client A -> Client A: (Received) Hi Client A
Server (Send) Hi Client B -> Client B: (Received) Hi Client B
Server (Send) Hi Client C -> Client C: (Received) Hi Client C


texts: The study found relatively consistent benefits [for/of /to] using the drugs in severely ill patients.


texts: how to understand the following Shakespeare's dialogue?

texts:
I was recently studying a play of Shakespeare called: Merry Wives of Windsor and the context is that there are two persons talking one is William and the other is Evans, the second one is the father of William, the father called Evan is trying to measure the knowledge of Williams about latin grammar and says:

Evans, how many numbers is in nouns?

and the boy comes forward and says:

William Two.

The problem is that I cant understand Why the boy William answer that? to the question of the father and in the play seems that the boy is making fun of the father but i cant understand why?, I would like to appreciate any explanation of this.


texts: Is vs Are; why do they use the Are instead of the Is?

texts:
Is this sentence grammatically correct?

"Vodafone are providing a useless service"

I am quite sure that the Vodafone is singular, but everyday I see even many native English speakers using the Are instead of the Is


texts: Word for someone who has never experienced hardship

texts: I am looking for a word that best describe a person who has never experienced any hardship or setback in life. In Chinese, such a person can be described as "温室里的小花" (literally meaning a flower in a greenhouse that has never encountered the harsh conditions outside). I can think of the characteristics to describe such a person, example, fragile or vulnerable, but cannot think of a word that fits those characteristics.


texts:
Recently, I was playing a word game where you are given a list of clues and you have to come up with the appropriate word, using provided groups of letters.  I got rather confused when the clue was something like "shackle with chains" and fetter was not the answer.  After putting in the rest of the words, I was able to figure out that the word they were looking for was enfetter.  So I looked that up in the Oxford Dictionaries:

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/enfetter

  enfetter

  VERB

  [WITH OBJECT]

  literary

  Restrain (someone) as if with shackles.

  ‘his soul is so enfettered to her love’

and then compared it to fetter:

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fetter

  fetter

  VERB

  [WITH OBJECT]

  Restrain with chains or manacles, typically around the ankles.

  ‘the Supervisor tossed a key to the old slave to unlock the chain that fettered the prisoners together’

  1.1 Confine or restrict (someone)

  ‘he was not fettered by tradition’

  Origin

  Old English feter, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch veter ‘a lace’, from an Indo-European root shared by foot.

There was no origin listed for enfetter so I turned to the Online Etymology Dictionary where I found the etymology for fetter but not enfetter:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/fetter

  fetter (n.)

  Old English fetor "chain or shackle by which a person or animal is bound by the feet," figuratively "check, restraint," from Proto-Germanic *fetero (source also of Old Saxon feteros (plural), Middle Dutch veter "fetter," in modern Dutch "lace, string," Old High German fezzera, Old Norse fiöturr, Swedish fjätter "fetter"), from PIE root *ped- "foot." The generalized sense of "anything that shackles" had evolved in Old English. Related Fetters.

  fetter (v.)

  c. 1300, from Old English gefetrian, from the noun (see fetter (n.)). Related: Fettered; fettering.

According to Google's ngram tool, enfetter is pretty much unused.  Indeed, the first 7 or 8 pages of google search results for the word are all dictionary-related entries (definitions, translations, anagrams, etc.)  On page 9, I found the source of the sample sentence the Oxford Dictionaries had: Act II, Scene III of Shakespeare's Othello.

So my question is, is unfetter one of Shakespeare's made-up words that he gets to do because he's Shakespeare and thereafter is only used for word games, or does it have some other history before (or after) Othello?


texts:
What is the correct use of the word "abuses"?

While the phrase: "Human rights abuses" doesn't seem incorrect, "verbal and physical abuses" does. I am tired, so if I'm being dense please don't be too harsh. I can't seem to find anything that will explain this satisfactorily.


texts: Length of sentence and its effect on a possessor

texts:
Please consider the following sentence:

  When a function is about to call a subfunction, it puts the memory
  address of the next instruction to execute upon returning from the
  subfunction (its “return address”) at the top of the stack.

In my opinion, the possessor ("its", shown in bold) is too far away from the subject it is referring to (i.e. the "function" described in very first part of the language).

In English linguistics, does this problem have a special name? (I.e. When the sentence gets too long such that the reader is confused about relationships in the sentence.)

Also, I tried to rewrite the above sentence to make it more readable, but I could not, because there is a lengthy description (i.e. "the memory address of the next instruction to execute upon returning from the subfunction") that needs to be kept together and this makes restructuring attempts difficult.  Is the solution to split up the sentence into smaller sentences?

PS: Didn't know how to tag this question and decided on 'grammmar' as a catch-all.  Please feel free to re-tag.


texts:
I came across something really strange today in class. Because it was an anecdote, the story changed from past to present. Then, in the same sentence, the writer used the past perfect tense with the present tense.

  "I go into the room, and see the guy take my bag that I had left there."

Can this possibly be correct?


texts: "Ridiculous amount": semantic change (amelioration) originated from an antiphrasis? When and how?

texts:
"Ridiculous" means laughable, laughable because it is obviously and hilariously not good enough.

However in English "a ridiculous amount of money" is "a ridiculously large amount of money". In general it seems that "a ridiculous amount" is always "a ridiculously large amount":

«That's an absolutely ridiculous price for that sweater»
«Don't be ridiculous! You can't pay £50 for a T-shirt!» «They ate and drank a ridiculous amount» «The meal was ridiculously expensive»
«Hedge fund giant David Tepper made a ridiculous amount of money in 2013»
«Beyoncé has sold a ridiculous amount of albums since Friday»
«GTA role offered to Alec Baldwin for “a ridiculous amount of money”. Alec Baldwin turned down an “incomprehensible amount” of money»
«… it's a ridiculous amount of pain for such a light touch …»
«5 year old genius knows a ridiculous amount of geography, turns down a Sony tablet»
«Our teacher gave us a ridiculous amount of homework tonight», nº 24
«She had spent a ridiculous amount of money buying this apartment, free and clear, for cash, the way other people bought sweaters. She had spent a ridiculous amount of money buying her little tangerine orange Mercedes sports car, also for cash»
«I did love that piece, Bernard, but you were right when you said that $1,688,000 was a ridiculous amount of money to pay for a piece of furniture. So I decided to auction it off in the hope of obtaining an equally ridiculous amount of money that I could use for a better purpose», page 199

In my opinion this is an antiphrasis exactly as "terrific", "tremendous", "awful", "sick", "bad", "wicked", etc., when used with a positive connotation.

When an antiphrasis becomes popular, a proper semantic change occurs, in these cases it would be called an amelioration. But it is important to stress how a semantic change of this type is often originated from an antiphrasis.

If you agree with this premise, my question is: when and how was the meaning of the adjective "ridiculous" inverted from "obviously and hilariously not good" to "absurdly great" when referred to an amount of money?

Otherwise, can you explain why you do not agree with the premise?


texts: When to use "GOP" versus "Republican Party"

texts: I've read lots of professional articles that use the two terms interchangeably, sometimes within the same paragraph. Are the two terms really semantically identical? In formal writing, are there any situations where it would be recommended to use one or the other?


texts: What do you call a person who has had sex reassignment surgery?

texts:
OK, if a man or woman has changed their gender through surgery, what should we call them?

Can we call them  transgender people?

According to Google, transgender (adj) means "denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender." Source

So, in that case, transgender does not tell us whether that person transformed his or her sex through surgery or not? Maybe he or she was born without his or her gender identified.


texts:
I'm referring to the term used to describe the vertical distance between a ship's keel and the waterline.

Which is the correct spelling: draught or draft? If either is correct, under which conditions would one be used over the other?


texts: native speakers view on the meaning of the modal words "could" and "might"

texts:
How does a native speaker of English understand the meanings of the modal words could and might in sentences (present or future tense, not past tense sentences) without a specified conditional clause?

a) a word with a conditional meaning like the modal word would

OR b) a word with no hint of conditional meaning.

A few sample examples are shown below ( sentences without a specified conditional clause):

1) It could be true, but I'm not sure. 2) We could go to the cinema. 3) I could stay with Sarah. 4)I could go with you to the supermarket, but I'm not sure.

5) It might be true. 6) you might want to consider quitting your barista job. 7) You might say that, yeah.

The above is not an exhaustive list though.

Note: "A word with a conditional meaning" means when you hear the word would/could/might, does it sound like there could be a conditional clause, although you don't add one or rather you don't need to add one? Because, I see would expressed in conditional form all the time.


texts:
Today, draw means mostly “sketch”, but it used to mean “pull”, and it still does, figuratively, as in “draw a crowd”, “draw a card”, or “draw water” In the literal sense of pulling, it has mostly been supplanted by its parent, drag, except in fixed phrases like "horse-drawn wagon".

Occasionally, you see it used intransitively, "draw near" or "draw nigh", but those are pretty rare.

I'm curious about the intransitive use "draw to a close" (or "a finish" or "an end", frequently with an adjective).  Events don't draw to their start, or even the middle.

Is there anything else you can draw to, in this temporal sense?


texts: Somewhere, somewhat, somehow, some...day?

texts:
While talking to myself the other day, I noticed something odd.

We have the five W words and the H:

What
When
Where
Who
Why
How

I've heard three of these words said with "some" at the start:

Somewhat
Somewhere
Somehow

But I've never heard "somewhen", "somewho" or "somewhy". If when, why, and who, are the same type of speech as what, where, and how, why don't we put "some" before the former three?


texts: A finite or infinite amount plural or singular?

texts:
Should it be:
Are there a finite or infinite number of them?
or
Is there a finite or infinite number of them?
I found that 'a number of' is should have a plural verb, e.g., there are a number of problems, but I'm unsure about what happens after adding finite or infinite.


texts: Adjective for someone who accepts all challenges

texts: What's the adjective for someone who accepts any challenge? Let's say a strong knight, who never says no to a challenge. Is there any adjective for it? Or what would be the best way to describe such trait? Thank you in advance.


texts:
I have three age groups that I want to distinguish in my research project.

They are as follows:

18-45 years - I have called this group young adults
46-65 years - I have called this group adults
66 years and over - I have called this group seniors

Is there a better way (one word) to describe the 18-45 age group? I don't like the term young adults. (Adults and seniors work fine for me!)


texts: "It's ok to somebody" sentence structure

texts: I corrected a student as she had made the sentence "it's ok to Martin". I know that this sentence structure is incorrect, she asked why I had made the correction and I am having difficulty explaining why. Anyone care to help?


texts: Antecedent of "it" in "it fared with him as with the storm-tossed ship" in context

texts:
When on that shivering winter's night, the Pequod thrust her vindictive bows into the cold malicious waves, who should I see standing at her helm but Bulkington! I looked with sympathetic awe and fearfulness upon the man, who in mid-winter just landed from a four years' dangerous voyage, could so unrestingly push off again for still another tempestuous term. The land seemed scorching to his feet. Wonderfullest things are ever the unmentionable; deep memories yield no epitaphs; this six-inch chapter is the stoneless grave of Bulkington. Let me only say that it fared with him as with the storm-tossed ship, that miserably drives along the leeward land.

What does the bolded it refer to here?


texts:
The word formation process that yielded the word coon is called (fore-)clipping:

  raccoon > coon

Other examples of fore-clipping include: bot (robot), chute (parachute), roach (cockroach), coon (raccoon), gator (alligator), phone (telephone), pike (turnpike), varsity (university), net (Internet).

For some of these examples, the clipping simply reverts a previous compounding: notably, it preserves existing word stems.

But not for raccoon, which comes from Algonquian arahkun: there does not seem to be anything to revert, and the word simply becomes one syllable shorter.

Similarly, bot does not preserve word stems: robot derives from robota (forced labor), which in turn (reportedly) derives from PIE *orbh-.

I wonder whether there is a driving force that helped establish these words as lexical units (such as, a strong preference for one-syllable words), and whether there is a pattern for how words such as these can be born, or whether they emerged and caught on by mere chance.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Should I put myself last?
  “Me and my wife” or “my wife and me”

Having been raised with German as my first language, my parents took very much care that I would not mention myself fist: If I told them that I did something with my friends - "me, Bob and Andrew" - I was always corrected to say "Bob, Andrew and me" instead.

Is there a similar rule or is it perceived to be similarily impolite to mention oneself first in the English language?


texts: What is the optimum answer to this GRE sentence-equivalence question?

texts:
The researcher noted that microbes, although _____, make up far more of the living protoplasm on Earth than all humans, animals and plants combined.

A. invisible

B. omnipresent

C. diminutive

D. ubiquitous

E. minuscule

F. ethereal

In my opinion, "diminutive" and "minuscule" are the appropriate words for the blank and the sentence makes sense.(Admittedly, microorganisms are extremely small, but they constitute a larger part of living protoplasm than all humans, animals and plants combined.)

However, that is at variance with the source of the sentence, an article of the New York Times(https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/carl-woese-dies-discovered-lifes-third-domain.html), where the word "invisible" is used.

"Invisible" is unquestionably a proper choice, but does the word "ethereal", if filled in the blank, produce the same meaning with the original sentence?(Obviously, omnipresent and ubiquitous are ruled out.)

According to Merriam-Webster, "ethereal" means lacking material substance.(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethereal) I don't think microbes are devoid of material substance. They are just too tiny to be seen by the naked eye. Besides, "invisible" can refer to something that really exists: Using a telescope, Galileo discovered stars that were invisible to the naked eye.(https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/invisible) Does the word "ethereal" really fit in well? If the best answers are "invisible" and "ethereal", how to exclude "diminutive" and "minuscule"?