texts: What does "storm–the–gates populism” mean?

texts:
I was drawn to the words "storm-the-gates populism" in the following passage of the New York Times’ (February 15) article that came under the title, "Donald Trump escalates rhetoric before South Carolina primary":

  "If Mr. Trump wins the primary on Saturday, as every public poll shows
  him on track to do, it will be after reverting to the storm-the-gates
  populism that led to his political rise and refusing to back down amid
  criticism."

I googled for the clue to fathom out the meaning of "storm-the-gates populism" and picked up the following three related sources:

Storm the Gates of Hell is the fourth studio album by Christian metal band Demon Hunter, released on November 6, 2007, which apparently seems to be irrelevant to the case.
When we storm the gates of hell, the church is marching into all the hells in this world, ready to reclaim every square inch for Christ. And when we storm the gates of hell, Christ promises we cannot fail. We will prevail! It’s time to put the devil on the run. The phrase pulai hadou (gates of hell) is a Jewish expression meaning "realm of the dead." — Ligoniel Ministries.
In Matthew 16, Jesus asks his disciples the question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Then Cephas pipes up: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus commends his outspoken disciple: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” . – ibid.

Given the above input, still I’m not able to come to the clear notion of "storm–the-gates populism." Is "storm the gates" totally irrelevant to "storm the gates of hell"?  What does it mean? Is it a well-estabished phrase, or a political buzzword?


texts: Where did the word 'Wheelbarrow' come from?

texts: I'm fairly confident that it's not a mangled 'Wheeled Barrel'.  I've heard of barrows in reference to deep graves, or underground storage chambers.


texts: Is there a formal principle which states that THIS IS LOUDER than this?

texts: I'm writing a school paper on linguistics and the English language and I'm curious about whether a theory exists outlining why larger words appear louder?  That is, why words either of a greater font size or simply capitalized appear LOUDER than those which are not?


texts: Is there a more formal word for 'ratting'?

texts:
I'm looking for a more formal term used to describe ratting:

  A verb intransitive identified as slang meaning to betray one's
  comrade by giving information on a friend to the authorities.

Specifically, I want to know what word would appear in a court document? Should "ratting" be included in criminal proceedings?

Is there any formal word I can use for 'ratting'?


texts:
"We've given up saying we only kill to eat; Kraft dinner and freeze-dried food have put paid to that one"
It should be 'kill to only eat'?
'Have put paid to the their leaving of saying they only kill to eat'?


texts:
Is "politically zealous" an appropriate phrase to negatively describe someone who is obsessed by political ideologies, and who is ideologically crazy such as being a Nazi believer?

If not, how to describe such people?


texts:
Is there an opposite "-ism" word to nepotism? If nepotism refers to the nature of favoring one due to familial or friendly relations, surely there is an antonym to nepotism that conveys the favoring of one due to merit or productivity.

However, "meritism" and "productivism" are not words. Meritorious and   productivity work in a pinch to address one's  point, but the   tense and  usage are less  helpful when a single "-ism" word  could carry the point more concisely.

Thank you for the help!


texts: Looking for a single word for sudden realization of not understanding something

texts:
You try your best but not comprehend a certain topic for a very long time and eventually you begin to understand it. At this point you would feel sad because you spent so much time on trying to understand this very topic and realize that the topic was actually pretty straight forward to comprehend. What's word for this sad emotion you feel at this very moment? Thanks!

Edit: Thank you for the suggestions. Epiphany is close but it does not represent the sadness of the moment.

Edit2: Clarity.

Edit3: Not catharsis.


texts: Many go about saying I'm as happy as a clam, or Tom is as happy as a clam, but what are the origins to this phrase and what makes a clam happy?


texts:
Does the gerund clause Starting in imply the future tense? For example, is this correct?

  Starting in January, 2012, we will use public transportation.

Or is it proper to use the following:

  Starting in January, 2011, we use public transportation.


texts:
In the lyrics of Friends Will Be Friends by Queen:

  Another red letter day
  So the pound has dropped and the children are creating.

What does the phrase highlighted in bold mean?


texts:
I have a question concerning tense consistency of modals which don't have the past form like (will/would). Do we put these modals in the past tense (perfect) if the surrounding verbs are in the past tense? Or do we leave them in their present form, and we assume, that if the surrounding verbs are in the past form then the modals refer to the past as well even though we leave them in their present form?

Examples:

I knew I should do it before. vs. I knew I should have done it before.
The doctor said I might be sick. vs. The doctor said I might have been sick.
My friend told me I must forget about my ex. vs. My friend told me I must have forgotten about my ex.

I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, many thanks in advance!


texts:
Came across this article today:
New York shooting: Gunfire at Irving Plaza leaves one person dead
which had the following sentence:

No-one has been arrested and the motive for the shooting is unclear.

screengrab:

I've never seen no one hyphenated like this before. I even had to read it twice just to get it.
Why hyphenate no one: no-one?


texts: Should I use either or any in this sentence?

texts:
So, I want to ask the students to contact me if they are interested in topics A and B. Which one is better?

Please contact me if you are interested in any of the following topics: ...
or
Please contact me if you are interested in either of the following topics: ...

Or, do you think there is a better way to put that?


texts: I'd like someone to explain the last sentence to me, if I was to return only platonic feelings, I guess it's supposed to be simple but somehow the way it's turned makes it very unclear to me.


texts: Can you 'hear Jim tell about' something?

texts:
This is a quotation from Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Some words are changed for the sake of political correctness xd Anyway...

  "People would come miles to hear Jim tell about it"

I understand what's meant, but how should I parse it? I mean bold part.


texts: Origin of "the beatings will continue until morale improves"

texts:
What is the origin of the phrase the beatings will continue until morale improves?

There is a Metafilter and a Quora out on it, but they are inconclusive, and the phrase does not appear in the dictionary.


texts: Word for expressing someone whose experience is mid-level?

texts:
Someone with a low level of experience in something is a newbie or a rookie.

Someone with a high level of experience is an expert or specialist.

But what do you call someone with a mid-level of experience?


texts: If everyone in the world were a clone, would OPINIONS be considered OBJECTIVE?

texts:
Simplified Core Issue of Question:
Do matters of opinion always fall under the umbrella of "subjective" by default?

Original Question:
If everyone in the world were an identical clone,
then would opinions be considered objective?

Addendum:
(assume they share all thoughts + opinions about all subjects)
(assume this will not change)
(focus on the meaning of "objective", rather than the philosophy of the hypothetical)

Rephrased: does "subjective" still encompass opinions when an opinion is universal.
(regarding when to use "objective" vs "subjective")

Background:
I ask this because I have always seen the word subjective used to mean the subject referenced "is a matter of opinion", or "up for debate".

But if there is no disagreement, never has been disagreement, and there will continue to be no disagreement, it's not "up for debate". I don't know how to incorporate this nuance into my present understanding of what "subjective" means.

Basically, can matters of opinion (contrast with verifiable, or measurable matters of fact) ever cross over to "objective"? or do they remain "subjective" even when you have a situation where every individual agrees.

Example:

  "Everyone agrees that causing pain, for its own sake, is morally bad."

In a (hypothetical) world where everyone has always, currently, and in the future will agree to something, do you still call this matter subjective or does it become objective when it is universally agreed upon?

  @ put on hold as unclear what you're asking:

I thought this was straightforward,
but I have clarified and added more information
to explain

why I asked this (not in jest)
the nuance (/distinction) I was unsure about
an application that shows how this question is important


texts:
There are North America, Central America, and South America. And, even within North America, there are the USA and Canada. Yet, in US English, if you mention "America" that means the USA.

I am almost certain that UK English has "America" refer exclusively to the USA.

Am I understanding the term "markedness" correctly? What is the correct way to phrase the property of markedness?
"The word, 'America', has the property of markedness."?
"The word, 'America', is a marked word."?

btw: "Dollar" appears to also have markedness. Regardless of the type of English, without need for clarification, a "dollar" is a "US dollar". right?

explanation of "markedness"


texts: Should the noun after "any" be singular or plural?

texts:
I always thought with "any" I should use the plural, but on the internet I can find both:

It can be found in any book.
It can be found in any books
Do you have any books?
It can be said in any language.
This can be understood by anyone.
It has been used in any form.

So, what's correct?
Is there any rule?


texts: Parallel actions or in the middle of the action is another action

texts: Please look at the following sentence "The F.B.I. had been examining Mr. Flynn’s phone calls as he came under growing questions about his interactions with Russian officials and his management of the National Security Council" what action is the earliest. To my understanding this means that FBI was exаmining him and then new questions appeared in the middle of FBI examining?


texts: What is a word that properly describes a distrust towards anything fast and easy?

texts:
What is a word that describes a distrust/disgust against "fast and easy" or "something for nothing"

thank you all for your time


texts: Can I use the sentence as this: " I tuned into Netflix to watch the movie "

texts: Or is it rather " I tuned in to Netflix to watch some movies"


texts: What is a specific word for someone who can't feel any emotions and can't understand emotions or more specifically love?

texts: I know a word such a loveless, "without love" can describe such a person but can anyone be more specific in the type of word I seek?


texts: Is there a word for the instant after you are slapped and are deciding how to react?

texts:
Or just any kind of semi-unexpected personal injury. Maybe someone destroys the painting you spent months on.

So after the inciting incident, there's a split second where you're trying to figure out what to do. You feel a hot rush as your primal instinct is to lash out in anger, but your intellect is trying to tell you that maybe there's a better way.

Is there a word for that moment/decision?


texts:
I study mathematics and as I'm sure you can imagine, often read the word formula. I also quite often come across formulas used as the plural. This always annoys me as I was under the impression that the correct plural of formula was formulae?

Is there any consensus or information as to why there is two (seemingly) accepted forms of this? I thought that formulae probably has a Latin derivation and formulas may be Americanized?


texts: A word that describes something whose purpose is to be fancied

texts:
I'm looking for a word that can describe an object whose sole purpose is to be fancied.

Imagine a nice decorative vase, its sole purpose is to look impressive in my room, what's a good word for this?

An example sentence would be: "The [word] vase stood in the middle of the room."


texts:
I have a question about using the prepositions indicating starting and ending dates.

Which of the following is grammatically correct and why?

I will be away from March 1st to 5th.
I will be away on March 1st to 5th.


texts: It's not ___, but it's not not ___ either

texts:
Are there general modifiers for adjectives that indicate a gray area between the adjective and its negative?

E.g., "Plywood isn't wooden, but it isn't not-wooden either. Therefore, plywood is ____ly wooden." What goes in the blank?

"Partially" doesn't sound quite right, because it suggests that one piece of the noun really is described by the adjective; I'm looking for a word that places the whole noun in the middle of an adjective-spectrum.

Sorry for the dumb example, but that's just off the top of my head. Better examples would be appreciated as well.


texts:
Consider the following:

'The lecturer asked the students a question. A chorus of "yes"es was heard.'

I know that the second sentence is incorrectly punctuated, but am not sure how to sort it out. How should a quote of multiple answers be expressed?

Thanks.


texts: In legal citations, why are "see", "see also", etc., in italics?

texts:
In legal citations, why do people put "see", "see also", "e.g.", etc., in italics?
Please don't just say, "because that's the custom."  I'd like to know just enough about the evolution of this custom to develop some intuition regarding when one should italicize the little introductory words.

Does it make any difference whether I'm inside or outside a pair of parentheses?

Within my document, when I'm referring the reader to a page of something normal, may I continue to use "see", "but see", etc., without italics?

Notes:
(a) My document is a petition to a review officer, who will know that I am a pro se parent, so it won't be hugely embarrassing if I don't get this stuff exactly right.
(b) I tried half a dozen guides to legal citations, and chose https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/blue/IndigoBook.pdf.  If there's something you think I will like better, please feel free to make a different suggestion.
(c) Yes, I know about Law SE.  If necessary I will ask over there... but I wanted to try here first, because I think you guys would probably be better able to help me get some intuition about it.
Edit
Example.

The review officer's decision in this case, which the Second Circuit reaffirmed, reveals that the student coped successfully with her bipolar disorder and ADHD without the use of specialized instruction: quotes (see name-of-case).
But as legal scholars have observed, bla-bla-bla (see name-of-article).

Did I do that right?  I italicized "see" in the first sentence, which cites a legal decision, but not in the second sentence, which cites a peer-reviewed journal article.


texts:
I am wondering if the verb expect is used as a stative verb in the following sentence:

  I entered the classroom and [to expect] to see some students but instead I found a note which said [...]

Would it be possible to say "I was expecting"? Or is the verb stative in this context? Because then we can't use it in a continuous form, according to my grammar book.


texts:
What does this sentence from Star Trek: The Alternative Factor mean?

  Jim, madness has no purpose ... or reason ... but it may have a
  goal.

As far as I know purpose and goal are synonyms. How about this case?


texts: What's a word for a person who advocates always speaking literally?

texts: When someone asks about my roots, I look at my feet and answer "I don't have any roots, I'm not a vegetable". And when someone asks me if I drink, I tell them that because I am a mammal, I would be dead if I didn't drink. Is there a word to describe people who only like literal communication?


texts: Are there terms for adjectives that imply or exclude totality?

texts:
When I hear waterproof, I think "water definitely can't get in." To me, that's an adjective that implies totality (for my ignorance of a better term).

When I hear water-resistant, I think "water won't get in easily, but it's definitely not waterproof." To me, that phrase excludes totality.

Are there terms for these different types of adjectives that imply or exclude totality?

And is there a term for adjectives that do neither of these things and describe, I guess, the full range of a quality?


texts: Expression for "unconsciously using words (or accents) used by a person you often talk with or listen to"?

texts:
Is there an expression for the blanks in the following situation?

You have a friend who isn't from where you're from and speaks in an accent different from yours. At first you feel strange with it, but as you talk with him for months you get adapted. One day you happen to say something in his accent (or use an expression he often uses), and then say,

"Oh, your accent ____ me."

or

"Come on, since you always say, your words ____ me."

In my mother tongue, both blanks are filled by a word corresponding to "transferred to", but I'm assuming it would be awkward because it's a direct translation. I'd like to know if there's a verb or a phrase that fits the situation.

Thank you.


texts: What are the two parties of referencing called?

texts:
If document A references document B, is there a term to describe A’s and B’s role?
Maybe we could call B the referent? How about A?


texts: Performance that is equal to or better than the others

texts:
When we compare performance between individuals, we can describe a situation in which an individual performed better than all others by saying that individual outperformed the others.
My question is:
Is there a similarly succinct way to describe a situation in which an individual performed better than or equal to the best among the other individuals (e.g. 1st place or tied for first)?


texts: Term for "to undermine scrutiny/conflict by going beneath something"

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes "to undermine scrutiny/conflict by going beneath something."
I'm looking for something like:

Galileo word-ed the prevalent idea of Geocentrism by formulating his blasphemous Heliocentrism in secret and proposing it as a result.

I thought the word "subvert" means exactly this because it has "sub" (under) in it; it turns out I was wrong because modern dictionary doesn't note the "going beneath".
Edit: "subvert" is correct as @Lambie pointed out by its etymology ("sub" = to go under, "vertere" = to turn). While I reasoned that the "going beneath" connotation isn't officially added to its definition in modern dictionary, it's my best bet at, at least subliminally, conveying the "going beneath".


texts:
This is something a senior official wrote on a thank-you letter to someone. I'm just wondering whether the use of 'for which' is appropriate in this sentence.

  As presented during the seminar the development of public health terminologies and classification is of prime importance to us for which it is necessary that we all collaborate towards our collective mission to make a difference in the lives of people in the world.


texts: Does 'flight attendant' refer to men, woman or both?

texts:
In English there are some words which just refer to men, like Sir, or just refer to women, like Madam.
Does flight attendant refer to women, men or both?


texts: I searched around but can't seem to find a definition for this word. Does anybody know what it means?


texts: What do you call an "atheist" who might believe in an afterlife?

texts:
Is there a term for someone who proclaims they don't believe in an afterlife but they are not sure whether the supernatural exists?

I don't mean agnostic. Atheists  don't believe in a deity, but an atheist could believe in an afterlife.


texts: Word for academic fields that are aligned with a political movement or position?

texts:
Is there a word or phrase for academic fields that are aligned with a political movement or position? For example:

Feminist studies is aligned with feminism. African American studies is closely aligned with the civil rights movement. Sociology, on the other hand, is not in general aligned with a specific political movement, and so wouldn't be under this word.
Political science generally isn't aligned with a specific political position, and so wouldn't be covered under this word. Libertarian studies, on the other hand, would be covered by this word, being aligned with libertarianism. Same goes for Marxism.

An example sentence would be "Academics from x fields recently had a conference discussing the complex interplay of their various political movements."

Note that it should mean that they are aligned with a particular movement, not simply studying it (although they would probably do both). The study of history of Nazism probably wouldn't be this unless it also promoted Nazism.

Also, what would academics from those fields be called? (Also, is there a word for fields not aligned with a political movement or position?)

Note: I mean that a certain field is fundamentally aligned with a given political alignment, not specific individuals or outside forces.


texts: What is a clever saying that means, 'It's impossible to stop natural phenomena?

texts: What is a popular-refrain that means it is pointless to try and stop a naturally occuring phenomenon?


texts:
I've encountered different usages of preposition + Home and I want to learn which of them are correct.

Some examples:

  Back home
  Back at home
  Back to home


texts: Words for describing an events start time

texts:
I am trying to classify events into two distinct groups.  Event, in this context, means a public event which people might go to. This includes a broad collection of things including concerts, plays, maybe even a book signing, or community gathering.

The differentiating property is whether people are expected to show up at the beginning of the event or if they can show up at any point throughout the duration of the event.

Examples of events you should be punctual to:
Concerts, plays, classes, presentations/talks.

Examples of events you could show at any time:
Special museum exhibits, State fairs.

I'm looking for words to describe both categories.

Here is a list of some words that come close but don't quite meet the bill:

For events which you should be punctual to:

concrete: well defined given a context of time but not by itself

For events which you can show at any point:

ongoing:  includes the connotation that it is presently happening right now|
'All Day': This fits the meaning that you can go at any point during the day, but ascribes the additional idea that the event is throughout the entire day.

Thanks for the help!


texts: I'm looking for an umbrella term (hypernym) that covers the things we put on the left side of lists — bullets, numbers, letters, etc. Is there such a word?


texts: Beauty and beholder in respect to other senses

texts:
I've asked a question about olfactory's relation to observational and it got me thinking about other senses as well. There are five (or six if you're supernaturally believing), so, what are the exact term to fill out the blanks in the following? It's the bold parts that are interesting and I wonder if the already filled out ones are correct.

Visual
the beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Audial
the euphony is in the ear of the listener(?)
Olfactious
the fragrance is in the nostril of the inhaler
Flavorous(?)
the taste(?) is in the bud of the eater/taster(?)
Touchy/sensefull(?)
the feeling is in the hand of the caresser
Supernatural
the spookiness(?) is in the mind(?) of the medium(?)

Kindly, please note that I've no intention to start using these expression outside when interacting with average people. I'm just curious about the linguistic translation between senses and my mathematical mind craves completeness. I know how to express all six sentences in English. I just don't know how to express those while "following the suit", so to speak. It's a purely and strictly academic curiosity.


texts: Word meaning "to create unrealistic expectations"?

texts:
I'm drafting a letter to my family to announce the date and location of my destination wedding. I'm asking my family to not tell others about the wedding for now:

  We would appreciate your help in not sharing this information with others, including but not limited to extended family and family friends, so as not to _.

Originally I wanted to use the word offend but that doesn't seem right - the act of telling someone about a wedding is not offensive. Disappoint doesn't really work either for the same reason.

I'd like to use set unrealistic expectations as this truly captures the intent in me asking my family not to tell others about the wedding, but this seems very wordy. Is there a word that captures the meaning I'm trying to convey?


texts: When did the U.S. President become "Mr. X" instead of "President X"?

texts:
When I was much younger, I remember the press always referred to the U.S. president using the title of the office: "President Nixon" was followed by "President Ford" then "President Carter".

Now that seems to have fallen out of favor and the common reference is: "Mr. Obama".

My question is: when and why did that change happen?  Was it associated with a particular president?


texts: What is a word to describe a response to a question that is evasive but not untrue

texts:
I'm looking for a single word synonym of evasion, fudging or dodging the question that does not imply deceit in the answer (apart from possible awareness of the respondent that they are not actually answering the question, and perhaps an intent to divert the questioner to other topics).

Answers could be verbose or blunt non-sequiturs.

This is similar but not identical to "What do you call a response which does not address the question?" There answers have other connotations, such as a word or phrase for an inappropriate response (such as a "non sequitur"). This is a new question, which differs particularly in that I'm looking for a word that does not imply an intention to deceive.


texts:
Definition of treaty by Cambridge Dictionary Online:

a written agreement between two or more countries, formally approved and signed by their leaders

Definition of pact by Cambridge Dictionary Online:

a formal agreement between two people or groups of people

So should I call it a Non-aggression Treaty or Non-aggression Pact? They seem to be the same for me when is used.

Some sources on the Internet suggest that a treaty is between countries while a pact is between alliances.
e.g. Nazi-Soviet Pact
Source: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090510153115AABqJ4A
However, I find that it is inaccurate because the Cambridge Dictionary Online gives this example sentence:

The United States and Canada have signed a free-trade pact.

Source: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pact
I also remembered there is a source that says Non-aggression Pact is to end current wars while Non-aggression Treaty is just an agreement.


texts: subject-verb agreement with the head word "the rest"

texts:
I have this weird question. I got a sentence starting with "the rest of" and while I know it clearly takes a singular verb when it refers to one thing, and also it takes a plural verb when it refers to a group of people or ... . but, everything becomes complicated when we have parenthetical phrases in here.

The rest of this work, including error dynamics, parameter-tunable controller, definition of the constraints, and proof of stability of the adaptive robust controller, have been fully discussed in [25] which further references other important derivations in [28] through [33].


texts:
Biology used to be my most favorite subject in the high school.

I think favorite already means something you like most. Also, I remember someone said most favorite is not valid. I do see it in an exam preparation question.

Is it now valid?


texts: Little vs few when talking about amounts of people

texts:
The amount of people who surrounded him was little.

vs

  The amount of people who surrounded him was few.

Are they both grammatically correct? In the first one, the "little" is talking about the amount of people, and not people itself, in which "few" would be used.

Also, which one would generally be used in normal situations?


texts: A word for people that have the same characteristics

texts: Is there any word or combination of two words that describes two persons with the same characteristics.


texts: Word for the opposite of scheduled, repeating, or regular, as in a task or purchase

texts:
I just scraped my wall with a chair, so I added paint to my weekly shopping list as a ______ purchase.
The other day I went to close up a bag of bread, and realized I was out of clothes pins, so I add a _______ purchase to my shopping list.
I checked my shopping list for ________ items, and remembered that I wanted to get cookies for a snack later.

Some purchases happen on a scheduled, repeating basis -- e.g. weekly grocery shopping.
Other purchases happen on an irregular basis. They might be one time purchases (e.g. a socket wrench) or purchases that will repeat, but not in a scheduled way (e.g. command hooks, which will be purchased again at an indefinite time, such as next time you need to hang something up). They might be purchases which are motivated by an unexpected external need, or they might be motivated by whim of the purchaser (I feel like buying muffins today).
I am searching for an adjective to describe this second category of purchase.
Here are some words that are close, but which I feel do not capture the meaning I am attempting to convey:
One-time - the purchase might repeat, and even disregarding that, I feel that the category is not defined by whether or not the purchase repeats, but by the regularity of that repetition
Irregular - to me, this fails to capture the element of discretionary-ness and choice
Sporadic - again, I feel that this fails to capture the purposefulness that might be present, and instead implies a level of external chaos (like, if purchases just appear on your shopping list at random). I also perceive a connotation of scarcity in the term "sporadic", which does not necessarily apply to the category I am envisioning
You may disagree that one of the above words is not adequate. But if anyone's got further suggestions, I would, of course, appreciate the input.


texts: How can I speak English fluently in 45 days?

texts: I am new to start learning English. I want to improve my reading, writing & speaking english I have only 45 days to complete this course. Where I start learning. I am searching online for videos, ebooks but I think it's not enough.


texts:
I want to describe three situations regarding an amount

Above 0
0
Below 0

For above zero i would say "a positive amount", and for below zero i would say "a negative amount". What would I say for an amount of zero?

Example:

  I received a bill for a __________ amount.


texts:
I kind of use this phrase a lot when speaking Greek, and sometimes I feel the need to say it when speaking English as well but cannot think of a good candidate, as a non native English speaker, I also don't know if there is an English equivalent.
The phrase feels a bit slang-ish so I cannot think of a literal translation.
The usual usage of it is when you need to answer a question with a rhetorical question because you don't know the answer and you are in question as well.
e.g.

A. The buses were on strike and I had to walk home.
B. Why didn't you call me? I could give you a ride.
A. Έλα ντε?

Free form translation could be something like "Yeah, why didn't I?"


texts:
I watched a video on YouTube where an American explains that "Good afternoon" is not common to say, he said it's old fashioned. Is it true ? I've never heard about that.

What can I say instead of "good afternoon"?


texts: How much is he keen not to do something when he’s saying “I do never – if I can help it”?

texts:
I guess ‘if I can help it’ is a kind of ‘if possible’. It seems help means to prevent or avoid.

By the way, how much are the speakers keen not to do something in the following  sentences?　I can’t figure out why never (not in any circumstances) and if I can help it are compatible.

(Harry Potter 3 [US Version]: p.226)[Bold font is mine]

  I never wear those socks if I can help it ….

(from Google search)[Bold font is mine]

  And stuff on the list I will never EVER eat if I can help it


texts: "Against traffic" or "Against the traffic"

texts:
The following first sentence comes from Wikipedia, which 'the' is not used before 'traffic', while the second one comes from BBC, which has 'the' before 'traffic'. I wonder if both usages are correct or not? If yes, is there a difference between these two sentences with and without 'the'? If no, which one is correct ?

For cycling in particular, collisions at intersections (defined broadly as "not only the junction of two roadways, but also points where driveways, sidewalks, or paths meet a roadway, or where sidewalks or paths meet a driveway") while traveling in the wrong direction against traffic has been determined to be over three times more likely for wrong-way cyclists.

The van was then spotted joining the M4 at junction 15 (Swindon east), driving against the traffic towards London on the westbound carriageway.


texts: Can 'revert' be used as a synonym of 'reply'?

texts:
I am a native speaker of American English, and I have only ever heard this usage of the word revert from one person.  This person is not a native English speaker (he is from India), so he may just be mistaken, but I'm curious if anyone else has seen/heard this usage.

He will write an email, bringing up a point for discussion.  He will explain the issue, and then end the paragraph with something like Please do analyze and revert on the status.

The best I can tell, he is asking for a response, and not asking for the something to be undone, or changed back to the way it was before (which is the meaning that I associate with the word revert).

Is revert used with different meanings outside the US?


texts: Can anyone give me a grammatical explanation as to why "that being said" is proper English?

texts:
A certain pedant is claiming that beginning a sentence with "That being said" is grammatically incorrect owing to the apparent logical contradiction in claiming that something in the past (e.g. the previous paragraph) is still "being said", i.e. unfolding in the present. He claims that only "that having been said" can be grammatically correct.
I'd like a simple prescriptive grammatical argument to counter him.  In my view, using "that being said" is permissible on the one hand as a collocated expression; on the other, owing to the fact that English grammar is full of apparent logical contradictions that have been brought about in order to advance the cause of expressing meaning.
But this argumentation is too broad.  Can anyone give me an airtight, standard grammatical explanation as to why "that being said" is permissible despite its supposed logical contradiction?


texts: Why are there 2 commas when writing X, Y, and Z in a paragraph/sentence but only 1 when writing that in a title?

texts:
For example, "John liked bacon, eggs, and sausages" is correct but if I see an album or song title with that same pattern like "Money, Women & Cars" is correct.

First, are the commas correct in both iterations and if so, why is it so?


texts:
Is it correct to use so and very together in a single sentence? For example:

  You are so very funny.

Is it grammatically correct or not?


texts:
Vietnamese are associated with the “source population”
  that ultimately was responsible for the modern Vietnamese, Thai people and Lao people.

What does "source population" in the sentence mean? Ancestor?


texts: A word for a skill that if lost may never be able to be reacquired

texts:
I'm not sure if there's a word for this.

It would describe an athlete at their prime who may never get back to the same level if injured, an academic who if they don't constantly keep studying will lose their edge and may never get it back, or a technology that if not continually worked on could disappear never to appear again.

I want to use it in a sentence to describe that if you do not continually dream big, you may lose the ability and it may never return. I hope the sentence would be "Dreaming big is a ______ skill/attribute".

Does a word exist?


texts: Is English the only language that always capitalizes "I"?

texts:
Is English the only language where "I" is always capitalized, no matter where it occurs in a sentence? The other two languages that I'm familiar with don't do this.

In German, "ich" is only capitalized at the start of a sentence; the same is true for "yo" in Spanish.

If English is unique in this regard, or even if among a subset of languages that do this, is there a historical reason behind it? A philosopical or cultural one, or...???


texts: Why are many TV personalities beginning to pronounce "daughter" as "dotter"?

texts:
I have noticed the changing of proununciations of words with -au and -aw by TV presenters which is spilling over into everyday speech. For example “dotter” for daughter, “otto” for auto, “jah” for jaw, “cahfe” for coffee, “don” for dawn, “lahn” for lawn, “wotter” for water. Are these pronunciations correct or are merely affectations in speech to sound more sophisticated or educated or possibly to distinguish themselves from having New Yawk area accent?

I was listening to a broadcast and the presenter said

  Next we will hear from Don.

The next segment was presented by a woman whose name was Dawn.

Any insight will be appreciated.


texts: "With a crack like a whip" — common expression or not?

texts:
With a crack like a whip, Dobby vanished.

I'm studying English using the Harry Potter books. I can't seem to find this expression in any  dictionary, however. Google returns no results at all (except for Harry Potter itself and one other, unknown, piece of writing).

So, is this a commonly used and/or existing and/or correct expression?


texts: How usual are the comparative sentences like "the number of those under 6 years of age is higher than of those over 70"

texts:
I found the following sentences in Corpus of Contemporary American English.

(1)the number of those under 6 years of age is higher than of those over 70.
(2)the population density of Nuer areas is consistently lower than of Dinka areas.
(3)The life expectancy for the Russian women is somewhat longer than of males.

I was taught that in comparative constructions like the sentences above we have to use the pronoun that to represent the head of the subject in the subordinate clause as in (1'),(2'), and (3')

(1')the number of those under 6 years of age is higher than that of those over 70.
(2')the population density of Nuer areas is consistently lower than that of Dinka areas.
(3')The life expectancy for the Russian women is somewhat longer than that of males.

Was my teacher wrong?
How usual are comparative sentences like (1),(2), and (3)?


texts: Is there a grammatical categorizational heirarchy?

texts:
The issue that I am having with my assimilation of knowledge of English grammar is not so much the actual content itself, but how the content is structured. You hear alot of words thrown around, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, modifiers, are propositions, Gerunds, declaratives, interrogatives, and 1000 more. My initial plan was to learn these terms almost at random because I thought it would be obvious what it's connection would be, I was extremely wrong. So I ended up taking some courses, and it seems to give some structure to all these terms, however, its only partial and there are many gaps that need to be filled.

So basically I want some sort of hierarchy, starts with morphemes at one end, sentences in the other, and that shows the types of entities (like words) at the respective level.


texts: Is employing hyperbaton correct in English?

texts:
I've often seen the sentence structure "____ does not a ____ make" which I've now discovered is called hyperbaton.

  the use, especially for emphasis, of a word order other than the expected or usual one
    — from Dictionary.com

I'm wondering though if it would be considered correct use of English?


texts: Single word for company's internal solution?

texts: What word can define an internal solution created within company in contrast to the "external" solutions? Something like "home-made", but more formal and reffering to a company.


texts:
I know the typical usage is on but I'm wondering what's more comprehensive:

  The number of species in the planet

or

  The number of species on the planet


texts: Interpretation of the meaning of a quote of J. C. Shairp

texts: I wish to understand the boldfaced part of the sentence The true poet is not an eccentric creature, not a mere artist living only for art, not a dreamer or a dilettante, sipping the nectar of existence, while he keeps aloof from its deeper interests., which belongs to J. C. Shairp.


texts: "Don't try to be a hero" vs "Don't try and be a hero"

texts:
"Don't try to be a hero"
"Don't try and be a hero"
What's the difference?  They both seem to be common according to Google.
Do they mean exactly the same thing?  Is one more correct than the other?


texts: Short blurb-style wording for "pizza made at the establishment"

texts: A gastronomic establishment that isn't a pizzeria serves pizza they actually make, as opposed to buying premade pizza and just heating it up. How would they emphasize this fact in a short blurb on their website or in an advertisement? In Polish that would be "pizza z pieca", which translates directly to "pizza from oven", but that feels awkward and imprecise in English.


texts: How does 'be' + 'of' combine to mean 'possess; give rise to'?

texts:
I already understand and so ask NOT about the definition, below which I want to burrow. I heed the Etymological Fallacy. 1. Which ODO definition corresponds? What does of mean here?

  to be of = Possess intrinsically; give rise to

2. How does the juxtaposition of  be + of  effect/imply/induce this meaning?


texts: Is it correct to use "helps" as the plural form of the noun "help"?

texts: I've heard some people use "helps" as the plural form of "help". Is that correct? Or are there any exceptions?


texts: Is the phrase “That is typically exactly what happens “ grammatically correct?

texts: Wondering if it makes sense to say “That is typically exactly what happens “. My wife tells me I can’t use the words typically and exactly together.


texts:
I just wonder whether the sentence, 'She knew almost nothing about engineeering.', could be translated 'Almost nothing did she know about engineering'.
 Someone told me that the sentence should be translated 'Almost nothing about engineering did she know', but i think both sentences could be possible. That's because 'about engineering' is just adverb.

Is 'Almost nothing did she know about engineering' correct?


texts:
The word could be any part of speech. The purpose is to communicate that an entity was gaining less than losing. Income < expenses.

Example 1:

  The company has been _________ for the last 2 years.

Example 2:

  He has been working ______ for the last few months.


texts: What verb is most proper to act on "scholarship?" Win, be awarded, recieve?

texts:
Word count is killing me on one of my applications. My go-to is to used "I was awarded a scholarship." over "I won a scholarship." Is there any benefit to the former?

Full sentence:

After my $100 became $190 via a truly diverse stock portfolio (one Apple share), finance seemed the place to be to my eighteen-year-old self. So, being awarded the ____ Scholarship was seemingly a godsend.

versus

After my $100 became $190 via a truly diverse stock portfolio (one Apple share), finance seemed the place to be to my eighteen-year-old self. Winning the ____ Scholarship was then seemingly a godsend.

Cheers!


texts: If he is not so stupid that he cannot understand the song, was he actually unable to understand the song

texts:
We were learning about negative sentences and this came up:

He is not so stupid that he cannot understand the song.

My teacher said that this meant he couldn't understand the song, but not because he was stupid. Something about 'that' implying an actual outcome?? But can't it be just that the speaker is saying he is not so stupid as not to understand the song


texts: Why aren't there any common words for 'defecating' and 'urinating'?

texts:
Besides 'poo(p)ing' and 'peeing/weeing' used by and to children,

besides 'shitting/crapping' and 'pissing' which are spoken, not polite, says the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,

besides 'defecating/excreting' and 'urinating/micturating' which are technical and formal,

besides a long list of euphemistic terms,

why aren't there any common/standard verbs for these actions?


texts: A word for a special type of school examinations

texts: The ministry of education in our country has invented a new type of examination for slow students, who have  educational problems. Those students have failed many times. My question is: is there a special word for this exam? By the way, we use " make-up exam" for the students who failed one time only.


texts: Punctuation and omission: what is possible to write?

texts:
I understand that the only difference here is about tense and punctuation, for example, in B, "[;] you country has not". The word "rule" will always be omitted or is D also possible?

A. My country has rules, while yours has not.

B. My country has rules; your country has not.

C. My country has rules, while your country has not.

D. My country has rules, while your country has not rules.

D sounds utterly wrong because it does not use zeugma.

I am sorry if this question has been asked before. If so, I am trying to find it.


texts: Friends "that or who" I consider my best friends

texts:
Can I ever use that for people, or must it be who?

Which one is correct?

  I have friends from all walks of life that I consider my best friends.
  I have friends from all walks of life who I consider my best friends.


texts: Shouldn't the word "no" be a synonym of "without"?

texts:
This is a somewhat basic question but I cannot find an answer yet. I was under the impression that "no" should be a synonym of "without" but it seems not to be (at least on the synonym sites that come up on Google). The definition of synonym does state that a synonym is a word that is nearly the same as another word.

I can say that the cup of coffee is without sugar or that it has no sugar. They both mean the same thing - the critical words are "no" and "without". The more detail someone can provide the better and I have no problem with being corrected if I am in error.

Update: this also lends to the idea that they are synonymous: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/coffee-without-sugar-with-no-sugar.1535936/


texts:
Recently, I realized that pronunciations of the reduction gotta in GB and US English are different.

Could you suggest to me, please, any tutorial explaining pronunciation of this and other such shortenings? It would be nice to find something with audio also. Usual textbooks avoid this subject since it is related to informal language, and it is very hard for me to get correct pronunciation from movies or TV series.


texts: What is wrong with this sentence? Am I using too many commas?

texts:
As your personal trainer, it is my mission to work with you to achieve
  your fitness goals, in a fun, and challenging environment, designed to
  get you the body you want and deserve.

Does this work? Maybe I've been looking at it too long but it seems awkward to read. Any suggestions are welcome!

Thank you.


texts:
I don't know grammer and english very well.
I want to know whether it is correct or not.

I am trying to mean this:

  These inventions would be impoosible without necessary equipments from
  Peter, Joseph and Marry. I am grateful to them.

Instead, if I write this:

  I am very grateful to Peter, Joseph, and Mary for necessary equipments
  without which these inventions would be impossible.

Will it be correct in using "without which"?


texts: Word for: Someone who has lost, and cannot grow back, their front teeth

texts: In Semitic languages (notably Arabic, Old Hebrew, and Amharic), there is an adjective to describe someone who has lost their front teeth, typically in an accident or a fight, and can't grow them back (so not a child just shedding their teeth). So someone who has got one or more limbs chopped off is called an amputee, an animal that got its teeth pulled out is defanged, a person who lost two or more teeth in a fight or an accident is called ___?


texts:
Inspired by a possible mishearing of "wealth" as "welf" I recalled the word "welfie" to describe someone currently on welfare. The context was always extremely negative and seemed to hint at someone with "welfare babies." Searching for welfie, welfy and welfare baby isn't revealing much. NGrams suggests "welfare baby" is used with spikes in the late 60s and throughout the 90s. No results for "welfie" or "welfy" were found. A OneLook search for welf* pointed me toward "welfare mother" (Urban Dictionary) and "welfare queen" (Wikipedia). The latter is most similar to what I think the term "welfie" implied:

  A welfare queen is a pejorative phrase used in the United States to describe people who are accused of collecting excessive welfare payments through fraud or manipulation.

Having done due diligence, I am kicking this to the curb. Has anyone else heard "welfie" or have another avenue I can search? I most likely heard the term spoken and most likely in an East Texas city of roughly 20,000 population.


texts: Is there a word for someone more concerned with tools and methods than results?

texts:
The person I have in mind is not really a dilettante or a dabbler or a dallier. They have a commitment to the endeavour, but they never get anywhere because they obsess about methods, technique and, above all, equipment. It's almost as if their hobby is a meta hobby:

the hobbyist carpenter who hasn't really made anything but loves the
feel of a vintage plane on wood;
the amateur photographer who spends thousands of pounds on the
ultimate lens arsenal but only really takes occasional snaps of his
cat;
the would-be writer who has an idea for a novel but has spent the
last 18 months alternating between various vintage Mont Blanc pens,
typewriters and late-eighties word processors, trying to find the
optimum workflow for his writing.

Is there a term for this? Something better than metahobbyist?


texts: What might be an appropriate term for a long-term, very serious, girlfriend?

texts:
In the USA, where I live, it is becoming increasingly common that men and women are making committed relationship decisions, but choosing to remain unmarried. However, they live together, raise children together, and otherwise appear married. They are simply not legally married and they are okay with it and so are most other Americans. It is obvious that they are highly involved with each other and the depth of their relationship is akin to a long standing marriage.

I am having trouble determining what to call men and women in this kind of relationship, relative to the other. I might say "my friend's girlfriend," however, I would also use this same term for whatever the relationship of two 14-year-olds is. It seems to me that my friend and his relationship with his girlfriend deserves higher recognition.

Lately, I have resorted to calling these women ladies. I might ask my friend "How is your lady doing," or say about a party "Bring your ladies." I like this because the definition of lady implies a high 'social' status and removes any negative connotation that the women are morally devoid because they are not married, yet live with a man. Oddly, someone told me recently that it sounded sexist when I referred to a few friends and "their ladies." I don't even really know how to approach that.

It wasn't until just now that I have no ideas at all for men. Just "lady" for women.


texts: What preposition should be used with "cache"?

texts:
Which is most grammatical?

  It's still cached to your phone.
  It's still cached in your phone.
  It's still cached on your phone.

I find myself gravitating towards "to" but I'm not sure - I feel like "cached" implies some kind of attachment.


texts: In the phrase, "The big shots up at the church", is 'up at" a two word preposition?

texts: I'm struggling with how to diagram 'up at'.  Is this a two word or complex preposition or something else?


texts: Idiom for "doing something pleasant and useful at the same time" with positive connotation

texts:
Is there a phraseme or idiom for "doing something useful (necessary) and pleasant at the same time" with positive connotation?

For example - using a bike to get to work and back home is useful (because it allows you to train your body), and pleasant (if you go through the park or a forest, etc.).

Or, another possible example - a boss may convince an employee to sign in for a business trip (to the North Pole) because it is useful to the firm and may be pleasant because the employee is an amateur photographer and will have a chance to take a photo of a polar bear.

There is a Russian phraseme that is usable in both cases, but is there a similar one in English for at least one of the cases?


texts: What does the description of 'urbanity of an undertaker' trying to convey?

texts:
The following excerpt is taken from American Heritage April,1963

  When the late summons came from the Blackstone suite, Hauling, dishevelled and discouraged, had long since lost faith in Daugherty’s brash prophecy. Harvey was waiting for him behind his heavy tortoise-shell glasses. “We think you may be nominated tomorrow,” he told the stunned Harding with the urbanity of an undertaker. “Before acting finally, we think you should tell us, on your conscience and before God, whether there is anything that might be brought against you that woidd embarrass the party, any impediment that might disqualify you or make you inexpedient either as candidate or as President.” Harding asked for a little time to think it over alone. Ten minutes later he came back to say that there was no impediment.

According to Dictionary.com, 'urbanity' means 'the quality of being urbane; refined courtesy or politeness; suavity' and an 'undertaker' refers to a 'funeral director'. Still I am uncertain of the link between the 'urbanity' and an 'undertaker'. Any ideas?


texts: "Is there any news" or "are there any news"?

texts:
Which is better? Which is grammatically correct?

  Is there any news about my candidacy?
  Are there any news about my candidacy?


texts: What is the meaning of "would be" in this paragraph?

texts:
I would say it depends of the compressed archive to be honest. Some executable can be archive that needs to be decompressed, and they can also execute an executable after. An example of this would be drivers you download from manufacturer's website. HP and Dell for example, offers drivers under the form of an .exe, that when execute will extract itself in another location (like C:\Dell\Drivers\FOLDER) and once extracted, it'll execute the .exe inside it that launches the drivers installation. So if you were to come across a such executable, then yes executing it and "extracting" it could lead to an infection assuming that the executable file executed after the extraction is malicious.

Is it a conditional statement? The meaning is ambiguous to me, can you please explain it in the context provided? Thank you in advance.


texts: What do the bold numerals in parentheses mean in Merriam Webster Dictionary?

texts:
Here is the specific word I am referring to: The bold numerals in parentheses are under the 2nd definition.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/just

Are those sub-sub senses? Or are they different parts to a single subsense?

Sorry if this is not an appropriate question for this Stack. It was the only place I could think to ask.


texts: Proper noun capitalisation: “The Union” or “the Union”?

texts:
When capitalising a proper noun that has a “the” prefix, should the “the” be capitalised?

Eg:

  “This puts the Union at risk”

or:

  “This puts The Union at risk”


texts: "Is" vs. "Are" when using the word "Pair" in a mathematical setting

texts:
I've seen equally good arguments for and against using "is" for this sentence.

The pair of polynomials (f,g) is/are related by the reciprocity law.

Which verb is used correctly?


texts: "b'ile over" seemingly incorrect spelling?

texts:
"There's no pleasin' her, nohow, no matter how you try! I wouldn't stay if 'twa'n't
  for the wages and the folks at home what's needin' 'em. But some
  day--some day I shall jest b'ile over; and when I do, of course it'll be
  good-by Nancy for me. It will, it will."

Can you guess what b'ile over means above?

Incorrect colloquial spelling, I guess.

It's part of Pollyanna by Ms. Eleanor Porter.


texts:
I found an interesting observation about the English language in this answer post:

  Try explaining to a Finn sometime [...] why We're going shopping is OK in English, while *We're going eating isn't[.]

I'm an American native speaker, and although I agree that "We're going eating" isn't acceptable, I have no idea why!

(The correct sentence is "We're going out to eat.")

So why is "We're going eating" unacceptable, while many similar sentences (we're going shopping, we're going skiing) are?

Are there any patterns in the language that would allow an English student to predict that "We're going eating" is not an acceptable sentence, without already knowing beforehand?


texts: What tense do I use in a child's obituary?

texts:
I work at a funeral home and need assistance on an obit for an 11 year old girl who died from a 4‑wheeler accident.

My question is can I use the present tense in referring to her and what she did, sports etc. I did not want the past tense to cause any more heartache for the family.  It seems, to me, to be a softer approach at this time.


texts: Can "trusty" and "trustworthy" be used interchangeably?

texts:
Such as:

"I'm going back to the clubhouse; there are trusty people there."
"I'm going back to the clubhouse; there are trustworthy people
there."

Trusty

Definition: having served for a long time and regarded as reliable or
faithful.
Synonyms: reliable, dependable, trustworthy

Trustworthy

Definition: able to be relied on as honest or truthful
Synonyms: reliable, dependable, honest

They appear to share many synonyms as well as the idea of reliability. The use of "trusty" is archaic and and seems almost comical now, but why is "trusty sidekick" acceptable, and why is "trusty person" not?


texts: I'm teaching a Thomas Hardy class and read somewhere that Hardy was the originator of over 100 common English words in use today. However, I can only find a list of a few. Does anyone know where I can find more? I don't have access to the OED, nor does my college or town library. And I have spent much time searching google.


texts: Can anyone explain sentences like “it’s two things” “video games are a great source of learning”

texts:
These are sentences I’ve seen that don’t seem to follow the singular-plural rules
Are they grammatically correct? If they are how do they work exactly?
Thank you in advance!


texts: What's the most common word to refer to a soccer team's shield (or coat of arms)?

texts: I am trying to find the most common way to refer to a soccer team's shield (or coat of arms).


texts: Synonym of 'election' with less political meaning

texts:
I will give some details regarding how I am going to use it. It has to go along good with the word 'room'. Consider a game where players (in a special room) vote upon a list of activities which they will do next. (activities are suggested and voted on by the players). 'Election room' or 'Vote room' remind me (and the people who have tested it with these names) too much of politics in real world.

Basically what I am looking for is something with as little message other than 'you choose' as possible.

Cheers


texts:
A copy editor friend of mine once told me that instead of saying for example "I'm anxious to see the new movie," I should say "I'm eager to see the new movie."

This seemed logical to me—after all, there's no anxiety involved in my desire to see the new movie.  But I've noticed that almost no one, including speakers whose language skills I admire, talks this way.  Most people (in my experience) say "anxious to" even in situations when they are clearly feeling eager and not anxious.

I'm interested to hear other people's opinions on this.  Is it a British/American difference?

ADDED:

Nohat's response below answers my question:  The non-anxious sense of "anxious to" is common enough to have made it into at least some dictionaries.  I note that the New Oxford American Dictionary (bundled with Mac OS X) doesn't include this sense of "anxious to".  In fact they have a usage note that reads

  Anxious and eager both mean 'looking forward to something,' but they have different connotations. Eager suggests enthusiasm about something, a positive outlook: : I'm eager to get started on my vacation. Anxious implies worry about something: : I'm anxious to get started before it rains.

So apparently there is not consensus amongst dictionary editors.


texts: more usage of their and they with any way

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a correct gender-neutral, singular pronoun (“his” versus “her” versus “their”)?

I want to learn more usage of 'their' which is an possessive and in any way of 'they'.  You can see a few examples below. Are all those words correct usage in those sentences?

to banish : If someone is banished, they are punished by being sent away from the country where they live.

to invade : if someone or something invades your privacy they disturb you when you want to be alone.

When an actor completely immerses themselves into a role...


texts: What does it mean when someone writes a word in upper case while typing?

texts:
An American wrote this to me:

  The runup was completely insane and obvious (and scary). I was in the financial industry at the time, and everyone was figuring out how to protect themselves WHEN. It was all about risk management.

I am not getting the meaning of WHEN in it.


texts: What's the difference between "I'm happy" and "I have a happy heart"?

texts: What's the difference? Could you say that romantically? About an infant?


texts: Using plural verb with plural word in different language

texts:
If subject of an English sentence is a foreign word (eg. name) which is regarded as plural in that foreign language, is it completely incorrect to use plural verb when talking about the thing this word represents?
Example: There is a town called České Budějovice in Czechia, whose name is always regarded as plural in Czech language. In English you would usually say "České Budějovice is a city" but would it be completely wrong saying "České Budějovice are a city"?


texts:
Difference between these two sentences:

I was the first person to leave.
I left first.

You will be the first to know
You will know first


texts: Does the word "out" carry sexual-minority flavour?

texts:
My NGO and partners are producing a feature film about Russian speakers in the world, and to explain its point as bias-breaking, we came up with the name out, that's nicely expanded in the slogan as out of politics, out of bias, out of propaganda.

Today a colleague from the US brought to my attention that out has strong sexual minority connotations. Having a reasonably good command of English I disagree, but then I thought I need another opinion. We  just started crowd-funding for it and wouldn't like to be looking funny. The context may be seen at http://outfilm.cmpip.org. Advice is much appreciated!


texts: Should I say "there is a handful of..." or "there are a handful of...."?

texts:
I want to write that I have handful of somethings.  Which of these is the correct form?

There is a handful of somethings.
There are a handful of somethings.

Are both correct?


texts:
Let's consider the following example taken from C# Pocket Reference by Joseph Albahari.

  Statements in C# execute sequentially and are terminated by a semicolon.

Why is the semicolon in singular form while there are some C# statements in the context? In my thinking, there must be one to one correspondence between a statement and a semicolon, so the semicolon must be in plural form. But if we do like this, the meaning becomes unclear if there is no code snippet provided.

Another example for those who does not know C#:

  Visitors who come to my office must bring a cup to drink.

The speaker wants to say each visitor must bring one and only one cup; no more than one cup is allowed for a single visitor. But, one might think there is only one cup used in rotation among all visitors.

If we rephrase like the following,

  Visitors who come to my office must bring cups to drink.

then the speaker's intent might be unclear as well.

So, how does one handle this kind of problem?


texts: Politically correct way to refer to a French individual

texts:
What is currently accepted as the proper title for a person from France? Is it still the gender-specific Frenchman/Frenchwoman, or is Frenchperson the new term?
(I use French as just an example, obviously. Same question for English folks)


texts: "... if we become friends" or "became" or "were to become"?

texts:
"I would feel happy if we become friends." (become)

or

"I would feel happy if we became friends."  (became)

or

"I would feel happy if we were to become friends." (were to become)

Update: or

"I would feel happy if we could become friends." (could become)

Perhaps related, I noticed a comment on another answer saying that imperatives are always in present tense.  Is "become" an imperative in the examples above?


texts:
These chairs are out of place/position.

Which one is correct? I feel like i haven't heard anyone use out of postion for anything other than football or when talking to a person, not an inanimate object though.

Can they both be used here?


texts: Difference between "she cut her hair" and "she cut her hair off"?

texts:
Why are we using off here? What additional meaning does it add?

The meaning of off from http://tfd.com/off that suits this sentence is: "away (from a place, time etc.)".


texts:
My question is regarding the correct use of quotation marks in this sentence:

  The rules of 'asking a question' and 'talking' have been mixed up. Arrange them in the correct order again.

Should there be quotation marks around the above words. 'Asking a question' and 'talking' are titles in the instructions book of a boardgame.

Also, any advice on how to know when to use the quotation marks when it's not speech.


texts: How can I describe preparing before travel?

texts: If I am preparing before my travel and I pack my things, how can I better describe this process in conversational speech, "packing up one's things" or "I pack up one's things"?


texts: Is there a word or phrase for "studying word by word very deeply"

texts:
Let's say someone is studying a Biology book, but the technique is a bit different than usual. Not only memorizing many words on the book, but also always searching scientific article related to specific words in the book. Sometimes he could make many hypotheses (or questions) too.

Overall, it's like "researching" or "exploring very deeply", so I think he could be called "connoisseur". He is still in high school so (for me) he is too young to adapt with many scientific articles.

Is there other adjective, a phrase, or a word for such kind of this behaviour?


texts: Can "the world I find myself in" be understood in two ways?

texts:
Simple monologue:

  This was not the world I wanted.
  But it was the one I found myself in.

I understand the second sentence, that the speaker ended living in a world he does not like. However, can this be interpretted also that he also found himself like "he was able to realize himself" in that world? Or is such interpretation nonsense?

UPDATE: Can you use this sentence in a phylosophical or spiritual way? In the meaning of being at some place in which I "found myself"? - This is the church I found myself in. - If not what is the correct way to express that someone found himself at one particular place?

UPDATE 2: My issue is the mix of the methaprhorical meaning together with position and stranded preposition (this is the world/church I xxxxx in)... to me that makes the sentense confusing and the question is, whether it is a valid construction.


texts:
I read this sentence in a book：Baileys flavoured squirty cream licked from a makeshift serving platter of hot, naked flesh.
I was a little confused with hot naked flesh，is it referring to just some kind of meat or the human body? And what does makeshift serving platter mean？
And the context of the entire paragraph is：
As a side note, whoever first uttered the phrase ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ had clearly never wrapped their chops around a full platter at Nandos. Or dry roasted peanuts. Or black bomber cheese. Or salted caramel flavoured Haagen Daz. Or Baileys flavoured squirty cream licked from a makeshift serving platter of hot, naked flesh.All of which I can state with some confidence, having been at various junctures throughout my life very thin and very hungry, taste better than skinny feels.
Thank you for answering my question.


texts: What does Hs before a proper name stand for?

texts: Swiss ancestry names ie. "Hs George or Hs Jakob"


texts: Does any native English word contain the 'ñ' sound?

texts:
I've seen that English dictionaries contain a number of Spanish-imported words that contain the character ñ, such as piñata, piña colada and jalapeño. You find the same sound in other languages, such as French and Italian (the gn group as in the Italian word pugno), but that gn group does not represent the same sound in English (gnome, sign) where it represents just an n sound.

So I was wondering, does the sound the ñ character represents exist in any native English word? Take as "native" a word that was already present in English dictionaries in the 18th century that didn't come from a Latin-derived language. If there are still none, what were the closest approximations to that sound?


texts:
I'm reading a programming book and in it it is said, of a subset of engineers,

"Electrical engineers and systems designers who create computer motherboards and other hardware systems incorporating Intel processors need to know some of the rest, but they are a small and hardy crew, and they know who they are."

I unsuccessfully tried to find the meaning of that last bit on its own online. It seems to be an idiom. I would guess that it means that due to the small size of the group, the prominent people in it are known to one another and comprise a sort of community. Perhaps someone knows/has encountered the segment in question?


texts:
In my current situation I can feel the probably well known sensation that a thunderstorm is approaching. When everything goes dark and cold and you simply just feel that a storm is coming. Having been on the dictionary of obscure sorrows I'm pretty sure there is a word for this, but I simply cannot find it.

Is there a single word for the feeling that a (thunder)storm is approaching? If not, is there any better way to express this feeling than simply saying "I feel a storm approaching"?

Edit: the feeling I am describing isn't negative but rather a feeling of excitement or tension


texts:
I would like to know what's the difference between:

I went for a run today
I went on a run today.

And when it's correct to apply each of those.

Thanks a ton.

Pablo.


texts: In scientific writing is: Energy expended/ cost /consumed?

texts:
In scientific writing, should I write energy is expended, cost or consumed?

Which term is preferable? As in the example,

  Energy is expended/cost/consumed through deformation/vibration/friction.


texts: Is "slightly different" a correct way to draw a comparison

texts:
Is it a correct, commonly used way to state that something is different, but only marginally?

  The night did happen but it unfolded slightly different.


texts: "Those other people": Adjectives vs. determinatives

texts:
Given the following sentence:

  Don't listen to those other people.

Are those and other adjectives or determinatives? Both? Which makes more sense?

Context:

I am prefixing the words in some phrases with abbreviations. Some of the words are giving me trouble in classification. (The message is supposed to be an implicit proof of why adding prefixes to table names in a database is terrible. But I'd like to get it right.)

Here's the full set of sentences for your amusement. However, please restrict your comments to the stated question, for the most part.

  com-Don't ver-Listen prep-To adj-Those adj-Other nou-People.
  pro-You aux-Should adv-Always ver-Use nou-Prefixes prep-With pro-Your adj-Table nou-Names.
  pro-I aux-Have adv-Even ver-Started ver-Using pro-Them prep-In adj-Normal nou-Writing.
  com-See adv-How adj-Effective pr-It ver-Is?
  nou-People aux-Can ver-Understand pro-Your nou-Writing adv-Better!

(where com means command verb)

This question is part of 3 related questions:

This question
Nouns vs. nouns used as adjectives
Verbs vs. gerunds vs. something else

It originally came from this closed question


texts: Which is the older sense of the word "linguist"?

texts:
I have been listening to some rants on YouTube against people learning a bunch of languages calling themselves "linguists".

I'm personally interested in both linguistics and languages as a hobby but I have no official training and certainly no qualifications in either.

My instinct was that the ranter was kind of right in his opinion that people who speak many languages are not linguists. But I was uncomfortable with his opinion that you had to have certain pieces of paper to be called a linguist, I think "post doctorate" from memory.

So I looked up "linguist" in some imperfect online dictionaries and was surprised to find both senses. Here's the defs from oxforddictionaries.com (chosen at random):

  A person skilled in foreign languages.
  A person who studies linguistics.

Now I don't have access to a better dictionary on historical principles from my current location.

I would like to know which of these senses is the original one?

My original opinion was the latter sense but on thinking about it I now expect it to be the former. I doubt the word would be a back-formation from "linguistics".

As a side question, would the first sense now be considered to be colloquial or at least nontechnical or outdated?


texts:
What is the reason for ending of adjectives that originate from countries ending with -stan being -stani and not -stanian?

Why "Iran" has "Iranian rial" but "Kazakhstan" has "Kazakhstani tenge"?

Are all adjectives have to be like that or is it sometimes grammatically correct to say "Kazakhstanian"?


texts: The origin of the word "bats" to mean "mad" or "insane"

texts: What is the origin of the word bats so that it came to mean "mad or insane"?


texts:
Bark, berry, flower, herb, leaves, nuts, plant, resin, seeds, wood, etc.

These are all — what? Parts? components? elements? plant forms? divisions?

I have the sense there may be a more elegant word that nails it, especially since plant is itself in the list.


texts:
How might I describe washed up stuff in a word or phrase?

Asking for my granddaughter. She knows about "jetsam" but that's for things deliberately jettisoned:

  unwanted material or goods that have been thrown overboard from a ship
  and washed ashore, especially material that has been discarded to
  lighten the vessel - OD

so does not fit in her story.

Neither does "flotsam", which is wreckage, though not deliberately discarded.
And the "flot" says it's floating, not washed up.

  the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the
  water. - dictionary.com


texts: Meaning of the word "butterglance" to describe a woman's way of looking at someone

texts:
I found this word in a rhyme inscribed on the fly leaf of a book of American poetry and dated 1878. You can see the poem listed in Edith Wharton's Library: a catalogue, which was written by George Ransden and published by Stone Through in 1999:

  pc One poem marked in the Contents list and that one and another in the text, possibly by the writer of the rhyme on the flyleaf:

  In this book dear girl/ Find a truthful utterance /

  For the thoughts that whirl / Oft expressed in butterglance"

  [Signed] WBB3

I can't find anything in the O.E.D., and Google Books does not reveal too much either, aside from the aforementioned source and a couple of potential mentions which can't be previewed.

You can also find what looks like an original handwritten version of the poem which can be seen on the Edith Wharton's library website, hosted by Sheila Liming, Assistant Professor of English in the University of North Dakota. It is handwritten on a copy of The Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, published by Boston Ticknor and Fields in 1865. Above it is inscribed "Edith Jones - Oct. 11th 1878", which may be an indicator of who owned that copy of the book, and when she first got it.


texts: "Inverse" and "Converse" in academic writing

texts:
Do the words "inverse" and the words "converse" have the same meaning in academic writing as they do as logic terms? Or would it cause confusion?

If I write, "conversely...", will it mean that whatever I proceed to discuss involves a switching of cause-and-effect roles, different from the previous topic?

If I write, "inversely...", will it mean that an effect does not happen because the cause does not happen?


texts:
Is it correct to use the plural form of stuff as in this sentence:

  I have packed all my stuffs.

Should the singular be used or there is no difference in meaning?


texts: A one-word substitute for someone who is a "news freak"

texts: Is there any word that describes a person who is very interested in reading newspapers, and very interested in political news? Moreover one who loves being "updated" on the current affairs of the world?


texts: What does this sentence mean? Frank’s quote of House of cards

texts:
Cry havoc those who fight chaos with chaos. And let slip the dog of war.

Could you please explaing the exact meaning of this one?


texts: When is a gerund supposed to be preceded by a possessive adjective/determiner?

texts:
I assume that the following sentences are grammatically correct:

He resents your being more popular than he is.
Most of the members paid their dues without my asking them.
They objected to the youngest girl's being given the command position.
What do you think about his buying such an expensive car?
We were all sorry about Jane's losing her parents like that.

I'm still getting used to this possessive gerund structure. It sounded so weird to me at first.
Is the structure used in both formal and informal contexts? Are there any alternative structures that result in the same meaning and are more frequently used?
(Examples taken from http://grammartips.homestead.com/possessivewithgerund.html)


texts: Is it wrong to use "never" for a specific time period?

texts:
I usually come late to the daily scrum meetings (but I do compensate, by working late!). For the last 6 working days, I have been coming on time, or even slightly earlier.

At lunch, I told my manager this

  I have never been late for the daily scrum for this sprint (last 6 working days).

He told me that my usage is incorrect because, I cannot use never and restrict it to a time period. Never, apparently, is for eternity, e.g, I have never drunk Russian vodka.

What is the correct usage?


texts: What is the difference between /ʃ/ and /ʒ/?

texts:
I am trying to understand the difference in pronunciation between the sound /ʃ/ (shell, cash, sure) and /ʒ/ (treasure, pleasure, leisure).

I am able to tell these sounds apart when listening; however, I can't quite wrap my mind about how they are produced in the mouth. In fact, I produce both sounds in apparently the same way - letting air pass between the tongue and the right cheek, with no movement.

Are they actually produced in the same way, and told apart using context, or is there some difference in how they are pronounced?


texts:
What would be the correct plural of Prius, and why?

A Latin professor would say Prium’s the best...


texts: Meaning of "as ... as any ... someone had ever done"

texts:
Recently I have been reading "The Lost Symbol" and there is a sentence I find hard to understand.

  The wooden stair descending to the Capitol's subbasement were as steep and shallow as any stairs Langdon had ever traversed.

From the context, it sounds Langdon has never traversed a stair as steep as this one, but the sentence itself seems to be saying that Langdon always traverses stairs as steep as these.

What does the author mean here?


texts: Correct form of object of sentence with grouped possessive and personal pronoun?

texts:
Lets say the object of a sentence is a possessive, of more than one nouns. Something that is say both someone else's and my own. IE Tom's and mine, as in the sentence

  This meeting requires Tom and my's attendance.

How do I express this? Should I say "This meeting requires Tom and I's attendance" or "This meeting requires Tom's attendance and mine?" or maybe something else?

I've been taught "I" should only be used in the subject. However "Tom and I's attendance" seems most natural to me. I've used this form my whole life, but every time I type it I fear I may not be using it correctly.

I noticed this question, but it seems to apply to the subject, not the object.


texts: Single word for "embrace and extend and possibly corrupt ideas of a political movement"

texts: What would be a single word for the process in which political parties (or other groups that have something to gain) embrace and extend (and maybe corrupt) the ideas of a political movement that started and grew outside of the regular channels? Recuperate?


texts:
What does Shall be mean? I find it in different context, sometimes it seems to me that is means is or Will be and more likely Must be, but sometimes I can't figure it out, so if it means Must be, what are the differences between them?

  Example: the process shall be stopped to investigate the cause.

Knowing that the document describe something, no obligation, prohibition ...


texts:
I am trying to write an Abstract and need to change the sentence

  I believe that the work load for the physicians will pay off by increasing patient safety.

I was wondering if there is a more formal way to say that something pays off?


texts: Saying how many years "have" or "has" passed

texts:
Do you say have or has when talking about how many years passed. My example is (from the SAT):

  More than forty years have passed since a quarter of a million people marched on Washington, D.C...

I always thought it was so and so years has passed. Could someone explain to me if one is always right or when to use which.


texts: Is it correct to say "lower the possibility"?

texts: I searched on the internet, found sentences like lowering the risk, but I don't know if it's correct to say "lower the possibility" or I should say "reduce the possibility."


texts:
I am wondering if it is possible to use only a "the" at the beginning of some successive nouns instead of using "the" for all the nouns; by the way of illustration:

the system and law both contribute to governing equations;

instead of:

the system and the law both contribute to governing equations

thanks in advance for your help


texts: Another word/phrase for "In addition to"

texts:
What is an alternative phrase or word for "in addition to"?

Here's an example sentence:

  In addition to the tasks listed above, we ask that you complete the following tasks as time permits.

Is there a word or phrase that can replace "in addition to" in the above sentence without altering anything else in the sentence?


texts:
For example:

I had been finishing my exam when my teacher told us to stop writing.

So in this sentence I'd like to say that I was about to finish my exam, but had been interrupted. If I'd like to highlight me finishing the exam in the past(so it was like 95% done and needed a bit more time) and also got interrupted while I was finishing, can I use the sentence mentioned above?

Can past continuous be past perfect continuous in this sentence, or it's obvious which event happened earlier and it doesn't require such grammar? That's what I'd love to know.


texts:
verb (used with object), dunned, dun·ning.
  to make repeated and insistent demands upon, especially for the payment of a debt.

  noun
  a person, especially a creditor, who duns another.
  a demand for payment, especially a written one.

(dictionary.com)

The noun «dun» is marked as archaic by The Oxford Dictionary of English.

Is "Dunning" the most widely used/precise term (and understandable by most people today) as a heading/menu entry in a modern solution to list and edit formal invoice reminders/demands? Or are there more natural alternatives?


texts: Does this sentence use nominative absolute phrase?

texts:
A scientist, he always thinks about what is best for the people.

Is this "a scientist" part a nominative absolute phrase? It seems like nominative absolute phrase has to have a verb or adjective after the noun like this:

  The dragon slain, the knight could rest.

It is what makes me confused. I don't think the scientist sentence uses nominative absolute phrase since it only has a noun to describe "he". There is nothing more than a noun. So is it a nominative absolute phrase or not? If not, what's the name of that usage?


texts: What does ";" in "If in Your Dreams; the Flood" mean?

texts:
Context: "If in Your Dreams; the Flood" is the title of a visual novel. In short, it's story about a girl who suffers from constant nightmares, namely she has dreasm about the flood, and each time she sleeps the flood becomes more dangerous and frightening.

I suspect that ";" meant to show that the visual novel has TWO names, ("If in Your Dreams" and "The Flood" respectively), they were just combined in one title.

Am I correct? If not, then what can it mean?


texts: What is the meaning of "within next two days"?

texts:
Is it, within today and tomorrow
or
within tomorrow and day after?


texts:
My colleague and I have a hot discussion about which is correct.

My version is:

  If you don't fix the bug I will send you a patch.

and his one is:

  I would send you a patch if you don't fix the problem.

Discussion context is: there is a bug in a project. I will send a patch in case that it will not be fixed this evening.

I've written mine following academic definitions of "future conditionals" and my colleague's version looks unnatural for me. So who is right? If neither - what would be a correct sentence?


texts: Separating a clause introduced with "such that" by commas

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

A whatsit such that the condition doodah is fulfilled is called a doodah whatsit.

I am wondering about the placement of commata. Should I add two commata to separate the "such that"-clause?

A whatsit, such that the condition doodah is fulfilled, is called a doodah whatsit.

What somehow justifies this is that we can rearrange the sentence to read:

A whatsit is called a doodah whatsit, if the condition doodah is fulfilled.

Suggesting that we have two clauses that should be separated by a comma. But putting a comma before "such that" as in the second sentence looks strange to me.
So, would you place a comma or not? Or is it optional? Or maybe just a single comma before "is"?


texts: Is there a noun to describe a person who perseveres? I suppose a survivor is one who has survived difficult circumstances, and a soldier could be one that soldiers on, but neither word has quite the right connotation. I want the sense of "continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty" without necessarily calling to mind images of trauma or war.


texts: The colloquial expression "Here/There I was thinking"

texts:
While I was writing the following text, I wondered how the two slightly different expressions "here I was" and "there I was" might be nuanced in meaning. Also, is it more common to have the word "and" precede the "here/there" to signal more clearly that I'm about to say something opposite to the previous remark?

  Ah, I see. The code didn't run because I had a 'break' statement in it. (And) Here/There I was thinking that the reason for this error might well be more to do with the duality of the 'if' and 'ternary' statements. Looks like I was of the mark. If I hadn't asked, I would have kept this misunderstanding for a long time to come.


texts:
For years, men who bared their torsos in public were said to be bare-chested or shirtless, but recently I keep seeing more and more topless men; not in my part of the world, unfortunately, but in British papers, tabloids and none.

  Topless Aidan Turner in the BBC1 drama Poldark has won best TV moment for the second year running, as Radio Times readers show their taste for steamy scenes.
  The Guardian

It is a light-hearted tagline, no doubt inspired by its female equivalent, topless woman. Conversely, I don't recall women who wear no clothings above their waists ever being called bare-chested, or bare-breasted, but only topless.

In fact, many online dictionaries imply that topless refers exclusively to women

  (of a woman or a woman's item of clothing) having or leaving the breasts uncovered.
  featuring entertainers, waitresses, etc., who are nude above the waist or hips:
  of a woman : wearing no clothing on the upper body

Although Cambridge Dictionaries appears to have kept abreast with the times, and notes

  used to describe someone, usually a woman, wearing nothing on the upper part of the body, or something connected with this way of dressing:

Etymonline's entry for topless is brief

  topless (adj.)
  of women, "bare-breasted," 1966, from top (n.1) + -less. Earlier it was used of men's bathing suits (1937) and women's (1964).

But we are also told that the earliest recorded instance of topless is from the 1580s, a rhetorical term used to describe mountains or towers whose summits  were so high they could not be seen by the naked eye.

From  Christopher Marlowe's, Doctor Faustus, written between 1590 and 1604, we have the famous lines about Helen of Troy

  Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships
  And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Question

Who coined the expression  topless man/men, and when did it appear for the first time in print?


texts: How to use "resulting" and "resultant" as qualifier properly?

texts: If I say that "the resulting object A" and "the resultant object A", do the two statements mean the same thing always, sometimes, never?


texts: Word to describe "quick-witted streetchild"

texts:
I'm talking of a certain wit that is characteristic of streetboys and streetchildren in general. I'm not sure if streetchildren is the best way to describe these kids. That might not be very common in developed countries, where few people are homeless or deprived of education and other basic rights like how it is the case in the Third world.

On a more general note, I'm referring to children that are not too pampered and have learned to get on by themselves. Clever, fast, handy, quick to learn, and with a sharp tongue. Think Dicken's Artful Dodger.

In contrast to a spoonfed crybaby who has their parents by their side at all times. Pardon the heavily stereotypical descriptions, but that was just to get my point across. And please do try coming up with something more sophisticated than "street-smart" or the like.

A sample to give you an idea of what I'm getting at:

  It was amusing to see how he gave out instructions to the others his age labouring and taking orders. His words were slick, typical of a know-all streetsmarty. The big-eyed kid had been trudging past the shady-looking resturant when that boy with a shabby hat whistled at spotting him. "Ye, looking for work, huh?" He jumped down onto the road and made his way towards the trembling child of four.


texts: What is the word for someone who ignores others and does what they want to

texts: This could be in a positive or negative way. So someone ignores people telling them to murder or someone ignores someone telling them to stop being rude. Basically how can you describe someone who just follows their gut in everything they do.


texts: In software development, and I imagine in many other fields, we often make up temporary nicknames for new projects or features. These are not meant to be the real names for the end product and are often funny, playful, or sarcastic in nature. These are also not intended to be "codenames" that hide the nature of the project or feature. Is there a word for such nicknames?


texts:
The BBC article Bradford school bans sausage rolls from packed lunches quotes a father saying:

  He ended up eating a dry crisp sandwich. How is that any healthier?

What does that mean?


texts: What are adjectives for different levels of intoxication/drunkenness?

texts:
I am trying to describe the increased drunkenness state of a character over a period of time, but the only two adjectives I know of are "tipsy" and "drunk". I would like the character to be shown going through more than just 2 such stages but I can't find adjectives that are specific enough. There are many synonyms for "drunk", many slang, but they pretty much mean the same thing. I am looking for more adjectives like "tipsy" which is very specific.
I could of course use something such as, fairly drunk, very drunk, extremely drunk etc, but I was wondering if there were any better options at all?


texts: Future tense usage: "When you see it ..."

texts:
I wonder why the phrase is "When you see it you will shit brix," and not "When you will see it you will shit brix."

Is the version with two will incorrect? What grammar rule says that you should not use will see in the above phrase?


texts: Help me understand what the lady says in the video at 9:46

texts:
Could you please help me understand what the lady says in the below video at 9:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k95ln3wfTFs
Just one sentence that is not totally clear to me.
Thank you.


texts:
I want to say in a formal way that protecting something without changing it in a bad way is difficult.

I tried to use the word encroaching but I am unsure about how to use it. Is this the correct way?

  Protecting a program from attackers without encroaching on its
  behavior is notoriously difficult.


texts:
There is an exercise in my grammar book that asks to identify the type of pronoun in a sentence (personal, possessive, relative, demonstrative, indefinite, interrogative, reciprocal or reflexive).

In three of those sentences I feel the capitalised words are not pronouns but adjectives. Am I wrong, and why?

1) HER husband was late.
The answer is personal pronoun but I think it should be a possessive adjective.

2) WHICH one shall we go for?
The answer is interrogative pronoun but I think it should be interrogative adjective.

3) That’s MY house.
The answer is possessive pronoun but I think it’s possessive adjective.


texts: What is the name of this haircut that has shaven sides and a long top that is draped to one side?

texts: Attached is a picture of a hairstyle commonly used in Fallout game. The problem is I do not know the word to describe this hairstyle (the name of the hairstyle) in the real world. The difficulty comes that the hairstyle is named two different things in Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4 (to my recollection). I believe it's known as the raider hairstyle and the urban ranger hairstyle. Attached is a picture. It is known for having the sides of the head shaved with the top being significantly longer and draped over one side.


texts: idiomatic expression for a promise that was not delivered

texts: I was wondering if there's an idiomatic expression to say that "someone or something did not delivered as promised". Like The method's promise was cut short or something similar.


texts: Noun form of "controlling," as a personality characteristic

texts:
I'm looking for a noun that could be applied to a person who is controlling or overbearing. Either the name of a quality they possess (ie an impetuous person has recklessness), or something they could be said to be (ie an exceptionally nice person is an angel).

Nothing so strong as a despot, but "pusher" is a bit weak, as well. I've gone through dictionary.com's thesaurus for a bit, trying to related-word my way into a noun form of overbearing (without just tacking a -ness onto the end), but to no avail.