texts: Passive of 'take (good/great/sufficient/enough/not enough/little) care of'

texts:
The passive of a. is b. but not c.

a. I took care of them.
b. They were taken care of by me.
c. ?Care was taken of them by me.

But it becomes complicated when 'care' has a premodifier such as

good/great/sufficient/enough/not enough/little, etc.

Let's just label these premodifier as PM.
Then, we can have either f. or g. or both(?) as the passive counterpart of e.

e. I took PM care of them.
f. They were taken PM care of by me. ['...PM taken care...' was a typo]
g. PM care was taken of them by me.

One thing I observe is that when PM is 'good', f. works better than g., but that for all the other PMs, it's the other way around.
Is there any truth to this observation of mine? Or is there any other pattern that treats these PMs differently than I suggested?
In either case, why do you treat the constructions f. and g. differently depending on what the PM is?


texts: Does "in particular" have the meaning of "for example"?

texts:
I have seen many textbooks and scientific literatures at least at college level, frequently using "in particular".

I was wondering whether it (always) has the meaning of "for example"?  If yes, does it have other meaning besides that and what differences do they have?


texts:
Is there a single word (noun/adjective) that means the same as 'lucid exposition' or 'clear explanation'?

Perhaps, a lucid exposition of a difficult or dense topic. As an example:

  Judt's book, Postwar, provides a lucid exposition of Europe after World War Two.


texts: What is the difference in meaning between 'was doing' and 'did' in American English?

texts:
I found American use a lot of 'was doing' expression than English speakers from other countries.
I am wondering is there any difference of meaning in these two expressions? Grammatically speaking, of course, they are different. But I think American just take them as the same in daily speakings.

I was doing a lot of road trips in California.
I did a lot of road trips in California.


texts:
Can anyone help me about exact meaning of the following sentence?

  The group also recognized that their proposal required a more difficult selling job on the patriarch.

Of course. I should add the patriarch was opposed to the proposal. I could not find any meaning for "selling job" suitable for the context, but, I think it means "satisfying the patriarch by offering a good post to him" albeit, I am not sure.


texts: which Allowed to or which allowed doing?

texts:
I haven't found any threads on this topic so I decided to create a new one.

Please have a look at the usage of the verb allow in this sentence:

"This report was presented to the external stakeholders during an event, which allowed to establish important communication channels with specific segments of the community".

Is "which allowed to + verb"  correct? I have checked some forums but haven't yet come to a conclusion whether "which allowed + verb" or "+ gerund" (which sounded quite awkward to me) is the best option (IF there is one...)

thanks!


texts: Using "from" instead of "since" when referring to a date

texts:
Is it appropriate to use "from" instead of "since" in reference to a specific date? Also, does it matter whether this date is in the past or future when considering the previous question?

For example, "Currently available from February 15th, the collectors edition includes many extra goodies."


texts:
I was inspired to ask this question (on ELL) because of something in a CNN article that didn't sound right to me.

  Per capita, Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters in Syria of any Western European nation. Experts say nearly 500 men and women have left Belgium for Syria and Iraq since 2012.

The context of the article gave the impression that a "foreign fighter" or at least the subject of the article, were people who expatriate to side with someone else in a conflict.

Unfortunately, I could not find any clear definitions or references to the exact meaning of the term; so what exactly is a "foreign fighter"?


texts: "We care for our Nature" or "We care for Nature"?

texts:
Was drafting an email and my senior wanted to type "Planting saplings is our way of saying we care for our Nature".
I felt that's wrong English. Shouldn't it be "we care for Nature"? (it makes it a bit impersonal to remove the 'our', but if 'our nature' isn't right, can the cuteness factor of mentioning 'our nature' be preserved?. Which is correct?)


texts: Is there a word to describe someone who is always defeated at my hand?

texts:
If A always defeats B, A is B's nemesis.
If B always loses to his rival A, B is A's ____?


texts: How to use "come true" for something other than hopes and dreams and wishes?

texts:
I'm from Italy and my mother-tongue is not English, so sorry in advance for my mistakes. This is my question:

I know how to use come true in sentences like:

  I wish my dreams would come true.

But can I use come true in other contexts, like for example

  This feeling comes true.

In which it come true carries the meaning of something becoming real?

Or it can be applied only with words like wishes, dreams, and the like?


texts: One word for "when a game suits some one very much"

texts:
One word when we want to say somebody that the games suits them.

For example, "Given his natural athletic ability and quick responses, that game really _____.


texts: Mordecai Richler essay - what's the grammar error?

texts:
I was reading "Maple Leaf Culture Time", an essay by Mordecai Richler, and came across this page:

Here is the text in question, transcribed:

  Neither is Mavis Gallant included among the more than 350 entries in
  Canadian Writers/Écrivains Canadiens, a biographical dictionary edited
  by Guy Sylvestre, Brandon Conron, and Carl F. Klinck, whilst my
  listing manages a grammatical error and a new, yet provocative
  judgement in one sentence. "In addition to his novels, Richler ...
  worked on the film script for John Osborne's Room at the Top
  and Life at the Top."

What's the grammatical error? The only blatant thing I could see what the minor plural mishap, wherein they mention two scripts but write "the film script." Is that it? or is he referring to something else?


texts: Does this numeronym abbreviation syntax have a specific name?

texts:
Is there a name for the type of numeronym abbreviation that has the first and last letters with the count of the missing letters in between?

Some examples:

l10n - localization
p13n - personalization
g11n - globalization
i18n - internationalization
a16z - Andreessen Horowitz

As you can see, most of my examples of this usage relate directly to internationalization and localization.


texts: is there another phrase entirely that is another way of saying "I have mixed feelings"?

texts: With regards to having varying difference of emotional state Ive heard the standard statements "having mixed feelings" and "Im torn " "Unsure of how I feel".... what are some ways of expressing this?


texts: What’s the term that summarizes when a rule that hasn’t been enforced in the past suddenly gets enforced without warning?

texts: For example, when parents set a curfew but don’t punish you for breaking it for months on end, but then suddenly crack down on you for it. Please help! This has plagued me for years now trying to remember the term! Thanks!


texts: When a media network can't show/say a certain brand/logo/product of a company so they censor/blurr/avoid topic, cause brand didn't bought ad

texts:
It's simply, that in TV, whenever a logo appears, they censor it, or when a person says a brand name, either they cut it, or bleep it. This is due to the network charges for ads, however in that case they obviously can't charge them.
I'm asking for the english expression. In spanish, at least Argentina, the expression is "chivo publicitario".


texts: Was the word "guy" gender-neutral in the 1930s?

texts:
I have an attestation from The Glass Key, by Dashiell Hammett and first published in 1930

  She rubbed her face into the chintz cushion under it and said: “A
  swell guy I turned out to be, promising to marry him yesterday and
  then leaving him to take the first tramp I run into home with me.”
  source

(the "tramp" she's referring to is a man)

This suggests that "guy" in 1930/31 meant "an informal word for person," with no connotations of either "grotesque in appearance" or "male in gender." But all the other usages of "guy" in that book refer to men (as far as I can tell). How confident can I be that "guy" in the 1930s was gender-neutral?


texts:
Question: Which is incorrect? "The continental shelf is the shadow area of the ocean floor that is closest to the continents."

The answer is "closest to", I asked my teacher but she didn't know why. Can anyone explain it to me?

Many thanks.


texts: Using "respectively" with "and" vs. "or"

texts:
Is it acceptable usage to use "or" with "respectively", or is it possible only with "and"?

Example:

  If the light changes from red to blue or from blue to red, you must catch or throw the ball, respectively.

I've seen lots of construction with "and" but none with "or".


texts: Should/would+perfect infinitive or modals could, might+perfect infinitive and the perfective future aspect

texts:
Would a native speaker when tumbling against constructions comprising of the analytical forms of the Subjunctive Mood (would, should+perfect infinitive) or a compound modal verbal predicates (could, might+perfect infinitive), be it in the conditional complex sentences or non-conditional simple sentences, take in their meaning with the Perfective Future aspect when there are definitive time indications? For example:

If I were given instruments today in the evening (it is morning now), I would/could have pulled the job off by 2 p.m. tomorrow.
I would/could have pulled the job off by 2 p.m. tomorrow.


texts:
The Software Engineers and the Electrical Engineers will work together in the project.

The Software Engineers and Electrical Engineers will work together in the project.

Which of these two sentences is correct, and why?


texts: What type of pronoun shoould I use before a gerund?

texts:
While reviewing grammar, I came upon this sentence:
"I was able to inspect the apartment without his noticing the movement of my eyes."
However, this phrasing seems awkward, especially the "his".
I feel like one of the following two changes would be more grammatical:

I was able to inspect the apartment without him noticing the movement of my eyes.
I was able to inspect the apartment without his noticing of the movement of my eyes.

Are either of these two more "correct"? Or are there any other better changes?


texts:
Reported in Panel B is or are fund information, which include or includes the number of funds and managers.

Can someone kindly help with the grammar in this sentence.Which is actually is the subject? Thanks.


texts: The word "getting" in "getting a divorce"

texts:
My parents are getting a divorce

Is the getting just an auxiliary verb or does it have some real meaning?

Why not: "My parents is going to divorce"?


texts: Is apostrophe-s ('s) only for "is" and "has"?

texts:
I heard this dictation: "Well, we weren't sure. We were thinking the ride's going to start up again."

As a stenographer, my job is to transcribe. If I were to turn "ride's" into two words, would this be better written "ride was" or "ride is"?

Are there any examples where apostrophe-s ('s) is used to hide words other than "is" or "has"?


texts: I am writing an analysis paper (not related to title), and need to introduce someone with a doctorate in English. Do I write "Doctor [name]" or do I use a suffix?


texts: How do you paragraph dialogue when multiple characters are acting?

texts:
So if I'm correct, you start a new paragraph in dialogue every time a new character is the one focused on.

So if character A says something and then does an action that's all one paragraph, but if character A says something and then character B does an action you'd need to separate those things with a paragraph break. But what if character A does something and then both characters are involved in the non-dialogue text?

This is the sample at hand in case anyone's confused:
"Time sure flies when you're having fun…" David frowned and for a moment Morgan detected something strange in his expression. "You should be nicer when you talk about your father, he's a good man: he looks after you and it's pretty clear he loves you very much." (both pieces of dialogue are being said by the character David)


texts: Should there be a comma after 'last year' at the start of a sentence?

texts: I'm having some trouble with a sentence. It starts off with, "Last year, Emily purchased..." and the rest is just a list. Is the comma after 'last year' correct, or should it be removed?


texts:
I have received an e-mail form a recruiter regarding a conference.

  Warm wishes,
  Jane Doe, Recruiter

Isn't it too personal for an e-mail with business connotation?


texts:
I have noticed certain Chinese names follow the English order, i.e., given name before family name, when occurring in English text, whereas others retain the Chinese order, i.e., family name before given name. The former is illustrated by Chenjun Pan (see this link) and other researchers of Chinese descent who have published in academic journals. The latter is exemplified by Xi Jinping and Tasi Ing-Wen.

Could anyone explain why the difference arises and offer a generalization of when one type of name ordering is preferred over the other?


texts: What's the history of the English letter "Y" as a "sometimes vowel"?

texts: Wondering when and why historically the Anglo-Saxon letter "Y" became a (part-time) vowel substitute for the letter "I", leading to "gymnasium" instead of "gimnasium" or "cyanide" instead of "cianide" etc.


texts: Word for imputing one's motives to another by putting them in their mouth (King Lear)

texts:
I am looking for a word to replace "declares" in this paragraph analysing Edmund's betrayal of his brother in Shakespeare's King Lear:

  Edmund begins his quest for power by setting Edgar up as a traitor against their father, forging a letter of Edgar’s supposed ill will against him. In malicious irony, he attributes to his brother the very motives which drive him to his designs against Edgar, writing in his stead, “I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered” (1.2.50). Edmund declares in this way that he is willing to suffer his father’s tyranny no more.


texts:
Could you help me, please? Which of the two sentences is correct?

  Could you phone them so that he may explain it?

or

  Could you phone them so that he might explain it?


texts: Are both "How did you" and "Howdja" used?

texts:
How did you get here? [ 'haʊ dɪdʒʊ 'gɛt hɪər? ]
I took the bus.

How did you get here? [ 'haʊdʒə 'gɛt hɪər? ]
I took the train.

My question: are both "haʊ dɪdʒʊ" and "haʊdʒə" used in American English? I think that "haʊdʒə" is more informal, but I think both mean the same thing. Am I right?


texts: Idiom whose etymology involves misunderstanding the original meaning

texts:
I found this question on a rather fascinating (if unapologetically prescriptivist) website:

  Is there any idiom -- not a single word, but a full phrase -- whose meaning has changed over the years, simply by virtue of its being misunderstood by the linguistically inept or the historically ignorant?

Can anyone give an example of such an idiom?  I'm certain one exists, given the mutilation which typical English words and phrases go through over time.


texts: I would like to dedicate my father who passed away

texts: I would like to dedicate my father who is passed away and I cant find the approriate word since I am not native speaker


texts:
He took his younger sister with himself.

In the above sentence, what would come here him or himself?
Also I am pretty confused in usage of these reflexive pronouns. Can you remove this confusion in short yet wholesome manner?


texts:
A humdinger is a remarkable or outstanding person or thing.

The OED has it as originally US dating (as hum-dinger) from 1905, but says the origin is unknown.

Where does the word humdinger come from? Was it used before 1905?


texts: What's the word for something that uses more of something else relative to other things

texts:
Is there a word that describes something that uses more of something(energy,power, food, etc) in relation to other things?

Ex: Brandon's phone would last through the day as long as he didn't use a _______ app that would drain it fast.


texts: Does America have its Versions of U- and Non-U English?

texts:
In Britain and most of Europe, some form of U-speak exists: old-money language has certain features that distinguish it from other language. In Dutch, it doesn't really have a name, but it is still very much alive. I believe the same applies to England. The phenomenon is just very hard to research; that is why not much information about it is available on the internet, except about England, partly because of several famous studies on the subject (see Wikipedia). But even there the few reliable sources are several decades old, while U-speak changes continuously.

Do Americans have their version of U-English? How does it differ from British U—or is it very much alike? What are some examples? It might be that the term is just not applicable to American society for some reason (though I doubt that).

It would be best to have some references, like scientific articles or interviews or corpus finds, if such are available.

Edited: Emily Post wrote extensively about what resembles European U-speak to a high degree, in many cases even literally:

  People who say “I come,” and “I seen it,” and “I done it” prove by their lack of grammar that they had little education in their youth. Unfortunate, very; but they may at the same time be brilliant, exceptional characters, loved by everyone who knows them, because they are what they seem and nothing else. But the caricature “lady” with the comic picture “society manner” who says “Pardon me” and talks of “retiring,” and “residing,” and “desiring,” and “being acquainted with,” and “attending” this and that with “her escort,” and curls her little finger over the handle of her teacup, and prates of “culture,” does not belong to Best Society, and never will! — Emily Post, Etiquette (1922).

Since America has old money too, and a form of U-English existed there in the 1920s that much resembled British U-speak, it would seem highly unlikely for America not to have its modern variant(s). The problem is that it can only be observed by those who know what to look for, because it is an otherwise very inconspicuous phenomenon.


texts: When did saying "I'm offended" or "I find that offensive" become a common phrase in English?

texts: When did saying I’m offended or I find that offensive become a common phrase in English?


texts: Why does English need an article before any noun?

texts:
In my native language, we can say:

  I have dog

Because I don't want to say a dog (one dog, how many dogs) or the dog (that dog, the listener don't care which dog).

p.s. after 3 years later, I have to say, why I ask this question, is I still cannot grasp how to use the right 'article word'. sometimes, a noun will use an article, sometimes, a noun could not(or omit) the article word before it. there aren't a formula for this. So, I have to remember all the time! I feel so frustrate


texts: In a book I saw the caption "this is Ken and Mike". Should it be "these are Ken and Mike" since it is plural? Or is there a certain rule that I am unaware of? Thanks.


texts:
Is it common to ask questions in English by means of intonation alone? For instance the following line from a webpage confuses me:

Since Hindi does not have the auxiliary do, learners are prone to asking questions by means of intonation alone: She has a brother?

http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/hindi.htm

The obvious way to ask this question is "Does she have a brother?". But to me sentences like "You live here?" or "You went shopping?" sound very natural.


texts: Are the "in"s and "on"s in the following grammatically correct: "We will run the executable in the dev environment on machine dev-linux-07"?

texts:
Some colleagues think it would be more grammatically correct to read:
"We will run the executable on the dev environment on machine dev-linux-07"


texts: What are the adjective counterparts for "sense" and "sensibility"?

texts:
What are the adjective counterparts for "sense" and "sensibility" as in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility?

Would the one for "sensibility" be "sensible"?

What is the one for "sense"? Does it have the same meaning as "rational"?


texts: What is the word for something that is made out to be very important, but isn't?

texts:
What is the term for something that is told as extremely important and crazy, but is really generic and bland?

For example, if there was someone who was talking about some sort of life-or-death game with the intent of grabbing the listener's interest, but it ends up falling flat and the listener couldn't care less, what would that be called?


texts: What's the opposite of "speaking clearly"?

texts: When somebody talks in a way where they swallow parts of a word, talk very fast or talk in a way that is difficult for most listeners to comprehend, what do you call the way this person speaks? I'm looking for an adverb that conveys the meaning "unclearly", "mangled" or just "ununderstandbly" (yeah I know it's not a word).


texts: Is there a term like 'metaphor' but for drawing a disanalogy?

texts:
Similes and metaphors drawn analogies, compare things. Is there another rhetorical term for when someone wants to draw a disanalogy?

I can imagine a poet or at least rhetorician wanting to say e.g. that their lover's eyes are not like pearls, but far lovelier.


texts: Commas in "The chart shows information about how many people worked from home, in the USA and UK, between 2005 and 2010."

texts:
So I've got this sentence in my IELTS prep book:

  The chart shows information about how many people worked from home, in
  the USA and UK, between 2005 and 2010.

The commas sound so weird. I would be grateful if somebody could explain what are they doing up there.

Actually, the following sentence looks similar but doesn't contain commas:

  The chart highlights data about the amount of electricity which was consumed in India and Pakistan between 2004 and 2010.

What is going on?


texts: A word to describe the structure of "The Song That Never Ends"

texts:
The song has been described as a "self-referential and infinitely iterative children's song". I would like to use a word that encapsulates this description.

I have considered recursive, but does that necessarily imply self-referentiality? I don't think it would imply an infinite process either.

Eternal or never-ending only describes one facet.

A quine may be apt, but does the analogy really hold? Again, a quine doesn't imply infinite reproduction, or does it? They output themselves only once in examples I've seen.

Is there any appropriate term (via linguistics, computer science, physics, etc.) that completely captures the essence of the song (and similar works)?

Edit: I'm also considering ouroboros. My goal is to find something that is descriptive or directly analogous to the underlying pattern. I'm not sure if there's some jargon in other fields, biology, music, art, etc. that could apply. The fact that it's a children's song is irrelevant, so I have emphasised the crux of the quoted phrase.


texts: When I read about medieval history, the word is usually not capitalised, but sometimes it is. At the beginning of a sentence it always is, of course. I prefer to capitalise it in the middle of a sentence, but am I incorrect to do so, please?


texts: Meaning of "Cheeky" in Australian Aboriginal English

texts:
In Australian Aboriginal English, does "Cheeky" have meanings different from those found in other varieties of English?

In the Baz Luhrmann movie "Australia", the word "Cheeky" was used by the Aboriginal character Nullah:

  Miss boss! We gotta get those fat cheeky bulls into that big bloody metal ship!

(However, Australia might be unreliable when it comes to Australian Aboriginal English)

The Wikipedia article Australian Aboriginal English indirectly talks about "Cheeky". It doesn't fully define it, but suggests it has distinct meanings in Australian Aboriginal English:

  Another use [of "rubbish" ] is meaning something is not dangerous, for example,
  non-venomous snakes are all considered to be rubbish while in
  contrast, venomous snakes are all cheeky.


texts:
I can only intuitively grasp the meaning and usage of "if only as".

It seems related to "if only" at this other question:
What does "if only" mean?
However I don't feel they're quite the same.

Hence I would like to know the meaning of "if only as", and whether an how it's related to "if only".


texts: Is the word "oppositor" used today, or is it archaic?

texts: The word oppositor does not appear in most American English dictionaries, but it does appear in the Oxford Living Dictionary.  Please, is it obsolete, archaic, or only in British usage?


texts:
What is the origin of slam-bang?

  I walked slam-bang into this character.


texts: Question mark after “I don’t know what you want from me.”?

texts:
I’m getting mixed messages on which of the following punctuations is correct:

I don’t know what you want from me.
I don’t know what you want from me?

It seems to be both an indirect question, rhetorical and even a halfway actual question. Is there a generally preferred way to punctuate such a sentence?
The sentence occurs during a conversation where a man is berating his girlfriend. She is listing all these fun things they can do on their anniversary, “I can make you dinner”, “We can go skiiing”, etc. After each suggestion, however, he puts her down with statements like, “You’re not that great a cook” or “You’d probably break your leg skiing“. She gets irate and responds with the above sentence.
It’s part of a larger thread in the story showing him increasingly distancing himself from her.


texts: History of additional sounds introduced to English

texts:
Today I was curious about the rarity of the consonant cluster sr in the English language. I found a WordReference forum from 2006 that asked about the matter.

The general response is that because English historically lacks the sr cluster, native speakers are unfamiliar with it, and unlikely to produce it. (The most familiar word that features sr is Sri in Sri Lanka, which I hear pronounced most often as Siri and, occasionally, as Shri.

This answer makes intuitive sense, yet surely many sounds have made their way into the English language over its history.

Can we trace any common sounds today back to a first appearance (probably in a loan word)?

I am less interested in sound change by way of drift—unless this is the only way new sounds have entered the language.
While I am curious about the full course of English history, for the sake of answerability I will restrict my question to Modern English.
I am especially interested in sounds that reappear in words that native speakers will not consider foreign. (From @Cascabel's comment, the /ñ/ in canyon.)


texts:
I am typing up formal invitations, and I want to say that transportation will be provided from Point A to Point B (but also from Point B back to Point A).

In order to clear up the to-from/from-to confusion, I tried to use 'between' as follows:

  Transportation will be provided between Point A and Point B.

Is it grammatically correct to use between in this manner?

Transportation is really FROM Point A TO Point B -- although the car may travel between the two locations (i.e. not at either end point but in the middle), the transportation itself is to/from specific locations.

Another option is to say

  Transportation will be provided to and from Point A and Point B.

I am trying to find the most appropriate choice of preposition to accurately convey the meaning, and I was unsuccessful in determining this after searching myself.


texts: Thank You for inviting Steve and {me/I}?

texts:
When writing a thank you note from a husband and wife, is it correct to write the note as...

  "Thank you for inviting Steve and me to your home for the birthday celebration."

Or is it,

  "Thank you for inviting Steve and I"?

This seems so simple but yet I get stumped every time :/


texts:
As a result of seems to be quite a versatile phrase, and I can't entirely figure out the contexts in which it is used. This statement is apparently wrong:

  Sound can travel through water for enormous distances, its acoustic energy prevented from being dissipated as a result of boundaries in the ocean created by water layers of different temperatures and densities.

However, this statement is apparently correct:

  Sound can travel through water for enormous distances, its acoustic energy prevented from dissipating by boundaries in the ocean created by water layers of different temperatures and densities.

The only reason I can think of is because by implies the involvement of an agent (a noun), whereas as a result of implies a process, action, or event. What is the strict difference between by and as a result of? In which contexts can as a result of be used?


texts: Pronunciation of letters "g" and "c" in blend words

texts:
According to this article:

  The Pronunciation of ‘C’ and ‘G’ generally (but not always) depends
  upon the letter following either 'C' or 'G'. If the following letter
  is ‘E’, ‘I’ or ‘Y’, the pronunciation is said to be “soft” (as in
  cell & large). If the following letter is anything else - including a space - the pronunciation is termed “hard”. (as in call & great)

I'm wondering if these letters (‘C’ and ‘G’) retain their pronunciation in blend words.
For example consider the word "Regex". This word is made from combining "Regular" and "Expression". How should the letter "g" in Regex be pronounced? Soft, like in "General"? or hard, like in "Regular"?


texts: Greenback boogie lyrics from Suits TV series theme

texts:
I recently started watching "Suits". There is a theme song. It has a lyrics with a sentence "Everybody wanna know, how it feel". I turned the CC and yes, its exactly that way.
I think it should rather be "how it feels".

But I'm not an native English speaker, so its possible that I simply miss something - some slang, hidden meaning. Is this a correct sentence?


texts: I know it's written WWI, but when I am speaking should I say "World War One" or "World War First" or "First World War"?


texts: Term for providing a rationale for why a concept applies

texts:
I am using a concept that was developed for one subject area and applying it to a different area. However, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the objects in the original concept and the objects in the area I would like to apply it to.

Specifically, I am drawing an analogy between voters in a shareholder meeting (where not everyone has the same voting power) and chemicals at a Superfund site, in that both carry a certain weight (votes/health risk) towards a measure (bill/remedial action decision).

I would like to introduce this discussion with a section header that quickly describes that I will be providing a rationale for applicability of the specific concept. Right now, I am using the provisional title Rationale for Applicability, but perhaps there is something "preposition-free" or more descriptive?


texts: 'Results to be declared by the college': to be + past participal

texts:
I always get confused by the sentence structure 'to be + past participal'. What does that mean – present perfect or future?
Like in this sentence:

Results to be declared by the college.

Results are declared? Results will be declared?
Also as in this sentence:

An announcement to be made.

Is this correct or should it be

An announcement will be made?


texts:
In an episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", Will Smith says:

  What we gotta do, is get up in this grill and show 'em that we've got the power!

I've checked Wiktionary and Urban Dictionary, but I find no suitable meaning.

What is a "grill" in this context? Clearly not a girl or a contraption for cooking food.


texts: Is "IN" in this sentence correct grammatically

texts:
I wrote this sentence:

  My professor in many subjects during my studies at Damascus University and my fourth-year-project sponsor.

I don't know if in is correct. Or would it be better to use for? Also, is fourth-year-project's good grammatically ?


texts: Is "kicking ass and taking names" an offshoot of an older idiom?

texts: Is this idiom an offshoot of an older idiom? I have heard something that sounds similar to this, but the words were slightly different.


texts:
I’m working on a problem for a programming class that states the following:

  Write a for loop in the space below which will add the numbers between 1 and 20.

To me this means the question is looking for the total sum of all the individual numbers from 1 up to 20 (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + … + 20).

Is my understanding correct?
Are there any other ways to word this?


texts: Using multiple adverbs for the same verb

texts:
Is is appropriate to use multiple adverbs in a row, such as in:

  This car is powered fully electrically.

For my understanding both adjectives full and electric do refer to the verb "to power" and are thus considered as being adverbs. If so, is the -ly form correct at both of them? Looks somehow a bit awkward to me?


texts: Does one need to put a space between initials of the first and the second names. Which one is correct: "Sincerely, J. D." (where J. D. means John Doe) or "Sincerely, J.D."?


texts: Is it proper to say "I earned -1 points today" when I lost 1 point?

texts:
Suppose I play a game where I can lose points as well as gain them. Usually I'll say:

  I earned 10 points today, hooray!

But what if I lost points and still want to use "optimistic" verb?

  I earned -1 points today, bummer

Is this grammatically correct?


texts:
I work at a large church where we have recently added some new public spaces, including a bookstore and a connection center. Both have their own names: The Source and The Hub. In their designed logos, "the" is shown as lowercase, as you can see in the attached rendering of the spaces.

Several of us are debating whether or not the "t" in "the" should be capitalized when not using the logo, but just referencing the bookstore and connection center in print (for example, in our bulletin: Please sign up for a community group this fall in The Hub.) We've talked about the usage of CamelCase, but weren't sure if it really applies in this instance. We would love your thoughts and feedback.


texts:
I found the phrase 'open up a vein of fury' in the article of today's Washington Post as shown below.

  The New Year's Day suicide bombing of a church that killed 21 people has opened up a vein of fury among Egypt's Christians, built up over years of what they call government failure to address persistent discrimination and violence against their community.

What does 'open up a vein of' mean exactly? Why should the writer use 'open up a vein of' in this particular case, instead of other expressions, for instance 'a spell of anger' or simply 'has infuriated'? Can somebody teach me?


texts:
I am looking for a generic word that can be used to refer to a fairly large industrial part or component such as a generator, motor, control box or possibly a circuit board.

We are using the word "part" to refer the much smaller items (like screws and wires) the go into the larger things.

What is a good word o use for the larger items that are comprised of parts, which can be used in context with the word "part?"

example: We only use the best parts to fix your parts.


texts: Is suffixing a personal name with "-azza"/"-azzer" a standard Cockney nicknaming rule?

texts:
In two British films I recently recalled, I noticed a trend in nicknaming that I'd like confirmation of, by someone familiar with spoken Cockney English.

In the first one, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, I believe Barry the Baptist, an entertaining paid enforcer, is called Bazza or Bazzer either by his boss, or by those "two Northern monkeys", I can't remember which.

In the second movie, Layer Cake, I remember a guy, a member of a Cockney English-speaking drug gang, being referred to as Gazza basically throughout the entire movie.

My first question is :  Is this a standard rule for nicknaming amongst Cockney English speakers?  My second question is: If it's a rule, from what first name does Gazza come? My final question, the one I care about most about, is: If it's a rule, can I get some examples on how this rule would be applied to other names?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is there such a thing as a “pre-anniversary”? Or a better word?

If "eve' means the day before or period before an event, is there a word or succinct phrase meaning one year to the day before an event?


texts:
What is a word for a group of contests? It doesn't necessarily have to be a real word, just something that's concise and obvious, possibly something like decathlon but for an indeterminate number of events.
Update:
To add more details, I am not so much focusing on the group of contests themselves but instead on the context in which the contests take place. I believe league is the best I've come up with so far. i.e. an athletic league like the Major League Baseball vs Minor League Baseball.
I was also liking Olympiad, but the idea is that concept I'm going for is supposed to be an indeterminate time period and indeterminate number of games.


texts: Single name to cover "drawing", "painting", "sketching" etc

texts:
Is there a single name (word or short phrase) to cover the art of creation of images — drawing, painting, sketching etc. — and specifically excluding sculpture, crafting and other arts that create other products than still images?

"Graphic design" is close, but focuses on the utilitarian side, leaving "high art" out. "Traditional art" includes sculpture and excludes digital imagery.


texts: What is the correct term for a fear of breasts?

texts:
I have known this is a phobia for quite a while and remember reading the word long ago, but when I googled it today I got 2 different spellings: mastophobia and mastrophobia. Which one is right? Is either a recognised word? — I couldn't find them in the Oxford dictionary. Is it one of the newly made up words and there isn’t an official word to describe the fear of breasts?

If there is such a word but it's not mastophobia or mastrophobia, what is it?

Example sentence:

  Eric liked cold cities where people wore lots of clothing. He positively avoided popular beaches in summer, due to his ______.


texts: "Hence me contacting you" vs "hence I contacted you"

texts:
I am writing a to a business recipient and ended up with the following sentence (version 1):

  Yes, I am aware that your company is not operating this system anymore, but would be most interested in past/historical data, hence me contacting you.

Alternatively, I thought about changing the last part of the sentence to (version 2):

  ... hence I contacted you.

Ngrams seem to favor version 2, but I have the feeling I read version 1 before. This source seems to indicate version 1 is correct (see the second example, "hence means from this source").

Are both forms correct? Is there a preferred one in this case? Why?


texts:
Can I use an ellipsis at the beginning of a quote? The quote I have used had multiple sentences and I only wanted a few of the sentences so I took out part of the quote:

  "...The witness for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted..."

(from Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird)

Is it okay if I use an ellipsis at the beginning like this?


texts:
In this sentence:

  She did not want to meet Lettuce. That was a rare feeling for her; she would usually never avoid anybody, but Lettuce was somehow different. Was it just dislike, or was it something different - a wariness born of the knowledge that he did not like her and would be perfectly happy to harm her interests - such as they were?

What does "such as they were" mean? What does "they" refer to, "her interests", then why using the dashes?

Thanks!


texts: Are there any differences between "supernatural" and "paranormal"?


texts:
I believe this is a syntax question. I'm sorry if this is the wrong tag.

Which is correct?

Through my education, volunteer work, and work experience, I have truly realized Tagore was right, service is joy.
Through my education, volunteer work, and work experience, I have truly realized that Tagore was right, service is joy.

Cheers


texts: Is there any particular rule for specific colours in adjective order?

texts:
I read here that there is a general rule to write an adjective order. But I didn't find any explanation if the rule has a specific order for colours, especially for primary colours.

This may sound stupid but I'm just wondering. I mean is it preferable to say:

  red and white flowers

Or:

  white and red flowers

Or is there really no grammatical rule to obey?


texts: "Have been with for" vs. "Have been with in"

texts:
What is the difference between the following two structures?

Have you been back home in the last ten years?
Have you been back home for the last ten years?

Could we also replace the present perfect with simple past as in the following:

Did you go back home in the last ten years?
Did you go back home for the last ten years? (this one doesn't seem to be in accordance with the law of the books, but I don't see any problem with the structure assuming the person has visited once in the past 10 years at a particular time).


texts:
I have billing information coming from different sources and I want to provide a single view to all the billing information to users. Just wondering if there is a better single word for single view of information.

Thanks.


texts: The road injuries are of major concern in Indian metro cities

texts:
In the above sentence, Is it correct if I add 'of" in front of major concern.
OR Is it okay, "a major concern'


texts:
Do be aware that this repository is just for the WordPress.com desktop wrapper.

Is it correct to say do be? I feel like the do is unnecessary. I am correct?


texts: implication behind "can I ask you to ..."

texts:
Is there any difference between these two sentences ?
    (1) Can I ask you to ...[do something]?
    (2) Can you ... [do something]?

Eg., if my boss were to say to me "Can I ask you to pick up the client?". Would that mean the same thing as "Can you pick up the client?"

Thanks


texts:
A couple of friends and I were playing Boggle last night, and we came across a point of contention over the word 'mini'.

One party argued that 'mini' is an abbreviation of 'miniature', and therefore not a valid word. They also argued that the same would have to hold true for a word like 'temp' or 'stat', if that were the case for 'mini'.

The other argued that it has become a word in its own right, as it has been used for so long apart from its parent word. It was even argued that 'mini' and 'miniature' are separate words because they mean different things.

It got me thinking about how language evolves and I wondered:

Which side, if any, of this discussion is correct? Can abbreviations become actual words, and is there a process for this? Are there any better examples that showcase this?

Any help would be much appreciated!

EDIT: To clarify, the information that I am most interested in is why 'mini' is considered standalone whilst 'temp' and 'stat' are not. I'm sure there are other examples of abbreviations that are in common usage, yet are not considered proper words. Is there some sort of threshold that must be crossed, or is it a case-by-case process?


texts:
Is it grammatically correct to use "heretofore" in the past perfect?

  ...the king's power, which had heretofore been absolute.

The meaning of "heretofore" is "before now", but would it still work in the past?

What I really want to say is "before then." Is there a word for that, or would "heretofore" still work for that?


texts: Word for someone who adopts lower class mannerisms

texts: I wonder if there is a word for someone from an upper-class background who deliberately adopts some lower-class mannerisms (such as using words associated with lower social status or putting on an accent).


texts: Why word "very" is used in combination with words like "first", "last", ect

texts: Wow, my first question here :) Recently i watched a tennis match and the commentator said "This is his very first title". I've also heard the opposite expression "This is his very last chance". So why is word very used and how it strengthens the meaning of the next word if not the whole sentence? :)


texts: Is this "of" means category relationship?

texts:
Here is the context. The dictionary define one meaning of "of" as expressing the relationship between a general category and the thing being specified which belongs to such a category. Is it fitted here? Or rather, how to interpret "of that famous seat of philosophy"?

  I shall suppose myself in the Lyceum of Athens, repeating the lessons of my masters before the Platos and the Xenocrates of that famous seat of philosophy as my judges, and in presence of the whole human species as my audience.

The sentence is from "A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind".


texts: What to call a fact/observation told by someone?

texts:
Examples:

  Speaker A: I thought he wanted to know about insects.

  Speaker B: But not [...] about them eating people!

  After he finished his [...] about seals.

I think using fact doesn't imply "talking". Speech, is more like something you'd do in public. And story, I think people usually associate them with fictitious accounts?

What's a better alternative?


texts:
What is the difference between the following?

I don't know of any other place.
I don't know any other place.


texts: What is the correct definition and usage of the acronym "ETA"?

texts: Does "ETA" stand for "Estimated Time to Arrival" or "Estimated Time of Arrival"? I most commonly hear phrases like "ETA 20 minutes", but I've also heard "ETA 4:30 PM". Is one usage correct and the other wrong, or are both okay?


texts: Meaning of "That'll get steam on the table."

texts:
I was watching a movie featuring a conversation between two men. This is an attempt at transcribing the conversation:

  Man #1: "I'm redistributing wealth. It's quite spiritual.  Karma,
  boy."

I'm not certain which of two things the second man responds with.  Here are my two guesses:

  Man #2: "I'll get steam on the table."

or

  Man #2: "That'll get steam on the table."

For context, the first man is an armed robber.  I'm wondering which of those two sentences was most likely the second man's response, and what it means.


texts: Who and That : Pronouns or Relative Pronouns

texts:
I read a submission in a newsletter about grammar. Part of the article discussed the use of who and that. The reader is told to use who as a pronoun for references to people and that as a pronoun for references to inanimate objects. The author provided examples: “Phoebe is the person who lives next door to my daughter.” and “It’s the grocery store that is closest to my house.” In closing of this section the author provides the statement, “When did people become objects?”

Aren't who and that relative pronouns? Also, I don't believe the use of  who or that are needed in the author’s examples. Composing in plain talk, I would compose the author's examples as: “Phoebe lives next door to my daughter.” and “It’s the grocery store closest to my house.”

Comments please...?


texts:
I wanted to convey that a university degree is true and valid, but I am not sure if the word "established" can be used for the degree itself.

Any suggestions on which words I can use to convey that same meaning for a "degree"?
Can I check if it is the word "established" can be used for an educational program?


texts: Sentence finishing by "interested", is Ok or should end by "in" or "by"?

texts:
The sentence is:

This demo application contains features you may be interested.

When I write "be interested by", Grammarly says that I should use "in".
Then, if I use "In", it says that the sentence shouldn't end by a preposition...
So, what is the correct way?


texts: Is the word "routability" appropriate in the context of electrical engineering? I want to express whether the electrical routes between components can be routed or not.


texts: I can hardly describe this, which is why I need the one word. When you shout "Ta-daa!" and throw your arms out at your sides, does anyone have a one-word description for what you're doing? Argh.


texts: Which grammatical case is "him" in "I help him", and why?

texts:
In languages which distinguish the accusative and dative cases, it is clear from the actual usage whether a divalent verb takes a direct or indirect object. For example, the German eat takes a direct object ("ich esse ihn"), while help takes an indirect object ("ich helfe ihm").

How do you know what kind of object an English verb takes? Which case is the object pronoun in the phrase "I help him"?

Edit: I'm looking for a reason to say that it, without doubt, is an accusative or dative pronoun. The reason for the German example is that the English accusative and dative pronouns are degenerate, and it therefore is easy to claim something -- you can't disprove it with an example.


texts: What is the process of going to the reception at a hospital and telling them you've arrived called?

texts:
Like, how would you put it in this sentence?

"I've gone to the doctor's office and ____"?


texts: What is the right definition of "cheeky"?

texts:
Whenever anyone from US hears me say "cheeky" to (or about) my kids, they always ask what it means. When I try to explain, they suggest "mischievous", but apparently it has more negative connotation than the "cheeky" I mean (the best I can explain it is mischievous, but cute about it). When I mean it negatively I use "naughty", not "cheeky".
So, is there a better definition, or am I using it wrong?


texts:
I threw some rubbish in a litter bin the other day, when it occurred to me that the receptacle couldn't be a litter bin, because litter is only unwanted things strewn across the road. Anything in a litter bin couldn't be litter, by reason of it's being in the litter bin.

Am I right, wrong, or just absurdly pedantic?


texts:
Why are there so many verbs out there that are used as nouns?

Examples:

Produce (lettuce, tomatoes, etc.)
Preserve (strawberry preserves)
Practice (law practice)
Trust (bank trust)
Seasoning (salt, pepper)

There are other nouns that seem to be hi-jacked too...

Premiums (insurance invoice)
Customs (taxes)
Periodicals (publications)


texts: Is there an idiomatic prepositional phrase meaning the same as 'with the help of something'?

texts:
Is there an idiomatic prepositional phrase meaning the same as 'with the help of something', the something being a theory which helps to shed light on the reasons for certain events found in a novel?
What I have in mind –very specifically– is interpreting a novel (the events in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart) with the help of a general theory of society and human culture (René Girard's 'mimetic theory'; René Girard, 1923-2015, was a French anthropologist who taught at Stanford University).
In French, the phrase would be "lire Things Fall Apart à la lumière de la théorie mimétique de René Girard".
I have looked on the Internet but only found 'in (the) light of something' (with the definite article, UK, without, US), which –wrongly– seems to be exactly what I need since the words the English idiomatic prepositional phrase is made of are so close to the French ones.
Wrongly, though, because, from what I could gather from the trustworthy online dictionaries (I mean Cambridge, Oxford, Collins, Macmillan, Merriam-Webster) the meaning of 'in (the) light of something' is 'because of something' and not 'with the help of something'.
Merriam-Webster has two meanings for the phrase 'in light of something', one of which is nearly what I am after:

while thinking about (something that affects the way one sees or understand things)
You should think about their advice in light of your own needs.
You should read the story in light of your own experiences.

Only nearly because the 'light' that is meant there is a 'special angle' –a spotlight– and not the 'general theory' –a floodlight– I have in mind.
Hence my question, again: Is there an idiomatic prepositional phrase meaning 'with the help of something' in this particular context?


texts: Hyphenating spelled-out fractions with large numerators and/or denominators

texts:
I find myself in the awkward position of needing to systematically spell out fractions where the numerator, the denominator, or both have three or more digits, and I'm not sure about the hyphenation.  For example, 124/145:

one-hundred-twenty-four one-hundred-forty-fifths?
one hundred twenty-four one hundred forty-fifths?
something else?


texts:
She washed the dishes in the sink in the kitchen.

Does 'in the kitchen' modify 'the sink' ? Or does 'in the kitchen' modify 'washed'? Is 'in the kitchen' an adverbial phrase or an adjective phrase? Or can it be both?


texts: A word that means "to convert from a unit-less quantity to a unit-ed quantity"

texts:
I have the value 30, which is a unit-less or dimension-less value. To convert this to a "unit-ed" value, I append the "ms" suffix (or more formally, multiply the dimensionless value by 1ms), giving me the value "30ms" or "30 milliseconds".

Is there a name for this process of converting a unit-less value to a unit-ed one? Off the top of my head, I can think of the non-standard "unitize", but I'm wondering if there is a standard word.


texts: "What colour is your car", What is subject there

texts:
I don't understand what is subject in sentences like these
"What colour is your car", subject is "What colour" or "your car"
"What size is this shirt"
"What time is it"
etc.

A little similar
"Who phoned you", Who is subject
Who did you phone? You is subject.
In these sentences finding subject is easy, those above i can't


texts:
What does 'The Foxes are up to bat and down by a point' mean?

Does this mean the Foxes are behind their opponent by one point?


texts: What does "but that most" mean in this sentence by Richard Hooker: "People imagine that anything would help them; but that most, which they least have tried"?


texts:
I was invited to do a project for someone, and she mentioned "Obviously this is a paying gig."

What exactly would this mean?


texts:
I've come across the phrase, used in the sentence below, while I was reading a novel written by Raymond Chandler.

"I'm Miss Vermilea, Mr. Umney's secretary," She said in a rather chintzy voice.

I looked up the word "chintzy", and still can't understand what it tries to describe.


texts: Name of phobia of compromised account security

texts: What would, if any, be the name of the phobia of a person who lives in constant fear of others breaking into their accounts / misusing their personal information? I've found some slightly related phobias such as "nomophobia", but none of them are quite what I'm looking for.


texts:
It's common to say that a pregnant woman is expecting, but is it acceptable to say that her husband is expecting? I ask because my male teacher's wife is expecting in a week.

In case you didn't know, to be expecting means (for a pregnant woman, at least) that one will be giving birth soon, but it could generalize to males as meaning "will have a new child soon."


texts: Should there be a comma before the word "until" in the sentence below?

texts:
They are not taking their team photograph until Friday at 7:30.

On my son’s punctuation test, he did not use a comma after photograph in the above sentence, and his teacher marked this “missing” comma as an error, claiming there needed to be a comma there.

Is there some rule that would explain the teacher’s position, or was it incorrectly marked incorrect?


texts: How should we describe a misdiagnosis due to the fact that the correct diagnosis has not yet been discovered?

texts:
Respected members
I am a primary care pediatrician from South India, with 31 years experience after my graduation and 26 yeas after MD. Primary care rests on three pillars. Equity,(not equality), community participation and intersectoral coordination. The last one landed me here.

Medicine is an ever changing science, and, when new evidence arises, we
incorporate it into our daily practice. Classic example will be Vitamin D deficiency. The last decade has expanded  the role of this vitamin in health and disease. Surprisingly, sunlight does not always provide the vitamin, contrary to our thinking in the last century. The prevalence of the deficiency ranges from 50 to 90%, depending upon the area chosen in India. Many countries recommend the vitamin from birth.

All along this vitamin D deficiency was present. It is only now that we can correctly diagnose it, and we have been, increasingly.

That means if the patient had a complaint that arose from vitamin D deficiency, 25 years back 2 things would have been done

error of omission: the symptom would have been dismissed as trivial
error of commission: some other treatment would have been given

Of course, there are several such examples over the past 100 years.
this in no way to degrade my medical community or myself.

Is there a word or phrase which describes the following sequence:

there is a medical condition
the patient has symptoms
the best medical practitioners of the time either ignore the condition or provide useless treatment, because of the state of medical knowledge

I would like a term that could be applied to currently unidentified problems.

Additional Information: Idiopathic is not the word .Idiopathic means, the doctor is sure of the disease but does not know the cause


texts: Term for using someone or something else as cover or concealment

texts:
Best example, rider swinging down the side of their horse to use it [the horse] as concealment or cover viewed from the other side of the horse.

Other examples: thieves using a political protest or riot for premeditated looting; tailgating one's way past a door (i.e. using someone else's authorization); slipping unrelated funding or statute into a bill.

Update: Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm looking for a word that describes the class of actions, not words describing the action itself. Like "ingratiating behavior" vs.  "sucking up"


texts: Is the usage of latinisms perceived as common in the English language or does it sound like bragging in ordinary speech?

texts:
My question here is about perception.
English has a great and wonderful variety in its vocabulary, and many concepts can be associated with different words, although with slightly different meanings maybe. And some of these words are directly derived from Latin.
I am asking: in the case of a concept which has both a pure-English word and a Latin-derived one (or from one of its children, the Romance languages), would a native speaker use each of them interchangeably or would he consider the usage of the latter to be too formal/old-fashioned for a speaking interaction?
I bet the answer is the second one, in which case I ask whether hearing the latinism from someone may be perceived as strange/funny.
Some examples of this are

wish/desiderate (desire is already well English-suited)
join/unite (in the sense of to link)
reply/response (in the sense of answer)

By the way, I'm not referring to those Latin nouns/phrases that are commonly used in certain contexts, like the legal one.


texts: Is the phrase 'Going forward' an adverbial phrase? Are there any particular contexts in which it can or cannot be used?

texts:
I recently was asked this question by one of my colleagues,  if this was an adverb or an adjective. While I figure it cannot be an adjective, I presumed it is an adverbial phrase. Would I be right to make that assumption?

Also, what are the rules/conditions/contexts in which one can or cannot use this phrase? Any known colloquial errors that are known?


texts: In regards to Conjunctions, Verbs, Prepositions, Grammar, and Semantics

texts:
How are you? I hope you are doing well!

As far as I know prepositions do not link clauses together as that is the job of conjunctions. However, there are instances when a preposition is linking two clauses together yet we still call it a preposition not a conjunction.

Let's look at the following examples:

1- This time, I'll vote for whoever is the best candidate in my city.

2- This time, I'll vote for he is the best candidate in my city.

Even though in the first example, ''for'' has a noun clause after it, it is still a preposition, yet in the second example it functions as a conjunction while doing the same job. Is it because in the first example what comes after "for" is a dependent clause but in the second example what follows ''for'' is an independent clause? Or is it because the meanings, that is, the semantics are completely different from each other in the first and second example? In the first example, I'm using the transitive form of "vote". In the second example however, I'm using the intransitive form of "vote"; therefore, the meanings are different.

Do meanings and semantics of what we want to say affect grammar and parts of speech and vice versa?

Also what about other prepositions? For instance:

3- I spoke to him.

4- I spoke to he who shall not be named.

In example number 3, there is a prepositional phrase acting as the object to "spoke".
In example number 4, should I classify "to" as a preposition or a conjunction? As you can see there is a clause after it. Don't we also classify "before" as a conjunction when it is followed by a clause? Then, why not do the same with "to" or any other preposition for that matter?

With every passing hour I become more confused regarding propositions and conjunctions.

Anyway, sorry if my questions are stupid but I love the English language and its grammar. Every once and a while, however, the more I read, the more I get some weird questions stuck in my head.

Thank you in advance.


texts:
I have a problem with this sentence:

  He was one of the youngest of his siblings.

The meaning should be clear: he had many brothers and sisters, and he was one of the youngest of the lot, but the expression feels awfully awkward to me, with expression his siblings implicitly excluding the subject from the set; you're not your own sibling, so you're not one of your siblings.

Is there a better way to convey the idea without getting too muddled with details and without losing the meaning? A collective expression for all of own siblings plus self maybe?

Eldest of the children have children of their own, so he's not one of the youngest in the family.
His parents have siblings who have their children, so he's not one of the youngest in his generation.
"One of the youngest of his parents' children" while technically correct is awfully roundabout way to convey it.
He's not the youngest, so he's not just "younger than his siblings". "Younger than most of his siblings" might work but still feels somewhat awkward.


texts: Where did the term “tower shield” come from?

texts:
So-called tower shields appear occasionally in role-playing games (such as Dungeons&Dragons), including computer games (for example in The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Chivalry, Dark Souls). Usually, it is a tall shield of roughly rectangular shape, carried in the left hand.
However, I am not aware of shields of similar design ever being referred to as "tower" in any extant ancient Greek of Roman sources (though oblong shields were known in Hellenistic and Roman warfare). I am less certain about the usage of names for oblong shields in medieval sources. Pavise comes to mind but I don't know whether it was ever called a "tower shield". Also, medieval shields sometimes were painted with an image of fortifications similar to a castle tower. Though, as far as I can tell, when used in modern popular media, the term "tower shield" usually points to its oblong shape, not a picture on it.
The article on "Shield" in Wikipedia mentions tower shields (and even emphasizes the term by quotes) in the context of Mycenaean Greek warfare but does not give further information or references to the origins of the term.
Are there any references in ancient or medieval historical sources to a shield as "a tower shield"? It appears to me that the term "tower shield" was created either by modern historiography or by modern popular culture (perhaps computer games)


texts: Is there a word for someone who loves blood but is not a vampire?

texts: Is there an English word for someone who loves blood but is not a vampire? I just saw Excision (2012) and this question came to my mind.


texts:
This is my sentence:
As you can guess from the name of my company, it focuses on providing supports to SMEs including financial support (via the form of preferential loans) and technical supports (via the form of training, consulting and business matching).
Do you think "via the form of..." is proper English? If not, is there any other ways?


texts:
The words contrite, detritus, diatribe share the same root "trit" which means rub.

Why does contrite mean remorse, detritus mean debris, and diatribe mean criticism?

From etymonline, I found that con means "together", de means "away", and dia means "away".


texts:
So, this is the sentence:

Faustus’s annihilation is a sobering reminder of our own human shortcomings; the parable resonates throughout the ages, encouraging even us, as a modern audience, to re-evaluate the things that we are using to make ourselves happy.

And what I'm not happy with is the final phrase, in particular the word 'things', which sounds a bit too sloppy...

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!


texts: Apostrophe s' or s's - When to use each?

texts:
In this sentence should I use Apostrophe as s's or s'? I am always confused with what exactly the rule behind s' and s's. The sentence is:

  Hours later Fadnavis's resignation, the the NCP-Congress leaders combined met Governor and staked claim to form the Government.

Fadnavis is the name of the Chief Minister (for your understanding)


texts: What do you call a person who hates everyone but himself? I'm looking for a single word for this.


texts: Why the ring finger is called the third finger?

texts:
I’ve long puzzled about why the ring finger is called third finger in spite of it being the forth finger from the thumb (counting the thumb as the first, the pointing finger the second, the middle finger as the third) and the second from the little finger.

Wikipedia describes it as;

  the fourth proximal digit of the human hand, and the second most ulnar
  finger, located between the middle finger and the little finger. It is
  also called digitus medicinalis, the fourth finger, digitus annularis,
  digitus quartus, or digitus IV in anatomy. In Chinese it’s called 无名指
  - unnamed finger.

Nothing is related with “the third.”

We Japanese also call the ring finger "薬指- kusuri-yubi" meaning the finger (only) used for tasting and examining medicine.

How did the ring finger come to be called the third finger?

For your refference;

Cambridge online English Dictionary defines finger as “One of the five long parts at the end of your hand.”

Oxford online English Dictionary defines finger as “Each of the four slender jointed parts attached to either hand, or five, if the thumb is included.

Merriam-Webster English Dictionary defines finger as “One of the five long parts of the hand that are used for holding things; especially: one of the four that are not the thumb.”


texts: This nonsense phrase was exported along with American soldiers to England during ww2. Now, except for someone using it to be deliberately old-fashioned sounding, I would bet this phrase had not been used "unaffectedly" in 30 or maybe even 60 years anywhere in the USA. But I heard that some of these kind of phrases continued to be used in the UK long after the Yanks had gone home. Is this true? Is it possible that the bee's knees is used to this day and if not that particular phrase, any other phrase that probably originated in the USA but is no longer in common usage?


texts: Telling if a word is a verb in the imperative mood

texts:
I'm working on a static analysis tool for the documentation in the Python programming  language (PEP257). For this, I need to check if the first word in a documentation string is a verb in the imperative mood.

Our current check is that the word should not end with an "s", except if it ends with a double "s".
So "Pass" is okay, but "Passes" is not.
The problem with the current test is that it has false negatives, e.g., "Focus".

Is there a way to check for this? Assuming that the word is already a verb is fine. If the check can sometimes fail, I rather it failed on passing the test (concluding that a verb is in the imperative mood) than vice-versa.


texts:
What is the term for a word that alters the degree or severity of the subsequent word?  In the example below, what is the term for "somewhat"?

Ex: He was somewhat unhappy.


texts: Does "adults aged X–Y" include people born between Y and Y+1 years ago?

texts:
Sometimes people use age ranges to define groups of people, like "young adults are defined as people aged 18—30". To me that sounds ambiguous: imagine for example, that Alice is born on January 2, 1990, and today is May 1, 2020. Which of the following is true?

A. The age range is 18—30 and Alice was born about 30.3 years ago, which is more than 30, hence Alice is not a young adult according to the definition above.
B. The age range is 18—30 and Alice is 30 years old, hence Alice is a young adult according to the definition above.

If the definition said "young adults are adults between the ages of 18 and 30", would that change the answer to the above question?


texts: Which is grammatically correct: "first and last name" or "first and last names"?

texts:
So I'm having a bit of a pluraltiy issue here, and I'm not sure which is the correct version because they both seem right, and I've seen both versions used in writing:

A. What is your first and last name?
B. What are your first and last names?

The second version seems more grammatically correct than the first one, but it just sounds odd. The first one is what you'd typically hear in speech, but that of course doesn't mean it's right.
Then again, this doesn't seem grammatically correct:

Your first and last name is ...

While this does:

Your first and last names are ...

So is one of these more right than the other, or are they equally valid?
EDIT: Option A previously said "What are your first and last name" when it should have said "What is your first and last name". My question is about the pluralization of "name".


texts:
Which one of the following is correct?

  We don't need to know A, nor B, individually. Instead, we only need the sum of A and B.

or

  We don't need to know A and B individually. Instead, we only need the sum of A and B.


texts: Child is to parent as referent is to what?

texts:
The referent of a word or phrase in a sentence is the thing to which that word refers, e.g. in "The businessman greeted me," the referent of 'the businessman' is the person who said hello, and the referent of 'me' is the speaker of the sentence.

Is there a name for those words or phrase which have referents, highlighting the fact that they stand for something? I seek to fill in the following blank:

  If John is the referent of 'the businessman', then the phrase 'the businessman' is a ______ of John.

Said another way, I am looking for a sort of inverse word to referent, in the same way that parent is an inverse to child.


texts: Correcting the following sentence: The passengers complain that the local trains often runs on a regular schedule

texts:
My ESL book has a lot of typos and does not have the answers for many practice questions. How should I correct the following sentence?

"The passengers complain that the local trains often runs on a regular schedule."

My one guess is "the local trains often run late on a regular schedule."

Thank you.


texts: I'm looking for a word to mean less enthusiastic in a positive demeanor

texts: I'm trying to convey to someone that he is too "enthusiastic" and I would like him to calm down a little bit but done with a positive tone.


texts:
Recently I took a personality test and got some good results. However, there was a part of the full description that I didn't understand. I'd like to know how I can say this text in other words, must of all, since "and they spare..." Here's the line:

Ultimately, though, their senses of responsibility and dedication set the tone, and they spare no effort in noting to this distinction moving forward, the consequences having been demonstrated as real.


texts: Word for a proposal or action that is unintentionally self-defeating

texts:
Is there a word or idiom for a proposal or action that is unintentionally self-defeating?

For example:

  We all agree that we have too many x. I therefore propose creating an x  to standardise our approach and reduce the number in future.

Real-life examples often use different terminology for the two x's thereby reducing the chance of detection to the casual observer.


texts: Can we use "saccade" as a verb to describe eye movements

texts: Saccade is the term to describe rapid eye movements. I just want to be sure that saccading could be used as a verb, or if not, which term would you recommend using?


texts:
When describing the temperature of an object, is it more correct to say "the object is 20 degrees", or "the object has 20 degrees"?

Does this depend on context? If only one is correct, what does the other mean? When was this difference established?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “End with” vs. “end in”

In one of my letters, I used the phrase "card number ending with 5612". It was pointed out by our analyst that this was a grammatical mistake, the correct phrase was "card number ending in".

I was pretty much baffled. To demonstrate the phrase "ending with" is correct I offer the following example: "A sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period."

It would be incorrect to say "A sentence begins in a capital letter and ends in a period."

Neither would it be correct to say "My credit card begins in 5421 and ends in 5612."

I would really be grateful if you could provide me answers. Also, can you include the reference for your answers.


texts: Does the third conditional with past continuous exists? Examples are given below

texts:
If you had gone to the football game yesterday, you should have invited me to go with you. (Follows structure, sounds weird)

If you were going to the football game yesterday, you should have invited me to go with you. (

But this conditional contains past continuous, while the structure of the third conditional is: if + past perfect, …would + have + past participle. Why so?


texts: Why nipples on a breastplate are useless?

texts:
I'm reading a book and the sentence below showed up:

  "Like nipples on a breastplate."

After a research, the meaning intended was useless.

I would like to know why this sentence means "useless"?


texts: A word for blowing air onto baby's tummy to make him (her) laugh

texts: What do you call the action when you press your mouth against baby's tummy and blow  air to make the baby laugh?


texts: what's the best expression for this wish sentence

texts:
I want to write a christmas card and I'd like to know what sentence sounds better

That in 2020 you can spend time with what is essential - friends, family,...
That in 2020 you look at what is essential - friends, family...

Thanks!


texts: In trying to use inversion with SHOULD to rewrite this sentence "because of the possibility of secondary devices - there were abandonned bags everywhere - arriving ambulance crews were kept back" I elaborate this new sentence "SHOULD SECONDARY DEVICES HAPPEN TO BE IN THE AREA - THERE WERE ABANDONNED BAGS EVERYWHERE - ARRIVING AMBULANCE CREWS WERE KEPT BACK". The question is my native English speaker friends say this sentence is perfectly correct but the grammar guides I have consulted say that SHOULD inversion is only possible when using first conditional sentences. I am very confused. Any ideas?


texts:
In order to be clear enough, I would say that I am a "European Portuguese native speaker" rather than a "Portuguese native speaker". - As a translator,  I am expected to let potential clients know my native language as well as (in this case) its variant.

My question is:

Is it correct to add the variant "European" to the expression?

Thank you.


texts: Is it correct to say "I feel Turk" or "I feel Finn"?

texts: Phrases like "I feel Spanish", "I feel American" etc are widely used. Since "Turk" and "Finn" are non-suffix names of nationalities, is it still correct to say "I feel Turk" or "I feel Finn"?


texts: I'm looking for metaphors (non-jocular) with the same meaning as "Trojan Horse" - "A person or thing intended to undermine or destroy from within."


texts: Do I use a period or a question mark at the end of a statement that presents a question?

texts:
Let's say I have a statement like this:

I just saw you come online, and I wanted to see how your day was going.

Now, am I right to use the . at the end of that sentence? I've written it like this in the past because I thought the . was wrong:

I just saw you come online, and I wanted to see how your day was going; how's it going?

Is the latter more appropriate? I mean at least it asks the question.


texts:
Unfortunately that phrase habitually comes to mind when I want to be chidingly sarcastic towards someone who is out of touch with the reality of a subject, as it's not the right idiom.

This is an obscure reference – too obscure I think for general use, but a good example – the humorous quip from the movie Heathers (1988), where the reply to a long idealistic diatribe is: “Call me when the shuttle lands.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZx9DhBlB0w)

I don't think that even makes sense logically, but his position is well understood nevertheless.

Other examples:

“I think war should just be outlawed.” [said in self-righteous definitive tone by a 17 year old] - - A general idiomatic sardonic reply: ____________________.
“I don't understand why there are poor people; they should all just get jobs.” [said by annoyed wealthy Beverly Hills woman] - - Reply: ____________________.
etc.

Pithy, sublime, snarky, or what have you.  Preferably something with some teeth that's instantly understood to be sarcastic, or ironic.  I'm thinking of a movie set-piece where your favorite decidedly snobbish upper class British character has a deadly quip for just such an occasion.


texts:
Is it okay to start a sentence with "Doesn't matter"? Like:

  Doesn't matter which train you board, you are going to be late for the meeting.


texts: When and why we use double-genitive with respect to the word 'of'?

texts:
I wanted to know why and when to use double-genitive. So for example why can't we use 'I am a fan of YOU' instead of 'I am fan of YOURS'. This is so as using the word 'of' itself meant that the noun mentioned first (before 'of') already belongs to the second noun (after 'of'). For example, in 'I am a fan of YOU' , the word 'of', to me, already suggests that 'I am your fan' without using 'YOURS'. It is like if we use 'fan of YOURS', it meant like 'I am your fan that belongs to you'.

So why is it necessary to use the double-genitive here?

A similar question has been asked: Why use apostrophe-s to denote possession when using 'of'

But one of the answers said that it is optional to put apostrophe for the example given in the question except to clarify the meaning of the sentence. (This is a picture of Bill/Bill's) So, what are some examples that are compulsory to use the double-genitive?

For examples, is it:

1) 'fan of YOURS' or 'fan of YOU'?

2) 'The death of HIS is...' or 'The death of HIM is...'

3) 'friend of HER' or 'friend of HERS'

4) 'queen of England' or 'queen of England's'

On a side note, we say:

5) 'meaning of the WORD' instead of 'meaning of the WORD'S'

6) 'son of my FRIEND' instead of 'son of my FRIEND'S'

7) 'plays of Shakespeare' instead of 'plays of Shakespeare's'

8) 'city of Rome' instead of 'city of Rome's'

Overall, my question is why is it that we sometimes uses double-genitive and sometimes don't? Is it because of whether the noun before 'of' is an object or a person except in the case of 6)? If not, when do we use double-genitive and why? (in the event that the meaning of the sentence doesn't change regardless of it being double-genitive or not)


texts: What is the spelled-out form of SA in Nestlé SA?

texts:
The Wikipedia page of Nestlé writes the full name of the company as Nestlé S.A.
What does the S.A. stand for?


texts: Does "the flip side" refer only to the negative aspects of something?

texts:
I understand that the expression "the flip side" is generally used to refer to the "negative" aspect of someone or something.

I think the expression comes from the meaning of the
"flip side (of a gramophone record) from  1949."  (etymological online dictionary)

Why is  "flip side" often used to suggest a negative connotation? Can it be used to convey a positive aspect?


texts:
I'm a non-native English speaker in Iran. Here we have schools to which students go to learn about different subjects such as math, history and English. We have institutes (or at least we call them that) that students of different ages go to learn a foreign language. I googled language school and got the same definition that suits institutes in Iran! I became confused and curious: is language school something we don't have in Iran or do we use the wrong word to describe it here? the word usually goes on top of the building in which they teach foreign languages!!

what's the difference between a language school & a language institute? Which one is OK to use in the context I just mentioned above? Maybe both?!


texts: What is a word for someone that only does something to benefit them?

texts: Take this paragraph for example: I am a follower, not a leader. Hell, I'm not even that good of a follower either, just someone who will do your bidding for the right price. Even then, if it doesn't benefit me -- or put you in debt to me -- I won't do it.


texts:
Other than phrasal descriptions, such as "special illegal act"[1]?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idionymon


texts: Adjectival noun - singular or plural or both?

texts:
If I intend to use a noun as an adjective, can I use the noun both in plural and singular form?

e.g. "noun modifier", "Bacon Batch", "A news reporter", "Sports center", "email address"

My feeling is that adjectival noun are usually singular. How come some of the above examples that are in plural? What if, says, "school uniform" or "Company law", If i really want to emphasise "schools" or "companies", could I use the plural form as an adjective?

Why some of the nouns can be used as plural while the other not?


texts: How do you punctuate something you paraphrased?

texts:
Sometimes I need to adjust a quote for whatever reason.  I don't want to steal somebody else's words, so I want to quote, but if it's no longer their exact words, wrapping it in "" doesn't feel right to me.

For example, I just altered

  if I couldn’t do it within 10 minutes, I couldn’t do it at all

To squeeze it into a tweet.  I wound up changing it slightly to

  If I couldn’t do it in 10 min, I couldn’t do it at all

I wrapped it in ~~ to try to show that it's not a direct quote, but wonder; is there a way to 'almost' quote somebody?


texts:
I have come across this phrase recently. What does it mean?

  "she don't keep up her lick here...".

From The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain.

  "Why, this watch. I bought her out in Illinois--gave $150 for her--and I thought she was good. And, by George, she is good onshore, but somehow she don't keep up her lick here on the water--gets seasick may be. She skips; she runs along regular enough till half-past eleven, and then, all of a sudden, she lets down.

By the way, "her" stands here for "the watch". This is another question. How come a watch is her?


texts: Switching from present tense to future tense

texts:
Probably one of the most important decisions a writer can make is to
  decide on (and stick to) a narrative voice through which to tell the
  story. The narrative voice will include two elements, each of which
  must be consistent throughout the story-telling process. The first is
  point of view, and the second is verb tense.

I recently read the above paragraph, and I'm confused about why the author used "will" in the above paragraph. Is the above paragraph written in narrative mode? If I had to write the paragraph, I would write the following instead. Would my choice of verb in the paragraph below be incorrect? Thank you for your help!

  Probably one of the most important decisions a writer can make is to
  decide on (and stick to) a narrative voice through which to tell the
  story. The narrative voice includes two elements, each of which
  must be consistent throughout the story-telling process. The first is
  point of view, and the second is verb tense.


texts: Non-human specific synonym of demography?

texts: I want to use the word demography but that is human specific (demography: the scientific study of human populations, esp with reference to their size, structure, and distribution). Is there an alternative which is not human specific, particularly it's for a biological question about the distribution of trees.


texts:
Where should the word "also" appear in the sentence:

  I've been in Paris.

Google result count:

"i've been also" 2,090,000
"i've also been" 76,000,000

It seems like the second is more common, but why is that so?


texts: Why is "State" spelt with a capital, but "federal" is not?

texts: They both mean the same noun, yet one is spelt with a capital?


texts: What does "circumstantial consequence" mean?

texts:
How can of the phrase "circumstantial consequence" be explained? I vaguely understand the probable meaning, but it doesn't quite come into focus.
Is it something like (unintended) side effect?


texts:
I'm applying for a new writers job and before the interview I received an email asking me to source published articles!
I'm not sure what she meant by that.  Does she want me to show her some of my articles or write new ones?
This is her email:

Can you please source 10 published articles for us to review internally?


texts: Is it poor style to use adverbs ending in "ly" in formal writing?

texts:
I came across this infographic which contains the following claim:

  Some grammarians consider "ly" ending adverbs as bad style in formal writing.

Are there any serious style advice sources that actually make this dubious claim? What's the theory for how avoiding such adverbs improves writing?

I've done some further research and found that this notion is widespread, but there is little citation or authority. Where did this idea come from?

  For what it's worth, here's a blog entry that claims "Aspiring science-fiction authors receive one piece of advice above all others: Forsake the adverb, the killer of prose. It's terribly, awfully, horrendously important."
  — Seriously, What’s So Bad About Adverbs?

  To make the point about as clear as I can - using "ly" ending adverbs is BAD WRITING for fiction writers.
  — Those "ly" Ending Adverbs


texts:
Both of frequence and frequency seem to be right, but the -ency version may be preferred. I hear more about consistency and convergence more than consistence and convergency.

So, am I right, and is there a rule?

NB1: I know it is always science, not sciency.

NB2: I'm not a native English speaker. So when I say "I seldom hear xxx", etc., I really mean "to the best of my knowledge", in stead of "xxx is nonsense in English".


texts:
Is there a general term for multi-word entities where the pluralization appears on the first word because the following words are adjectival (but required) modifiers?

Examples

Attorney General -> Attorneys General
Medal of Honor -> Medals of Honor
Runner-up -> Runners-up

Bonus Question

Is there a term to describe jovial deliberate misuse of this property? Either by improper reordering of the usual adjective-noun pair ("phones mobile") or by keeping the usual ordering and applying the formal rule even though it does not apply ("mobiles phone").


texts: Is there a word that refers to discrete pieces of visual content that could be either still or moving images?

texts:
I've searched for this here and elsewhere but not been able to find it. I'm looking for a word that refers to discrete pieces of visual content that could be either still or moving images. That is, the word should encompass both "photographs" and "film clips." So if you were referring to a group of three photographs and two film clips, you could say you have five of these things: "I just sent you five _____, including three photos and two film clips."

Many thanks in advance.


texts:
My sentence looks something like this:

  Immediately after the task was complete an interview took place.

I'm trying to think of a good alternative to took place. So far all I can think of is happened and occurred, but they don't fit very well.


texts: Who are ‘the proverbial monkeys’ in ‘the proverbial monkeys willing to throw a wrench into it’?

texts:
I thought the article written by Charles M. Blow under the title ‘Genuflecting to the Tea party’ appearing in August 12 New York Times intriguing. He criticizes a sequence of moves of Republican Congressmen over the budget ceiling deals as the G.O.P.’s ‘obscene genuflection’ to Tea Party tenets: give no ground; take no prisoners; accept no deal.

Apart from appropriateness of the writer's view (in which I have no special interest), I was interested in the metaphor contained in the following sentence of the article:

  “Luckily for the rest of us, a rash of recent polling suggests that more Americans, at least for the moment, seem to be coming around to seeing the Tea Party for what it is — not mechanics come to fix the machine, but the proverbial monkeys willing to throw a wrench into it.”

What does ‘the proverbial monkeys’ mean? Who are they? Tea Party or Republicans? If it is Tea Party (which is in singular form), it doesn’t agree with monkeys (in plural form) in number. It doesn’t matter because Tea Party is a collective noun? I don’t know. Can somebody paraphrase this section in more articulate way?

‘


texts:
I have to differentiate drinks with sugar and drinks with non-nutritive sweeteners.

It seems to me that a sweetened drink can refer to both, and that sweet drinks only contain sugar.

Is there any specific term for drinks with artificial sweeteners ?

Sentence example :

  Drinks with non-nutritive sweeteners may be quite as bad for your
  health as sweet drinks.

NB : in French we have to word édulcorant, which means "which can give a sweet taste"

EDIT : the aim of my question is a scientific article. Thus I want to be as specific as I can.


texts:
"Look and feel" is a term commonly used in UI, software and web design, yet we have job titles such as Web Designer, Visual Designer, Front-end Developer, UX Designer but no Look and Feel Designer. Visual Designer is probably the closest, but I've always thought this title doesn't capture the full range of what this designer does; i.e., they work on feel and visuals.

Look and Feel Designer sounds a bit awkward and wordy, but it is a good term that accurately describes the domain, so I was wondering if there were a more elegant way of stating it?


texts:
Usage situation:
Joan submits a document to an office.
The office validates the document; if it is not valid, they return it to her.
Joan sees the error, makes it valid, and resubmits it.

I'm looking for a word that means "to make valid".

Any ideas?


texts:
Could someone confirm if "left" in the following paragraph means "to have as a result, consequence, or remainder" and not "of, relating to, directed toward, or located on the left side".
Thanks!

"Split leather is created from the corium left once the top-grain has been separated from the hide, known as the drop split."

(It seems "drop split" refers to "split leather"and not "the top-grain" ... a bit confusing)


texts:
I'm looking for a word that is roughly the opposite of "intimidating", but with negative connotations.  I'm not looking for something like "reassuring," more like "wimpy" or "beneath notice" or "unimportant," perhaps even "tempting others to attempt intimidation," but nothing I've found quite fits the bill.

I'm wanting to say something like, "He was a nice enough guy, she thought, but it was an effort just to take notice of him.  He was ???"


texts: Is it proper grammar to refer to four digit number in hundreds?

texts:
Sometimes you will hear people refer to four digit numbers in terms of hundreds. For example, sometimes people will say fifteen hundred when talking about the number 1500. Is this proper?

What are the rules of usage? In my personal experience, the hundreds notation is common for values less than 2000, but rare for larger values. Can I refer to 7300 as seventy-three hundred?

I know this has been discussed in another question, but that was in terms of years. I'm asking about numbers in general.


texts: Is there a term for the phenomenon of people becoming desensitized to the extraordinary due to having access to sites like YouTube?

texts:
It seems like we have heard a succinct term for this before, but we're having trouble putting our finger on it.  The idea is that due to being able to see so many incredible things on sites like YouTube, everything that one might encounter in "real life" (i.e., not on sites like YouTube) becomes less impressive.

In other words, when you can quickly and immediately see the best juggler, the best kid drummer, the best skateboarder, the best cappuccino-foam artist, etc., one could quickly become unimpressed by people who are merely "good" at something.  "Oh, you're only the 17-th best plate-spinner in the nation?  Yawn."

What's the "word" for that?  It seems like we heard a clever or succinct word or phrase describing that, but we're drawing a blank.


texts:
I wanna tell someone that I would like to do something before finishing the paperwork, which one is correct:

1- I would like to start, even before having the paperwork done.
2- I would like to start, even before having done the paperwork.

or perhaps there is a better way to explain that?

Thanks in advance.


texts: What is the origin of the pluralization "virii"?

texts: However wrong it may be, lots of people have pluralized virus as virii. I'd understand viri, but what misconception could lead one to write virii?


texts: How to describe lists with different ordering schemes?

texts:
I'm helping someone copy a list of lines a certain number of times into a new list, and I don't know how to describe the list that we're creating.  For example, let's copy a list composed of 1, 2, and 3. Copy it three times. The results can be ordered in two ways.

Method 1: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3

Method 2: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

How can I describe the different orderings? Can I say "Method 1 is ordered by _____, while Method 2 is ordered _____ly?

The closest answer I can come up with is to say "Method 1 is sorted by number." It doesn't make sense to say "Method 2 is unsorted," however, as it implies a lack of order.


texts: Which preposition to use when referring to computer environments

texts:
The computer software can have versions targeting different hardware and operation systems. For example, the same game can be run on PC, Xbox and Mac. My question is - when describing the release of the version targeted the specific environment, which preposition is best to use? E.g.: The company X has finally released their famous Zombie Undeads game on/for/to/? Xbox?

The same question for virtual stores - We plan to release a new version for/on/in/to/? App Store and Google Play in March - which preposition is the most appropriate here?


texts: What are the correct form of the following 2 expressions

texts:
I am working on a simple application which predicts your wake up time if you go to bed at the moment. For example: if you go to bed at 12am and set your alarm, you should set your alarm to 8am. Is it correct if I write

  Wake up time for getting up lively: 7.30 - 8.30?

Also I want to predict the bedtime if you set your alarm to 8am the app says to you that you should go to bed at 12am. Is it correct if I write

  Bedtime for getting up lively at 8am: 12:00 - 12:30?


texts:
I'm looking for a child-friendly word to say that a certain object is [neither big nor small].
It's for dialogues of the kind:

A: My pencil case is big.
B: My pencil case is ?????.
C: My pencil case is small.

EDIT
This was for a 6-year-old. She didn't know the word to use and I suggested 'average size', but someone suggested 'average' was a difficult word for a 6 year old. Not being a native speaker, I didn't insist. The exchange not being particularly friendly, I refrained from asking for a word the person might deem more appropriate for children.
I am, however, thinking about using that kind of dialogue with my classes of children and, again, I was hoping for something that sounds simple.


texts: Is the `that` in phrase `Only the best product that can survive` properly used?

texts:
I searched online that the word that has a function of stress/emphasize.
And this usage comes up to my mind when designing for our company motto.
Is it proper here?

The colleague edition:

Two steps ahead to think and design in rapidly changing market
Solving problems instead of analysing difficulty
Working, sharing and studying in the elite team
Embrace the trial of business startups, total devotion
Only the best product that can survive

My edition:

Think two steps ahead than the market.
Solving problems instead of explaining.
Keep learning, share your experiences.
Embrace the challenge with fully devotion.
Only the best product can survive.