texts:
I'm a bit confused about the two words. To my Finnish self they both seem to have a similar meaning of morphing or the definition of a structure, and some dictionaries confirm that. I'm thinking of the words in terms of "the doing of...". I couldn't find a name for that kind of class though, even in Finnish, so let's call them ingverbs.

Forgive me for the extra jargon, but I think it's helpful to explain the context. A database has objects, such as tables which hold data and procedures which operate on that data. Those tables need to be defined precisely in order to have proper structure.

My original sentence was: "One must make sure each object is formatted and maintained properly."

And the sentence I'd like to construct is one of these:

The formatting and maintenance of the objects...
The formation and maintenance of the objects...

So my questions are:

Is formation an ingverb of format?
If not, what is the difference in meaning?

P.S. If you know a name for the class ingverb, please comment, so we can get rid of that thing.


texts: Dull as ditchwater (not dishwater) ... specific questions thereon

texts:
(1) who specifically, or at least when specifically, did originate the phrase?

{Example answer - "that was one of Shakespeare's!"}

(2) why?

(3) when first did someone screw up and use "..dishwater"? why? who?

Thank you.

(PS note that in print, apparently "...dishwater" become more popular from about the 1970s.  I am interested in the above three questions, if anyone has any info on those three specific questions, thank you in advance.)

BTW I appreciate this question may be "easily answered by some reference book", if so, please (A) tell me the book and (B) close the question.  (I'm afraid I couldn't find anything.)


texts: What is the grammatically correct way to say "if only"?

texts:
Which one is correct

  "If only I had time to eat healthy"

or

  "If I had only time to eat healthy"

The message I am trying to convey is that if I had time to eat healthy, I would for sure do it.


texts:
Which one is correct?

  I ride a motorcycle.

  I drive a motorcycle.


texts: "I met him(,) sitting on the chair(,) and talked to him." Who was sitting on the chair?

texts:
I met him sitting on the chair and talked to him. - (He was sitting on the chair)
I met him, sitting on the chair, and talked to him. - (I was sitting on the chair)

Is that correct?

I feel safer with the first sentence, less so with the second (which I would probably prefer to reword – nevertheless, I would like to know whether it is correct).

So far, I know the following rule:

If a participial phrase comes at the end of a sentence, a comma usually precedes the phrase if it modifies an earlier word in the sentence but not if the phrase directly follows the word it modifies. (In contrast to the examples above these sentences end with a participial construction.)

The local residents often saw Ken wandering through the streets.
(The phrase modifies Ken, not residents.)
Tom nervously watched the woman, alarmed by her silence.
(The phrase modifies Tom, not woman.)


texts: Should the area in which you received your master's degree be capitalized?

texts:
For my resume, I have a summary at the top that starts with "Dedicated individual with Master of Science in biomedical engineering." Should "biomedical engineering" be capitalized? Should "Master of Science" be capitalized?

(This is for a project, I'm not actually a biomedical engineer.)


texts: Person who mocks others for mistakes instead of helping?

texts:
Imagine a person who warns you not to walk in a particular direction as there is a pit/hole, but you continued anyway and fell into that hole. The person then comes to you and instead of helping you in that dire situation, mocks you for not following his advice.

Is there any specific word (noun) to address such type of people, e.g. narcissist, egoist?


texts:
I know that "ever" can be used to express the strengthened negation but would it work like that?

  I created a session but nobody ever joined.

Is it possible? It does not sound right to me. If not, what does this mean?


texts:
As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host, but the two or three people of whom I asked his whereabouts stared at me in such an amazed way, and denied so vehemently any knowledge of his movements, that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table – the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone.

I notice that there is a word 'that' in the sentence 'that I slunk off in the direction of the cocktail table – the only place in the garden where a single man could linger without looking purposeless and alone'. I am wondering what kind of clause this is.


texts: 'There are you and me' versus 'There's you and me'

texts:
My friend (a native English speaker) and I (a non-native) were working on song lyrics when I came up with the following verse:

'There are just your voice and mine'

He suggested changing 'are' to 'is', arguing that it sounded more natural even though questionably ungrammatical. Since usually songs are of colloquial and informal nature, I agree that the change is a good idea.

'There's you and me' is another common example supporting my friend's stance. Quite a few songs use it, e.g. 'You and Me' (Matthew Barber) and 'Right Here, Right Now' (Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens).

Nevertheless, I'm interested in seeking out a formal view regarding the inflectional choice of the verb 'to be' in cases like this.


texts: "it is not exactly clear which" vs. "it is unclear exactly which"

texts:
I wonder if the two expressions "it is not exactly clear which" and "it is unclear exactly which"

are examples of a correct use of English

and

carry mostly the same meaning (I am aware they are not exactly identical).

I am asking because in other languages, constructions such as the first would be more common (I am thinking of German, for example, where the latter would be "it is unclear which ... exactly"), while a Google Fight reveals the second is more frequently used in English. Omitting "which" to avoid ngrams with a length larger than five, the Google Ngram Viewer confirms this, with a relatively steady rise of the latter in the last four decades.


texts: Word to describe a person who has a lot of experience in a specific field

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe a person who has significant experience in a particular field (for example, an artist who has worked in the music industry for more than 10 years).

There are some possibilities I have already considered, such as worldly-wise or mature, but these aren't quite what I'm looking for.


texts: How to understand "the first" as in "Sofia the First"?

texts: Sofia the First is one of Disney's television series. Sofia is a little princess. What does "the first" mean here?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When do I use “can” or “could”?

I am a little bit confused about asking a question:

  Can you please tell me my next work?

or

  Could you please tell me my next work?

Which is more correct?


texts: What's the name for a non-question posing as a question?

texts:
A rhetorical question is a question that doesn't require an answer.

What's the name for a rhetorical device that's a non-question that requires an answer ?

Eg, in the following convo what role does "Say we did" play ?

  Person A: "We could 'forget' to invite Steve."
  Person B: "Say we did."
  Person A: "If he came anyway, we'd know he wasn't a vampire."

My best guess is "implied question". In this case, it would expand to "Let's say we did, what would happen ?"

Can you think of any other examples ?

Note: there's "The opposite of a rhetorical statement" which is also looking for the "opposite" of a rhetorical question, but that is about requiring the listener to respond with a question.


texts: A more formal phrasing of "in the future"

texts:
Is there a more formal or better way of phrasing "in the future"?

Example:

  Please refrain from using said substance in the future.


texts:
In Catch-22 there is following passage (my emphasis):

  The unfrosted light bulb overhead was swinging crazily on its loose wire, and the jumbled black shadows kept swirling and bobbing chaotically, so that the entire tent seemed to be reeling.

Why is the light bulb "unfrosted"? I understand the meaning of "unfrost", but I don't understand how a light bulb can be unfrosted. Is this some metaphor?


texts: What is the name of words like 'bottle' or 'clove' that provide a singular for a counted item?

texts: Title pretty much askes the question.  What is the term for words like 'bottle', 'cup' or 'clove' (as in clove of garlic).  Are they counters, countables, determiners...?  I swear it's on the tip of my tongue but I cannot find the correct term.


texts: Why do depictions of foreigners in English media compulsively insert foreign words from their mother tongue?

texts:
There is something that has been bugging me about depiction of foreigners in various English media (that doesn't occur, say, in Polish media).

The "foreigner" characters keep replacing common English words they clearly know with common words from their mother tongue in regular, relaxed, every day situations.
As far as I'm aware, this is unlike real people speaking a secondary language, who use words from their mother tongue when they're fishing for a word they don't know or can't remember, or are reflexively cursing. (Or, like Bitter dreggs pointed out, are under stress.)

For example:

I recall seeing several times, in different TV series or movies, a Mexican-maid-working-in-USA that constantly replaces "yes" with "si" and "sir" with "senior".
In Brandon Sanderson's novel Elantris, a secondary character that is a foreigner relative to the rest of the cast, keeps using words for "friend" and "understand" in in-fiction language.
In video game CrossCode, a promiment French character keeps using French phrases that are definitely not common loan phrases in English, and also replaces "my" with "mon".
And there several more examples that I can never clearly recall when I'm talking about this.

Is this a lazy writing technique that got popularised by some specific work of fiction? Is there some historical precedent where a group of immigrants to England/USA did speak exactly like that?


texts: Does one capitalize “Portuguese” when used in a hyphenated adjective?

texts:
When Portuguese is used as part of a hyphenated adjective, does it take an initial capital letter? Just checking on this while proofreading an article.
Examples:

portuguese-speaking college
Portuguese-based firm


texts: Word for being out at night during curfew

texts:
In the 13th century a night watch was founded in London to enforce curfew.

Nobody (except people of a certain social standing) was permitted to be out on the streets during the curfew.

Is there a word for offending the curfew?

Ideally it would fit into the following sentence:

  "A constable doing his rounds as the night watch came across a man [...] . He was detained until the following morning."


texts: What does "had had" mean? How does this differ from "had"?

texts:
For example, what is the difference between the following two sentences:

  I had a bad day

  I had had a bad day


texts: One word or phrase for something or a situation that can be done but cannot be done for some reason

texts:
Single word or phrase for "something that can be done and also cannot be done for some reason"

For example a job that you hate and you don't want to continue but also you can't leave because you need a job.Or something that you ate, you don't want to spit because you like it somehow and don't want to swallow because you dislike it.


texts: How to write numbers concerning physical quantities?

texts: Is there a rule specifying how one should separate thousands in numbers? Should I put a comma in this phrase, “500–1500 ohms”, so it would become “500–1,500 ohms”? If so why?


texts:
So let's say today is Monday and there will be a party on Friday.

How should I say when the party is:

  the party is in 3 days

or

  the party is in 4 days?

Also, is this sequence of time periods correct:

  in 2 days

  in 1 day (the day after tomorrow)

  tomorrow?


texts:
Are "a long way in the future" and "long ago" the best phrases or are there single words to describe these very common concepts?
 I am probably missing something obvious.


texts: What do we call 'Shakespearean trash-talk'?

texts:
A classic example:

In the opening scene of Richard II, Henry Bolingbroke and Mowbray seeks the adjudication of the king. They hurl accusations of treachery and cowardliness at each other. They engage in what we call in colloquial English 'trash-talk' without an actual fight of swords (they do later, but that is not the point). What formal/literary word can we use in describing that sort of 'trash-talk'?


texts: What to call someone who always sincerely shows on the outside how and what he feels on the inside?

texts: So, this person is very open, honest and brave to display his vulnerabilities and feelings (because that's what feels natural for him, and as a good thing, to do) whether he's out in public, with strangers, or not. He's being particularly open about his feelings and vulnerabilities, even when it may not be asked for or necessary to do so. There is nothing fake or deceiving about this person. You're always directly connected to whom this person really is.


texts: Straight forward question.  Are both correct or is one better.  "Both are not."  "Neither is."  Also, are they interchangeable or are there correct times to use one or the other?


texts: How do you describe the expression of the boy on the left?

texts: In Chinese, it's called "Xian Qi" which is a mix of dislike, avoid,refusal and disdain. It is usually used by people in the position of power or those who have advantage over others.


texts: Meaning of "dust" when referring to a person

texts:
I stumbled upon the following passage while reading Lord Dunsany (The Sphinx at Gizeh).

  Delilah was younger than she, and Delilah is dust. Time hath loved
  nothing but this worthless painted face.

Source: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/22711/

What does Delilah is dust mean in this sentence? Does it mean she is worthless? Considering the change in tense (the sentence starts with was and ends with is) I am quite confused.


texts: "you would not be prepared to swear to me" Swear what?

texts:
I’d like ask about the sentence from The Naval Treaty by Conan Doyle.

  “How are you, Watson?” said he, cordially. “I should never have known
  you under that moustache, and I daresay you would not be prepared to
  swear to me.

The speaker Phelps met Dr. Watson for the first time in many years in this moment.
I can understand the first half of his remark, but what does “I daresay you would not be prepared to swear to me” part say?
The first part is “Hello, I’ve never seen you with that moustache before.” or just “Oh, you’ve come to wear such moustache? I didn’t know that.” when you paraphrase this, right?
So the last part has to mean like “And I think I should look unfamiliar to you since it’s been many years since we last met.” But does it say so, with this “I daresay ..” stuff? I don’t know.
Can anyone paraphrase the last part for me or tell me what the object for the verb “swear” , if the verb is being used as a transitive verb here?  Thanks.


texts: When to capitalize words such as "lake", and when can the whole word be omitted?

texts:
Which of the following sentences are correct?

  "He gave two examples of large lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake
  Superior."

  "He gave two examples of large lakes, Michigan and Superior."

  "He gave two examples of large Lakes, Michigan and Superior."

  "He gave two examples of large lakes, Lakes Michigan and Superior."

This question is primarily about what variants are formally correct, not which one sounds the best.

I think that the question should be valid for several words of the same kind, such as mountain (Mount), figure (Figure), table (Table) and so on.


texts: I recall reading a chapter in my government and economics class about political cartoons. There was a particular name for people who illustrate political cartoons. I've only been able to come up with editorial cartoon and that is not the word I remember. I have googled for about 30 minutes and have been unable to come up with the answer. Does anybody know what the name for this is?


texts: past simple vs. past continuous in a time clause

texts:
How can we explain the difference between these two sentences?

I saw his concert when he performed here.
I saw his concert when he was performing here.

I know that the first sentence refers to a completed action and the second sentence to a continuous action. But if someone asks me when either of the tenses are used, I won`t be able to give any answer. How will I explain to the listener on what to choose and when?


texts: Differences between Verb + to be + adjectives and Verb + adjective

texts:
If you have a more illustrative title, feel free to change it. I searched but I couldn't find one.

This may be an easy and trivial question; if so, I am sorry.

What are the differences between these two sentences?

  These two guys seem to be inseparable.

  These two guys seem inseparable.

I can intuitively say that the latter one is grammatically wrong. Could you please explain?

EDIT: What I think is John Lawler's and FumbleFingers' answers are worth to read. The reason why I  noted that someone who wants to learn the answer of this question, accidentally misses FumbleFingers' answer.


texts: What is the meaning of the saying take the lead out? I ask because I was watching this video from the 1960's show What's My Line and Groucho Marx writes this on a blackboard (where he's supposed to write his name) and gets a big laugh. I've heard the saying before, albeit very infrequently.


texts: To mention the topic a book deals with, is it correct to say that 'a book talks about something'?

texts:
To mention the topic of a book, I can say that such and such a book is about something or that it tells about something.

Can I say that it talks about something?

Ngram-viewer-ing the book is about, the book tells about, and the book talks about indicates that using tell and talk are far less common than be in this context.

ngram viewer: the book is about, tells about, talks about

Talk sounds weird to me because you do not talk to/with a book: language, information only flow one way, from the book to you; reading a book is not having a conversation with it!


texts:
Have a nice day. Have a safe flight. The yearbook standard, HAGS. Get better. Even sleep well.

In English when we want to wish someone well we often command that well of them. We treat the good tidings like they are in that person’s control. (This phenomenon may also appear in other languages—I am not well enough tongued.)

Likely we are simply contracting “I hope that you have a nice day,” or the like—and I am just observing the overlap of subjunctive and imperative—though I am curious of speakers’ awareness that they are so contracting.

My question is one of history. Have we always been comfortable with this elision? At what point did it become acceptable, if at one point it was considered rude, to command someone to be well, rather than to wish it upon them?

I could believe a correlation with secularizarion, as hope or prayer becomes less useful or sensical without a sense of a divine power—in what do we hope? Instead we make the hearer of our well wishes an agent of their own well-being, rather than the recipient of any mercy.

Secondarily I am interested in whether we can now consider the construction an imperative, even if it once was the contraction of a subjunctive phrase.


texts:
Doctrine should definitely be a verb in the English language, but apparently, it is not. What would then be the word that best suits such a purpose?
Ex: He was doctrined to uphold such beliefs.


texts: How to properly write sentence with double words

texts:
I commonly come across sentences where I have to write the same word twice such as,

  This is what I've been looking for for a long time.

and in these cases I just try to rewrite the sentence to avoid this.

Is it OK to write sentences like these?
How do you properly write these types of sentences?


texts:
In my writing, I have a character who has rushed across a room and dropped to his knees before a person he believes dead. He looks like this from the side:

After realizing that the dead person is not who he thought he was, the character is still full of shock from the experience. He falls back on his toes as his shock slowly subsides, so that he is now in this position:

What word(s) can I use to describe this position? I'm hoping there is a name for it, but if not, a phrase describing it would be welcome.

Thank you for your time, and please pardon my questionable drawing skills.


texts: I've noticed a similar trend (dishes, bowls, etc). There are other non-utensil words (like trophy) but I'm curious if there is some history behind why the usage of the word "cup".


texts: "I saw the girl, who is standing outside our house"

texts:
I was having a conversation with my mom about this one sentence.
Which option is grammatically correct?

a) I saw the girl who is standing outside our house
b) I saw the girl who was standing outside our house

We know that she is STILL standing outside our house.


texts: Name of sound when final drops of water drain down basin

texts:
What is the name of the sound when the last remaining drops of water are about to drain down the plug hole of a basin when the plug is removed?

Here is a sample. The last part is not loud enough for one to hear that characteristic sound.

EDIT (FF): Here's a better sound sample, where the change in tone just at the end is really clear.


texts: Is it necessary to use “the” before using verb

texts:
'The' is usually used before a noun. But in sentences that refer to specific action, is 'the' necessary?

Example:

  The release of the bending moment results in opening and closing of the pipe.


texts:
Why there is

file not found
access denied

and so on everywhere, when it should be (as far as I know)

the file was not found
the access is denied

I wonder which is actually correct? Both?


texts: Can a service “incur” cost someone pays?

texts:
Is it ok to say:

  The heater will incur a monthly electricity fee.

(Which means that the owner of the heater would have to pay for the heater’s electricity use)

I suspect it is not ok, but I can’t quite describe why. Can someone give me a technical explanation for why this is invalid grammar (or why it is, in fact, ok)?

For a further example, suppose you buy a place with add-on parking, is it ok to say:

  The parking space will incur a $250 monthly fee.


texts: Reading actions back so as to intentionally make them appear fundamentally evil?

texts:
Looking for a word: essentially, it should be a noun.  Described as: turning well-intended actions into ill-intended actions in rhetoric (i.e., by committing intentional fallacies or disrupting the counterpart).  Possible definition: "the process by which descriptions of actions are turned into accusations".  Also, a good synonym?

Let's look at an example, then:

I think you're really good at '~ion'--painting things in a positive light, or at least remaining optimistic.  It's the opposite of '~ion', whereby people turn my past against me, or insist on pessimism.

Possible:

Reticence or interdiction; veto or blackballing; repudiation, rejection, or derision; counfouding, contrition, or impeding?

Update

I'm really looking for an utterance that encompasses the initial state of neutrality or even goodness.  While demonizing and vilification fit, I'm hesitant to concede that they imply a full transformation, exclusively in delusion, from good to evil.  I'm trying to put a word to this thing I've noticed that so many people seem to do: it's the opposite of coping: it's some mechanism of hysteria or obstruction/disruption--some kind of mayhem.  It's important to me that I be able to find a concise, descriptive phrase (it doesn't need to be a single word).

Update 2

I went with swaying, from Robert Frost's 'The Sound of Trees'.  I think it captures the essence of what I'm looking for and encapsulates everything else mentioned.  I was basically seeking a hyponym for the other words listed that had to do with people throwing off their responsibilities, if even by turning negative to positive.  If anyone has other terms that are more widely known, please update your answers or add a new answer.  Thank you.


texts:
Does the last part of the following sentence sound natural for  native  speakers?

  "Alicia was standing under the tree during rain".

Some users have suggested I need to place the article "the" before the noun rain. Could anyone please explain why? And some answers have suggested that "during" should be replaced with "while" or "whilst", but aren't they synonymous? Why should I prefer "while" to "during"?


texts:
My questions is slightly different than the one suggested.

For my MA study I am working with oral messages produced by learners of English as a foreign language. So, while the most appropriate form would be ideal, there is a level of compromising sometimes.

I am trying hard to find a way for the following sentence to become adequate with as little intervention as possible.
"and yesterday when I was doing the homework on my computer the electricity shut down."
I understand that replacing it with there was a power cut/failure would solve it. But are there any less intrusive possibilities, please?

***Edited: Well, I mean. I would like to capture (I know this is difficult) what the speaker meant pointing out errors, but not changing things unless they are needed. For instance, if I add there was to the sentence, as it was suggested by a colleague, that counts an an extra error the participant made. But in this case I don´t think you really need that. I know it sounds silly but it´ll impact on the results, and I don´t want to add extra unnecessary errors. I hope I made myself clear.

Thank you so much in advance.
R


texts: Which Is the correct: public notary or notary public?

texts:
My dad's asking me if he should say "I'm a public notary practicing in Australia" or "I'm a notary public practicing in Australia".

I thought notary public was nonsense, but when I googled it, it seems both are used. Which one is grammatically correct?


texts:
Does "dog person" just mean "someone who likes dog as a pet"?

Or does it have any other connotation?


texts: How did *vegetate* take this meaning despite its etymology?

texts:
vegetate

  intransitive verb
   1 : to lead a passive existence without exertion of body or mind
   2 a : to grow in the manner of a plant; also : to grow exuberantly or with proliferation of fleshy or warty outgrowths
     b : to produce vegetation

  transitive verb
   : to establish vegetation in or on

  origin:  borrowed from Late Latin vegetātus, past participle of vegetāre “to live, grow,” going back to Latin, “to impart energy to, invigorate,” verbal derivative of vegetus “vigorous, active, lively,” probably, if from *vegitus, verbal adjective of vegēre “to give vigor to, enliven” — more at 1wake.

  Merriam-Webster

Basic backformation accounts for the transitive sense, and the intransitive senses 2 a and b definitely align with the word’s etymology. However, the origin cited in Merriam-Webster and its connotations—specifically “‘vigorous, active, lively’”—seems to me the antithesis of the intransitive sense 1.

Could someone shed some light on this discrepancy?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Expected of, or expected from someone

Which of these two sentences is grammatically correct? Are both? What's the difference here?

  What sort of work would be expected of me?
  What sort of work would be expected from me?


texts: Is this usage correct? "Please get your parents to come tonight"

texts:
Are all of these correct?

Please get your parents to come tonight.
Please have your parents to come tonight.
Please ask your parents to come tonight.

And which is most suitable to sound more pressing and urge that person?


texts: What word or phrase means 'that which provides a sense of meaning to one's life'?

texts:
As in, "driving is my passion and my x".

I've been doing my head in looking for some sort of term which denotes such a thing, and I'm also concerned using the term "passion" might render the term I'm looking for a bit redundant (although it's clearly not defined as such, one's passion generally provides a sense of meaning or purpose, no?).


texts:
The question is how to justify the use of fly in “the Flying Dutchman”.

It confused me for a long time. The right word could be wander, sail, roam, drift, but why fly? I looked it up the dictionary, and didn't find any meaning of fly that qualifies here, and I have never seen the word fly used like that anywhere else.

Can I say:

  The Hukou policy in China made me homeless in my home country. For the years I just fly.

It feels so weird. “I just roam” or “I just drift” sounds better. The only case I can find of using fly to mean roaming is in the movie Up In The Air, where roaming literally means flying.


texts: Word for person who was ignored by everyone while alive, but whose importance was realized after he died

texts: Is there a single word for a person who was ignored by everyone when he was alive, but later people realized his importance after he died? It can also be related to his work, teaching or something like that.


texts: Verb agreement with subjects of different grammatical number

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When a sentence uses an optional plural, should the rest of the sentence treat it as singular or plural?

I'm writing a technical guide and trying to define 'reader' as it relates to the subject of the guide.

  The reader(s) is/are the user(s) who view the content.

How do I get rid of all those conditionals? I've also considered,

  The reader or readers are the users who view the content.

... which seems fine, but if we flip it, we get:

  The readers or reader are the users who view the content.

I've also considered the most obvious:

  The readers are the users who view the content

... but I want it implicit that there can be as few as one reader. Am I just over thinking this?


texts: What do you call it when an ethnic slur has lost its offensive sense?

texts: Or when the supposed target of the slur claim it as an unoffensive word and treat like something of a term of endearment among themselves.


texts: List of characters with diacritics accepted in English words

texts:
Some diacritics and special characters (like ligatures) are accepted in Contemporary English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_terms_with_diacritical_marks

Examples of English spellings: coöperative, reëlect, naïve, soupçon, frappé, piñata, Geiger–Müller, Wilhelm Röntgen, László Bíró, …

Some others aren't accepted and wouldn't be used in any publication for an English spelling.

Examples of characters never used in English words: ⱥ, Ω, あ, …

What are the lists of characters with diacritics or special characters (like ligatures) accepted in Contemporary English words?

Question is narrowed to reference organisms or major publications, as:

Dictionaries
Universities, Academic publications
Newspapers

Question does not include:

anything non-Contemporary, i.e. older than October 6, 1960 (American Standards Association's first meeting to create ASCII)
non Latin/Roman characters, as you would perform romanization on it to make it an English spelling
symbols (Ƭ̵̬̊) or emojis (, Oxford Dictionaries 2015 Word of the year)
fiction publications, blogs

Example possible partial list of accepted characters based on Wikipedia article above, would be (in lowercase mostly): äëïöüáóíéèàìôēāăŏčšřžåçșñďľňťŁđćĦ


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Does a comma have to be used before a quotation?

Please let me know which of the two examples below are correct:

Example a: And he said "where are my chips?"
Example b:And he said, "where are my chips?"

In b), I've placed a comma before the opening quote.

What is the correct usage? And if someone can point me to an external reference, that would be even better.


texts:
You can say that you gifted someone something but is this usage correct?

  I've been gifted a new phone by my friend


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Are there rules about using “that” to join two clauses?

In the following, does the word "that" belong?

  "He said that we should go fishing."


texts: I saw that "last but not least" are almost always written without a comma (we could write "last, but not least"). Is it an exception made especially for this sentence or is there some rule allowing us to skip a comma before "but"? Or maybe that's just a very common mistake?


texts:
Much though he likes her, he doesn't love her.
Much as he needed money for a new car, he decided not to borrow it from the bank.

Both are correct in a grammar book, but my teacher tells me that the first is wrong. Why?


texts: "If the US insists [North Korea] gives up nuclear weapons"

texts:
The BBC tweeted the following:

  The Trump-Kim summit is in doubt. North Korea says it may pull out if the US insists it gives up nuclear weapons https://bbc.in/2L3X0zr

A version of the sentence is seen in the article itself:

  North Korea has said it may pull out of a summit with US President Donald Trump if the US insists it gives up its nuclear weapons.

And I'm perplexed by the part ...insists it gives up its nuclear weapons. Shouldn't it be it give up? Given the context, it would only make sense to me if the verb were in the subjunctive form or accompanied by an auxiliary like should/would/must, but AFAIK gives can only be indicative.

Is this specifically a journalistic use of language? Or perhaps a British one? Or is it a universally acceptable sentence?


texts: Punctuating a sentence with a "with" after a conjugation

texts:
I'm trying to correctly punctuate the following sentence:

  During this time, the rats were also being trained via Pavlovian conditioning to associate a tone and a darkening of the room with the reward being available.

The structure is as follows:

(tone and darkening of the room) with (the reward being available)

As it is, it seems messy as the clauses aren't clearly separated. However, if I were to put a comma after the with it would seem inconsistent since you wouldn't put a comma in a sentence like, "I associated the tone with the reward". Could someone explain the relevant grammatical rules?


texts: Is there a term similar to "hypochondriac" except more externally based?

texts: By "external" I mean a person who has a fear or worry of things that could cause serious illness, rather than the fear of already having a serious illness itself. For example, say you worry about things like contaminants in your drinking water, or lead in the products you own or buy that were made in China, and so on. Is there a term for such hypochondriac-ish people like that?


texts: proper way of attributing a writer's note within a quote

texts:
In journalistic writing, if I need to attach some necessary background information within a quote, what's the proper way to do it? I want to indicate that the information is something that I've produced, and not the person that I'm quoting. Here's an illustration:

  Israel has strong companies that plan to go public in 2015, and
  that’s one of the reasons I came to Israel. Furthermore, the biomed
  and hi-tech sectors are still strong. We feel that the Fintech
  (financial-technological) sector is on the move. We recently witnessed
  a merger if Fintech companies (Fundtech, an Israeli company, was sold
  to D+H ), so we feel optimistic in this regard.

The author of the text is a journalist (his name is Nir Zalik), and the quoted individual is Bruce Aust. The added information (Fundtech, an Israeli company, was sold to D+H) is background information added by the journalist. How would I indicate that? In Hebrew a journalist often adds his initials to a background note within a text.

Thanks!


texts: Hypernym for words that refer to a specific point in time like now, today, tomorrow, and yesterday

texts:
Second, minute, hour, ... all fall under 'duration'
But when you want to refer to a specific point in time, like 'now' or 'yesterday' (many languages go way further and have single words for 'next/last week' and 'the day before yesterday', like anteayer in Spanish). Is there an umbrella term for these pointers? I have looked through all the major dictionaries I know of, and all of them provide only related words, but not the hypernym.


texts: How polite is "all" as an email address?

texts:
I work in a Dutch international company, with English being the official language. I often see my colleagues starting an email with plain "all" as in:

  All,

  Attached the agenda for the meeting at 4 o'clock.

  Best regards,
  Author

I find this "all" very rude, and think they have to precede it with "dear" or at least "hi". I wonder if it's just a mismatch between my (non-native) expectation and the common practice, or it's indeed impolite.


texts: How does this word sound to English-speakers?

texts:
I want to name my project with a word from Ukrainian language. Transliterating it would be spelled as Ostriv.

And I'd like to be sure that it doesn't sound bad for English-speakers or isn't hard to pronounce.


texts: Should I include a comma after a mid-sentence list of three things?

texts:
For example, "Race, religion, and gender, are still crucial factor's in someone's success"

Should there be a comma after "gender"? And is this a fixed rule?


texts: I am not a native speaker of English and would like to know the meaning of this word "hay-trusser". I am doing a Translation Study from Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge for Universidad Menéndez-Pelayo in Spain and I am not familiar with this terminoloy.


texts: What does "draw in crude oil inventories" mean?

texts:
Oil Plunges After API Reports Large Unexpected Crude Inventory Build | OilPrice.com

  The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated on Tuesday a large crude oil inventory build, of 8.731 million barrels for the week ending May 22.

  Analysts had predicted an inventory draw of 2.50 million barrels.

  In the previous week, the API estimated a draw in crude oil inventories of 4.8 million barrels. Meanwhile, the EIA’s estimates were for wildly different, with the industry body reporting last week that the inventories had fallen by 5 million barrels.

Oil drops as surprise U.S. stock build douses demand recovery hopes

  Data from U.S. industry group API showed crude stocks rose by 8.7 million barrels in the week to May 22, compared with analysts’ expectations for a draw of 1.9 million barrels.

Lexico lists 7 definitions for DRAW as noun, but which here?


texts: Why do we "chalk it up" to something (or someone)?

texts:
What is the etymology and meaning of the phrase "chalk it up"? For instance:

"I will chalk it up to a colloquialism" (source).
"Just chalk it up as an odd case and move on" (source).
"I would chalk it up to more ignorance than apathy..." (source).


texts: Is it acceptable to say "John's is a world of misery" instead of for example, "John's world is one of misery", or "John's world is miserable?"


texts: What do you call psychological diseases that affect many people at once (or many people of a society)?

texts:
I am talking about diseases such as the Jerusalem syndrome, the Paris syndrome, and the Dancing Plague of 1518.

Is there a general name for such diseases?


texts: The difference between "it" and "he/she"

texts:
There seems to be a difference between these two pronouns besides the obvious one of animacy. I want to know if people agree or can point out the flaw in my thinking.

I've been attempting to wrangle some pronouns into a constructed language I've been making. In the process of doing so, I've done a lot of research, especially on the English language. For a long time, "it" (the personal pronoun, not the dummy pronoun) has been bothering me, and now I think I know why.

One of the tricks I've developed for determining the fine differences in meaning between nouns is to attempt to replace them with something else to see if the meaning has changed. For conjunctions, I move around the clauses of a sentence in order to figure out the exact mechanism.

It didn't occur to me to attempt this trick with "it" until recently. And when I tried it, I got some interesting results:

1) "Where's my book?"
"It's on the table."

2) "Isn't my kitty precious?"
"I think it's evil, but whatever."

3) "This Rubik's Cube is driving me crazy!"
sigh "Give it to me."

I spent such a long time trying to figure out a noun phrase that worked as a replacement. Originally, I tried to use demonstratives (for reasons that will become clear), but they never sounded right.

Then I figured out this:

"The thing's on the table."

"I think the thing's evil, but whatever."

sigh "Give the thing to me."

Note: "that" (demonstrative pronoun) would not have worked; in cases 1 and 2, that would have sounded wrong. "that thing" might have worked for 2, but it sounds even worse for 1.

I'm not saying that it's a perfect fit; "the thing" may not quite sound right in some circumstances, but it's meaning seems to be remarkably close to "it". I can't think of any examples where it would sound downright wrong. Furthermore, the fact that it sounds awkward in some situations to English speaker's ears may have more to do with the ready-and-waiting "it"; why phrase things so that it takes longer?

This is interesting because if using the definite article together with "thing" is a stronger replacement for "it" than using "that", then a similar trick should work with he/she, right? "the person" perhaps.

Not so:

A) "Who is he?"
"He's the President."

B) "Shh! The boss is coming this way."
"Ugh, he's such a jerk."

C) "Mom says you're grounded."
"Why does she have to ruin everything?"

D) "Annie wants us to go to Six Flags."
"She got us tickets? Sweet!"

When I was experimenting with ways to replace he/she, I first hit upon "that person".

"that person" works well for A and B:

"Who is that person?"
"That person is the president."
"Ugh, that person's such a jerk."

But it only barely works for C or D (if at all). I instinctively know why; family and friends seem too close in the social deixis for "that person" to work. People who you know seem to be barred from the use of "that person" in the discourse.

"that" has even less of a success rate; it only seems to fit with A:

"Who is that?"
"That's the president."

Both "this" and "that", when used to refer to people (this is my father, these are my friends, that's Annie by the bunch bowl, etc...) seem to work best when used in questions or introductions. Why is that?

"the person" flat out does not work at all. The definite article is simply too vague, for some reason.

So, to recap: "the thing" seems to work reasonably well as a replacement for "it", and sometimes demonstratives work better, but the other third person pronouns seem to require at least a demonstrative in its replacement, if it can be replaced at all (the referent may be too close for it to work right). Using the definite article just doesn't work.

Is there an explanation for this? Are "it" and "he/she" even more fundamentally different than I originally thought?


texts: What is a given data from a problem called?

texts:
In Greek we say δεδομένα. I don't know what it is called in English or I've just forgotten.

For example, a maths exercise when a value x is given to calculate y.

When a problem gives us  data and requires to solve a problem, what is that data called?


texts: Misunderstanding the use of me/him/her/them/us

texts:
I'm aware that when the pronoun is also the object of a sentence we use these: me instead of I, them instead of they and so on.

But when I say:

  He is a teacher, and her?

Why do I say her instead of she if in this case I cannot identify a direct object.

Also when answering, would I say

  Her, she is also a teacher.

or

  She, she is also a teacher.

I'm really confused


texts: Indirect object? Direct object? In active voice? In passive voice?

texts:
The following sentence has an active voice verb and an indirect object (IO) me and a direct object (DO) book:

"Jeff gave me a book."

As I understand, a passive voice verb comprises (1) a form of the verb be and (2) the past participle of the main verb. That being the case,...

When the above sentence is changed to the passive voice--"A book was given me by Jeff." (where book, previously the DO, now becomes the subject and Jeff, previously the subject, now becomes the object of the preposition by)--does me still function as the IO even though there is no DO present?

Similarly, when written like this--"I was given a book by Jeff."--is book a DO even though the verb is in the passive voice?

Please explain why or why not. Thank you.


texts:
Do we write

the relationship recast, OR
the relationship recasts? ("s" at the end)

y = 3x       (1)
Relationship (1) recast
y−3x = 0  (2)

I have many times encountered the verb without -s at the end.


texts: What does the author want to say in these lines?

texts:
"I suppose the sets and the studio lights needed the girls and boys to be made to look ugly in order to look presentable in the movie"

(Please have a look at the image I have attached, which actually contains the text from which the line is taken.Please note that the word "pancake" refers to make-up in the text. Thanks to all)

In this sentence I have 2 questions -
First, what does the author want to say by saying "needed the girls and boys to be made ugly"? Is he saying this because he is against the idea of using make-up and personally thinks that make-up makes people ugly? If not, then what does else does he want to say?

My second question is that, why are boys and girls needed to look ugly because of the sets and studio lights? What is the connection of sets and studio lights with them being needed to look ugly in order for them to look presentable in the movie?

Thanks to all, whoever sees this or thinks of answers for me :)
.
.


texts: May I pay "in cash" or just "cash" without in?

texts: What is the right phrase - May I pay "in cash" or may I "pay cash"?


texts:
I am making a data sheet with questions and answers. There's also a column for "Answerer" Which is a bit premature as many of these questions don't yet have answers. Not to mention it's a bit redundant and just kind of an awkward word in general.
I'm wondering if there is another word equating to "Person to ask"/"Source of the answer"/"Place to obtain a solution"?
Example of the data sheet - What else can I use as the first column header instead of "Answer Holder"?:

Answer holder
Question
Answer

Person A
Who is currently in charge of project X?

Organization B
What is the estimated time of work on this task Y?

Organization C directory
How many people are in organization C?


texts: What is correct - "Take a look at it once" OR "Once take a look at it"?

texts:
I want to frame a sentence telling someone to take a look at some work I did.

How do I frame the sentence?

  Please take a look at it once.

or

  Please once take a look at it.

To be clear - what I want is that the OP takes a look at my work at the very least; hence wanting to use the word "Once".


texts: Alternative to "We'll just have to agree to disagree"

texts:
Is there a polite alternative to "We'll just have to agree to disagree" that can be used as an exit strategy from a relatively friendly debate when a person feels they've said all they have to say and no longer wishes to press the point, but doesn't wish to "walk out of the room and slam the door" or imply "having the last word"?

My issue with the phrase is that it seems very cliché / overused, to the point of almost having a negative connotation (to me, it has a subtle ring of "superiority" that I can't quite put my finger on -- it almost has a "weasel word" quality to it due to its overuse).


texts:
I have two cases.

  a) He sent me a letter written in English.

  b) I was given a cup made in China from my friend.

I personally think sentence (a) should be non-restrictive since there is only one letter in question and the writer is not trying to specify which. So if you were to write this sentence using a relative pronoun, it would look like this: "He sent me a letter, which was written in English." My question is whether to leave the comma when you leave out the relative pronoun and be-verb. I did read articles saying unless the participial phrase is modifying the subject, don't put a comma, but I'm not sure if it applies to the non-restrictive participial phrase also.

As for sentence (b), is it okay to put "made in China" at the end of a sentence, i.e. I was given a cup from my friend made in China? Here, I think there should be a comma in front of "made in China" because that phrase is not modifying the word immediately preceding it. So which is "passable" of the following?

I was given a cup from my friend, made in China.
I was given a cup from my friend made in China.

Thanks guys.


texts: Would you mind me / my opening the window?

texts:
Would you mind me opening the window?

  Would you mind my opening the window?

Who uses which form, and why? Is this a difference in dialect? A difference between formal and informal grammar?


texts:
What is the term for asking for a higher object than you really want to make the second request sound more reasonable?

For example, if I ask "I want a 10,000 raise", but in reality I just want a 5,000.  If the 10,000 is denied, asking for 5,000 is more reasonable.


texts:
Am I to use wish or wishes in the following sentence?
As we are into a New Year, XYZ Co. wish you happy, success and safety in 2020!


texts: Term for allowing implausible scenario in argument

texts:
What is the term for allowing an implausible scenario in order to be as generous as possible to the claim one is about to knock down? Example:

Acme Acres recorded 2,000 births last year, but the town has only 500
women. Even if they are all of child-bearing age and each had two
deliveries last year, it is still virtually impossible that they gave
birth to 2,000 babies. Either out-of-towners were flocking to Acme
Acres to deliver or the statistic is wrong.

It's a little like "giving the benefit of the doubt" "for the sake of argument", but I don't think "doubt" is the right word here (the allowed scenario is almost certainly false). There should be a precise term or expression from this kind of argumentation, at least a Latin one from law or a Greek one from rhetoric.


texts: Is there a single term for the practice of observing nature or recording nature?

texts:
It's what naturalists do, I guess, and I'd like to be able to express it in one word, if possible. Birdwatching is a related term, but too specific.

If no single term exists, What might be a brief phrase on which most scientists (I'm not one) would agree?


texts:
"It was great because of improving my English."

A non-native speaker produced this sentence recently in a piece of writing, “it” being an English language course that she had attended a few years ago. The sentence seems to follow the rules (mostly) but, for me, the sentence feels uncomfortable.

One could, of course, correct it to: "It was great because I improved my English."

But I have been trying in vain to find a way to make "because of + non-finite verb+ing clause” work in this instance.

Strangely, in a similar sentence a “despite + non-finite verb+ing clause” works: -

“It was good despite not improving my English.” Or: “It wasn’t good despite improving my English.”

So why can’t we do the same with “because of”?

Is it that this conjunction doesn’t sanction verb+ing clauses?  Is it restricted to noun phrases only. For example, it seems okay to say: “It was good because of the improvements (that I/it made) to my English.”


texts:
On UEFI page we can read:

  Acknowledging that you understand a license is required to implement to the Specification does not now or in future commit you either to completing an Adopter's Agreement or to doing any implementation work. If you are planning to implement to the Specification, please complete and return the separate Adopter Membership Agreement to obtain the proper license.

Does this "to implement to the Specification" mean creating software based on the Specification, creating software using functionality exported by implementation of the Specification or contributing to the Specification in this case? And, is the closest synonym of "to implement to"?


texts: "becomes who I am" or "become who I am"?

texts:
I've been experiencing this for a long time now. In Microsoft Word 2007, whenever I type the sentence,

  "Thank you for helping me become who I am now,"

it always tells me that my use of "become" in the sentence makes it grammatically incorrect and that I should use "becomes".

So which is it really? Become or becomes?

(You can try it on your MS Word, see if it gives you the same result)


texts: Do two clauses have to be separated by a comma in a question?

texts:
Here is an example:

  He wondered who stole his television and why a calling card was left behind.

Do I need to separate the two clauses (e.g. with a comma between 'television' and 'and')?

Any advice is welcome.


texts: What is the lexical class of the word 'worth' when used in a sentence like "Is this apple worth $3?"

texts:
The question "Not worth the paper it's printed on" - wrong meaning? got me thinking about what part of speech, or lexical class, the word 'worth' takes?

A comment in Which is correct: "is it worth it?" or "does it worth it?" advises to treat 'worth' as an adjective, but I'm not sure that's right. 'Worthy' is an adjective, but that's not the same as 'worth'.

In the title question you could replace 'worth' with the phrase 'of comparable value to'; what part of speech would that phrase be considered?  Are the word and the phrase in the same lexical class?

Edit:

Just to throw another option out, after a stimulating discourse under the answer provided by @Henry:

Wiktionary mentions that used in the context of this question, 'worth' is considered an adjective, but it also notes that

  The modern adjectival senses of worth compare two noun phrases, prompting some sources to classify the word as a preposition. Most, however, list it an adjective, some with notes like "governing a noun with prepositional force."

It also notes that

  Joan Maling (1983) shows that worth is best analyzed as a preposition rather than an adjective.

If viewed as a preposition, then it is easy to replace 'worth' with another preposition of somewhat equal meaning, such as "Is this apple about $3", "Is this apple under $3", or "Is this apple over $3".

Adjective, infinitive, or preposition?  ...or is this a rare case of an old language usage that straddles multiple lexical classes in modern language?


texts: What is a word for a "protégé" who doesn't realize he is a "protégé"?

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe a younger person that is unknowingly receiving guidance from an older, wiser individual.

The older person could be considered a mentor, and looks upon the younger as his protégé, but the younger doesn't consider their relationship that way.

In his mind, it's just an older friend who shares his stories, and it doesn't necessarily occur to the younger that he is being taught anything, just casual conversations with a friend.

EDIT: Added the tag for a short phrase as well, and an example usage such as:

The wizard's protégé learns of Powers he never dreamed of.

Want to suggest that the protégé is not aware that he is a protégé.


texts: What is the name of such type of diagrams?

texts: I want to know what is the name of such type of diagrams? Searching for text syntax diagrams yields only railroad diagrams, but that is different type, not what I look for.


texts:
I'm looking for a synonym for the word "time card" or "clock card". I try to find a word for a card with which you can track your work times on a certain device your employe installs for its workers.

I used the expression clock card but a native friend from uk said it is not a common expression.

Can u help me?


texts: Pesky 'that' removal - what is this construction generally known as?

texts:
Recently seen:

  There is an expression I think comes from ...

Others have told me (that) such a construction is wrong, but I am sure (that) it is OK.

An editor decided it was grammatically wrong and "corrected" it to:

  There is an expression that I think comes from ...

Though correct, that 'that' isn't (that) necessary, is it?

Clearly more than editing out extraneous 'thats,' there is an entire class of similar sentence constructions. Perhaps a "clause needing no relative pronoun," or "phrasal elision"?

Any ideas what this construct is or what it's called?

EDIT - Thanks to tchrist for reminding me to do things better, here's a good link to clarifications of 'that' usage in clauses / phrases.


texts: I once studied Old English in college and remember a reference to a Scottish minister who said that the language was essentially strictly driven by usage.  Now in my very senior years I cannot recall his name.  Does anyone recall who the minister was?


texts: If I want to say that São Paulo is going through a modernization process, can I say my story happens "in the context of the modernizing São Paulo"? I was trying to avoid using "in the context of the modernization of São Paulo".. for some reason it didn't sound good. Thanks!


texts: Does "ditto driver" mean a specific driver name?

texts:
I got an email today that contained the following sentence:

  a proprietary dongle with ditto driver

What does ditto mean in this case? Some kind of specific standard? Or does it mean "proprietary"?

I tried to find some information about ditto but I couldn't.


texts: Difference between verb+preposition and phrasal verbs

texts:
I am reading a book on grammar. Now I can't understand the difference between the verb+preposition and phrasal verbs. For example

He never thinks about(or of) other people.

and

put on your coat

Why this book call think about a verb+preposition and put on a phrasal verb. What's the difference between them?
Here are another examples about this subject
verb+preposition

ask (somebody) for
A man stopped me and asked me for money.

belong to ...
Does this book belong to you?

talk to somebody about something
Did you talk to Paul about the problem?

phrasal verbs

Turn over
Turn over and look at the next page

turn on
It was dark, so I turned on the light.

bring back
You can take my umbrella but please bring it back.

I don't know the difference clearly.


texts: When expressing ownership of something with apostrophe + s, is there a "full name" for it?

texts:
When saying "it's", that's an abbreviation of "it is" or "it has".
When expressing ownership using the same pattern, "something's", what's the "full name" of the " 's " expression?


texts:
What does the phrase "little big" mean?

Samples (game titles):

Little big planet
Little big adventures
Little big magazine


texts:
Possible Duplicates:
  Use of “that” in a sentence
  How do you handle “that that”? The double “that” problem

What exactly is the recommendation, when I'm writing, to do with the word "that"?

Often, while speaking, someone might say:

  I think it's going to rain.

Whereas, technically, it should be:

  I think that it's going to rain.

However, things can get complicated when using the word "that" to refer to an object such as "this or that":

  I guess that would be the right thing to do.

versus:

  I guess that that would be the right thing to do.

Is the latter even grammatically correct?

What should I do in these cases?  Should I add the word "that" in all cases, or only cases where it might be ambiguous otherwise?  Should I always omit it?  Should I repeat the word "that" twice when appropriate, or should I always list it once in these cases?


texts:
I am learning English and it is confusing how "heart" becomes "memory" in the expression by heart.

Should I remember it by heart or is there any way to understand it?

Also I have seen that "learn by heart" may have some meaning. I suppose it should be "memorize", but am not sure about it.


texts:
I am learning English, and would like to know if this sentence means A or B:
I knew that you went there yesterday.
A. You went there, and I knew it yesterday.
B. You went there yesterday, and I knew it.
Thanks. It would be great if you can point me to a online article about that-clause and prepositions.


texts:
I've realized I don't actually understand the difference between ɑ and ʌ completely.

Background: I'm a Hebrew speaker.

for me, the ʌ is pretty much the short Hebrew Kamatz sound (Bet with kamatz - בָ).
To my impression, the ɑ sound is like the Long Kamatz sound but tainted with a little bit of Holam sound (Gimel with Holam - גֹ).

So, to my impression, the differences are:

ʌ is always short, while the ɑ is always long.
ʌ is pure "uh sound" (Kamatz) while ɑ is tainted with a bit of "Oh sound" (Holam)

Some guides online explain that the difference between ʌ and ɑ is the length only, they're both an "uh" sound.

It's a bit awkward to me, as the American pronunciation of "not" is not exactly "nʌʌt", but the vowel
is a bit tainted with an "o" sound (but again, I maybe hear what I want to hear).

Hearing the both sounds in online dictionaries - well, for me, they're not the same. again, I might be hearing what I want to hear.

so, is ɑ sound simply a prolonged ʌ sound or aside length, they are different?


texts: Looking at the definition for redact, it sounds as if it specifically applies to text. Can it be used with images and diagrams as well?


texts: Is there a name for a word which is a noun and also an unrelated verb?

texts:
There are many true homonym pairs where one of the words is a noun and the other is an verb.

Example:

Bear as a noun:

  The bear is a furry carnivorous mammal, different species of which can be found around the world.

Bear as a verb:

  If you choose to smoke, you will have to bear the consequences.

Is there a specific word for these types of word pairs? I want to know if there is a specific term for verb/noun true homonym pairs.


texts: "He thought me incapable ..." - What is this pattern?

texts:
I roughly understand that certain sentences can be restructured like this:

I believed that he was insane. -> I believed him insane.
He thought that I was incapable of doing so. -> He thought me incapable of doing so.
I wished that they were dead. -> I wished them dead.

What is this pattern called, and how exactly does it work?
I don't mean the removal of 'that', but rather, removing the verb 'to be' and the "inner" subject (eg. 'they') into an object (eg. 'them').


texts: Word for the act of buying a large amount of something to reduce the supply, wait for the price to go higher and sell them afterwards?

texts: Or it may not be an attempt to manipulate the market, just base on sources of information that price could go higher in the future.


texts:
I am software developer and trying to develop a new language. I need to learn that basic information in English:

Create Product.
Update Page.
Stay Here.

Create, Update and Stay are verbs, of course. What about Product, Page and Here?


texts:
I've seen the phrase "sit the throne" in place of "sit on the throne."  It's usually used in literary or poetic contexts, but it doeas appear to have "real" uses (right click any line to see combined usage), albeit not very many.

Is there any etymology or grammar underlying this usage, or is it merely an abbreviation of the "correct" structure?

(I tried Googling it, I really did, but all I got was a bunch of Bioshock Infinite spoilers.)


texts:
As a programmer who often communicates through text, I find myself frequently having to refer to something in quotes, like ;. This is fine for most things, but it can get confusing when referring to quotation marks themselves like ' or ". It can get even more confusing when referring to multiples of something: "#s" could mean literally "#s" or multiple #. And then after the message there usually has to be some text to say that the quotation marks aren't included in what you are saying because #" means something different from #.

Is there any way to simplify this?


texts: What exactly is happening when we use the same word twice in a row?

texts:
Example:

  A: Hey, I just bought a mouse.
  B: A mouse mouse? Or a computer mouse?

What is this exactly?
And are there any rules?


texts: Single word to describe "something that should have been done at the beginning"

texts:
I am looking for a single word to describe something that should have been done from the beginning to describe the highlighted situation below:

  Accessibility remediation after the fact is harder. Accessibility should be considered from the start as part of the design.

I know the following is not what I want, but I would like to have a sentence similar to: "Accessibility should be a first-principles consideration."


texts:
Is there a term used to explain how some words change meaning based on the accent? For example, "convict" can be both a noun and a verb depending on which syllable is emphasized. The same is true for "reject", "pervert", "subject", "address" and probably others.

Is there a technical term for this?


texts: Is "Celebrities are more accessible for young people…" suitable?

texts:
I was practicing the writing of Toefl exam. The topic is:

  The opinions of celebrities, such as famous entertainers and athletes, are more important to younger people than they are to older people.

I want to say that young people usually use the internet a lot, so they have more chance to see the show of celebrities.

Can I use the following sentence as a topic sentence?

  Celebrities such famous entertainers and athletes are more accessible for young people than older people.

I am not sure the usage of "accessible".


texts: Is the phrase ''a little bit'' superfluous?

texts: What's the point of saying both words if one of them already implies a small amount of something? Doesn't it seem a bit redundant?


texts:
"If this is not love then I don't know what is."

How is this sentence grammatically incorrect?

Thank you


texts: What is the origin of the word and how did it come to mean "complete and ready to be used immediately"?


texts:
About 12,600,000 results in Google for this exact phrasing: "Currently online now".
Is it a kind of online jargon? It sounds redundant to me; shouldn't it be either "currently" or "now"?
Examples of usage:

many of your friends are currently online now!
I'm currently online now and will most likely be online for the rest of the day
There are almost 300 titles currently online now, and we have more that are being put up every week.

Is it grammatically acceptable to use "currently" and "now" in the same sentence?


texts: Word to dictate what someone types/writes

texts:
I recall there being a word - I think ending in -tate (similar to dictate) - for telling someone what to right down/type.

Am I mistaken?


texts: 'Then are equivalent' (followed by a list) in mathematical writing

texts:
In mathematical writing, I've often seen people use the expression 'Then are equivalent' to introduce a list of conditions that are logically equivalent to each other (and I've used it myself a few times). E.g., here is an excerpt from the bottom of p. 6 (right column) in a 2015 open-access article from Nature Communications (I'm not sure about the nationality of the authors, though):

  Proposition II. [...]. Then are equivalent

  (1) For a large enough $A$, and corresponding $A'$, there exists a trace-preserving unital map [...] such that [...].

  (2) For a large enough $B$, and large enough $B'$, there exists a trace-nonincreasing subunital map [...] such that [...].

And here is another example, from p. 253 in a paper of W.-D. Heinrichs (a German scholar) appeared in Publ. RIMS, Kyoto Univ., Vol. 33 (1997), 241-255:

  Theorem 4.8. [...]. Then are equivalent:

  [...] satisfies the density condition (DC).
  [...] satisfies the strong dual density condition by operator (SDDCO).
  [...] is a bornological (DFO)-space.

But I'm a non-native speaker, and a colleague from the US has recently questioned the correctness of the expression, arguing that he finds it "strange, and possibly ungrammatical."

I'd say that the expression is not so uncommon in (mathematical) papers authored or co-authored by native speakers, but I don't have sufficiently robust statistics to advocate for it. So I'd appreciate to hear from the forum on this issue.


texts: Does "digital crafting agency" sound good and is it meaningful for a company's description?

texts:
There are some web development studios who call themselves a "digital agency".

For our small team we're going to take a similar tagline, "digital crafting agency".

Does this sound okay to native speakers? Is it descriptive of a company who makes websites and (maybe) some other media things like games or apps?


texts: Does "no worries" imply "don't you worry"?

texts:
I live in Australia, so saying and writing "no worries" became second nature to me*. However, just the other day I read on this page that some people get annoyed by it, their argument going along these lines:

I believe it insinuates that I am a worrier when I am not [...] [It's] often used passive aggressively, as in: ‘I’m going to be a little late.’ ‘No worries!’ Wait, should I have been worried?

I got confused by that argument because I see "no worries" the same way I see "no problem", which is:

There is no worry (problem) involved in this situation. / This is a worry-free situation.

Thus, I understand "worries" like a noun, not implying a verb or an action. However, the aforementioned argument see it as:

Don't you worry.

According to this answer and the wikipedia page the meaning #2 is in fact common, but the same answerer says just after that that "no worries" is equivalent to "no problem"... However, we cannot understand "no problem" as "don't you problem", because that verb simply doesn't exist. That said, if "no worries" and "no problem" are equivalent, is the meaning #2 accurate?

* I'm not a native English speaker


texts: What was the difference between "ye" and "thy"?

texts: I'm PRETTY sure that my History of the english Language professor told me that "ye" was actually pronounced [ði], because the character that closely resembles a Modern English "y" was actually representative of a [ð] sound, which renders it difficult to differentiate from "thee". Were there two identical sounding words? Did "ye" and "thee" have identical pronunciation, yet differ in meaning? and Also, was "ye" similar to Modern English "Your"?


texts: Is "cemetery gaits" grammatically correct?

texts:
There is a song with the following lyrics:

"You know us by the way we crawl and you know us by our cemetery gaits"

The part I'd like to ask about is 'cemetery gaits'.  I love the lyric and am having an argument with a friend over its legitimacy. He's saying the word cemetery can't be used to describe someone's gait. Is he right?


texts: What is the proper word for something that can be instantiated?

texts:
While reading a RFC for the Rust programming language, I came across this paragraph:

  Given the above code, there is no way for bar to choose a return type X
    that could fundamentally differ between instantiations of Self
   -while still being instantiable with an arbitrary U.

The word instantiable caught my eye and my spell checker agreed that it wasn't a word. However, neither was the alternative I'd expected it to be: instantiatable.

Merriam-Webster defines instantiate as:

  to represent (an abstraction) by a concrete instance

Which seems to match up well with the general programming concept as I understand it, so I don't believe deep programming knowledge is required to weigh-in on this formation of the English word.


texts: I pronounce question as kweshtin. Is my pronunciation wrong?

texts: I've lived in Houston,TX for about 10 years and after that I moved to the ME and I've made friends since then. Whenever they heard me say kweshtin they told me my pronunciation was weird. I told them that it's the American pronunciation, but when I googled it I found nothing to back me up. The results showed me that I should pronounce it as kweschin?


texts: Is there a word for unconsciously reinforcing gender roles?

texts:
For instance:

I thought it was a she, but then I noticed you didn't specify what gender your dance teacher was. I realized that I was being ______.

I think stereotypical kind of fits here, but I don't think it's as accurate. It seems a bit too harsh and intentional.


texts: Is "banned from the airways" an eggcorn or malapropism?

texts:
It should be "banned from the airwaves", meaning "not allowed to be played on radio".  I noticed this mistake in a British newspaper story.

  The former star's music has largely been banned from the airways since his fall from grace.

Is this an eggcorn?


texts:
Should we use "choose" or "choosing"?

I was browsing the Internet when I stumbled upon this word play in a retailer catalog

  Door handles and locks: the key to choosing wisely

At first the sentence seemed strange to me but after a quick research it came out that both are correct. Could you confirm?

Is there a different meaning those two?


texts: Present perfect in subjunctive past tense (I wish I had done)?

texts:
It's an exercise, imagine you're in the situation, and write a sentence with "I wish".
the situation is:

  "You've painted the gate red. Now you think that it doesn't look very nice."

Because it's talking about past( the gate is already painted), my answer was

I wish I hadn't had painted the gate red.

Which is wrong, because the second "had" is unnecessary.
Could anyone please tell me why? Thank you.


texts:
An airline in my country (Germany) is currently advertising their flights to the US with the slogan "Fly USA now".

I know you can "fly Emirates", ie. on an airplane run by the airline Emirates, and you can "go West", but I don't think you can "fly USA" (unless that is US Airways which it isn't in this case).

Marketers in Germany aren't generally big on English grammar, but this seems so wrong to me that I have to ask: is this a turn of phrase that I just haven't come across yet or is it really as bad as I think it is?


texts: A word or expression for an older man trying to look younger

texts: I am looking for a word or expression for an older man, often over 60, who usually wears fashion items ( shoes, shirts, jackets), dye their hair, and do their best to keep fit. The overall result is sort of  younger look which often clashes with the real age of this persons. I am not looking for a derogatory term but  possibly a politically correct one.


texts:
I need one word to describe a very tough task or a task which one is unwilling to do.

like in the sentence:

  It's very tough to talk politely with the person who is rude to you.


texts: Is the word 'psychoanalysis' correctly constructed from its components?

texts:
The big question is, where does the 'o' come from?

A small band of people have apparently stuck firmly to 'psychanalysis', which is similar to the French 'psychanalyse'.

It's dealt with very superficially in most easy to find references[1] but I wonder if that's the end of it?  Is the 'o' part of the root, or is it a filler (I'm sure there's a more formal word than filler).  For example, compare the construction to psychiatry.  Pscho-iatry would be hard to say, but psychanalysis is also potentially easy than psychoanalysis.

Any thoughts very much appreciated.

(Out of interest, classicists' perspective was that the "o" came from a derivation of ψυχή that ends with an omega).

[1]: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/psychoanalysis and http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=psychoanalysis


texts: difference between "I'm teasing" and "I'm kidding"

texts: Is there any difference between "teasing" and "kidding"?


texts:
Which of the two sentences is grammatically correct?

I do not want to be taken as a liar.

I do not want to be taken for a liar.


texts:
Consider this sentence, please:
a) If I had been serious about music when I was young, today I could participate in the music show.
Is sentence a) correct or do we have to use "could have participated" instead? In other words, do we use the following construction in English?
IF+SUBJECT+HAD+PP, SUBJECT+ COULD/MIGHT/WOULD+BARE INFINITIVE.


texts: Idiom request for critisizing someone who ignores or overlooks their old things or friends, in an annoying manner, after having or finding new ones

texts:
I'm looking for and idiom, expression or proverb for criticizing (or describing) a situation in which someone doesn't pay attention to/ like their old things, friends, colleagues, hobbies, etc any more just after having or finding a new one, and that might be kind of annoying to others.

We Iranians use a proverb that literally says:

  "When the New comes to the market, the Old would become boring/ uninteresting."

It would be stated sarcastically in situations like these:

1- I have a 9-year-old daughter who loves her toys very much, especially her teddy bear. Some day, I buy a kids' tablet for her and after that she wouldn't pay attention to those toys any more.

  When I ask her "why don't you play with the teddy  bear any more!?" She would reply " Oh, I don't like it, I prefere to play with these apps." Then my husband would say "as you know, when the New comes to the market, the Old becomes uninteresting! (i.e.  now that she has that tablet, she doesn't pay attention to/ like her old toys any more.)

2- I'm a high school student, and a beautiful and clever student has recently transferred to my class.

  After making friend with her, I spend most of my time with her, so my classmate who was my best friend before, would sarcastically say to me "Oh, I can't belive it! I see that you have totally forgotten about me! Well, that's why that old proverb says "when the New comes to the market, the Old becomes boring!", okay! I have nothing to do with you either! Have fun with that new friend!"

Is there any idiom or proverb in English that could convey this connotation?

I have found "out with the old, in with the new" as equivalent for this Persian proverb in some Persian -to -English books, but I'm not sure if it would have the same meaning.


texts:
I never know when to use "cut down on", "cut down" or just "cut". Some sentences I've come across:

They are trying to cut street crime in the area.
[Would "cut down on street crime" be ok?]
You should cut down on your drinking.
[Why not "cut (down) your drinking"?]
Installing double-glazing will cut down the noise from traffic.
[cut the noise? cut down on the noise?]

Do you think using always "cut" would be a safe choice? Or even better, could you come up with some kind of rule?


texts: Good Word for a Doer of Crossword Puzzles

texts: I'm thinking mostly of the cryptic crossword puzzles that appear in the major English newspapers such as the Times and the Guardian.  The person who creates the puzzle is a compiler, the compiler of the crossword puzzle.  What would be a good word for a person who tries to complete the puzzle?   'Taker' doesn't seem quite right.  An example is:  Winston was an enthusiastic ____ of crossword puzzles, especially the one in the Guardian.


texts: When and by whom was “stage diving” coined?

texts:
Stage diving is the practice of jumping from the stage, usually  in a rock concert,  to be caught and carried aloft by the crowd.

From: houseplanet.dj

According to Wikipedia this practice was called “stage diving” years  after it became common:

  Long before the word was invented, public stagediving took place during the first Dutch concert by The Rolling Stones at the Kurhaus of Scheveningen on August 8, 1964.

Google Books shows that the term apparently emerged in the 80s, about 20 years after it was first practiced.

Given its relatively recent coinage I’d like to know when its first usage instance was and,
was stage diving coined by a rock star or by a rock music journalist?


texts:
I don't understand the following comment found on YouTube Bobby Jarzombek:

  Before Portnoy goes to bed, he checks his closet for Bobby Jarzombek.

I cannot find any definition of this expression.
Is this a slang?

Let me explain a bit.
Mike Portnoy is known as the best drummer in the world (no doubt here).
The person commented this might think that Bobby Jarzombek is as nearly good as Portnoy.
However, I cannot imagine what he meant.
(Checking his closet ... to find his costume??? Then, ... what?)

Please explain this in Plain English. Thank you.


texts: Use of "and" in a list followed by "as well"

texts:
Do you need an and after wife in this sentence?

  The husband, wife, mother as well as the sister are coming.


texts: Infinitive or Gerund for celebration of an event?

texts:
Which of the following sentences would be correct in a baby shower invitation.

My grandparents are looking forward to celebrate my arrival in February.
My grandparents are looking forward to celebrating my arrival in February.

If both are grammatically correct, what is the meaning of each?

Which is preferred when the subject is an event?


texts: "Has achieved whatever work it was in him to do"

texts:
But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble.
  (Bertrand Russell How to grow old from Portraits from Memory; emphasis mine)

What is the purpose of the structure "it was" in the sentence? Does "it" refers to "work"?

How does the sentence compare to the following formulations? (Are they correct? Why? How are they different from the original sentence?)

has achieved whatever work was in him to do
has achieved whatever work in him to do


texts: 'Might pay you to do' - what does it mean?

texts:
When your boss says: 'Might pay you to contact this client and advise them', what does 'pay' mean in this context?
Does it indicate he thinks you're not doing what you get paid for?


texts:
Private sales, therefore, represent a way with which auction houses can operate somehow as dealers and galleries.

Is the form "with which" used correctly in this sentence? If not, what is the right form? Thank you.


texts: Wordplay - "Owl" being used to say "I will"?

texts:
Is there a name for a type of wordplay such as "owl" being used to say "I will"?

I did realize this was a pun, but hoped there were perhaps more specific categories of puns. I'm looking for some kind of reference material for a neighbor who wants to use written puns in a craft project.


texts:
Here's the sentence from Wall Street Journal:

  ...eight individuals have been deported on grounds of national security.

Instead of this, if one says,

  ...eight individuals have been deported on the grounds of national security.

Any difference?


texts: If I were to remove the "which is" or "that is" from an adjective clause, which type of adjective phrase is formed?

texts:
Example with adjective clause:

Your pictures are stored in the Gallery which is accessible from My Dashboard.

If I were to remove "which", would the result be just an adjective phrase, if so what type?

Your pictures are stored in the Gallery accessible from My Dashboard.

I want to say it's an attributive adjective phrase, but I'm unsure.
..
I also played around with participles.
This is just a bonus question. Would the bold part be called a past participial phrase?

Your pictures are stored in the Gallery found from My Dashboard.


texts: Single word for "better but harder" or "greater but harder to achieve"?

texts:
For example, "The new English test is better but harder to achieve."
I need to change the phrase (marked in bold) in the sentence above to a single word. what word will fit?
Any help is appreciated.

Edit: To clarify for those asking, I need to shorten this phrase as I have a word limit on a paper I'm writing.


texts: Suitable expression for value in defeat?

texts:
When someone loses a match, I want to tell him that this loss can make him strong, that in the end this will help him to be a winner.

Is there any expression in English for defeat is the prerequisite for victory?


texts: Why does the schwa sounds like an 'e' in some words?

texts:
I've noticed that in some words the schwa sounds more like 'e' and not 'ə',
for exmaple: environment(.mənt), is with a schwa, but sounds like 'e'.
Also in a word like 'substance'-stance doesn't sound like it has a schwa but it has.


texts: Is it ok to say that I burned my hand if it was injured via hot water?

texts: I feel like it should be alright, but thought I'd get your feelings on whether it's appropriate to employ the term "got burned" if no fire was involved, specifically as it pertains to injury to a living thing, or if I am precluded from having been burned by hot water, and have to employ scalded or cooked or some other non flame related term?


texts:
I am currently reading the King James Version of the Bible and I have noticed some features that I would like to know more about.

Almost every verse of the First Book of Moses starts with “and”. Does this style have a specific name? What was the reason that led to its usage? Is it acceptable to use it nowadays when trying to achieve an archaic impression or is this exclusive to the Bible?

  1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Beginning with 2:4, instead of using simply the word “God”, “LORD God” is used. What is the reason for capitalisation of every letter in the word “LORD”? Why is the latter form used rather that the previous?

  2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


texts: I was watching a movie and the phrase "squeeze the limit" came to my attention (if I heard it right).  I have never heard the phrase before, and according to the Japanese subtitle, it seem to mean "take a sh*t" (excuse me for not knowing the proper euphemism), and the man who said the phrase went to the bathroom.  Is this a common phrase to euphemize "take a s..."?  Do native speakers of English usually understand what that means?


texts: On a tour from Australia to the states my wife asked me to stop at the gift store and buy memorable fridge-magnets and tea-towels. Everywhere I went, none of the store attendants seemed to know what the latter was. My question is: What is the American word for 'tea-towel'?


texts: What's the difference between "in back of" and "behind"?

texts: Is there any difference between "She is sitting in back of me" and "She is sitting behind me"? Are they synonymous or are there any different shades of meaning? All the dictionaries that I've looked through only have something to say about the differences in the frequency of usage between American and British English, but not about any differences in meaning.


texts: What modifier describes a situation where obtaining approval / access from one organisation will lead to others following suit?

texts:
One example I can think of is trend-setting; however, it's not quite that although I can't put my finger on why.
For further context, a company tries to get approval for a drug to be paid for by insurance companies. If one particular insurance company says that it will pay for it, the likelihood is that other insurance companies will do the same.


texts: Is there a word for enjoying the entertainment surrounding the election?

texts: I have heard of electiontainment, which I like as a word-geek. Yet, it only returned 400 results on Google. Is there anything similar that has wider penetration?


texts: What is the difference between "is having" and "has" in this sentence?

texts:
what is the difference and which one is correct?

a) The shoe shop is having a sale this week.

b) the shoe shop has a sale this week.


texts:
I am writing to my manager. I want to suggest making a new service to her.
I have problem with this sentence:

  Can you suggest to them that [Company Name] develops the Italian version of the website?

Am I using the word that correctly here?


texts: Best internet sites for British English learners?

texts: What are  some  great resources for advanced British English learners?


texts: What phrase is used to describe the subsequent act in a series of performances

texts:
For example, the MC at a talent show might say:

"Currently on stage is [Performance 1], up next we have [Performance 2] and [Performance 3] is ____."

I know the phrase exists because I've heard it recently at a competition but I can't remember what the presenters said (the usage of this phrase was consistent throughout the entire performance).

Also, I am 99% sure the phrase wasn't

  on deck

or

  in the bullpen

What else could it have been?


texts: If I say "four times zero four times one", is it correct way?

texts: I want to know if someone asks me about wifi password and it was 0000 1111, how could I say it as an American man?


texts: Can we say that "he" and "she" are cognates?

texts:
If they are cognates,what happened to the mophological changes on them historically?Such as the emergence of "h" in "she"?

she

mid-12c., probably evolving from O.E. seo, sio (acc. sie), fem. of demonstrative pronoun se "the."

The Old English word for "she" was heo, hio, however by 13c. the pronunciation of this had converged by phonetic evolution with he "he," which apparently led to the fem. demonstrative pronoun being used in place of the pronoun (cf. similar development in Du. zij, Ger. sie, Gk. he, etc.).

The original h- survives in her. A relic of the Old English pronoun is in Manchester-area dialectal oo "she."

he

O.E. he (see paradigm of Old English third person pronoun below), from P.Gmc. *hi- (cf. O.S., O.Fris., M.Du. he, hi, Du. hy, O.H.G. he), from PIE *ki-, variant of *ko-, the "this, here" (as opposed to "that, there") root (cf. Hittite ki "this," Gk. ekeinos "that person," O.C.S. si, Lith. šis "this"), and thus the source of the third person pronouns in Old English.

The feminine, hio, was replaced in early Middle English by forms from other stems (see she), while the h- wore off Old English neuter hit to make modern it.

The Proto-Germanic root also is the source of the first element in Ger. heute "today," lit. "the day" (cf. O.E. heodæg).

------------------------New statement in wiktionary "she"-------------------------

From Middle English sche, hye (“she”), from earlier scho, hyo, ȝho (“she”), a phonetic development of Old English hēo, hīo (“she”), from Proto-Germanic *hijō (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (“this, here”).

Cognate with English dialectal hoo (“she”), Scots scho, shu (“she”), West Frisian hja (“she”), North Frisian jü (“she”), Danish hun (“she”), Swedish hon (“she”). More at he.

Despite the similarity in appearance, the Old English feminine demonstrative sēo (“that”) is probably not the source of Middle English forms in sch-.

Rather, the sch- developed out of a change in stress upon hío resulting in hió, spelt ȝho (ȝh = hȝ, compare wh = hw, lh = hl, etc.), and the h was palatalised into the sh sound.

Similar alteration can be seen the name Shetland, from Old Norse Hjaltland; ȝho is the immediate parent form of Middle English scho and sche.

-----------------------End-------------------------

There are two opposite statements,making me more confused.

So the question should turn to be which one is more convincing?


texts: Are these two sentences "sentence fragments"?

texts:
This all changes with the arrival of Genos, a 19-year-old cyborg, who wishes to be Saitama's disciple after seeing what he is capable of.

And thus begins the story of One Punch Man, an action-comedy that follows an eccentric individual who longs to fight strong enemies that can hopefully give him the excitement he once felt and just maybe, he'll become popular in the process.

Please can someone tell me if these two sentences are sentence fragments or not. I think they fully qualify as a sentence but I need a second opinion.


texts: What's the difference between "... you have completed the task" and "... you completed the task"?

texts:
Is there any difference in the meaning of the following sentences? Or do they mean the exact same thing?

By doing both, you have completed the task.
By doing both, you completed the task.


texts: Does "having" something imply the possession of it?

texts:
I'm seriously pained when I hear the word "have" being used in the present continuous to imply possession.

Take for example, the following quotation from Wordsmith.org.

  Read the Etymology of the word "fulsome", which has been described as "...-some (having a particular quality).

Grammar books have always suggested that this construction implies "eating, consuming, or experiencing"; never possession. So, if I said that I'm "having a friend", that  would imply that I'm eating the friend, or having sex with her/him.

What do you folks think?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What does the term “86’d” relate to?

I found that you can say "86 something" as a verb when we want to "cancel" something...

Is it used for everything??

For example, if I'm in a restaurant and changed my mind about one dish, is it correct to say "Hey, 86 it"?

Note: I'm not asking about the meaning of the verb to 86 something, but rather whether the verb can be used generally or only in specific contexts.


texts: More powerful word for unnecessary with the following connotations

texts:
Want to describe unnecessary <noun> (ex: unnecessary stress), need something more appropriate which is synonymous with unnecessary but also has the following connotations.

unwanted
useless
unwarranted
Something which should not be there in the first place.


texts: When to use yards or miles for distances? What unit to use for areas (hectares, acres, sqyards, sqmiles...)?

texts:
I perfectly know how to convert these units, but I don't understand if there's a specific reason for choosing one instead of another.
What troubles me the most about them is the difference between yards and miles. Does it depend on the country you are from or is it just a personal choice with no difference? I may be wrong but I noticed that miles are more often used when talking about a distance to travel (drive or walk), whereas yards when referring to an unpaved distance. thanks


texts: What's the word for this part of a sailing ship?

texts: Sometimes on sailing ships or in primitive mills, torque is supplied by several people walking around a big wheel, each pushing an attached lever. Or the lever might be pulled by a donkey. What do you call this kind of wheel? You sometimes see them in movies like pirates of the Caribbean.


texts:
As a foreign English speaker, I always wondered if "for good" is an old style English phrase, or it is relatively new. For me, it seems like an old style phrase, but I don't know anything about etymology.

Can you shed some light on it?


texts: The pronunciation of "'ll" in spoken English

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Pronunciation of “'ll”

Trying to understand completely how "'ll" should be pronounced in spoken English, I uploaded a part of AJ Hoge lesson. You can listen to it here.

And the question concerns me a lot is: Does AJ exactly tell about the "dark L" and use it (the "dark L") as well in this lesson and especially in the end of one? And should it be pronounced as "/əl/"?


texts: Difference between "Warm regards" and "Best regards"

texts: Is there any difference between Warm regards and Best regards?


texts: I was reading this answer to another question and came across the word campy (towards the end of the answer).  I’ve definitely seen it used before to describe science fiction movies and shows but have never had a good definition of it.  What does it mean and where does it come from?


texts: Is the sentence below grammatically correct? If not, I know no other way of constructing it

texts: "For a celebrated actor, I was surprised at how ordinary he was." The "celebrated actor" refers, of course, to "he" (not "I"). However it seems to me the grammatical construction is wrong. By substituting the preposition "for" with "as" to read "As a celebrated actor, I was surprised at how ordinary he was," is now grammatically correct but drastically changes the meaning. How can I say what I want to say in plain conversational English?


texts:
I'm reading "Right Ho, Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse and I've just encountered another phrase which I can't understand. Full sentence where this phrase is used (emphasis added by me):

  In fact, not to put too fine a point upon it, I consider that of all the dashed silly, drivelling ideas I ever heard in my puff this is the most blithering and futile.


texts: Is "Type arguments constraints can with two restrictions also be used with custom types" a valid sentence?

texts:
orign.

I think the sentence should be expressed as "Type arguments constraints can also be used with custom types but with two restrictions."


texts: Is Vouchering a valid synonym for "time booking" or not?

texts:
I have an ongoing dispute with someone who insists on using "Vouchering" in official documents as a synonym for "time booking" - (as in making entries on a time management system against booking numbers).

As the on-line OED returns "No such word in the English Language!" I feel that we should not be using it but thought I would ask here if there is any evidence that this is a valid usage.

Almost all the on-line resources that I have found that mention the word consider it a valid word for Scrabble but I can find no mention of it in the context of time booking.


texts: Sequence of tenses with "told" and "said"

texts:
"Who told you that the agreement has already been signed?"

I wonder whether we should observe the sequence of tenses rule and make it "Who told you that the agreement had already been signed?"


texts: How did “defect” and “defect” come to have different pronunciations?

texts: There are many interesting events in the history of the English language. Which one of them gave us “defect” (noun, /diːˈfɛkt/, imperfection) and “defect” (verb, /dɪˈfɛkt/ , change allegiances)?


texts:
Which ones correct ?

All the guests on the boat got frightened when they heard an alarm.

(or)

All the guests on the boat got frightened when they heard the alarm.

I expect the second sentence to be right because in the given scenario alarm is an definite noun. Am I right ?


texts: Which one is correct — "at the city" or "in the city"?

texts:
I want to know the correct preposition to use with the word city in the following context:

  He arrived in the city.
  He arrived at the city.

So which one will be correct?