texts: Usage of "commit [oneself] to" (=promise)

texts:
PPer Cambridge Dictionary Online,

commit verb (PROMISE)
[I or T] to promise or give your loyalty, time, or money to a particular principle, person, or plan of action:
Like so many men, he has problems committing himself to a relationship.
The government must commit itself to improving healthcare.

Question is, would it be grammatically acceptable to rephrase the example sentences above as follows, while keeping the exact same meaning?

Like so many men, he has problems committing to a relationship.

-and-

The government must commit to improving healthcare.
The government must commit itself to improve healthcare.
The government must commit to improve healthcare.

EDIT:
Please, consider this other example:

We commit ourselves to providing [...]
We commit to providing [...]
We commit ourselves to provide [...]
We commit to provide [...]


texts: What does wishbone mean in this Robert Frost quote?

texts:
What does the word wishbone mean in the following Robert Frost quotation?

Also what is the message conveyed by the quote? Thanks!

  "A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one
  part of his body - the wishbone." - Robert Frost


texts: meaning of "quite+adjective" in Canadian English

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I am translating a Canadian article, and here's a sentence I need some help with:

  There are innumerable colour choices when choosing gladioli corms but
  until recent years, those colours classed as smoky, were quite
  rare and hard to find.

My question is: does "quite rare" mean "very rare" or "fairly rare"? I know this "quite" ambiguity is a popular issue, but most of the info I've found focuses on the BE and AE, and this article is Canadian.

Many thanks in advance!


texts: What's the correct verb matching for a 'who' referring to the subject of a previous independent clause?

texts:
I was proofreading today and came to a weird situation. Maybe I've stared at it too long and I just need to rest my brain. Here was the sentence:

  "You can rest assured that the question is resolved by a member of our Legal Team, who always try to solve any issues quickly and concisely."

'Legal Team' is the name of the team and they wanted it capitalized. Whatever.

For the use case here, would you say 'who always try' or 'who always tries'?

The who is referring to the member, since the 'Legal Team' is the subject of the preposition. I mentioned that it should be 'who always tries', but my co-worker says it's 'try.' I can't really explain to him why I feel like it's tries in an English manner, I just know something's up with it.

I would assume it's because 'who' can be singular or plural that leads to the confusion, and the recent use of the word 'team' in 'Legal Team' might mislead folks to think the who is referring to the 'Legal Team' rather than the single member doing the solving. In that case, it might be better to rewrite it to:

  "You can rest assured that the question is resolved by a member of our Legal Team, who will try to solve any issues quickly and concisely."

since the anonymous single member would probably not be eligible for something as broad as 'who always tries.'

I think I'm thinking too much on this. Any ideas?


texts: Verbs after 'as well as'—is this Merriam-Webster example wrong?

texts:
Before branding this question a duplicate, please note that I have already noticed some questions here pertaining to the use of 'as well as'. I have also noticed that none of the answers to them are helpful to clear out my confusion.

I have come across this sentence in Michael Swan's Practical English Usage: "When we put a verb after as well as, we most often use the -ing form".

  verbs after as well as

  When we put a verb after as well as, we most often use the -ing form

  Smoking is dangerous, as well as making you smell bad [NOT ...as well as it makes you smell bad)
  As well as breaking his leg, he hurt his arm. (NOT ...as well as he broke his leg…)
  After an infinitive in the main clause, an infinitive without to is possible.
  I have to feed the animals, as well as look after the children.
  Note the difference between:

    She sings as well as playing the piano.
    (= She not only plays, but also sings.)
    She sings as well as she plays the piano.
    (=Her singing is as good as her playing.)

Also, The Free Dictionary says, "You can use as well as in a similar way to link clauses. However, the second clause must be a clause beginning with an -ing form". See their example sentence and warning:

But this example sentence form the Merriam-Webster Dictionary puts me in confusion:

Question: What is the correct usage when we have to use a verb after as well as?

EDIT

Afterthought:

After reading the answers, my confusion has been worsened. Is the M-W dictionary's example sentence really wrong? I've come across the following sentences in another grammar book.

  Justice, as well as mercy, allows it.

  Sanskrit, as well as Arabic, was taught there.

  The book says that as well as is parenthetical and that is why the
  verbs are singular here.

In other words, it's not a conjunction copulative or additive in function; it's simply appositive.

See what Fowler says in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage:

  "It is time for someone to come to the rescue of the phrase as well
  as, which is being cruelly treated. Grammatically, the point is that
  as well as is a conjunction and not a preposition. Or, to put it in a less abstract way, its strict meaning is not besides, but and
  not only.

  Its authoritative reports would help to build  up  an  informed  public opinion as well as guiding the Government.

  Read   'guide',  it   depends  on would; or else substitute
  besides.
  His death  leaves  a gap  as  well as creating a by-election in Ross and Cromarty.

  Read creates; it is parallel to leaves; or else substitute
  besides.

It seems to me as if Fowler asks us not to use an -ing form of verbs after as well as, for as well as is never a preposition. Also, if we want to use the -ing form, we have to use the preposition besides.

My doubt again, especially after reading the appositive use of as well as is : Although we may agree with Fowler's views, can't we use an -ing verb form (a gerund) after a conjunction?


texts: 'Implied subject' independent sentences and commas

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I've been reading Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, in which this rule is outlined:

Place a comma before and or but introducing an independent clause.
Examples: The early records of the city have disappeared, and the
story of its first years can no longer be reconstructed. The
situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape.

Furthermore, on Wikipedia's page on the independent clause's subject (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_(grammar)), this example is given:

Zero (but implied) subject. 'Take out the trash!'

Thus, if 'Take out the trash' is an independent clause (with the implied subject being the person who the order is being directed to), would it be correct to write sentences like:

'Take out the trash, and move the bike!'
'Stop complaining, and do your homework.'
'Get off your horse, and drink your milk.'

I feel like the answer should be 'No' and that the correct way to write it is 'Take out the trash and move your bike!', however, I don't know why.


texts: Word for thinking something is happening when it's not

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Is there a word for the psychological effect of thinking that something is happening and thus feeling the effects of that thing yet nothing is really happening?

An example would be when you get falsely diagnosed with some sort of illness and feel the effects of this illness even though you don't actually have the illness.

I was thinking of calling it "placebo effect", but I think that applies only to being given "medicines" that don't do anything and you feel better due to the way your brain works.


texts:
Is there a single word to describe birds that can fly? Am I struggling to think of a word because the default notion of a bird is that it can fly? So we generally only need to differentiate the ones that can't fly.
I've seen the term "winged" in a few google searches, but to my mind an ostrich is winged, but it is also flightless.
I guess I'm looking for the word you'd put into this blank:

Penguins are flightless because they cannot fly.
Ostriches are flightless because they cannot fly.
Pigeons are ____ because they can fly.


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Is this the correct use of the pronoun reference "this". Were you able to tell what the pronoun this is referring to?

Based on the feedback received, my strengths were having strong arguments as well as good transitions and use of quotes. My essay discussed the strategies adopted by Apple in making their products more desirable and how they evolved as their product line also changed. I was able to tie this to the ideas introduced by Jib Fowles on the effective use of appeals in marketing.


texts:
My understanding of (situational) irony is that it involves a certain expectation for the outcome of a situation but the reality ends up being opposite to that. I'm not sure if there has to some explicit action to ensure the expected outcome e.g. I guess it's not irony if the weatherman forecasts rain and it ends up being sunny even though the expectation was clearly the opposite of the true outcome.

1) In a TV show, and a man in his suit calls his wife and tells her he's working very hard. The camera pans out and the audience sees him in a bar and not working.

Is this ironic for the audience? I guess from the comments so far that the answer is no but is it because the audience did not participate in trying to make the man work or is it some other reason? The criterion for the result being the opposite of what is expected is met here.

2) Donald Trump hates foreigners but has a foreign-born wife.

I understand that this makes him hypocritical but is this also ironic? Here, one expects Trump to marry an American but he does the opposite. And it seems very similar to the example below.

3) My girlfriend says she hates blonde men. She breaks up with me and then has a blonde boyfriend.

From my perspective, is this ironic?

I do not see why 2) and 3) are different but the comments say that 3) is irony but 2) is not.


texts: What is the exact meaning of ‘lackadaisical’ in describing the Magliozzis who joked they were about to get “even lazier”

texts:
New York Times (June 8) reported that “Hosts of ‘Car Talk’ to retire after 35 years of automotive banter.” and commented that:

  “The Magliozzis are the kind of people who wouldn’t care. Famously lackadaisical, they joked on Friday that they were about to get “even lazier.”

Cambridge online dictionary defines ‘lackadaisical’ as ‘showing little enthusiasm and effort,’ and OALD defines it as ‘not showing enough care or enthusiasm.’

According to these definitions, Magliozzi brothers look like being unenthusiastic and ‘famously lazy’ in keeping their show run.
Could it be possible for ‘unenthusiastic and effortless’ (even superficially) hosts to have maintained one of the longest running radio talk shows in the United States?

Should I take the meaning of ‘lackadaisical’ as literally as both Cambridge and OALD define? What is the exact meaning of ‘lackadaisical’ being used here?


texts: Do ‘und’ and ‘till’ make “until” a tautology?

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The English Oxford Dictionaries’ definition of the word 'until' lists the following as its etymology:

  Middle English: from Old Norse und 'as far as' + till (the sense thus duplicated)

Etymonline similarly states:

  c.1200, from O.N. und "as far as, up to" (related to O.E. end; see end) + till "until, up to".

Looking at the two entries, it seems that until is made up of two roots which mean the same thing, rendering the word something of a tautology ('up to up to'). Or does it? Etymonline also states that it is related to the word end which would effectively make the etymology of until mean, 'up to the end'. This makes some sort of sense.

The OED (online), however, does not list until as being related to end. Moreover, Etymonline does not mention und in its entry for end either, which makes things a little confusing.

So, is until something of a tautology? If so, is it unique in this aspect?


texts: Christmas Carol Sentence - use of "trial"

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I'm sorry with all my heart to find you so resolute... But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last.

This was from the chapter Marley's Ghost by Charles Dickens. I searched that homage means "respect", but what does the phrase "But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas" mean?


texts:
Your room mate asks: “Do you mind if I smoke?”.
But, you HATE smoking. What would you say? “Yes” or “No” ?

I think correct answer is "Yes".
My answered correctly?


texts:
This question was asked in a famous (more than a million candidates appear) civil services exam of India. Interpretation of the word "steadily" has caused so much confusion. Following is the question :

  Q. Consider the following statements :

  Tax revenue as a percent of GDP of India has steadily increased in the last decade.
  Fiscal deficit as a percent of GDP of India has steadily increased in the last decade.

  Which of the statements given- above is/are
  correct ?

  (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2

Statement 2 is wrong so no confusion there. As fiscal deficit decreased in recent years.

Confusion arises for statement 1, since Tax revenue as a percentage of GDP though largely increased in the last decade, but there was a slight dip in 2008-09 (Global Crisis being one of major reason). Now should this statement be right or wrong?

What would be the best interpretation of the word "steadily" here?

So much on stake of this word here. (around 50000 people will fail to make next round due to this answer)


texts: Is it wrong to say "have been in somewhere before"?

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An English-speaking friend of mine says the following sentences are incorrect, explaining that “has been in somewhere” is not related to living somewhere. But it's been my understanding they are acceptable. I think the experiential perfect is applied here.

Mary has been in Rome before.
Mary has been in Rome several times.

Instead, he adds, it would be okay to say "Mary has lived in Rome before" or "Mary has lived in Rome several times."

Also, his interpretation of the following is different from mine although I must admit there is not much context to it.

Mary has been in Rome.

My interpretation is that Mary was in Rome at some time in the past, probably implying nobody knows when she was there, how long she was there, or whether she is still there. On the contrary, his understanding is that Mary is in Rome still and has been there for some time.

Of course, we don't have any disagreement about "has been to somewhere" construction.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken.


texts:
In Katy Perry's song "Firework", there's a line that goes like this:

  After a hurricane, comes a rainbow.

I know that "hurricane" and "rainbow" are not metaphors, nor are they symbols. I was thinking "hurricane" would be a synecdoche and rainbow would be a metonymy. Is this correct?


texts:
I am writing a software that helps a user to perform one step after another. You can think of it like doing a tutorial. At the moment, each successful step needs to be confirmed by the user after it has been done.

I'd like to provide an option so that the tutorial automatically continues with the next step, when the current step is done.

Is there a nice short single word that would describe such an option?

I thought of auto-advance, but I'm not even sure that's a real English word. Also fast-forward doesn't seem to be really correct here, because it's still at the speed of the user (real time so to say).

My native language is German, and to be honest, I don't even know a suitable word there, so I can't look it up in a dictionary.


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I have a question about the meaning of this sentence.

"I can see how artificial chemicals in sodas are not really good for me"

Does this mean "I can see how bad they are for me"? (used for emphasis) or "I can see how they have a bad effect on me"? (in what way, or by what methods)

Or could it be used either way?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Which is correct, “you and I” or “you and me”?
  “Me and my wife” or “my wife and me”

Is this sentence correct "All I need is you and I " ?? since "All I need is I" seems not proper here whereas "All I need is you" does.


texts: Term for "still deciding on/looking for a religion"

texts: Someone said that it was "agnostic," but as an agnostic I know that's not it. But I was wondering if there was a word for someone who hasn't yet found a religion. Thanks!


texts: "sympathetic" : one who "feels" sympathy or "deserves" sympathy?

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Can one who others feel sympathy for, be described as sympathetic?
I've always believed that sympathetic only describes one who bestows sympathy, not one who receives sympathy.

Incorrect Example?

  Audiences found the blind orphan to be a sympathetic character.

I see similar examples so much in movie reviews that now I'm doubting myself!


texts: If we can fall in love, why can't we fall in anger?

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Although we can look back in anger, we can't fall into it.

I might argue  that the phrase,  to fall in love, has something to do with being helpless, of letting go and losing control.  But what about anger? When we're angry we lose control of our temper, we find ourselves in a "different" state, so why don't we say fall in anger or fall in hatred?

Has it always been so? Is there any grammatical, linguistic reason or justification?


texts: How can I express "sacrificing ease for quality" in a common expression?

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I'm really having a hard time to even phrase the sentence I'm looking for, sorry!

Examples would include:

A programmer telling someone he wrote a small piece of code directly
in assembly instead of C++ for increased performance.
Telling someone you could have used duct tape, which would have been quick and easy, but chose fiberglass for a longer lasting solution.

In general, the person is willing to sacrifice easy task execution in exchange for increased quality in the end result.

I'm not looking for someone to write a sentence for me, I'm looking for a common way of expressing something.


texts:
"Biweekly" means every two weeks.
What's the term for something that happens twice a week?

  We need to have _______ meetings until this crisis is over.


texts:
I'm looking for a transitive verb for 'feeling inferior'.
Example:
I was inferiorised by his burly figure.
Of course inferiorised is not a real word and it's just a placeholder for a word I'm looking for.


texts: What rules make these comparative clauses grammatical?

texts:
We invited more people than came.
Fred reads more books than Susan reads.

These than-clauses which appear in a grammar book seems weird to me. Are they grammatically acceptable?
What about the substitutions as below?
a. We invited more people than they came.
b. Fred reads more books than Susan does.


texts: Using the definite article with the phrase "in a past life"

texts: It seems like you can use only the indefinite article with this phrase, but I don't get it. You can say: "in a past life", but not "in the past life" though you can say "in the past year". What's the rule for this? Thanks in advance!


texts: What does the phrase "followed to solicit" mean in this sentence?

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The president of a large Japanese real estate firm was another. He'd sent Eisman his company's financial statements and then followed, with an interpreter, to solicit Eisman's investment. "You don't even own stock in your company," said Eisman, after the typically elaborate Japanese businessman introductions.-The Big Short by Michael Lewis

What does it mean "followed to solicit" in this sentence?


texts:
Recently, I came across the verb to bathe written as bath in two English coursebooks used by Italian students. The first time I saw it, I dismissed it as a typographical error and told my private student that the verb was bathe, but when it appeared a second time, in a different  textbook, I checked with an online dictionary and read the following definition with which I am most familiar.

  Merriam-Webster

  bath verb: to wash (someone) in a container filled with water
  "to give a bath to (someone)"
  "to have a bath" : to wash yourself in a bath

But in a different dictionary I read this

  Oxford Dictionaries
  [WITH OBJECT] British
  1. Wash (someone) while immersing them in a bath:
   how to bath a baby

  1.1 [NO OBJECT] Wash oneself while immersed in a bath:
  a)there was no hot water to bath in
  b)These are the people that quite happily let me shower and bath with no hot water for 10 days, because they couldn't be bothered to fix a tap.

I told my student that it appeared that to bath was a BrEng variation and that Americans probably didn't say or use it.

However, upon doing some research I found many websites that use bath and bathe indiscriminately, with the same meaning

How do I bath my baby? Netsmum.com (UK)
Read about how to bath your baby NCT.uk (UK)
In California it is illegal to bath two babies in the same bath at the same time. Stupid Laws.com (US) [this might be a typo]
But try not to bath more than once a day Raising Children.net.au (Aus)
You can bath the baby daily, but make sure… . Marhababy (Arab Emirates)

It’s not necessary to bathe your newborn every day Mother & Baby.com.au (Aus)
If it's easier for you to bathe the twins during the day... Parents.com (US)
The first time you bathe your baby, you may feel a bit nervous. Babycenter.in (India)
You don't need to bathe your baby every day... NHS.uk (UK)
What’s the best way to bathe my baby? InfaCare (UK)

The above shows the transitive use of the verb bath/bathe. I presume the age of the child or adult being bathed is not a key factor, it was just easier for me to search "bath/e your baby".

The phrase in one of my student's coursebook was using the intransitive form instead.

  You'll visit onsen or thermal springs where we recommend you bath
  communally like the Japanese.

Questions: Apparently, both forms are acceptable but is to bath AmEng or BrEng? Is it grammatical? (I just find it so odd.)

Finally, if the pronunciation of the verb to bath is /bɑːθ/ (UK) and /baTH/ (US) does this effect the pronunciation of the past form bathed? i.e. /bɑːθt/ (I don't think it does, but I'd just like a confirmation)


texts:
We have a sentence given below:

  I'll see you sometime in the afternoon.

In the above sentence, 'sometime' is an adverb, modifying the PP: 'in the afternoon.' The adverb 'sometime' can be expanded to the PP: 'at some time.' Now, if we rewrite the above sentence with this expanded form, we get:

  I'll see you at some time in the afternoon.

My question is: In the above sentence, can we say the PP: 'in the afternoon' is modifying the noun 'time', which in turn is modified by 'some,' finally forming the object of the preposition 'at'? This resulting PP then modifies the verb 'see'.
If the above analysis is possible, can we say that any sentence having an adverb that can be expanded to a PP, and that modifies a PP in that sentence, can be analysed in the same way as above?


texts: Word for changing from descending to ascending, and back again?

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Is there a single word for changing flow from descending to ascending?

I have a bunch of data and it is ordered A-Z, descending. When I press a button, it reverses and is now ordered Z-A, ascending.

It just made me wonder, is there a single word to describe this process of changing from descending to ascending to also back again?

I understand reverse, flip, change or perhaps invert would work fine, I just want to know if there's a specific word for this process.


texts: What does "separating spin from facts" mean?

texts:
What does it mean exactly?

  Now that China has paused to reflect and reset, and despite
  the problems facing Arjun, India is in fact the world’s fastestgrowing
  big economy. Its GDP, the nation’s income, rose by
  7 per cent in 2017, although the usual caveats about separating
  spin from facts in national statistics apply, especially in a
  country as spread out as India.


texts: One or two commas when using an "adjectival aside"?

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I never quite know if, following proper rules of punctuation, I need to place one or two commas in sentences such as:

We owe another, highly lucid, description of the principle to...
We owe another, highly lucid description of the principle to...

or, alternatively, whether I'm allowed to choose, with the first version being more of an 'aside', and the second stressing the 'lucid' aspect.
But I'm purely intuiting here, which is why I was hoping for some comments.


texts: Does "So as long as" mean the same as "Just as long as" in this sentence?

texts:
I have a question regarding a sentence in this Meta post:

Votes reversed by the detection script can be re-cast by the user at a later time, so long as the user does not again engage in serial voting which causes them to be reversed (yet again).

It says “so long as the user does not again engage in serial voting”, which I’d expect to be followed by a comma, and then followed by what would happen if the user does not engage in serial voting. But instead, it gets followed by “which”.
For example, I’d expect a sentence to flow like:

... so as long as it suits you, I wouldn’t mind.

But the sentence in the Meta post flows like:

... so as long as it suits you which I wouldn’t mind.

I've been told that it means the same as

... just as long as it suits you I wouldn’t mind.

Is this true? Is it that using a so gives the same meaning as using a just in this case?


texts: Alternatives to the "on the one hand... on the other hand" construct

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Can anyone suggest any alternatives to the "on the one hand... on the other hand" construct?

Example: (On the one hand/alternative) I like product A. (On the other hand/alternative) product B also appeals to me strongly.


texts: Meaning of nonpareil related to (savory) foodstuffs

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I've looked up the usual places for meanings of nonpareil and have found unequalled and also its usage to mean small confectionary. However, I see it used on almonds, others have reported it being used on capers, and I'm guessing there's more to the gloss when it comes to nonpareil and food items.

Anyone know what it means—for instance—when on a package of almonds?

I would like to know the etymological differences between its "unequaled" meaning which seems to apply to confectionary and its meaning on other foodstuffs. Are all the usages just chefs trying to brag, so to speak, or is there more nuance as to how these variety names and/or size classifications (or other varieties of its usage) came about? I do think it's an interesting question about words and their etymologies and how one word developed its variegated meanings is of interest (in general) to English language aficionados.


texts: What is the word or phrase of the relationship between an account and a bank?

texts:
I am looking to describe the relationship between a bank account (such as a checking account, a loan, etc.) to a bank or other financial institution.

Right now, I am using is conducted by, as in

  Account 123 is conducted by My
  Credit Union.

I have also considered is held at (or is being held at), and is managed by.

But all of these seem awkward. Are there other phrases or words for this relationship that are accurate and more elegant?


texts:
Which one of the following is most appropriate to use?
He is {off/on/in/out} to Washington?


texts:
It seems the sentence "Guess what ? Corgi butt" is quite popular: a web search provides a wealth of stickers, mugs and T-shirts with the same exact wording (and many cute corgis in different positions).
I have some trouble to understand what is the point of this sentence. Is this a reference to something? What does it mean? In what context can it be used?
Unfortunately a search in the Urban Dictionnary didn't help, it seems there is no entry for it.


texts: A rare structure need to be explained in terms of grammar: Have+ noun+ been

texts:
Dear Enlish Language & Usage Exchange members:
I was reading a text and came across a remarkable structure for me. Here is the text:

It would, I suppose, be universally agreed that seldom, if ever,  have
the powers of critical philosophy and of historical scholarship  been
united in one person to the same extent as they have been in
Lovejoy.

So members, as is seen, in the text after the word of "have" there is a bunch of nouns and then "been". To focus on a problematic part by shortening the text, I would like to say what I mean:
"It would be universally agreed that the powers of critical philosophy and of historical scholarship have been united in one person to the same extent as they have been in Lovejoy." (I remove the "I suppose" and "seldom, if ever" because I am under the impression that they are not really important).
So does what I understand is true? I mean I think this structure is present perfect tense and the author wanted to say "have been bla bla" but instead he said "have bla bla been" making the structure changed. Is that right? If it is, could you explain to me for what this structure is used? And what this structure is called in terms of grammar? For example is it inversion or somewhat different? If I understand wrongly could you explain to me the true meaning?
By the way friends, I am not a native English speaker. Therefore I understand the English text according to grammar. If you are a native speaker, ıt might be easy to understand. But for me it is not. I am trying to get used to these usages.
Thanks.


texts:
I tend to misuse commas in large way.

Whenever I draft a professional mail, I get engrossed in the points, and somewhere along the way I get the feeling that this sentence is too long. I then start putting in commas to separate out thoughts. This often leads me to situations where I start using "He has done well, but a lot remains" etc.
How do I stop this usage and start using the English language properly?

P.S. English is not my native language.


texts: A word to describe the state of forgetting something

texts:
I'm looking for a word to describe the state one is when forgetting something.

"Forgetful" seems not accurate, as this is more of a general character of not remembering things.

I'm talking about someone who realized he forgot something, and wants to refer to this state. e.g. John realized he forgot something, and wondered how long was he ______ (in the state of forgetting that something).

Does such a word exists?


texts: Is there an umbrella word for "Installment" "Lender" "Financier" and "Investor"

texts:
I have multiple category of clients:

Installment payment provider
Startup/Project Financier or Investor
Money lender

I am looking for an umbrella word suitable to substitute the above in general.


texts: Question about a sentence from the novel “The Death of the Heart”

texts:
The circle of traffic tightens at this hour round Regent’s Park; cars hummed past without a break; it was just before lighting-up time – quite soon the All Out whistles would sound. At the far side of the road, dusk set the Regency buildings back at a false distance: against the sky they were colourless silhouettes, insipidly ornate, brittle, and cold. The blackness of windows not yet lit or curtained made the houses look hollow inside. (pg. 9)

In this part, what does "set the Regency buildings back at a false distance" mean? Particularly I'm not sure about "false distance." Also I don't understand "the All Out whistles." I looked up the dictionary and googled this expression but to no avail. Can somebody explain them?
By the way, the setting of this novel is 1930s London.
I appreciate your help.


texts: What does it mean: "You'll just be spending your day working to overcome strains, trying to live your life and at various points facing the resignation that if you can't get your *** of this wheel maybe you are never going to get to where you want in life." What means "facing the resignation"? I suppose it means accept that you can't achieve anything without hard work. Am I right?


texts:
The time of day when the sun at its zenith, relative to the observer, is called "noon."

What is the lunar equivalent?  "Moon's zenith" sounds so clunky.


texts: Metaphors for Computation: Usage of "Before" and "Below"

texts:
Are "before" and "below" interchangeable?

In context, the example is

  medical expenses before the AGI floor

when the intended meaning apparently is

  medical expenses below the AGI floor

The example comes from a textbook on tax accounting and these two interpretations are diametrically opposed.


texts:
What does "take a call" mean?
Let me cite two references:

Congress President Sonia Gandhi will take a call on the candidature of around a dozen relatives of leaders, including that of President's son, for the October 13 assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Another reference:

We have certain guidelines & policy in delivering consignments safely & any violation in safety will not be tolerated.
If you don’t want to abide by our policy, then you are free to take a call on continuing your business with our organization.

What does "take a call" mean in the above contexts? The meaning of the phrase appears to be to "take decision". But, I do not find the phrase in any dictionary.
Can anyone shed some light?


texts: the function of "as" in the following sentence

texts:
"But so far, we haven't seen a groundswell of private donations as we often see in major disasters."

In the sentence above, is "as" a conjunction or a relative pronoun?

I ask this question because I think there should be an objective after "see" if "as" is an conjunction.


texts: What is 'more correct' way to finish the letter?

texts:
Is it

  Hope to hear from you soon.

or

  I look forward to hearing from you soon.

or neither?


texts:
I know that this might seem like an obvious answer to some of you, but when I research "word for something that stands out," I get synonyms for "stand out." I do not need a synonym for the verb "stand out"; I need a noun for something that stands out. Here is my sentence:

Those are just three things that stood out to me.

This is a formal paper, so including what I have above in my paper is not going to work. Any help is appreciated. :)
NOTE: I am not looking for "sore thumb"; the term "sore thumb" is more appropriate for a negative context, and what I am referring to within my paper is not negative whatsoever.


texts: What is the correct usage of the question mark when using a subsequent parenthesis?

texts:
Is this the correct use of the question mark?  Should it be at the end outside of the closing bracket?  See example below

  How do we deliver it? (to the learner)


texts:
I am having a problem defining the British English grammar used here.

The context is that I am chatting with my brother about taking my sister to see the sequel to a film and I do know if she has seen the first film. Seeing the second film is contingent on the first film having been watched. It doesn't matter if she has seen it now or after now, but need to have seen it at some point in order to satisfy the condition. So I say:

  She will have had to have seen the first film.

I do not know if it makes a difference if the sequel is at a fixed time in the future or any time in the future.


texts:
There were no books in the modern sense: there were scrolls. Roman economy was a pretty complicated thing, though, which means some form of bookkeeping had to exist.

If you were to write a novel or a play about the Roman Empire, what would you call a bookkeeper? Someone who's good at math and will, for a fee, shuffle parchment or papyrus for an Emperor who's just hired an architect and a bunch of engineers and contractors to build an aqueduct?


texts: What does the word "also" indicate in this sentence?

texts:
"It is also my favorite quotation. "

Does this sentence mean that this is my favorite quotation in addition to other quotations which are my favorites, or does it mean that I am a person who has this quotation as a favorite, in addition to the persons who have this quotation as a favorite?

Does "also" indicate the presence of more (favorite) quotations, or more persons who have this quotation as a favorite?

If it is the former, how what is the correct way express the later?

I mean if a person says, "This is my favorite quotation", how should I express that I also have it in the list of my favorites? Should I say, "It is also my favorite."? I want it to be more formal than "Mine too".

A side question which arose while asking the question above:

Is the following sentence correct from the perspective of punctuation?

I mean if a person says, "This is my favorite quotation", how should I express that I also have it in the list of my favorites?


texts: Use of superscript 'x'(?) as an abbreviation for 'yards'

texts:
I'm currently working with some handwritten notes that look like they could be quite old, or at least written by somebody who grew up a little bit earlier than I did. I don't really know when they were written, but judging by the style of handwriting, I feel like they could be a few decades old. They were almost certainly written by a British person.

Anyway, a few times in these notes, I find what I'm certain is a superscript letter 'x' used as an abbreviation for 'yards'. It is most certainly an abbreviation for yards, because I happen to have the printed notice that my writer was making notes on and the distance in the original is in yards.

I'm just interested why a superscript 'x' should be used as an abbreviation for 'yards', how common it was, and when (if ever) it fell out of regular use. Just because I'm seeing it for the first time, doesn't mean it's fallen completely out of use!

Other examples:

Comparisons with this writer's 'y':


texts: If a degree title (e.g., BSc, MSc, PhD, ...) is coupled with the subject (e.g., Physics, Biology, Chemistry, ...), should one use the word "in" in-between (e.g., MSc Physics, or MSc in Physics)? For example, on a CV, what would be the appropriate use?


texts:
My English teacher ripped our heads off if we tried to explain something that we couldn't really describe by adding "something like that".

Sample: "This is a board game or something like that".

What are the better alternatives? "Something similar"?


texts:
If I want to form the plural of “Valentine’s” as a short form of “Saint Valentine’s Day” – where do I put the apostrophe(s)? Is it possible at all?

I believe that Valentines’, although the normal plural form of a genitive ending in “s”, would be wrong here since that would mean “the day of the people who are called Valentine”. So what’s right? Valentine’s’ ?

Here’s an example of where I’d use this form:

  She had spent so many Valentine’s’ alone that she now loathed the very mention of this day.

– Of course I could simply write it out … but where’s the fun in that?


texts: Difference between "invoice" and "bill"?

texts:
I am talking about something you should pay. "Invoice" here doesn't mean the proof of payment.
Sometimes I am told to pay my "bill", and sometimes they may refer to the similar paper (physical or virtual) as "invoice". The only difference I can think of is that "invoice" seems to be something you pay before you use while "bill" is the opposite. But this distinction is not clear since my university also calls the tuition fee as invoice now (I am already studying when I pay the "invoice").

Could someone tell me the difference?


texts: "Bias": reason(s) for doubling the last consonant before inflectional endings

texts:
Forms such as concussed or discusses may lead people to wrongly double the final consonant of focus ―at least that's the only reason I have come up with.
Yet, I cannot come up with a potential explanation of why people wrongly write biassed or the plural biasses, but not aliasses


texts: Is there a standard for speaking "1500" as "one thousand five hundred" versus "fifteen hundred"?

texts:
I was asked by a French colleague, and had no clear answer, whether it's more correct to say "One thousand five hundred" or "fifteen hundred" when speaking the number 1500. Putting aside how we say dates, which have their own formula.

After some thought, my best answer was I tended to say "fifteen hundred" when dealing with abstract things ("fifteen hundred dollars") that I tend to think of as a unit (when I think of $1500, I think of that sum, not of 1500 individual dollar bills), but "one thousand five hundred" when dealing with countable objects, like "there are one thousand five hundred marbles in the box."

I was wondering if there was a standard or guidance documents, possibly for broadcast, that would provide some sort of structured answer to the question.


texts:
So the demonym of Kiribati is "i-Kiribati". Apart from being cool, what is the correct way of writing this? Would it be a capital "I" all the time? eg. "I'm an I-Kiribati" or would it be a small "i" depending on the sentence of course eg. "I'm an i-Kiribati".

A similar question can be asked for the Maldives. Is it the Maldives or The Maldives?


texts: What does schizo mean in “schizophrenia” and “schizo tech”?

texts:
TV Tropes says that the Naruto universe lives in Schizo Tech.

  The universe essentially mixes feudal society with modern technology (and clothing). The only exceptions are things like cars and guns. The only fields of technology which are outdated are transportation and military.

It also goes on to explain that Schizo Tech is

  The setting and timeline may seem at first to be The Middle Ages, The Colonial Period, or some Fantasy Counterpart Culture thereof, but when you look closer, you find polyester, robots, or other high-tech toys in between the horse-drawn wagons and wattle-and-daub buildings. There's generally no rhyme or reason for which technologies are anachronistically present besides the Rule of Cool.

So some technology exists while others do not.

What does the term schizo mean? It's in schizophrenia and Schizo Tech

I think it's Latin or Greek but I don't know where else should I ask this.

After all, isn't schizophrenia an English word?


texts:
I read it in an article and I don't understand the meaning of it.
"not without some merit".
From the context I guess the meaning is: there is some sense in it.
However I don't find in the dictionary (vocabulary.com or thefreedictionary.com) an explanation that apt my understanding.
Nor I've found an expression with "merit" that can explain it.

The article is here:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/03/hi-tech-silicon-valley-cult-populism


texts:
I have the following sentence:

  The contents of those zip files are normally installed from the Setup.

I found I have to use contents instead of content in the sentence.  However, do I have to use the contents are or the contents is?  I guess it's "are", but it just sounds wrong. (I am a French speaker, and "contenu" is never plural in French, so that might explain why I think "are" is wrong.)


texts: Simple vs Continuous in the Past Tense and in the Future Tense

texts:
Even though I understand the difference between the simple and the continuous aspect of the English tense system, I sometimes struggle to understand what each of these two aspects expresses in some past and future contexts. Let me give you two examples:

  1a. When I was a teenager I sometimes called my father.

  1b. When I was a teenager I sometimes was calling my father.

  2a. This is the last time we are seeing each other. I will sometimes call you.

  2b. This is the last time we are seeing each other. I will be sometimes calling you.

I get the meaning expressed by the past simple and the future simple in the above example sentences but I`m not feeling the continuous. Could you tell me what meaning does the continuous aspect convey in those?


texts: :What is the difference between "Road", "Avenue", "Street"?

texts: As shown in the title. What is the difference between Road, Avenue, and Street?


texts: One letter refers to two sounds — what is it called?

texts:
There are words where one letter refers to two different sounds, e.g. eighth, where T exists itself and also makes a /θ/ sound, or threshold, which is sometimes pronounced with a /h/ sound, especially in AmE. H in this word also forms a /ʃ/ sound.

So my question is: what are such words or this phenomenon called?


texts:
What would be an appropriate word to be used to define the feeling of having great food when you were really hungry?

or in other words

what will be the appropriate word for hungry if need to be used in the similar sense of quenching for being thirsty?


texts:
I am confused with the usage of 'should'. For example, when I want to give advice to another person, I feel that it is not polite to say "you should XX" and I would like to add 'maybe', just to make the tone softer, milder. Is it true that "you should " is more appropriate than "you can"?
how to give advice politely?


texts: Where can I find a list of words that contain one or more spaces, such as ice cream?

texts:
This post asked if ice cream was one word or two.

John Lawler's comment seems logical and accurate to me:

  "Space: The Final Frontier. The answer to the question is "Yes". That
  is, some people consider it one word, and others two, so it is
  considered one word or two. Seriously, word is not well-enough defined
  to allow such precise counting."

J.R. also makes a great point:

  "It depends on your definition of "word". For most situations, if a
  two-word phrase gets its own entry in the dictionary, then I regard it
  as a single word. But Scrabble players would disagree, and they'd all
  scream if I tried to play ICECREAM."

Lastly, JeffSahol makes another fine point with

  "Here's a possible test: if it could be listed by the US Army in
  reverse order (as in "Sauce, Tomato"), then it's two words.
  Unfortunately, they don't put ice cream in MREs. :)"

Where/How can I find a list of all English words that contain more than one space, such as ice cream, (but not including phrases like tomato sauce)?

I have asked a question here before and it was closed and deleted for being off-topic, but it was very much on-topic and relevant. If this question also gets closed, I will lose all hope in this community.


texts:
I was travelling, and I was standing in a spot where I could see three Starbucks shops. Rather than thinking "North American cultural imperialism", my brain had a melt down over what the plural of "Starbucks" was?

Some Googling suggests "Starbuckses" but that sounds awkward to my ear (well, hearing aid).

Is Starbucks already plural?


texts:
Does a coordinate clause include a coordinator (/coordinating conjunction)?
For example:
"It was apple-blossom time, and the days were getting warmer."
Is "and the days were getting warmer" a coordinate clause?
Or is it "the days were getting warmer" (without "and") that is a coordinate clause?
Which does the coordinator "and" belong in?
https://www.thoughtco.com/coordinate-clause-grammar-1689804

In English grammar, a coordinate clause is a clause (i.e., a word group containing a subject and predicate) that is introduced by one of the coordinating conjunctions--most commonly and or but.

Practical English Usage

co-ordinate clause one of two or more main or subordinate clauses of equal 'value' that are connected. Examples: Shall I come to your place or would you like to come to mine?; It's cooler today and there's a bit o f a wind; she said that it was late and that she was tired. See also main clause, subordinate clause.


texts: "The one what is blue" - WHAT versus THAT

texts:
I have a student who consistently uses "what" for "that" as in "The one what is blue."  I need to come up with a rule(s) that would work for a 3rd grader, and am having difficulty finding anything.  Lots of pages for "that" vs. "which" and when to use, or not use "that"  But no simple way to help remember this particular piece of grammar.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

FYI, this is not dialectical...no one in the family or around this area says it that way.


texts:
I just wondering if the meaning of the following sentences are equivalent? I know the difference between past and perfect tenses. So I'm just trying to ask if I can use first sentence instead of the second and vice verse?

  She refused her knowing him.

or

  She refused her having known him.

Thanks.


texts: How do you distinguish between the two possible distances meant by "five blocks"?

texts:
In American towns and cities, blocks are not usually perfectly
square.  If I am correct, the south–north side of a block is
several times longer than its west–east side is.
So five blocks can mean a short distance to walk or it can mean a
long distance to walk, depending on which side of the block one
takes.
Do you distinguish those two cases instead of just saying five
blocks, and if so, how?


texts: Why is "doing" used here instead of "to do"?

texts:
I have read this question: “I like to do (be) something” vs “I like doing (being) something” and I get (although the answer could not be applied to my example) that using "to do" means in general I like to do it. While "doing", means I'm doing it at the moment or soon will be.

I found the following example in a grammar book:

  Exercise means doing something with the body.

Shouldn't it be "Exercising means doing..." or "Exercise means to do..." or maybe "To exercise means doing ..."

-I don't get why exercise is used as a noun here.

-I don't get why doing is used instead of to do and if they are interchangeable (without context)


texts: Can something be 'inviting' AND 'daunting'

texts: Can something be inviting and daunting? How mutually exclusive are the words inviting and daunting? I know that they are not as exclusive as "BRIGHT" and "DARK" (i.e. something cannot be both bright and dark), but what about 'inviting' and 'daunting'


texts: English word for a decorated opening letter

texts:
What is the English name for a highly decorated letter at the beginning of a paragraph, mostly found in ancient texts?

For example, in the following Opening folio of the Hengwrt manuscript of the Canterbury Tales, the letter W - the first letter in the page - is beautifully painted.


texts: A single word or phrase for the subjects in school

texts:
Is there a word or phrase that covers all subjects of the basic educational subjects (i.e. math, reading, science, writing, history)? I know of the "Three Rs", but I'm looking for something more formal. Here's the context, if that helps:

  To this day, many societies continue to believe that education should be based around _____.


texts: Transformation of tenses in conditional sentences

texts:
which one of these is more appropriate -

If she knew i was with someone who i didn't even know she would be worried .

If she knew i am with someone who i don't even know she would be worried .

And i am referring to a situation which is still true . Which one would be better .


texts: "In the sense that risk analysts' use the term": correct apostrophe?

texts:
While reading a book, I encountered a sentence that I cannot grammatically understand.

  Terrorism is often 'available' in the sense that risk analysts' use the term, in large part because of media coverage.

I would like to know about the usage of the apostrophe, and the meaning of the phrase "in the sense that risk analysts' use the term".   Is the phrase "analysts' use the term" grammatically correct?


texts: In website filters, is it correct to include "ago" in, for example, "Earlier than one year ago"?

texts:
On one of the websites I have recently visited, it allowed me to filter the articles published by month/year. The wordings were something like this,

Earlier than one year ago (29000)
one year ago - one month ago (1500)
one month ago - one week ago (4)
one week ago - today (1)
today (2)

Bracket has the number of articles in that filter. I am not sure if this the correct wording.

Especially the Earlier than one year ago. Can anyone confirm if the use of the word ago is correct here?


texts: Identifying Compound words in Modern English

texts:
Compound words like SNOWMAN etc, are obvious compound words in Modern English, as both words that make up the compound word exist as words in Modern English.
However, words like SHEPHERD aren't words made up of 2 actual English words (SHEP isn't a word in Modern English), but was originally a compound word in Old English (the word originates from Middle English schepherde, from Old English sċēaphierde, a compound of sċēap (“sheep”) and hierde (“herdsman”)) or a compound word in another language like Latin for example. In these instances, would these words (words that seem like compound words but aren't made up of 2 actual English words) be defined as "compound words" in Modern English?
Secondly, is https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_compound_words a reliable/accurate source for identifying whether a specific word is a compound word?
EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION: I'm sorry for the vagueness of the question, as I'm asking as layman who's confused about the conditions for a word to be defined as a compound word. For clarification, I'm referring only to closed compound words (just a single word) and more specifically words being spelled/written out. And my interpretation of compound words matches what Edwin Ashworth has quoted, 'Compounding derives a new word by joining two morphemes that would each usually be free morphemes.' and I define a free morpheme as 'a morpheme that can stand alone as its own word'. My issue with SHEP in SHEPHERD is that SHEP isn't a word in the dictionary, which is why I am uncertain as to whether SHEPHERD meets the requirement to be a compound word.
My questions are:
(Q1): is SHEPHERD a compound word?
(Q2): does a (closed) compound word have to be made up of 2 or more english words that exist in the dictionary (SNOW+MAN = SNOWMAN)?
(whereas shep is typically not a word in the dictionary, thus I do not think of it as a free morpheme)
(Q3): if the answer to (Q1) is yes, did SHEPHERD inherit its status as a compound word due to it evolving from the Old English "sċēaphierde" which is a compound word formed by sċēap and hierde?


texts: Why have etymologists assigned multiple meanings to the word "wraith"?

texts:
I was recently reading about the etymology of the word "wraith". Its first recorded appearance is in a Scots translation of Virgil's Aeneid and the word appears twice.

  "The wraithis walkis of goistis that ar ded"

  "Thyther went this wrath or schaddo of Ene"

The derivation of the word is uncertain. Some linguists believe it is related to the Old English "writhan": to writhe, or twist up.

Anyway, that's lost to time and is not what interests me. The author asserts that the two quotes are contradictory. In the first, the wraith the ghost of a dead person. In the second the character Aeneas, who is very much alive, is described as being shadow-like in the underworld.

Based on these quotes from the Aeneid, dictionary definitions have assigned multiple meanings to the word. Here's the example from the top of the Google search.

  a ghost or ghostlike image of someone, especially one seen shortly
  before or after their death.
  used in reference to a pale, thin, or insubstantial person or thing.
  a wisp or faint trace of something.

Others have made the contradiction explicit, an earlier version of the OED actually using the word "living" in defining the second meaning of the word.

My question is this: when I read the two quotes from Scots, it seems easy to reconcile the difference. To do so, one merely uses the second definition: something pale or insubstantial. The word then makes sense when used for living things or dead.

How, then did the word come to be so closely associated with ghosts, to the point where dictionary compilers felt the need to make it the top definition? Is this down to Tolkien? While tempting, I suspect the "earlier" OED definition predates Lord of the Rings, although I cannot prove it.


texts: What would you call a pleading before a judge or God

texts:
Is there a noun or adjective for the following or similar:

a pleading before a judge for clemency
a prayer before God begging for mercy

Is there a better word than "begging", "pleading", "petitioning", etc.?


texts: "Guess the animal" or "Guess what animal it is"?

texts:
A child is talking to another child:

  "Hey! Guess what animal it is. It is white and black and has a long neck."

or

  "Hey! Guess the animal. It is white and black and has a long neck."

Which one is correct?


texts: Do average native-speakers have difficulties in correctly pronouncing science-related words?

texts: Do average native-speakers have difficulties in correctly pronouncing science-related words ( e.g. 'coelenterate' or 'chelicerae')?


texts: What would be a single word or phrase to describe someone who disregards society and its unwritten rules?

texts:
Maybe the English language doesn't have a word to describe this kind of person? Perhaps the word or phrase is another untranslatable language? (For example, Ukiyo: “The floating world” Which refers to living in the moment and being detached from all other bothers in life)

Maybe someone here knows the foreign words and its language?


texts: Is this statement gramatically correct ? - " All we seek is the tiniest of drop in an ocean of knowledge"

texts:
I see two versions to it being correct.

1)- All we seek is the tiniest drop in an ocean of knowledge.

2)- All we seek are the tiniest of drops in an ocean of knowledge.

I want to know if the original sentence is correct as well ?


texts: My Grandchildren say "May you pass the salt" etc. They say their teachers say this is ok. To me it sounds very clumsy and I had never heard it used except by them. They have grown in Wiltshire while we are south Hampshire. Is it regional?


texts: Does joining two independent explanatory clauses with only a comma necessarily produce a comma splice?

texts:
Recently, I wrote a sentence of the following form:

Yes, you can do that, you just need to press that red button.

A reader took issue with this sentence, as he believed it was an ungrammatical comma splice. In his opinion, since the sentence contains two independent clauses with no coordinating conjunction, it must be punctuated thusly:

Yes, you can do that; you just need to press that red button.

Abstractly, this argument makes sense to me: these do, indeed, seem like two independent clauses. But to my eye, the sentence with the semicolon reads worse. It seems to me that the essence of the sentence is the answer, “Yes, you just need to press the red button,” and the intervening clause “you can do that” is largely a parenthetical aside. Perhaps a more explicit way of highlighting that interpretation would be to use em dashes:

Yes—you can do that—you just need to press that red button.

This seems unambiguously grammatical, but it, too, reads worse to me, as it interrupts the conversational flow of the sentence.
Intuitively, I feel confident that my version of the sentence is harmless, perhaps even preferable, but I don’t understand why. Is there some alternate way to grammatically interpret my sentence that does not involve a comma splice? And even if the answer is no, do any manuals of style discuss this sort of construction?


texts: Punctuation inside or outside quotations

texts:
I was taught that punctuation goes inside quotes.
For example, this would be wrong:

Mama opts to give Maggie the quilts because “Maggie knows how to quilt".

But someone was reading my essay and told me I'm wrong.
Please clarify. I'm confused :(


texts:
"People shouldn't have to know that they are leaving digital footprints all over the place"

What does "shouldn't have to know" mean?   Does it mean that "they do not need to know"? or "they should not be obligated to know sth"?


texts:
1) Suppose there is a very stupid person. Is it correct to tell that he/she is 'literally nuts'?

2) What about using it if the person is mentally ill?

This came up in an informal talk with my friend. I understand that 'nuts' is informal/slang.
Thanks


texts: What do you call a man who knows well how to fix his household appliances?

texts: Some men are really good at fixing things, especially the household appliances while they're not specialists or technician. Is there any words to explain these people?


texts: Why do Americans call single beds 'twin beds'?

texts:
In America, a bed suitable for a single person (child) to sleep in is known as a 'twin bed', whereas in England it is a 'single bed'.

Any ideas on why it is called a twin bed in America?


texts:
In this article, I saw the phrase tens of thousands. Normally, I understand tens of thousands means some number between 10.000 to 90.000. But in this situation, I don't really understand it:

Oganessian reported his discovery to Flerov on his return. At first his mentor appeared dismissive – the usual fate for a successful guerrilla. It was only when the president of the USSR Academy of Sciences visited Jinr that Flerov pointed to Oganessian and said ‘He produces transuranes in their tens of thousands.’ The president, realising what this meant, gave Oganessian a kiss on his cheek.

What does tens of thousands mean in this situation?
Please explain to me.
Thanks


texts:
What exactly is the difference in meaning between the questions

  Do you want to join us?

and

  Did you want to join us?

in the context of a group of people asking asking another person who happens to be in the same place (for example, friends having dinner in a restaurant and bumping into another friend).

I would use the first variant, because to me "did" implies that the person who is asked had made up his/her mind before the question was asked.


texts: Why is the singular of “week” used in “two-week business trip”?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Pluralization rule for “five-year-old children”, “20 pound note”, “10 mile run”

According to Google, it is correct to say "two-week business trip" instead of "two-weeks business trip". So "week" word should be used in singular form which looks strange for me as non-native speaker. Is there any special rule for this kind of phrases?


texts: What is meant by " Scorpions opened for upcoming British band UFO."

texts:
Well I've seen that sentence in wiki; an article about a rock band called Scorpions. I'm a little bit confusing on the verb used in this sentence.
Scorpions opened for upcoming band UFO. What does that mean? What is opened
by Scorpion? That sentence is about one of the tour of the band. So I'm really
eager to know what is opened by Scorpions for UFO. Thank you.


texts:
I have always been intrigued by the word usage in the title of this Bob Dylan song. Wikipedia mentions that the song was influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads:

  Dylan recalled writing the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the moment. In 1985, he told Cameron Crowe: "This was definitely a song with a purpose. It was influenced of course by the Irish and Scottish ballads ...'Come All Ye Bold Highway Men', 'Come All Ye Tender Hearted Maidens'. I wanted to write a big song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and allied together at that time.

Is there a dialect where the form a-<gerund> is common? e.g. a-cooking, a-cleaning, etc.
If so, in what context would you use the form a-<gerund>?


texts: "It's 20 meters thick" versus "It's a 20-meter-thick layer."

texts: I know that both of these expressions are correct, but I'd like to be able to explain exactly why the first one is correct. Of course compound adjectives are hyphenated (second expression), but in the first expression, exactly what parts of speech are "20" and "meters"? Is "20 meters thick" a predicate adjective that is not hyphenated because it's a predicate rather than an attributive adjective phrase that precedes the noun "layer"? Is "20" an adjective? This is so intuitive that I can't articulate the rules behind it -- but I need to for a scientific colleague.


texts: What kind of psychic is this one called?

texts:
What is the name given to a psychic who can only see random true future visions (but not read minds, use telepathy ...)?

Example: Carl sees random visions about the future in his dreams. He had a vision of a future scene in a TV show.


texts: what does "gopher" means in computer programming context?

texts:
what does "Gopher" means in computer programming context?
Like this:
Great, now you know how to use interfaces, and I don’t need to talk about them any more, right? Well, no, not really. Let’s look at a few things that aren’t very obvious to the budding gopher.
and:
Beginner gophers are led to believe that “v is of any type”, but that is wrong.
source:
http://jordanorelli.com/post/32665860244/how-to-use-interfaces-in-go
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(programming_language)
or:
Elite ‘Gopher Team’

nice answer
Thank you all


texts: Framing a question to which you reply with "I am the third born in my family"

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Framing a question to which the answer is an ordinal number

would it be if i asked what is your relative position terms of birth order in your family


texts: Is “Would rather have had one’s tooth pulled than doing,” an idiom or common saying?

texts:
I found the following quote from Sally Ozonof the MIND Institute of the University of California, who discovered that some children who exhibit symptoms of autism recover completely in “Quotation of the Today’s” of New York Times (January 16):

  "I know many of us as would rather have had our tooth pulled than use
  the word 'recover,' it was so unscientific. Now we can use it, though
  I think we need to stress that it's rare."

Is “Would rather have had one’s tooth pulled than doing (saying / using)” an idiom or common saying?

In connection with this quote, what is the function of ‘as’ in "I know many of us as would rather have had our tooth pulled ...”? Does it make no sense, if I remove ‘as’ from this sentence?


texts: What do you call each "part" or "content piece" of a magazine?

texts:
I'm trying to come up with the right term to refer to a "part" of a magazine. That is, one word that can refer to any "piece of content" within an issue of a magazine: the "leader", any individual "letter from the readers" (not the entire page of "letters from the readers"), any "article" or any other kind of... "content piece".

What do you call these? It can't be "pages", because a "piece of content" can be much less (or more) than one page.

"Entities"? "Content blobs"? I don't even know the correct word in my native language, so I can't translate it to find out.


texts: "Checking" vs. "chequing" vs. "chequeing" with regards to types of bank accounts

texts:
I came across this little dilemma when looking up the incorrectly spelled word "chequing" in my web browser's dictionary (Opera). According to the different dictionaries you can select in Opera:

EN US is "Checking" (Which I knew)

EN GB and EN ZA is "Chequeing" (Which looks really strange to me)

Here in Canada I've always seen and used "Chequing", which I actually thought was the GB version.

Example of BBC using "chequeing": Link

So how many versions are there? Which is technically the right version for Canada and Great Britain?


texts: is there a similar expression for a woman who we want to express sympathy? Thank you.


texts: What does "counter" refer to in "countersink"?

texts:
(Non-english questioner) To countersink means to drill a sloped hole so that screw heads can sink into the material to be hidden.
In German for example the term for this action is "senken", which would translate to only "sink" (not "countersink", which would literally translate to German "gegensenken" - which doesn't make any sense in German).
I know the followng meanings of "counter":

a "mechanism" to increase numbers
something like "opposite" or "reverse" (like in "counterattack")
the furniture in a shop or bar where the salesperson works

None of them makes sense for screws. What exactly does "counter" mean here?


texts: I'm making a presentation and I need to know if I should use "duplicated data" or "duplicate data". Is there any difference? I'm talking about removing observations of a database that are duplicates.


texts: A vague definition in a dictionary, "shag：a sexual partner of a specified ability". Is there any better or plainer explanation?

texts:
I'm not a native English-reader, I'm Chinese. So mostly I get meanings of words by consulting dictionaries. I read this in a dictionary about the word shag:

  a sexual partner of a specified ability.

Sexual partner is quite understandable to me, but what does "of a specified ability" refer to?
Sexual ability?

Could there be any better explanation which would give me a plainer idea of it or are there words synonymous with shag?


texts: Would it be weird if I use the word "prevailing" in this context?

texts:
Mud flat is prevailing in the country

Is it weird to use "prevailing" to say there are many mud flat places ??


texts:
Kind of new to this, so I hope I'm posting this appropriately.

I was recently given a bulk of text that was translated to English, supposedly intended for publication in some capacity.

While my task didn't involve the linguistics, I was nonetheless puzzled by the fact that the contents, detailed by the writer from his perspective (and apparently translated quite literally), are always in the present tense, including when describing past events (to the point where in some cases it becomes nearly impossible to tell if he's referring to past or present things).

My question is this: in the following sample...

  That first week in July 1992 is a time for decisions, and by its end, I make a personal decision to do whatever I can to get assigned to the team. It is a commitment with a goal, but with no guarantee of success.... In my opinion, such decisions serve as many-sided contracts of sorts: between the decision-maker and himself, and between the decision-maker and the other participants - and priorities determine our decision-making processes.... It is clear to me that this is a really difficult challenge, but at this stage I'm deciding to go for it regardless.

...shouldn't the first two lines and the last line at the end essentially be shifted to the past tense?

  That first week in July 1992 was a time for decisions, and by its end, I made a personal decision to do whatever I could to get assigned to the team. It was a commitment with a goal, but with no guarantee of success... In my opinion, such decisions serve as many-sided contracts of sorts: between the decision-maker and himself, and between the decision-maker and the other participants - and priorities determine our decision-making processes... It was clear to me that day that this was a really difficult challenge, but at that stage, I decided to go for it regardless.

Or is the original sample grammatically correct, and this is merely an issue of a style that just seems unusual to me?

Thank you in advance!


texts:
Which usage of the word opposite is correct?

  Their house is opposite to the Red Cross Hospital.
  Their house is opposite the Red Cross Hospital.

I cannot seem to find a definite answer on the Internet.


texts:
I think it's the right place to ask. English is not my native, so while I'm able to understand a majority of puns I come acrossб this one puzzles me:

Here's a link to the image.


texts: Why do definite articles seem implicit in English?

texts:
I was thinking about the translation for "life" (as in everyday living) in french which translates "vie". However, in spoken language you would always refer to "la vie" in french and never to "the life" in English.

How and why did English seem to make determiners implicit (or French explicit)?


texts: I found the sentence "She accepted the award with a becoming humility" as an example of the use of the word "becoming" in Merriam Webster Advanced Learner's English Dictionary. Is the use of the indefinite article in that sentence correct? I thought that humility can be used only as an uncountable noun.


texts:
In answering the question Is there a term for “midnight” that is like “noon”, I came across the phrase noonday night listed as a synonym for midnight in my copy of Roget's International Thesaurus—attributed to Longfellow. I included the reference in my answer, but after reading the passage more carefully, I'm not so sure it is referring to the middle of the night. Searching this phrase turns up many usages by other authors, but I'm unable to determine from them what exactly is being referred to.

I'm wondering if it could be a description of an eclipse, or some permutation of the midnight sun phenomenon. Can anyone offer some insight? What did this phrase originally mean and when was it first used?


texts:
What is the origin of the phrase "to be in fat city" meaning "to do well" (financially or otherwise)? A search with an internet search engine suggests that it is of fairly recent vintage, as the two earliest occurrences in newspapers I could locate are from the 1990s:

http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-20/local/me-36359_1_earthquake-readiness
I kept thinking we would be in fat city if the house was left standing.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/03/realestate/appraising-the-role-of-the-appraiser.html
When the appraisers got licensed they thought they would be in fat city, but Federal licensing standards are so high that they had to do a lot more work.


texts: If Atheism is the rejection of all deities equally what is the polar opposite?

texts: If an 'atheist' is someone that does not believe in all deities with equal disbelief, what would you call someone that believes in all deities equally?


texts: Difference between "jargon" and "technical terms"

texts: Each subject matter has its own set of terms called jargon which is expressed in its particular grammatical rules. Technical terminology or Term of Art is the specialized vocabulary of any specialized field of knowledge, not just technical fields. So what is the difference between jargon and technical terms?


texts: Is nonnumbered a word? My spell check let it slip by, and I can't find out why. Why is it wrong if it is wrong. Is there a conflict with the use of non and ed in the same word.


texts:
For the purpose of poetry, can one use "those" as a two-syllable word (tho-uhz)? Or is it always one syllable, as in normal usage?

Minimal (contrived) example of the possible, or impossible, use:

Those powerful in might,
Shall they see a greater light?

Intended to be read in exactly the same rhythm as:

They are powerful in might,
Shall they see a greater light?


texts: A single word adjective for "having only one interpretation; leaving no doubts"

texts:
I am looking for an adjective with a meaning:
this is definite, clear, and there's no room for misinterpretation; nothing's left variadic.

For example: logical statements have only one, very strict interpretation. The purpose of the word is similiar: to be used for a mathematical model thoroughly describing a real object. The real object comes in tons of varieties, but the model points to strictly only one.

I've searched the uncle Google and came up with unequivocal but that doesn't seem right.


texts:
I have been reading Walter Kauffman's books about Nietzsche and came across the sentence

  Goethe served Nietzsche as a perfect model of overman.

Nietzsche was hugely influenced by Goethe (providing background information). Does the sentence mean that to Nietzsche, Goethe was a perfect example of an overman?


texts: Past tense and the phrase "who knows what"

texts:
The phrase "who knows what" and other variations of it refer to unknown things, for a lack of a better descriptor. When writing a story in the past tense, would this phrase change?

His pocket contained a key ring, spare coins, folded-up slips of paper, and who knows what else.
Compared to:
His pocket contained a key ring, spare coins, folded-up slips of paper, who knew what else.

Is using the present tense considered inconsistent? Is one preferable to the other?


texts: In my example, is there a clever way to remove the dashes?

texts: This raises concerns because people who are 21 years-old and are now legally able to drink — but were born before the 15th of the month of their 21st birthday — will not be accounted for.


texts: I want to refer to Bill Gates on his blog with respect in the comments section

texts:
One way to address Bill Gates with respect would be to simply write Sir, but I don't want other readers to get confused about who I'm referring to.  How do I refer to him with respect without creating  any confusion?  Another way I thought of is to just use "Mr. Gates", which is appropriate and  it doesn't even create confusion. But what if I do really want to make use of "Sir" if I feel this conveys more respect? What would be correct, Sir Bill or Sir William?

Also, I want to know if my idea that "Sir" conveys more respect is really correct or if it is just my misconception and I'd sound like someone who doesn't know English well and doesn't know the proper usage of "Sir" ?  Others on the blog are simply referring to and addressing him by writing Bill or Bill Gates but I don't want to copy others if they're not using proper etiquette.


texts: Is it acceptable to spell fantasy with PH instead of F?

texts: I know it used to be spelled that way. I'm just wondering if it's still acceptable.


texts: What does "practices are the context to which they respond" mean?

texts:
Through our practices, we create the reality (context) through which the former is inﬂuenced by the latter. ‘Social reality is practices’ (Taylor, 1985 cited in Schatzki, 2005: 470). Or, to put it diﬀerently, practices are the context to which they respond. Contexts are ‘nexuses of practices and material arrangements’ (Schatzki, 2005: 471). The context with its institutionalized meanings limits the possibilities to think and act (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). As a consequence, leaders are not free ‘to do whatever they want, but neither are they determined in their actions by the situations they ﬁnd themselves in’ (Grint, 2005: 1490, emphasis added).

Drath, W.H. & Palus, C.J. (1994) Making Common Sense – Leadership as Meaning Making in a Community of Practice. Published as CCL Report no 156.
I am reading an article and trying to understand what this sentence " practices are the context to which they respond" means.
Does it mean the same as "practices are the context and practices respond to this context"?


texts: Which is correct? "In the light of current circumstances we are unable to assist you" or "In light of current circumstances we are unable to assist you". Are there differences in usage as far as AmE or BrE are concerned?


texts: What is the difference between “Have got sb by the balls” and “Sb being over a barrel” in describing somebody in predicament?

texts:
I found two intriguing idioms in a pair in the following sentence of Jeffery Archer’s “The Forth Estate” (page 592) that I came to the last part at length.
A media mogul, Dick Armstrong (seemingly modeling Donald Trump) is approached by Earl Withers, the lawyers of Chicago based newspaper that is on the brink of financial crisis for a salvaging acquisition:

  “And is it true that it’s in debt for $200 million?” said Armstrong.

  “$207 million, to be precise,” said Withers.

  “And losing over a million a week?” “Around one million three hundred
  thousand.” “And the unions have got you by the balls.”

  “In Chicago, Mr. Armstrong, we would describe it as "over a barrel". But
  that is precisely why my clients felt we should approach you - - -.”

I’m curious to know why the Chicago lawyer deliberately rephrased Armstrong’s “got by the balls” remark with the phrase, “over a barrel.”

Are “Have got sb by the balls” and “Sb being over a barrel” exact synonyms that are interchangeable as Withers rephrased? To me, they seem to have different shades of meaning and occasions of use aside from decency of the wording.


texts: What type of conditional is "If you're going to… you've got to..."?

texts:
In a cartoon (Peanuts) I saw the conditional 'If you're going to get any joy out of being depressed, you've got to stand like this...'.
Can you explain me why it is the ‘first conditional’?


texts: Single word for "humorous in an intellectual way"

texts: How to describe something (in this case, a description) that is humorous in an intellectual way?


texts:
When did people start using the corporate jargon "let's take it offline" (let's discuss that after this meeting in private)?

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the origin of online is from 1950:

  online in ref. to computers, "directly connected to a peripheral device," is
  attested from 1950 (originally as
  on-line).

If the word offline in the jargon is the antonym of online as defined above, then the jargon cannot be interpreted literally. It is often used in meetings where people are all physically in the same room.


texts: What is the term used to describe substituting a person for something they did or created?

texts:
In the software world, we often write software that interfaces with other software.  Let's assume I wrote program A, and it interfaces with program B that John wrote.  When communicating with John about the interface, I might say something like: "When program A sends message X, you respond with Y".  Or even: "When I send message X, you respond with Y".

Obviously, I am not sending these messages, and John is not responding - program A is sending to program B.  It's just often easier/less verbose to basically substitute the author in place of their work.

What is this called?  I looked at the definition of metonymy, and synecdoche, but neither seems quite right.


texts: What does the "shed" in "watershed" mean?

texts: It seems like a kind of house; if it is, I cannot grasp the meaning of watershed.


texts: Difference between "after deciding" and "after having decided"?

texts:
Example:

  "So," I said, after deciding on a topic of conversation, "do you like
  karaoke?"

  "So," I said, after having decided on a topic of conversation, "do you
  like karaoke?"

What's the difference? Is having decided an uncommon usage?


texts: What does this phrase mean? I think of maybe something is going to be really famous in the future, but now it's just not so popular. And it's on its way out. Is that correct?


texts: Differences between "vulgar" and "coarse", "crass", "crude", "rough", "rude", "unrefined" as applied to language

texts:
This question specifically covers how these terms are used to describe language, it is a followup to What's the difference between "informal", "colloquial", "slang", and "vulgar"?

In the former question it arose that vulgar has at least two senses, and perhaps three:

"of the people" as in Vulgar Latin (not considered to be a productive sense anymore)
an antonym to "refined" as used to label words in various dictionaries
a synonym for "obscene" or "offensive" - I take this sense to be newer and perhaps regional to America - but it does seem to be replacing sense 2

So my question is how do these other words overlap in meaning with the 2nd and 3rd senses above: "coarse", "crass", "crude", "rough", "rude", "unrefined"?


texts:
Jerry is neither rich nor famous. I know this is correct.
Is this correct? Jerry isn't rich nor famous. It doesn't sound natural to me, but I can't find a reason why it wouldn't be right.


texts: This is in discussing stock market analyses--"we estimate the fair market value will be XXX at six months' term".


texts:
What is the usage and meaning of 'I think' in colloquial language? Does it mean 'suppose' or 'cogitate'? For example, 'He is a nice guy, I think.'

My opinion is that, in the above sentence 'I think' does not mean 'I am thinking' rather, it is a supporting colloquial word. Am I right?


texts: Meaning of “the bolts that held his face together”

texts:
What does “bolts” mean here?

I used to crouch down into the seat and hold my coat in front of my face when I sensed a frightening scene coming, peeking through the buttonhole to find out when it was over. Through the buttonhole Frankenstein’s monster glowered; lightning flashed; sweat poured over the bolts that held his face together.
From the short story “The Movie House” written by John Updike


texts: Is there a name for the situation where someone disproves an unimportant subset of a story, and claims that this disproves the whole story?

texts: It is quite common in comments about major news stories, especially if it's about a crime. Someone disproves a very tiny detail, possibly a mistake of the news-writer, and claims that thus the whole story is disproven. Usually it follows with a rant about how we are all misled by the powers above, and they falsely accused this innocent person, etc., but in reality the event really did happen, and the false detail was quite unimportant.


texts: The Present (Concessive) Subjunctive (Whether/If It Be) in Past Tense Cases

texts:
Did the present, concessive subjunctive (“if it be the case”; “whether it be the case”) ever have a place in past-tense sentences?
To my understanding, the subjunctive “were” and the conditionals in which “were” appears refer most often to present or to undefined time and are more applicable to present or future possibility than to past facts. But I’ve noticed in some older writers the subjunctive is inserted into indirect questions (“asked him if he were ...”) as if the present subjunctive mood were back-shifted to chime with the past tense narrative. Isn’t this a (learned) mistake? And does the present subjunctive really fit into past actuality?
Thank you!


texts:
In a book I'm reading there is a sentence like this

  Einstein laid down the gauntlet by considering as valid only two ways of understanding time.

I guess that laid down the gauntlet means challenge someone/start a debate, but I'm not sure about that.

Please explain for me.

Thanks.


texts:
I have two ways to write the same sentence:

The writing sings.
The writing is musical.

To me, the first sounds a lot better. It's better, I think, because I'm using a verb to describe what the writing is doing instead of an adjective to provide a more static description.

Is there a more formal term for what's going on here (i.e. using verbs to more-vividly describe inanimate objects?)


texts:
Sky is complete and alluring in its own self
  But it glows more with its moon
  So do I when I am with you

Can I use "so do I" in this quotation?


texts: Term for lending an item to a store so they can sell it on your behalf, for a fee

texts:
Used in a sentence, the term would be "The salesman said they were selling the item on ..... so he'd need to ask the owner if they could accept my offer of $200."

Suppose you want to sell a piece of art (or any object, but it was more common with art), but you don't have the time and storefront to personally sell it, and don't want to auction it. So, you lend that artwork to a store owner so that they can try to sell it for you. You'll tell them the minimum price you'll accept, and arrange for the salesman to receive some percentage of the sale price or a larger portion of whatever amount they can sell it for above your minimum price. If the item doesn't sell (usually after a month or so), the store owner returns the item to you, and no money has changed hands at all. Throughout the process the original owner will retain legal ownership, until (and if) the salesman can find a customer. If a customer is found, the salesman handles the sale, and gives the creator their portion of the money from the sale.

There is a specific 1- or 2-word term for this kind of arrangement, but I can't remember it for the life of me. Google has not helped me find this term, probably because companies like Amazon use the reverse of this sales model. And the next best set of search terms just returns results for pawn shops (as those businesses both lend and sell, but that's completely different). The overall process is a bit similar to the occasions where an art collector lends famous pieces to a museum for a year.

Edit: thank you to the comments and answers, "consignment" is the word I was looking for.


texts: One word for experiencing a place or event through their description without being physically going to that place or event?

texts: One word for experiencing a place or event through someone else's explanation without being physically going to that place or event?


texts: How to combine these two phrases? size-based and color-based

texts:
I want to write:

"We design color-based and size-based models."

Meaning that we design a color-based model and also a size-based model.

Isn't it more appropriate to write:

"We design color/size-based models."?


texts:
In the spirit of The Big Bang TV show titles I am looking for a word to use in a particular situation. First, there's a joke that sets up the scenario.

2 guys camping. They are barefoot by the fire. One says "I hear a bear" and starts lacing up his sneakers. The friend says, "you can't outrun a bear." The first guy says, "I know, I just need to outrun you." /end of joke.

I am home with my wife and daughter, and my teenager is getting annoying, as teens will from time to time. I wait, until my wife starts screaming. Daughter goes to her room, and I chuckled. My wife asks what's so funny. I remind her of the joke, and tell her I implemented the "Bear-Sneaker ______" in other words, no need to outwait my daughter, I just needed to last longer than my wife.

I am looking for the best word to fill in that blank. I understand the full expression won't come into usage.


texts: Another way to say "be safe and come back soon"

texts:
I am looking into a specific expression I heard but could not remember it exactly. It means that be safe and come back soon, or any similar meaning. You say it to your friend/ relative when they leave.

I am sure it has this word: "victorious". Probably it is something like "return victorious". Also, it probably has the word "sail". It is NOT a common expression that you will hear everyday.


texts:
"X is posterior to Y" means "X is behind Y".

So if the statement is "X is related posteriorly to Y", does it mean:

"X is behind Y" or
"Y is behind X"?

As for "Posteriorly, X is related to Y", does it mean:

"X is behind Y" or
"Y is behind X"?

Thank you for your explanation.

Edit:

These sentences were written as such in several anatomy textbooks.

Eg 1 "The iliopsoas is related anteriorly to the fascia lata and the femoral artery, and posteriorly to the capsule of the hip joint."

Eg 2 "Sigmoid and rectum are related anteriorly to the bladder."

Eg 3 "Medially, this muscle is related to the bodies of the lumbar vertebrae and vessels." (My interpretation: The muscle is on the outer/lateral side whereas the vertebrae/vessels are on the inner/medial side).

In Eg 1, the usage of "related anteriorly to" in this sentence seems to imply that the iliopsoas is in between the fascia lata/femoral artery and the hip joint, whereas, in Eg 2, the sentence seems to mean that the bladder is in front of the sigmoid and rectum.

However, if "related anteriorly to" means the same as "anterior to"/"in front of", then these sentences would be wrong, wouldn't they?
Eg 1 would instead mean the iliopsoas is in front of the fascia lata/femoral artery but behind the hip joint.
Eg 2 would instead mean sigmoid/rectum are in front of the bladder.

Thank you for your explanation.


texts: What do you call the behavior of a person who stubbornly or sarcastically disbelieves your statements?

texts:
E.g. I’m in an argument with a friend and I make a strong personal point about my self, or intention and she just says “uh huh” or “right” or "whatever".

Me: “I did it because I want better for you”
Her: “yeah, uh huh.”

Basically interjecting disbelief talk backs throughout my argument which is frustrating because I want her to hear and accept what I’m saying but she just pushes away with anger and distrust.

What word would you call that person’s behavior or attitude ?


texts:
On the one side a dictionary contains many terms, on the other one a dictionary is a single book (or website, whatever).

I am not sure which form is correct

Maybe I should not use "Term" instead of "Terminology"?


texts: Expression for being "fluent but not necessarily perfect" in a language

texts:
How can one neutrally and concisely express that someone is able to converse in a particular language clearly, confidently and more or less in a grammatically-correct fashion? — I need to post an advert to find volunteers for a project who really can use spoken English "effectively" but I'm not fussed if they e.g. have an unusual accent or maybe mix up a few words or make non-native mistakes (I mean, a lot of native speakers have "unusual" accents and mix up words as well). However, I can't make use of people who have only basic skills in English and/or take a significant amount of time/effort to express themselves.

The alternatives I've come up with thus far are:

You must be fluent in English — I reckon this would put off a lot of potential volunteers because "fluent" is often taken to mean "perfect".
You must have a strong command of English — Those who speak English "well" but are not confident in their ability to do so might be put off by this one.
You must have good English skills — This one looks to be more appropriately inclusive than the above two, but "good" might also include those whose English is only "good enough" (which, in this case, is actually not good enough).
You must be able to speak English clearly — This also seems good, but it seems to suggest that they will only be actually "speaking", e.g. that this is a casting for a voice actor or something like that.

How can I formulate this as an inclusive, positive requirement ("you must ..." instead of "you cannot...") which effectively filters out those whose English is "less than good" and does so in a socially-acceptable manner?


texts: Why didn't eliminating 'þon þy' eliminate the meaning of 'for' as 'because'?

texts:
Etymonline doesn't expound how:

for þon þy  shortened to only 'for'.
'for' persisted in meaning because. 'For' is a function word that means many meanings, and  'for' alone doesn't intutively mean  'because'.

To wit,  in omitting þon þy in for þon þy, you're eliminating the content words that impart the meaning of "because" to for þon þy. But why didn't eliminating "þon þy" eliminate the meaning of "because" in 'for' too?

  For alone as a conjunction, "because, since, for the reason that; in order that" is from late Old English, probably a shortening of common Old English phrases such as for þon þy "therefore," literally "for the (reason) that."


texts: Does "peculiar" imply "unusual"/"hard to expect"?

texts: When something is called peculiar or having a peculiarity what does that mean? Does it just mean it has some specific features or does it mean that those specific features are unusual, not normally expected?


texts: How would an English speaker pronounce "valid" with a circumflex over the A?

texts:
My branding department (read my friend from work) has suggested the word "vâlid" with a circumflex over the A as a way to brand my product.  He just likes the way a lowercase a looks in typography.

Can anyone tell me how that would be pronounced, or what it would sound like in different languages?

I read this wiki page, and think it's the same "a" sound, but with a stronger first syllable?


texts: What is the difference: in 10 minutes' time, in 10 minutes, after 10 minutes

texts:
For example, current time is 10:10.

then when will the train leave?

The train will leave in 10 minutes.
The train will leave in 10 minutes' time.
The train will leave after 10 minutes.

If the train leave at 10:20, what can we say?


texts: What's an idiom or word or name for an initial tester?

texts:
What would be an idiom or word or name for someone that is an initial tester (like a beta tester).

I am writing a speech for my younger brother's engagement and want to say how I have always been the first to try everything in my family--schooling, learning to drive, college applications, etc.--because I was the oldest son. My parents basically used me as a trial run to test the waters each step of the way in their parenting. They tweaked and refined the process with each of my two brothers.

Now for his wedding, he's being sent out to scout for the proverbial mines for the first time.

So I'm looking for a better term than beta tester to describe what I have been my entire life. I was kind of like a "lab rat", but that sounds horrible. Here's the line:

  "Throughout our life, being the oldest, I was sent out as the front
  line to test the waters."

I really hate that line. I hope having a better term for "beta tester" would make that line make more sense and sound better.


texts:
I've been proofreading a paper and stumbled upon a confusing (for me) grammar problem. I thought there was an error in the following sentence
"Studies have been carried out to analysis..." and  I was ready to change it into "carried out to analyse"  but I checked the former version on google and it seems to be quite common.

I mean, I'd use to analysis in, for example "prior to analysis" but I wouldn't use it in exchange for the proper verb (to analyse).

However I am not a grammar expert. So I would appreciate help (a grammar name for it would be enough, honestly I don't even know how to tag this). Thank you in advance for any thoughts/opinions.

Anna


texts: Is there a word that describes words like 'freeware', 'shareware'?

texts: I'm looking for a word that describes the way software is released. It could be freeware, shareware, donationware, commercial, etc.


texts:
The following question appears in an official ACT study guide:

After much deliberation, Waiolo told Miguel that he would be able to drive (him, Miguel) to work on Saturday.

Solution: Miguel. In order to avoid ambiguity, restate the appropriate antecedent.

I disagree and would choose him. The whole point of pronouns is to avoid repetitious antecedents! Waiolo told Miguel – and only Miguel – he would drive him. Furthermore, "him" in its current form cannot refer to Waiolo (it would have to be himself). There's no ambiguity here; it's a bad question. On the other hand, the following question could refer to cleaning the living room or the furniture:

It’s best to take the furniture out of the living room in order to clean (it, the furniture).

Solution: The furniture. In order to avoid ambiguity between whether the living room or the furniture’s cleaning is discussed, use an expressed noun phrase instead of a pronoun.