texts: What is the meaning of 'as' in this sentence?

texts:
The family are excited about their new life, but others have arrived with less of a sense of starting something good as fleeing something bad.

Please could you tell me the reason for using 'as' in this sentence and the grammar behind it.


texts: Do you capitalize a job title when speaking in 1st person?

texts: Would you capitalize a job title if you were to write "As an experienced web designer".


texts:
Here is the complete first paragraph of Melville Davisson Post's The Doomdorf Mystery:

  The pioneer was not the only man in the great mountains behind Virginia. Strange aliens drifted in after the Colonial wars. All foreign armies are sprinkled with a cockle of adventurers that take root and remain. They were with Braddock and La Salle, and they rode north out of Mexico after her many empires went to pieces.

I googled around the web, but it seems that I have not found the correct meaning. The Free Dictionary says that "cockle" means shell or mollusk or kind of that.

Do you know a suitable definition within the context of the paragraph?


texts: Conjunction use: "and" or "or" in list of examples

texts:
When giving a list of examples, it seems to me "and" should be used because all the items in the list are examples, not just one of the items:

I love fruit (e.g., apples, oranges, and bananas).
In my school, our teacher used various colors of chalk, such as blue, green, and purple.

Is "or" equally valid in these lists? If so, why?


texts: Why is the noun "brush-off" hyphenated when the verb "to brush off" is not?

texts:
I'd like to know the reason for the punctuation of the noun "brush-off" and the verb "to brush off": they have related meanings, but "brush-off" is the result of "to brush off", essentially. But one cannot write "to brush-off" as that just looks weird, as it is used for the noun version.

So the question, is the hyphen often used like this in English to differentiate a derived noun from a verb?


texts: What's the difference between Englander and English?

texts: When would you say someone is Englander and when say he's English?


texts: Words that can be decomposed entirely into parts which are anagrams of each other

texts: I recently noticed that teammate is composed of two anagrams, and was wondering if anyone had any other examples of this, or even better, a name for this phenomenon?


texts: number of (identical) items sold together

texts:
Say a shop sells eggs only in packs of 12 or paper clips only in packs of 100.  How do you refer to that number in general?

I thought sales unit or selling unit might be the right terms, but those seem to refer to the shop/outlet/person selling an item.


texts: What does Mary Karr mean by the word furniture in the sentence: "But when you're a kid and something big is going on, you might as well be furniture for all anybody says to you"?


texts: When I normally chat with customers at work, I will say "I am happy to help you with this." Would it also be correct to say "I am happy to help on this." Why?


texts:
I want you to help.
I don't speak English that much.
So, I couldn't understand this sentence while studying today.
Is this a slang? How do you use this sentence?


texts:
In sentences like, "there is a great place down the street," and "there is no reason to do that," there is being used as an adverb, and OED defines this particular usage as:

  ADVERB
      (usually there is/are) Used to indicate the fact or existence of something:
  there’s a restaurant round the corner
  there comes a point where you give up

My question is, what exactly is it modifying?

Also, if it's modifying is/are, then doesn't is indicate the fact of existence well enough on its own?

Edit: Is it just a kind of there-support to avoid writing a sentence like, " a restaurant around the corner is"?


texts: Word referring to the structure and shape of leaves

texts:
I'm looking for a word which refers to the structure and shape of leaves or the study thereof, probably with a prefix like phyllo-. 'Phyllomorphy', which was my first guess, isn't it, and I think 'phyllome' refers to the leaf in general, rather than its geometry or structure specifically.

The word does not have to come from a Greek root.


texts:
Sometimes people are referring to mechanical objects as "she":

  I love my car. She always gets the best service.

Are there any rules when it is appropriate to use "she" instead of it, and is "he" ever used in such context?


texts: What part of speech are articles before possessive adjectives?

texts:
Today I was diagramming a sentence when I noticed something that confused me. I had a sentence that was basically like this:

  A parent's greatest concern is rearing his children correctly.

"Concern" is obviously the noun there, with "parent's" and "greatest" as adjectives modifying it, but what is "a"? It's an article which I thought were always adjectives, but it looks like it's modifying "parent's", which would have to make it an adverb since you can't stack adjectives, right?

What is it? Can articles be adverbs if they're modifying possessive adjectives? Do you just stack adjectives for some reason? Does it somehow modify the subject "concern" for some reason?


texts:
Is it:
The programs will take place at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon

Or:
The programs will take place at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and noon


texts: How would you use "that," "that for," "those," "those for," etc. in comparisons?

texts:
I came across this question in SAT prep.
"For both commercial and, arguably, creative reasons, then, no transition was more successful than those from the Golden Age to Silver Age."
A) NO CHANGE
B) these
C) that
D) DELETE the [bolded] portion
I chose D), but the correct answer is C), and I don't understand why. Why is "that" necessary? And how would I avoid missing these types of questions in the future?
Thank you!


texts: What's the phrase that is commonly used after someone says or does something embarrassing/funny that you won't let them forget?

texts: I'm looking for an expression that's used to mean that you'll continue to teasingly remind someone of an incident after it has happened. It's not "I'll hold you to it," but is something just as commonly used. I've used this expression before but I can't remember what it is!


texts: Alphabetical listing of film names with articles

texts:
I am  making a list of movies, where should I put films that contain articles in their names? I know normally articles are ignored but in this context the naming is also part of a film's design, so should it be different?

So how would you list the following from A-to-Z?

Of Mice and Men
A Serious Man
The Bourne Identity
Amelie
Batman
Terminator


texts: How do you describe when a voice gets louder, starts vibrating more, and becomes unclear at high volumes?

texts:
How do you describe the phenomenon of a voice that gets louder, starts vibrating more, and becomes unclear at high volumes?

Do you say something like 'it started trembling' or 'it began to crack'?


texts: What is the meaning of “in his hat five ways”?

texts:
What is the meaning of “in his hat five ways”: (from Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories)

  One little sniffer with his eyes half shut and a mitten on his nose, laughed in his hat five ways and said.


texts:
I wonder why the author used two parentheses in the sentence below:

  While touring the Center for Agrobiotechnology at Monterrey Tech, its
  director, Guy Cardineau, a scientist from Arizona, remarked to me
  that, in 2011, “my son-in-law returned from a tour of duty in
  Afghanistan and we talked about having him come down and visit for
  Christmas. But he told me the U.S. military said he couldn’t come
  because of the ((State Department)) travel advisory here. I thought
  that was very ironic.

Is there any special rule regarding parenthetical statements? Isn’t one set sufficient?


texts: Word for "under the support/help and protection of"

texts:
"Homes of a particular community vandalized by the goons under the support and protection of  police."

How can I say this in a better way? The police was with the goons. Goons got full support and protection from police to carry out riot against a community.
Homes of a particular community vandalized under/in/with ________ of  police.


texts: How to use possessives when the subject has a number after?

texts:
I have a question about possessives.

While "Peter's ball" is easy and clear.

How do I express the notion of "the ball that belongs to agent 2"?

Would it be "agent's 2 ball" or "agent 2's ball" or what else?


texts:
Context is where a writer is describing a trait in a book that has a collection of stories.

Why is it okay to say:
"..... as he moved from story to story."
and not:
"..... as he moved from a story to a story."?


texts:
What does "gutted over" mean in Javad Zarif's recent tweet?

  Mr.Secretary, was it Iran that gutted over half of US draft Thursday night? and publicly commented against it Friday morning?


texts: what does it mean when some one says " I was calculating your cake penalty"?

texts:
Someone sent me an email with the following phrase. I was wondering if this is a known phrase.

  I was just calculating your cake penalty.


texts: I am wondering what it is called when an argument or description uses what the thing is not to expose a point or concept

texts: This is useful when trying to expose on an abstract concept or something that is not a commonly understood. so contracting the difference between complimentary  phenomena that are defined. It directs or illuminates the listener or readers focus toward or in the direction of the concept of interest.


texts:
If we assume a large building with multiple elevators, what would be the name of a group of elevators?
Consider a group all those in close vicinity to each other, in the same hall but not necessary with the same amount of locations (stories). If a wide building is considered, it's perfectly possible to have for example 2 elevators at the North side and 2 elevators at the South side of the building. North and South would be considered their own group (if the distance between them is large enough).
Example usage:

We're walking towards the Northern group of elevators.
Two out of three elevators from the Southern group of elevators broke down.


texts: Is "mother tongue" exactly the same as "native language"?

texts:
Someone just told me "mother tongue" is exactly the same as "native language".
I may be wrong, but I think the first one is not a good translation.

Am I wrong?


texts:
This is the context from Joel Spolsky's blog:

  And now I'm going to get a little bit mushy, and argue that the most
  productive programming environments are the ones that let you work at
  different levels of abstraction.

The meaning of mushy as in Cambridge dictionary doesn't quite fit in here. What does mushy mean?


texts:
paying users vs paid users vs premium users

I'm building website's member system
and want to know which is the best and correct one.

Thanks


texts: Why does my spellcheck disallow themself, but not themselves?

texts:
When I type "themself" my computer browser spellchecker underlines it in red. It's an error.

When I right click the word I'm offered 3 alternatives "them self", "them-self", and "themselves".

Why is "themselves" correct but "themself" wrong?


texts: "There is a plethora..." or "There are a plethora..."?

texts:
A simple question that has sparked some debate, and I couldn't find a concrete answer anywhere. There seems to be two camps: The word plethora indicates plural, so therefore it should be "There are a plethora"; and the other camp says that there is only one plethora (which contains multiple), so it should be "There is a plethora".

I've seen many examples of both. Is there a consensus, or is it just one of those things that can go either way?


texts: What is the difference between "feudal" and "feudalistic"?

texts: They are both adjectives related to feudalism. But what is the difference between the two in actual usage.


texts: Why is English not constantly updated to better match written and spoken versions?

texts:
I understand that English has a lot of history and lots of weird corner cases come from French or German origins. However, even native English speakers no longer speak nor write identical to Shakespeare style so some change is (accidentally?) occurring over time.

Why is most of that historical stuff not declared as historical and replaced with Current English language? (I know there exists "Old English" and "Modern English" where neither are modern nor current.)

Why is the 'o' in 'woman' still pronounced different to 'o' in 'women'? Wouldn't it be better for everybody to decide either the written or spoken version as definite and fix the mismatch?

Yeah, I get the point that the work You and I have done to learn all those little peculiarities would get lost but I'm thinking about the society in large. Keeping all those historical mishaps does not seem worth it.

Even though this is not exactly about currently written or spoken English, I have to wonder why are there still so many irregular verbs? Why not declare that e.g. speak/speaked/speaked is the current version instead of irregular historical version? I would assume that all native and most non-native speakers could guess from the context what "speaked" might mean so the change would not be so radical.

Disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker. My mother tongue is Finnish which IMHO is overly complex but there's at least some effort to keep the written and spoken versions in sync.


texts:
I walk into a store and ask the clerk: "Do you have any diet Dr Pepper?"
The clerk answers, "We have regular Dr Pepper."

Searching for a description of this type of response, I've found a lot of material on question dodging. But in this case, the respondent doesn't intend to dodge the question or avoid answering it.

I repeat, this isn't question dodging, evasion, or obfuscation like a politician might engage in. In those cases, the politician doesn't want to answer the question, and knows he isn't answering the question.

In this case, the respondent knows the answer to the question, and thinks he is providing it sufficiently. In his mind, his response logically implies an answer to the question posed, but that logic is bad/does not follow.

I find this type of answer extremely annoying. Basically the respondent is implying an answer to my question and making me decode his response, when he could instead just answer my question directly. The problem with this type of response in general is that I would be expected to take future actions/make future decisions as if I have the information I requested, when I really don't.

Descriptions of this type of answer that I've found are "non-answer" and "non-response," but I was just wondering if there was an explicit name for this horrible communication tic.


texts: "until I have money, I don't care about it" vs "until I don't have money, I don't care about it"?


texts:
"We gotta get the blood flowing with some friendly game!"
What does "get the blood flowing" mean here? Is it literally?


texts:
Why are river and sliver pronounced with a short vowel, but rover and slider pronounced with long vowels? Is it because the latter two examples are words made by attaching the -er suffix to an existing word (with a long vowel), or something else?
If the former, why is cover not pronounced with short vowel (ie. why does it sound like the 'o' in 'covet' instead of the 'o' in comet?) (and, on that point, why is the 'o' in covet and comet different?)


texts: A more suitable word for events which occur in a book/movie/etc

texts:
I'm looking for a more suitable word than event for something which occurs in (in my particular case) a book. If one was to summarise the events (ugh) of a book - just so there's no doubt about what I'm trying (badly) to describe- it might look something like this:

["protaginist's father dies", "protagonist goes into hiding", "protagonist meets Zen Master", "protagonist battles antagonist", "protagonist holds party"]

Now, is there a better word than event for these kinds of plot occurrences? I cannot for the life of me think of one.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! :-)

Edit: I have looked up both event and plot in the thesaurus (.com), but none of the words I've found really suited my needs, other than perhaps incident. The only reason I want a different word than event is that it feels very general, and I was hoping there was a more applicable word in the context of books.


texts: Present Perfect or Past Simple to express duration in the past?

texts:
Have you ever danced?

This is kind of a usual question. What if I want to ask someone about his experience and find out how long it lasted. Can I say

  Have you ever danced for 5 hours?

(and we're just sitting in a cafe and talking about it) Or do I have to put it like this

  Did you ever dance for 5 hours?


texts:
Which sentence is correct? (or both)

Feed the dog twice a day this meat.

Feed the dog twice a day with this meat.


texts: How far (technically) is a "stone's throw?"

texts:
A "stone's throw" means a short distance.
Questions:
(1) How far--technically-- is a stone's throw in terms of its usage?
    (i.e., Can you use it for a few feet as well as a mile away?)
(2) Is it used differently in the U.S. than it is in the U.K.?
    (Are there any semantic subtle differences in its use?)


texts: On the verb form in the first clause of constructions using "and" to connect action and consequence

texts:
Consider the following:

You do this one more time and I'll slap you.

What form is "do"? I'd like to say it is the bare infinitive (see below), but I'm led to believe that it is the present indicative because of how I would express the same idea in the 3rd person singular, though this is probably much less common:

He does this one more time and I'll slap him.

If it is indeed the present indicative, then I'm confused over how to parse the following sentence, which uses the dynamic "be" (behavioral):

You be rude one more time and I'll slap you.

Let alone how it might be expressed in the 3rd person singular:

?He be rude one more time and I'll slap him.
?He is rude one more time and I'll slap him.

So what's wrong with this analysis? Is the verb really the bare infinitive and I'm misguided in thinking "He does this one more time and ..." is acceptable? Or is this construction simply not possible outside the 2nd person?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is “won't” a contraction of?

Why is it that we have "won't"? It makes no sense to me as there's no intuitive combination of two words such as "wouldn't".


texts: Why did Old English use C while other Germanic languages used K?

texts:
During most the first millennium CE, North and West Germanic languages were written in runic alphabets. Gradually, each language shifted from the runic alphabet to the Latin alphabet. The people who adapted the Latin alphabet for use with a new language chose which letters to align with which sounds. For the phoneme /k/, the Latin alphabet offered two choices: C and K. In most cases K was chosen, and to this day German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages make very sparing use of C, except in digraphs like CH. But for Old English, they opted for C, and in fact K is not even included in the Old English Latin alphabet. Why the difference?

--EDIT--

After some answers and a bit more research, it is clear that Old English used C, following the practice of the Insular Celtic languages, which followed the practice of Latin. So the question becomes: Why did the other Germanic languages use K? Why did they adopt the Latin alphabet but not the Latin practice of using C?

--EDIT--

After some more research, it seems that the most likely answer is the time in which these languages adopted the Latin alphabet, specifically, before or after the palatalization of /k/ and /g/ in Vulgar Latin. When the Celtic scribes learned the Latin alphabet, it was from Romans, so they based their letter choices on Latin. Later, in the Romance languages derived from Vulgar Latin, C could refer to either /k/ or a palatalized version like /tʃ/, while K was unchanged. Since these languages, such as Old French, were widespread at the time, the people adapting the Latin alphabet for continental Germanic languages saw C as an unneeded complexity and opted for the simpler option, K.

This is speculation on my part so if anybody has more definite information, it would be appreciated.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  The times they are a-changin'
  The times are a-changing? Why a-?

While listening to some Bob Dylan I've noticed how he sometimes uses the construction a-verb (e.g. The Times, They Are A-Changin') and wondered how to interpret it.

Where does this a- come from? What does it mean? When can it be used?


texts: As an ESL learner I always mess up using prepositions. It’s been especially difficult to understand when to use to or for. Are there any rules about this usage?


texts: Gwen Stefani says, "I ain't no hollaback girl" in her song. What does it mean?


texts:
Without which, we would be able to act at all.

I’m hearing this in my own head as, “Without which, we would not be able to act at all.”

So I'm wondering, is the former just a cleaner and less hectoring version of the second, with both meaning the same thing?


texts:
This is what I'm trying to express

  [Foo] can be simplifiedly characterised as [bar].

However I am unable to find references for such as word as simplifiedly. What I want to say is that the following characterisation as [bar] is to be understood as being simplified for the sake of explaining [Foo] in the first place.

How would you phrase it? I would prefer if the structure of the sentence would remain unchanged. But if there is no such word maybe this can be restructured without being too verbose.

Edit: It's not a question of rhythm or aesthetics, it's a question of meaning. I'm not trying to say that the characterisation I'm making is simple to derive, I'm trying to say that I'm making a characterisation that is simplifying the matter of [Foo], which is in fact a bit more general/complicated than its representation as [bar] might suggest.

For me "simply" has the taste of what I'm not trying to say (according to the above paragraph). Regarding the suggested "more simply", I have no gut feeling and will have to trust you as experts.


texts: What does it mean that two languages are genetically unrelated?

texts:
I would like to know what does it mean that two languages are genetically unrelated?

I have seen answer in this topic Genetic Relatives what does it mean that languages are genetically realted but how would look the definition of unrelated languages and are there any examples of those?


texts: What does "take stock of" mean here in this sentence?

texts:
By the divine is meant that which, being greater and more excellent than man, enjoins upon him, as he comes to a recognition of it, the need to take stock of his own shortcomings and enter into a new mode of being, wherein those shortcomings are somehow resolved or transcended. (The Presocratics, ed. by W. Philip)

Dictionaries say that "take stock of something" means to make an appraisal of it. But  I want to find what it literally means, and then figure out why it can be understood as explained in those dictionaries. So what does take stock of something literally mean?

By the way, some dictionaries say it is an American phrase, so how will Brits understand it?


texts: A synonym for 'à la carte' to describe additional services provided

texts: What is a synonym, specifically for business negotiation, to describe additional services provided (e.g. The following services will be offered à la carte:...)?


texts: Is "woman" really interchangable with "female" as an adjective?

texts:
I listen to BBC Radio 4 a fair bit. They pretty much always use "woman" as opposed to "female" - like "a woman pilot".

To me this just sounds completely wrong, and most stuff I can find online about it seems to agree with me.

My first thought was that there might be a gender equality reason for saying "woman" (Radio 4 is fairly good about promoting gender equality), but if there is one, I can't find it. I found another question that almost suggests the opposite - that "woman driver" is a derogative term.

What do all y'all think? Do Radio 4 have a reason for this or are they just being sloppy?


texts: Meaning of "What's in it for (someone)?"

texts:
On another SE site, I wrote in a comment

  What's in it for X?

(X is a person.)  I was asked what this phrase meant.  I looked in three online dictionaries of idioms and couldn't find it.  It showed up in the urban dictionary as an acronym but I would think a more formal dictionary should have it buried somewhere.

To me, this phrase was a less blunt way of saying

  What would X gain from doing your grunt work for you?

I'm looking for a documented definition and usage notes.

(I don't think it's necessary to wade through the question on the other site in order to understand and answer this question.)


texts: Term for the person to whom an employee directly reports

texts:
I am looking for a word or phrase to describe "the person to whom an employee directly reports".

I do not want to use "Supervisor" or "Manager" as these titles are both already used in the organization with distinct definitions; I want a hypernym which covers both of these titles.

I came up with "direct superior" as an option, as an opposite to the phrase "direct report", but I am not sure it is a common phrase. (A google search for it seems to mainly return information about "direct superior hip replacements".)


texts: What does lawyering mean apart from its official definition

texts:
The dictionaries define it as "practising law", which is not the case in these examples. I guess its an up-and-coming "new" word which is instantly familiar. What does it mean?

  Language issues.  Combine English as a very second language +
  spec-lawyering + late-night meetings, and you have an ongoing
  headache.

and

  How should I handle an 8 year old lawyering and quibbling?


texts: Word for logical fallacy of including a debatable proposition in a list of truisms

texts:
Is there a word for the logical fallacy of including a debatable proposition in a list of truisms?

Sometimes a salesman or a politician or whatever will toss out a string of statements that he knows the audience will agree with, so they're all nodding their heads and saying yes, of course. Then he tosses in a highly questionable statement. To make a deliberately oversimplified and silly example:

  And as we all know, it's a good thing to love your mother. And I'm
  sure you all agree that chocolate tastes good. And we all know that
  all Ruritanians are stupid. And of course no one wants to get cancer
  ...

The idea is that you get the audience agreeing with you, they think you're "one of them" because you're obviously right or on their side on so many questions, and then you slip something in and you hope they'll just keep nodding yes, or if they question it, they'll think, "Oh, does that go with everything else he just said? I guess so."

It's not necessarily a "non-sequitur". I'm not looking for cases where the speaker presents a logical sequence of steps and one of the steps isn't valid. Rather, I'm thinking of cases where he just throws a bunch of ideas together, with no connection other than an implied, "These ideas all go together" or "These are all things that we all agree on" or "These are all things that are obviously true."


texts:
I was simply wondering if the object of a transitive verb can come before the verb?
As in

"Good luck," the man said to John.

Is "good luck" the object of "say" here?

Thank you in advance!


texts: Why do people say "break a leg" to actors?

texts: Frequently, before going on stage, someone will say "break a leg" to an actor, which is a peculiar acting saying meaning "good luck!"  How did this expression come about?


texts: Noun of-phrases: Rules as to plural form of each noun in the pair

texts:
Nouns of Noun vs Nouns of Nouns
Example 1: I face different

types of financial constraints
vs

types of financial constraint

Example 2: Different kinds of reasons vs Different kinds of reason
And here is a generalization version of the examples:
Are there any particular rules as to the plural form of the two nouns in a of-phrase?
Which case would it be in which circumstance: Nouns of Noun vs Nouns of Nouns?
And when the first noun is in single form, could the second noun be in plural form?
Thank you very much.


texts:
I have seen many people using the idiom give a heads up to notify or inform that something is going to happen.

Can I also use "get a heads up" to get an update or progress of work, project etc.

For example, "Could I get a heads up on the update of this project?"

Thank you


texts:
There is a reading exercise in this book I am using to teach. It goes ...

  A: Excuse me, is there a post office near here?
  B: Yes. There's post office in Jindrisska Street. Turn right a the traffic lights. It's a big building on a corner.

My question is whether there should be a or the in the last sentence: It's a big building or It's the big building?


texts: Word that means 'an unknown phenomenon or concept'

texts:
Is there a word that means 'an unknown phenomenon or concept'?
Is it really referred whit the one letter word 'X'?


texts: Comma between two compound list items ("A and B, C and D")

texts:
In an ACT Sample test, the correct answer is "I share many of the same hopes and fears, dreams and disappointments."

Needing a pause isn't a solid enough argument for the ACT.  What rule are they applying to allow a comma to separate two listed compound items?


texts: When is it appropriate to use "did + verb" in a who-question?

texts:
I know that one can say "I did take the money" in order to stress the action. For instance, "You didn't take the money, did you?" - "I did take the money! I told you already so many times."

But when is it allowed in who-questions, e.g. "Who did take the money?"


texts:
Recently, I was reading articles on the net and realised that there is a lot of ambiguity over the usage of Dr. and Dr, Er. and Er etc.

I usually prefer the dot while writing Doctor (Dr.) or Engineer (Er.) in front of someone's name.

Is it correct if we put a dot after these titles/abbreviations or not?


texts: Is it correct to say, "Any which one of you can attend"?

texts:
If there is a choice given for two persons to attend a meeting which of the given sentences would be right.

  Any which one of you can attend.

OR

  Any one of you can attend.

Is one better than the other or are they both equally correct?


texts: Looking for an English word or expression for not having a real boss in charge

texts:
There is a Hungarian word fejetlenség, literally, having no head, in the state of having no head, meaning a situation where a state or an organisation is an unruly mess.

Is there an English expression for this?

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/disorganization

gives many synonyms

but I did not find one that uses this way of expression

a figurative one

is there one?

UPDATE: unruly mess itself might be close, as

http://www.finedictionary.com/unruly.html

says unruly is "unwilling to submit authority", in my words: disobedience

but what I want to emphasize is that there is no authority, not that people rebel against it


texts: Are "here", "there", and "where" morphological cognates, or just an orthographic coincidence?


texts: Should this sentence have a singular or plural object?

texts:
Is the correct version this:

  But in general such verses have rarely been accepted as a genuine part of the book.

OR this:

  But in general such verses have rarely been accepted as genuine parts of the book.


texts: "President Trump appreciates the outpouring of support for both he and the First Lady" - Should this be he, him or himself?

texts:
"President Trump appreciates the outpouring of support for both he and the First Lady."

Should this be he, him or himself?


texts:
I have learned in school that letter 'r' is not sounded in the word 'considered', here's an example.

But I have been watching the 'How I met your mother' series, and Ted have pronounced that with sounded 'r', like this.

Is it some kind of mistake/difference between accents?


texts: Is this proper usage ? seems to me "perfect"  is like "best" (it can't be more or less "perfect or "best").


texts: What is the word for hijacking something that was already just hijacked?

texts:
Suppose that, just after the hijacking of an aircraft, a third party (related to neither the initial hijackers, nor the pilots, nor law enforcement) forcibly took control of the plane for themselves.

What is the word for their action?

Is it a re-hijacking? Certainly not, because "hijacking" implies not only taking control of something you don't have a right to control, but also, in so doing, depriving the rightful controller of the same.

The US calls the act of hijacking a plane "air piracy," so I sought succor from old usages of "piracy." However I failed fo find any use of "piracy" to describe the act of a private party depriving pirates of a pirated vessel. If anything this was considered "privateering", a form of civilian bounty hunting targeted against pirates and hostile aliens (enemy ships at wartime).

However no such concept as "air privateering" seems to exist outside of steampunk and My Little Pony fan-fiction. Undoubtedly this nonexistence is contributed to both by the extraordinary difficulty of externally detecting planes victimized by air piracy and the near impossibility of subsequently boarding such a plane in order to commandeer it away from the hijackers. As well air privateering would seem a difficult profession to profitably maintain by boarding flights as a passenger in hopes of being presented with such an opportunity sheerly at random, not least of all because of ticket prices.

Despite it never having been called "air privateering," there is at least one historical example of an attempted "re-hijacking" of an aircraft by a party who just happened to be on board when the initial hijackers took hold. Their action however did not receive the moniker of "a hijacking" or a "re-hijacking" from anyone as far as I've been able to determine, despite the fact that their actions are believed to have immediately resulted in the plane crashing and killing everyone on board.

Some have called this "commandeering" or "attempted commandeering" rather than "hijacking" or "attempted hijacking" yet these subsequent takers of control did nothing substantially different during their attempt than the original hijackers. They also had no legal right over the aircraft and so, under US Code, they were no less "air pirates" than the first set of hijackers.

The reason these "commandeerers" are not called "hijackers" or "re-hijackers" seems to be due to the prevalent belief that their motive was different than that of the original hijackers, even though according to the law, their actions were equally illegal, and even though no one has been able to conclusively prove that their actions resulted in a less bad outcome than would have happened had they not decided to try to sieze control for themselves.

Further, the first hijackers tried to commandeer the aircraft just as hard as the second group tried to, yet no one ever calls what the first group did "commandeering" (it's only ever called "hijacking"). Yet the fact is that the first group succeeded at commandeering, while the second did not! So failing to commandeer something is commandeering, whereas succeeding to commandeer isn't?

I feel like there must be some proper word for this act of secondary hijacking/commandeering/piracy that eludes me. Please enlighten...


texts: Should I use "training in" or "training about"?

texts:
Which of the following sentences is correctly phrased: "I have been actively involved in training students about Ground Operations", or
"I have been actively involved in training students in Ground Operations"?


texts: What does "I'm really burned out on 4 cups of coffee" mean?

texts:
Context:

  I'm getting a new coffee machine, and I am probably bad at figuring out the amount of instant Coffee needed for a cup. So im really burned out on 4 cups of coffee.


texts:
Can you help me spot the difference between

  Do you want to buy SOME pencils?

vs.

  Do you want to buy ANY pencils?'

Does 'SOME' imply 'quantity' and does 'ANY' imply 'any kind of'?

To me 'Do you want to buy SOME pencils?' sounds more like an offer suggesting that a person would buy some number of pencils. Whereas 'Do you want to buy ANY pencils?' would rather mean that a person needs any kind of pencils. Am I right or wrong?


texts:
Which is correct?

I save money going to Cecil College or I save money BY going to Cecil College?


texts:
I love writing but grammar is seriously not my cup of tea so please forgive my ignorance.

The case in point is:

  Henry’s eyes were gouged out by George.

Is it possible to write this in active voice and still omit the initiator of the action? In other words, given "George gouged out Henry’s eyes", how do I omit George from the sentence?

Do I have to resort to words like someone or somebody?  Is there an alternative?


texts: More Scientific/Psychological Terms for "Acting the Part"

texts:
Is there a scientific term or psychological phonomenon for meeting your goals by imagining you have already met them?  For example, if I wanted to be a corporate executive, then I might decide to act and work like I was already a corporate executive, in the hopes that one day hiring representatives might notice that I already have the persona and work ethic required for the job, and therefore promote me to such a role?

I guess I'm looking for something like "acting the part"... but in more of a behavioural science kind of way.


texts: I was unable to understand the similarities and differences between intent and purport. A description will be good to understand.


texts: Is "in-TEST-eyen" a valid pronunciation for "intestine"?

texts:
Is "in-TEST-eyen" /ɪnˈtestaɪn/ a valid pronunciation for "intestine"? I looked up "intestine" in MacMillan, Oxford, Cambridge, Merriam-Webster and even the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, none of which recommends that pronunciation. However, I've heard at least two Canadians use it (Matthew Santoro and one of those guys on ASAP Science on YouTube). I have no access to any Canadian English dictionary.

So, is "in-TEST-eyen" /ɪnˈtestaɪn/ a valid (common and accepted as correct, not as a mispronunciation) pronunciation for "intestine"? Or is it just valid in Canada? Or did those Canadians simply mispronounce it?

Link to Mathew Santoro's Useless Body Parts You Have For No Reason video


texts:
Consider the following statement:

  Russia also maintains a faulty foreign policy i.e. either Russia or the West, and there is nothing in between. I.e. no option for cooperation.

How can I use a phrase/idiom/proverb to represent this?


texts: Word for saying negative things in a cheerful manner?

texts:
E.g. Someone says "You smell bad!" but in a cheerful/positive tone, usually for being funny or sarcastic.

The exact words are negative, it's just the body gesture/facial expression/tone being cheerful/positive in a mismatching way.

I'm also looking for a verb form of it, describing the action of expressing the negative meaning with such a manner. E.g. A:"You smell bad!"(in a cheerful manner) B:"Uh, you're ____ it."


texts:
What is correct and why? Both, or only one of the following sentences?

  1 - There are seven days in a week.

-> One single week consists of seven days. 1 week = a week = 7 days.

  2 - There are seven days in the week.

-> "The week" as a general notion. The only Week class for for all the single instances. Having 7 days is a class property, not an instance property.

Similarly:

A cat has four legs or The cat has four legs?

A star consists of hot gases or The star consists of hot gases?

In the last two examples I can imagine also a plural, so Cats have four legs or The cats have four legs?

As for the week, the sentence "Weeks have seven days" sounds strange. Why?


texts: Does ‘approximate' mean "approach" here?

texts:
Rousseau's strategy in both Emile and the Social Contract is to
  develop artificial environments which enable us to approximate our
  rational nature given our foreseeable human limitations.
  — Routledge philosophy guidebook to Rousseau and the social contract, chhp. 1,  by Christopher Bertram

It might seem that this "approximate" means the same thing as "approach". But I think "approach" refers the subject only to an external object, whereas "approximate" can also mean the subject reaching a new state of itself. Am I right?


texts: Please explain the grammatical structure of the bold part in the sentence

texts:
Spotify’s initial foray into Asia saw it land in small and fairly
  Western-influenced countries like Hong Kong and Singapore, markets
  where it was likely to see uptake.


texts: When did "species" become the word for both the singular and plural?

texts: I thought the singular version was"specie," and the plural was"species." Was "species" always an acceptable equivalent to "specie?"


texts:
Is it possible to verb anything other than a noun?

Although slightly meta, I noticed that English SE has verbing as a tag, rather than verbing-nouns.


texts:
Here is an excerpt from Revolution 2020

  Aarthi wore a mauve chikan salwar-kameez. Her father had bought for her from Lucknow.

What is the meaning of the word chikan? I can't find this word in my dictionary.


texts: What's the difference between a "nook" and a "cranny"?

texts:
I think both words mean a sort of crevice or corner. Presumably there must be some significant difference.

The words are almost always used together:

e.g.

  She searched in every nook and cranny

Presumably they can be used separately. I think I may have heard "nook" on its own, but never "cranny".

Interestingly the N-gram seems to suggest "nook" is more commonly used than "cranny".


texts: What is the opposite word to "indent"—"outdent" or "unindent"?

texts:
I'm looking for the opposite word to "indent." Is it "outdent", or is it "unindent"?

Corresponding to "Tab" and "Shift Tab" in most editors.


texts:
This seems to be a BrE/AmE distinction  - is it?
And do Americans use the phrase with more of a mystical Tarot card slant, compared to its British English meaning of simply 'likely to happen'?


texts: During + a time period (including a dash between two dates)

texts:
During 2000-2010

If I say it in English, should I say "during 2000 and 2010" or something else?


texts: What's the difference between "knowledge of sth" and "perception of sth "?

texts:
In the following sentence

  Through the discussion they gained an extraordinary insight into the complexity of women's emotions.

I was asked to replace "insight of" with either "knowledge of" or "perception of". Could you please tell me what the difference is between the two phrases?


texts: "Its color is brown" vs "It is brown in color" describing nouns

texts:
I was wondering what the difference between these two similar ways of describing a noun is.

  Its color is brown.

or

  It is brown in color.

If they are both proper usage please explain to me which one is use more often. Thank you.


texts:
You're describing a book's location at the moment of speaking.

a. The book is on the table (right now).
b. The book lies on the table (right now).
c. The book sits on the table (right now).

I think a. works but b. and c. don't. In order for them to work, they need to be in the progressive (is lying/is sitting).
Aren't 'lie' and 'sit' both stative verbs?
If they are, how do you explain that b. and c. don't work, while a. does?
Note
For those who think b. and c. are grammatical, here is "Class Notes Semantics I & II, UT, Austin, Spring 2015-Spring 2018", which says b. doesn't work (p296):

[b.] doesn’t seem to have any coherent interpretation at all, not even as a
statement of where the book normally is or ought to be.

(In the PDF file, you can search "The book lies on the table" and go right to the page.)
If interested, please read the first two paragraphs on page 296.
Another Note
Here is another linguistics book that says b. doesn't work for describing the moment of speaking.
Linguistic Semantics by William Frawley says:

19a. The book is lying on the table.
...
If (19a), for example, is put in the nonprogressive, a habitual (or nontemporary) interpretation results: The book lies on the table.


texts: Does the word "troll" necessarily have negative connotations?

texts:
Does the word "troll" necessarily imply negative connotations?

More specifically, can the word "troll"/"trolling" be legitimately used to describe a posting which is clearly made with intent of merely generating laughs on April 1st?

Please note that the question is specifically about connotations involving intent - e.g. the assumption is that the posting is otherwise on-topic and not disruptive (e.g. a standalone question on a Stack Exchange site, which would be classified as on-topic AND not disrupting existing questions).

More specifically:

Urban Dictionary defines "Troll" as:

  One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.

This seems to imply a clearly negative intent and thus inapplicable to April First jokes.
Online Slang Dictionary says:

  A person who posts to an internet discussion group or chat room with the sole purpose of disrupting it.

Wikipedia defines:

  In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

Again, making the assumption that the posting in question is not "extraneous, or off-topic", this seems MOSTLY to imply negative intent connotations to me.

However, recently someone made an argument that, since "aiming to get laughs from people on April 1st" can be classified as "provoking readers into an emotional response", it should fit under definition of a troll.

So, my questions are:

Is there a well accepted connotation that "troll" implies negative intent, as opposed to including intent to provoke harmless April 1st laughter?
As a side question, does the wording in Wiki article (** or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion**) also impose a negative intent on "emotional response" part via the use of "of otherwise"?


texts: Is there a name for this characteristic of the human body (picture)

texts:
Is there a name for this characteristic of the human body (see the arrows in the picture below)? They seem as 'holes' on the back.

I'm not able to imagine one


texts:
There is a popular idiom in Russian for describing a really crowded place: "(there's) no room for an apple to fall" ("яблоку негде упасть").

I struggle to think of anything similar in English, and the dictionaries I consulted were of no help, simply translating it as "crowded" or not even including it at all.

The context would be something and anything along the lines of

  The place was so crowded that [X].
  The room was full to the extent that [Y].
  The street/square was [Z].
  At the top of the hat charts, there is [no room for an apple to fall].

Which is to say, I am not married to any sentence structure in particular — I'll gladly rewrite from scratch to use a vivid and idiomatic adjective or noun, word or phrase, metaphor or saying, rather than try and shoehorn it into a sentence it does not feel itself welcome in.


texts: Origin of "Best boy" - a film crew position

texts:
For a long time I saw a title in the list of movie crew positions that was strange to me, Best boy.

Wikipedia says about that:

  In a film crew there are two kinds of best boy: best boy electric and best boy grip. They are assistants to their department heads, the gaffer and the key grip, respectively. In short, the best boy acts as the foreman for his/her department.

I could not find a clear connection between the title and its role. So, what's the origin of this title and position?


texts: Word for when a date is changed in retelling to a 'more significant' date

texts:
I am looking for a word or phrase to describe when a date (or other factual information, but especially dates) is changed in later retelling so that it aligns with some other date that is considered 'special' (specific to the real event, or just in general).

I'm not speaking of rounding errors here; reporting $1,976,450.00 as $2 million is not the same thing as reporting something that happened on January 2nd as "New Year's day"

For instance: "William Shakespeare is believed to have died on April 23, 1616, exactly 52 years to the day of his birth." (from some textbook, not sure exactly which)

Disproportionately many real-world historical events seem to have happened on Leap Day, New Year's day, Spring/Fall Equinox, Winter/Summer Solstace, Christmas or other holidays.


texts: The best word to describe "not easy to fall"

texts:
Based on my research, I have several options (all of them come with problem).

Stable (I don't want to have 'resist to change' meaning)
Firm (I don't want to have 'resist to change' & 'standing still' meaning)
Steady (I don't want to have 'standing still' meaning)

I want to describe something that moves, but not easy to fall/stop by outside stimulus.


texts: Is " .. the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won." correctly punctuated?

texts:
The quote in the title of this post is an extract from the official report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, authored among others by Kofi Annan. To me the comma is clearly misplaced. But is the following any better?

  The war on drugs has not, and cannot be, won.

Or, to avoid incorrect ellipsis, must it be:

  The war on drugs has not been, and cannot be, won.


texts: Once a super computer, but now no longer?

texts:
Is there a word that specifically means or makes reference to a computer that was once considered a super computer in its time, but due to rapid technological advancements, is no longer considered one?

Edit: aparrently not. I say we make one.


texts: what's the usage of "then" in the sentence below?

texts:
the context:
As the children walked home, they saw a pretty tree.

A: "Oh, what a pretty tree!"
B: "Then stay away from it!!!!"
A: "No, you're not gonna start again! This time it does not belong to the Sorceress!"
B: NO!!! Don't climb that tree, don't eat the fruits!!!
A: Who do you think you are? You're not our chief.
B: NO!!!!!...

(he told them to leave it alone, but they didn't listen. They climbed up into its branches which then snapped shut, trapping them. The tree ran off through the forest).
I looked it up in the dictionary.
In Russian the word "then" means "тогда", "затем", "потом" (= next, at that time, in that case). That's why I don't get its usage in the given context.


texts: What is a post positional enclitic? I don't know anything about it, but I think it is a part of english grammar.


texts: How do you punctuate the end of a quote within a quote: "Billy said, 'This is acceptable.' "

texts:
At the end of such a sentence, does the single quote come before the punctuation?

If it does not, is a space between the single quotation and double quotation marks necessary?

>>, ' "   or '"?

I ask because the publisher's font does not show a space like it seems to here, which looks confusing, so I'm wondering if this is acceptable, or do we just live with the oddity of what appears to be a triple quotation mark)


texts: What is the exclamation "have at you" actually saying?

texts:
I recently encountered the phrase "have at you".

I know it's generally used as an exclamation, that is shouted when someone is about to attack someone else.

Wiktionary seems to agree with me:

  Interjection

  have at you

  (dated) An exclamation indicating that one is about to strike the person addressed, typically with a sword or other hand-held weapon.

   [quotations ]

  -Dark and sinister man, have at thee. Barrie JM (1904), Peter Pan.

And it got me thinking....

What does the phrase actually mean? Who or what is being "had"?

Acccording to RegDwighт, As well as being used by J.M. Barrie, "Have at you" is also used in Shakespeare:

  "Have at you now!" — Hamlet
  "Have at you with a proverb [...] Have at you with another;" — Comedy    of Errors
  "Have at you!" — Henry VIII
  "Have at you, then, affection's men at arms." — Love's Labour's Lost
  "Then have at you with my wit!" — Romeo and Juliet
  "since you have begun, / Have at you for a bitter jest or two." —    Taming of the Shrew
  "Come, both you cogging Greeks; have at you both!" — Troilus and    Cressida.

So where on earth did this phrase come from?


texts: Meaning of "Make what's-her-name feel special this Mother's Day."


texts: Is there an English version of the saying “sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata”?

texts:
This very common Italian proverb which literally means  “wet bride, lucky bride” is used during  weddings which  take place in rainy days.

  The proverb represents a wish for future prosperity, as  a sort of compensation  for the misfortune the bride has had during her wedding day.

 From Nobilah wedding.

I couldn’t  find a similar BrE or AmE saying, so I’d like to know if
there is  an English equivalent,  or a related saying that tries to make less dramatic something that goes wrong during a wedding?


texts: Why is the bill from my health care provider sometimes called a "factura"?

texts: I've seen it on several healthcare-related invoices that I've received over the years. I'm assuming it's some kind of "legacy" word used in the healthcare industry. But what is this strange word "factura"? Why not "invoice" or "bill"?


texts: How to write one sentence with two alternative sets of nouns, e.g., using parentheses?

texts:
I want to combine these two sentences into one, and I am not sure what is the best practice.

  A virtual Tx is an image of the physical Tx at a reflector plane.
  A virtual Rx is an image of the physical Rx at a reflector plane.

I wrote this:

  A virtual Tx (Rx) is an image of the physical Tx (Rx) at a reflector plane.

Since Tx and Rx are two different things, I am not sure about the usage of the parentheses as they usually imply synonyms or descriptors.


texts: "It might not be adequate and worsen" vs. "it might not be adequate and worsens"

texts:
The problem is this sentence:

  It might not be adequate in some cases and worsen the results.

Is it correct or should I write "worsens the results"? If the effect of might not is propagated to worsen it is correct. Otherwise it should be worsens. But I don't know whether it does propagate or not.

Are there any rules for such sentences?


texts: What is a dramatic word for: very capable and revolutionary

texts:
I am searching for a word to describe people who are very competent to the extent that an entire nation can depend on them.

  I understood that my country needs ____ economists just like a human needs oxygen.

I want to imply that these types of economists are highly needed because they can take an entire country into progress, and because they are
 extremely capable and skilled. Also, I want to use a more sophisticated, literary word that would add artfulness to my writing. Any suggestions?

Also, I know that some people will strongly object it, but I will try, anyways. Can anyone suggest me a better analogy for the second part of my sentence (like...oxygen)?


texts: Word for "Raccoon-like" or "Raccoon-esque"?

texts: I am looking for a word like lupine only for raccoons. Is there a word that means “raccoon-like” or “raccoon-esque”?


texts: What is the correct way to say? "Do you see my screen" or "can you see my screen"?


texts: A common expression for spots or "stains" on clothing, or on a surface / finish

texts:
I found the word "stains" for spots and marks on dict.cc by
asking myself what would be the best/common English word to use to express a stain or mark on clothing, products, finishings, or at physical occurence.

EG:
 - A darker shape on a white shirt caused by pouring wine accidentaly on it.
 - A shape of different color on a paint-finish (cars or products)


texts:
Can I use "pretty", "quite" etc with weather?
Not long ago I've been texting with someone and wanted to say "It's pretty freezing here" but hesitated (I'm not native speaker as you might guess), so I decided to ask here if it's correct to say like this.


texts: Can there be "an" "endemic"? (Can "endemic" legitimately be used as a noun?)

texts:
A recent AMA headline shouts: "The Resident Depression Endemic---and Solutions Underway".

Now, doctors are not known for their writing proficiency (self included here) but this seems to me to be a new or possibly just uninformed use of the word "endemic".

Probably this was a staffer who wasn't sure whether it was permissible to use the term "epidemic"...


texts: "What was really amazing, is that, the house had a little balcony."

texts:
Is this sentence correct?

  What was really amazing, is that, the house had a little balcony.


texts: Verb to use when someone makes you 'hear' something

texts:
I'll explain my question with a example :
A person has a picture, and an audio clip on their phone.
After seeing the picture, i can say "He/She showed me the picture."
What is a similar word for the audio clip i heard?


texts:
Is it OK to use more than one OR in a sentence?
Like this

I should eat mango or bananas or pineapple?


texts: Does the term 'noon' have exact meaning?

texts: Say I have a meeting at 10:00 and want to postpone it to around 13:00, can I ask the other to "postpone it to noon, around 13:00"? Or the term 'noon' means exactly 12:00?


texts: I have bought and will buy another or I'm going to buy

texts:
Is this sentence ok or should it say I have bought one and will buy another. The first sentence seems to lead the reader into the idea that I have not bought any music yet.

  i'm going to buy the two songs he wants me to memorize for $6 a piece. I already have one purchased and I'll practice it.


texts:
What is the origin of the suffix: 'ship'?
Why was it chosen to become as a suffix ?
What made it special over other words like maybe 'cart' or 'rainbow' or something?
    ie  friendSHIP might have been friendCART or friendRAINBOW
        penmanSHIP might have been penmanCART or penmanRAINBOW
Why was the word 'ship' chosen?
Thank you.


texts:
Which is better:

"I am not having lunch tomorrow unless I am really hungry."
"I am not having lunch tomorrow unless I will be really hungry."
Something else


texts: How to stylize specialist domain terminology

texts:
So I'm a software engineer and I was recently writing some documentation about an application. Said application has some functions/classes/etc whose names are overloaded with common English words and words that are commonly found in the software development environment, like "job" and "component".

While writing, without putting much though into it, I used the convention of capitalising the first letter of the app-related terminology to distinguish it from the normal English. E.g. "You can also start a Job from the GUI", where "Job" here referes to the application-specific notion of a job.

However, while reviewing the documentation, one of my coworkers challenged my convention of capitalising the first letter of those words, and another suggested that the correct convention might be italicisation instead. None of us were sure, though.

So, is there a convention for this? Was capitalisation okay, should I be italicising instead, or is the solution something entirely different?


texts: Simple meaning of phrase "Who to my knowledge has never told a joke"

texts:
I am watching / reading a Visual novel and I am having a little difficulty understanding this phrase. Is this some kind of idiom?

Here is the full sentence:

  ..I'm watching someone I know very well. A tall man with deep-featured face, who to my knowledge has never told a joke, is patting my head.


texts: To the effect that…, to this/that effect

texts:
How  would you rephrase  these expessions to the effect that…, to this/that effect?

In this sentence:''He left a note to the effect that he would not be coming back.'' Would it be correct to use 'in case'  instead?


texts:
I'm reading a book and I've got a problem with the following sentence:

  Her door crushed open, the woman half out into the street.

How to interpret the second part of the sentence? Does it means half out is used as a verb ?


texts:
I wanna know that this sentence is grammatically correct or not:

In used as ’disagreement ’, ’dispute’ and ’debate’ have almost the same meaning.

Thanks.


texts:
I'm writing an academic paper, and would like to say that the value of X is v using imperative form. (Specifically in the algorithm section. That's why I need to use imperative.)
Which among the followings is the best?

Set X to v.
Set X as v.
Set X v.


texts: "There appears to be" or "There appear to be" followed by "a couple discrepancies"

texts:
I saw some similar questions to mine posted but not quite the same. Which one of the below is correct?

There appears to be a couple discrepancies.
There appear to be a couple discrepancies.

I went with the first one but dang-it I keep going back to it.


texts: Concise term for Native Americans of California

texts:
I'm trying to figure out what the concise, non-offensive term is for Native Americans from the area that became California (like Ohlone or Chumash people).

California Natives doesn't work, since it would include anyone born in California.  Californian Native Americans seems too unwieldy.  California Indians is concise, but I'm not sure how people feel about it.

Anyone know what the term is?


texts: Conditional sentences punctuation: Comma before "if" if there is an "or" before it?

texts:
Should there be a comma before "if" on this sentence?

  Stop by and introduce yourself or, if you’ve already had a
  chance to meet him, swing by to get to know him a little better!


texts: Word for person who is always dizzy or high

texts:
What is a single word for a person who is always dizzy or high? I am sure it is not the same as a person who drinks a lot.
Here Always means without an end.


texts: What do we call people who work out at home?

texts:
This question was very interesting: What do we call people who go to the gym?

Now I am wondering if there is a word for someone like me who works out at home. What I refer to is weight training, work with bars, HIIT (high intensive interval training) and some yoga or stretching exercises.


texts:
When talking about a subset of a filtered list of items, what is the proper way to pluralize finding only one item in the filtered set?

Ex.

  10 of 50 found items
  1 of 25 found items
  1 of 1 found item(s?)

Should the last example use "item" or "items"?  I would think 'item' since it's referring to a singular found item, but it just doesn't sound right out loud.


texts: What is the case of job in "She faxed her application for a new job"?

texts:
She faxed her application for a new job.

In this sentence, 'she' and 'application' are in the nominative case and accusative case respectively. But what is the case of 'job'?


texts: Looking for a word that describes a dull or tedious question

texts: This might be a slightly odd ask, but I'm looking for an adjective that might describe a question asked out of boredom. Something that is tedious and uninspired. I had something the other day but forgot to write it down and it's driving me up the wall. I believe it started with a 'p' and can't find anything in the thesaurus. Thanks.


texts: Can I have "and" in more than one clause in a sentence?

texts:
I've read on this site you can have more than one "and" in a sentence, but all the examples used "and" continuously.

  At school today, we had sums and writing and play and dinner and a story and a prayer and then I came home.

I was wondering if correct to use "and" in different clauses within a sentence, or should I separate them with a period instead of a comma.

  Towards the end of my student teaching, I had more students share their problems in life and in the classroom, so it became apparent my work was important to their lives and made a difference.


texts: a word for striving to make the past the present or believe that it is the present

texts:
I know this is a strange concept. But I am looking for a word that embodies the sense of "presentize". So something like this:

she strived to believe that her husband is not dead and that the past in which he resides is her present. She was ____ her past.


texts:
I was looking at the phrase "this road is very dangerous. There have been many accidents." And I was wondering what difference there is between this sentence and "there were many accidents."

I'm aware that "have been" is usually used for things that happened just now, but in that case the accidents could have happened at any time. I know that by using "have been" you could express that the action is still continued in the present while with "were" the action doesn't extend to the present, but to me it seems that both "have been" and "were" in that context have the exact same meaning.

Why is it grammatically correct to use "have been" in that phrase?


texts: Antonym of simplify and simplification in the technical context

texts:
I am describing a technical process where the relation between two instances has two directions. The direction from the finer to the less fine instance is "simplification", but I cannot find its antonym to describe the reverse process where the instance is advanced. Complicate and perplex are not the words I am looking for because the context here is different, and these terms imply something negative which is the opposite of the intention of the process in question.

Let me explain with an example. A complex recipe might be simplified by reducing the number of ingredients and removing some steps in the cooking process. But still resulting in a high quality of the dish, with minor differences from the original recipe.

The opposite would be to have a simple recipe, and to enhance it to create a better dish, which would also result in a more complex recipe.

The terms I came up with are advancement and enhancement, but I am further looking for better alternatives, especially ones that may be more suitable in a technical context.


texts:
Why is it that I'm getting overwhelmingly more results for "clutching at his chest" than for "clutching his chest"? Can you suggest any good reason? Here is an example:

  Walking again in the long corridor he felt his heart racing. He leaned on the wall clutching at his chest.

Here, the guy isn't really having a heart attack. Is this usage still good?


texts:
I have a　document like training manual for troubleshooting networking,
and one section in it has a title "Contact Drivers".

Since this troubleshooting does not talk about device drivers at all,
I have no idea what this means.


texts: How to properly say that a given day/date does not exist?

texts:
I wanted to use this, but I don't know if it's actually valid in English:

  The specified date is invalid.It points to a non-existing day.

I'm not a native speaker, and I just want to say that the input points to a date that does not exist, like 30th February.


texts: What do you call auto parts that are meant to fit specific vehicles and those that aren't?

texts: Some auto parts are tailor fit for one or more vehicles while others aren't. Is there a universally understood name for those two types of parts?


texts:
My interpretation is that sentences like the following have a slightly different meaning.

  Check the application output.

  Verify the application is running.

Is there any difference between to check and to verify? Are they used in different context, or are they interchangeable?


texts: What is the purpose of past future tense?

texts:
When I learn english, I noticed that all the tenses can be obtained by turning on and off a certain boolean flag. Okay, I am a programmer. So it's easier for me to understand it that way. Though I wonder why schools never teach it that way.

The flags are, continuous, past, perfect, and future.

For example, sijmple tense would be

I go.

With one of the flag on, it would be

I am going
I went
I have gone
I will go.

Then I see that we can combine everything. I can, for example, turn on all flags and get

I would have been going

But then what does it mean?

My english teacher says that past tense are often used to say something that's not true or regret. Really? How?

Let's do this with past and future flag turn on.

I would go
I would be going
I would have gone
I would have been going

What are the 4 sentences above mean? What are their differences>

It seems that when future and past flag is on, it took on a different meaning. What?


texts:
How common is this idiom? Is it used in theatre only?
Can it be used in other situations to wish good luck?
Will most of people understand it?

And is there any specific reply to this wish? Because for example in Russian there is a common idiom with the same meaning which literally means "Neither fluff nor feather!" (and it's believed to have come from hunters' slang) and standard reply to it is "Damn you!".


texts: Usage of the word "surge" in the following advertising slogan

texts:
I saw this slogan from a company called Gett. It says

  My mama don't like surge, and she likes everything. Our black cars never surge.

I know the word surge, but just to ensure if it means here a large increase in the number of cars coming to you?


texts: Join us in our inn or join us at our inn

texts:
Join us in Hawaii at our bed and breakfast.
Join us in Hawaii in our bed and breakfast.
Is one right and one wrong or are both acceptable?

Join us at our romantic bed and breakfast.
Join us in our romantic bed and breakfast.

Thanks to anyone that comments!


texts: What is a clear and precise way to describe a plan to build a system based on a particular COTS product?

texts:
I am writing an experience report about a recent technology consulting engagement. The intended audience is not necessarily familiar with consulting, the bidding process, or even particularly technical. In the summary I wrote the following statement:

  While working at [X Inc.], I co-authored a successful proposal to develop the system based on a business process management system called [Foo].

Several reviewers of the report were confused by that sentence. Foo is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product business process management system that can be customized to a particular application. Some were unsure whether Foo was a requirement specified in the request for proposals or if it was something my team at X Inc. proposed. (It was something we proposed). Others were unclear what exactly it means to develop a system based on Foo. (We customize Foo to the particular application). What can you suggest as a replacement?


texts:
In order to intellectually revolutionize the populace they must learn to see through the reformist deception of the academics.

Is that 'they' needed there?

I'm asking because it seems that in that sentence it is 'the populace' that 'must learn to see through the reformist deception of the academics.'


texts:
I have seen cases of using commas before adverbs.
For example:
Sentence #1: I urgently need the pen.
Sentence #2: I need the pen, urgently.
Are both the above sentences acceptable?
Kind regards,
Kumar


texts:
Is this correct?

Asking the driver or the another person:

Does this bus go (or goes) to X?
Do you go to X?


texts: What are the better words to describe difficulty levels?

texts:
I'm using five words to describe the difficulty levels of some training material:

  'Easy', 'Normal', 'Hard', 'Challenging', 'Level 5'

'Level 5' is the most difficult level. I haven't found a proper word for that.
Anyway, I first want to know some better words to name the five levels. The words are not necessarily related to any professional field because it contains training material from different professional fields.

If no better words are available, please help me with a word 'Level 5'.


texts: Is there a term for a list for which each member has a superscripted index that provides more detail?

texts:
The term "footnoted list" doesn't seem quite right here, especially because the notes don't appear at the bottom of the page:

Alex Holcombe1, John Smith2, Liqiang Wang3

1University of Sydney, 2Ashland University, 3Eotvos Lorand University


texts: Latin/Greek morpheme meaning 'fundamental'?

texts:
Is there a Latin or Greek prefix or suffix out there that can be added to a word to make it mean the fundamental from which everything is derived?

Here's an example. You've got linguistics, that is made up of the fundamental branches like morphology and syntax. But then you have phraseology, also a branch of linguistics. Both morphology and phraseology are branches within linguistics, but you wouldn't place them equally. That's because morphology is a fundamental branch of linguistics, and phraseology is a sub-branch of semantics, which is a fundamental branch.

So basically, I'm looking for a prefix/suffix that could be added to the word "branch" (or any other word) to distinguish it from the sub-branches (or what is derived from the fundamental). I feel like I've heard/read the use of such a morpheme but I can't remember.


texts: Looking synonymous for a person that require a minimal supervision

texts: Is there any word for a person that can do things with a minimal supervision? Or what is the synonymous for a person that require a minimal supervision


texts: Is there a specific word or term for when ordinarily sensible people express hysterical or irrational ideas?

texts:
I'm looking for something that adequately encapsulates the phenomenon of people who may be renowned in their field or society for their calm expertise and usually reasonable comments, but expresses hysterical or irrational thoughts on one or two pervasive issues (e.g. something political).

A sample sentence might be "David has a reputation for writing thoughtful commentary on all manner of social issues, but has showed unusual signs of [mystery word] when writing about molehills lately".


texts: A strange meaning of the word "handle". Can it mean "a leader"?

texts:
I encountered an occurrence of the word "handle", which is strange to me, in an article, here is an excerpt:

The cow, revered by Indian upper caste Hindus as a Mata (mother), has been used to spur hate against religious and other minorities such as Muslims and Dalits. Killing or consuming cow meat is a religious taboo for pious upper caste Hindus.
Dalit handles on Twitter posted pictures and videos of protesters.

It looks like a noun in the plural form, because "Dalit" is not a name, but an adjective here. But the only noun meanings I have been able to find are:

the part by which a thing is held, carried, or controlled
a name or nickname
the feel of goods, especially textiles, when handled
the total amount of money bet over a particular time or at a particular event

Neither of these seems to fit the context. "A leader" would fit, but there is nothing similar in the list.
So could anyone tell me, please, what is the meaning of the word "handle" here?


texts:
I'm making sport live score application and I have a question

My application has many page for show live score and it has some page no any match playing.

What sentences should i use ?

No any match on this day.
No match on the day.
This day has no any match.

Thank you

ps.sorry for my bad english


texts: What are the rules regarding one antecedent followed by many relative pronouns?

texts:
Are any of these correct? What rules are at play here?

I saw the car which has five wheels and which we passed by earlier.

I saw the car which has five wheels which we passed by earlier.

I saw the car which has five wheels that we passed by earlier.


texts: Does Future Progressive only work with "will"?

texts:
You will be doing something tomorrow. You are going to be doing
  something tomorrow.

I only find the "will" structure in different grammar books, but the second sentence sounds right to me. However, is it wrong?


texts: What do you call people who have been invited to an event?

texts:
I am looking for a word to describe people who have been invited to an event (let's say a wedding or party).  When addressing the person, how should they be addressed?

  Dear, _________. We are excited to extend to you...

I have considered Invited Guest, but this suggests with the word "guest" that they will be attending.  Is the best term Invitee?  It sound's strange when used in a sentence.  Is there a better word to use?

More information:
To better explain... I have created a website where people can RSVP to my event.  Only people who have received an invitation should know about the website. I do not know the name of the visitor, but wish to address them in a short personal letter.


texts: Is the use of "conversely" to mean "on the other hand" correct?

texts:
I've previously used "conversely" to mean "on the other hand". For example.

  I always thought this the correct usage. Conversely, I might be wrong.

However, the OED defines it as:

  In the converse manner or order; as the converse; by conversion.

This appears to be more restricted, as it implies the opposite direction. For example, if A then B; conversely, if B then A. (Wiktionary has a similar definition.)

Other dictionaries include both definitions. From The Free Dictionary,

  In a contrary or opposite way; on the other hand.

Is the more general usage that does not necessarily imply the opposite direction a relatively new development? Also, is it considered colloquial?


texts: Use of punctuation in complex list with two sets of appositives

texts:
How would you punctuate the sentence below? Is it okay the way it is? I've never seen a sentence that introduced more than one list with a colon. I considered just taking out the colons. I also considered replacing them with commas. I haven't been able to find a clear answer in my research.
Here is the sentence:

We dedicate this work to our spouses: Glenda, Sue, and June; and to
our children: Thomas and Reese; Oliver and Sarah; James, Hannah, and
Finn.


texts: "off of the counter" vs "off the counter"

texts:
Is the word of necessary? For example:

  Take the towel off of the counter.

vs.

  Take the towel off the counter.


texts: Word for giant outdoor posters on buildings

texts:
Is there a word for the giant, larger-than-life outdoor ads/posters hung on the walls of buildings (often tens of floors high), e.g Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Stalin... (something similar to a billboard?)

EDIT: Five stackexchange puritans put the question on hold, but I think wallscapes, supergraphics and billboards are good answers. I think this post will be useful for other users with a similar question. Thank you! In response to, Ibf, Chappo, JJJ, marcellothearcane, David M, and the rest of of your ilk with too much time in their hands: I will be using this knowledge in my everyday speak and I did suggest the term "billboard," which should demonstrate my "research" on the topic. Some people...


texts: What to call a person who always says he can do everything?

texts: What to call a person who always says (as an example): I'm the strongest one. Says that he can do and do and whatever (But actually just boasting, whether he can or can't, but mostly ineffective)...


texts:
Which one is grammatically correct or preferred, and why?

"We developed this algorithm for use in autonomous cars"
"We developed this algorithm for the use in autonomous cars"


texts: Which is idiomatic: "kite is flying" or "kite is floating"?

texts:
Is it idiomatic to say "A kite is floating in the sky"?

Most of the time I see "A kite is flying in the sky".


texts: Meaning of "Almost every kinky kind was being had and enjoyed."

texts:
I saw this sentence in NYT OP:

  "Almost every kinky kind was being had and enjoyed."

What does the part in bold mean? What grammar rules pertain to it?


texts: Is there any shorter pronunciation of W than double-U?

texts:
When spelling, every letter in the Alphabet is pronounced by a single syllable, with the only exception of W being pronounced "double-U". (Fun fact, in German it's approximately pronounced like the "ve" in very, but in some strike of cosmic justice Y is pronounced "Yps-e-lon") Why is that? Is there any at least semi-officially accepted one-syllable alternative pronunciation of W?

I checked some related post, e.g. this one, but they are more concerned with the "Why?" instead of the "Why not different?"


texts:
I stumbled upon the sentence below on the Internet and felt confused:

The Alchemist, a novel by Paulo Coelho, which is listed as one of the most read books by successful people says...

Are really "successful people" the ones who read it the most? Like this, it sounds to me as if successful people were the authors of "one of the most successful books," and not the readers.

What's the correct wording?


texts:
In saying thanks in part to, would adding a comma before and after the phrase "in part" be considered correct?

The decline in crime was thanks, in part, to the efforts of the city's growing police department.

or

The decline in crime was thanks in part to the efforts of the city's growing police department.


texts:
Is there a single word that means that? I checked on Thesaurus but didn't find anything.

Example sentence:

  "By the way, I love you." That was how Ayumi __. Funnily enough, that
  day I also confessed my love to someone.


texts: Question on in-laws immediate family if our families are close

texts:
We all consider our family to include the families married into our family, but I've always wondered what to call my Uncle Ted's mother. Ted is married to my Aunt Kim, who is my mother's sister.

Is she my grandmother like my other uncles' mother, or would she be a great aunt?


texts: Is there an antonym for the idiom "...remains to be seen"

texts: I was using "...the truth remains to be seen" in a sentence when I realized I meant the opposite of this. I'm looking a phrase antithetical to this idiom, that follows the same (empirical) line of thinking. Is there one?


texts:
I've never understood this. Why is the proper usage "uninstall"? You can't actually "unin" something at all and this isn't that case with most (all?) other use cases. Examples:

You make someone sane, but you don't uninsane them.
You make something accessible but never uninaccessible something.
You can make something adequate but never uninadequate something.


texts: His boss, Michael, or his boss Michael--which is correct?

texts:
When referring to a title followed by the individual who holds that title, should I use a comma? For example, should I say:

At the end of a sentence "his boss, Michael." or "his boss Michael.

At the start of a sentence "The writer, Michael," or "The writer Michael"


texts: Is it disrespectful to use "mister" with a person's first name? Examples: Mr. Tom, Mr. Phil, etc.


texts:
Could you explain the structure of the highlighted sentence,please!. The passage is from the reading section in Toefl test of Barron.
Thanks in advance.

The status of women in a society depends in large measure on their role in the economy. the reinterpretation of the paleolithic past centers on new views of the role of women in the food-foraging economy. Amassing critical and previously overlooked evidence from Dolní Ve vstonice and the neighboring site of Pavlov, Olga Soffer, James Adovasio, and David Hyland now propose that human survival there had little to do with manly men hurling spears at big-game animals. Instead, observes Soffer, one of the world’s leading authorities on Ice Age hunters and gatherers and an archeologist at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, it depended largely on women, plants, and a technique of hunting previously invisible in the archeological evidence—net hunting. This is not the image we’ve always had of Upper Paleolithic macho guys out killing animals up close and personal, Soffer explains. Net hunting is communal, and it involves the labor of children and women. And this has lots of implications.


texts:
An article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30932399 on the BBC website, regarding apps not being available for Blackberry phones has the following

  As an example, he said, this "discrimination" meant Blackberry users
  did not have a version of Apple's iMessage or Netflix's streaming
  service available to them.

How to pronounce Netflix's? I've tried it with an extended "s" sound, or even as Net-flick-ses, neither of which sound right.


texts: "Look for this sign in store" – is it correct?

texts:
I was wondering whether a sentence like this "Look for this sign in store" is correct. The sign in question is a wobbler attached to products in a store that includes a QR code and a discount code.
One other option I have seen online is "Look for this sign in-store". Alternatively, "look for this sign in stores" is also a possibility.
What are your thoughts? Is any of the options correct and natural for native speakers?
Thank you


texts: How do you use adjective or adverb to modify the gerund?

texts:
I want to figure out the situation of the gerund that should I use adjective or adverb to modify it?

I know about the gerund that can function as both noun and action. It acts like a noun.

My first question is when the gerund is single and not talking about thing just use as noun(subject ..etc..) that we use adjective or adverb?!

Example :
(Regular)(exercising) enhance one's self-confidence.(A noun)
          OR
(Regularly exercising)enhance one's self-confidence.(A thing)

My teacher told me the answer is the firs form. But why ?
 Could somebody tell me a bit more specifically about gerund? I couldn't sleep a few days by this confusing problem, If some one can help me and give me some example with some explaining, that I'll be very grateful!!


texts: What's the origin of "strike a chord with..."

texts:
People use the phrase "x strikes a chord with me" to address enthusiasm or personal movement.

I know there is another question that addresses what this idiomatic phrase means, but I'm very curious as to where this came from and when? I've searched a number of English dictionaries in hopes that a definition of the idiom or simply the word chord would be affixed with the origin; I started with the Cambridge English dictionary and proceeded from there.

I also tried many fruitless Google queries. If someone could point me towards a reliable resource, I'd have no problem doing further research.

I know music is a very emotional endeavor, so I could see the connection there--considering chords are a significant component of music--but this is purely a personal inference.

Does anyone know this idiom's origin?


texts: Confused about When to Use “these” and “those”

texts:
Example #1

This site contains links to books that I read. I recommend
these/those books.

NOTE: The links are on this site, but not on this page. The links are external links.
Should I use these or those? Why?

Example #2

This page contains links to books that I read. I recommend
these/those books.

NOTE: The links are on this page, but you might have to scroll down a little to find them. The links are external links.
Should I use these or those? Why?

Example #3

I read “Book Name + Link”, “Book Name + Link”, and “Book Name + Link”.
I recommend these/those books.

NOTE: The links are external links.
Should I use these or those? Why?

NOTE: This question and this question doesn’t help me.


texts:
I would like to know what is the correct form and the use for inviting peoples to calling you by phone, specially in the context of written materials).

  Contact us on +123 123 123
  Contact us at +123 123 123


texts: Where did the term "flame war"/"flaming" come from?

texts:
I found this term on the history of Tanenbaum and Torvalds debate, but I couldn't find the origin of the term.

I've understood the meaning (from UrbanDictionary):

  A flame war is a heated argument between two individuals, that results
  in those involved posting personal attacks on each other during or
  instead of debating the topic at hand.

So, what is the origin?


texts: I usually misspell words like "believe" or "receive". For words like these two I would usually google it first to see if I got the spelling right. Is there a pattern for words like these?


texts: What is the origin of the term "throw the book"?

texts:
I'm curious if "the book" in question is the bible?

Does anyone know where this term first entered the lexicon?


texts:
The labour union is negotiating a contract with the hospital that will satisfy the demand of the workers and be accepted to all levels of management.

I was asked to find out a mistake in the sentence above. I thought it to be the phrase "be accepted", considering it sounds a little awkward and also not parallel to the tense of the verb "will satisfy" used previously in the sentence.
I was told the sentence has no error. Why is my explanation wrong in this case?


texts:
I'm wondering if the word "bit" in its information theory / computer science sense actually has a plural.

If "bit" is used like a unit of measurement, then it should mostly be used in its singular forms. E.g. "20 bit of data is received" or "The capacity of this medium is 200 bit". However, this would make the use of "bit" as a noun for a small piece of information difficult.

So for example, while reading publications, I've often encountered sentences like "The bits received by the radio are processed by a decoder".

Now some people say, that the latter use of "bit" is wrong. I'm wondering if that is actually the case and all those occurrences are actually false English that has gone mainstream.

Not being a native speaker myself, I could not find a definitive conclusion. Sources like the Oxford English Dictionary (online) don't seem to mention a plural form for "bit". But it seems so common to talk about "bits" that I wanted to make sure.


texts: are Cicadas kings or queens of the night?

texts:
Cicadas are insect that make sounds. They are very lout actually. Then, while talking about the night when cicadas do their work, one may say "The cicadas are kings" or "The cicadas are queens"?

In other words, the noun "cicada" is female or male? or there is a neutral-genre word for royalty?


texts: Using superlatives as prefixes, order of significance

texts:
This is kind of an opinion-leaning question.

I'm naming a set of items based on their order of significance. Their names will be prefixed with the following superlatives: super, ultra, mega, hyper, giga, epic, and more (in fact, if you have any more that would sound good as a prefix please feel free to list them).

In what order should these be?

This is not the same question at all: Which is higher — "hyper-", "ultra-" or "super-"? I even clearly stated in a comment that it was not:

  The answers there aren't what I'm looking for. The Greek and Latin
  roots are obvious (for anyone who has studied them, as I), but not
  exactly useful here. In this case they all have the same
  meaning.

I even stated I was looking for opinions. I also have words that were never addressed in that question.


texts:
What is an objective, scientifically precise word meaning of or relating to God?

(To be clear, I mean scientific only in the context of having scientific precision, a word that would describe the phenomenon from an unbiased, if not objective, point of view.)

Theistic, as it implies the existence of a single deity only, while theodicy entails "the vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil," which is too partial.

For example, what word would best fill the blank in the phrase "a series of ____ visits," meaning "a series of visits by God"?


texts: "A" vs. "An" in writing vs. pronunciation

texts:
When starting a word with a vowel, the preceding "a" becomes an "an". I often find that when writing words that start with letter "N" or "M", I will pronounce them "EN", "EM", etc. (This is because in programming, letters are often pronounced in certain terms.)

So, when writing a question on SO, do I write "an NSString" or, "a NSString"?


texts:
"You, my peer, who know no more than I" or "You, my peer, who knows no more than I"

I am leaning toward the first one, but the second one sounds more natural. Which one should I choose?


texts: I get confused on when to use the exclamation mark "!". Are there concise rules on when to use the exclamation mark "!"?


texts:
I'm trying to find the grammar rule or name that explains these types of sentences:

The movie was about how we all need to love each other.
She talked about how there is a great fear of technology.
He thought about how magma slowly cools beneath the Earth's surface.

So, the pattern is [verb + about + how + clause]. What's the rule/explanation?


texts:
The word best means:

  Best: of the most excellent, effective, or desirable type or quality

It seems that we only use best for the top highest quality of a certain thing.

For example, there are four schools.  The school has 10,000 students, is very popular, and its quality is also very good. The second and third have ok service. The fourth school has only 500 students but its quality is the top and higher than the first school’s.

Does anyone call the most popular school the best school? Or is the best school the one that has the top quality?

Which can we say it the best school, the first or the fourth?


texts: Is there any expression for "non-oclock hours"?

texts:
For hours like "9h00", we use "o'clock", but is there any expression that can refer to hours like "9h15", "14h45", etc... ? I want to use a single general expression to refer to these hours

Example : "9h15" and "14h45" are ..., but "9h00" and "17h00" are exact hours


texts:
I am quoting from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Silver Blaze:

Holmes shook his head.'A clever counsel would tear it all to rags'.


texts: Should I use italics or quotes to highlight a single word?

texts:
He looked as though he had never heard of the word patience.

Should the term patience be in italics or quotation marks?


texts: What is the proper way to punctuate "but no"?

texts:
I'm trying to figure out the proper usage and punctuation of "but no". I think it's one of the following:

  You figure I would have made at least one post about Arthur C. Clarke’s “2010” during 2010. But no, I missed the entire year.
  You figure I would have made at least one post about Arthur C. Clarke’s “2010” during 2010. But, no. I missed the entire year.

Is one of those accurate, or is there a better way?


texts: Express that something is delivered with something else for a certain amount of time

texts:
I want to express that A is delivered together with B for 5 years and that this still goes on.

  A is being delivered with B since two years.

The above sentences is obviously wrong.

What about ...

  A is being delivered with B for two years.


texts: A serious question: I don't think there is a "classical" (i.e., Greek- or Latin-based) synonym for for the English word "crackpot", a person with crazy ideas.  But if there were, would it be "schizoceramic" or "schistoceramic" or something else?


texts:
In a recent NYTimes article:

He should have recused himself completely, and have formally informed
the entire board as well as the public about any family interest.
This chimes with what some ethics experts believe. Ideally, museum
experts say, if a work is borrowed from a family...

I've never seen this usage, and an internet search offers no help. This closed question seems similar but doesn't address this usage.
It's possible that the writer meant jibe, which M/W defines as

to be in accord : agree —usually used with with

but I'm inclined to give the NYTimes the benefit of the doubt. At first.
ETA:
The print version of this piece appeared in today's edition, and replaces the word chimes with the word accords, so apparently they weren't fully satisfied with this. I couldn't see the author's bio, but his name is Graham Bowley, which does have a British ring to it.


texts: What does "rings around the brain" mean?

texts:
I'm watching the movie "Mary Poppins Returns".

At one point Marry Poppins sings:

  Too much glee leaves rings around the brain

I'm not quite sure what "rings around the brain" means. From context I can imagine it means that too much delight/joy will diminish your logical thinking capabilities and degenerates your intellect. Putting imagination/joy/creativity in contrast to rigorous mathematical thinking. I also assume that the phrase "rings around the brain" comes from the idea that when you are hit on the head you feel rings/stars/birds circle around your head, like in cartoons.

But I'm lost and these are all assumptions that may be the result of too much glee and imagination.

Thanks


texts: Is the word Strawling English or American, and what does it mean?

texts: I understood from a Jamaican lady, that she was strawling with her child down the road, ... Then I heard the same word again in Kenya - she was strawling along a street in Nairobi. What is the origin of this word? And what is the accurate meaning. The spelling control doesn't accept it :-)


texts: Can ‘on the other hand' be used without 'on one hand'?

texts:
Do I need to say 'on one hand' first to say 'on the other hand', or I can say 'on the other hand' without saying 'on one hand'?

Can 'on the other hand' be used like 'however'?


texts:
Sales pitch refers to:

(Commerce) an argument or other persuasion used in selling.

promotion by means of an argument and demonstration.

(Collins Dictionary)
Accordino to Etymonline the expression is from the 40's:

Sales pitch in the modern commercial advertising sense is from 1943.

What's the origin of this expression? Was it a slogan that gradually became a set phrase? When and where was this expression first used?


texts:
I've been searching and I'ye yet to encounter many "Rationales" (Plural) but "Rationale" (Singular). Is it grammatically correct to write "There are several rationales behind my belief that history classes should be taught"?

With the same example above, can I use rationale in place of reason?