texts: What is the proper term for the position of a digit within a number?

texts:
I am writing documentation for a code base, and I want my documentation to be as clear and unambiguous as possible. I am searching for the proper term to refer to the position of digit within a number.

Take the number, 00100000, and I want to refer to the position of the 1. So far I have come up with bit "placement"; however, this is unclear as to which direction the bit placement increases, without further explanation. I know that the leading bit is referred to as the "most significant bit", and the rightmost is referred to as the "least significant bit"; therefore, would it make sense to use the term bit "significance", or is there a mathematical term to describe this?

Example of how I plan to use the term: The placement of the 1 is 5, or the significance of the 1 is 5.


texts:
I came across following quote attributed Friedrich Nietzsche:

  It is the most sensual men who need to flee women and torment their bodies

What context does it appear in and what is its meaning?

Thanks.


texts: Is there a difference between "leading edge" and "bleeding edge"?

texts:
It seems to me that "leading edge" is the more established phrase, while "bleeding edge" is basically the same thing but the user has adapted the phrase for extra (rather meaningless) emphasis.

Or is there a meaningful distinction between the two?


texts:
I read the post Usage of "which", and am trying to frame my own sentence that uses "which".

Consider the sentences below.  In the first, I want to say that variable shadowing is the reason that Class Sheltie does what it does.  In the second, that the default constructor is also the body of the class.  Is which correctly used?

  • Class Sheltie of Dog.scala illustrates variable shadowing, which also explains why this class does what it does.
  • This causes the default constructor to be invoked, which happens to be the body of the class itself.


texts:
‘They won hundreds of dollars; five hundreds to be precise!’
"The Name of the Number", by Michael A. B. Deakin , page 48.

In mathematics we talk about the place of the units, of the tens, of the hundreds etc. So 2.000 is two hundred tens, and 2.000.000 is twenty thousand hundreds.

EDIT
Also, what is the meaning of the second hundreds, for example from the ones in the Microsoft® Encarta® Dictionary?

noun (plural hundreds)

the number 100
a group of a hundred people or objects
an unspecified large number: attended by hundreds
the number that is three places to the left of the decimal point in an Arabic numeral
a bill worth a hundred dollars
a historical subdivision of English, Irish, and some North American counties

hundreds, plural noun

the numbers 100 to 999
the years of a particular century: the seventeen-hundreds
numbers over 100, particularly as a range of Fahrenheit temperatures: For three days the temperature was in the hundreds.
unspecified large numbers

Microsoft® Encarta® 2009


texts: Should the below Bullets of Equipment be Capitalized?

texts:
PURPOSE:
1.1. This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) establishes the process to properly take oil samples required by the Beaumont Reserve Fleet (BRF) for the following machinery equipment:
1.1.1. Barbara Lois:
1.1.1.1. Port Main Engine
1.1.1.2. Starboard Main Engine
1.1.1.3. Port Gear Box
1.1.1.4. Starboard Gear Box
1.1.1.5. Bow Thruster Engine
1.1.1.6. Bow Thruster Reduction Gear
1.1.1.7. # 1 Generator
1.1.1.8. # 2 Generator
1.1.1.9. Upper Tow Winch
1.1.1.10. Lower Tow Winch
1.1.1.11. Port Steering Unit
1.1.1.12. Starboard Steering Unit
1.1.1.13. Hydraulic Crane
1.1.1.14. Crane Port Swing Motor Gear Casing
1.1.1.15. Crane Starboard Swing Motor Gear Casing
1.1.1.16. Crane Forward Extension Motor Gear Casing
1.1.1.17. Crane Aft Extension Motor Gear Casing
1.1.1.18. Crane Main Heavy Load Gear Casing
1.1.1.19. Crane Auxiliary Light Load Gear Casing
1.1.2. Billy Greer:
1.1.2.1. Port Main Engine
1.1.2.2. Starboard Main Engine
1.1.2.3. Port Gear Box
1.1.2.4. Starboard Gear Box
1.1.2.5. Generator Engine
1.1.3. Christie Lee:
1.1.3.1. Port Main Engine
1.1.3.2. Starboard Main Engine
1.1.3.3. Port Gear Box
1.1.3.4. Starboard Gear Box


texts: "They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers..."

texts:
I have this quote:

  They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the
  regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual
  rulers...call this a new order.  It is not new and it is not order

and I have to consider Franklin Roosevelt’s words above as you apply them to some of the following:  King Louis XVI, Maximilian Robespierre, Napoleon Bonaparte, Otto von Bismarck, V.I. Lenin and J.V. Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini.

The hint given is to think continuity and change over time. I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me figure out what the quote means in this text.


texts:
Can anyone explain why we use the definite article the for the following:

  The upper classes often go fox hunting.

but

  People in High society often go fox hunting.


texts: what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

texts:
The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter?

Thanks!


texts: Can I use a dash to replace a repeating verb?

texts:
In my language (Bulgarian) you can use a dash to replace a verb that you have already used in the same sentence. For example:

The distance from London to Paris is 500km, from Paris to Munich —
850km, and from Munich to Luxembourg — 530km.

Is this is any way grammatically correct in English, or is there a way to recreate it using different punctuation? I simply want to omit the "to be" verb the second and third time I'm using it in a row in the exact same context.


texts: Do you write " Happy Anniversary Jane & Henry!" or "Happy anniversary, Jane & Henry!"


texts: Why "wonder woman" and not "wonderwoman"?

texts:
It's kind of pedantic question perhaps, or maybe if the reason I'm not getting the point is not that English is my second language, perhaps you can call it a feminist outcry, but regardless:

Why is there a space in "Wonder Woman" but none in "Superman"?

Imao, both of these are the same thing, more or less, only designed for presumably different marketing demands.

Or maybe it is just beauty of shorter words.


texts:
Another question from the world of Charles Dickens.... In Great Expectations, the police sergeant says the following to Mr. Pumblechook:

  "Would you give me the Time!"

I was surprised at this capitalization of "time"; in all situations I've seen thus far, it has been lowercase. Additionally, Should "time" be capitalized in "it was his time [to go]" clearly states that "time" is a common noun and should not be capitalized.

Why did Dickens capitalize here? Can you provide any background of the history of "time" being used thus? Thank you.


texts: Word or phrase to describe something that previously had a use, but now has a negative impact

texts:
Something like a remnant of a system that originally had a purpose, but has since lost its purpose, to the point of having a negative impact on the current system.
Think of something like an outdated technology, that currently has a range of issues. In it's prime, it was a good choice, but now it is causing more issues than it solves.
Real world examples:

'The system contains x technology, likely a [insert word here] from when the system was first designed.'
'The human body still has a [insert word here] tailbone.' (nowadays causing more problems than it has benefits)


texts: How should you punctuate the construction of "She read until she reached the word x."?

texts:
What is the correct way to highlight a specific word in the following way?

She read until she came to the word packet.

I feel like it's either one of the following ways, but I'm unsure.

She read until she came to the word 'packet'.
She read until she came to the word packet.

Thanks


texts:
I'm trying to understand why the plural is used in this case instead of the singular. The sentence uses the plural version of the past tense of "be" when referring to "the flow".

Why is the sentence written this way "If the flow were working" instead of "If the flow was working"?

If this was at the present tense, I don't think it would've been written as "If the flow are working".

The snippet is pulled from the Popular Science magazine, summer issue of 2019 page 64.

  If the flow were working properly the ground would filter rainwater, ...


texts: Using "in which year" in middle of sentence

texts:
Can I use in which year in the middle of a sentence?

  The industry has being growing at a record-breaking scale, excepting
  only 2008, in which year, financial crisis stroke most sectors of
  the world’s economy.


texts: What is a pejorative phrase or word you would call an employee who has all the free time in the world?

texts:
What is a pejorative phrase or word you would call an employee who has all the free time in the world to just to be nosy in how others wear their tie or how some one should not put their hands in their pocket or discuss unimportant ideas.

I do not want to use  the word "Nosy" as it does not describe the free time effect and as is nosiness is a secondary effect. The word has to do with "free time". the best phrase would be "All-the-spare-time-in-the-world timer" but unfortunately its not a word or a phrase.


texts: What is it called when you can't tell a person's age?

texts:
So if androgynous means visibly indeterminate gender, what would you call someone of visibly indeterminate age?

  "I can't tell that Asian guy's age. He's [age-ogynous]."


texts: What's the meaning of "what have you got?" in 1953 film "the wild one"?

texts:
In 1953 film the wild one, there is a line:

Question: What are you rebelling against?
Answer:   what have you got?

I don't understand the meaning of the answer.


texts: Idiom or proverb describes the huge effort to be spent to find something?

texts:
For example, this idiom is a thing that I'm trying hard to find. It applies itself in this situation.

While the idiom needle in a haystack is pretty close, it only describes the state of being hard to find, not the effort you actually have to spend to find it. It might be easily found by most people, but not me. That thing can be an object, an job, or a coterie.

More specific, the thing I'm looking for is a field of academic. For a long time, I have always wanted to see myself to do a specific scientific activity. But only recently I find the exactly name of the field that I think I should work for. Without it, my academic proposal is less persuaded. I want to convey this joy of this little success into my essay. Thanks to many answers, I think look high and low for is what I need, since it's simple enough so that the readers won't think that I'm trying to use bombastic words.


texts: What is a word or phrase for when someone's statement reveals their ignorance in something?

texts:
It's not a lie or a joke, it's when the speaker doesn't know that by saying what they said other people can figure out they don't know something.

For example:

  "Dolphins are my favorite kind of fish."

This reveals the speaker does not know that dolphins are actually mammals, but would suggest they probably know very little about fish, mammals, or even animals in general.

Instead of having to say, "You just said something that reveals to me that you are ignorant in something", I would want to say, "You just committed a _____".

I always want to say you "jumped the shark" in your statement, or you committed a "faux pas", but those aren't correct.


texts: Is there a word for learning from the experience of others?

texts:
I would like to phrase something for which I am missing a word and I don't know whether it exists. Consider the following three perspectives.

Learning from books
Learning from the experience of others
Learning from experience

Is there a word for "the experience of others" in this context?


texts: Synonym for 'first class' as in 'first gathering of a course'

texts:
I'm looking for the most colloquial synonym for the term 'first class', in the meaning of 'first gathering of a course'. My reason for looking for an alternative is that 'first class' is too easily read as 'first-class', as in 'top-notch'.
Would 'opening class' be correct and normal-sounding?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Should a sentence have a comma before the quotation when the quotation is given an indefinite article?

texts:
See the following:

  I heard the man shout out a, “Good luck, lad!”

Should there be a comma after a? Thanks!


texts: Compact rephrasing of "In contrast to previous work, our method ...."

texts:
I am writing an abstract for a paper, where I say the following:

  "In contrast to previous work, our method does not rely on ...."

Then, about three sentences later, I would like to use a similar construct

  "In contrast to previous work, where problem X is usually approached this way ...."

These constructs are useful to quickly highlight the contributions of your work in the abstract, but I would prefer avoiding the repetition of the exact same words, since the two sentences are close enough to each other in the text.

Can anybody think of a compact way of rephrasing either of these two sentences (without changing the structure of the text much) ?


texts:
For some reason I thought "egrarious" was a word, but I cannot find any authoritative reference to the word.

I thought it meant "ostentatiously bad".

I am aware there is a word "egregious".


texts: I've read an article recently which has the title "Intel To Release Most Powerful Mainstream Processor Ever To Beat AMD" (link). I feel something is missed between "Intel" & "To". So the question what does "Intel To Release" mean and what's the name of this kind of construction.


texts: Can someone explain the meaning of this sentence and what "but for " implies?

texts: I would not have worked in London in the summer but for being on holiday.


texts: Children were sitting on their parents' lap or laps? Can lap be used in plural form at all?


texts: What is the adjective formed from 'physics'?

texts:
As you know, the noun 'biology' forms the adjective 'biological', and 'chemistry' forms 'chemical'. What is the adjective formed from the noun 'physics'?
(It can't be physical, as this has other meanings e.g. tangible, related to real, not imaginary or metaphysical things).


texts:
I am from New England (northeastern US) and it's my understanding that we have a non-rhotic dialect in this region, which is unusual compared to the rest of the US.

It is common to drop the final r in a word, and that is the most singular feature of the dialect, as Tom Bosley's character in Murder, She Wrote famously abused.  Car turns into cah; Bar Harbor becomes Bah Hahbah.

One other feature of my native dialect is the intrusive r. This shows up in mysterious places, the examples that spring to mind are idea(r) and area(r), seemingly after terminal "a" sounds.

Similarly, it pops up where one would use non-r word endings like saw, especially when followed by a vowel (perhaps to make it easier to glide from one vowel to another without a glottal stop):

  I sore [saw] a black Chevy van parked in front of my house this morning.

Does the intrusive r appear in all non-rhotic dialects? Does it appear only in non-rhotic dialects?

I have been wondering if it is a kind of over-correction, where I hear it at the ends of these words because I am used to hearing a dropped r when a word ends with an a sound. For example, since I hear "cah" as car, I also hear "idea" as idear.


texts:
I'm confused in whether to write know or knows in the following statement:-
"The ones who are included know better."?

Also explain the difference between the two, thanks.


texts: Is there a word for "pretending to joke when you say something serious"?

texts:
I'm currently reading "the body keeps the score", and this passage appears in the first page of chapter 6.

(Warning: passage is about emotional trauma, do not read if you're not ready for that)

  "I know I wasn't wanted", she told me, "I'm not sure when I first realized that, but I've thought about things that my mother said to me, and the signs were always there. She'd tell me, 'You know, I don't think you belong in this family. I think they gave us the wrong baby'. And she'd say it with a smile on her face. "But of course, people often pretend to joke when they say something serious".

This is a beautiful observation, one of the kind that's worthy of having its own word.

My question for you, is there a word, or phrase that more eloquently captures the idea of "pretending to joke when you say something serious"?


texts: Connotations: "sanguine" vs "sanguinary"

texts:
I broadened this question after encountering sanguinary.

  1. sanguine: optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation:
  2. sanguinary {archaic}:     involving or causing much bloodshed

In both adjectives, I see the root "sang", the noun for "blood" in French (which interests me; I've never studied Latin though).

sanguine is defined as a POSITIVE connotation. Yet whenever I see it, my first thoughts of it are negative, because sang (in French) = blood,
which reminds me of
"bloody," which connotes negativity in English.
Only after a minute of conscious recollection, do I  realise that sanguine is positive.

Per contra, sanguinary is defined as a NEGATIVE connotation. Please compare and explain this difference?

Afterword: I only encountered this explaining 'sanguine', 13 months after writing the OP.


texts: Is this bit of jargon a misuse of English?

texts:
In Architecture the word typology is used to describe a group or type of buildings.

For example here it is being used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-LjOZT8Nxw&t=1m05s

I find overly confusing as intuitively I hear words with ology to be the study of something, geology - study of the earth, ornithology - study of birds, scientology - study of being in a cult (ha), and so on.

For me typology is the study of types and if you doing typology and categorizing buildings as an architect those categories would be types.

I know the jargon of different fields may not stick to the strict definition of a word. And maybe quite different, but this one seems especially wrong and confusing.


texts: "something we missed" vs. "something we have missed"

texts:
I was wondering when to use 'have' in a sentence like 'There has to be something we (have) missed'. I've looked only, but couldn't find a clear-cut answer.

A clear explanation would be greatly appreciated!


texts:
Do these sentences make sense?

"X is a food trade show which took place from the 4th to the 7th November 2013"

"the international congress was held from 22nd to 24th October 2015"

What are the other alternatives? The different ways with which I can express the same concept but with different methods. Like, dunno, is "from November 4 to November 7 2013" acceptable, FOR INSTANCE?

Thanks to everyone!


texts: What's the word used to describe an academic study which pulls data from many previous studies?

texts:
The phrase that comes to mind is "literature review", but that's not it. I'm looking for the word one would use in an academic context to describe a research study which pulls data from, ideally, all previous studies done to address a particular matter.
For example, suppose one wanted to address the question "Does egg consumption increase the risk of heart disease?". What one could do is, do a massive literature review round up all previous studies which have directly answered this question. Then select the papers which fit your criteria for eligibility (as many as possible), and then do statistics on the results from all these studies, sort of combining them all into one mega-study.


texts: What is the correct phrase for "speaks well to the"

texts: For example, if I want to say something like "The fact that the space ship survived the meteor impact speaks well to its reliability."  What is the accepted/standard phrase for 'speaks well to'.  I am fairly sure that 'speaks well to' is not correct and/or standard.


texts: Word for when something inappropriate or surprising is said or proclaimed in a jarring and nonchalant manner

texts: An example is if I was speaking to someone about baseball or something similarly innocent and nonchalantly said "That reminds me of my mother. She was killed in a car accident two years ago." The person I'm addressing is obviously taken aback by the statement and shocked by the statement, while I, on the other hand, am behaving normally as if I hadn't said anything out of line.


texts: How to Make a Parallel Structure when a Same-Class word is Not Found?

texts:
I want to make a sentence, adequately using parallel structures, and can't find a way for that. I couldn't find an adjective for tobacco-relative, like I have for alcohol and automotive, in the following list:

  tobacco, alcoholic and automotive goods

In a way I could write a phrase:

  The new tax applies to tobacco, alcoholic and automotive goods.

Is there any way to make sentences like this parallel?

*Edited: I think the way I framed the question people would understand it as three different nouns; when I was actually meaning three different adjectives for goods. This is why I have provided an example phrase.


texts: What's the longest word that has survived from Old English?

texts:
I recently saw this question Did the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech mainly use words from Old English? If so, why? about Winston Churchill's famous "Fight them on the beaches" speech that said the speech mostly used words from Old English because they are simpler than most of the ones borrowed from French and Latin.

I'd really like to ask what the most complicated word is from Old English but that's far too subjective. What is the longest word still in use in today's English that comes from Old English? I will accept an answer either in terms of spelling or number of syllables. Proper nouns are not included.  The word also should be of Germanic origin rather than being an Old English borrowing from Latin or French.


texts: Do intensive pronouns ever convey new information?

texts:
So for instance, the sentence 'I myself am called James' is not different to 'I am called James', information wise.

As a comparative measure, take the sentences, which make use of reflexive pronouns 'I cooked eggs for myself' vs 'I cooked eggs for her'. Here, different information is conveyed, because whilst the object is the same, the subject is different.

But the sentence 'I herself am called James', 'I her am called James', or 'her myself am called Alice', does not make sense, because the object can't be two different things at once.

Note: I've just thought that 'he himself cooked eggs' could imply that only he (whoever he is) cooked eggs, and only him alone. However, I don't think it necessarily means so, where 'he alone cooked eggs', would. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.


texts: Word that describes "Giving importance more to the person rather than to his ideals"?

texts: Idolization, Personality craze - Doesn't sound right.


texts: Is it correct to use the word "devastated" to refer to the pain we feel towards other people?

texts:
I think the word devastated is mainly used when something bad happens to oneself (maybe I'm wrong?) Say, can I use it in the following way?

  I felt devastated after watching the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

If not, what's a better option?


texts: I'm looking for a simple word to use as the name of a function in a computer program that widely employs a naming metaphor. For this reason, I need a simple verb that can substitute (the instruction) "Become born."


texts: Can comma use between numbers for clarity be correct?

texts:
I was looking at a dessert recipe and found this sentence:

  Makes 24, 2" x 2" squares.

Almost every source I've found seems to suggest that "24" and "2 x 2" are cumulative adjectives (i.e. it doesn't make sense to replace the comma with "and"), so the comma is extraneous. However, you could make an argument that the added comma is correct because it adds clarity to a potentially confusing sentence.

My question is this: is there a specific grammar rule that allows you to write commas between numerals for clarity? Alternatively, is there another reason why this comma placement is correct?


texts:
Present simple, past continuous, future perfect, present perfect continuous etc.
These terms are used when English is taught to foreigners. All of them are from quite a neat chart 3×4 of tenses, which are studied thoroughly and separately, and then in speech.
I was wondering if native speakers students who study English use the same terms and approach. I got this idea after I'd read the book of English grammar, by British for the British. It is quite old, and maybe the approach is outdated too. It said there were two tenses, present and past. All the rest were just syntactical constructions for detailed meanings.


texts: What is the difference between the nouns start and beginning?

texts:
I'm curious about the general difference between the two, but I have to be more specific.

I'd like to know the difference in the context of the noun period — should I use "the start of the period" or "the beginning of the period"?


texts: Word for "can be used again with entertainment"

texts:
The title may be misleading as I had trouble summarizing the question in a phrase.

I'm looking for a word to mean "usable again", referring to a mobile app. I'm looking for something along the lines of "replayable" for games.

I want to reword the phrase "give both hardcore & casual fans a reason to keep coming back" to make it sound more technical, preferably something along the lines of "to provide word here to the app". If I were to refer to a game, I would word it as "to add replay value to the game".

Thank you very much.


texts:
In old books, I keep coming accross the saying,

  ...is so transparent it could pass through the proverbial wedding ring.

What does this mean?


texts: How would one know when to choose 'preferred' or 'preferable'?

texts:
Are there guidelines for favoring 'preferred' over 'preferable' in certain contexts? Dictionaries seem to give nearly the same definitions.
Thanks.


texts: How should I use "just as .. so .." phrase

texts:
I have not understood the usage of the phrase "just as .. so" yet.
When should I use it ? What is it meant for ?

Do the sentences have to be diferent in some way ?

  "Just as Roni wanted to see her again, so Bony wanted to see him"

There is no a difference between Roni and Bony. Both Roni and Bony wanted to see each other –


texts: Words for describing a person's relation to a queue

texts:
I'm looking for a combination of 3 different words/phrases - one for every scenario described below.

The person is waiting in the queue.
The person is NOT waiting in the queue, but they could join the queue.
The person is NOT waiting in the queue and they can NOT join the queue. This could be the case for a multitude of reasons, such as the queue already being full or it being closed for the time being.

These words/phrases will be used in a technical context for describing 3 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive states.


texts:
Why do we treat first person singular and second person with a plural verb?
Is there any reason behind this?
Why is it not like- you was running incredibly fast.
Why is it-you were running incredibly fast.

Could someone tell me the history behind this kind of agreement between sub. and verb. And why in past tense, we treat 'I' with a singular verb?
Whenever I asked about this, I got the answer that it's English...and it's just an exception.


texts: Is there a word in English that essentially means "I" or "we" in formal context?

texts:
In Swedish there is a word, "undertecknad", which would refer the author of a piece of text. It is an expression used in formal context when you try to objectify yourself (and avoid saying "I") out of the text you are writing.

I know that you can say, yours truly, or even the French "moi" at times, in informal context. But, say you are writing a report and using the passive voice throughout. If I want to refer to my supervisors, who are not co-authoring the report with me, how can I do that?


texts:
"User must be able to login through google SSO"

Does this rule express a necessity for the user or application? I mean that the USER must have the ability for login, or application must let users to login through google?


texts: What is the meaning of "I’ll be up you for the rent"?

texts:
In this video at 1:43, Ray (the guy on the right), says something like:

"And if I ever hear you having your eyes lifted or something done to your chin I'll be up you for the rent too by the way."

I can perfectly understand the first part of his statement, but the second one got me confused. What does "I'll be up you for the rent too" mean in this context?
Attempted transcription:

Left: "Aiii, Raymunda."
Right: "I could do with a nip and tuck; she doesn't need one. She's a beautiful young woman. Stop all the nonsense."
Left: "All right, I think we'll leave it there, Ray [or eh]."
Right: "Prob'ly a good idear."
Left: (Hisses and laughs)
Right: "And if I ever hear you having your eyes lifted or something done to your chin, I'll be [up to/after] you for [the rent] too, by the way."
Left: "No, I know you will be. You'll be [up me in?] for [the rent] anyway."


texts: Digital imitation of an analog aesthetic

texts:
There is a word that refers to the aesthetic of a digital representation, imitation, or emulation of an analog device or its components.

Such as an analog clock displayed on a digital screen. Apple Inc. is well known for using this technique.

If I recall correctly; I believe the root of the word has a German origin.

Does anybody know the word?


texts:
I read in a newspaper the following heading:

“Trump’s Threat To Cut Aid to Countries” = The US reduces its help…
Then I found in a dictionary: “Cuts aid rebels.” = The reduction is helping the revolutionaries.

Why is there a difference between “Cut Aid to Countries” and “Cuts aid rebels?”


texts: "Most importantly" or "more importantly"?

texts:
Which of the following two sentences is more correct?

"A picture says a thousand words, more importantly in a fraction of a second"

OR

"A picture says a thousand words, most importantly in a fraction of a second"

Nothing important, just my own quotes! Do also suggest, if I can put it in a better way to express what I want to.


texts: How to punctuate combinations of 'and' and 'or'

texts:
For this question, please bear in mind that or denotes [[either or both]].

I need to express that Mary will go to the movies with, either one of, or both of, Jane and John.

  Jane or John and Mary will go to the movies.

Aside from adding punctuation, I cannot amend the sentence.

How should I punctuate the sentence?


texts: "Have to vs will have to" in conditional statements

texts:
Which tense should be used in the main clause of this sentence?

  If the learners want to finish their homework, they (have to/will have to) stop being lazy.

Since the if-clause is in present tense, the future tense in the main clause should be acceptable.

However, there are examples where both clauses are in present tense, such as "I buy books if they're interesting." This is the case when your statement is a general fact or is treated as such based on the context.

From this, can we say that the present tense in my first example is also acceptable because it can be seen as a general fact?


texts: difficult in conjunctive adverb punctuation

texts:
Are the usage of 'for example' correct in the following?

However, it is hard to see a person can have a sound education and appropriate qualifications ;for example, a degree.

However, it is hard to see a person can have a sound education and appropriate qualifications a degree, for example.

However, it is hard to see a person can have a sound education and appropriate qualifications. For example, a degree.

However, it is hard to see a person can have a sound education and appropriate qualifications, for example, a degree.


texts: A synonym for "bastardized" without the evil slant?

texts:
With the following definition:

  To lower in quality or character.

Synonyms found:

  corrupt, pervert, subvert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch, debase, profane, vitiate, deprave, misdirect

However all of those have a very "intentionally evil" connotation. I would say more along the lines of "messed up", but it needs to portray that it's somewhat intentional, just not with the evil slant.

Intentionally done, but unintentionally wrong, is what I'm looking for.

Perfect Example:

My nick name on here is Aequitarum Custos, which is a "bastardized" Latin, it should have been Aequitatis Custos (the correct way to say what I wanted).

I intentionally created my nick like that, but had no intention to make it wrong.

Reason for desiring a synonym is due to the perceived obscenity of the word bastard by some people.


texts: Difference between "ditch", "trench" and "gutter"

texts: I have been trying to understand the difference between the three, is this a usage difference between American English and British English? What is the difference?


texts: Why is the noun "blacklist" (written without a space) in the dictionary, but not "whitelist"?

texts:
Checking Oxford Dictionaries Online, I find the noun blacklist, written as one word, and the noun white list, written as two. There is no black list defined as a compound written open, and there is no whitelist written closed-up.

Why this inconsistency in spelling? How did blacklist end up being written as one word, but white list as two, when they are exact counterparts of each other?


texts: Why do some British (English) people add a pronoun to the end of a sentence?

texts:
I've noticed that in certain parts of England, U.K., people would add pronouns to the end of their sentences when speaking. I'm from the U.S. but I have a couple of friends from West Yorkshire and Liverpool specifically and I've noticed they speak and type in this manner sometimes:

Made my morning that

One of them said this when his favorite sports team won a match in the morning. So logically this just means "that made my morning", without the dialect added onto it.
Another time we were eating Chinese food and he said:

F*cking good this

Which I presume it means "this is f*cking good" (the food).
I know that there are various dialects across the U.K. But I would like to know more information about this specific mannerism. I'm wondering where did the manner of adding a pronoun to the end of a sentence come from? And why do they do it and how'd it start? Which dialect is this to be specific? Thank you.


texts:
The original sentence:

He must, for example, perceive an egg as a simple single solid shape, quite apart from its significance as food, or from the literary idea that it will become a bird. And so with solids such as a shell, a nut, a plum, a pear, a tadpole, a mushroom, a mountain peak, a kidney, a carrot, a tree-trunk, a bird, a bud, a lark, a ladybird, a bulrush, a bone.

I understand that the second sentence is an omitted version. It may be like this if fully spelled out:

He must, for example, perceive an egg as a simple single solid shape, quite apart from its significance as food, or from the literary idea that it will become a bird. And so (does he) with solids such as a shell, a nut, a plum, a pear, a tadpole, a mushroom, a mountain peak, a kidney, a carrot, a tree-trunk, a bird, a bud, a lark, a ladybird, a bulrush, a bone.

My two questions are:

Is it better to add ‘other’ before 'solids' in the 2nd sentence, making it as: ... And so with other solids such as a shell...?
I notice there are no 'and','or' or other symbols or words to signal the end of the listing. Is this style common for listing multiple items?


texts: "Shamefully presents" vs. "ashamedly presents"

texts:
I'm editing a short movie. In the title screens, after the production company is listed, there needs to be a play on the common "Proudly Presents" text.

It is with some chagrin that the production company is releasing this short, due to its somewhat shameful content. Should I use "Ashamedly Presents" or "Shamefully Presents"? I'm leaning toward the latter since the word feels more recognizable (this is for a mass audience). I wanted to get other opinions and make sure they're both grammatically correct before deciding.


texts: Antonym of "additional"? Or alternative to "additional"?

texts:
What would the word be here? For now, I'm using "subtracted", but it sounds ...odd.

Say I have a computer program that takes a bunch of dollar values, say $1.2345338, $3.293383828, $2.393948, etc. and does some rounding, and then adds them together.  Sometimes, I add two numbers and it's technically 2 decimal places above, sometimes below.

  Please note that due to rounding in the system, there may be an additional or [WORD] cent.

Or how a margin of error can be +2/-2 points...you could say that "Due to the Sampling Methods, there can be an additional two, or a [WORD] two points."

Looking up antonyms, I found "fewer", but the "parallelism" isn't there. Is there a word more in line with "additional" that's the opposite?

I'm also open to changing using "additional", if there's a word combination that's more parallel, if that makes sense.

(Note: Looking for something a tad more formal that just "...give or take a cent or two")


texts: Why does "Not in a month of Sundays" mean "It won't happen"?

texts:
I'm not English so I find it hard to guess the reason why "Not in a month of Sundays" means "It won't happen" or "A long period of time".

I find the meaning weird. Can anybody explain to me why it means this? My question is why.

Full context (A children's literature by Jacqueline Wilson):

  But my mum's coming to see me at Christmas. She is. I just know she is.
  'Your mum's not coming to see you in a month of Sundays,' said Justine Littlewood. 'Your mum's never ever coming back because she doesn't want anything to do with an ugly manky bad-mouthed stupid show-off who wets the bed every ni—' "*


texts:
Can "crouch" be used to indicate motion?

Example:

  I crouched to the edge of the cliff and stayed there, still.

(So in this example I'm using crouched as a synonym for walking "crouchley"

Is this a common usage? If not, what's a better alternative?


texts: Tassel vs. Tassle? Which is correctly spelled, or both?

texts: I think I found an error in someone's work, where they spelled "tassel" as "tassle". Before I mention it to them I want to be 100% sure that this is really a problem and there is no alternate spelling.


texts: How closely is the Queen's English linked to British royalty?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, the Queen's English refers not just to pronunciation, but also "matters such as grammar, vocabulary and style".

The term has also been referenced numerous times on ELU. Of the 13 pages of search hits, though, I found just two questions of relevance to my question. The first asks about a style guide that the Queen might use, and the second is more tangential, asking about the link between Appalachian and Elizabethan vs contemporary English.

As defined by Oxforddictionaries.com:

  Queen's English
  The English language as written and spoken correctly by educated people in Britain

the link is clearly with educated British people in general, not the Queen in particular. Although this might be brushed off as synecdoche, there seems (to me, at least) to be a more personal association with the language of the Queen in her own right.

My question here is whether this impression is correct. Does the Queen's English refer to English as spoken by the Queen of England and, if so, was this personal link present between past monarchs and the polished English of their time?


texts: Can "masters" (plural) be used to refer to a single entity?

texts:
I was perusing the forums of a video game I play. I began reading a thread about the lore of the game, because a few things lore-wise are left pretty vague. Two individuals got into an argument about the use of the word "masters" by a character in the game.

The sentence is as follows:
Character: "The Tenno will surpass their former masters."

Now, guy A says that "masters" is referring to a single entity & Tenno is inclusive of the guy saying it. Guy B says, no it's plural so it's referring to multiple people.

So, to elaborate on my question, is there ANY way whatsoever that "masters" in it's plural form could be used in reference to a single person? The reason I'm bringing this question here is because, based off the lore provided & inferences made by the player base & typically agreed upon by the majority, it is believed that the "character" is inclusive in "The Tenno" (that's  part of that vague lore I mentioned earlier). Their was a group several hundred years ago that were the masters of the Tenno (which are a faction btw), but now, more recently, they have a single master, a single entity. I'm sorry if none of this makes any sense or I've provided a bunch of extraneous details.

If all of that is too confusing guy A made this statement: "It's quite possible syntax-wise to mention a singular object as plural. Trust me, I'm a linguist." (I think he meant to say "to mention a singular object with a plural word). Is this possible?

Thank you for your time. I can provide a link to the forum page if desired.


texts: The word I heard for the smell of something dead is carne not sure I spelled it right

texts: Has anyone heard of the word "carne" when you smell something dead not sure of spelling


texts: Word for when you ignore someone's wisdom because you don't think they really understand?

texts:
The best example is when teenagers and young adults say "yeah right" to their parents and elders who provide sound advice because they are convinced that their situation is new or different.  It's sort of patronizing but maybe something else.  When you just go along with whatever they say, but inwardly you seriously doubt that they know what they are talking about.  Is there a word for this?

Update:  Perhaps "incredulity"?


texts: When did the term "scientist" overtake usage of the term "natural philosopher"?

texts: The word scientist comes from the Latin scientia, but when did its usage become more prevalent than the term natural philosopher?


texts: Is there a name for questions where the answer is not important?

texts:
A question where you don't care about the answer.

e.g. "how are you today?" where you don't actually care what the answer is. Is it a polite question?


texts: How do I pronounce some possessive forms of words whose pronunciations end with s?

texts:
The examples come below.

Sussex's
Case's
anus's

How do I pronounce them?


texts: How to succinctly express that something may or may not happen, but if it does, then ?

texts:
The only ways I can think of are if and when or until such time.  Both seem inelegant.
Examples:

If and when you see Phil, tell him I said hi.
If or when you see Phil, tell him I said hi.

or

Until such time as you need the money, put it in your savings account.

In the last example (until such time) I want to express that it may not happen.


texts:
I saw this in a book. A person is told by his boss "You have to hit the decks running". This man doesn't know what his boss meant.
Is this something about the idiom "hit the deck"? Does it mean "get to action quickly". Or, since this person doesn't understand his boss either, could it be some kind of misuse?


texts: Does "otherwise" have a negative connotation in this context?

texts:
I was wondering whether the word otherwise has exactly the same meaning as if not in the following sentence. I myself think that otherwise will add some negative attitudes toward the sentence following it.

  "If you would like it, I can come along with you to your house; otherwise, I will follow the address."

I guess it can be interpreted as, "It would not be nice to follow the address," and the writer is pushing the guy to come along with or, at least, would rather come along with the guy.


texts:
I'm dwelled on usage(s) of being in the following sentence.

  Even with the model of memory being just physical memory, several
  options are possible.

Can it be written alternatively as the following?

  Even with the model of memory which is just physical memory, several
  options are possible.

Does it yield same meaning?

AFAI understand the model of memory being just physical memory is object of even with. Isn't it because of "with" preposition? I ask what question to even with as what even with? to find the model of memory being just physical memory.

What is the usage of "being" here? Can same usage be applied to "having" or something else.

Or does the "being" belong to preposition "of"?

I'm really but really confused about the subject. I really appreciate if you can explain and elucidate it.


texts: Don't run over your sister's foot / Don't crush your sister's foot / Ride on car context

texts:
My son has this ride on car.

How would a native say "don't crush your sister's foot"?

Don't run over your sister's foot!
Don't crush your sister's foot!
Don't crush your sister's foot with your car's wheels!
Don't let your car crush your sister's foot!
Don't run your sister's foot over!

Thank you.


texts: What do we call these gates? A kind of vertical sectioned sliding gate/door

texts:
The document I'm translating, a warehouse specification, stipulates that the warehouse's acceptance-and-shipping room should have this kind of gate (door?)

In Russian, it's called "подъемно-секционные ворота". I googled this phrase and found the image attached above.

The Multitran dictionary offers "vertical lift folding gate" as a translation, but I'm unsure. How are such gates (or is it "doors"?) called in English?


texts:
I had never heard of specialism until I encountered it in some British professional bodies' databases I was researching. I had thought it was a fake word because speciality would be the noun we use for what somebody specialises in.

Is there any distinction between specialism and speciality? Or may I start boasting about how "toast is my specialism in the kitchen"?


texts: When someone can speak a language very well, they are "fluent". What if you can only understand it?

texts: When someone can speak a language very well, they are fluent. Is there a word to describe a situation where you can understand the language when spoken to you perfectly, but just can't speak it as well? I'm looking for a word or phrase to describe it.


texts: The meaning of "a balance is struck at intervals"

texts:
According to this link, "a deposit book is the book held by a depositor in a bank in which are entered the sums placed to his credit and in which, when a balance is struck at intervals, the amount of the debits also is entered." Could someone help me understand the meaning of "a balance is struck at intervals" in this context?

I did a search and "strike price intervals" was what I found, but I don't think one thing has to do with another in this case.

Thank you!


texts: Alternatives to "Constructive Criticism"

texts:
I'm a big fan of constructive criticism, but I'm afraid that the term has become a cliche - or even a buzzword!

What are some good synonyms for it?


texts: What word would I use to say that a thing has left its usual environment to experience something?

texts:
I’m trying to say in one or two words that all of a group of animals and people have taken a leap beyond their usual comfort zone for a reason. This is the context:

Some fish fly; some birds swim. Some people leave behind old restraints or habits. All are reaching for something, or escaping something. How can I describe that in a short label? I thought of escaping normality, or escape of some kind, but escape does not convey the reach that is also part of the phenomenon. Would intrepid fit this? What other possibilities are there?


texts: "More than one person a day is/are killed"

texts: If I wrote a sentence saying "More than one person a day _______ killed by these massacres," would the blank be replaced by is or are?


texts: Describing a group consisting of groups of people

texts:
Is there a word/phrase to describe the charateristic of a group of people being composed of small and independent groups of people?

In Chinese, we would say that a group has a lot of "小團體", which literally means small group. That expression often means the group is divided and everyone only interacts with few people in the group. This happens very often in school and workplace and is usually considered a negative thing because it's hard for the whole group to work together.

How can express the same idea in English?

Edit: I think words like separated is too general, and saying that a group has a lot of subgroup doesn't convey that meaning.
Edit: For example, My college is (word/phrase) and everyone sticks to their friends when doing stuff.


texts:
It appeared to me when a graduate school application form asked me

  Why do you think X university is an intellectual fit for you?

What does intellectual fit mean?


texts:
What's the meaning of a phrase “A was persuaded away from B” here?

  Thirty years later, George Miller, the Australian director of the
  original trilogy, was persuaded away from films about tap-dancing
  penguins to revive the brand. In “Fury Road” he has given us villains
  for the Justin Bieber generation, and they are a very peculiar bunch
  indeed. (Economist)

(link address: http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/05/new-film-mad-max-fury-road)


texts: Is it correct English to turn interjections such as "ah", "oh", "um" "huh", "hem" into verbs?

texts: For example: she ahhed/ohhed/ummed/huhhed/hemmed. Or is this possible only with some interjections?


texts: Idioms similar to "heard it through the grapevine"

texts:
Are there idioms which have a meaning similar to "heard through the grapevine" ?

to hear news from someone who heard that news from someone else.

as in :

I heard through the grapevine that she was pregnant, but I don't know anything more.

(Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms)


texts: Should I say a date differently from the way it is written?

texts:
Example: October 24 ... is this said "October twenty-four" or "October twenty-fourth"?

I assumed that the use of cardinal numbers applied to both speech and writing. This post seems to say that October 24 should be written with the cardinal number but spoken with the ordinal.


texts: What is another way of saying" instil fear " and "shamelessly"?

texts: I was writing an essay and found no other way of expressing "instil fear" and "shamelessly". I am looking for ways to say these in a more formal manner.


texts: Stealing something for remembrance - is there any single word for the meaning?

texts:
Is there any single word for the meaning "Stealing something for remembrance".
Or how well can we tell this.


texts: "would I need" or "will I need" What is the correct sentence?

texts:
I don't know which sentence is correct for my formal letter?

As a foreigner will I need any work permit or personal accident insurance?
As a foreigner would I need any work permit or personal accident insurance?

My teacher said that "will" is not correct but she also said that "summer" has to be "Summer", so I don't know if this sentence is correct or incorrect.


texts: When "you" is being used as a dummy subject

texts:
I observe very often that in conversations, native speakers say "you" as a dummy subject (not sure if that's a correct way to call it), not particularly meaning the person whom the speaker is talking to.

For example,
"What the text mainly discusses in this chapter is, when you are poor, you are likely to choose bad dietary options."

My question is, how do native speakers exactly interpret "you" in conversations?

Also, I think it would be rude to say the above, when the speaker is talking to an actually poor person, knowing the listener is poor, even though "you" in the sentence doesn't mean the poor person. Then, do they phrase in a different way to avoid the use of "you"?

Thanks.


texts:
In OAAD, there's an example  for the entry moderator:

  moderators of online discussion groups

But I've seen the preposition for used in that context by native speakers too. Are they both correct? Or does it have something to do with different dialects?

Searching Google yields the following result:

Moderator for: About 1,980,000 results
Moderator of: About 6,000,000 results

So, the preposition of is more common. Is that the only difference?


texts: Consistency of "There is the same number of elements in... as there are in..."

texts:
I'm proofreading this in a friend's paper:

  There is the same number of elements in the set of odd numbers as there are in the even numbers.

The same number is singular and it's the thing being compared, so it does seem like is is the right word to use, but then it bothers me that it switches to are in the second half of the sentence. Shouldn't it parallel the first half, as in "There is the same number of elements in the set of odd numbers as there is in the even numbers."? But that sounds wrong.

Note: This is not a duplicate of 'Does “the same number of people” behave as singular or plural?' That question refers to a verb clause modifying "people", and not "the number". Also, I am primarily concerned with the switch to plural in the second half of the sentence, which is not covered in that other question.


texts: Does exaggeration imply intent to misrepresent?

texts:
I've looked up a few definitions (Oxford, M-W, dictionary.com), but none make it explicit.

E.g., (one I made up)

  "When professional tennis players were asked to rate the fitness of professional and amateur tennis players, most correctly guessed that professionals were fitter than amateurs. The did, however, tend to exaggerate this difference."

Does the use of the word "exaggerate" in the second sentence imply any of the following:

That pro tennis players have intentionally misrepresented the difference?
That pro tennis players were aware that they made an overstatement?
That pro tennis players were somehow motivated to make an overstatement?

I'm considering this in terms of clarity. For example, I think using "overestimation" instead, implying that they've made a guess as opposed to a statement, would more obviously avoid a lot of the above.


texts:
I do not know if this is true or not. Please, help me

“Someone she fears come.” or “someone she fears comes.”


texts: If the past participle of "say" is "said", and "lay" is "laid", why the one of "stay" is not "staid"?

texts:
I know about the word "staid". Does the past participle of "stay" is "stayed" to avoid confusion with this word?

Or the "staid" past participle existed at some time, but it was supplanted by "stayed", like "dreamed" is replacing "dreamt"?


texts: "It was then that..." vs "That was when..."

texts:
I'm not very sure if both mean exactly the same but I've noticed that the former is more widely use in Japanese novels translated into English. Whereas the latter is more often used in English novels (not from England but originally written in English).

Examples:

  It was then that the thought occurred to him.

  That was when he spotted the man.

Is one more commonly used than the other? Which one you would usually in literary work?


texts:
I have a few questions about archaisms! Can anybody give examples of

semantic archaisms (I need 5 examples) I found only one about the word "fair" and I really can't find anything else!
grammatical archaisms (I need 3 new  examples) I have already found examples with hath ‘has’, thou/thee ‘you’, thy  ‘your’.

Or, if  I am asking to much, maybe you can recommend some resources? I know, that there are a lot of vocabularies in the Internet, but there is no information about categories.

(I mean, I can't understand, is it a semantic archaism or phonetic archaism?)

There is no difficulties to systematize archaisms in my native languages, but as for the foreign it's very hard!


texts: Synonym for "bullshit" in a status meeting

texts: The context is a daily stand up meeting on a software project where developers tell the managers their status.  It is very easy for developers to bullshit, where they sound like they are busy, accomplishing something, doing something technical, or otherwise misdirecting.  These are empty words and can easily be called out.  What is a good business-ese word for this kind of bullshit?


texts: When some people pronounce the word "getting", it sounds to me like they're saying something like "get'n". Is that some kind of dialect?


texts: Is "made" in this sense stative or dynamic?

texts:
"Several subsequent voyages were made."

Is the verb "made" here stative or dynamic?


texts: Are we taught to use parentheses in the wrong way and too often?

texts:
I'm finding a lot of questions and answers in general on SE are very liberal in using parenthesis to wrap secondary information within sentences which leads to broken flow and reduced readability.

I've been rewording a lot of these in my Writers review queue and it always seems possible to remove the parenthesis.

I've always felt they are mostly unnecessary and a result of not wording the sentence properly, or not splitting different points into separate sentences.

In this example, I have to pause the main sentence and read the secondary information, then remember what I was reading to finish it off.

  I have recently started writing a chapter book ("a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7-10", Wikipedia) but it is only 29 pages and I am nearing the end.

By rewording it to remove the parenthesis and separating the two parts of the original sentence, it reads without interruption and both points are stated clearly (the type of book and the user's conundrum).

  I have recently started writing a chapter book, which is "a story book intended for intermediate readers generally between 7-10 years old". The book is only 29 pages long and I am nearing the end.

Am I mostly right in thinking that parentheses should be used sparingly and only when it doesn't break the flow of the sentence, such as how I used them above?

Or perhaps this version to keep the parentheses:

  I have recently started writing a chapter book ("a story book intended for intermediate readers generally between 7-10 years old", Wikipedia). The book is only 29 pages long and I am nearing the end.


texts: "Last days of Rome" phrase, meaning with examples

texts: I would be interested to know the origin and evolution of meaning, along with example usage, for the phrase "last days of Rome".


texts: Word that means the classification of a number as even or odd

texts: For instance for male or female the comparable word would be sex.   What is the word that means the state of being either even or odd (referring to numbers)?


texts:
What does it mean in this context? I saw somewhere the meaning of "dangerous" and the meaning of "keep potential" somewhere else. Which one is correct?

  Richardson (2015) posits that there is significant potential to
  advance the critical accounting project using quantitative methods. We
  argue this potential holds perhaps even more strongly for critical and
  non-mainstream SEA research.


texts: Word for many people doing the same (silly) thing

texts:
An example: Tourists at the leaning tower of Pisa all doing the same (clichéd) pose.

Is there a single word for such behavior? It's not a flash mob, obviously, because it happens all year 'round. It's not mirroring because it's not subconscious behavior, but something very intentional. It's not synchronicity because it's not a spontaneous thing. It's not aping or copycatting either, since people aren't (necessarily) mimicking anyone in particular.

I suppose it's ritualistic, but that seems too serious for something so silly.

I suppose this behavior constitutes a meme, but I'm wondering if there's a better word for it. Or for the act itself; the act of participating in and propagating the meme.


texts: What does the phrase "none too dissimilar" mean?

texts:
I have heard the phrase none too dissimilar used many times. Based on context, it seems to mean similar, or perhaps very similar.

Does none too dissimilar have a different meaning that I am missing?

Example:

  The book and the movie were none too dissimilar.


texts: American expression for an average weapon

texts:
I want to translate the expression

  It's better to hit the target from a Makarov rather than miss from a Glock.

from Russian into English. In Russia, many people know that

a Glock is a fancy, trendy gun, whereas
the Makarov pistol is an old, pretty average weapon, workhorse of the army and law-enforcement agencies (nothing fancy about it).

In German, there is an expression 08/15, which means usual, nothing special, and refers to machine gun MG 08/15, which was commonly used in World War I.

What's the American term for a commonly used, average weapon?


texts:
Neither Anastasia Alexandrovna nor he felt that they could live another minute out of one another's pockets.

What does this mean? Does it mean they can't live without one another (because they are in love)?


texts: When Correlative Conjunctions are NOT parallel

texts:
Normally, the rule for correlative conjunctions is that the two elements being combined must be parallel in structure. But I believe there are cases this rule is broken, but I'm not sure why they're still considered correct.

Examples of correlative conjunctions are:

not only...but also...
neither...nor...
either...nor...
both...and...
between...and...
at once...and...
just as...so...
as...as...
as many...as...
so...that...

There are many more correlative conjunctions, but these will suffice.

Here's how the parallelism rule works:

He is NOT ONLY happy BUT ALSO tired. = correct because "happy" and "tired" are both adjectives and thus parallel
They are EITHER going to swim OR going to drown. = correct. The verb phrases are parallel.

But here are cases when the elements are NOT parallel, which is what confuses me. Why do these cases break the parallelism rule?

He is AS strong AS an ox. = correct, yet "strong" (adjective) is not parallel to "an ox" (noun). What gives?
I was SO happy THAT I could scream. = correct, yet "happy" (adj.) and "I could scream" are not parallel.
NOT ONLY did he cheat on this exam BUT he ALSO cheated on all exams. = correct, yet "did he cheat on this exam" seems inverted, using a verb-subject structure, rather than the subject-verb structure in the second half. So it's not perfectly parallel, yet I know the sentence is fine. How do you explain this?
Twice as many people inhabit China as inhabit India. = correct, yet "people inhabit China" doesn't seem parallel to "inhabit India." The "inhabit" carries over, so that's good. Maybe there is an implied "people" that also carries over to the second half? Not sure.

Would the following be considered correct?

A) Twice as many people inhabit China as people inhabit India.

B) Twice as many people inhabit China as people who inhabit India.

How do you explain these exceptions to the parallelism rule? Thanks!


texts: Word or phrase similar to Unique Selling Proposition (USP) referring to the seller (manufacturer)

texts:
A unique selling proposition (USP) attempts to answer the customer's question of “Why should I buy your product instead of someone else’s?”
Is there a similar word or phrase which is a counter part to USP but referring pitching a product to internal clients attempting to answer the question "Why should we make this product" over other product ideas. A word / phrase that will be used to refer to the advantages the manufacturer (seller) has in making this product.
I am not looking for a specific marketing term a generic one is also fine. Also need not be single word.


texts: Name for when an adjective modifying a noun leaves the class of objects the noun describes

texts:
When adjectives modify nouns, usually they restrict the class of objects that the noun refers to.

For example:

  Red car

A red car is, in particular, an instance of a car.

However, in specialty fields, we often encounter objects named by an adjective+noun combination, which are not (necessarily) actually instances of the object described by the noun itself. An example from mathematics:

  Weak topology

A "topology" is a type of mathematical object satisfying certain axioms, whereas a "weak topology" may satisfy only a subset of those axioms. A "weak topology" need not be an instance of a topology. In mathematics, there are even sometimes adjective+noun combinations which refer to objects that are necessarily not instances of the class the noun describes.

Outside of mathematics, I can find only a few examples that are only arguably examples. Usually if I encounter something that looks like this phenomenon, it can be explained away by an archaic meaning of the noun that would turn the adjective+noun combination of the first kind described above, for example:

  Christian science

I have two questions:

Does anyone know a name for this linguistic phenomenon?
Are there examples of this phenomenon which are non-technical and can't be turned into the first type described above simply by appealing to an archaic or unusual meaning of the noun?


texts:
"The man was hung at dawn."
"The man was hanged at dawn."

Are "hung" and "hanged" entirely interchangeable?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is it common for place names to lose the possessive?

I am struggling with the meaning of and the difference between Shifter's Bay and Shifters Bay (don't pay attention to what a shifter is or could be).

As I understand it Shifter's Bay is a bay belonging to a Shifter and Shifters Bay is a bay with, of or/and for Shifters.

Is this correct? Maybe someone can elaborate?

Which is better for a name on a (fictive) bay? Maybe someone can motivate?

Edit:
Concrete examples :

Bakers Cottage (in The Bakers Yard)
Baker's Yard


texts:
For background, here is the story (just example, not real):

I applied for a job but they wanted a person who don't smoke. In my resume I wrote as I don't smoke. They invited me for interview. 1 hour before interview meeting, I smoke a cigar. When I talk with HR manager, He felt that I smell cigar and he asked me a question that I didn't understand.

In that context, my question follows.

Okay, As you see I didn't understand what he is asking, So I wanted to ask him a question to understand what he is asking clearly.

So Can I ask him like:

  Are you asking that I smoke yet I wrote I don't smoke on my cv?

This is formal to use?
if so "is it appropriate to use "yet" there or something else you can recommend in place of yet?

PS:1 hour ago I was very nervous and a bad guy came to me and said smoking is good for stress so I used to smoke.


texts: Difference between the suffixes "-titude" and "-titute"

texts: I vaguely remember the suffix "-titude" is related to a state of a particular action, such as "certitude", which means a state of being sure. But I don't know what this kind of suffix actually is relevant to and how it differs from another suffix "-titute".


texts: Is it a correct way to say in English: "to fulfill oneself" or would there be a better way to express it in a few words? Thanks!


texts: Why is the Australian Labor Party spelt without a 'u'?

texts:
In both the UK and New Zealand there are Labour parties spelt with a u.

The Labour Party.

The New Zealand Labour Party

In Australia, it's The Labor Party.

Australian Labor Party

What explains this discrepancy? Given that all three have similar spellings for everything else (eg. 'colour', 'realise').


texts:
What is the better sentence? It looks like technologies is the better word since there are many of them. However, most of the similar sentences on the Internet use the singular form technology

  Samsung is the leader in display technology

or

  Samsung is the leader in display technologies

or

  Samsung is the leader in display technology innovation


texts:
I am curious about the differences in meaning, connotations, style, and correctness of using conformity vs conformance.

I haven't been able to find much using a simple web search, only a single un-cited source which suggests that conformity is the "proper" English form.

I am primarily interested in American English, but information about other dialects is welcome.


texts: Pronunciation of '-ing' endings as '-een'

texts:
Recently my daughter told us she’d had a supply teacher at school because her regular teacher was “at home pukin’.”

The pronunciation of the -ing ending as in’ [ɪn] (rather than [ɪŋ]) seems to be fairly region-dependent, and often appears in North America, if I’m not mistaken, in rural areas such as the one I live in (and in researching this question, I see that the pronunciation has long historical roots).

My daughter’s pronunciation got me thinking about another pronunciation of the -ing ending that I have noticed occasionally throughout my life: een [in]. (“I’m walkeen to school,” or “Why are you runneen so quickly?”). Unlike the in’ pronunciation, een does not appear, to my observations, to be dependent on either region or class, nor even generation. It doesn’t get caricaturized in song lyrics or on greeting cards. It doesn't even seem to run in families! When I’ve mentioned this pronunciation to other people, many haven’t even noticed it (“She says runneen? I never noticed before.”)

I don’t think I have heard a Brit pronounce it. But I have certainly heard Canadians and Americans from various ages, social classes and regions pronounce this een ending consistently. A few, not many.

Am I right in thinking that this pronunciation is not associated with any particular region, generation or social class?
If so, under what circumstances does it occur in a person’s speech?
Does it occur outside of North America?
Does it have any history?

While researching this question I came upon this Language Log post in which Sarah Palin’s pronunciation of “shackling” as ['ʃæklin] is much discussed (but without answers to my questions). There is also a recording her pronunciation.

EDIT

This Language Log post appears to address this phenomenon. The author concludes as follows:

  [As far as I know] there are no systematic studies of this range of
  phenomena. As I mentioned, it's part of the folklore of
  sociolinguistics that the [in] pronunciation exists, and that it's
  (apparently) not stigmatized in the way that the [ɪn] pronunciation
  is, and that in fact it may be heard as [ɪŋ] or [iŋ] and even
  transcribed that way in some studies. But given how much attention has
  been (for good reasons) given to g-dropping, it's odd that this angle
  has been so neglected.

I'm not sufficiently educated to understand the post that precedes this conclusion, but I thought I'd try to point other users to it in case they can make better heads or tails of it than I.


texts: Word that sounds like "metal" but means "grit", "tenacity", and "perseverance"

texts:
Somehow I am compelled to use the word "metal" to describe strong "intestinal fortitude", and perseverance however I can't find the spelling or any synonym like this.

Does a word that sounds like "metal" exist when describing an individual's character?

I'm looking for modern or historic usage of the word.


texts: Do you only use commas with conjunctions when there's a second independent clause?

texts:
I sort of have trouble with knowing when to place a comma with a conjunction because in a lot of scenarios, it would feel natural to put one there because of the pause.

For example:

  I'm going to the store but with no money.

or

  I'm going to the store, but with no money.

and

  You are good but also bad.

or

  You are good, but also bad.

I know a way to make the comma work would be:

  I'm going to the store, but I have no money.

But what about in the other scenarios?


texts: "action is told rather than given" - what does it mean?

texts:
Reading this amazon.co.uk book review...

  The writing style itself isn't bad but overall, the story is flat and the action is often told rather than given.

"...told rather than given" - I suppose this is a criticism of the writer's descriptive style, but I can't quite imagine an example.

My question is two; what does this phrase mean, and what might be an example of "told" action?


texts: Use of ampersands for nested conjunctions

texts:
Consider the sentence:

"The zoo contained giraffes, white & black rhinos, and Indian & African elephants."

Here ampersands are used for the inner conjunctions, but not the outer level.

Is there any precedent for this?

I find it improves the appearance of such sentences, and helps clarify the nesting structure.


texts: How was it being able to turn the match around by your outstanding performance?

texts: Is "How was it being able to turn the match around" grammatically correct? Heard an interviewer ask this question to one of the winners after an online tournament. Or is this a casual form of "to have been able to"?


texts:
I have problem with sentences structures.

I have a sentence:

  When reviewing [Name of Bank] reports, the conclusion can be reached
  that over the next few years demand for new solutions will be
  maintained which will be adapted to working ...

It seems to me that this sentence have mistake. I was trying corrected sentence.

  When reviewing [Name of Bank] reports, the conclusion can be reached
  that over the next few years demand for new solutions will be
  maintained, and ones  will be adapted to working ...
  When reviewing [Name of Bank] reports, the conclusion can be reached
  that over the next few years demand for new solutions will be
  maintained. A new solutions will be adapted to working ...

I am not sure, which sentence is correct and better?

Thank you in advance for your help.


texts:
Is it

  …a set of characteristics in a society that are desirable for
  everyone

or

  …a set of characteristics in a society that is desirable for
  everyone

I.e. should the "is/are" refer to the set itself or the items inside the set?

Additionally: Should I use everyone or everybody in this context?


texts: What does “on’ry” mean in “I Wonder As I Wander”?

texts:
During a running debate or whether I Wonder as I Wander qualifies as a Christmas Carol, I looked up the lyrics. The first verse:

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I...
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

I was surprised to hear that a fragmentary version of the song was heard in 1933 in North Carolina, and then transcribed by John Jacob Niles (who paid $1.75 in silver quarters).
(Lyrics and history from A Kentucky Christmas.)
I'm curious about the contraction on'ry in line three. Since it originates in the US, I'm inclined to believe it means ornery (stubborn). (This would require the deletion of the post-vocalic r as well as the unstressed vowel in the second syllable.)
A definition of ornery traces it back to "ordinary."
There are not many references to the contraction, but a 1973 Waylon Jennings album is entitled Lonesome, On'ry, and Mean. I believe that this usage, also, is pointing toward ornery.
So, are you and I ornery, ordinary, or something else? If we're ornery, has the meaning shifted between Niles's usage in 1933 and Waylon Jennings' usage forty years later?


texts: Can you start a sentence with "especially"?

texts:
I have this sentence in a text:

  Especially the foreigners are a very important group which requires special treatment and representation.

I feel it should read:

  The foreigners in particular are a very important group which requires special treatment...

Can you start a sentence with "Especially"? Why do I get the feeling that there's something missing in the sentence?


texts:
Which one among the following is correct?

  These were found missing.

or

  These were found to be missing.

For me the former one sounds little bit odd since "found" and "missing" are next to each other.


texts: Which pronoun should be used to refer to"young figure": "it" or "her"?

texts:
In my writing group, one man wrote this sentence in an except we critiqued:

  John stood for a moment and watched the lithe, young figure make her way down the street.

I suggested it should read "young figure make its way down the street." It sounds funny to me to refer to a figure as her. However, everyone disagreed with me and said it was fine the way it was. Which is correct?


texts: Terms for "natural gender" and "grammatical gender"

texts:
This post is partly inspired by previous posts, such as
this one, on non-existence of grammatical gender in English. My question is mainly about what "natural gender" and "grammatical gender" are to an English noun.

There are nouns, such as 'mare', or (debatably) 'ship' whose natural gender is perceived to be feminine by significant number of speakers. Most nouns, however, either are of a neutral natural gender or have got no natural gender. (I wonder whether there is a consensus on which of the two is the case.) Wikipedia also seems to suggest that gender pertains to referents rather than to nouns.

In the linked question, the OP derives "grammatical gender" from
"natural gender" for those nouns that have got the latter. This is relevant, because a natural gender seems to be the sole reason to even think about a grammatical gender, or traces thereof, for a word. But then it seems to entail something like a partial grammatical category that only some nouns have. It is not inflectional. It is not a remnant of previously existing grammatical gender in English.

Is there any term for what "natural gender" and the putative "grammatical gender" is to a noun?


texts: Capitalization: when does a phrase become a proper noun?

texts:
This is a question on capitalization. Proper nouns are capitalized. But how can I tell which parts of a term constitute a proper noun?

Take, for example, the nickname for traveler's diarrhea (sorry, the first thing that came to my mind). I've seen it written as Montezuma's Revenge (proper noun), as well as Montezuma's revenge (common noun). Which is correct?

What about a journalist referring to a specific set of  letters sent by prisoners -- would he call them the Guantanamo Letters or the Guantanamo letters? Or is it simply a matter of context?


texts: Comma before "which" in the following sentence?

texts:
I can't seem to determine whether or not the second half of the sentence below is restrictive or non-restrictive and thus, whether or not a comma is needed? While it doesn't seem necessary, it does seem to be rather important.

However, a previous history of drug use was found to be strong predictor of program success, which suggests that interventions should be put in place sooner rather than later.

I've spent the last little bit going over restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, as well as dependent and independent clauses separated by coordinating conjunctions and am a tad confused at this point. Is this a case where it is a case of personal preference?

Any help is appreciated.

Many thanks!


texts:
I was drawn to the phrase 'the perks people' in the headline of an article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal (November 20, 2014 issue) — The perks people: Meet silicon valley’s ‘Little elves'.

The article was introduced by Rochelle Kopp in the Sampling the Headline column of the Asahi Newspaper (December 20, 2014 issue), which is targeted at the English language enthusiasts among its readers.

I tried to get the original text of the article through Google, but was unsuccessful.

Is 'perks people' only applied to executives or talented employees of fast-growing organizations like Silicon Valley companies?

Or is it also applicable to anybody who gets perks or special privileges, such as congressmen, government officials, diplomats, and owners of tax-exempt businesses? Is 'perks people' a common phrase?


texts: Non-restrictive clause and identification

texts:
Here is a situation:

A: Hey, who is that girl? The one with the blue backpack.
B: She is Susan, the daughter of Mr. Norman.

In this case, should Susan be the only daughter of Mr. Norman or she could have her sister?
Or either is possible?

My guess is either is possible; the former is possible because literally that sounds like he has only one daughter, and the later is also okay considering the situation where Susan is the daughter of Mr. Norman that is being mentioned in the dialogue

Thanks in advance for any comments!


texts:
Is there an official name for a situation where someone has invested so much in something to an extent that if he withdraws the investment right now it will cost more compared to keeping the status quo? I.e., to keep investing even though he is losing in the hope that someday the losing streak will end and he can start winning back?

Thanks.


texts: Why is bread uncountable? How do you describe the "three breads" in the picture?

texts:
In this picture there are "three breads", but they are not loaves because loaves can be cut into pieces, and they are not slices either because they weren't cut with a knife.

So the only way to refer to them is three pieces of bread? Can the word servings be used?


texts: which one is more appropriate among the two mentioned below?

texts:
Roles of private defence firms in developing a domestic military-industrial complex

or

Role of private defence firms in developing a domestic military-industrial complex


texts: How frequent is the use of 'Appropriation' in American English compared with British English?

texts: How frequently is the word 'Appropriation' used in American English?  In what contexts might young people commonly hear it?


texts: Why does legal English sometimes repeat the antecedent noun after "which"?

texts:
Here's a standard English sentence:

  The folder which is missing from the principal's office contained the answers to today's exam.

(Separate question, discussed elsewhere I'm sure, whether it should really be "which" or "that".)

But simpler is usually better, so I would actually just write:

  The folder missing from the principal's office ...

But my question is: I have seen legal statements which would write:

  The folder, which folder is missing from the principal's office, contained ...

Assuming that the writer is actually correct in thinking that s/he's adding some value by repeating "folder" after the "which", what value is s/he adding?


texts: Is it correct to say "This train not taking passengers"?

texts: I hear this announcement often at the train-station. Is this grammatically correct, without an 'is' after the word 'train'?


texts: Should decades (e.g. '70s) be singular or plural

texts:
Are specific decades singular or plural? Which of the following is grammatically correct?

  The '70s was a great period for rock music.

or

  The '70s were a great period for rock music.

Please provide references if you have any.


texts:
How did her become the female equivalent of both him and his instead of only being a possessive pronoun like his? Is there a reason?

For example:

She likes him and his dog.
He likes her and her dog.


texts: What is the exact meaning of "any" in the following passage

texts:
"A motion simulator has 2 axes of rotation. For any single axis, if the simulator is capable of spinning at a rate of 400 degrees per second or faster around that axis, then the simulator is military grade."

Now, is "For any single axis" equivalent to "For every axis" (i.e. both axes should fulfill the condition simultaneously to make it a military grade), or is it "For any axis separately" (i.e. it is enough that even one axis fulfills the condition to make the simulator military grade)?

Looks pretty ambiguous to me, wouldn't you say?


texts: Word for instance of faux pax redundancy?

texts:
I subscribed to a word-of-the-day thing about 10 years ago. One of the words was a noun for the instance of describing something redundantly. Every now and then I hear someone do this and die not being able to remember the word for it. As luck would have it, I can't muster an example I feel very confident about but perhaps "it was too overdone" where "it was overdone" would suffice would suffice as an example...

My ears will explode if I hear one more _____ out of this non-EL&U-subscribing scrub.


texts: I need help with the title for a paper I'm writing. The paper is about two individuals who were killed, potentially by mistake, by the US government. The two people in question were siblings, but were killed years apart. So should the title be "The US Killing of John and Jane Doe" or "The US Killings of John and Jane Doe"?


texts: How to express you are not familiar with a field

texts:
I want to use this phrase: a lack of knowledge in (  ), but I'm not sure if it is typical.
I got stuck in a lab assignment that required some background knowledge of computer security, and I would like to get the background info from teaching assistants.
Can I use this sentence?  "Hi, I have a lack of knowledge in computer security, and I've searched the term XXX online, but I still didn't get it. Can you please explain to me what XXX means and where I suppose to look for XXX on the terminal."


texts: What's an antonym of 'monolithic' as in 'monolithic architecture'?

texts: I want to describe an architecture/system that is composed of diverse and modular parts. What's a good antonym for monolithic architecture to describe a technical system?


texts: Mixing verb tenses involving a Past-Belief/Thought/Attitude about timeless facts

texts:
Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

  1.) Oscar believed that the sum of two and two is four.

In this case it seems to make the most sense to mix the past tense "believed" with the present-tense "is." If the sentence were changed to,

  2.) "Oscar believed that the sum of two and two was four,"

then the meaning of the sentence would be changed.

When the verb is was used, the sentence meant that Oscar had a belief about the present (relative to him). But when the verb was was used, the sentence meant that Oscar had a belief about the past (relative to him).

Consider this sentence that is structurally parallel:

  3.) Oscar believed that the killer of J.F.K. was Lee Harvey Oswald.

In this case it seems to make the most sense to not mix verb tenses. Presumably this is because Lee Harvey Oswald's assassination of J.F.K. is an event solely in the past.

I find myself needing to write sentences of this form often, and it always puzzles me whether this mixing of verb tenses is acceptable.


texts: Which expression is stronger? "My every attempt" or "every attempt of mine"?

texts:
I wish to express that "every single one attempt of mine" did something but in a concise way, without mentioning single. I thought of two possibilities and I wonder which one is stronger:

My every attempt was doomed to fail, since the teacher had already made up her mind.
Every attempt of mine was doomed to fail, since the teacher had already made up her mind.

It seems to me the second is a bit less elegant. Is it just my idea?


texts: What are the alternatives for the expression "The shoes suit you!"?

texts:
The shoes ____________ [suit you]!

Please, let me know other alternatives when people praise their friends' fine clothes.


texts: How do I take a partial quotation that ends with a question mark (but not within my quote)?

texts:
I am in the process of writing a paper on Shakespeare's Macbeth, and I want to take a quotation from the following passage:

  Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life
  And live a coward in thine on esteem,
  Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would"
  Like the poor cat i' the adage?

However I only want to take the first three lines of the passage:

  It is written, "Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life / And live a coward in thine on esteem, / Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would"...

How should I punctuate the end (...)?


texts:
If I went to a place last night where I needed to show an id, but I forgot to have it on me. So if in the morning I was speaking to a friend(reporting on what happened), which one of the following would be correct:

I had heard that you needed an ID, but I didn't know if it was absolutely necessary

I had heard that you need an ID, but I didn't know if it was absolutely necessary.

I heard that you need an ID, but I didn't know if it was absolutely necessary.

The first one seems correct to me, but I might be wrong. Ideas?

And which one of the following should I say in the context above:

Reporting on what had happened

Reporting on what has happened

Reporting on what happened


texts: What's the grammatical term for this phenomenon?

texts:
There is obviously a big essential difference between "no towel" and "there isn't a towel".

I mean, the former cannot probably serve as a complete sentence, while the latter can.

The former can only serve as a subject of a sentence, while the latter contains both subject and a predicate.

So how is this difference named, defined or described in correct grammatical terms?


texts: Word to describe a character who is famous but misunderstood or taken out of context

texts: The best example I can think of at the moment is Frankenstein’s monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Many people know of the existence of this character well enough to allude to it (though usually erroneously by the name of its creator) at times when they see or imagine a grotesque being. However, if one actually knew the story, they probably would see more in the character than just its grotesqueness (despite it being a major trait, even in the eyes of Frankenstein the creator), as it has a story of its own. Yet most people (who I assume haven’t encountered the story in any comprehensive form) seem to remember the character only for that one trait alone, more than even its name. How do you describe a character like Frankenstein’s monster that’s popularly referred to but misunderstood or taken out of context? For example, “Frankenstein’s monster has become something of a ________ character.”


texts:
My friend contacted me to help him to translate a slogan into English. The slogan is for the company, that is manufacturing food under its own brand. And the slogan in Russian ("едим сами,  кормим семьи, советуем вам") says something like: "we eat it ourselves, we feed our families with it, we recommend it to you". How to make it sound native? Some variants we have in mind:

Eating it ourselves, feeding families, advising to you
We eat <brand>, we feed <brand> to our families, we offer <brand> to you
We eat <brand>, our families eat <brand>, now we offer <brand> to you

but I'm not sure which of them (or none?) is more stylish and correct. What's your opinion? In particular "to feed to families" jars my ear on some reason. I don't like how it sounds. Can you help?


texts: One or two apostrophes for two subjects in the possessive case?

texts:
Which is correct: [Bonus question: should there be a question mark here instead of a colon?]

  The book contains Marx and Engels' theories about the nature of
  society and politics.

or

  The book contains Marx's and Engels' theories about the nature of
  society and politics

It seems to me that the former is more common, but I am confused here since the latter seems more logical to me (and matches what you would see in my native language Icelandic).


texts:
In filling out forms, I'm starting to see a lot of this:

  Firstname:  xx

  Lastname:  yy

Is it generally acceptable to join the words like that?  Or should we be sticking to:

  First Name:  xx

  Last Name:  yy


texts: Any nuances of meaning between ruffian, thug, hoodlum, hooligan, and lout?

texts: Ruffian, thug, hoodlum, hooligan, and lout. They all generally refer to a troublemaker, a violent man. But I wonder if there are any nuances of meaning between them. For example, we usually say "football hooligans," but why not "football hoodlums"?


texts:
I have only recently encountered "to be across", meaning "to understand fully". I have long been familiar with "to get across", of course.

It seems to be the recipient that corresponds to the giver of understanding (and it seems odd now that I think of it that "get" is the giver).

Is there a geographical or cultural context for the former that might explain why I have never heard it until now and why it has sounds odd to me?


texts: I am well but is doing something - is 'is' correctly used here?

texts:
I came across this sentence written by a native. But I am not familiar with this usage, please enlighten me.
"But I am well and is using this time to focus on preparation."
The verb "is" feels a bit weird in this sentence. I thought "am" would be more appropriate in the sentence where the subject is "I".


texts:
Should I say "It's been a long-term dream of mine to do sth"
or "It's been a lifelong dream of mine to do sth"


texts: Hyphenation in "first century AD" etc as an adjective

texts:
I edit a lot of articles that contain phrases such as "A first century AD inscription..." or "First century BC writer Herodotus..." I know that a compound adjective before a noun is usually hyphenated, so if the phrase were just "A first-century inscription" I would hyphenate accordingly, but "A first-century-AD inscription", despite seeming grammatically correct, feels somehow wrong (I think because of the abbreviation) and I don't recall ever seeing this used. Meanwhile, "a first-century AD inscription" I'm fairly sure is ungrammatical.

So to sum up, which should it be?

A first century AD inscription
A first-century AD inscription
A first-century-AD inscription

Many thanks.


texts:
My small kids like tickling - we play a "Tickle Monster" game. I am wondering, is there any difference between word pairs like

tickle monster vs. tickling monster
tickle machine vs. tickling machine
race car vs. racing car

used as a modifier to the noun? The possible usage, the meaning, or even one of them not allowed?


texts: Is there a word for when workers raise expectations unsustainably high when they work too hard?

texts:
It's a situation I've heard discussed several times. Let's say some factory workers make 300 widgets a week. There's a big product release next week and they need to have 1000 widgets ready. So the workers double down, skip lunch, pull all-nighters and manage to get 1000 widgets made in a week. The bosses now expect the workers to produce 1000 widgets every week.

Is there a name for this phenomenon?


texts: Is there a word for the stopping of a downward movement specifically.?

texts: Is there a word for something that means the stopping of a downward movement or feeling or movement specifically.  Like a word that's definition is to prevent from going downward, specifically?


texts:
Could you use these two sentences the same way?
Which one is worse:

This wasn't no common day.
This wasn't a common day.


texts:
This is used in an economic context:

  We don't monetize ourselves properly,
  so we don't hit margins.


texts:
Can we say that a man has a dextrous mind?

This would mean that he has a highly skilled brain which is capable of excelling at a certain mental activity, or that he as an individual is capable of picking up new skills rather quickly.

I understand that the definition of dexterity is used to convey that a man is a fine craftsman or is capable of using his hands in intricate complex patterns.

Can we extend dextrous to refer to mental agility?


texts:
This Ngram shows that people were happily saying "dog eat dog world" until the 1980s, when "doggy dog world" abruptly came into use.

What might have accounted for this? (It was well before Snoop Dogg's single "Doggy Dogg World").

Did this phrase come into recorded being as genuine wordplay, or as an "eggcorn"?


texts: "At someone's place" vs. "at someone's house" vs. "at someone's"

texts: Do the three phrases convey the same meaning when we're referring to the place where one lives?


texts:
I often hear people say something like

  For whose benefit is that?

Should it not be

  For whomse benefit is that

Who -> Whom
Whose -> Whomse

I know "whomse" is not a real word. My question is: why doesn't it exist?


texts: The pronunciation of 'fire' is simplified when shouted?

texts:
In a certain Sherlock Holmes story (The Adventure of the Norwood Builder), there's a cry of 'Fire', repeated three times.
The relevant segment of the story:

"Might I ask you all to join in the cry of ‘Fire!’? Now then; one, two, three——"
"Fire!" we all yelled.
"Thank you. I will trouble you once again."
"Fire!"
"Just once more, gentlemen, and all together."
"Fire!"

The audiobook version is read by someone who (to my non-native ears, at least) speaks with a cultured, pleasant-sounding British English.
In his reading, the shouts seem to come out more like 'fɑː' than 'faɪə(r)'. You can listen to it in this mp3 file, from 16:24 to 16:45.
Is that how shouting may distort pronunciation, or is it a perfectly ordinary pronuncation that sounds a bit strange only to me?


texts: "Screwed" vs. "nailed": why is the slang so different?

texts:
While the two names nail and screw have similar shapes and functions, why do the verbs differ so much? Someone has screwed something sounds like they have ruined something to me, while someone has nailed something sounds like they have successfully accomplished the thing.

So why have these similar words acquired this much dissimilarity?

From Merriam-Webster:

  Screw:

  (1) : to mistreat or exploit through extortion, trickery, or unfair actions; especially : to deprive of or cheat out of something due or expected (2) : to treat so as to bring about injury or loss (as to a person's reputation)  —often used as a generalized curse

  Nail:

  to perform or complete perfectly or impressively

From Urban Dictionary (which I am aware is not a reliable source, but sometimes it can be helpful):

  Screwed

  To be in serious trouble.
  A word describing something in a state of disrepair.
  A word to describe a person who is heavily under the influence of alcohol and/or narcotic material, to an extent where it affects their behavioural patterns.

  "When my parents found out I killed their parrot, I'm screwed!"
  "Wow, someone screwed that car up pretty bad!"
  "Wow, that guy is screwed!"

  Nailed

  Having completed a task with great accuracy.

  "A+! I nailed that test."

  or

  "I threw the rock and, nailed that guy between the eyes!"

It would be invaluable, if someone could elaborate more on the historical etymology of these definitions as well.