texts:
I was trying to figure out a little about an Italian children's book character called Cipollino.  The character is an anthropomorphic onion. I had been aware of cipolla in Italian, as well as diminutive forms, as well as cebula, in Polish.  I went down a rabbit hole and discovered that, contrary to my expectations Russian went for the more Germanic лук, a cognate with leek or German lauch. The rabbit hole got deeper, but Google translate stopped me in my tracks with:

Does anybody have an idea what the verb they might be referring to is?  My suspicion is that, in Russian, these words might say something like "smother it with onions", much like some of my friends like to say "bacon it" to mean that it would taste better with some bacon.  However, I don't really picture "to onion (something)" legitimate, either as a transitive or intransitive verb. I would not expect this to be considered standard enough to come up on Google translate, though I fault the engine with much worse, perhaps somebody has some ready examples.


texts: What is the difference between "clothes" and "clothing"?

texts:
Do some google I find that clothes work like objects like:

  You should pack your clothes.  → Yes
  You should pack your clothing. → No

Can you tell me the main difference between clothing and clothes?


texts: Meaning of "if still free" in Byron's Don Juan

texts:
From Don Juan:

  And even if by chance—and who can tell?
       The devil's so very sly—she should discover
  That all within was not so very well,
       And, if still free, that such or such a lover
  Might please perhaps, a virtuous wife can quell
       Such thoughts, and be the better when they're over;
  And if the man should ask, 't is but denial:
  I recommend young ladies to make trial.

What does this mean?

Who or what is free? The lover or the woman, or the situation (in what sense, I wonder)?


texts:
We do not usually need an antonym for posthumous. When someone mentions Bob’s child or Bob’s novel, we naturally assume the child was born, and the novel published, during Bob’s lifetime. But imagine the following dialogue:

Customer: I’m looking for a book by Machado de Assis, The memoirs of Bras Cubas.
Bookshop assistant: You mean The posthumous memoirs of Bras Cubas?
Customer: Exactly. Actually I don’t think he wrote any [antonym of posthumous] memoirs of Bras Cubas.

Merriam-Webster gives ante mortem as an antonym for posthumous. But it looks as though ante mortem is used mainly in connection with forensic activities and inspection of slaughterhouses.
So how suitably can ante mortem fill the antonym-of-posthumous space above? Is there an alternative?
I'm asking the parallel question in SE Portuguese Language. It's all in Portuguese though.


texts: Is it grammatically correct to say 'Simple stuff shouldn't feel like an achievement'?

texts:
I'm not certain if stuff can be used as a singular in addition to its plural use so I can't establish whether this structure makes sense.

The context is: picking your keys up off the floor shouldn't hurt because of back pain, which would make it feel like an accomplishment once you pull it off.


texts:
I'm writing an article for a tourism website. There is a section named "Traits". I mean it as some things special about a place, things that make it different or just interesting.
Is it ok to use "Traits" in this context? The definitions in dictionaries seem to work ok, but the examples they give are about personality or character. That's why I'm not sure it can be used when describing a place, not a person.

Cambridge Dictionary:

a particular characteristic that can produce a particular type of behaviour

His sense of humour is one of his better traits.
Arrogance is a very unattractive personality/character trait.

a characteristic, esp. of a personality:

Patience is one of his best traits.

Collins:

A trait is a particular characteristic, quality, or tendency that someone or something has.

Many of our personality traits are developed during those early months.
Creativity is a human trait.

Is it acceptable to use "traits" to describe special things about a place, or is there a better option?


texts: what's the term for who's talking to who?

texts:
I was updating a change in my demo app that looks like:

-"Wow that was cool...but how can I work with you for python/django/and beyond?"

+"Wow that was cool...but how can I work with your author for python/django/and beyond?"

Basically, the robot is talking in the README, and in the sentence above, he reads your mind. Being myself and not a robot, and not writing often, I forgot the robot was supposed to be talking. My commit looked like:

[master 2c4f52a] change who's talking to who

which is silly, as I don't remember the term. What's it called for who the writer makes talk to who?


texts: Word for "Vicarious Shame"? (Spanish: "vergüenza ajena")

texts:
In Spanish, vergüenza ajena describes the embarrassment you feel on someone's behalf. Say, a person stands up and sings horribly, or a man makes a fool of himself trying to pick up a woman. It's an empathetic feeling you have when watching them.

When it was first described to me, I had no idea how to translate it, much less what it was. I simply said, "We don't feel that." But since then, I've noticed that the trademark performances of Ben Stiller and Ricky Gervais tend to generate that feeling, specifically when they begin to say something ridiculous, try to find a way out, and then ultimately get trapped in a long awkward silence. It's that kind of feeling.

Curiously, since having a phrase to describe this (albeit in Spanish), I've become much more aware of it. It's like the feeling has suddenly come into existence.


texts: Words for personal views on life, society, world

texts:
I am looking for

words for the view of a person on his life or others' lives;
words for the view of a person on the whole society, nation, country
and/or the world;

By "view", I mean what things are meaningful and what are not, what are worth to do and what are not, what are right and what are wrong, ...

They can be either nouns or adjectives.


texts: I often hear the term "you bet!". What does it mean?


texts: Confusing word usages in "Pasttime Paradise"

texts:
Today I came accross an old song on the radio, "Pasttime paradise", and decided to pay attention to the lyrics. I had a little hard time to understand the logic behind some words.
I'm hoping to understand what they really mean.
Dissipation
Race Relations
Consolation
Segregation
Dispensation
Isolation
Exploitation
Mutilation
Mutations
Miscreation
Confirmation.......to the evils of the world

And on the second cycle
Proclamation of Race Relations
Consolation
Integration
Verification of Revelations
Acclamation
World Salvation
Vibrations
Simulation
Confirmation.......to the peace of the world

What I am really missing here is, few words have been used in both of evil and peaceful contexts.

Consolation
Confirmation

I am having trouble to see the meaning behind it.
Also, it's more interesting to me the usage of phrase:

Race Relations

Isn't it a good thing? Author using it while listing the evils of the world got me confused.
Or does this mean the author is against the Race Relations?
If someone can shed light on these, that would be great.


texts: To formally ask/thank somebody: "By virtue of this email/letter"

texts:
When I want to formally ask/express your idea to somebody/an organization through email/letter, is the following phrase OK?

"...
By virtue of this email, I request your organization for X.
By virtue of this email, I express my dissatisfaction with your service.
By virtue of this email, I draw it to your attention that blah blah. "


texts: "Abstract nonsense" -- does it have negative meaning?

texts: Is the collocation "abstract nonsense" coloured somehow in negative way? I mean mostly the second word -- can it mean "something too strange to be good" or something like this, and in what context?


texts: Use of infinitive form of verb with another verb

texts:
As a native speaker, this sounds incorrect to me:

  The company does not permit to distribute the modified materials.

But, I can't explain why it is not so to a non-native speaker. To me, it should be:

  The company does not permit distribution of modified materials.

Am I right? What is the grammatical explanation?


texts: How can I say 'Before the (next) start of the academic year at a college' ? What does academic year mean?

texts:
How can I say that 'Before the next start of the academic year.'. Is 'next' a good word to use? Basically, if it's January at the moment of writing and I want to say when the next year of school starts.

Does the 'academic year' means when the college/school/university starts their lessons, after the holiday, usually September/30 August? If you could clarify that, I would be really grateful.

P.S. I'm writing a formal letter to a college


texts:
I am writing an academic article and to give conservative opinion, I am thinking to use the following statement:

  XXX is seen to give worse results and therefore excluded in our report.

I am writing to confirm this surely give a "conservative sentiment" and does not lead to any misleadings or inappropriate in writing research papers. Thank you!


texts:
I didn't want to use too many commas so I wanted to know if this sentence was grammatically correct.

  Sure, they don’t have true relationships and lack families, but they have jobs and friends and a purpose in life.


texts: If two lists are the same, do they coincide?

texts:
Let's say our science group at the university has computed a list of values, like e.g. the masses of all the planets in the solar system. Some other group abroad computed the same list and got exactly the same values.

Do we say that our lists coincide? (which sounds to me like there was some chance or luck involved)

Or do they match?

?

[Edit:] If questions of this type are "off-topic", then the whole forum here is for highly academic purposes only, i.e. useless for 99.9 percent of people.


texts:
How can I phrase correctly "from where his PhD is". In the context of presenting someone, "He is XX, PhD from XX University"? or "XX, Phd of XX University"?
Thanks


texts:
I have seen "is “any” also used with plurals", which explains that any can be used with singular, plural, and uncountable nouns.

However, I want to ask specifically about questions. E.g.:

  Is there any girl in the room?

To me it seems that this is asking, "is there at least one girl?". But my English grammar book says that any should only be used with uncountable or plural nouns. So I suppose I should be asking either of the following instead:

  Is there a girl in the room?
  Are there any girls in the room?

Is that true? Is the textbook correct in saying that any should not be used with countable nouns in singular? Then what about "Do you have any idea"? Idea is countable, just like girl is.


texts:
Page 1579 of the CambridgeGEL reads

For die the ie is the default spelling, so that the replacement
works in the opposite direction: ie is replaced by y before the
·ing suffix.

Why was a replacement in either direction diachronically necessary? (I infer its necessity from the wording so that)


texts: What does the term "You're all caught up!" means, many a time I see this on my WordPress account & also on Google Plus.


texts:
I'm aware of the general origin of "a head of steam" being from old steam-powered trains, but how does it break down?  I'm guessing that the "head" is the surplus of motive force necessary to break free from a standstill; does some older definition better meet that meaning?  The closest seems to be

  a body of water kept in reserve at a height; also : the containing bank, dam, or wall

Is there a more direct fit or does it rely on analogy?


texts: Is it possible to write a dependent clause without independent clause?

texts:
I want to explain my problems by the following sentences. The following sentences have been taken from Reader's Digest.

"Ed tries to explain why he would want to keep a pile of records he never listens to. "It's just knowing that they're there. That I could listen to them if I wanted to" I reminded him that his turntable doesn't work. "So, actually you can't listen to them." Which reminds me. I pick up the turntable and put it on the designated throw away pile, which I had envisioned at the beginning of this undertaking as a towering, teetering mound engulfing most of our front entryway and portions of the pavement, but is in reality closer in size to the little is in reality closer in size to the little mounds of toenail parings Ed occasionally stacks up on the bedside table."

1) Read again "Which reminds me. I pick up the turntable and put it on the ..............". 'Which' indicates a dependent clause that can not express full sense without main clause. But there are no main clause. It seems that it is an independent clause. Please explain this fact. Would anybody like to give the link of other posts related to this kind of problem?

2) In "but is in reality closer in size ......." what is the subject of auxiliary verb 'is'? It seems that subject is far from 'is', and it will be found in the previous sentences of it. How to find it? If it is possible, please mention the links the post that are related to this problem. You may say some keywords with which I can be able to find the posts related to this problem.


texts: Is there an expression similar to this Portuguese phrase?

texts:
There's an expression in Portuguese "para você não dizer que eu sou ruim/mau", which literally translates to "in order for you not to say that I'm bad/evil", where "you" or "I" can be replaced by "him/he", "her/she", a specific person and so on. I think it'll be more clear if I use two dialogue examples:

Son: Can you give me some money, Mom?
Mother: Why should I? You spent all you had, last week.
Son: But Mom... Please.
Mother: Ok, "in order for you not to say I'm bad", I'll give you 15 dollars. But don't go spending it with useless things!

Second dialogue:

Boy: Hey, will you watch his match tomorrow? He said he'll be playing and really wanted you to go.
Girl: Well, I don't like sports very much, but "in order for him not to say I'm bad", I'll go watch the first half.

Remember that I'm translating literally the expression - my question is: is there a similar valid expression in English?


texts:
Is it valid to use em dashes in formal writing? My teacher said it's informal to use em dashes under any circumstances, so I just wanted to make sure. I've gone through several related questions in here but there is no direct answer.

This was my sentence: 'In fact, as shown in latest statistics, 12.5% of America’s citizens are African Americans—who most of them are descendants of enslaved people—and they are all treated equally.' It was in a paragraph about slavery.


texts: "At somebody's bidding" vs. "at somebody's behest"?

texts:
Do the following two sentences have the same meaning? If not, what is the difference between them?

This briefing session is held at the Commander's bidding.
This briefing session is held at the Commander's behest.


texts:
I am wondering what's the key difference between the two adverbs "purposefully" and "purposely" and how to use them in a sentence.
I have found a similar question: “Deliberately” vs. “intentionally” vs. “on purpose”
but there is no explanation about the difference between the above two mentioned adverbs.


texts: It's the title of the song from Adele. I wonder what "Rolling in the deep" means.


texts: What is the difference between those two sentences?

texts:
1 There is a room separate from my bedroom.

  2 There is a separate room from my bedroom.

Is there a difference in meaning between those two sentences? Or are they the same?


texts:
People use "N.B." at the end of a writing (say, a letter) to add a piece of information.

Equally, I find people using "P.S." in the end of a writing (usually, a letter) to add a piece of information.

Literally, "N.B." stands for "Nota Bene" and "P.S." for "Post Script". But, I find people using them interchangeably. Has the difference between them eroded over the time?

What is the correct scope of their usage?


texts: What is the difference between trust and believe , and when should we use them . For example "I don't believe him " is correct or "I don't trust him " .


texts: Understandable word for someone with normal vision

texts:
In the process of writing a document relating to an accessibility product I mention people who are blind and people who are visually impaired.

However I cannot think of a good word with the average reader will immediately understand and does not sound too clinical for a person with an good level of sight (not necessarily perfect as 20/20 would suggest but just fine for everyday life).

For example the sentence: "The product has been trialled on a selection of blind, visually impaired and _____ persons."

I considered "sighted" or "fully sighted" or even "seeing" however I fear each of those words might have implications. All of these seem to be fine according various dictionaries but I fear an average reader would find them odd and I have never personally seem them used in a sentence save in phrases like "short sighted".

Are there any other words that would work for this? Or perhaps the ones I have already thought of sound less out of place than I suspect they do?


texts:
Tags on large size T-shirts will often have the letters LGG to specify large. Why don't they simply say LG?

Is LGG simply short for large/grande?


texts:
I know there isn’t a correct way to pronounce gif. And its an abbreviation.
There are two ways to pronounce it

Hard G  ( as in gift)
Soft G( as in giraffe)

This is a classic example of toe-ma-toe vs toe-mah-toe.
This is a question. This is a bit opinion based.You are free to downvote this post. But i request you to comment why you are downvoting this post.

I read this article.
There are two common ways to pronounce this abbreviation.

Gif as an gift.
Gif ( jif) as giraffe

I am still confused.
Different people pronounce it different way.

I have two following questions
 1. Why is there no standard way pronounce it?
 2. Why does its creator use different way to pronounce it( he prefers gif as in giraffe)

Some users may say that this question has already been answered by (Deciding pronunciation of new words that don't obey natural rules of a language).
But the above does not appear in the search results directly. Indeed, the title and the specifics are different.
And there is general confusion due to videos and articles such as this YouTube clip.

Which one should I use? Or Can I use both?
I have already read the following articles.
Links:

Pronunciation according to OLD
Wikipedia's article
Stackexchange's article
Deciding pronunciation of new words that don't obey natural rules of a language)
Pronouncing acronyms


texts: Are "kinda", "sorta", "oughta" and "sposta" acceptable in formal writing?

texts:
I get that sorta, kinda, sorta-kinda (this one I quite like though) oughta and sposta imitate speech but it still niggles me to find them "in print", especially when the overall tone is formal.

Occasionally, I have read detailed answers on EL&U in otherwise impeccable, faultless English, containing any one or more of these ‘dialectal’ expressions. I have asked myself what was the aim of the writer, when the rest of the answer is formal and technical in style.

Outside of EL&U are there examples of formal and scholarly texts which contain any of the above expressions? And, ironically, are these forms considered ungrammatical/non-standard when used in informal writing but perfectly acceptable in formal writing when written by an academician?

Tidbit
Google Ngram shows that kinda has been enjoying a massive rise in popularity since 1982, while the other colloquialisms have remained steady.


texts:
'They ride a bike.' vs 'They ride bikes.'

I don't know the difference between these.

When each person rides a bike one by one, Can I use this sentence? >> 'They ride a bike.'


texts: What is the difference between an "uncountable noun" and an "adjective"

texts:
In the word "afternoon tea"(the tea that is served in afternoon) the word 'afternoon' is an uncountable noun as OALD shows.
In the word "English countryside"(the countryside that is in England) the word 'English' becomes adjective.
But why? I can't see the difference in the work these words do.
Other examples are "egg noodles", crocodile shoes", "sports car"
and "double bed", "favourite movies", "paper tiger". (Interestingly OALD does not count "paper" as adjective.)
Can somebody kindly explain me please. Thank you!


texts: "Feel the heat" - is there a less slangy expression for the same concept

texts:
I'm writing the following sentence, and I'd like an idiomatic equivalent for "feel the heat" (to encounter an uncomfortable situation.) that would be acceptable for formal written English:

  Warily eyeing the enemy army's advance, the old king began _______


texts: Meaning of "Mr Right's first name is Always"

texts:
What does this quote mean?

When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always.
— Rita Rudner


texts: Is there a difference between "Speciality" and "Specialty"?

texts: My work colleagues and I have been having a discussion about doctors (we work in healthcare), and we're split down the middle as to whether a specialist doctor would have a speciality, or a specialty (no "i"). Is there a specific use for each word, or can they be interchanged?


texts: Why did the "-re" spelling persist in the British spelling of some words?

texts:
The -re ending in British English spelling derives from French -re. However, most French loanwords originally ending in -re in Old/Middle French or Anglo-Norman had their spelling changed to -er in modern British English, for example number, order, letter, chapter, member, offer, minister, monster, oyster, tender, proper, September, etc.

Why then did the -re spelling persist in a minority of words, such as centre, fibre, sombre, lustre, saltpetre, theatre, meagre, etc., in British English? Were the -er spelling variants of these words just somehow not common enough in Middle English for later lexicographers to adopt the -er spelling as the standard for these words?


texts: Do you usually divide words into elements?

texts:
English sounds sound complex for me as a non-native speaker, because of vowel reduction.
English vowels in words can take a wide range of form in natural speech due to vowel reduction and whether you can draw lines on these sound into smaller units is unclear for me.  So I wonder if English sound is completely divided into sub-elements which compose any word.
     For example, any Japanese word is thought for native Japanese to be composed of some units in basically 46 sound units, which are unit of timbre, and relative pitch relation between these units.  These are combination of elements in Japanese natives' eyes.
     So my question is simply, whether do most of English natives see English words as a combination of their sub-units?


texts: Is there a word for "not self-righteous"?  Humble doesn't quite fit, but someone who does what they need to but is not self-righteous in their demeanor or actions.


texts: Meaning of "offer their expertise leading expeditions"

texts:
Context:

They gather to swap and share books, yarn for crocheting, offer their
expertise leading mushroom and foraging expeditions, pass along
clothing and recipes, teach cooking classes, gather for fruit-gleaning
outings, organize free “shops” stocked with Halloween costumes and
holiday gifts.

Should the phrase "offer their expertise leading mushroom and foraging expeditions" be understood as:
They offer their professional knowledge in leading mushroom and foraging expeditions.
or:
They offer their expertise as they lead mushroom and foraging expeditions?
--
Thank you.


texts:
Going back to 1918, a popular bar song in London was “Knees up, Mother Brown”. Finally recorded in 1938, it was quite popular for a number of years. In this clip from Hullabaloo, we can hear Petula Clark and Noel Harrison sing it with a cockney accent in a duet. As it was preceded with a snippet of “I’m Henry the 8th I am”, I assume it is from around 1966.

Fozzie the bear sang it in 1980 on the Muppet Show, and Michael Caine in 1986 in “Sweet Liberty”.

Given that it was done on American television, it must have been “clean” enough in context by that time.

However, the same article claims that the phrase originally had a different, earthier sense (Read sexual). I can find no supporting documentation for that statement, but it seems obvious.

Can anyone nail down the original first usage of this phrase, or is it possible it was only an oral tradition?

Original article Wikipedia


texts: Meaning of "set such store" (not a shop)

texts:
I can't understand this sentence:

  No other professor in Great Britain set such store by being called Professor.

In this case store is not a shop or a place to store something. I guess that the meaning is that the subject really wants to be called Professor and is angry if you don't call him so.


texts: Difference between ɒ and ɔ: in terms of sound?

texts: Are they same, like, allophones? To me, they sound like same?


texts: Hyphen: “well defined” vs. “well-defined”

texts:
Traditional English grammar teaches us that a well-defined function is a function that is well defined. With the hyphen in the adjective role before the noun and without the hyphen in the role of an adverb with a past participle after the noun. (E.g., see a question about well-organized, which is following the general rule, while the current one is about mathematical jargon.)

However, continuing an argument of Mr. West, a function that is well defined is a function for which we have done a good job of giving a definition, but a function that is well-defined is an object that has been given a valid definition as a function, with every domain element given a unique image. Said that, in the second meaning (an object that has been given a valid definition as a function, with every domain element given a unique image), should the mathematicians use the hyphen in "well?defined" in the after-the-noun position?

PS. I asked the same question at math.se, but they put it on hold, claiming that it could be off-topic there. Only one person gave his/her opinion, which I liked, but I'd like to hear other arguments, too.


texts: "Social-approval seeker" or "social approval-seeker" or "social-approval-seeker"?

texts:
What is the most appropriate hyphenation for this term for a person who seeks approval from others?

"social-approval seeker"
"social approval-seeker"
"social-approval-seeker"
"social approval seeker"
something else?

EDIT: To clarify, I mean to describe "a seeker of social approval", rather than "an approval seeker who is social".


texts: "You'd better try again.", is this sentence comparative or advice, or both?

texts:
Yesterday we had an exam and our teacher asked a question which said:

  You'd better try again.

And I picked "advice", but then the teacher said, that sentence is both advice and also comparative because there's the word "better" in it. I tried to argue but I wasn't so sure.

So the question is, is it both of them?


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

texts:
"Developers like Google, Airbus and Huawei are racing to leverage these materials and others into transistors that could make conventional microchips obsolete and deliver "quantum computing" -- massive new levels processing power with far less energy consumption."

I looked up the leverage in the dictionary which gives

(formal) the ability to influence what people do.
(technical) the act of using a ↑lever to open or lift sth; the force used to do this.
(finance) the relationship between the amount of money that a company owes and the value of its shares

I think all the explanations do not fit the meaning of the sentence here. What is the exact meaning and how to use this word?


texts:
I have an exercise in which I have to correct mistakes in the sentences.
One of them is : "Tom borrowed me a very interesting book last week."
Is there any problem with "a very"? Because I have no idea what is wrong with this sentence. The "a very interesting" part is the only idea I have.


texts: How to ask what was the company that you worked with?

texts:
I'd like to ask someone what was the company that they worked with. I'm not sure this would be understandable, but the point is that I want to know the name of the companies that someone has been working with before. It is not about asking which company have they worked for.

And there are two examples.

  1) Which companies have you been working with?
  2) Which companies have you worked with?


texts: Term for greetings that are also valedictions

texts:
Is there a specialized term in linguistics for those words that, in a given language, can be used to say both hello and goodbye?

For instance, I've heard tell that in Hawaii the word "aloha" is used either to greet people or to bid them farewell. If I am not mistaken, the Italian word "ciao" also has this twofold functionality and I suppose that polyglots can easily come up with many more examples of this curious language phenomenon.

Thanks in advance for your learned replies!


texts: Word for someone who is constantly yet excessively stressed

texts:
What is a noun for someone who unduly stresses? For example, a worrywart is someone who constantly yet excessively worries. However, there is a vast difference between "stressing" and "worrying," so "bundle of nerves" does not count. Therefore, a _______ is someone who constantly yet excessively stresses.
Any help is appreciated!


texts:
There have been times in my life where I've enjoyed kissing and cuddling. I'm sure many of you can think of times you've enjoyed canoodling on the couch. Especially in these colder months.

Now I'm reminiscing in my ivory tower, I wonder what the origin of the word canoodle is. Etymonline and Oxford Online Dictionaries both say "origin unknown".

Does anyone know where the word comes from?


texts:
How would you write the possessive with yourself and another person?

For example:

  Would you like to join Bob's and my group?


texts: What’s wrong with “After roasting the deer, the hunter extinguished the fire and then searched for a tree to hang it from”?

texts:
A question from my GMAT class, which I was told is wrong and it was left for me to figure it out.

  After roasting the deer, the hunter extinguished the fire and then searched for a tree to hang it from.

It sounds good when everyday conversation is considered, but what is wrong with it anyway? I tried to search but was bemused as to how to look for it.


texts: Why “Many and many A year ago”, not “Many, many years ago? Are they same?

texts:
I was amused with the introductory part of the New York Times’ article（September 13) by Dick Cavett called “As comics say, ‘These kids today! I tell ya!’” that begins:

  “Many and many a year ago, in the kingdom of ABC, Woody Allen was one
  of my very first guests. And we consented to take questions from an
  eager audience of mostly young people. Like ourselves. The questioner
  looked like a high school girl and shouted to Woody from the balcony,

  “Do you think sex is dirty?”

  Allen: “It is if you do it right.”

Besides Allen’s exquisite riposte, I was drawn to the beginning words, “Many and many a year ago”.

Is it the same as “many many years ago”? Why is ‘year’ in a singular form when you are referring to multiple years' time span?

Is “many and many a” an idiom, or a set pattern of phrase?  Can I say 'I bought many and many a book this month" instead of 'I bought many books this month,' and 'I have many and many a question to post in EL&U' instead of 'I have a lot of questions ---'?


texts: Are "eery" and "eerie" equally acceptable spellings?

texts:
I used "eery" yesterday in a text and was corrected jokingly by my correspondent to "eerie."  Looking at it after the fact, neither 'looks' right to me and both get through auto-correct with no red underline.   Some cursory googling showed that both are at least technically correct, but I'm curious as to preferred or standard usage.  I read a lot and I guess I've rarely seen the word in print, and even then it was probably the adverb form eerily.

So, beyond actual correctness, are both equally acceptable?  Regional differences?


texts: Term used for the number of items in a singular or plural noun or sentence

texts:
Can anyone confirm the name of the term used
for the number of items in the terms singular,
plural, etc.?

Does singular or plural indicate the cardinality
of a part of the sentence, or is there a more
appropriate word for the term cardinality?

E.G. When "We went to the store" has a plural subject, does plural
refer to the cardinality of the subject,
or is a different word used to refer to the
fact that the count is more than one?


texts: Is single-word "inbetween" becoming more acceptable? How far can it go?

texts:
I get the distinct feeling that "inbetween" occurs increasingly often as a single word, but I'm not at all clear on why it's used more in some contexts than others.

What I can is see that in Google Books, "are inbetween" occurs far less often than "are in between", whereas "the inbetween" occurs more often than "the in between". What's going on?


texts:
I came across this phrase in a business document:

  We will house both applications you send to your customers and applications you receive from your suppliers on your XXXX account. This will be clearly managed for you when it comes time.

Does this make grammatical sense? My whole life I've only heard  "... when the time comes"


texts:
To loyalize is a  term which means:

  To make someone loyal to a cause.

(Wiktionary)

  'Loyalize' Customers by Remembering Their Needs. (www.linkedin.com)

Unluckily the term is quite rare and probably obsolete (see Ngram) but it exactlty carries  the meaning I want to convey.

The context can be that of a company which  wants lo "loyalize" clients, or more generally a (virtual) community which is looking to keep its members to avoid migrations to other communities.

Is there a more common alternative to loyalize or is a phrase the expresses the same concept  the only alternative?


texts: To praise: how to build a phrase using this word

texts:
Distinguished visitors and creators! I have a question. A strange question:)

Due to my illiteracy I don't know how to say one thing... Well, would your native speakers' ears feel uncomfortable and confused if I said:

  "to praise IN beautiful words"

not

  "... USING beautiful words"

?!


texts: How to know if I should use verb+ing after the word 'to'?

texts: I have always been taught that I should use the base form of a verb after the word 'to'. But I sometimes see sentences such as 'I am looking forward to meeting you' & 'She has devoted her life to doing charitable works'. So how to know when to use base form or verb+ing after the word 'to'? Thank you.


texts: 'The Secret People' a poem by G.K. Chesteron: Is "Blood runs red" a proverb or is it literary language?

texts:
The line I am referring to is as follows:

  The fine French kings came over in a flutter of flags and dames.
  We liked their smiles and battles, but we never could say their names.
  The blood ran red to Bosworth and the high French lords went down;
  There was naught but a naked people under a naked crown.

Is 'The blood ran red' a saying which the poem comprehend or is it literary language of which I have to make sense for myself.


texts: Was "famous" once used like how "awesome" is used colloquially in modern times?

texts:
Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon series of modern fiction book, set in the early 19th century, uses a somewhat archaic form of English to help communicate the setting. I must say that it works quite splendidly, and some of the odd (to a modern ear) usages of language are surprising in their elegance.
The word "famous", and its parallel "infamous", are used in a way that is not modern:

and at the last Battersea, unlike virtually all the others, was incautious in tearing the sheet, so that his piece was unusually large; he could be heard murmuring quietly to Carver, “Would it not be famous to ride a dragon?”

Here, the character is expressing excitement at the chance of being able to ride a dragon.

Japanese dragons are far more likely among the Oriental breeds to have any special offensive capabilities.”
“Oh,” said Temeraire glumly.
“Temeraire, do not be absurd, it is the most famous news anyone could imagine,” Laurence said

Here, one character is telling another to not be sad about the fact that they cannot breathe fire given all the other wonderful news they have just learned about themselves.

“Oh!” said Miss Montagu, overhearing; curiosity evidently overcame her objections to the company of an aviator. “I have never seen a dragon; pray may we come? How famous!”

Here, a character is expressing their excitement for the chance to see a dragon.

“So you are the naval fellow who snatched an Imperial out of the jaws of France. Lord, it is a famous story; the Frogs must be gnashing their teeth and tearing their hair over it,” Martin said exultantly.

This is a usage of the word "famous" that modern readers are quite familiar with.

“We think the Anglewing over there may hatch soon; that would be famous,” Martin went on, pointing at a golden-brown egg...

Replace "famous" with "awesome", and the sentence works as if said by a modern person.

“Sir, the others have asked me to propose to you that perhaps we might try some of the new maneuvers,” Granby said to him, some few weeks into the project. “We would be more than happy to sacrifice our evenings to the work; it would be infamous not to have a chance of showing what he can do.”

Here, one of the characters is pointing out how awful/sad it would be if another was not allowed a chance at their full potential.

“In any case, they grow tired of trying to persuade him; so that villain Barham ordered I should lie to him and say we were assigned to Gibraltar, all to get him aboard a transport and out to sea, too far for him to fly back to land, before he knew what they were about.”
“Oh, infamous.” Her hand tightened almost painfully on his arm.

Here, one character is remarking at how awful the other's news is.

Wiktionary is usually quite good at providing archaic usages of a word, but in this case, it remains silent, and provides only the definition of the word the modern world is most familiar with, without any alternatives: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/famous
According to an online Oxford dictionary, the usage of "famous" as "excellent" is "informal": https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/famous
According to "yourdictionary.com" (whose reliability I am not certain of), an archaic usage of "famous" is actually in the sense of "notorious": http://www.yourdictionary.com/famous
Merriam-Webster does not annotate the second definition of "famous" as "excellent; first rate" with neither "informal" or "archaic": https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/famous

What is the history of the usage of the word famous in this sense? Are there modern authors who still use the second definition?


texts: "It had started to snow by 10 a.m. yesterday." vs "It started to snow by 10 a.m. yesterday."

texts:
I don't understand the timing in the following sentence:

It had started to snow by 10 a.m. yesterday.

I don't understand when it started to snow. And did it finish or is it still snowing?
Is this related to the difference between:

It had started to snow by 10 a.m. yesterday.

and

It started to snow by 10 a.m. yesterday.


texts: Is there a term for a sentence that suggests a question but isn't one?

texts:
I've noticed some sentences or phrases that suggest a question that people tend to accidentally end with a question mark. Examples: "I wonder why" or "The question is what we should do now".

Is there a term for such a sentence or for the error of punctuating them with a question mark?


texts:
I read a sentence containing the word thy, but I cannot find the meaning of that word.

Is it older English, or is it still used in contemporary English today?


texts: What is the future tense of "would have been"?

texts:
The following sentence is grammatically correct:

  Today would have been Freddie Mercury's 68th birthday.

If Freddie Mercury were still alive, this sentence would be correct too:

  September 5, 2015, will be Freddie Mercury's 69th birthday.

But Freddie Mercury is now dead, and thus, to correctly describe his 69th birthday, it would be necessary to use a "would have been" formation. However, in this case, the formation would be applied to an event in the future.

How would one get the future tense of a naturally past-tense modal verb?


texts: A single word to replace "In order to achieve this"

texts: In order to achieve this, four experiments were performed...


texts: What is the meaning of “shape-up” in this sentence?

texts:
The shape-up has been gone for many decades, much of New
  Jersey shipping has moved away from Hoboken.


texts:
How can I call companies that I would really like to work in (and let's say no matter how badly people are talking about them)?
'List of my dream companies' or 'List of my dream work places'? Or maybe there is another name for such situation. Thanks!

-- Edit taken from comment --

This expression would be used publicly (in a website), so our goal is to understand it as something which refers to companies they would like to work at.


texts: Please help me make this a passive sentence. We couldn't go to our favourite restaurant because they were decorating it.


texts:
Should we use comma after "after a while"? For example,

  After a while she stopped thinking about him.


texts: Idiom or expression for no-one wants to help do a task, but everyone is ready to criticise after the task is completed

texts:
I'm looking for an idiom or expression that means "no-one wants to help do a task, but everyone is ready to criticise after the task is completed"

There are plenty of expressions that capture the criticising after the task is complete (e.g. hindsight is 20/20), but none that I can think of where the same person/people criticising also had an opportunity to help.


texts: Is it necessary to use the past perfect if a time expression makes the order of events clear?

texts:
On the Michael Vince’s book, English Grammar and Vocabulary, there is this sentence:
” Mallory had discovered an ancient map showing the position of the city, although no European had ever been to the area before.”

Why can’t it be:
“ Mallory discovered an ancient map showing the position of the city, although no European had ever been (...).” ?


texts: Composite is to component as Aggregate is to __?

texts: Is there a noun for something that is aggregational to an aggregate? There are many permutations of the word 'aggregate' yet as far as I can tell none of them are similar to 'component', despite the similarities between composition and aggregation.


texts: Is there a word, similar to "catachresis" meaning to use a word for its general understanding rather than by its strictly literal definition?

texts:
I'm wondering if there is a word/term or, even if not a single-word, just an accepted phrase that represents the idea of not necessarily misusing a word, but using it as its intended meaning, with a slightly different nuance?
So, to explain, an example of a catachresis could be using mitigate when the speaker meant militate. In that example, the user is not conveying what they want to convey, they're using a word with a completely different meaning than what they want.
An example of the word I am looking for, could be using terroir when talking about things other than wine.
The definition of terroir

The complete natural environment in which a particular wine is produced, including factors such as the soil, topography, and climate.

specifically calls out "wine" as being the thing in focus, meaning that these sentences:

The terroir of Hatch, New Mexico, means that only Anaheim peppers grown there can be considered authentic "Hatch Peppers."

The Florida Keys' warm, abundant, coastal rains, and alkaline soil contribute to the terroir of Key Limes, which leads to a bigger fruit than when grown elsewhere.

are not abiding to the literal definition of the word terroir, but they are using the word in a way that a reader could very easily understand what is meant because only one small nuance has changed (it's not about wine), and the general meaning of the word stays the same.
To supply an example where this term could come into play:

John _____ (past-tense verb) the word "terroir" because he used it when talking about peppers instead of wines.

John's _____ (noun) of the word "terroir" when talking about Hatch Peppers was amusing to me as I had recently done the same thing with Key Limes.


texts:
We say a person swims across a river.(From this side to that side.)
If he is completely submerged in the water when he swims, can we say "he swims through the river"?


texts:
By my current understanding of the two words, the sentence:

The preciseness of this precision is very definite

is grammatically correct. Correct me if I'm wrong, and if so; what is the distinction between the two words?
OED definition of preciseness:

Exactness, accuracy; definiteness; minuteness.

OED definition of precision:

a. An instance of exactness or preciseness; a particular, nicety, minute detail, esp. of language.
b. The fact, condition, or quality of being precise; exactness, accuracy.

Also, what is the word for the situation in which this can occur? (I want to say it's the opposite of an oxymoron?)


texts: "In the way" or "on the way" when referring to an actual location

texts:
Searching for the difference between “in the way” and “on the way”, I found that the first means an obstacle while the latter means something in progression. This difference is always stressed, so I can’t tell which one to use when referring to “way” as a concrete noun, as a physic location.

-There are many ways that lead to the green lake. In/on one of these ways, a native woman is hunting.

-In/on the ways of Mojave, I became a better person.

Which one (in or on) is correct or preferable in this context?

Thanks in advance.


texts: What’s a “ ‘friend’ friend”, and is that meant to be ironic?

texts:
Here is a quote from the "Lois & Clark" series:

  A: Who are you?
  B [a guy]: I'm a friend of her ["her" is another female character whom B is looking for].
  A: A boyfriend, a "friend" friend or just a friend?

Do you have any idea what "a 'friend' friend" is supposed to mean? Is that ironical or something?


texts: "This serves as a quick reference to verifying resource availabilities in Espresso"

texts:
What is the correct way of expressing the following sentence?

  This serves as a quick reference to verifying resource availabilities in Espresso.
  This serves as a quick reference to verify resource availabilities in Espresso.


texts: Please explain this joke about two nuns in a bath

texts:
I've heard this joke several times, but I'm ashamed to say I really cannot understand it. It just doesn't seem to make any sense however I look at it.
I have a suspicion that it is supposed to be rude, so I'd like to offer my apologies if it causes offence- that is not my intension.
Here's the joke:

Two nuns are in the bath.
Nun1: Where's the soap?
Nun2: Yes, it does rather.

Edit: I understand the pun on "where's"/"wears". But what I don't understand is why that is funny. Several people have mentioned that there is a sexual inference, but I don't understand where it comes from.


texts: I had some plaques created and my client had New at the end of one line and Hampshire at the start of the next line. I think it looks bad to split the state name and wondered but the "official" rule is on this situation?


texts: Subject-verb agreement with more than one gerund in the subject

texts:
I have seen a discussion of double gerunds and subject-verb agreement, but not addressing the following specific situtation:

"Reading and studying history HAS or HAVE been formative...": two gerunds with the same object as the subject of the sentence. I think a singular verb is clearly called for. Arguments in favor or against?


texts:
I've been reading papers from nucleate boiling mechanics and related areas, and I keep being puzzled by the usage of apostrophes. For example, we talk about bubbles:

Numerical simulations of the bubble dynamics in viscoelastic media
showed varying degrees of success in accurately predicting the observations.

Here we see bubble dynamics with no apostrophe. Then on the next page:

Visualization of the multiflash imaging technique with
timing diagrams of the variable flash sequences used during each
phase of the bubble’s evolution with example images.

Here we have bubble's evolution, apsotrophe present.  Or, another example:

The assumption of material homogeneity in the model is
likely also not valid for agarose gels, particularly in the early
parts of a bubble’s lifetime.

So is it equally correct to say the bubble's size and the bubble size, the heater's tempetature and the heater temperature, etc.?

Please help me sort it out. Many thanks to all who had enough patience to read all this.


texts: Term for nicknames with different first letter

texts:
I have an uncle Bill and an uncle Bob. Is there a term for name diminutives in which the first letter is different from the root name?

There are discussions of name diminutives here and in this question, especially these comments:

  There is a noticeable tendency in English to substitute a plosive
  (stop consonant) for the initial consonant in forming pet-names: Dick,
  Bob, Bill, Peggy, Polly. I don't know why this might be, or whether it
  is seen in other languages. – Colin Fine

  Rick/Dick, Bob/Rob, Bill/Will, Polly/Molly are examples of rhyming
  nicknames, and they've been around in English since the 13th century.
  A much more obscure example of a "significantly different" nickname is
  Hudde (as in Hudson), which was used for Richard. – JPmiaou

Is there a term for this particular phenomenon -- different first letter -- compared to other nicknaming phenomena (abbreviating, adding a -y ending, etc.)?


texts:
What does the phrase joint-byline mean for a multi-author article? Does it mean

(1) All authors work under the name of a leader whose name appears as the single name in the byline

or does it mean

(2) All authors' names all appear in the byline


texts: Is Microsoft Word's usage of commas correct?

texts:
Now I was fairly certain that my comma usage is accurate, but Microsoft Word is second-guessing me, and I can't be certain whether it's correct or not. I have a sentence like this:

  Based on his results, Ke posited that beginner learners may appreciate the importance of decomposing the graphic structure of the character, but may not have the analytical resources and knowledge of character components necessary to do so, and so will resort instead to rote-memorisation, or memorising a character as an unanalysed whole.

I've highlighted the comma after the first instance of the word "character". Word marks this as incorrect, and suggests that there should be no comma, leading to the very long clause:

  Ke posited that beginner learners may appreciate the importance of decomposing the graphic structure of the character but may not have the analytical resources and knowledge of character components necessary to do so

Now I don't like this, and want to break it up with commas, but I'm wondering if word has a point. There are several other instances where I've used commas before the word "and" or "but" and Word tells me to change it, but I think it sounds better with the comma, such as the first comma in:

  Hayes suggests that this is detrimental to beginner learners, and hypothesises that more advanced learners will prefer to process characters as whole units, rather than groups of components.

and the second comma in:

  Following the studies surveyed in this chapter, it would be helpful to elaborate on the initial hypothesis presented in the introduction, and make some predictions about my own research data.

and in:

  Participants were presented with a list of 60 one- or two-character Chinese words, and asked to provide the pronunciation in Romanised pinyin as well as the English meaning

Is my comma usage correct or incorrect in these cases?


texts: Why people pronounce "penetrative" with two stresses?

texts: One stress is on "pen". The other on "tra". This seems very unusual to me since I had the impression that most English words are supposed to be pronounced with one stress only.


texts: What do you call someone looking for a job?

texts:
I am trying to compose a sentence, and I am currently stuck for the right word. I am trying to say:

  In a job interview, the audience would be the employer and the ---------

That is the word I am looking for. I cannot put "employee" as he has not been employed yet. Is there a single word for someone looking for a job? "Job-seeker?"


texts: In the sentence "He never thought it likely that anyone would care about him," is the use of "it likely" correct or would it have to be "it was likely."


texts: How did you find it? vs What did you make of it? vs How did it [you] go?

texts:
What is the difference between those follow up questions?
For example, if my friend said "I tried making octopus dumplings for the first time last night",
can I add response follow up questions with all these 3 sentences?


texts:
Two questions with the same words can have somewhat different meanings. For example, I could ask

  Do you want to go to the zoo or the museum?

with my intonation/pitch rising after zoo, or

  Do you want to go to the zoo or the museum?

with a higher intonation on zoo going down to a lower pitch by museum.

So, using only intonation, it seems we can distinguish between "here are two of our options" (1) and "here are our only two options" (2).

Is there a name for intonation changing the meaning of a sentence?


texts: What type of wordplay joins two phrases together on a single syllable?

texts:
During a South Park episode, Wendy sings a song with a specific type of wordplay in which she ends a sentence and starts a new one with a common word or syllable. This gives the lyrics a double meaning each time. This isn't the only example of this but it's the most easy one to find an example for.

A lame, tame example of the pattern is:

  There are 12 inches in a foot ball is my favorite sport.

I wondered if there was a specific name for this?
"Double Entendre" doesn't really do it justice.

You can see and hear the song here.
Warning: the language is strongly suggestive and is probably NSFW.
The lyrics listed on the YouTube page are:

  Mrs. Landers was a health nut, she cooked food in a wok.
Mr. Harris was her boyfriend, and he had a great big—
COCK-a-doodle-doodle. The rooster just won't quit.
I don't want my breakfast, because it tastes like—
SHITzus make good pets, they're cuddly and sweet.
Monkeys aren't good to have 'cause they like beat their—
MEETing in the office, meeting in the hall.
The boss, he wants to see you, so you can suck his—
BALZac was a writer, he lived with Alan Funt.
Mrs. Roberts didn't like him, but that's 'cause she's a—
CONTaminated water, can really make you sick.
Your bladder gets infected, and blood comes out your—
DICtate what I'm saying, 'cause it'll bring you luck.
And if you all don't like it, I don't give a flying F**K!


texts: Officer's shoulder bars - what are they?

texts: I have read one historical joke, that during the Civil War Officer's shoulder bars were called "pumpkin rinds". Where are these mysterious shoulder bars from? I can find only shoulder boards or straps on the net. Is it some military slang? Obsolete form? Local variant? Or simply an error of the joke writer?


texts: Can one use the word "memorial" (noun or adjective) without the negative/sad connotation of commemoration of the dead?


texts:
Which of these answers is correct?

Which way did you go the first one or the second one?
A) I went neither way
B) I didn't go either way


texts: What part of speech is 'as' in this sentence?

texts:
Science doesn't fare as well for pessimists. They not only have lower levels of happiness compared to optimists, but research shows that people with negative thoughts are 3 times as likely to develop health problems as they age.

I am an ESL student. I can't get the meaning of 'as' here (in bold), and what part of speech it is. And also want to know if the sentence doesn't make sense without 'as', and if so, why.
Please advise.


texts:
I've used the search function but couldn't find a specific case like this one.
Which one is the right one and why?

1) These teachings stood untouched throughout generations.

2) These teachings stayed untouched throughout generations.

Thank you for your help and time.


texts: What is the difference between contraction and elision?

texts: So, what is the difference between the terms? Is it right to say that elision is a specific case of contraction? Another version I've I ran onto was that these were slightly different terms as contraction always refers to the case when there's more than one word.


texts: Should this sentence read "Isn't there" or "Aren't there", given the subject is "a bunch of laws", an "bunch" is singular?

texts:
Take the sentence:

  Isn't there a bunch of laws around who can stay open until what time though based on location and # of residential buildings around the bar?

Bunch is singular, and the sentence is referring to a bunch of laws.

Another example, not using bunch:

  Isn't there a collection of paintings?

That uses "Isn't" not "aren't"

Can you throw the prepositional phrase, and consider what comes directly after is irrelevant in terms of plurality?


texts: absent/abscond - what etymology do they share?

texts: I was doing some writing today, and during the final editing process I came across a typo: I had misspelled "absent" as "abscent". I couldn't help but think of the word abscond. I wonder if it's true that the only etymological relation "absent" and "abscond" share is the latin ab(s)- (And I guess my bigger question is whether or not that is even the case)? Any insight would be welcome, even if this is kind of a silly question. Thanks!


texts: Usage of "convince A of B" and "convince oneself of~"

texts:
I want to know that I understand the usage of "convince A of B" and "convince oneself of~" correctly.

My father convinced me of my fault. = My father made me aware of my fault.

You need to convince yourself of your possibility. = You need to trust your possibility.

Thank you :)


texts: Does the following tag question sound natural? “Seems like it’s no longer possible, is it?”

texts:
I'm not sure if it is actually a tag question though. Because if it were a tag question then most probably, there should be doesn’t it at the end of it.

But that’s not what I want to ask the person I’m asking the question; rather, I want to ask them whether or not it is still possible.

If that construction is not possible, then how would you word it?


texts:
I've googled this but I cannot find an answer. The other similar threads asked was can the form of the verb 'be' be an imperative? I don't know if 'you are required' is a form of the 'be' verb.

  "You are required to ... do this and do that"


texts: Does it ever make sense to use "been being" in a sentence?

texts:
What is the passive form of the sentence
"You should have been telling John while I was outside" ?
I want to go with "John should have been being told while I was outside", but I think it sounds a bit unusual.


texts: Open source word database with semantic information

texts: I am looking for an open source word database for French and English that contain information beyond the grammatical category (noun, verb, etc). I need information such as whether a word is an object, an action etc. I know of the WordNet databse as well as Lexique 3, but they don't have that kind of information.


texts: Simplicity or Complexity, which is more important in speech and writing?

texts:
English or any other language could be written or spoken in both the forms, either the user could use simple words or he could use some technical words, my question regarding English is which has more impact on listener, Simplicity in language? or Complexity by using technical words? and is it dependent of whether you are speaking or writing?

Simplicity, i.e, using simple words in your language can be effective as it helps the listener understand you better. The brain of listener can easily understand what you meant to say, whereas Complexity brings elegance. A speech or text with some technical words used in it looks more promising and can express much more than the same text written in a simple language. So ultimately, which is better?

PS : By Complexity, I didn't meant to say English which could not be understood, I just meant the use of more complicated and technical words in the language.


texts: A gender-neutral term for son or daughter?

texts:
I am looking for a term that could be used to describe one's offspring* in a gender neutral manner. Normally, female offspring are called daughters and male offspring are called sons. The three terms are can think of to describe an offspring with no gender are:

Child - implies an age under that of majority
Adult child - explicitly states an age over that of majority
Offspring - unlikely to be used in an informal context ("My offpsring just passed a physics exam")

Is there a single term that can be used to describe an offpsring of no or unknown gender without assuming age, in an informal context?

Sample sentence:

  My _______ just passed a physics exam

*I use this term to avoid implying an age (child or adult)


texts: In Nothing - June 12th 1799 Letter by John Marshall

texts:
He was in our late army a lieut. Colo. & he performd the duties of that office with reputation. It is probable that he may feel wounded at being offerd the same grade under others whom he then commanded & who are perhaps in nothing his superiors. It is presumd that officers in the actual army will command those of the same grade in the eventual army. If we are correct in this then Colonels Bentley & Parker who were both subalterns when Colo. Cropper was a field officer, & who are not supposd to have manifested any superiority over him, will now take rank of him. (Source)

Could someone please explicate and demystify in nothing? My guess would be that Colonel Cropper's superiors admittedly possesses nothing that would make them veritably superior?


texts: What's a phrase for when a topic of conversation can easily sprawl out of control and become huge?

texts:
For example talking about a difficult topic like abortion, euthanasia, eating meat etc. and a simple conversation can get deep and difficult.

I'm thinking something like a "wormhole" or a "slippery slope" but neither of them are quite what I mean.


texts: Is there any idiom in English that describes someone's eyes' black pupils? I am especially interested in some positive idiom that would ascribe a characteristic of being deep in thinking, noble, kind, considerate, wise, etc. to such a person.


texts: Is it acceptable to italicize a compound descriptor instead of hyphenating it?

texts:
I'm having a disagreement about how to treat a compound descriptor like "This is one of those everyone-shut-up-and-go-away kind of days."

It has been claimed to me that this descriptor can just as well be italicized, like so:

"This is one of those everyone shut up and go away kind of days."

I have not been able to find any evidence for this, and I don't recall seeing it myself.

Can anyone provide a source that advocates for italics? I've had trouble looking this up because most entries on compound words only deal with the kind that has two words ("blue-green dress"), and those are always hyphenated, not italicized.

[Edit] The claim comes from a writer who disagreed with my correction of her work, and insisted that italicizing the phrase is just as correct. My subsequent inquiries have uncovered that this usage can be found in certain fiction novels (I haven't read them, but friends mentioned this to me), which leads me to guess that it's a result of poor editing and not an accepted usage. As these kinds of things do sometimes get taken up, it may one day be seen as the "correct" way [see the modern use of "artful" to mean "artistic"]. However, since no one has brought forth any convincing argument or source for the usage, at present I believe it's simply incorrect.

Research:

http://www.stat.ufl.edu/~presnell/Various/Strunk-and-White/etes_htm.htm

http://www.uhv.edu/ac/newsletters/writing/grammartip2004.11.30.htm


texts: What is the meaning of "negative loan balance" and "mobile money launderer"?

texts:
I find on google a lot but still don't know what is a "negative loan balance" and "mobile money launderer". Is it true that I can understand "mobile money launderer" as "money launderer"? Please give me some e.g about this two, thank you!

P.s I'm Vietnamese and I learn that from the Sicario movie:

  − See, you make payments over what you owe and it doesn't show up as cash, it shows up as a negative loan balance.

and:

  − What you got?
  − Got a mobile money launderer.


texts: Could anyone explain to me the meaning of the abbreviation Nagel's?

texts:
I'm not quite sure I understand correctly the meaning of the word in bold font. There are two paragraphs that open the first chapter of "Set This House on Fire":

Of the drive from Salerno to Sambuco, Nagel’s Italy has this to say: “The road is hewn nearly the whole way in the cliffs of the coast. An evervaried panorama unfolds before our eyes...”

About Sambuco itself Nagel’s is characteristically lyric: “(1033 ft.) a little town of unusual appearance in an extremely beautiful landscape...

There goes a long description in the first paragraph, so I've skipped it.

As I understand, we are dealing with some sort of a guidebook named Italy in the first paragraph that is referred to in the second paragraph as just Nagel's, without the headword.

Am I right or not? If I am, is it some kind of a much used abbreviation, or there is a specific rule in English on this point?


texts: How to best use 'based around your skill set' in a sentence most effectively?

texts:
I am trying to figure out which way I can convey the following sentence more convincingly.

  Get paid for providing hiring recommendations to hiring managers,
  based around your skill set.

or

  Based around your skill set, Get paid for providing hiring
  recommendations to hiring managers

or

  Get paid for providing hiring recommendations, around your skill set,
  to hiring managers.

If there's any way to write this more concisely please advise.


texts: Is it more correct to say "I am only me" or "I am only I?" I know that the subject should follow a linking verb like "am" or "is", e.g.: "It is I", but "It is me" is also correct by common educated usage. So this matter of "I am me" or "I am I" is confusing. Which is more correct?


texts:
Why do we put THE before "Far East" but we don't put THE before "South East Asia" but both are the names of parts of Asia?
Looking forward to your answers!


texts:
You might have heard that we are restructuring the navigation of all sites in the network. As part of this change there will be 3 tabs which are currently named as:

New—it contains questions that are either new, recently active or (on Stack Overflow only, new and interesting)
Popular—this tab contains questions which are "hot", heavily voted or highly linked-to.
Need Answer—the purpose of this tab is to find questions to answer, it is the descendant of the "Unanswered" section, and it contains questions which are either very new, without answers, without any good answer or with a bounty pending.

As you might have noticed, the first two tabs follow a "______ Questions" pattern (e.g. "New Questions"), but the third doesn't.

What is a better word to use which is an adjective, specific to its contents (note: not all those questions are unanswered) and self-explanatory to new users?


texts:
Which is correct?

  I'm what you made me

or

  I'm who you made me


texts: If a character is boring and predictable, is he one-dimensional, or two-dimensional?

texts:
Let's suppose you have a character that's cliche, boring, and uninspired. Would you call the character one-dimensional, or two-dimensional?

Both uses seem to make sense to me. For example, if a character only has one primary motivation (he's a nerd, he's strong, he's dumb, he's evil), you might say his personality is one-dimensional (as in, he only has a single "aspect" to his character).

Likewise, you might describe him as two-dimensional, implying that he is a flat character (ie. the character lacks depth).

Which is the correct expression?


texts:
The giraffe, who was the tallest in the zoo, towered over the other animals.

Is it correct to use the relative pronoun who to relate to "the giraffe", an animal?


texts: Noun for an individual that formulates a question and also for an individual that addresses an answer

texts:
Given a person who formulates a question, may he or she be called the questioner or enquirer?  Likewise, may a person that addresses or responds an answer be called answerer or responder?

Which are the correct words?


texts: Can we say "to drink out" (similar to "eat out") to mean to drink away from home?

texts:
We all know that to eat out means “to eat away from home, esp in a restaurant” per the Free Dictionary.

However, I have not heard anyone say to drink out. The Internet doesn’t have any information about it.

Does

  to drink out: to drink away from home, esp. in coffee shop or pub, etc.

make any sense?


texts:
I want to sort a list of events chronologically in 'latest first' order. Does this mean the most recent events will be the top of the list, or the bottom of the list?

Latest means 'most recent', but it could also be interpreted means the 'most late'? i.e. the complete opposite.

What might be better terms to describe the orders of a chronologically and reverse chronologically sorted list in layman's terms?


texts: "I've got more to do than wait" or "I've got more to do than **to** wait"?

texts:
I did some reading in other places online about using the bare infinitive after the word "than," and while in a lot of cases it seems correct, I'm having a hard time telling whether it's correct in this particular case. Are both of the following valid?

1.) "I've got more to do than wait."
2.) "I've got more to do than to wait."

I also noticed that it seems like the first one sounds better if there's something after the word "wait":

3.) "I've got more to do than wait around for you."

Is this any more valid than the first sentence with the bare infinitive after "than"?


texts: What is the definition of "here" in "here you go?"

texts:
Here has two definitions:

  In, at, or to this place or position:
  'they have lived here most of their lives'
  Used when indicating a time, point, or situation that has arrived or is happening:
  'here we encounter the main problem'

So in the idiom "here you go" which definition is used? Is the present tense in this sentence used to signify future action like "my train leaves at seven" or something else?


texts:
Which of the following two is correct?

  there is still room for improvement with the implemented tool
  there is still room for improvement of the implemented tool

I used the with alternative in my thesis, but was told to use of instead.
However, the way I see it both are correct with the first one meaning "there is room for improvement concerning the tool", while the second one says "there is room for - improvement of the tool". I am simply trying to say that the tool can still be improved and am now unsure whether the sentence can be used with with.


texts: What's the proper expanded form of RGB and HSL?

texts: I know they mean "Red Green Blue" and "Hue Saturation Lightness", but the Wikipedia articles on each refer to them as "red, green, blue", and "hue-saturation-lightness".  Which way, if either, is correct?


texts: Is there another word for unpreparedness?

texts:
"Unpreparedness" seems clunky, and thesaurus.com wasn't of much help. Is there another word that might do, for example, in this sentence? "Having seen everyone pull out their tents, Jack twiddled his thumbs, acutely aware of his unpreparedness."

In this sentence, I find "unpreparedness" unsuitable because it just feels as though it's not a real word, as though someone just added "-ness" to "unprepared".


texts: Difference between "come here" and "come over here"?

texts: I'm not a native English speaker. I am having difficulty with some words. Could anyone please tell me if there's any difference between the above mentioned short sentences, as I'm a little confused.


texts: Is the term "village" used in North America?

texts:
The post Difference between "town", "city" and "metropolis"? describes the usage of terms describing various sizes of cities. In the US, I have never encountered any place called a "village". Places with just a few houses were still called "town", however, I often hear Americans use this term to describe towns in other parts of the world.

Are there any regions in North America where the term "village" is used?
Do people in North America want to avoid this term when describing where they live?
Do Americans use the term differently when describing places within North America and without?
Does the word carry a derogitory connotation in North America?


texts:
I just heard someone refer to the Bible as "the Old Book" (capitalization mine). I've only heard "the Good Book" before. Is this also a standard idiom? Google Ngrams doesn't have any results for "the old book," only "old book," but they also don't have any results for "good book says" and I'm quite confident that "as the Good Book says" is a thing.

EDIT: H/t to @Shosht, who pointed out that I shouldn't be using quotation marks in my NGrams search. Without them, it turns out that as the old book says (uncapitalized) and as the good book says (with various capitalizations) are both used, but the good version is much more common.

The fact the old book only appears in lowercase makes me doubt that it's referring to the Bible.


texts: Where did “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” originate?

texts: I've often heard the phrase "Cleanliness is next to godliness" used but as far as I know, while there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the notion, in spite of mentioning God the phrase doesn't have a Biblical basis. Where did the phrase come from and does it have its roots in Christianity or somewhere else?


texts: "take your hat off" vs "take off your hat"?

texts: Which would be the correct word order and why? Is there a generic rule that can be used with similar constructs (verb + preposition)? If yes, what is it called?


texts: How did 'whale' semantically shift to mean manipulator of stock market prices?

texts:
I couldn't find this finance meaning on OED or Merriam-Webster, probably for it's too newfangled? Recently SoftBank has been blazoned as the NASDAQ Whale.
I'm not convinced by the explanation in the first quote below, for while whales can splash, their splashes aren't huge in the context of the hugeness of oceans. A whale's splash affects the ocean far less than a financial whale can affect a stock market.
Understanding Whales, Bulls & Bears | by Stably | Stable Trade | Medium

Whales
A whale is any individual or company who has enough money and power to directly influence the price of a cryptocurrency or stock, usually in a negative way. Think of a whale and their large mass. They can make huge splashes and the same concept can be applied to crypto/financial markets.

Investing 101: What are whales and how do you profit from them? — Steemit

whales has become a term associated with market manipulators. Market manipulators will come into a market, buy a majority of the available positions or limit orders and drive up the price. Once the price has reached their target price, they will attempt to liquidate their position, albeit a large position which may take some time. Generally, this will cause the price to crash back down to it's inherently acceptable level.


texts:
Would it be okay to write or say a sentence like this, and would it be grammatically correct?

Examples:

He went to Aruba, I thought.
You're wrong, I think.
These look like deer tracks, I would say.
He was mad, it seemed.

I know that you typically wouldn't write a sentence like this, but I find myself speaking like this sometimes, and I'm wondering if it's not okay to say or write it like this.

Thank you


texts:
Is it correct to say "Many's the hour have I spent listening to his fatuous ideas"?
I'm not quite sure if inversion is possible with "many's the..." My gut feeling says "why not?!", but my left hemisphere is dubious about it.


texts: A term for Not Applicable in the context of UI/UX

texts: I want to give an option to a user to check if an option is not applicable for her. However the two words in "Not Applicable" are too huge for my GUI. Suggestions Would be greatly appreciated :)


texts: Should one ever use the word "please" in an order or demand?

texts:
A police officer who pulls over a driver might ask to see his “license and registration, please.” Similarly, a border official might ask for a “passport, please.” However, in these situations, the asked party doesn’t have the option to refuse.

Does the word “please” imply that the addressee has the option not to obey the request?


texts: Matching verb tenses when starting a sentence with "this"

texts:
The phrase in question is

"This allows his arms to naturally accelerate through the bottom of his swing and unleashes a lot of power on the ball."

My question is about the proper tense of the verb, "unleashes". I'm unsure if it's supposed to match the verb "allows", as in "this allows... this unleashes", or the verb "accelerate", as in "his arms accelerate... his arms unleash".

Either way illustrates the point I'm trying to make.

I suppose the verb tenses are clear if the sentence didn't start with "This". It could be rewritten as "His arms accelerate... and unleash...".

I wanted to start this sentence with "This" to refer to the point I made in the sentence before.


texts:
Unfortunately sometimes things don't go the way we want. Unpleasant
  situations happen.

Is the phrase "Unpleasant situations happen" correct?

Maybe instead of happen it would be better to use 'occur'? Or is 'happen' fine?


texts: "All I want is for him to return safe" Why isn't it "…for him is to…"?

texts:
All I want is _______ to return safe

I have encountered the question like the title in the book "Starter TOEIC" 3rd edition by Anne Taylor, which is in "Infinitives and Gerunds" unit. 4 options are:

(A) he   (B) him   (C) of him   (D) for him

The correct answer is D. I find the complete sentence strange and I wonder whether it is a special case of a more logical one "All I want for him is to return safe".

Would someone give me a further grammatical explanation to clear the confusion?


texts: Is "West did not say Thursday whether he agreed with Trump’s political ideas" grammatically correct?

texts:
I'd like to ask a question regarding omission of prepositions on sentences. I know it could be quite common to do so in journalism but upon reading the sentence below, I'd like to ask if this one is still acceptable as it could be a bit confusing...

"West did not say Thursday whether he agreed with Trump’s political ideas."

compared to

"West did not say on Thursday whether he agreed with Trump's political ideas."

It's part of an article,
http://eikaiwa.dmm.com/beginnerdailynews/kanye-west-talks-politics/


texts: How to say I ranked 2nd in a competition?

texts:
I am writing my resume and, in the group projects section, I want to say - in a very short way - that I participated in a competition and among 5 teams, mine ranked 2nd.

To express that, can I say, referring to that project: "2nd placed out of 5 teams competing" ?
Is it grammatically correct?

Thanks in advance for you help.


texts: Is there a term for spelling errors that occur when heterographs are mixed up?

texts: For example: "I am quitting this job with immediate affect."


texts:
How do you pronounce "Lowe" in "Lowe's", the home improvement store in U.S.?

How is it pronounced when it is in a person's name? Is it pronounced in the same way?


texts: what does "capturing the constraints" mean?

texts:
I've recently faced this sentence:
"Utility is a fixed or time-varying valuation that captures various QoS (quality of service) constrains"
I don't understand the meaning of the phrase "capturing the constraints". can anyone help me on this?


texts: Plural or singular verb with this subject

texts:
Funding and financial management sometimes (remains or remain) difficult.

Can you please tell me wich one is correct and why?


texts: What do you call the early days of flu recovery

texts:
Is there a word for the first day or two that you start to feel better after having the flu, or something like that, fairly sick and feverish for 3-5 days.

That period when you are well enough to realize how out of sorts your life is, but not quite well enough to really do anything but futilely putter about not actually putting anything really back in order.  And every time you try you start to feel sick again.

(if you can't tell that is my current state)

Thank you,


texts: Formal and distanced way of saying sorry for replying late, but I was busy

texts:
In short, someone wrote an apology to me, I saw it and decided to wait until my life became less hectic before replying.

I don't appreciate the apology as I view the motive of the apology to be for the benefit of the writer -- the apology is to help the writer cope with his/her conscience and not for my well-being.

Although I view the apology as insincere, I like to preface my reply by apologizing for responding a month later. What is the most suitable way of apologizing for the late response in this context?


texts:
I got into a disagreement with someone about the meaning of the word "fourfold." His contention is that it means up to four times as many whereas my contention is that it means four times as many, no less and no more.

I then provided these references to the definitions:

http://www.merriam-webster.com...

1 : being four times as great or as many
2 : having four units or members

http://www.oxforddictionaries....

1: Four times as great or as numerous:

To which, he responded that the very first definition, "Being four times as great or as many" means, "Being four times as great or as many as four times."

I'm virtually certain it means, "Being four times as great or being four times as many."

Who's right and how do you explain the grammatical differences of the definition?


texts: Should I use interchangable terms in academic writing?

texts:
In academic writing (when writing to a journal), should I stick to the same terms throughout a paper, e.g.

  Twenty participants participated to the study. The participants received monetary compensation for participating in the experiment.

OR

  Twenty participants participated to the study. The participants received monetary compensation for participating in the study.

OR

It doesn't matter which one I use.


texts: “the right of doing" or " the right to do"?

texts:
A sentence from an ACT English test:
The court agreed with Kevin that a person’s right to wear clothing of his or her own choosing is, in fact, protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Is it correct to say "...that a person's right of wearing..."? Or does it have to be an infinitive there?


texts: What does "to come undone" actually mean?

texts: I've heard this phrase several times but was given several contradictory interpretations. Please provide an exact meaning of the phase.


texts: "Anyone has" or "anyone have" seen them?

texts:
So I thought I'm sure about this and my instincts say that: "If anyone has seen them .." would be right but then again when I said it like: "If anyone have seen them .." I started thinking which one would be the right one.
Can you please guide me through which is the right one and why?
P.S. English is not my first language.


texts: Word for unintentional production or generation of a by-product

texts:
I am looking for a verb describing the production of a by-product. I want to contrast between generating heat purposefully or it being generated as a by-product of a different process.

My Example:

  Heat is either purposefully generated using a boiler or is generated
  as a by-product of an industrial plant.

Is there a way to replace the second generated in the example sentence to express that it is not the main purpose of the industrial plant to generate heat?

Tudelus

BTW: The best way I came up with so far is replacing the first generated by produced. Is produced more intentional than generated ?


texts: Is there any grammatical reason why "the" is used in front of acronyms? Such as the UK the US the USSR ?


texts: what is a word for seeing inside someone

texts: I am looking for a word to describe the layers of a personality or person.  I am trying to describe how one could actually see into another person.


texts:
He put his drink down in one piece and lunged for a mahogany call box on his desk. I caught the name Galbraith. I went over and unlocked the door.

I just wonder the meaning of above 'in one piece' is 'untouched or unharmed' as explained in dictionary, which mean he put down the glass on the desk without drinking.

Or aside from idiomatic dictionary meaning it is just a description of motion, that is, he put down his glass in an uninterrupted motion, regardless of drinking it or not.


texts: Using apostrophe when abbreviating "recommendations" as "reco's"

texts: When abbreviating the word "recommendations" as "reco's", is it proper to use the apostrophe to show that it's an abbreviation, or does it conflict with a possessive apostrophe?


texts: Grammar behind the song title 'The Way I Are'

texts: You might know the song called The Way I Are by Timberland featuring Keri Hilson. I am very confused here. How does The Way I Are make sense?


texts:
Variation lock seems more accurate by mathematical definitions

Edit(to give it more context)

Hey, can you tell me the combination of your lockbox ?

Why don't we say variation(or permutation)? The order matters in this case and combination is an unordered set of numbers.


texts:
If you say, "I'll see you at the party", you mean, "You and I are going to the party and I will see and speak to you there."

If you say, "I'll see you hang!", you mean "You will be sentenced to hang for your misdeeds, and I plan to attend the execution" or even "I will take steps to ensure [i.e., 'see to it'] that you are properly punished."

But if you say "I'll see you in Hell", do you mean "You are destined for eternal punishment, which I will witness from a pleasant seat in Heaven" or "I'm so determined to stop you that I will take steps so extreme that they will cause both our deaths and even earn me damnation alongside you."

It probably won't happen any time soon, but if the occasion to snarl "I'll see you in Hell" does arise, I want to be able to do so in full confidence that I'm saying what I mean.

EDIT The collective wisdom seems to be ambiguous on whether the implication is "You are going Hell for your misdeeds, and I will help the process along by killing you" and "Your death (which I may or may not hasten) and subsequent damnation will occur before you are able to carry out your current plans."


texts:
I would like to know what ...... for this job.

A) qualifications I need to be applied

B) qualifications I need being  applied

C) qualifications to be applied I need

Please help, if anyone knows!


texts:
"Chiropractic" sounds like an adjective because of the "ic", but the title "Doctor of Chiropractic" seems like a noun.

Am I just confused?


texts: How to understand "We have not been smoking"?

texts:
Given a sentence:

  We have not been smoking

What is the exact meaning the speaker wants to express?

One interpretation:

  We smoked an hour ago, but we stopped smoking after ten minutes, then
  we smoked again.

Another interpretation:

  We smoked an hour ago, but now we didn't smoke.

Which is correct?


texts: What is the correct term for using a verb as an adjective?

texts:
My local newspaper has a confusing headline today: “Littlehampton rescue after person thrown from town inflatable“.
I am having difficulty working out whether this is (a) grammatically correct (should it just be “towed” rather than “town”?) and (b) what the best way would be to remove the reader’s confusion between town (the noun) and town (the what? some kind of participle of tow?). If I knew the correct term for using a verb as an adjective like this I might be able to Google it, but I don’t know if it’s a participle, a gerund or something else?


texts:
What does the word voicey mean in this sentence?

  It is a very voicey and opinionated book about product management.

I have googled in almost every dictionary without any output.

Could you please point out where I can search out this word?

This is the original sentence. It appears in the acknowledgment part of a book about product management:

  Thanks to Mary Treseler, Angela Runo, Laurel Ruma, Meg Foley, and everybody at O’Reilly Media for turning a pitch about a “very voicey and opinionated book about product management” into a real thing.


texts:
According to the OED, tout court means in short, in little, simply, without qualification or addition.

But tout itself means to peep, peer, look out; to gaze.

So my question is how can “peep court” mean “in short”?


texts:
"If they ___ me this job, I'd turn it down."
  a) would offer
  b) were to offer

I had this question in my test lately. The latter is the right answer, but I don't really get the difference between these two. Could someone explain it?


texts: What’s the underlying grammar behind starting off a ɢᴇʀᴜɴᴅ clause with an ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛ pronoun?

texts:
Yesterday I encountered this sentence (I’ll refer to the numbered words in
my question below):

  This is because many students think that all of their sentences need to
  be ‘complex’ (they don’t!) and¹ them² not understanding³ what a ‘complex’
  sentence is.

I just can't understand the grammatical construction after the linking
word, and¹.

Why did the writer use the ‑ing form³ of the verb after an object pronoun
them²? And why did he start a sentence with an object pronoun in the
first place?

Source: https://www.ieltsadvantage.com/2015/03/27/ielts-writing-complex-sentence/


texts:
Is there any differnce in meanings between the following pair of sentences?

1) a. There's no denying the fact.
   b. It's no denying the fact.

2) a. There's no point denying the fact.
   b. It's no point denying the fact.


texts:
I am wondering if this sentence sounds natural to a native speaker "We augment SOMETHING by 2% to 23K." ?

I have already assumed it sounds natural to use increase and raise in this case.
Is it a correct assumption?

The other question is which set of verbs implies the negative of the above template? I thought of lessen, lower and decrease.


texts:
Which way is correct:

  Just as questions with no answers are highly attractive to you,
  so they are to your competitors too.

or:

  Just as questions with no answers are highly attractive to you,
  so are they to your competitors too.

The more I look at these sentences the more I'm confused ;-) Please help.


texts: English grammar, verb-tense exercise, "Next month we [...] married for ten years."

texts:
Next month we......married for ten years.
  a. shall have been
  b. have been
  c. shall be being
  d. shall be

My instinct is telling me that a. is the correct answer because will is interchangeable with shall in this case, right?


texts: Meaning of this (convoluted) sentence from the book "Probably Approximately Correct"

texts:
As a non native english speaker sometimes, I'm having hard time understanding not conventional sentence as the following.
Can you rephrase the sentence (in Bold) in another way?

  This upper bound is equal to M/m^2, where M is the square of the distance of the furthest data point in the training set from the point (0,0) and m is the margin.
  The margin has a trickier definition: It is the minimum distance of any data point from the separating line
  for the line for which this distance is the largest

From the book "Probably Approximately Correct" by Leslie Valiant


texts:
I am trying to understand how to interpret the meaning of the following sentence,

  John arrived late to the airport, causing him to miss his flight

I know that the present participle modifies the entire clause. But what does modifying an entire clause mean? Can I always put the present participle in the begin of the sentence and read it as follows: "Causing him to miss his flight, John arrived late at the airport"


texts: Substitution of adverb by another "equivalent" word?

texts: In the sentence: Her voice sounds beautiful. She sang the song exactly as it was written. We heard it perfectly. Isn't it feasible to substitute the last word by "perfect"? In Spanish both ways are valid but sounds better the second option. Even more, I feel that the second/third sentence can be deleted without grammatical ambiguity. Bye.


texts: What is the correct way of saying: press a button multiple times, but don't hold it down for too long?

texts:
I would like to combine the "Press the button repeatedly" and "Press the button shortly" into one sentence, but the "repeatedly shortly" does not seem correct to me. Even the "shortly" seems not the best word for it.
Repeatedly means like clicking through elements of a list, and by shortly I mean don't hold the button down, but release immediately after pressed.

What I would like to express is that someone has to repeatedly press the button to select something from a list of choices, but they should not keep the button continuously pressed for too long.

Edit:

I also look for the term when someone presses the button and keeps it pressed for a slightly longer time, for some other function to be activated. "Press the button .... "

Edit 2:

The action needs not be necessarily very fast. It's similar to clicking through stations on a radio, until we stumble upon something we like. The main emphasys should not be on speed, I wanted to include it only so that the user knows: this is not the same as the "long press" which was explained previously, and had a completely different function.

A very short solution of just 1-2 words would be most appreciated.


texts: Word for something that is interpreted differently depending on the observer?

texts:
In particular, an event or situation that will be interpreted differently by people with different biases/experiences/etc.?

"Clinton's election loss was a [???] for the Democrats; to some, it meant that the party needed to move left, while others thought it meant the far left should compromise."

(No actual political commentary intended.)


texts:
In various websites on the Internet, including http://www.joke-archives.com/dictionaries/dictionarywords.html, I've come across the phrase Arachnoleptic fit.

Apparently all the words in that set (Beelzebug, Bozone, etc.) are all made by either adding, removing, or replacing a letter from an already existing word or phrase. But I can't figure out the original phrase for Arachnoleptic fit which only changes one letter of the word.

I've tried Googling, and got lots of pages mentioning the word, but none explaining its origin.


texts: Is the difference in meanings between inobtrusive and unobtrusive enough to warrant a distinction in their use?  Or are they interchangeable?


texts: I'm trying to find a word to describe a series of events.  For example, the revolution in Lybia consists of a series of chronological events.  I want to say 'development', but that seems to refer more to a single event.


texts: Would "mould" and "mud" be considered substances made up of parts?

texts:
Ignoring the difference in spelling between "mould" and "mold" for the moment, I need to categorise the following terms into "masses of substances" or "masses of substances made up of parts too numerous to count". The two contentious items are "mould" (as in fungi) and "mud".

Under "masses of substances" we have glue, margarine, tofu, beer.
Under "masses of substances made up of parts too numerous to count" we have gravel, dust, sand, flour.

Where should mould and mud go?

Context:
I'm editing a grammar text book. This is one of the practice exercises, and I'm busy with the answer book. Unfortunately the author and I can't agree on mud and mould, and the author doesn't seem so sure. The instructions are: "Draw a table, write the nouns from the list under the correct headings".

Usage is not at stake here because it is the same. We're trying to highlight the conceptual difference between a substance made up of parts which theoretically one could count and something that is a mass. We need to differentiate between these two types of substances so that students can recognise that sand and gravel are uncountable, even though they are made up of countable particles. We also do not say "many waters" but that's easy for the average student, there is no way to count units of water.


texts:
I am working on diagramming sentences and I notice many have "the" plus a superlative; as, "He is the funniest," or "Which trots the fastest?"

Why is "the" attached to these superlatives? What exactly is it modifying?

I imagine in the first sentence it is something like, "He is the funniest [person]," but what about the second sentence?


texts: Literature: 'Why' at the beginning of sentences

texts:
I’m currently reading George Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire novels in English. As a non-native speaker (I’m German), I stumbled upon some grammatical constructs that I’ve never seen before, one of them being the Why at beginning of sentences.

Examples:

Tyrion gave the rotting head a second look. Why, it almost looks as if those lips are smiling.
Did he use that word? Why, the boy has a singer's soul . . . though if you believe that song, you may well be dimmer than the first Reek.

These kind of sentences are obviously different from sentences like Why is the sky blue?

I’d like to know if that construct is archaic, or could be used in everyday language, and how one could rephrase that kind of sentences. Can it be rephrased at all? To me it seems like the Why is just used to give the sentence a kind of “cynical” taste.