texts:
the scientific interest of American history centered in national character , and in the workings of a society destined to become vast in which individuals were important chiefly as types.

   1. does "workings" mean labor forces?

like the working class? or it means like how society operates?

   2. individuals were important chiefly as types

I don't know, I think it might want to say that individuals are a crucial part, but "as types"? it provides an emphasis that those individuals are of different types?


texts:
What does "a certain air of" mean? I met it in the Chapter 3 of "A Study in Scarlet" by sir A. C. Doyle:

  He was a man with some amount of self-importance and a certain air of command.


texts:
Not waves crash against the ship, as the waves are gently; but I can´t find the verb for it.
Any ideas?


texts: Is there a word for that which is judged or that which is valued/evaluated?

texts: A judge judges the judged. Is there a synonym for this "the judged"? In other words, is there a name for the object of judgement? When I judge a proposition to be true, art to be beautiful, a defendant to be guilty or a product to be valuable, the proposition, art, defendant and product all have in common that they are judged, otherwise said, that they are the objects of judgement. So I'm asking if there is a name for this kind of thing.


texts: "fought in the World War II" versus "fought in the second World War"

texts:
Why is

  fought in the second World War

or

  fought in the Vietnam War

correct but

  fought in the World War II

is not?


texts: A modifier clause after "one of the xxxs" – singular or plural?

texts:
I wrote a sentence of the kind "XXX contains one of the most powerful lubricants that prevent rusty gears, the main cause of machine failure."
This is too wordy, of course, but never mind. The grammar authority marked this as needing singular instead of plural, prevent -> preventS, which I think must be wrong because I am trying to explain what these lubricants do, but there may be some other subtlety in the real example which I don't understand. Elsewhere I have seen stated that "one of the sisters" is singular not plural. A formulation of some general rules would be very much appreciated.


texts: Using localising adjectives + adverbial construction with 'where'

texts:
I am wondering whether it is possible to use an adverbial phrase with 'where' to describe words like 'ashore' or 'aground'.

Examples:

  I stepped ashore where the sun was filling with a red gleam the water, excited through a gentle breeze.
  The ship ran aground where lighthouse's beam didn't reveal the dangerous reef.


texts:
When casually writing email I find myself using forward like this:

  I forwarded him the email with your info.

Is the above version grammatically correct?

  I forwarded the email with your info to him

somehow sounds more proper. Given that

  I sent you a letter

is structured exactly the same way, it seems like it should work the same with forward.

Is this usage accepted? Why might it still sound odd to me, assuming it is in fact correct?


texts: Why can't we use due to in 'The picnic was cancelled due to the rain.'?

texts:
I obtained the following sentences at this website https://www.esl-lounge.com/first-certificate/first-certificate-key-word-transformations-27-ans.php.

The picnic was cancelled due to the rain.
The picnic WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE OF THE rain.

The first sentence is wrong but the second is correct.
Why can't we use 'due to' in the first sentence?

Another source (from Magoosh) https://gre.magoosh.com/flashcards/grammar/right-or-wrong/the-picnic-was-canceled-due-to-rain suggests that the first sentence is wrong.
The reason provided by Magoosh is as follows:

"The picnic was canceled, because of rain" or "Cancellation of the picnic was due to rain" or "The cancellation, due to rain, was a problem for ...." The word "due" is an adjective, a noun modifier. It is allowed to modify a noun, as it does in the second and third structure here. It cannot modify the action of a verb, as the original has. For that, we need "because of," which opens a preposition phrase that can modify verbs.


texts:
Note of importance before I start: I'm not a native English speaker.

With that out of way, I wonder about word choices in the Spartacus series. I have watched the first series so far and I have gathered about 30 new words I have never heard. I have a habit of writting down every word I don't know yet and finding out its usage in my growing dictionary.

I have been learning english for more than a decade, watched over 500 movies in English both with and without English subtitles, read about 20 books and heard more than 100 hours of podcasts, yet I have failed to recognize the following words, to mention but a few examples.

  hubris, tarry, hone, forego, impede, vex, ...

My question is, are these words somewhat obsolete or deprecated? Or are they just another synonyms, which are used sparsely in both written and spoken English (no matter if American or British or other versions)? I can't imagine why they have been used in this series?


texts: History of the phrase "I was like.." or "I was all..."

texts:
When telling a story, it's near essential at some point to state what you said or felt.  The younger generation uses phrases "I was like...", OR the similar "I was all...", to express a past state or action.
I have tried to eradicate this phrase from my vocabulary because it sounds so rough, but it's so versatile!

"Yesterday, I saw an old friend at the airport.  I was all, 'Whoa! What up!'"
"Yesterday, I saw an old friend at the airport.  I was so surprised!  I felt compelled to go over and say 'hello'!"

Sure, the latter phrase has the same technical meaning, but it doesn't have the same emotional punch. This question is looking for a replacement for the phrase, but I'm not sure such an equivalent really exists.
The phrase reminds me of "J'étais" in French, as in "J'étais très surpris", which seems to work less specifically than the English "I was". This verb usage in French heavily suggests the past progressive, where in English it seems to point to your current state for contrast.  "I was happy" in English means "I'm not happy NOW" more than it means "I felt happy at some time in the past; I have stated nothing definitive about my current emotional state".
How old is the use of the phrase "I was like"?  Is there a reason or advantage to expressing oneself this way? My working theory:

Certain syllable blocks are easier to say; we prefer short, unique words to long words
As language becomes more contextual and terse over time, verbs are one of the first things on the chopping block, as they are easier to imply based on other information
"like" == "um" == "you know..." == filler while brain processes

I'd be interested in early appearances of this phrase in text.  Possibly difficult since it's primarily a spoken phrase, but maybe dialogue in mid-20th century books?


texts: What does it mean to be the 'strong, silent type'?

texts: If someone says you're the strong, silent type is it a compliment?


texts: What is an appropriate word that describes someone who gets others to do things when they could easily do them themselves?

texts:
I'm trying to pin down a word or phrase that concisely describes a person who intentionally gets other people to do things for them that they could easily do themselves, as a form of either conscious or subconscious power-play.
A mix somewhere between being lazy, manipulative, exploitative, discourteous, and so on.
An example of how it would be used is, "Look at Stella being ... again, lying on the couch and getting her father to get pass her the remote while he was sitting even further away from it than her!"


texts:
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, pag 529, says:

  Predeterminer AdjPs (e.g., such a nuisance, or so serious a problem) occur as
       external modiﬁer in NP structure, preceding the definite article a.

I'd like to know whether there's a typo, and it should read "indefinite article a", or rather it's a definite sense of such an article.


texts:
I am trying to give a piece of software a name but for non-native English speakers it's sometimes hard to avoid awkward associations with names because you don't live with the language. Sometimes word meanings and connotations can be really diverse depending on the context.

So, does the word "thumbtick" have any awkward, strange or bad connotations that would make it inappropriate as a software name?

I am intentionally not giving away the purpose of the software, so as to not introduce any bias.

UPDATE: The purpose of this software should be a simple easy to use time tracking webapp with mobile phone interface support. The main screen has a button named "tick" to start and stop actions quick and easy and create time-sheets which can be filled with further information later on.


texts: What does "… a variance in dividend from the forecast as a shock and noise, …" mean?

texts:
I'm having a hard time understanding the meaning of the last paragraph in bold. Can someone explain it for me, in simple English, using simpler terms?

Noise arises from an external shock, which can be big or small. Big ones are terrorist attacks and war, and smaller but no less influential ones are related to financial conditions, such as a change in the availability of credit or margin requirements, affecting liquidity. In practice, many events that are called noise are in fact predictable, like a change in tax rates on securities trading vs. capital gains. But such a change is still noise in the sense that it comes from outside the security's main conditions and is not inherent in the security itself.
Academics are mixed on whether the shock has to be external, and include a variance in dividend from the forecast as a shock and noise, too, even though it's clearly internal to the fundamentals of the security.


texts: What is "had the prior test not succeeded" meaning?

texts:
I read a sentence in a book, as following:

  This feature is useful when constructing Boolean expressions in which we first test that a certain condition holds (such as reference not being None), and then test a condition that could have otherwise generated an error condition had the prior test not succeeded.

I could not understand the bold in the sentence in the way of grammar. I think it should be " an error condition that can have the prior test not succeeded", am I right?


texts: How to tell if anything has some technical problem and therefore not working

texts:
How to say that something has some technical problem and is therefore not working
"Bus is not working" but that suggests the reason why the bus is not working.


texts: What is the origin of "sucker" and "it sucks"?

texts:
I think it is clear that a sucker means somebody who is naive or gullible, while it sucks means “it is bad”, but I wonder where these two terms come from and what they mean originally?

Could sucker actually mean a baby who was just born and therefore, naive and can’t tell if somebody is lying to them?  If so, then what about it sucks?


texts: What is the word for a sentence that initially sounds profound or deep, that is, in fact, meaningless or empty?

texts: I'm sure I saw, recently, a word for this, but I can no longer remember, or find, it.


texts: Is it right to say sensual music? What is its meaning when used like this?


texts: I'm interested to know when the actual phrase smile one's thanks was first registered in the English language, as well as smile agreement and nod agreement.


texts: When saying 'I realized something' does this imply that I became aware on my own? If someone had explained something to me and only after did I understand, can I still use 'I realized'? Or do I need to use alternative phrasing to imply that I required assistance to become aware.


texts:
A woman is farsighted and she is too close to the TV. She can't see what is going on TV.

For this reason:

She steps 3 meters backward to see the program better.

She steps 3 meters behind to see the program better.

Which one of these sentences is correct?

Thank you in advance.


texts: What is a single word for "point(s) of personal information"?

texts:
I can't recall if the word has a singular form. The plural form has a meaning closely analogous to "personal data" and my vague personal recollection is that it ends with an 'i' or an 'a'.

It is not a general word like 'miscellany', 'factoids', 'data', etc. It refers specifically and exclusively to bits of personal information such as name, age, favourite food, etc.

Any help jogging my memory would be much appreciated.

Example sentence:

  When it came time to introduce himself, James divulged only the basest [word]: his given name, his occupation, and the names of his dogs.


texts: What does one call a joke which contains another relative joke?

texts:
How is this type of joke called?

  There are two hard things in computer science:
  cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.

  There are only two hard problems in distributed systems:
  2. Exactly-once delivery 1. Guaranteed order of messages 2. Exactly-once delivery

I call it joke-in-joke, but how do linguists call it?


texts:
What is the difference between the following sentences? for me both are same.

you can search it in google &
you could search it in google


texts: I thought I was never / I thought I would never

texts:
“Just two weeks ago I thought I was never going to meet him”
“Just two weeks ago I thought I’d never meet him”

Which one of these two sentences is correct? If they’re both correct, what’s the difference between them?


texts: the function of "would" in a particular sentence

texts:
In March 1933, shortly after the Nazis took power, Heidegger visited Jaspers in Heidelberg and they spent the visit amiably enough, listening to recordings of Gregorian chant and discussing philosophy. When the conversation turned, inevitably, to politics, Heidegger would only say, "One must get involved".

Source. Mark Lilla: The Reckless Mind, p. 23.

Could you please clarify to me why "would say" is used in the above sentence. I presume that it works here to indicate past tense. But "would + verb" is used when we talk about repeated past actions. So is the meaning of the sentence that Heidegger during the debate on politcal matters just repeated many times the quoted words?


texts: Is a hyphen required or is the proper use of it subjective?

texts:
My question is as stated in the title.

In a very famous article, I noticed the author used the word - "nonexperiment". I looked up the word and it is not actually a word, so I believe it should be written as "non-experiment". Am I wrong? Furthermore, my professor used the word binwidth, and it is not a word. Thus, I would write it as bin-width, but only because it is not a word.

I believe grammar and sentence structures are not explicitly well defined. But I do believe there are general definitions, and on top of that, experts in writing have extended the definitions based on their own opinion. Thus, even though I consider myself a beginner in writing, I would rather accept and use the words "nonexperiment" and "binwidth".

My professor considers himself as a terrible writer, but I like his style because it is not difficult for me to understand. Is it possible he used the word - "binwidth" incorrectly?


texts: An adjective for a word/phrase when speaking in generalities

texts:
Does anyone know of a specific adjective that one could use to describe a word or phrase that is uttered in a general sense and not meant to be taken personally by the interlocutor?

Example in a short conversation:

I’m sorry, but I just don’t have time to do all she asks.
(having taken “I’m sorry” personally) You don’t have to be sorry.
It was a _______ “I’m sorry.”

I’m not sure if this is specific enough, but we’ll start here and see what you guys think.


texts: Is there a word for a horizontal 1D profile for depths below ground? [geology]

texts:
I am seeking a word to describe horizontal lines (1D) cut parallel to the (mean) ground surface. The context I need it for is a plot of some variable along a horizontal line at a specific depth below the ground.

In geology, vertical sections (2D) are called cross-sections, but there is no other word for horizontal sections (happy to be proved wrong!). Vertical profiles (1D) are also called sections as well in some cases, but there is no word I can think of for a horizontal profile.

Isoline, cut line, horizontal profile, something else?


texts: Where did the phrase "diddly-squat" come from?

texts:
It sounds like something Ned Flanders would say.

I believe it just means "nothing at all". But what are the origins of the phrase? Is it common in the US as well as the UK?


texts: To donate something you want to throw away

texts:
Suppose that a person buys a packet of sugar. On the way home, the packet falls off his hands and the sugar scatters on the ground. Nobody is expected to gather the sugar again, but that person does so; of course not for his own use anymore, but to donate it to the poor!
Obviously, if the packet hadn't fallen down, he wouldn't have decided to donate it. It goes without saying that this kind of donation and charity is morally worthless and not considered a good deed.
Is there any English idiom to describe this kind of charity or donation?
Thanks in advance.


texts: Is there a name for this type of sentence structure: "She looks as though she's been poured into her clothes, and forgot to say 'when'"?

texts:
Comedians seem to use phrases that employ this type of sentence structure - is there a name for it?

Examples of Groucho Marx's one liners seem to fit this pattern — and if memory serves, Emo Philips.

  One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas, how he got in my pajamas, I don't know.

  I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.


texts: I am thinking of when some tries out various jobs till they find their place. A greenhorn who changes work field often like every two week or month and changes to a new type of job.


texts: What does the phrase "on offer" exactly mean in the context here?

texts:
Donald Trump lengthened his lead in
  the Republican contest by
  winning most states on offer.

In the Oxford dictionary, the phrase "on offer" has two meanings:1. that can be bought, used, etc. 2. on sale at a lower price than normal for a short period of time. Neither of them, in my opinion, makes any sense in the sentence above, an excerpt from the Economist (March 5, 2016). How could Donald Trump buy or "use" those states? I am confused.

Could someone please paraphrase the sentence? Thank you.


texts: Is a document "Roman Numeraled", "Roman Numbered"...?

texts:
If I am discussing a book that uses Roman numerals to break sections, would it be correct to say that the book uses

  Roman numeraled sections

or

  Roman numbered sections?

I can't find many credible uses of "numeraled", and "numbered" doesn't sound right.


texts: Is there a difference between "vice", "deputy", "associate", and "assistant" as descriptive job titles?

texts: When vice, deputy, associate, or assistant is collocated with a job title, such as vice manager, deputy manager, associate manager, assistant manager, I wonder how to rank or differentiate their levels. Or, they sometimes can be the same, can't they?


texts:
1: There were all sorts of industry in the uplands of Zurich

2: You shall have gold as well, and jewels of all sorts

May I use "industries of all sorts" in the first sentence and "all sorts of jewels" in the second sentece?

So whether I can conclude "n + of all sorts = n+ of every sort and kind = all sorts of + n"?

Is there any implied meaning betwwen "n + of all sorts" and "all sorts of + n"? How can I correctly apply them to my paper?


texts: What does "top half" mean in "There are only two seeded players left in the top half of the draw"?

texts:
There are only two seeded players left in the top half of the draw.

I only know 1st, 2nd, etc. half, when we are talking about matches. I believe that "draw" here means a set of matches. What does "the top half of the draw mean"?


texts:
This is perhaps a true definition of self-confidence: the ability to look at the world without the need to look for instances that pleases your ego.

Hello,
I came across this sentence and wondered what "that" indicated in the text above.
At first I thought the relative pronoun "that" indicated "instances." But due to the verb "pleases," i think "that" might indicate "the need," because of the verb "pleases."

If so, the sentence above means: without the need which(=the need) pleases  your ego.

But for me, it doesn't make sense.

Could anyone help me?
The original sentence in a part of the article below.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias


texts:
In elementary school, I was taught the rhyme:

  "i" before "e" except after "c", and in words like "neighbor" and "weigh"

Obviously this means that "ei" is used in "deceive" (it comes after "c") and "sleigh" ("gh" follows it).

The word "weird" does not follow this rule, and I have always thought that to be weird (please pardon the pun).  It has neither a "c" nor "gh", so why does it have this "ei" vowel combination instead of "ie"?

While writing this post, I noticed that "neither" also disobeys the rule, just like "weird".  At first, I thought that maybe the "English gods" thought it would be a funny meta-joke to let "weird" have a weird spelling (like how "awkward" awkwardly has a "k" surrounded by two "w"s), but apparently there are other words as well!


texts: What are the differences between a proverb, adage, aphorism, epigram, maxim and apothegm?

texts:
Dictionary definitions of all three are very similar, typically something like:

  a pithy observation which contains a general truth

But the Wikipedia entries for each are quite different.  Are these words largely interchangeable synonyms?

In the Wikipedia entry for adage, for example, a proverb is defined as an adage produced from folk wisdom, whereas an aphorism has "not necessarily gained credit through long use, but is distinguished by particular depth or good style".


texts:
I am wondering if there's an English expression for making someone fall in love with you.

In Hungarian there is a term that could be translated into something like "fooling someone into yourself" - meaning you make the person fall deep in love with you, and it is implied that it's thanks to some deceitful or dishonest behavior.


texts:
This is my sentence:

  The A & P’s regular customers are depicted as "scared little pigs in a chute."  Daily,  they live the same monotonous existence.

Microsoft word insists that there should be a comma after "depicted".  I don't think it makes sense.  What say you?


texts: Using colons and semi-colons in dialogue

texts:
I've often heard writers say they don't like using colons and semi-colons in dialogue specifically and I don't often see colons and semi-colons in dialogue, but sometimes it just seems like it's by far the best option.

For example:

  "I told you: John doesn't work on Mondays."

Is there any real alternative to this?

  "Don't worry; I only get drunk on Sundays."

Is the semi-colon ok, or is it awkward in dialogue? Putting a full stop after Don't worry seems strange to me.

  "I’ll do anything it takes: rehab, counseling, therapy, whatever I need to do.”

Is the colon ok here or is an em-dash better?

  "It's an article about all the types of things you hate: the environment, animal rights, veganism, that kind of thing."

Is the colon above ok in dialogue?

  "Trust me; the WASPy stuff is nothing in comparison."

Is a semi-colon appropriate above? Once again, it seems strange to me to put a full-stop.

  "Those things I said—I didn't mean a word of them."

Is an em-dash appropriate here? I thought you weren't supposed to put a full clause after an em-dash if it finishes the sentence? If so, should I use something else like a colon?

  "I know you; that place would haunt you."

Is there another way of doing this?

Thanks so much for any advice! Please note the question is specifically about dialogue.


texts: What does the phrase "straightly charging that" mean here?

texts:
[Sultan] Murad assured Elizabeth [I] he had commanded ‘all our kings, judges, and travellers by sea’ throughout the Ottoman Empire to ensure that ‘such aforesaid persons as shall resort thither by sea from the realm of England, either with great or small vessels to trade by way of merchandise, may lawfully come to our imperial dominions, and freely return home again . . . straightly charging that they be suffered to use and trade all kind of merchandise as any other Christians do, without let or disturbance’.

Jerry Brotton, This Orient Isle- Elizabethan England and the Islamic World


texts: rare + remarkable | -- something that means rare + remarkable

texts:
update: at the point of update, im going to focus on specific examples, and not on generalistic words, to show the meaning, but in cases where i may want to succinctly express something being rare & remarkable, it would still be nice that there exist one clean word to express both these meanings. it appears thus far to be a word that needs to be created in the 21th century, if it hasn't already been (which i'd still be shocked and very very surprised about)

there's plenty of reasons why it's important to have this solution long-term, but when the question was asked, i was just trying to 'find-replace' all my 'rare & remarkable' usage within my massive notes on onenote

original post

since finding words for specific meanings almost always tends to be extremely, extremely hard, feel free to suggest a creative/created/made-up word (or anything that would work). free free to say anything in comments as well

im pretty sure there's not a word in the entire conventional english vocab for what im looking for

rare = a significantly lower proportion of something/anything/things, as in:

  people that do amazing things are rare (like the ~1% of them), while the rest are pretty common (the 99%), and this is shown in many many things, such as in concepts like the long-tail -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail

remarkable = close to meaning to amazing; beyond exceptional, as in:

  saying that a person or action, etc. is remarkable does not directly tell others that said person is also incredibly rare in society, even though the meaning should be implicit and obvious

note: don't want to use something i feel is incredibly clumsy like 'remarkably rare' -- hate adverbs. it's such a.... ah.. how do i put this... such a low and primitive workaround due to the high limits of language


texts: Inquire the usage of article in this context

texts:
I am writing an academic paper and confused about the following usage of "a/an":

  with an MAP score below 0.4

Or

  with a MAP score below 0.4

While the second one seems more "grammarly" correct, I see frequent usage of the first one. Indeed, if you Google an mAP with Google Scholar, you will find plenty of usages in research papers.

So, which one is more correct? Any advice or suggestion will be appreciated.


texts: Parable for an impossible idea or business plan

texts:
[Edit: I have asked the wrong question—my apologies. What I am looking for is not a single word, expression, or idiom. I am looking for a parable or an example of an analogy. Maybe a one-sentence, real-life story of a well-known instance where megalomania meets idiocy.]

Occasionally people get excited over some business plan or idea in general, talking exaltedly about the outcomes or benefits, ignoring some crucial logical hole or contradicting physical laws.

Example:

  Executive: Now if we get the response time for our signal to Australia below 50ms we have won.
  Engineer: But the speed-of-light limit to Australia is 67ms.
  Executive: Yes, it is a problem but we must not give up now.

Are there any canonical parables or examples of analogies for this concept?


texts: What word could be used to describe a period of time that stays recent?

texts:
I have a button in an app that allows a user to enter a fixed period, i.e. they specify the start and end date and it always stays the same.  I have another button that allows them to enter an offset/delay and a length/duration of time that "stays current" but I can't think of a single word that would fit on my button that would describe this.

For example, let's say I select this "stays recent" button and specify a delay of 3 months and a duration of 12 months, that means if I were to look at the data in June 2014, it would show data from March 2013 to March 2014 (12 months, from 3 months back).  Then if I were to go and look at the data in October 2014, it would show data from July 2013 to July 2014.


texts:
Words can change meaning over time. A good example of this would be 'gay' which has changed from meaning 'merry' to 'homosexual'. Over the past decade, it has also taken on pejorative connotations.

How often do words change meaning then revert back to their original meaning? Is this a one-way street?


texts: How do I ask if a person is available and to inform me, in a polite way?


texts: What is a sentence with initials in alphabetical order called?

texts:
Given a sentence such as "Can I please return these violins?"

The initials of this sentence read CIPRTV.

Is there a single word that can describe a sentence in which the initials are in alphabetical order?

I'd like to be able to say "The above sentence is a(n) _____"

A phrase would be acceptable but I would be happier with a single word if one exists.


texts: I understand the concepts under the term where oppressed or minority group seek equality or recognition.  However the unification of a number of groups must lead to a position of strength and dominance and therefore the original description would no longer apply.  When the oppressed become the majority or have the power to dictate policy, what happens to the group or groups that have been displaced?  Are they subjected to a period of oppression and victimhood, must they repent to the new reigning forces or seek there own or multiple oppressed status?


texts: Any word for the study of the origins of notations?

texts:
Etymology is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.

Is there such word to designate the study of the origins of notations? (mathematical, musical, etc. notations)


texts: Use of hypens with "auto": autopopulate, auto-populate, or auto populate?

texts:
I've done a fair amount of research (like here), but I can't find any examples of hyphen rules with "auto".  Microsoft Word doesn't take "autopopulate", but will accept either auto-populate or auto populate.

What I read about prefixes is that they shouldn't be hyphenated, but MS Word disagrees with this one.  Unless auto isn't really a prefix at all, but I do take it to be.

Right now I'm thinking that auto doesn't usually work by itself unless you're talking about a car.

Does anybody have any authoritative word or grammatical insight?


texts: Are the pronouns "Thee" and "Thy" considered archaisms in 19th Century poetry?

texts: Are the pronouns "Thee" and "Thy" considered archaisms in Romantic poetry? I have La Belle Dame sans Merci by Keats in mind.


texts: Colon use when introducing a list split across sentences

texts:
I understand that a colon should be used to introduce a list:

  We required three ingredients: eggs, milk and butter.

However, what happens if there is a full stop between list elements?

  We required three ingredients: firstly eggs, to provide a nice eggy flavour. Secondly milk, for all its milky goodness. Finally we required flour, to bind it all together.

Is this a correct way to use a colon? Does the rest of the list punctuation make sense?


texts:
Can anyone tell me the correct order of post modifier?

For example:

  I don't want the kind of relationship with you that you have with grandmother.
  I don't want the kind of relationship that you have with grandmother with you.

Thank you.


texts: "Student has course" vs "Student takes course"

texts:
Which is more accurate when describing the relationship between student and course?

the student has a course

or

the student takes a course


texts: is there a difference between "lack" vs "don't have"

texts:
You lack friends who will understand that experience

vs

You don't have friends who will understand that experience


texts:
Do you say:

  That group has dogs

or

  That group have dogs

I'm not too sure which one is right. I'm just confused because I'm not sure whether the word, group, is plural or not


texts: What does "crowd through or bust" from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, mean?

texts:
In Chapter 35, we read this exchange between Tom and Huck:

"All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask the widow to let up on you a little, Huck."
"Will you, Tom--now will you? That's good. If she'll let up on some of the roughest things, I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd through or bust. When you going to start the gang and turn robbers?"

I would like to know the meaning of the phrase, "crowd through or bust."


texts: What do you call a person who loves nuts and bolts?

texts: What do you call a person who has a fetish for fasteners such as bolts, nuts and screws?


texts:
Sometimes, I find it easier to learn so many English vocabulary and expressions and usage by watching movies. If you're a non-native English speaker, you probably noticed some of them that help you learn.
What are good movies you watched that are great for learning English? (Expressions, usage, etc.)
For example, in the movie The Social Network, I think some of the dialogue is quite intense. Great for English listening skill training if you watch it without subtitles.
Update:
Someone already asked "Films/Series that are extremely good to understand (and that are not…)". But I'm looking for those who are not just easy to understand, but also rich with more advanced English vocabulary, expressions and usage.

This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here.
More info: https://english.stackexchange.com/faq


texts:
According to the Oxford dictionary:

LARCENY:

  larceny /ˈlɑːs(ə)ni/ noun

  theft of personal property.

THEFT:

  theft /θɛft/ noun

  the action or crime of stealing.

What is the difference between the two? Can they be used interchangeably?


texts: What's the difference between "null" and "void" in legal language?

texts: In the legal term "null and void," what is the difference between null and void?  Why not just use one of the two terms?  And can either term be used without the other?


texts: Sound distortion from microphone or amplifier etc. - what do we call it?

texts:
I live near a temple and during the morning prayer, more often than not, the loudspeaker would produce a jarring sound.

  Is there a single word for the sound distortion from micrphone or amplifier.


texts: "Did I tell you what happened to him" pronunciation

texts:
Today, my American room mate was trying to tell me something and I had to ask him to repeat it three times until I guessed what his question was. It turns out he was saying "did I tell you what happened to him?" and he was pronouncing the first part really strangely. It was like "day tell you what happened to him?". Is this really how American say "Did I"?

Edit: He is from California


texts:
This sentence is from Wikipedia:

  A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, typically identified with a common name, and published on at least one web server.

Is the term "multimedia" mentioned in this text a) an adjective or b) a singular noun? Thanks in advance.


texts: When would the verb 'start' be used without an object?

texts:
I always thought the verb 'start' needed an object, for example 'I started writing a letter', or 'she started the car', but recently I read the below in a novel (THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND)..

Kit started. Had he guessed? There was no one who could possibly have
told him. She had kept her secret even from the Captain's wife.

What does that first sentence mean? What did she 'start' doing?


texts: is it correct to say it is must for everyone to attend the meeting tomorrow

texts:
Is it correct to say

  It is must for everyone to attend the meeting tomorrow


texts: Whatever happened to thou and thee? Thy words have become more dreary

texts:
Why did thee, thou and thy come to disappear from English? I am looking for solid explanations, rather than observations that these are still used in dialects in the north. Please explain cause for their obsolescence, if possible. It will greatly help my students if a legitimate and credible answer is provided!
(Added): it would be really interesting if anyone can identify when this occurred.

My research: I have only found that the forms disappeared by 1800, but no illumination of why they fell away and were commonly replaced by 'you' as standard. I don't mean to sound apathetic, but I prefer to generate some debate or choose amongst responses from the people in the know who use this space than simply reference Wikipedia.


texts: "one of the cables that runs" or "one of the cables that run"?

texts:
Recently at work I was writing the following, and I have not been able to get a firm answer on which version is the most grammatically correct. The sentence is:

  We would like to use one of the cables that _________ between rooms.

Is the correct conjugation run or runs?

I think 'run' is correct, because I think that the verb in the prepositional phrase is referring to 'cables' not 'one.' However, a number of colleagues have said that 'runs' is correct because one is singular.


texts: Emissary / Ambassador / Representative / Envoy / Delegate

texts: These words are all more or less interchangeable, but I'm wondering which is most distinguished. If I have a group of representatives, but some are the leaders of their groups and others are just regular members of their groups, or some are from influential groups and some are from uninfluential groups, which terms would I use to hint at who is most important?


texts: When ending an email, should I use "Yours faithfully" or "Best regards"?

texts:
I've been taught to end business letters with "Yours faithfully" but I can see from my daily correspondence that "Best regards" is more commonly used but seems more informal.

What term should be used and under what circumstances when writing email these days?

NOTE:  If other terms exist too (for colloquial use or extreme formalism) I'd like to know that too.


texts: Correct usage between two word conceive and pregnant

texts:
I am confused about the 2 terms used to say that a lady is bearing a life/child in her womb, they are as follows:-

To conceive a child.
Getting pregnant.

Are they used differently with time like if you say she conceived a child in the first confirmation of getting pregnant and she is pregnant after some time?


texts: Generic term for someone who looks after children

texts:
I am looking for a generic term for someone who looks after children i.e. a term that would encompass:

nanny
baby-sitter
au-pair
etc.

Can someone please advise?


texts:
I was wondering if I could use the term "by and large" in the first sentence of my introduction.
For example somthing like this:
By and large, it is established beyond doubt that...


texts: How did the silent 't' come into all these 'tch' words?

texts:
I'm curious as to how so many words with the 'ch' sound have the silent 't' in them. Catch, itch, retch, hatchet, botch etc. The list is huge.

They all have different origins, and yet they have the silent 't'. But words like achieve, lecherous, spinach don't have the silent 't'.

Can anyone see any phonological patterns that might have led to this?


texts:
I encountered a sentence that's full of British culture:

  I have found a pair of my father’s old tan driving gloves, the sort that say ‘Mine’s a gin and tonic’ and that my mother would have accessorized with her horsey headscarf from Country Casuals.

I found out that Country Casuals is a brand of clothing, but I don't understand what the phrase ‘Mine’s a gin and tonic’ means... I only know that gin and tonic is a popular drink in the UK, but what does the phrase mean here?

Also, I'm not a hundred percent sure of the meaning of 'horsey' too. The closest definition I believe is 'large and clumsy' but it feels a bit odd in this sentence.


texts: Word or phrase designating the consensus reached at the last conversation about a topic

texts:
I vaguely remember hearing a term for this, but can't remember what it was.

The word or phrase refers to the consensus reached at the end of the last conversation about a topic, just before the group parted.

Example: I was discussing a problem with colleagues last week, and we made progress towards a solution but didn't quite get there. If we pick up our conversation where we left off, we'll be starting with the insert phrase here (as opposed to square one).

What is a noun or short phrase for this concept?


texts: Can I replace 'get started on' with 'start'?

texts:
I read this sentence, and I'm curious if it has subtle difference in meaning.

  I should get started on that sooner rather than that later.

Can I just say 'I should start that on that sooner rather than that later.'?

What is the difference of get started on and start?


texts:
In which of these 2 sentences is the verb "Home deliver" used correctly, in compliance with the rest of the sentence?

ABC offers home delivery of pharmaceuticals, compounded medications, and wellness diets to pet owners.

VS

ABC home delivers pharmaceuticals, compounded medications, and wellness diets to pet owners.


texts: What is the origin of the "should of" instead of "should have" mistake?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How did the use of “could of” and “should of” originate, and is it considered correct?

Recently, I tend to stumble a lot over the mistake that people write should of instead of should have:

  I should of done that.

I am trying to understand what the cause of this confusion between have and of could be. As from a grammatical point of view, I could not think of anything more different than a verb and a preposition. And when I read it, it doesn't even sound the same to me.

So I wonder, is it a regional thing? That somewhere 'have' and 'of' are pronounced the same way? Or is it mostly a common mistake of non-native writers?


texts: What is the *best* way to express that an email contains an attachment?

texts:
I'm wondering what is the best way to express that an email contains an attachment. I'd like to have a formal example, and an informal example.

For example:

Is this informal?

  Attached you can find the document...

Is this too formal? too old school?

  Please find enclosed the document...


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Should you use a comma/period after “Thanks”/“Regards” in email signatures?

I see answers on how to end a letter putting a comma after for example sincerely, like:

  Sincerely,
  Name

Is it incorrect to write it without a comma, like the following?

  Sincerely
  Name

Does the answer change if one used: "Best wishes", "Regards", "Cheers", etc.?


texts: Using synonyms to improve text readability ("elegant variation")

texts:
English is not my first language. In my mother tongue, I was advised by a language expert some years ago that a well-written text should contain as few repetitions of the same words as possible, in order to improve the text attractiveness and readability.
To achieve this, the advice I was given was to make use of synonyms. Having practiced the rule in my mother-tongue, as well as having paid attention to words being repeated in texts written by others, I have reached the conclusion that the "trick" does seem to work in making the texts more appealing to read.
(Did you notice that above, I decided to use "appealing" instead of "attractive"? :) )
I would like to think that the "trick" should work across all languages, English language including. Would the use of synonyms in order to void repetition of the same words be encouraged by English language experts to improve text legibility?


texts: Comma usage before coordinating conjunction after a long clause

texts:
It is correct to put a comma before a coordinating conjunction when the second clause is independent of the first, e.g.,

Sally picked apples, and she placed them in her basket.

but not if you remove the second "she", e.g.,

Sally picked apples and placed them in her basket.

(Here the second clause, "placed them in her basket" is dependent as it can't be a standalone sentence.)*
What if the first clause is lengthy? E.g.,

Sally picked apples to sell at the farmers' market, and placed them in her basket.

Here, I feel that avoiding the comma makes the sentence sound wrong, although I can't put my finger on why.
Also, if a comma is warranted in such a situation, how long is long enough?

Sally picked apples to sell and placed them in her basket.
Sally picked apples to sell at the world-renowned Nettleton Farmers' Market on Tuesday, and placed them in her basket.

*See my answer regarding this error


texts: Is this sentence grammatically correct? I grew up in Paris, after I turned 18 I would go to Barcelona

texts: Is the use of 'would' in this sentence correct :"I grew up in Paris, and after I turned 18 I would go to Barcelona"?


texts: "No, faith, not a jot, but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it."

texts:
Here are some lines from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1
(The Arden Shakespeare edited by Harold Jenkins)

  Hamlet:
  To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why, may
  not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander
  till a find it stopping a bung-hole?

  Horatio:
  ’Twere to consider too curiously to consider so.

  Hamlet:
  No, faith, not a jot, but to follow him thither with
  modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it.
  Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
  Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of
  earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he
  was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel?

I'm wondering about the following questions.

What is the structure of the sentence in italics above?
What does it in the sentence refer to?
What is the meaning of the sentence?
How do you paraphrase the sentence in present day English?

It seems to me the sentence is grammatically imperfect.
For example, is the subject omitted?
If so, what is it?

Secondly, I wonder if "likelihood" is the object of the verb "follow"
or that of "with".

The meaning, or at least the gist , of the sentence is rather obvious judging from the context.
The main problem is the grammatical structure of the sentence.


texts: What is the term for something you didn’t know you needed until you’ve had it?

texts:
I didn’t think I needed lotion until I used some, and now I need it.

— is the MOST basic example of the situation I’m talking about;
not realizing something was necessary or essential until you’ve tried it.

e.g., looking to use this word for title, brand, etc.


texts:
I need some advice on comma placement. I don't really know if I should set off the phrases that come after ", and". I need that sounds too general and vague, but it will become more clear with the examples below

  Example 1. I began installing a new system, or ROM, on my phone every weekend and, in the process, broke the poor phone infinite amount of times.

Should the phrase in the process be set off by commas?

  Example 2.  In total, my victim phone got broken 26 times, and, every single time, I found a way to revive it

should the phrase every single time be set off by commas?

  Example 3. English opened the doors of an entirely new world—one brimming with knowledge and values not confined to the limits of my country—for me to explore, and, as I began to explore, my childhood fervor for playing games paved way for a much implacable thirst for learning.

should as I began to explore be set off by commas?

I researched and know that if there is a clause coming after and it should be set off from both sides with commas (correct me if I am wrong). But I don't know what to do in the instances above. Please, if you can, tell me the correct versions of the punctuation in the examples above and (do I put a comma here) if there is a recommended reading material or grammar rule on that, please do not hesitate to share it with me.

Thanks beforehand!!!


texts: What is the pejorative for people who only practice their faith while at the place of worship?

texts:
What is the phrase or word for person that are very faithful in their place of worship (the pejorative usually applies to persons who are showy to the point of hypocrisy), but that are anything but during the rest of the week?

If I recall there are some pretty derogatory ways of putting it (from both faith/less camps); I am looking for a relatively less mean, faith neutral pejorative (i.e. not some incendiary atheist phrase). The words that are somewhat forming in my head are something like "Sunday Christian" or "Someddays Faithful" or something like that.


texts: "my happiness and sadness" vs. "my happiness and my sadness"

texts:
I forgo my happiness and sadness all the time.

  I forgo my happiness and my sadness all the time.

How are the two sentences different? And what do they connote?


texts:
Why do people tend to use negation of negative statement?
Let us see an example statement,

  he is not unhealthy, ...

The above statement can have beginning like

  he is healthy, ...

Why exactly do we use this and exactly when (where)?


texts: What is the difference between defray, sponsor, and fund?

texts:
What is the difference between defray, sponsor, and fund (all verbs)? For me, they are interchangeable:

Oxford Dictionary:

Defray: Provide money to pay (a cost or expense)
The proceeds from the raffle help to defray the expenses of the evening
Sponsor: Provide funds for (a project or activity or the person carrying it out)
Joe is being sponsored by a government training scheme
Fund: Provide with money for a particular purpose
The World Bank refused to fund the project

I can see that in the definition of defray, we don't have the object to be paid. But with any spending it must be implicit that there is something to be paid, right? So I don't know what the difference between them is.


texts: Use of plural forms when using "Multi-xxx"

texts: Which one is correct? A multi-languages university or A multi-language university? A multi-outlet socket or A multi-outlets socket?


texts:
British people sometimes use "love  to bits" and "thrilled/chuffed to bits" to indicate extremes.

Despite searching high and low, I could not find the origin of the phrase "to bits", other than speculation on forums.

Does anyone have a source for its origin or etymology?


texts: I'm used to hearing expressions like 'I got no money' or 'I got a lot of work to do', in which 'got' is used with the same meaning as 'have'. My British friends, however, always put strange faces when I say them. Is it correct to use 'got' instead of 'have' in these sentences? (I guess it's not proper English, but anyway, do people use it in casual speech?)


texts: What is the word for comparing 'competing constraints'?

texts:
For example, let's say I am designing a car and I need it to be as light as possible for increased fuel economy but as strong as possible for passenger safety.  By making it stronger I make it heavier - by making it lighter I make it weaker.  One precludes the other.

So how do I describe this dilemma?  Stronger is xxxxx with lighter.

Incompatible, divergent, 'at odds', 'diametrically opposed' all come to mind but none of those are the one I just can't get off the tip of my tongue.


texts:
what is the difference between "scientists" and "social scientists" here?

Context:

Are artists born? There is some evidence that scientists may be. Cambridge Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, an expert in autism, has presented data which shows that scientists score significantly higher on a standard scoring test for autistic tendencies than either humanities scholars or social scientists.


texts: Is there a word to describe the direction in which the sun's main rays come from?

texts:
In the northern hemisphere, houses are aligned so that windows face the south.  In the southern hemisphere, houses are aligned with windows to the north.

So, for example, we have this building advice:

  Based on the movements of the sun, passive solar buildings typically have windows (glazing) on the southern facing side* of the building in order to absorb the sun’s heat energy to warm a building during the winter.

but then this has to be followed by this

  In the northern hemisphere, in order to face the sun and obtain maximum solar gain, the windows would face the south. In the southern hemisphere, however, it is opposite, with the windows facing the north in order to maximize solar gain.

https://greenpassivesolar.com/passive-solar/building-characteristics/orientation-south-facing-windows/

Is there a word that refers to this direction without the need to specify which hemisphere you are referencing?


texts: Is a comma appended to an ellipsis in the middle of a quotation?

texts:
Digging through every ELU question I can find on the matter, I still can’t locate a specific answer to this question of punctuation. Which of these is correct?

  “Maybe...” I said, injecting an intentional pause, “we will find him.”
  “Maybe...,” I said, injecting an intentional pause, "we will find him.”

Note that this is an interrupted quotation. It is not a “voice trailing off incomplete sentence,” followed by another sentence. Without the textual interruption, it would be “Maybe... we will find him.”

Comma or no?

ADDENDUM: I'm adding a bit more here, because despite the excellent answers I've already received, there's a point I want to make which hasn't precisely been addressed, and it's this:

I want to retain the structure of the sentence exactly as it is, as a creative choice. The pause implied by a comma alone, although generally sufficient (e.g. "Maybe, we will find him.") is not adequate to my purpose here. Mea culpa, I could not include the amount of contextual material that would have made this clear, but if you accept that I want to get a long intentional pause with a dying inflection (and not the more abrupt pause signified by a dash), then would you consider a comma to be nice punctuation, or unnecessary?

A simpler way of looking at the same question might be this: Which of the following works better?

  "Maybe..." I said.
  "Maybe...," I said.

Perhaps all I'm really asking is, is the usual comma that comes before I said necessary after an ellipsis?


texts:
My college professor asked our class for any creative insight about the phrase, “Patience is a virtue best served cold.”
My - and my other classmates’s - initial reaction was that our teacher may have meant, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
However, when we said this, our teacher simply stated it again.
Does anyone have creative thoughts on the saying?


texts: Can past sense verb follow “in this moment”?

texts:
I’m confused about the tense of this sentence:
Now they’re in this moment where they were planning to release a bill last week.
Is it grammatically correct?
And I also want to know whether there’s any difference between “in this moment where” and “ in this moment when”. Thanks！


texts:
Looking for correct usage here:

...show previous visited locations

...show previously visited locations

previous is an adjective, previously is an adverb

but is visited the verb being described?

or is it locations which is a noun?


texts: What’s a semi-formal American equivalent for the British expression “value for money”?

texts:
I'm searching for an American phrase that would be equivalent to the British “X is great value for money”, one that’s not too colloquial and can be used in a serious product description.

I am aware of following phrases with my objection in parentheses.

price-performance ratio (not frequently used)
cost-benefit ratio (not the same)
Bang for your buck (too colloquial)
A great buy (too colloquial)
bargain at twice the price (too colloquial)

The British version is neutral and can be used in a formal product description of a technical product for marketing purposes.

It may be the case that #1 is the best or only choice, but I wanted to canvas for other ideas.


texts: Are the phrases “both in water and land” and “for the loss and damage to” grammatical?

texts:
I have asked this question in a linguistics forum, but as I was not getting answers I decided to ask it here.

A. Consider the phrase that is boldfaced in sentence (1):

"It can live both in water and land."

Is the phrase grammatical as it is, with no preposition before "land"? Or should the phrase be "both in water and on land"?

B. Now consider the phrase that is boldfaced in sentence (2):

"He is responsible for the loss and damage to the article."

In the phrase grammatical as it is, with no preposition after "loss"? Or should the phrase be "loss of and damage to"?


texts: "If I go.." vs. "If I will go.." referring to the future

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Future tense in conditional clauses

Which one is correct?

  option 1: If I go there, I can meet her

or

  option 2: If I will go there, I can meet her

I clearly remember, was told by English (not American) teacher that "If", "When" cannot be used with "will" in the above context. Though, I have seen few people in US saying like option 2

I do know that "If I would go there, I could meet her" is correct (or at least, think so).


texts:
she ____ in many counties, so she knows lots of languages.

(lived - has lived - had lived)

which one's correct & why?

Regards.


texts: Preposition choice: impression "of"/"about"/"from"

texts:
Please advise me on what preposition I should use to be sure that I don't make a grammar mistake. This is a question in a company's questionnaire, where the customer is asked his opinion about the company.

The sentence is required to be concise and goes like this: "Impression of ABC Co."

Is of correct usage here? Or possibly from or about? And is there any general rule about this?


texts: "...to have been" or "... to having been"?

texts:
When I help someone and the person thanks me, instead of saying "You're welcome", I want to express that "I am happy that I was able to help you", but I want to say it with a much shorter phrase.
I came up with this:

Happy to have/having been able to help

But I'm not sure which of the usages of have after to is correct.


texts:
I need a word that simply means "off-topic discussion." Banter is close because it means playful remarks, which can possibly denote off-topic discussion, but not really. Is there a word for this?

"We need to stay focused on the topic at hand and avoid all of this _____."


texts: What is a word or phrase to describe a new article that's using outdated sources?

texts:
I am reading an article that is new, but it's citing completely outdated sources of information. Granted, without knowledge in the field, it would be hard to detect these inaccuracies.

I want to say, "This article is outdated," but that could be misconstrued to mean it's an old article with old information. What is the best, most succinct way to describe the situation without implying that the article itself is old?


texts: Does "surfeit" have an adjectival counterpart?

texts: I’m thinking of something like surfeitous, but obviously that’s not a word.


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is it called when a non-verb is used as a verb?

The phenomenon of turning a noun into a verb is very common. Some are more well known, like "shouldering the blame" or "tabling a discussion," while others are newer and less known. I just came across "when it storms." Is there a real name for this or is it just called "verbing?" If not, what was it called before the word "verbing" was coined?


texts: Formalities calling work colleagues, clients an partners as Pal/Pals

texts:
In my work we have a collaborative tool for work interaction where we debate things like workflow and issues. I'm in a interaction with workmates, client employees and partners. I thought to reference to all participants as pals. Ex.:

Pals,
We need some resources to complete this task...

Could it seems disrespectful or inappropriate? If yes, Can I use To all as an alternative?


texts:
'Buggins' turn' refers to the practice of assigning appointments to persons in rotation, rather than on merit. The OED records this and gives examples of its use from 1901.

As regards etymology it just says 'typical proper name used generically'. But why Buggins? Does anyone know who the original Buggins was? Or was it a name that was earlier used in the way Joe Bloggs is today? Sounds the sort of surname Dickens might have created but he is not found in a list of characters.


texts: How to properly use the compound conjunction "with/for/*** which" in long sentences

texts:
I am writing my thesis in computer science. Due to technical issues, many sentences are very long, and contain more than one conjunction (especially which).

I have one concrete example of a complex sentence:

  The intrinsic parameters of the camera, from which the video was
  taken, are not supposed to be available.
  The intrinsic parameters of the camera are not supposed to be available, from which the video was taken.

I am wondering which of the above examples is correct. I feel that both are not. Any hints as to how to avoid this kind of long sentences with keeping the complete meaning of the sentence.


texts: What does ‘shines’ mean in “Bears defense shines in 24-17 loss to Panthers”?

texts:
There was the headline “Bears defense shines in 24-17 loss to Panthers" in today's New York Times Sport section.

Cambridge English Dictionary defines “shine” as;

to send out or reflect light.
to point a light in a particular direction.
to make something bright by rubbing it.

Oxford English Dictionary defines it as;

give out a bright light.
make (an object made of leather, metal, or wood) bright by rubbing it.
be very talented or perform very well.

Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary defines it as;

produce or reflect or point the light of lamp in a particular direction.
polish stg.
to be very good at stg.

Though it seems to me that only the definition 3. of both OED and OALD is relevant to the ‘shine’ in the quoted headline, I cannot make out why Bears defense is described as “shines (performed very well)” in a lost game, not winning game.

What does “shines” here mean? Is it a prevailing usage of ‘shine’ as a verb? Is the word ‘shine’ used very often in this way?


texts: What do you call the open area outside of a building as depicted in the picture?

texts: I find it hard to name the place other than "an open area outside of a building." It doesn't matter if it is in the front or on any other side of the building.


texts:
I recently saw this sentence: Best wishes for little kid which I think she should put a determiner or an article before little kid, E.g: Best wishes for my little kid or Best wishes for that little kid.

Is my thinking correct or the sentence is correct?


texts: Is there a difference between the words "metaphoric" and "metaphorical"?  I'm reading an essay in which "metaphoric" is used.  But that sounded a little odd to me.  "Metaphorical" sounds better.  They're both in the dictionary.


texts: Do we need to put extra sound W or J in front of L in the case of /ei+L/ or /ee+L/ or /ai+L/ or /oo+L/ or /oi+L/ in American English?

texts:
Ok, let see the sale /seɪl/, that is from IPA but when speak American English, do we have to put /seɪ-jl/ (sound like sei jo)

Similarly, feel /fiːl/ will become /fiː jl/

or mile /maɪl/ will become /maɪ jl/

or fool /fuːl/ will become /fuː wl/ (sound like fu: wo)

or boil /bɔɪl/ will become /bɔɪ jl/

I didn't hear the standard pronunciation in this website (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/boil) put W or J in front of L.


texts: How is appropriate to say "one of the biggest/best" etc?

texts:
The superlative forms imply that they are the ONLY ones.

For instance, if we say, that John is the best football player. We mean, he's the best.

So, how is it appropriate to say, "one of the best", when that phrase implies plurality.


texts:
What is the difference between rebellion and revolution? These two words seem almost the same, except that rebellion is generally more distasteful.

Dictionary.com lists definitions of rebellion:

  re·bel·lion   [ri-bel-yuhn]

  noun
  1. open, organized, and armed resistance to one's government or ruler.
  2. resistance to or defiance of any authority, control, or tradition.

and those of revolution:

  rev·o·lu·tion   [rev-uh-loo-shuhn]

  noun
  1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.


texts: Does the phrase "Santa just isn't" make sense?

texts:
As the title says, does it make sense?

It feels right. Not just though.


texts:
From BBC News:
The team's campaign director said in a statement that "phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking" as entry to rallies is on a first-come first-served basis.
From what I know, we "factor something into another." So, should it have been, "have/has never been factored into our thinking," instead?


texts:
In a textbook, I read this sentence:

  Stretch your arms as much as is comfortable for you.

But can you say it without the is?

  Stretch your arms as much as comfortable for you.

Is there any difference?


texts: Can I say, “the numbers below are estimates?” or “the numbers below are estimated figure?” What is the better way saying?


texts: Meaning of "We have worked too long for the priests to undermine us with more fairy-tales."

texts:
I want to know the real meaning of this sentence:

  We have worked too long for the priests to undermine us with more fairy-tales.

Have we worked too long for the priests?

Or have we worked too long to be undermined by the priests?

The context is that this is a sentence of a story. The person who say it is a politician and I want to know what he means by this sentence. He is angry while saying this. He says "We have worked too long for the priests", then says "to undermine us with more fairy-tales."

I can't understand the relation of the first part with the second part. Is this some a kind of protest? Is he saying that the government worked for priests but they undermine the government with religious beliefs (that the speaker calls fairy-tales)?


texts: What is the correct term for “mince pies”?

texts:
I have always called mince pies filled with fruit just that: mince pies. However, lately I have been seeing many different variations of this: fruit mince pies, mince fruit tarts, and even mincemeat pies — which makes absolutely no sense to me, as the pies contain no meat whatsoever.

Is there a single correct term for fruit-filled mince pies? What are the reasons for the other terms?


texts:
An obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silica dust.

ostensible: stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.

Does ostensible in this sentence mean that there is another definition for the term?

Update:
Sorry for the ambiguity, What I'm trying to ask here is not the lexeme of "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis"but the interpretation of ostensible in this sentence.


texts: When we will use soft and hard sound in 'c'?

texts: Sometimes we use the soft sound, and sometimes the hard – but why? Is there any rule?


texts: What is the meaning of the phrase 'listing off'?

texts:
services
Listing off registered services (nova-scheduler, nova-compute and so on) and their current state.
The updated_at field is used to determine if a given service is considered healthy or not.

“services” is a database table. If you don’t known what a database table is, think of it as a listing.


texts: Is answering “Hope you had a good time!” with “I did!” correct?

texts:
If someone says to me, "Hope you had a good time!" could I then answer "I did!" and it be grammatical?

My first language is French, and I’m wondering if responding that way works in English.


texts: is there a word to describe one who doesn't try very hard? not someone who doesn't try at all, but one who does their work without much enthusiasm or perhaps with as much gusto as others.


texts:
I'm looking for the origin of the verb "Blatting" / "Blat", I have only ever heard this word used in the context of complete removal of data from either a database or web form.
e.g.

  "Lets completely blat the table row and see if our query still runs"

or

  "Blatting the login form causes an exception"

I original thought it was slang specific to the team I am working for however since then I have heard it used by other software engineers both in and outside of the company.

Is this word widely used? Where does it come from? and maybe more importantly what does it actually mean?


texts: deleting and------ does it seem strange only to me?

texts:
Within a couple of days I could stand, even make two, three steps.

It is the original sentence.
And I have a strong belief that the and is deleted as below.

  Within a couple of days I could stand, (and) even make two, three
  steps.

"And" is deleted, but I do not know why that is possible. This seems to be a very unusual situation to me, because if "even" was not there, this sentence would just sound off to my ear. What's more, "stand" and "make" are two verbs, not adjectives. So what rule or usage makes it possible to delete "and"?


texts: The use of OR in interrogative sentences

texts:
Is Indonesia a developing country or an underdeveloped country?

Or

  Is Indonesia a developing or an underdeveloped country?

I understand that "or" is either inclusive or exclusive.

Is there a rule that I am missing.
Are both these statements grammatically correct?


texts: Did the Tironian "et" ("⁊") have any impact on the ampersand being shift + 7 on English keyboards?

texts:
How did 7 come to be an abbreviation for 'and' in Old English? is a beautiful question about the Tiroian "et", which is now the "⁊" character 1.

My question is what impact did the association of this 7-like-glyph have on the eventual placement of keyboards placing the & on Shift+7 combination?

The Wikipedia article on the QUERTY keyboard shows that the ampersand was a separate key in the bottom left of the keyboard in the original patent application drawings. The patent was filed in 1878. The Das Keyboard blog shows a Full Duplex keyboard (with separate keys for upper and lower case letters) from 1897 with no ampersand key at all. I have not yet been able to find a reference to the first keyboard to place the ampersand and 7 together. The Wiki article on the ampersand only mentions that it is usually keyed via Shift+7, but occasionally on 6 or 8 instead. Dvorak layouts appear to share similar associations between 7 and &.

So is it a coincidence? Or is there some association?

1 This looks really different in the EL&U site fontface. See the linked question or the Wikipedia article for more faithful renderings.


texts: How to punctuate "eight- or nine-year-old"

texts:
Suppose I want to say "eight-year-old or nine-year-old" more concisely. Where would I put dashes?
Should it be:
"eight or nine-year-old"
"eight- or nine-year-old"


texts:
I am not sure when I should use in the sentence "see" or "view".

If I want to say for example: My teachers see/view giving lectures to me as a waste of time. What is more correct please?

See feels more natural to me but viewing is like giving an introspective, right?


texts: Can we use "next of kin" for things as a metaphor?

texts:
Wheat has been man's next of kin.

Does this sentence make sense to native English speakers??

It's supposed to be a simile, meaning wheat is like family to humans.

It's a translated sentence from a Persian text.


texts: What was the historical pronunciation of the digraph  like?

texts: What was the historical pronunciation of the digraph <gh>, as in height, thought, thorough, laugh, enough, Edinburgh like?


texts: How to say that something that was inappropriate for some particular purpose now works?

texts:
Say, that phones were not suitable as a payment medium, but now they are the best payment method.

I think "cellphones finally fit for payment" implies they are now good enough, and not THE best solution. A candidate would be "cellphones made work for payment".


texts:
I was going to the hole-in-the-wall to get some rhino the other day, when I started to wonder why cash is so-called.

I hit the books. Farmer & Henley gives no etymology. Partridge says

  Origin problematic; there is probably some allusion to the size of a rhinoceros or the price which almost any part of its corpse will fetch as an aphrodisiac.

This is supported by the related terms rhino-fat, rhinoceral and rhinocerical, all meaning 'rich'.

Green thinks

  ety. unk.; one suggestion, that it refers to the rhinoceros, then a fabulous creature 'worth its weight in gold', implies a certain lexicographical desperation

I had no luck with online sources either (here).

So, does anyone know why money is called rhino?


texts: Before I always though that, because word "increase" is a noun, I should use it. But just recently I've seen someone using "increasing of" too. And at first, I thought that it isn't correct, but then I discovered that "increasing" is a gerund. So which way is right?


texts: Possessive Form of a Proper Noun Ending in a Plural Noun Ending in "s"?

texts:
I don't think this has yet been covered in any of the other questions on similar topics.  There was one other very similar question, however, it was not specifically talking about the case where the proper noun ends in a plural noun.  Feel free to vote to close if I am wrong.

What is the correct way to make a proper noun ending in a plural noun ending in an "s" possessive?  This frequently happens with corporations, e.g., "Dunkin' Donuts."  Should one work off of the fact that the entity is singular—suggesting Dunkin' Donuts's—or should one work off of the fact that "Donuts" is plural and ending in an "s"—suggesting Dunkin' Donuts'?

I expect that the answer might depend on dialect because some regions refer to corporations in the singular form ("Dunkin' Donuts is a company") while other regions refer to corporations in the plural form ("Dunkin' Donuts are a company").  I am specifically interested in American English, but would be interested in hearing answers for other dialects too.


texts: Expression for having one's enthusiasm killed

texts:
Let's say we have someone who is really energetic and excited about a task they are doing, and then something happens (or someone says something), that totally takes the excitement out of the task away. You could imagine the person "deflating" - for that reason I always thought that "take the steam out" - would be a good expression, but I noticed people sometimes would misunderstand my intention.

Is it a valid expression, or is there something that would fit better in this scenario? I am looking basically how to describe what the event did to the previously energized person.

The country of reference is Canada if that matters.


texts:
The way to go is  a phrase used encouraging someone to continue the good work according to Free Dictionary. If we asses its usage in the following context, apparently it was used as a adjective as a part of a sentence not as a independent sentence like " well done" .

So I'd like to ask if this is a standard usage of this phrase and which adjective we can replace with it in the closest sense ? For example "successful" ?

  KMPlayer is designed to be user-friendly and offers a gorgeous looking
  UI design. While it supports various skins, the default skin itself is
  a treat to the eyes, sporting a dark framed UI design. Even if you’re
  not so fond of the default skin, custom skins are the way to go.


texts: I could not add to this question but I would like to know if it is still relevant to use synchronized in computing context or is it considered too formal and it is preferred to use synched/synced instead?


texts: Should I use "co-created with" or "co-created by" for correct attribution of content?

texts:
In my PhD thesis, I wish to describe a software toolbox that I created in equal parts along with 2 other people (say Alice and Bob).

Should I say

  "This software toolbox was co-created with Alice and Bob?" or "This software toolbox was co-created by Alice and Bob?"

Since it is my Phd thesis, it is implicit that I am a creator. In fact, the university requires a covering statement that everything I say in the thesis is entirely my contribution, unless explicitly stated otherwise, properly acknowledged and appropriately referenced.

If it matters, this is in England, and although I am from India, I am not considered a native speaker by my institution.


texts:
Etymonline doesn't expound the etymology, and states no more than:

  "something of exceptional strength," 1840, probably from rip (v.) + snort (q.v.).

Does anyone have any more detail on the origins of this word?


texts: Why do we say that the air is blue when someone has been swearing a lot?


texts:
I've changed my mind a number of times about which of these variants works best:

  the second most northerly coffee shop in Seattle

  the second-most-northerly coffee shop in Seattle

  the second-most northerly coffee shop in Seattle

  the second most-northerly coffee shop in Seattle

I've tried to do a little research, but I'm not even sure what to call something like this, so I haven't had much luck.

Any guidance on what is considered most clear/correct would be much appreciated!


texts: Possible Italian origin for English expressions "easy peasy" and/or "easy breezy"?

texts:
I was watching Rachael Ray and she was making risotto with peas which she said is the first solid food for many Italian children. She was also trying to dispel the notion that risotto is hard or overly time consuming to make, and instead was rather easy. The Italian phrase was "Risi e Bisi" which means rice with peas, as shown in this link.

I was struck by how similar this sounds to "easy breezy" or "easy peasy" especially when Bisi (pronounced with a z sound) means peas, and that with children's rhyming or mishearing that the r sound from the first word could have migrated to the second for the phrase "easy breezy".

Does anyone know if there is any validity to this hunch?


texts: speaking about time known now but not when the readers read the message

texts:
I am writing to a university.

  Plus, XXX University is doing a great in the researching areas. For example, just a week ago, researchers from this university joined the ESA's Rosetta mission, that will shed new light on how Earth formed.

the researcherd joined the program a week ago from this day. but i don't know when the university will read my letter. so I don't know it is correct to use just a week ago or English has something else to use in this case.

Thanks,


texts:
I found myself with a sentence like this, using "accept" in the infinitive form after "rather than":

  They left the club, rather than accept the terms.

But I'm unsure of its grammatical soundness. Conjugating the verb "accept" just sounds wrong:

  They left the club, rather than accepted the terms.

The gerund sounds right, but I'm not sure why:

  They left the club, rather than accepting the terms.

What is the grammatically correct way of phrasing this sort of sentence, and why?

  [SUBJECT] [PAST_ACTION_1], rather than [PAST_ACTION_2]


texts: To scream blue murder is to shout loudly and make a huge fuss, sometimes with the implication that the fuss is excessive. But does anyone know why murder should be blue?


texts: Is there a one word to ask politely about those who born and grew up in the States?

texts:
When travelling in the UK or Europe and meeting friends, I used to ask a question: "Are you a native British / French / ...", until I came to America, I figured out that cannot ask this question in the same way of "native American"
So, is there still a one-word (or simple enough phrase) to ask politely, to describe those who born and grew up in the States? Or probably lived his/her whole life in the States.
To imply something to be known by only those who stayed long enough in the States, because my following question might be something like "when in the 90s, ..." / "when you were in high school, did you know ...", before that, I want to confirm the person is not a visitor in the States, nor a new immigrant who moved to the States for only a few years and might know very little.


texts:
The other day, I was eating at a restaurant with my mate.  The food was really good but the waiters seemed to be rather rude.  Then when we left there, my mate asked me what I thought of this restaurant.  I said "The restaurant was good, but it is more to do with the staff."

Can I express this in that way? Is it is more to do with just like it has something to do with?

Many thanks.


texts:
Suppose we have job A, B and C. Job A requires more skill than job B and C.
How do we say that?

i) The job that requires most skill is job A.

ii) The job that most requires skill is job A.

iii) The job that requires skill the most is job A.


texts: Use of ... to show deletion of text in a quote when the text before the ellipsis ends with a question mark

texts: I would usually use ... to show that I have deleted text from a quote, however, I recently discovered an issue with this when the text ends with a question mark before the ellipsis. So if the quote is 'Why did we go back?...We wanted etc.' So my question is does the question mark act as the first full stop or do you still put in three after the question mark?


texts: Need a term for major water forms or states (e.g. sea, freshwater, glaciers, dams, etc.)

texts:
I'm writing an article about the hydrosphere for my website GeoWorld. I'm dividing the hydrosphere into the following seven categories:

1) the sea
2) surface freshwater bodies
3) underground aquifers
4) cryosphere (glaciers, permafrost, etc.)
5) atmosphere (water vapor and precipitation)
6) water in living things (e.g. blood, sap, etc.)
7) man-made water bodies (e.g. dams and reservoirs)

I just wondered if anyone can suggest an appropriate term for these categories. I'm tentatively calling them hydrozones (not a real word; I just thought it sounded appropriate).

Lest I create any confusion, I should point out that the hydrosphere and cryosphere are two different, though overlapping, entities. Technically, hydrosphere refers to water in its liquid form, while cryosphere refers to frozen water. Water vapor (a gas) is also different.

So, in summary, I'm looking for a word that describes the seven major forms and states water is generally found in on Earth, as listed above. Feel free to coin new terms, as I did. ;)


texts: Are there any rules for genitive case not indicating possesion?

texts:
My teacher, a native English speaker, was quite puzzled when I asked this and could not answer this question.
Why there is:

child seat  but children's love  //why these are different
developer's conference   //why not developers conference, they do not own it
rooms' furnishings

The question is, how to tell when to use the genitive and when simple noun?


texts:
Do the following sentences use 'despite' correctly:
a) Despite having fractured his arm, Ravi insisted on playing the match.
b) Despite fracturing his arm, Ravi insisted on playing the match.


texts:
While reading Richard II, I came across the word unpossible:

BUSHY: For us to levy power proportionable to the enemy is all unpossible.

This is the only use of unpossible in all of Shakespeare's plays.  Impossible is used 44 times.  I don't think the answer to "Why did Shakespeare only use unpossible once?" can be answered "Who knows?  It's Shakespeare, anything goes."  The use of unpossible is also in the 1597 quarto.

I also had difficulty finding online information about unpossible, other than that it is archaic and not used.  I recently saw a game listed on Itunes and Googleplay called Unpossible.

When did the change to impossible happen?  Why did it happen?  There are many words in English that use the "un" prefix to say "not something:" Unjust, unfair, unloved, unhealthy, etc.  When did unpossible stop being considered useable?


texts: type of + (singular noun) defined as (plural)

texts:
Please, can anyone help me with this? Is it accurate to say the following:

there is a type of snake called "The Cobra snakes", and those snakes .....etc.

In other words, when saying "type of snake" it sounds like you're describing something singular, but is it ok to demonstrate the type as a plural?; like when I said "called "**The ***Cobra snakes*****", and those snakes .....etc."


texts:
At the time of writing, there is a group of Cooper Union students protesting the university's decision to charge tuition. They are holding a banner that reads:

  Free Education to All

Can this be construed as correct (under any scheme of interpretation)? It seems that "Free Education for All" would be expected, but I wonder if using "to" here is also correct (perhaps with a different meaning).


texts:
Here's part of a sentence:

  a person's self image and their behavior...

Is it correct to use their in that situation? Or should it be his or her?
This is from an older essay from university, so the grammar has to be okay.


texts: Single word for the feeling of having done the right thing

texts:
I cannot think of a word that describes the feeling of "doing the right thing". I.e. the feeling as a result of having made the right choices, of committing an act of altruism, of having made the correct decision. It needs to describe the feeling — there are lots of words for the act itself.

EDIT: Great feedback thanks. None are quite hitting it on the head so I'll go further and say that the word needs to imply no selfish motivation - the act of "doing the right thing" is implicitly done for the greater good, rather than to satisfy their own ends.

I guess the philosophical arguments about whether anything is ever truly done for non-selfish reasons will need to wait ;)


texts: What parts of a noun phrase modify and which parts are modified?

texts: In phrases with a lot of modifiers before the head noun, does each word modify the rest of the phrase as it gets closer to the head noun. For example, in, "the cool Christmas house night party" would "cool" modify "Christmas house night party" and then "Christmas" would modify "house night party", etc. Is this correct or not?


texts: Why is the phrase "Never again" associated with the Holocaust?

texts:
I often hear or read the phrase "Never again" used as a reference to the Holocaust. It is the motto of the Jewish Defense League and in the title of at least one historical account of the Holocaust. For what it's worth, the same reference was made in a South African political cartoon about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and by the character Magneto at the climax of the most recent X-Men film. More recently, the phrase has been used to refer to genocide in general, but I'm pretty sure it started as a Holocaust reference.

My question is, what is the origin of this reference? Was it from a speech following World War II? A letter or prominent book? The best I've ever found is this article at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, which opens:

  According to the great historian of the Holocaust, Raul Hilberg, the phrase “Never Again” first appeared on handmade signs put up by inmates at Buchenwald in April, 1945, shortly after the camp had been liberated by U.S. forces.

Is this correct? Did use of the phrase spread from here?

I hope no offense is taken because of the potentially sensitive subject. I have asked here because its a question about the etymology of a phrase.


texts: Off-the-cuff as an attributive noun modifier

texts:
I believe that off-the-cuff, as in "off-the-cuff remark" for example, is a single word - a compound adjective, but I've got people claiming it is not a word at all, adjective or otherwise.
Can you, please, please find a single grammarian, a single Anglophone even, who has supported the view of 'off-the-cuff' not being a single word?


texts: Single-word synonym for "immensely valuable"?

texts: I am looking for some (may be rarely know to nonnative English speakers) synonyms for  "immensely valuable" or "extremely valuable".


texts:
There were the following lines in former President Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention held on September 5th;

  “In Tampa the Republican argument against the President’s re-election was pretty simple: We left him a total mess, he hasn’t finished cleaning it up yet, so fire him and put us back in.

  I like the argument for President Obama’s re-election a lot better. He inherited a deeply damaged economy, put a floor under the crash, began the long hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators.”

What does “put a floor under the crash” mean? Does it mean to lay the solid foundation by cleaning up rubbles? Is it a popular idiom?

Additionally, I’d like to know why it’s ‘We’ in the phrase referring to the Republican argument “We left him a total mess.” Who is “We”? Is it Republicans? Isn’t it Republicans’ argument that “He (President Obama) left us (American economy) a total mess, not Republican left Obama a total mess? This sounds like Republicans destructively left President Obama (and his policy) a total mess.”

I don’t think former President misspoke, but I can’t understand who “We” are. Can you clarify the logic?


texts: What is the word that describes someone only willing to be generous when it comes to their own needs?

texts:
Such a person spares no expense when it comes to luxuries yet refuses to part with even a penny when someone else's needs (especially of those who are poor) are concerned?

  In spite of being a millionaire, he is [a] [noun or adjective].


texts: Word for a response that is enthusiastic, passionate and long-winded

texts:
For example, when asked "What did you put in your tea?"

A normal response might be "Honey."

A ______ response might be "The sweetest honey, from the greatest of flower orchards.  I could literally taste every sweet petal of the flowers that became the honey comb.  The flavor began as a light sweetness and then crescendo-ed into a grand orchestration of savory, blissfully sweet, yet earthy delights! I became enraptured and clenched my fists, looking towards the sky and exclaiming, 'WWWOOOOOOOWWWWW!!  That's some great honey!'"


texts: Does there exist a subset of words which can be used to define all others?

texts:
All words in the dictionary are defined by using other words. Has there been any research that has traced these definitions down to a subset of the English language which can define the rest of it? I'm imagining there must be some sort of recursive definition between all the words in this set.

In other words, have we identified the smallest group of words that could explain everything in the dictionary?


texts: I have two processes running with different speeds. In other words, one of them requires lesser time. I think 'Lesser time' is an awkward term. Is there any good alternative or synonym which I can use instead of 'lesser time'?


texts: Comma with non-essential expression "in my opinion" at the end of a sentence?

texts:
I have learned that a comma is necessary with expressions like "in my opinion" at the beginning of a sentence.

Now, is it also necessary to have a comma in front of a non-essential expression if this expression is positioned at the end of the sentence like in the following example?

  1) The novel became more and more tedious, in his opinion.

The only examples I have found so far are front position (comma needed) and mid-position (commas needed as well).


texts: How do you know when to use "in", "at" and "on" when describing a state or condition of something?

texts:
For example:

She put me at ease.
I'm in love.
Put something on hold.


texts: "I thought we talked..." vs. "I thought we had talked..."

texts:
I'm not a native English speaker and I find English quite difficult and confusing and one of the reasons is because of its tenses—which I find challenging and rewarding once everything becomes clear—so I would like to ask which of these two are correct:

  I thought we talked about this before
  I thought we had talked about this before

I've read somewhere that I should use the past perfect tense to indicate past action that occurred prior to another past action, and Past perfect verbs are always formed by using adding ‘had’ before the past participle form of the verb.

E.g. had + talked

In the examples above, "thought" and "talked" are both past actions, but "talked" happened before "thought", so my guess is that sentence no. 2 is the correct one, but I'm not so sure because sentence no. 1 is used most of the time in movies and conversation.

What are your thoughts about this?


texts: Are these double negatives? "No it is not. No I don't think so."

texts:
A double negative is generally defined as two negative words in the same clause. In these examples:

"No it is not."
"No I don't think so."

is "No" considered a clause unto itself? Or is it in the same clause as the rest of the sentence, thus constituting a double negative?


texts: Is there a word or phrase that describes a statement that implicitly requires the audience (a person or persons) to respond with a question? For example, if someone says to you, "I just saw the best movie ever!" You, in turn, are implicitly required to ask, "What movie did you see?" The idea I am looking for would be the antonym of a "rhetorical statement", if such a thing existed.


texts:
I want to describe a condition that my grades or experiment results come out.

I am not sure if come out is precise to express my question. I want to state that a

result finally shows up, such as

I receive a email of my test score,
or

I eventually get the experiment data after a three-day science experiment.

I am also interested in both colloquial and formal ways to describe it.

Thank you very much!


texts: I want to know if this phrase is correct: "Go be a postmodernist somewhere else".


texts: Is it correct, that as a teacher you "give a practical course"?

texts: As far as I know the correct term is "to give a lecture". Is it also the right werb for seminars, courses? In my native language it would be "to hold a seminar" or "to hold a course".


texts:
Is it right to say

  contrary to our interest to reduce the size of the paper

I want to say that we want to reduce the size of the paper but we cannot do it, due to specific reasons.


texts:
What is the proper usage of "has been" in the sentences below?

  He has been working on it.

He started working some time back (it may be near or long past) and still working.
He started working some time back and is now not working.
He started working some time back and one cannot say whether he is working still.
All of them are wrong: please give its meaning.

In a well-thought-of question and its answers, have been eating is shown as starting some time ago and ending a little before the present.

However, if I say "He has been working on it," does that mean that there is no possibility that having started to work on whatever it is  some time ago, he is still working on it? Does that construction always mean that work has stopped?

If there's a time mentioned, "He's been working on it for three months," does that make a difference?


texts:
I am trying to find the right definition of "hard" in this piece of writing:

  newspaper
  Looking for a tranquil hideaway after years as a paparazzi magnet, Mr. Frazier bought the single-level home on a one-acre property for $215,000 in 1979, while visiting St. Croix with his 12-year-old son, Walter III. He was shopping for a condominium, but instead fell hard for a house on hilly terrain with four tentacle-like columns that reminded him of a space ship.

There are many definitions for "hard"  What does "hard" in "fell hard for" mean in this particular situation?


texts:
Sometimes, making a poor design choice in the past prohibits the programmers from providing neat solutions in the future. You want to abandon the wrong route and start from scratch. Which word or phrase should you choose to stigmatize that bad choice and your situation?

I did not expect it to be a technical term. Might be just a proverb. You might explain to people that something is bad by recalling a proverb.


texts:
"Since gin to artifice bears the same relation as tears to mascara, her attractions at once dissembled."

Source: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Tears to mascara presumably refers to the similarity between the two, but what of the first the relationship between artifice and gin? What does this sentence mean?


texts: "It is...and it is" OR "It is...and is" OR "It is...and"

texts:
Which is the most correct?

It is a standard Python interface and it is shipped with Python.

OR

It is a standard Python interface and is shipped with Python.

OR

It is a standard Python interface and shipped with Python.


texts: I was looking at the wikiquote of Daffy Duck, when I noticed the word despicable. What is its origin? Is it Latin or Greek?


texts: What's the correct term for potato chips?

texts: In school I learned to say 'crisps' but I don't want to mix it with french fries. So what's the correct term for potato chips, and what synonyms are there?


texts: When is it appropriate to use "late" when referring to someone who has passed?

texts:
I could never figure this out. Is this structure only for those who have recently passed?

  The late Steve Jobs...

Or can I use it to refer to someone who died a long time ago?

  The late George Washington...


texts: "[Noun] upon [noun]" — singular or plural?

texts:
I am copy-editing a manuscript in which the author has written the following sentence:

  Rank upon rank of theologians has envisioned God the Father as the omniscient and omnipotent one.

"Rank upon rank" suggests plurality, so my instinct is to change "has" to "have". Am I right?

Alternatively, I'm tempted to suggest a more invasive change to avoid the awkwardness altogether. I suspect, however, that I personally do not understand how to handle countable and uncountable nouns with verbs, and I don't want to push this author unfairly toward a less creative sentence in the meantime.