texts:
I am looking for help to find incorrect one from the following four sentences:

- The forest was cloaked in darkness.
- The fox was cloaking behind a tree.
- She pulled her cloak tightly around her as she rushed through the streets.
- He used his store as a cloak for his criminal activities.

I need to find the wrong usage of the word "cloak." But every sentence looks correct to me... Google did not give me any clue because all of them are being used.

1. cloaked in darkness (416,000 results)
2. cloaking behind (426 results)
3. cloak around (180,000 results)
4. as a cloak for (235,000 results)

"cloaking behind" is less used but I see people say "something is cloaking behind clouds.", etc.. I am at a loss. All the four sentences look good.

I am using Longman Dictionary.
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/cloak

That page gives me four meanings.

Noun:
1 [countable] a warm piece of clothing like a coat without sleeves that hangs loosely from your shoulders
2 [singular] an organization, activity, or way of behaving that deliberately protects someone or keeps something secret
Verb:
1 to deliberately hide facts, feelings etc so that people do not see or understand them – used especially in news reports
2 literary to cover something, for example with darkness or snow

I guess the second sentence is wrong because the first sentence matches verb#1, the second does not match anything, the third matches noun#1 and the last one matches noun#2... But I do see "cloaking behind something" is used in some books although it is less used. Is there any logic or explanation that shows "cloaking behind something" usage is wrong?


texts:
How do I read the following sentences (especially in conversational speech)?

  The dog'll eat the bones.
  Tom'll go to school.
  Anna'll come tomorrow.

I mean the sound of 'll.


texts: Confusion about the compouding sentences with 'not to say'

texts:
If a sentence is formed like this,

  There is a deep ambivalence, not to say hypocrisy, when we notice that ..

I am confused what exactly the author emphasizing. Is he saying, the hypocrisy is obvious but I am highlighting the ambivalence; or is he drawing readers attention to 'ambivalence' and asking them not to confuse it with 'hypocrisy'?


texts: 'Complete a confusion' -- expression or confusion?

texts:
Is complete someone's confusion a popular expression that makes sense?

This expression pops up so often I wonder I am missing something here.

Does complete here mean to 'resolve'/ 'clarify'?

Blaise Pascal, et al., The provincial letters of Pascal, p314

  And is it necessary, in order to complete your confusion, to bring forward the words of M. de St. Cyran, in the same letter, in which he speaks of the sacrifice of the Mass as the most excellent of all, …

Sergey Fomin, Symmetric Functions 2001:, p.30

  To complete your confusion, we define another morphism a: #n_i,n ->F (15) sending (/n_i, /n) to (/n, P)-

Brown University: Man's contracting world in an expanding universe:, p165

  Then I shall make a summary statement to complete your confusion.

Although, I was imagining the expression should, if at all, mean further confounding, as in:

Jane Aiken Hodge, Runaway bride, p191

  "… And now, to complete your confusion, she too, is run off. It is not an edifying story, Mr. Gurning."


texts:
Oxford Dictionary defines the adverb even as:

  used to emphasize something surprising or extreme.
  "they have never even heard of the US"
  synonyms: surprisingly, unexpectedly, paradoxically
  "even the best hitters missed the ball"

  used in comparisons for emphasis.
  "he knows even less about it than I do"
  synonyms: still, yet, more, all the more
  "it got even colder"

Is there a stronger version of this? My example is:

  The LHC machine, even when it found the Higgs boson, _______ when it find the tachyon, is still only a combination of atoms.

Finding out the Higgs boson is already extraodinary, but being able find out the tachyon is unimaginable.


texts: "Has anyone run into the same problem" or "Does anyone run into the same problem"

texts:
What is the difference between "has anyone run into the same problem?" and "does anyone run into the same problem?" in a situation like:

  After midnight when I installed this new app on my system, the system stopped working. The screen went black. Does anyone run into the same problem? Or Has anyone run into the same problem?


texts:
Fewer birds came this year.

Does the above sentence say that more birds came last year than this year?
Could someone please explain whether the comparative adjective,'fewer' actually describes 'this year ' or 'birds'?


texts: What does “be at it” mean? Is it an idiom?

texts:
In the talk show titled “How Dogs Evolved Into 'Our Best Friends'” on NPR’s “Fresh Air” aired on November 8, naturalist Mark Derr offered an intriguing story about how humans and wolves developed a friendly relationship, and wolves evolved into today’s dogs.

  [Mark Derr] tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies that he believes humans and wolves developed a close relationship after recognizing themselves in each other while hunting on the trail of big game. "[That's when] they started traveling together, and they've been at it ever since," he says. "The dog is a creation of wolves and humans — of two equal beings that came together at a certain point in history and have been together ever since."

I thought “They’ve been at it ever since” means “they stayed in the same situation / status, or maintained the same (close) relationship,” from the context of the narration.

As I wasn’t sure whether “be at it” is an idiom or not, I consulted both Cambridge and Merriam-Webster online dictionaries, neither of which registers “be at it,” as an idiom, though Cambridge carries “hard at it” as a U.K idiom meaning “putting a lot of effort into what you’re doing."

On the other hand, Google Ngram provides a graph of “be at it” usage, which can be traced back to circa 1840. The incidence of usage started to decline once around 1940, and picked up again coming into 2000.

What does “be at it” mean in the above sentence? Is “be at it” an idiom, or simple combination of words, i.e. “They’ve been at it (the same place, status, position, level, relationship)”?

P.S. Wisdom English Japanese Dictionary at hand registers ‘be at it (again)’ as an idiom with definition ‘be involved aggressively in work,. quarrel, wicked deed, and “Yesterday, they were at it again” as an example of usage. However, I don’t think this definition applies to the above context at all.


texts: What does ”over” really mean in this sentence?

texts:
”The rain fell over New York City”. Does this mean that it rained in every place of the city? Or does it state where from the rain fell?

I’m very confused about this.


texts: "to + verb" at the beginning of each bullet point vs. single "to" + multiple verbs

texts:
With regard to bullet points stating objectives using verbs, is it better to repeat "to" at the beginning of each of them, or to introduce bare infinitives with a single shared "to"?

In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie, the objectives of the Ring are to:

Rule them all;
Find them;
Bring them all;
Bind them in the darkness.

vs.

In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie, the objectives of the Ring are:

To rule them all;
To find them;
To bring them all;
To bind them in the darkness.

Is one form more grammatically correct or common than the others? Someone here is suggesting that since the bullet points are objectives, the "to" structure should be repeated.

Thanks!


texts:
I'm trying to say something like "The submarine project something something" to mean an underwater project.

I can't find a concise way of saying it that makes it clear it has nothing to do with the vehicle.

Thoughts?


texts: How (in-)formal is it to say to "become/get hooked on/by something"? Are there differences in meaning?

texts:
I'm currently working on an application for a summer school and would like to say:

  When I heard that understanding X required something called Y, I immediately bought a book on this topic, only to later become hooked by Y itself.

(Both X and Y are placeholders for scientific fields)

Question 1: Is this too informal?

Moreover, I'm starting to wonder in how far the verb and the preposition matter here: Most dictionaries seem to suggest get hooked on something. but I went for the above combination of verb and preposition because:

In formal situations, I subconsciously tend to avoid get in favor of become. (This answer here seems to agree with this choice.)
For me, the preposition "on" somewhat implies excessiveness or even has a connotation of uncontrollable drug or substance abuse, neither of which is the meaning I'm trying to capture here of course.

But, as usual, the more one ponders the words, the more one starts to question their meaning… So I'd like to add some follow-up questions:

Question 2: Is it actually possible or common to say become hooked by something. in the first place? Mr Lister has pointed out in the comments that hooked by can have a totally different meaning, though a quick Google search suggests that this only seems to be the case for get hooked by. In contrast, become hooked by – despite the fact that it produces only a few thousand results (and that it can't compete with the get variant on Google Ngram) – seems to be used exclusively in a non-drug context and with pretty much precisely the meaning I'm intending. Example:

  I first read the paper as a final-year undergraduate student; I had
  become hooked by the study of behaviour and particularly fascinated by
  the evolution of animal signals.

  -- Candy Rowe: Receiver psychology: a receiver's perspective. In: Animal Behaviour, Volume 85, Issue 3, March 2013, Pages 517-523 (link containing quote)

Example 2:

  But traveling great distances is not uncommon for competitors who have
  become hooked by a sport that most people see only when the Winter
  Olympics roll around every four years.
  (source)

Question 3: Does get/become hooked on indeed imply excessiveness?

I apologize for asking three questions at once. I couldn't quite disentangle them to post three separate questions.

Finally, I'd very much appreciate suggestions in the comments for an alternative, formal expression for become hooked by, should the answers to the above questions mandate one.


texts:
I have seen this sentence in a status from one of my facebook friends. It doesn't sound right to me.

  We have only left the city for the day.

I think that it should be something like:

  We have left the city for only a day (just for a day).

Which one is correct and what is the usage of only with present perfect? I consider sentences like

  We have only seen a few of the sights of this marvelous city.

to be correct, but the above sentence just doesn't sound correct for me.


texts: Can there be two cases of pronoun in a sentence?

texts:
"She is doing her best to do the job"
The pronoun "her" is confusing me, it could be either in objective case 'cause it acts as object complement or in possessive case 'cause it modifies the noun "best"


texts: Is there a (British) English word for a printed week-by-week cleaning schedule?


texts: What is the name of a thing that can be present or absent?

texts: It is an arbitrary, abstract thing. Its only interesting quality is that it can be present or absent. I'd settle for a thing that exists or doesn't exist, is here or not here, etc. I'm just after a single word to describe this thing.


texts: How do I state the sameness of some number of objects?

texts:
How do you say something is identical and having a quantity greater than two using “(the) same”?

Which is right among below? If there’s no right form, please let me know the right form to describe what I’m trying to say.

Plus, if I have to add “the” somewhere in the phrase, where should it be?

  a. two same pencils
  b. same two pencils
  c. the same two pencils
  d. the two same pencils


texts: Can you use obverse/reverse when referring to a sheet of paper?

texts:
Is it acceptable to use 'obverse and reverse' when referring to the sides of a loose-leaf sheet of paper?

The wikipedia article on, "Obverse and Reverse" stated that:

  "Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics."

I'm aware of verso and recto, but I've only seen it refer to pages bound together.


texts: A word to express "win by a narrow margin"

texts:
What is a better way to say
Team A won by a narrow margin?
How can I succinctly express that in the end, me and the opponent were neck to neck?


texts: Is it a misprint or a correct expression 'I could have also have called the method without brackets'?

texts:
I want to know the following sentence is correct or contains a misprint.

I could have also have called the method without brackets, as these are optional in Ruby and can make the syntax much more readable.

Thanks for your answers.


texts: Why is "digression" pronounced with /ai/?

texts: Why is "digression" pronounced  with /ai/, while other similar words (like dimension)  are pronounced with /i/? moreover, some derivatives, like digressional can be pronounced with both /ai/ and /i/? according to some of the dictionaries, both /i/ and /ai/ are acceptable, but most of the dictionaries still offer only /ai/ version.


texts: Substituting "comes to" with "expresses as/as to" for equivalence

texts:
Ex. "passing the exam can be expressed as to get high marks above ten". I wanted to say "passing the exam comes to get high marks above ten"
Is this sentence correct? How to use "expresses..as" in such a scenario please?


texts:
Saw the title of the movie where minions come out - "Despicable Me" - I was curious, as despicable has the suffix -able, what would be its verb form? Then, I thought, is it de-spice? Which made me read it de-spice-able.
However, after looking up the dictionary, I found that its verb form is despise and it is pronounced de-spik-able. Isn't it okay to use "despisable?" How did this happen? Are there more adjectives like this?


texts:
What are your favourite words and idioms in other languages that don't have good, succinct equivalents in English?
(The issue of whether there is, or could be, a sentence on one language whose meaning could not be made known in another is a different, albeit interesting, philosophical question.)

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: Is there a single word for reasoned action?

texts:
I'm looking for a single word which means "a well thought out action".

In other words, if someone were to plan something carefully, and act on that plan.

For example, a general faces an intractable foe on the battlefield, but thinks carefully on the solution and then acts - defeating the opponent easily. What could we call the action?

N.B. While interesting, I'm not really looking for words which imply "underhanded" or "risky".


texts:
I have been interested in the expression "dooryard stop" recently.  This is an expression that is used to describe a short visit in someone's dooryard (driveway) that often means not staying long enough to even get out of the car.  It is the opposite of what could be called  conversational dieseling.

I have used it all my life, and only recently learned that it is native to Maine (my home state), and pretty much no one else has ever heard of it. I find this peculiar.

My first thought was that dooryard was a hold over from our English roots, but the Free Dictionary indicates that it is "US and Canadian" usage. (I suppose if you overlap the US and Canada, you get Maine.) Indeed, Urban Dictionary describes is usage as limited to Aroostook County, the northernmost part of Maine along the Quebec border.

Merriam-Webster puts its first recorded use around 1764 and draws the parallel with barnyard and backyard, and describes it as the yard in front of the door of the house. I believe that nowadays, Mainers would tell you it means the same thing as driveway, which makes sense given that the driveway usually runs beside the kitchen door of the houses here, which would be the entrance for informal guests.

Can anyone tell me more about the history of this word, and does anyone know about the actual extent of its usage? I have a hard time believing such a simply formed word is restricted to such a small population.


texts: "What a good news" vs. "such a good news"

texts:
I have just got a great news. I don't know what to say:

  Such a good news.

or

  What a good news.

The context should be formal (I am talking about hiring).


texts: Difference between (Both. . .and ) and ( Not only . . . but also )

texts:
I have a question about (Both. . .and )  and  ( Not only . . . but also )
What is difference between those two? Or I can use any of them?

I like both cats and dogs.

Not only do I like cats but also dogs too.


texts: Can you start a sentence with "Hopefully,..."?

texts:
I am studying for the SAT, and I learned just now that the following sentence is grammatically incorrect:

  Hopefully, we will be able to complete the building before the rainy season sets in.

The reason why it's incorrect is given in my study book: hopefully is an adverb, and yet it is not modifying a verb in this sentence.

I don't see how this is the case, because hopefully is modifying the verb complete. And why is that according to Google Dictionary, the following sentence is correct:

  Hopefully, it should be finished by next year.


texts: Is the adjective "decadent" suitable to be used in the context "a decadent cheesecake"?


texts: Is there a word that means "what a shame"?

texts:
Is there a word that means "what a shame!"?

Here's the context: there's a women, Cher Lair, being interviewed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She's a mother of 6 sons and has finally found out she is pregnant with a daughter - her dream come true. Her husband tells Ellen that, having given up hope of ever having a girl, they gave away the box of baby girl's clothes Cher had been collecting over the years. Here is what I'm trying to say:

  "When Steven explains they are going to have to start over with shopping for the girl, Cher interrupts with the minor verb phrase “I did”, emphasising the irony and [what a shame!] of giving away the box."

The only word I can think of is misfortune. Does anyone know a word meaning "what a shame!" that fits into the sentence?


texts: What does the phrase "held in confidence" mean?

texts:
I recently came across this sentence:

  Thank them for their time and remind them that answers will be held in
  confidence.

Simplifying things, if I said "Your answers will be held in confidence", what exactly would that mean? Does it mean that I have confidence in their answers? What does it mean to hold their answers (or anything) in confidence?


texts: At my school, I realized that most of my teachers use the phrase "skip class/school" while only a few of them use the word "truancy/truant". So, my question is what is the difference between these alternatives?


texts: What is the difference between "meaning" and "definition"?

texts:
They seem to be used interchangeably, yet somehow, I feel there is a difference.

Are there situations when one would use "definition" above "meaning", or "meaning" instead of "definition"?  For example:

  He gave the definition/meaning of the word "blow".

as well as

  The dictionary gave definitions/meanings of all words starting with 'o'.

In the second example, why does "definition" sound more correct to me? Is there a kind of distinction when to use one or the other?


texts:
Is there a verb to describe the act of telling a lie unintentionally?

Lying is not telling the truth intentionally as far as I know, but what if someone makes a mistake when telling a testimony in court or forgets a certain detail when describing something unintentionally?


texts: Idiom for a person who is above any question

texts:
I read somewhere a sentence which said about a political leader that he is the "holy something" whose actions cannot be questioned.

The context was to describe that even though this man does bad things, due to his power people are afraid to question his actions. I can not remember the correct idiom, so please help. If you know any similar idiom that can be used in such a context, that would also be great.


texts: spelling: αs or α-s, when referring to alphas as in more than one alpha?

texts: When referring the more than one alpha, is the correct spelling αs or α-s?


texts: Looking for the word to describe this natural quality

texts:
I'm trying to look for that word to describe this natural quality that all humans have. It's a basic word, and the word basically means/describe something like, capable of feeling, and the ability to realize what's happening in your surroundings. Babies do not yet have this quality/ability, but it will gradually develop as a child enters probably the age of 3.

So, as an example to illustrate this, lets say, an 8 year old boy with Dwarfism is a patient at a hospital, and without the child's consent the doctor orders him to strip naked except the underpants and enters a room full of students where the boy is used as a visual aid in a lecture on Dwarfism anatomy and disease. One might think this is totally fine, the child is fine and that he's just a little boy. However, a child has [that word] too, so on the outside he might appear okay and unaffected, but that's just because he is unable to express his opposition and displeasure under the doctor's authority, but really he is embarrassed, upset or even terrified because even an 8 year old has [that natural quality].


texts: What do you call the wave-like bumps that are formed in damanged aluminium surfaces?

texts:
Example:

I'm referring to the wave-like bumps on that dog house's roof. What do you call them?


texts: To indirectly and politely ask about something "I wanted to" vs "I would like to"

texts:
When asking someone for some information indirectly which one is preferable?

"I wanted to" e.g. "I wanted to ask your advice on ..."

"I would like to" e.g. "I would like to ask about your advice on..."


texts: Compliments — for people, things or both?

texts: Are compliments applicable both to people and things, or to people only?


texts: Usage of "well-intended" vs. "well-intentioned"

texts:
It seems to me that the adjective well-intended is properly applied to an action, whereas well-intentioned is properly applied to an actor.

For example, suppose John observes that Mary's car is dirty and, meaning to be helpful, washes it for her. We would properly describe John as "well-intentioned", and the washing as "well-intended" (nevermind that he unknowingly used an abrasive brush and scratched up the car's finish). Conversely, it would be improper usage to describe John as "well-intended", or the washing as "well-intentioned".

In other words:

well-intended = done with good intentions
well-intentioned = acting with good intentions

Agree or disagree?


texts:
I'm teaching English in a non-English-speaking country where plural "s" and third-person "s" get confused a lot with no "s" at all. The dialogue in the textbook was explaining how you should respond when someone compliments you:

  Mike: For example, when you have a new bag, I can say, "I like your bag."
  Yuki: What should I say then?
  Mike: You should say, "Thanks."
  Yuki: Should I say anything else?
  Mike: No. Just "Thanks."

I was asked what the "s" in "Thanks" means, but I couldn't give a straight answer. I know in the phrase "give thanks" it's a plural noun, but what about when it's used as an interjection? Why does it go from "Thank you" to "Thanks"?


texts:
I've encountered both variants:

My goal is to make sure we are safe.
My goal is making sure we are safe.

Another example:

His biggest challenge is making sure all the wood is legal.
His biggest challenge is to make sure all the wood is legal.

In the American English Corpus "is to make sure" is three times more common than "is making sure." But beyond that is there a difference in usage or meaning?


texts:
Are these two sentences same?

  With the exception of Rob and me, everyone in the class finished
  the assignment before the teacher came.

  With the exception of Rob and me, everyone in the class had
  finished the assignment before the teacher came.

On searching, I found that "had finished" is the correct usage. Is it because it is followed by "before the teacher came"?

If I remove the "before the teacher came" from the first sentence, to make it-

  With the exception of Rob and me, everyone in the class finished the
  assignment.

will it be (grammatically) correct?


texts:
While learning about implications in predicate logic I came across a conditional statement,

  Statement P is true implies statement Q is true is equivalent to Statement Q is true unless statement P is not true.

But it seems counter intuitive to me, probably because of the word unless.
Can anybody please explain it to me that how they are equivalent.


texts: What does "Your team kicking serious butt" mean?

texts: Someone said "Your team kicking serious butt" to me in an email. Does that mean that he thinks my team is awesome? I feel it may have a similar meaning to "kick ass" but I'm not sure and can't find this in dictionaries. Hope someone can help to clarify. Thanks.


texts: Which is more common - 'the most' or 'most'?

texts:
A thing I have never had the time to look more closely into. But I find both variants:

  What I love most is ...

or

  What I love the most is ...

I think the more common form is 'the most', and I think 'most' is only a matter of shortening the adverbial. But I may be mistaken. It might also be that it is a thing of regional or individual preferences or that American and British usage diverge.


texts: To use a participle or an infinitive in comparison patterns?

texts:
As far as I know, this sentence works:

You are better off leaving now than later.

So, if I am to express, "Statistically you are more creative if you are a person who leaves you bed messy than if you are a person who makes your bed tidy," do the following sentences work?

Statistically you are more creative leaving your bed messy than making it tidy. (1)

Statistically you are more creative to leave your bed messy than to make it tidy. (2)

Statistically you are more creative to leave your bed messy than making it tidy. (3)

Statistically you are more creative leaving your bed messy than to make it tidy. (4)


texts: Should I be putting the quote symbol every time someone is saying something?

texts: Serina saw a reflection of light, now with Aron behind her she searched where she had seen the glistening. “What is it?” he asked “I don’t know it’s almost… All the sudden she stopped and screamed while standing there as if she was paralyzed. Serina what is it? What happened?  “I-I-It was singing” she said in reply. Singing? Well more like there was wind blowing inside causing a whistling sound, it stopped once I let go of it. Aron picked it up but nothing happened, so why doesn’t work when I hold it? Maybe it’s broke. Aron went to give it to her but she jumped back. Just hold it “No!” she yelled, okay then hold it with me. So she did but once they both touched it…


texts: Does "a couple of" always mean exactly two?

texts: As in the title. Does the expression a couple of always have to mean exactly two (like a pair of) or can it mean more (things/objects)? I know a couple, at least in one of its meanings, means a pair (like the happy couple) but as an amount specifier does it also always mean exactly two?


texts: Like charges repel each other while opposite charges attract, why "like" is used here instead of "same"?

texts: Could anyone explain the difference between those two words, and how to use one instead of another?


texts: How to express "to look at more or all sides" and "consider more or all views" for a thing?

texts:
One commonly looks at something from his own viewpoint.
Sometimes, we suggest somebody look at something from another view or in an overall view.

I hope this could make it clearly.

I want some opposites of 'one-sided'. or something like this.

one side -> on the other hand -> all sides

one view -> multiple view -> all views


texts: How to refer to a noun that has been introduced using "another"?

texts:
For example: "A and B constitute a C. A and B1 constitute another C."
If I want to refer to the second C, what article should I use? For some reason, I cannot use "the first C... the second C". Should I just say "the C"?


texts: What does safety-valve mean in terms of a "safety-valve caporegime" in Godfather?

texts:
I recently came across some terminology in the Godfather novel and do not understand the exact meaning behind the word. The appropriate quote from the novel is:

...The first person he called was Luca Brasi. There was no answer.
Then he called the safety-valve caporegime in Brooklyn, a man of
unquestioned loyalty to the Don. This man's name was Tessio.

I understand that caporegime within the Italian-American mafia is a rank within the family. I also understand what a safety valve is within other contexts (e.g. within pressure systems to release pressure to avoid a disaster). I have never heard the terminology referring to a person, however.
From context clues elsewhere in the novel, I think it might refer to someone who is used in emergencies. This also ties in with the pressure-system usage. It also seems to be used to describe other caporegimes in different scenarios, as opposed to just a one off. This made me think it's potentially an actual term/rank.
I would like to confirm the difference between a safety-valve caporegime and a regular caporegime. I'd also like to understand if this terminology is used for other people/contexts, as I've never heard it used in this way before. I'd also be interested if this is a real rank/use within the Italian-American mafia, though I understand that may be out of scope for English.SE.


texts: Word or phrase for "make someone see dreams"

texts:
Is there a better way to say "make somebody see dreams", e.g. in the sentence

  Don't make me see dreams when I know they won't come to be true.


texts:
Considering the sentence:

  AD 1453, the city of Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman empire.

Is this a complete sentence?

From what I understand of the situation:

The era designator 'AD' is an abbreviation for 'Anno Domini',
meaning 'In the year of the Lord'.
By that reasoning, 'AD 1453' is a complete dependent clause.

Disregarding any current practice regarding
  AD vs CE,
  factual accuracy,
  or other concerns,
is this actually a complete sentence?

What would be the recommended arrangement
for using 'AD' as an era designator
in this situation?

Alternate ways of writing it might include
  placing the era designator after the year,
  placing the words 'in'/'in the year'/etc. before the date,
  or a combination of changes.
Which of those alternatives would be the most correct way to use 'AD' as an era designator?


texts: one word for someone who can make sense out of numbers or data

texts:
I have to describe someone with a quality that he can read the story behind the numbers or data given to him. I didn't want to use Analyst.
let me know if there is another word for it


texts: Why does "contrary" have two different pronunciations?

texts:
I have the impression all Anglophones pronounce contrary with stress on the second syllable (cont-RARE-ee) when applied to a person's actions or disposition, as in:

  Mary Mary quite contrary,
  How does your garden grow?
  With silver bells and cockle shells
  And pretty maids all in a row.

...but it's nearly always stressed on the first syllable (CONT-rər-ee) in all other contexts.

It's still the same word, and I can't really see any difference in meaning apart from that which arises naturally by virtue of it being applied to a person, rather than something abstract/inanimate.

Is my impression correct? If so, is there any reason? It can't just be for the sake of that well-known nursery rhyme, can it?

I know I probably shouldn't ask, but are there any other cases where "the same word" has a different stress pattern according to context? (I'm not counting things like You don't haff to do that, where the consonant can change according to whether the word is stressed or not.)


texts: Origin of the slang AmE and BrE usage of "beef"

texts:
Beef  began its life as an intransitive verb in 1888 and soon took on the noun meaning in 1899  appearing in such expressions as "What's your beef? and "I had a beef with him"  (not a steak).
Beef as  verb [1888] Slang (originally U.S.): To complain, gripe, grumble, protest. Hence verbal noun ‘beefing.’ Earlier it meant to talk loudly or idly.

1888 “He'll beef an' kick like a steer an' let on he won't never wear 'em.”—New York World, 13 May

Beef as noun [1899] Slang (originally U.S.): A complaint, protest, grievance, gripe, objection, argument, a bone of contention.

1899 “He made a Horrible Beef because he couldn't get Loaf Sugar for his Coffee.”—Fables in Slang (1900) by George Ade, page 80

Regarding its origin I could find two main assumptions:
according to Etymonline it comes from American soldiers slang:

The origin and signification are unclear; perhaps it traces to the common late 19c. complaint of U.S. soldiers about the quantity or quality of beef rations.

While this extract from  Quora suggests that is origin is from rhyming slang:

As regards the etymology of beef, it seems to go back to the cry of hot beef! meaning ‘stop thief!’ (quasi-rhyming slang but more by coincidence than design, since it is far older than rhyming slang's first widespread use in the 1820s-30s); thus the 18th century cry hot beef, to raise a hue and cry. This became ‘to raise an alarm’ or ‘make a fuss’ - the presence of crime was now irrelevant - and thence ‘to shout’. The 'complain' use followed that. Then (both in the late 19th century) came ‘to argue’, ‘to give someone away to the authorities’, and so on.

The figurative usage of "beef" appears to be mainly and originally an AmE one, so the reference to American soldiers (and possibly cowboys) sounds reasonable, but the rhyming slang assumption would make it a BrE expression which, for some reason, became popular in the U.S., or  are we talking about two different stories which originated the same expression?

In short, is there a plausible and reliable origin of the figurative usage of "beef"?
Related: Do you have a beef with me?


texts:
Katy Perry has a pop dance song titled California Gurls.

What does Gurls mean in that context?

For me, after readying the lyrics, it's about California Girls; is this spelling  something Katy did just for fun?


texts:
There's a Portuguese expression that refers to someone who can't sleep at night (for whatever reason: worry, a colicky baby, finishing a project before the deadline, a night-long party, etc) which is

passar a noite em claro or em branco

literaly translated as

to spend the night in light or in white though one could also more freely attempt to say 'in blank'.

Is there a similar idiom in English?

I've come across the expression 'lose sleep' in several online dictionaries, but that is usually defined as being associated with worry. 'To have a bad night' and 'to toss and turn' are also not what I'm looking for as they are also associated to worry and difficulty falling asleep, while the Portuguese one simply refers to not sleeping, whether for bad reasons (more common) or for nicer ones.

Example of usage:

I'm really tired. I spent the night awake finishing the history essay.

Let me guess: you spent a night awake again, didn't you? What was it this time?


texts: Is there a word for a name that has multiple words that means more than the words imply?

texts:
This is a bit hard to explain, so let's try an example.

There is something called "rock art", which means human-made markings placed on natural stone.

Those two words when put together have a specific meaning. The name on the other hand may imply that any art made of rocks could be called rock art.

Is there any way to describe this type of name/phrase?


texts:
What I have proposed is that we should have begun to think seriously    about a thorough reform in the legal system.
  What I am proposing is that we begin to think seriously about a    thorough reform in the legal system.

Which one is the correct one. For me the latter seems correct as in suggestions "should" may be omitted and " I am proposing" is in present form.
But some of my colleagues made me confuse, please could you help me ?!


texts: Should I use a hyphen with a latin phrase that modifies an adjective that modifies a noun?

texts:
I understand that Latin phrases are not normally hyphenated. I also understand that adjective-modifying adverbs normally do receive a hyphen (despite this parenthetically invoked exception). So, which is most correct?

Option A: There is no ex ante profitable strategy.

Option B: There is no ex ante-profitable strategy.

Option C: There is no ex-ante-profitable strategy.

I am leaning toward B, then A, and definitely away from C.


texts: Is there a verb-form of "affirmative action"

texts:
"Affirmative Action" is a noun sometimes used to describe legislation and government-programs which given women, and people of color, higher-priority in college admission decisions, than persons of white skin and males.
Is there a verb for "Affirmative Action?"


texts:
Is the word dysphoria now colloquially only attributed to gender dysphoria?

I recently used the word to describe general anxiety and people assumed I was talking about gender dysphoria.

Can the word be used when talking about general anxiety or distress?


texts: How many syllables are there for "laboratory"

texts:
When I try Google, it says 5 syllables (and so do most top result websites): lab·o·ra·to·ry (the dots do not matter, it explicitly states that there are 5 syllables).

However, the pronunciation as well as its sound sound like 4 to me: /ˈlabrəˌtôrē/ (You can try the sound from Google).

How exactly do you pronounce it? How many syllables are there? If 5, why is it 5 when I can only hear 4?


texts: The difference between "have been able to" and "was able to"

texts:
I have been able to buy the house I spoke of the other day.   (1)

Does (1) mean that I bought the house?

I was able to buy the house I spoke of the other day.         (2)
I was able to buy the house I had spoken of the other day.    (3)

Do (2) and (3) have the same meaning as (1)?


texts: Expression for a transaction where there was no change or advantage

texts:
I'm looking for an expression to describe a situation where there was a transaction where some kind of advantage was expected but in the end there was not actual change or advantage.

I was trying to describe a scenario where one owns a business, say a pawnshop, that involves multiple complicated transactions, but for various reasons, in the end of the month she finds out all her trades resulted neither in profit nor loss.

I've considered status quo ante but I see that expression mostly applied to situations where a change was attempted on a situation, and not for transactions between two parties where a trade of some sort is attempted.

There's also six of one half a dozen of the other, but I understand that as a comparison of two things that are identical, but not outcomes of situations.


texts: Using 'for' as a coordinating conjunction at the beginning of a sentence – is this acceptable?

texts:
As I understand it, 'for' is a coordinating conjunction. Learning German as a second language has taught me specifics about reforming sentences, but it is an awful lot less common in English. If I were to rearrange the sentence: "I ate lunch, for I was hungry," so that 'for' was the first word of the sentence, by my reckoning I should end up with "For that I was hungry, I ate lunch." Does this new sentence have any grammatical errors? I inserted the word 'that' after 'for', because without it the sentence didn't sound right. Should I have? Is there a rule for that? Thank you in advance, an aspiring author.

Additional Information:
 I am not having problems with the sentence, this is a general question to increase my knowledge of the manipulations of coordinating conjuntions.


texts:
Here’s a sentence I wrote:

These kids are not able to concentrate on a subject for a long period of time. They sit in front of a desk for five minutes, and then go on to/stop to seek distraction.

What I am trying to say here is that these kids have quite short attention spans, so they need to have a bit of break every five minutes(crazy as it may sound).
Is the expression in bold correct? If not, how would you say it instead?


texts:
I would write a dialogue piece between a mother and a son who are having a heated argument over something. The son is very angry at his mother because he is suffering from disease and frustrated with his mother as she is not listening to what he is saying and instead, is busy in herself

  .

  .

  Son: JUST GO AWAY AND KEEP PLAYING YOUR ONLINE GAME. YOU ARE SO
  IRRESPONSIBLE ....rant....

  Mother(in a calm manner): I don't have to play it anymore. I have
  already crossed the level I was playing.

  .

  .

It seems that mother is not able to pacify her son and she is clueless about why he is angry. She is not even taking her son's anger seriously which obviously adds to the resentment in the child.

What is this mother doing here?

The mother is acting ______ and not acknowledging her son's anger which was expressed in a sarcastic manner(reverse psychology gone wrong).

She is talking about the trivial issues and not focusing on the 'argument', possibly unable to read between the lines.


texts: "unable to be" used with incorrect subject?

texts:
I see this phrase used a lot, and always thought it to be incorrect, but I see more and more people using it so I'd like to find out if I am wrong or not.
As an example the following sentences:

The samples were unable to be collected.
Sampling was unable to be performed.

It seems to me that the subject here are the samples or the sampling, therefore it is incorrect to use "unable to be" when they are describing an action that was to be done by someone else.
I would rather say one of the following

We were unable to perform the sampling.
We were unable to collect the samples.
The samples could not be collected.
The sampling could not be performed.

Do these last two have the same meaning?


texts: Why doesn't the English language have distinct words to use when talking to elders?

texts:
In many of the languages that I've studied there are separate distinctions in the words to use when talking to elders and when talking to someone of your age or younger.

For e.g. in Hindi, if I wanted to ask you to do something, I would say:

To an elder:

  kya Aap ye karoge ?

To someone my age or younger :

  kya Tu ye karega ?

If I try to translate this to English, it merely comes to "Will you do it?". There is no consideration for elders or so I think. The closest I can think is when I try to say it comically, like that Indian guy from any of the sitcoms (think Apu from The Simpsons), " I respectfully ask you to do it ". So why is it so ??

Note: The original title of the question was "Why is the English language so rude?"


texts: "over the period of" or "over the period"?

texts:
Which one is correct?

  I visited four countries over the period of 2010 to 2014.

or

  I visited four countries over the period 2010 to 2014.


texts: The adjective 'dynamical' is widely used in astronomy, perhaps science in general, but it seems like it has the exact same meaning and usage as 'dynamic', and further, seems to be the same part of speech.  Is this even real word?  Should it have particular uses?  Should it be not allowed to play with other words?


texts:
Why do we use article 'the' with names of fairytale characters?
For example, Peg the Hen, Fuzzy the Hamster, Cheeky the parakeet?


texts: I came across the word 'ham' in an article which was used to refer to an actor. I referred the dictionary. But I was unclear of the fact that how can it be used to refer to an actor?


texts: When an author lets you decide what happened?

texts:
Is there a word to describe when an Author doesn't fully explain a particular scenario, and leaves it rather ambiguous, so that the reader may decide what happened?

SPOILERS for Mockingjay and Life of Pi (mouse over to see):

   For example: In Mockingjay, was it Gale who killed Prim?
 Life of Pi: Was the whole story fake, with Pi substituting humans as animal form?

So yeah... The word for when an author leaves an ambiguous ending... Is it just called that? an 'ambiguous ending'?


texts: Reference for present perfect subjunctive

texts:
I was wondering if anyone knows of a published reference for a subjunctive of this form:

  It is not possible that Alice have raised her hand that day and the prisoner be still alive.

I have been told that this is an example of a subjunctive present perfect, and even managed to find an example on wikipedia at
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=English_subjunctive&oldid=740284437#Compound_forms.2C_auxiliaries_and_modals:

  Occasionally, a present perfect subjunctive is seen, as in `It is important that he have completed two years of Spanish before graduation'.

but I have been unable to find a published example using a that-clause and the present perfect. Any ideas?


texts: Can the word "slash" (/) be used in writing?

texts:
I wasn't entirely sure how to word this question, so allow me to explain.

Often I come across writers using the word "period" to indicate adamance and finality, especially when in the first-person narrative. For example (from the top of my head, not sourced):

  Cathy wasn't going to let him get the better of her. Period.

Or perhaps:

  "I'm not eating that. Period."

I was wondering, has "slash" ever been used in a similar way, to indicate "/"? I understand that the word "period" and the punctuation mark "." are not synonymous in these examples, or ever are when being used, but the question still stands.

This is what I was hoping to write:

  ...and Aline, apprentice slash roommate with a..."

Or would it be better just to display it regularly?:

  ...and Aline, apprentice/roommate with a..."

I'd like to also add that this is purely for stylistic reasons.


texts: Is there any one word to describe people who don't prefer the product?

texts:
In terms of marketing, is there any simple word to describe non-preference in  a particular product?

Like Pick-up truck non-preferred type?


texts: Is it possible to split "not" and "always" in a sentence?

texts:
Could someone please help me understand why "not always" is grouped in the examples below? What grammatical rule is being broken by splitting them?

Not the cheapest options are always available - sounds incorrect
It is not always the cheapest options that are available - sounds correct
The cheapest options are not always available - sounds correct


texts: You pay a payment and you receive a what?

texts:
I am confused as to what word can you to mean the opposite of a payment (some cash flow that you receive).

Is it "receipt"?


texts: What will we call person who likes to study at the day time?

texts: Some people who like to study at night are called night owls but what do we call a person who likes to study at day time?


texts: Why do american people use the word "Tube" instead of "TeleVision"?

texts:
Do the following sentences make sense in modern English if I replace the word "Television" with "Tube"?

Any ball games on the tube tonight?
I was watching a horror movie on the tube.


texts: An adjective for a "scene" that has a lot of different things in it?

texts:
Considering all different views, we see how ----- the scene about phenomenon X is.

I want an adjective for the blank above, an adjective that means "containing a lot of different things".

I found this word "varietal" but it seems to be used mostly for biological usages.


texts: Capital or lowercase letter after a formula?

texts:
Often when creating reports for labs or something like that I find myself writing something like:

Question is:

As the formula is often on its own line, once I say "(...) where e (...)" should the 'W' be capital or lowercase? What I mean is that changing from formula back to text is like starting a new line.

Additional question (if I am allowed):

In the preamble to the formula "(...) for any real number x (...)", should I put a colon (:), a comma (,), a dot (.), or nothing (as it is in this question)?

The possibilities are

"(...) for any real number x, eix (...)",
f(x)=(z-y)e0.01-0.01x+y
"(...) for any real number x: eix (...)",
"(...) for any real number x. eix (...)"
and as it is in the question (no punctuation after "x").

Note: In wikipedia they use a dot.


texts:
I have just come across this sentence, which sounds a little strange to me.

I do have friends, just none that live nearby.

I would have said "just none (of them) live nearby."

Is it possible to add "of them" in this sentence? And omit the "that"? In short, are those three options correct?

I do have friends, ...

a) ...just none that live nearby.
b) ...just none of them live nearby.
c) ...just none live nearby.

Thanks.


texts: What does it mean when your stepdaughter puts a picture of herself and her boyfriend and I wish them the best and her reply is  thank you but my happiness is you and my dad


texts: I saw a picture of a student's test where one of the questions was "Write down Einstein's equation.", and the student answered "Einstein's equation". I know it is a joke, but is this a wrong interpretation ? Is there any ambiguity ? From the context, it is clear what the teacher is asking.  If the question was "Write down Einstein." then it is clear that the answer is "Einstein". What should the question be if I want the student to answer "Einstein's equation".  Is it " Write down 'Einstein's equation'. "


texts: Single-word alternative to "that required intervention"

texts:
I'm trying to describe a process that, though intended to be fully automated, instead required human intervention in a particular instance, owing to unspecified difficulties with the process. I'm looking for a single word to replace X in this sentence:

  This meeting is to discuss X processes.

where the sense of the sentence is

  This meeting is to discuss processes that required intervention.

I also want to avoid anything that has significant negative connotations. For example, bungled might be accurate, but wouldn't work in this case.

What is a single-word alternative to the phrase "that required intervention"?


texts: Is there a word for 'using what you have learnt'?

texts:
Does a word for 'using what you have learnt' (or with a similar meaning) exist in the English language?

I looked up on Google and reverse-search dictionaries, but haven't come across such a term.

I intend to use the word instead of the blank in the following semi-example:

  She has the ability to ____ and apply her knowledge in real life.


texts: Ms. or Mrs. if you don't know the marriage status

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When is it appropriate to use the title “Miss” as opposed to “Ms.”?

To my understanding:

Ms. => Not married.
Mrs. => Married.

However, if one doesn't know the marriage status of the other party, what is the correct term to use?

Ms/Mrs may be a possibility, but I am wondering if there is a one word version such as "Mr" regardless of their marriage status.


texts: Combine these two sentence with relative pronoun

texts:
Can I combine these two sentences:

I'll never forget the time.
We were a happy couple then.

To

  I'll never forget the time that we were a happy couple.

And more, without "that"

  I'll never forget the time we were a happy couple.

I remember we can use a sentence to describe the objective.


texts: Using past perfect with conclusion words

texts:
Is the past perfect tense necessary when using conclusion words (so, therefore, thus)? Does the meaning of conclusory words imply that the verb contained in the conclusion occur after the verb in the premise, and thus, the past perfect is not necessary?

  I arrived at the airport early, so I didn't miss my flight.

  I had arrived at the airport early, so I didn't miss my flight.

Thanks.


texts: What is the difference between 'sometime' and 'sometimes'?

texts:
I wrote an erroneous sentence recently. My teacher corrected it.
Here is the sentence.

Thus, the driver experiences a poor vision while driving, or sometime a faulty vision due to reflection of water droplets.


texts: Appropriate Phrasing: The ensuing topics are

texts:
I'm co-writing the editorial for an upcoming magazine and I am unsure about the phrasing of a particular sentence. Is the usage of the word "ensuing" appropriate in the following sentence?:

  The ensuing topics are of scientific, philosophical, investigative and
  literary nature.

The sentence is supposed to serve as an introduction to the magazine's main focus and is preceded and followed by two other introductory sentences:

  The basic idea of the following publication is the multi-perspective
  contemplation of a thing, fundamental to humans: the misrepresentation
  of reality. The ensuing topics are of scientific, philosophical,
  investigative and literary nature. The goal is an attempt at compiling insights into the multitude of ways and reasons how and why people perceive, believe and deceive.

What would be an appropriate alternative? I welcome all advice on how to improve the phrasing.


texts: Is there a word for occurring four times a week?

texts: I am trying to use this word to say how often my basketball team meets to practice.


texts: Why don't our poor hands get the same Latin-rooted medical care as our feet?

texts: If we want our feet checked, we go to a podiatrist, if we want our hearts checked, we go to a cardiologist. Why, then, if we have a hand problem, do we go to a hand surgeon or a hand doctor and not a manologist?


texts:
I would like to know if you can use "that" with a comma after it. For example:

Findings show that, during the initial stages of love, there is increased blood flow to the brain.


texts: Difference in usage of terms "company" and "firm"

texts:
In a meaning of officially registered and bounded business unit. Like "Microsoft" or "Apple" or "ZARA" or copy shop round the corner.
In some books on management/entrepreneurship authors use both words interchangeably without understandable logic. Somewhere I heard that "company" is mostly about a smaller business than "firm".
I tried to ask people around me (they are actually not native English-speakers, but more close to them than me - Netherlands) but their proposals sometimes were almost opposing.
In some cases ex. "law firm" it's more like a set phrase, but what could be a general approach?


texts: Was the Queen's English as we know it artificially created?

texts:
There is a theory that American English is in fact a great deal closer in terms of pronunciation to the language Shakespeare spoke than the official British version, a.k.a. the Queen's English.

Proponents of this theory maintain that British aristocracy invented its own "high tone" pronunciation in order to distance themselves from the lower classes - sometime in the 19th Century (i.e. during Queen Victoria's reign), and that Cockney is a failed attempt to imitate said aristocracy.

I couldn't find any essays or monographs that deal with this issue directly. Allusions can be found here and there, in numerous articles.

Is this true?


texts: What part of speech are the words the, a, my, that, your, each, every, etc, or what category do they fall under?

texts:
What part of speech are

the
a
my
that
your
each
every

etc, or what category do they fall under?

The reason I am asking this is that I am programming a sentence generator, and my sentence structure looks a bit like this:

[noundesc] [adj][0 to 2] [noun] [verb-ed]or[verb-s] [noundesc] [adj][0 to 2] [noun]

Actually, this is just one of the sentence variations, but I'm just using it as an example. Right now I'm referring to them as "noundesc"s (short for "noun describers"), because I don't have a good name.

I have found that "this," "that," "these," and "those" are called demostrative pronouns, but that does not encompass all of these words.

What is a name for these types of words? I need a name so I can search for a list of them, which I will use in my sentence generator. Are these just special kinds of adjectives, and if so, is there any special name for them?


texts:
can I use this sentences in my slogan?

  helping business the "online" way

or

  growing business the "online" way

I get the idea from this sentences "helping business the right way."

or I must add a "through".

helping business through the "online" way

It looks strange for me. Please correct me if it is not suitable.


texts: using etc. with a list in the middle of a sentence

texts:
Is the following correct?

  If the item is unknown, pending, unavailable, etc. please talk to your administrator.


texts:
"No one bought from the salesman and he was left with stocks of unsold goods."
I'm looking for a phrase or idiom, if there's any, to replace the words in bold.


texts: Can the coordinating conjunction 'yet' follow a subordinating conjunction?

texts:
Is it grammatically permissible by the rules of Standard English for the coordinating conjunction ‘yet’ to follow a subordinating conjunction? For example, take the sentence:

  Although it is early, yet still I must rise.

This seems to make sense and be correct to me, but if I substitute another coordinating conjunction, say ‘but’, it no longer seems so:

  Although it is early, but still I must rise.

It seems that the semantics of ‘but’ are what create a problem here, though instead of the grammar, but I can't seem to form any valid subordinating + coordinating sentence except if I use ‘yet’, so I'm not sure.


texts: Equivalent of the Spanish phrase "morir de éxito"

texts:
In Spanish we have the phrase 'Morir de éxito'. Literally, it translates into 'Die from success' and we use it to refer to some cases in life where a success in something becomes too much of a hassle that it finally is bad for the person.

An example would go like this:

Let's imagine a little bakery in a small village in the country side. They sell cookies to neighbours and have some modest earnings.

One day some famous person shares in social media a picture of eating those cookies. Immediately, people get curious about them and start to go on pilgrimage to that place.

Initially things are fun and nice, but media shows interest on the topic and the floods of visitors become difficult to digest for the neighbours.
Time passes and the bakery cannot handle the load of requests, have to work extra hours and things become quite unpleasant for everyone.

As a result, they close the shop. In Spanish that the shop would have died from success.

Is there an equivalent phrase or idiom to this in English? Or is it exactly "die from success"?


texts:
What does "steeped in" mean here in this context?

  The heart of Asia is where civilisation was born. In ancient Mesopotamia along the banks of the mighty Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and steeped in the Indus Valley stood the very first towns and cities known to mankind.

Edit: It's from "The Silk Roads: A New History of the World-Illustrated Edition" by Peter Frankopan. It's the simpler version that targets older children.


texts: Is there a word for the single letter contractions commonly used in store names? (see examples)

texts:
Is there a term for the single letter contractions as used in the following examples?

Toys 'r' us
Stop 'n' go

Note: Trademarks above corrected for proper grammar.


texts: Does exceptional bad -word- and exceptionally bad -word- mean the same?

texts:
If I wrote "exceptional bad service" and "exceptionally bad service", is this the same?

If not what's the difference in meaning?
Is it a clear mistake?


texts: History of the phrase "for Mother Russia"

texts:
When I played the Battle Zone II video game in the late 1990s, which was plotted around a war between a New Soviet Union and a future analog of the USA, I noticed that Russian tanks and pilots frequently exclaimed "For Mother Russia!".

This made me quite curious because not only the expression does not exist in Russian, but also would sound awkward.

Under the USSR it was very uncommon to call the USSR "Russia" especially by loyal citizens, those who were outside of the emigrant and dissident circles. Thus a common expression would be "For the Motherland!"("За Родину!") or (in more official style) "For our Soviet Motherland!"(За нашу советскую Родину!).

But the case is that the expression would sound awkward not only in the USSR, but in modern Russia as well (one can say "For Russia!", although this is uncommon, but "For mother Russia" sounds very much strange).

The expression also could not have come from Czarist Russia as well, it was common to call "За Отечество!" (can be translated "For the Fatherland!") those times.

I have seen the expression "For Mother Russia!" many times since then, but always only in English.

So my question is where did this expression came from and why it is so widespread in English?


texts: Is literature as in 'the literature' singular or plural

texts:
When referring to literature in the sense of academic literature or philosophical literature I have sometimes heard people use the noun as if it were similar to the word 'people.' For example: 'The literature have confirmed this hypothesis.' I have also heard people use the noun as if it were singular (e.g. 'The literature has confirmed this hypothesis.'

Is there one usage that is more acceptable/correct in formal writing?


texts:
Some examples include:

  We fear the damned.
  He honored our fallen.
  This is a given.
  You are the chosen.
  The lost were among us.
  They obey the venerated.
  My beloved kissed me. (TIL “beloved” is a verb thanks to RegDwight АΑA)

Is there a word to describe the past participle used as a noun? I’m hesitant to refer to it as a gerund, since it doesn’t end in -ing. Another possibility is adjectival noun, if you originally treat the word as a participle (e.g. “the damned man”) that has given up its modified noun.

Also, why does English tend to preface such nouns with the?


texts: What is the meaning of "unqualified gain"?

texts:
What is the meaning of "an unqualified gain" in context of the following sentence?

For environmental advocates, the increased focus on ecoefficiency (measures to reduce negative environmental impact brought on by businesses processes) might seem an unqualified gain. Were these advocates more informed on the possible ramifications of ecoefficient practices, they would likely regard those businesses conforming to ecoefficient standards with measured skepticism. For one, businesses that conform to such standards and become profitable can reinvest this money into industries that are ecoinefficient, or these businesses, if wildly successful, can through sheer scale create more waste than they did before.


texts: What's the difference between "imply" and "hint"?

texts:
I have a question. What's the difference between these two words, imply and hint?

They seem to have the same meaning in definition and if they actually mean the same, which one of them is more natural and common in everyday English?

  Are you (hinting - implying) that I'm fat?

  Mum's (hinted - implied) she might pay for my trip to Mexico


texts:
Why not to use Magic Quotes.
Why not use Magic Quotes.

What is the difference in meaning between these two ways of phrasing that sentence? To me  the first sentence sounds like it tells the reader that there are good reasons not to use Magic Quotes (a programming feature) and those reasons will be given. The second one sounds like a rhetorical question, something along the lines of "What the heck not? Let's use them!" Am I right?


texts: Word for 'Unafraid to Question Authority' with Positive Connotations

texts:
How do you describe a person that is unafraid to question authority with a positive connotation? I feel that 'rebel' has too much of a negative connotation for the context that I'm using it in, and iconoclast doesn't fit too well.

I need it to be a one word noun, as in:

  At heart, I am a ____.


texts: How to ask a question where an excess of an emotion is specified?

texts:
An example of the type of sentence which I am attempting to address is:

Chloe felt too scared to go skydiving.

If one wanted to ask which emotion she felt too much of to go skydiving, how should the question be posed?


texts: When someone says "He is smarter than I and she put together," what is the function of the phrase "put together"? Is it considered an adjective?


texts: Proper usage of "assessed" for delinquent bills

texts:
Delinquent bills will be assessed a USD 100 (United States Dollar One Hundred Only) charge if payment is not received within 7 days of the due date.

Is this the correct usage?

Or should the word "charge" be removed from the sentence?

  Delinquent bills will be assessed a USD 100 (United States Dollar One Hundred Only), if payment is not received within 7 days of the due date."


texts: in a SMB environment  in an SMB environment

texts:
SMB stands for small to midsize business. If I was using 'SMB' on my resume, what would be more appropriate to use before 'SMB'.

in a SMB environment

or

in an SMB environment

How do I know how the reader will read it? Some read the letters out loud which would produce the "ess" sound which would require the "an" but someone else who knows what it stands for, (which I hope is everyone) will be expecting the preceding word to be "a".


texts: Is there a term for when a movie(or novel) makes reference to the books title?

texts: As the title says, I am curious. Numerous movies and books make use of this, and I would like my curiosity satisfied. On a side note, this term will aid in my writing assignment, where we are discussing The Beggar Maid, which has the title directly spoken aloud to the main character...


texts:
Good afternoon! Please could you help me to define what parts of a sentence are included in this phrase:
"The most interesting thing for me is to create pictures".
What is a subject and what is a predicate here?
Is "thing" an optional element?
Why isn't "for me" situated at the end of the phrase?
Thank you in advance...


texts: Verb tense confusion - how to correctly use past perfect in a past tense narrative

texts:
Okay, scenario: In a novel set in narrative past tense, there's a sentence, "We had become friends when nobody had liked him and it had seemed no one ever would." Is the past perfect being used correctly? Is "when" perhaps too ambiguous and unhelpful?
To my mind, there are three different times here: 1. the "now"; 2. the moment the boy and girl became friends; 3. the time when the boy had no friends. Put like that, the solution seems simple--use past perfect for the time when the boy had no friends because it occurred before the moment he and the girl became friends. E.g. "We became friends when nobody had liked him and it had seemed no one ever would."
However, because the novel is already set in past tense, I'm afraid using past simple for the moment they became friends, which is in the novel's past, would get confused with the "now," which is also written in past simple. So is it more appropriate to use past perfect for both past events, even though they didn't occur at the same time?
In that case, are all three hads necessary, or can it be used with only the initial verb (became) then understood to also apply to the two others (liked, seemed)? E.g. "We had become friends when nobody liked him and it seemed no one ever would." I swear I see that in novels all the time, but I can't find any sources to confirm it's a thing. Maybe that's a misconception on my part. Or maybe it's just super common to misuse past perfect.
Help :(


texts: Why do you say "square" in "Be there or be square"?

texts:
I've known the saying

  Be there or be square!

for a long time, but never really understood - why "square"? Where does that come from? Why not

  Be there or be rectangular!

:-)


texts: What is the usage of "in it fat" in this sentence?

texts:
I found this sentence:

  It has in it fat, which gives energy.

I can't figure out the usage of the part "in it fat". Can anyone kindly explain it or maybe give some examples please?


texts: Is "what more is you looking for" correct?

texts:
While I sing a song "Under the sea" to my baby, I found a weird sentence.

  The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake
  You dream about going up there but that is a big mistake
  Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor.
  Such wonderful things surround you, what more is you looking for?

Isn't it should be "what more are you looking for"?
I know lyrics are not always correct in grammar but.. Can you guess the reason behind? Is there a rhyme?


texts: Origin of using "left" as something we still have

texts:
People express a quantity of something they still have (but is finding away) by using the word "left".

  Time left: 2 hours

Where does this usage originates from. If one depicts a timeline, it would be more useful to say "time right":

      |-- time right? --|
------|-----------------|--------->
     now              event

In short: how did direction get additional semantics in English?


texts: Most common name for this kind of image, where the sun illuminates the horizon

texts:
What’s the most common name for this kind of image?

I want to find other similar images, but I don’t know how to formulate my search request.


texts: Can we use both "participate at" and "participate in" interchangeably? Is there a difference between the two if any?


texts: is there any word that means "current and upcoming"?

texts: I want to find a word that could mean current and upcoming but couldn't. Or is there any other shorter ways to describe it? can anyone help me?


texts: Is there any word for the opposite of a "bug" in programming?

texts:
A "bug" is essentially when a program fails to function as expected/desired.

What I'm looking for is a word for the opposite of that - a function that is desired but isn't supposed to be working yet unexpectedly starts working. As an example, I'm developing an iOS app at the moment. It includes notifications upon certain events. We didn't think anyone had deployed our push notification server yet and notifications hadn't been tested at all, but in the course of testing other things, notifications somehow started showing up.

I feel like this is a feeling familiar to all programmers. Is there a word?


texts: Why does “iris” mean the coloured part of the eye in English?

texts:
The answer to this question draws on the Greek word ιρις, iris, which means (in Greek) rainbow. I am interested in why English uses that same word for the coloured part of the eye.

  a flat, coloured, ring-shaped membrane behind the cornea of the eye, with an adjustable circular opening (pupil) in the centre.

Google Dictionary

The coloured area of the eye is, of course, a full circle.

So why does ‘rainbow’ (a half-circle) in Greek - transfer to 'iris' (a full circle) in English?

A rainbow is only seen as a full circle from above -

  Full circle rainbow was captured over Cottesloe Beach near Perth, Australia in 2013 by Colin Leonhardt of Birdseye View Photography. He was in a helicopter flying between a setting sun and a downpour.

This has implications regarding the original quotation in the previous question – the matter of the covenant and the concept of ‘seeing’ through the covenant.


texts: Which order of words is more logical in a sentence?

texts:
We are writing an error message for a user and we have two conflicting opinions at the moment. Since we're not native English speakers/writers we may have some issues with punctuation.

Here are the 2 options:

"To avoid any further issues program will now close!"
"The program will now close to avoid any further issues!"

Which one of those is grammatically correct? If both are correct which is better style?


texts: What is the English term for marriage between close relatives?


texts:
Example usage:

  There have been three retransmits.

Is there a more appropriate word?


texts: Participle Phrase in an Imperative Sentence

texts:
I am designing a user interface, and I added some checkboxes for the user to indicate what behavior they want to happen when they submit a form.

I have this as the label for a checkbox:

  Archive status, removing it as an option from the status assignment
  interface

During a design review, this was called out as poor grammar (a run-on sentence).  I think the phrase after the comma is just modifying, and describing the command -- I think it's a participle phrase that is used appropriately.

Is it incorrect?  Correct but awkwardly worded?  Totally legit?


texts:
Against whom are you playing?
Whom against are you playing?
(Some better way to say this)

Can anyone explain which sentence is the exactly correct one, or provide one that is? Does the order  of the words whom and against really matter in this sentence?


texts:
I want to say: "Michael annoyedly turned to face his brother."

I haven't found any solid evidence that the word "annoyedly" is an actual word, but I like the way it sounds for some reason. How wrong is it if I choose to use this word in writing I'd ideally like to have others read?


texts: A more technical term for a "slicing" motion

texts:
I seek a word (verb, noun, adverb or adjective) that is suggestive of a particular type of constrained mechanical motion described below by way of example.

It could be a flat planar sheet moving within the imaginary plane that contains it, or it could be a curved sheet moving in a circular motion within an imaginary cylindrical surface. The defining characteristic is that the object in motion does not venture into territory outside a given surface, which contains the object itself in all its potential positions. It is like a small surface moving within another larger surface to which it conforms at all times.

The verb "slice" comes to mind, but nothing is actually being sliced here, and ideally I hope to find a word in a register that is more appropriate for a technical document, like the register of words such as "articulated" or "reciprocating" (as they apply to constrained motion). That said, I'm short on ideas so any related words could be helpful.


texts: Word for development or improvement in art

texts: In human race you call evolution to upgrade mankind, in technology innovation , how about the art work? how u call it? from painting to graphic design


texts: Sometimes the article precedes the noun and not the adjective

texts:
I have a question that baffled me for a while now, and I'd be a happier person for an answer.
Why in sentences such as

  It's not that big a deal.

And

  He was as nice a friend as you were.

Or

  Your awesome of a father, told me that.

does the article position itself between the adjective and the noun instead of the usual start of the phrase:

  I have a big house to play in.

Much obliged.


texts: What would you understand if someone told you "you don't pay your tailor enough"?

texts: It seems that it can be interpreted in a positive or negative way. Positive in the sense that your dress looks great and you should pay the tailor even more. Negative in the sense that the dress looks terrible because you are cheap with your tailor. Therefore, is it correct to think that the real meaning depends on how that sentence is said?


texts: What do you call the signal at a crosswalk?

texts:
When talking about crosswalks, we generally say they are lit (lighted if you prefer) or unlit when they have a traffic signal on them in America. However, traffic signal seems to me like a general term that may be applied to any sort of signal on the road. The flashing amber lights on some school speed limits, construction warnings, road closings, stoplights, etc. are all traffic signals.
Is there a specific term for the type of traffic signal used at crosswalks?
For example,

I was going to cross the street but the /blank/ turned red, warning me not to cross.
Many people, especially those in big cities, ignore /blank/ and cross the road when they want to.

Are there terms for the other types of signals I listed?


texts: What do you call the habit of looking into smartphone while walking?

texts:
The habit of looking into and texting on a smartphone is becoming a prevailing social phenomena in Japan these days. We call this habit “歩きスマホ – aruki sumaho – using a smart-phone while walking” in Japanese. It’s a derivative of “歩きタバコ – aruki tabaco – smoking while walking.” Aruki sumaho is really dangerous because you might hit a pedestrian when you are looking into a smartphone while you are walking; similarly, “aruki tabaco” inflicts a burn if the lit cigarette touches the face or hand of a passer-by. Actually, many cases of injuries caused by “aruki sumaho” (such as a fall from a subway platform) were reported. I saw a young man looking into a smartphone while riding a bicycle on the pavement recently. I learned that the similar trends are observed today in many parts of the world on TV.

What do you call “aruki sumaho – looking into a smartphone while walking” and “a walker looking into smart phone” in brief English words?


texts: “And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.” Are these commas required?

texts:
Just spotted this as an answer in Quora:

  And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.

At first look, I thought the comma between dancing and crazy was wrong. Will this be grammatically wrong? What about the comma between crazy and by? Is that wrong too?


texts: What's the correct word for "the state of being a vassal"?

texts:
For example,

  The knight was a vassal in the service of a baron.

What is the state of him being/not being a vassal, i.e.

  The vassal-ship of the knight dictated that he serve the baron.

What's the correct word to replace "vassal-ship"? Or is that bad grammar, and I shouldn't even need to use that word?


texts: Is there a difference between "to be backed" and "to be back"?

texts:
This question arises from a sentence in the editorial which I was reading this morning.

  It is understood that Modi will be back in New York on September 28 from San Francisco for a key bilateral meeting.

Should be back be be backed? If not, what is the difference?


texts: What do you call a non-technical database

texts:
The German term "Datenbasis" (un- or processed data resource) could be simply translated into database, as Langenscheidt shows Link to Langenscheidt's Translation. But imagine, when you write about something pretty scientific, you would perhaps gather data which needs not to be in digital form, but could be results of measurements done manually and written down on paper.

So what is the term for a collection of such data that has not been deposited in a database of a computerized database management system such as Oracle, MySQL etc?


texts: What type of clause is "Born in England, he moved..."

texts:
I am looking for the term for the sentence structure of the type
"< verb > + < adverbial phrase >, < main clause >."

Examples of this pretty common structure are

"Born in England, he moved to New Zealand when he was in his thirties." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bragge)
"Trained in mathematics, he participated in the early twentieth century movement to mathematize economics." (http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2692.htm)
"Believing the world to be round, he was certain that by sailing to the west, he could reach the Orient" (http://themutineer.org/america-amerigo-or-amerike/)

Are these just adverbial clauses at the start of a sentence, or is there a more specific term?


texts:
When you wanted to state that something belongs to a previous era's fashion at the turn of the century you could say so 90s or so 20th century.

Now when you want to say that something belongs in the 200xs what would you say?
(So zeros or so aughts just doesn't sound right.)

Edit: This is not a duplicate of What is the name of the first decade in a century?


texts:
Is it legal to write something like this:

  When I'm trying to post a form system alerts me with a warning message.

I've seen people use this kind of writing.

EDIT

I don't know why (perhaps that's the influence of my native languages and their semantical constructions) but my brain is considering such a form

  when I try to do something + present simple a.k.a something happens

I know that it would be just a description of usual activities like

  each time I ...

construction.

My activity I want to describe holds repetitive character: I do some routine jobs but in the perspective of now, and this may not happen in the future.

Sorry if this sounds confusing.


texts: Best source for origins of expressions and idioms?

texts:
I'm often interested in the origins of English phrases, and I know that I can find answers by googling, and I can find good answers by asking here.

How can I find good answers myself? Are there any well-known, respected, and fairly comprehensive sources for origins of English expressions and idioms?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "bo selecta"?

texts: The phrase means literally "good song" or "good DJ". selecta is the DJ ("the selector"). But why that spelling? And where does bo come from? Is it from the French beau or the Latin bona? Is there a link via Jamaican English? What evidence of use exists prior to the 1999 song?


texts: Why should "Hello" and "Health" be similar?

texts:
I have noticed that "Hello" and "Health" look(and sound) quite similar in English. The situation gets more interesting when you look into some other languages as well. For instance:

In Russian:здороваться
and здоровье mean to say hello and health respectively.

Also in Persian: سلام(read as salaam) and سلامت(read as salaamat) look pretty much the same.

Although this has probably been obvious to our ancestors, I have no idea why they should look similar. Why is this the case?


texts: What does "allow" mean in this sentence?

texts:
They can't be allowed to lose hope. Many of them are lining up to catch a boat or a plane to parts of their island country that are still intact.

What does allow mean in this context? Here they refers to the people who survived an earthquake and are waiting for rescue.

To me, it seems that whether they would lose hope or not is not something that can be allowed. They have there free will to lose hope. My interpretation of this sentence is that they should not be further disappointed and then lose hope. Is my understanding correct? And further, in what other context can I use this word or phrase, if any, in a similar way? Just a few explanations or examples would be helpful for me to understand it and may be able to use it.


texts: Why does it sound incorrect that he like me is a teacher?

texts:
He like me is a teacher.

Why does it sound incorrect?


texts: Indefinite or definite: a name or the name

texts:
It's odd that I actually knew a girl of that name--(a / the) name that couldn't have been any sweeter.

I'm confused to choose which article I should use here because they both sound kind of fine in there. If both of them are appropriate in there, then what is the difference, and if not--if either of them is okay, then why is it?


texts: Are there dialects where "would have" is used to describe a factual event long in the past?

texts:
I've recently noticed that a few people I know, all native American English speakers in their 50s-70s and originally from the Midwest, use "would have" and related forms when talking about factual events that happened relatively long ago.

Here's a made-up example of what I mean:

Upon seeing George Washington's house, one might say "This is where Washington would have lived." instead of "This is where Washington lived."

Another example: "I would've been born in that hospital." as equivalent to "I was born in that hospital."

This sentence, however, isn't an example: "I would have had lunch with her every day last week." It doesn't work because it's insufficiently far in the past.

As @Cascabel notes, it's better to have real examples than made-up ones. So, I hopped on the phone and asked one of the "would have" users a history question (he's a baseball historian) without mentioning my goal. Sure enough, here are a few non-made-up examples:

"He would've been there from 1941-1963, excluding a brief period he took off for the war."
"My father would've taken me to see him for my tenth and eleventh birthdays."
"It wouldn't have been uncommon for baseball players to have had second jobs back then - it certainly wasn't like today."

Is this a regionalism? A generationally-related usage? Or is it some other phenomenon I don't know the name of? I've only seen a handful of people do this, so, for all I know, they're the only ones.

Is there a name for this sort of usage? I'm not quite sure what to call it, which has made searching for it somewhat difficult, and it's very possible that I've missed an already existing answer.


texts:
I thought I would try my luck here. Is there a general term that encompasses locations and/or events?

For example, music festivals and towns?


texts: "Preventing downtime and faults IS/ARE crucial"

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  Preventing downtime and faults is crucial.

Is or are? Why?


texts: Weight / items that a particular person carries

texts:
If a person has multiple items carried with them, how can these items be referred as one thing?

  The total weight of his _______ was 20kg and it consisted of 2 rucksacks, umbrella and a water bottle.


texts: "contribute to investigating" or "contribute to investigate"

texts:
I'm trying to find, which of the following sentences is correct?

A) We try to highlight how they contribute to investigate their importance.
B) We try to highlight how they contribute to investigating their importance.

I found that both cases were used frequently in formal writing.
Edited:
Sources for each case:
For A: "Their multifaceted nature means that there are very
many routes to investigating their importance for understanding social change" in "A lineage for contemporary inter-city studies" book.
B: "More factors are analysed to investigate their importance in scoring from shots and shot probabilities" in "Applications of logistic regression to shots at goal at association football" book.


texts: What is the proper way to write the plural of a single letter? (another apostrophe question)

texts:
When writing (a blog post, script, etc..) what is the proper way to indicate two or more instances of a single letter? For instance, in Monty Python's Bookshop Sketch:

  C: I wonder if you might have a copy of "Rarnaby Budge"?

  P: No, as I say, we're right out of Edmund Wells!

  C: No, not Edmund Wells - Charles Dikkens.

  P: (pause - eagerly) Charles Dickens??

  C: Yes.

  P: (excitedly) You mean "Barnaby Rudge"!

  C: No, "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens.  That's Dikkens with two Ks, the
     well-known Dutch author.

  P: (slight pause) No, well we don't have "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens
     with two Ks, the well-known Dutch author, and perhaps to save time I
     should add that we don't have "Karnaby Fudge" by Darles Chickens, or
     "Farmer of Sludge" by Marles Pickens, or even "Stickwick Stapers" by Farles
     Wickens with four M's and a silent Q!!!!!  Why don't you try W. H. Smith's?

  C: Ah did, They sent me here.

I had always believed that plural never uses an apostrophe before the 's' (it's only used for possession), but I have rarely seen in written material the format "four Ms". (On a side note, whoever wrote this transcript also used "two Ks".)

On a side note, and perhaps this should be a separate question, if a Compact Disc is a CD, then two Compact Discs would be two CDs right? (I see "CD's" written everywhere)


texts: Equivalent of "Deadbeat Dad" for Mothers

texts:
We're trying to translate something from the Polish language into English that describes a bad mother. Is there an equivalent phrase to "Deadbeat Dad" except for mothers? Whenever I see "Deadbeat" in front of something, it's usually Dad.

How would you describe a bad mom using a different idiom or phrase?

mj

Edit 1: One additional piece of information: the translation from Polish translates into "villainous mother". There is an element of horribleness that is described in Polish.


texts: Which is right: "what pants is he wearing" or "what pants are he wearing"?

texts: Since 'pants' is one of those always plural words, I can't figure out which sounds right.


texts: "All that is needing" vs. "all that is needed"

texts:
I've read the following quote from Game of Thrones:

  Opening your eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true.

English is not my mother tongue, so I'd like to understand why needing is used here instead of needed.


texts: Does this addition technique have a name?

texts:
This is an addition technique in which one starts with the most right column, adds the two digits, puts a "1" below or above the digit on the left if the sum exceeds 10, and puts the remainder in the sum. Then, we do the same with the columns left to it, adding 1 to the sum if it is in that column. It's fairly obvious and it is a common technique that is taught in many elementary schools in the Netherlands.

In Dutch, we call this technique "cijferen", which translates to something close to "digiting". Does this technique have a name in English?


texts: Is there a special word for amounts between 11 and 20?

texts:
Translation is often tricky. I'm stuck with the Polish word kilkanaście, which literally means few-teen. It is used to describe an amount more than ten, but less than 20 (or including 20, it's hard to say, the next "about-the-amount" word means twelve-and-a-few.

Is there an English word describing that amount, or similar amount?

The reason for the existence of such a word, I think, is the fact that when counting on hands, it describes the amount which I can't handle using my hands alone.


texts:
I’ve read an article on the Verge. The title was

  YouTube bans robot fighting videos for animal cruelty roughly 10 years
  too soon.

And here’s the article.

I can understand the first part of the title, which means “YouTube bans some videos for some reason”.

But I’m really confused about the later part

  10 years too soon

Is it some sort of slang or idiom?

Besides, how does the word “roughly” function here?


texts: Is Oppenheimer's quote "I am become death" grammatically correct?

texts:
After J. Robert Oppenheimer made his discoveries of nuclear energy, he said a quote from Bhagavad-Gita, it goes as follows

  I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

Is this proper English?


texts: Is there a good book about interesting grammar in any language?

texts: I love reading about interesting differences in grammar in different languages, e.g. Finnish cases. Is there a good book, site or something else that treats "interesting things in grammar" in any language?


texts:
A growing number of languages are on the verge of becoming ...

endangered
endangering

I know that when we discuss personal feelings we should use -ed. -ing is used when we talk about things that causes these feelings.

None of the rules fit this example.

Which one should I use here?

Here's the full sentence:

  As economic and cultural globalization and development continue to push forward, a growing number of languages is on the verge of becoming ... and, eventually, extinct.


texts: Comma after also at the beginning of a sentence

texts:
I just can't figure it out; some writers use it others don't.

For instance,in this para from an article:

"On a domestic scale, people whispered about their neighbours, families split along north-south divides; standing back Britain felt embarrassed and isolated and scared of everything. Also it was the worst year for butterflies since records began."

There is no comma after "also" even though the clause following it can stand on its own.


texts:
Per Merriam-Webster Online, Pansy is defined as

1.

  :  a garden plant (Viola wittrockiana) derived chiefly from the hybridization of the European Johnny-jump-up (Viola tricolor) with other wild violets; also :  its flower

2.

  a usually disparaging :  a weak or effeminate man or boy b usually
  disparaging :  a male homosexual

I am interested as to the origin of the second definition of the word, but I have been able to yield a satisfying result as of yet. Any information that might provide a clearer understanding of this word's history would be greatly appreciated.


texts: What is it when we work on something too much to see any new errors?

texts:
Whether I write a long paper or presentation, or am reviewing one, after looking it it many times, it seems impossible to notice any additional issues. For example, I am helping a client prepare a document for external audit. I am one of the internal auditors asking for information to put in the document and reviewing to ensure that it meets the needs of the external audit. After many working sessions and revisions, I can no longer see any issues.
My friends and co-workers say the same thing. That's one reason why we always have a 2nd (and 3rd) person review everything after it is "done". Every new reviewer finds something new.
What is it called when we can't stop "reading between the lines", or whatever it is that keeps us from seeing more?


texts: A word or phrase for "going past a deadline"

texts:
I'm translating a document from a business meeting into English .

Participants are often being implored to finish their tasks by November, as planned, and in no way to December.

I'll give some more background to focus my question a bit: this is a company project, and the management has set deadlines that all of the participants are supposed to meet. There may be all kinds of reasons that might prevent them from finishing their tasks by those deadlines, but the management is emphasizing that December would be catastrophic, and is imploring them to do whatever they can so as not to get into that situation.

I need a word or phrase to replace "going past a deadline".


texts: Expression for the way of dressing to avoid attention

texts:
What is a word or phrase to describe the way you're dressing or dressing in a way to avoid/not attract attention to yourself?

For example, a celebrity going out in public would want to dress in a way(dull-colored, non-attractive clothes, clothes/accessories that doesn't attract attention, etc. etc.) so that she doesn't draw as much attention to herself so she could do whatever she likes free from disturbance. In other words, she dresses [?] in order to avoid attention, or she tries to dress more [?] in order to avoid attention.

I guess the example I gave is an adjective, but other than the adjective I'm looking for I guess it could be a verb as well such as, she [?] to avoid attention. Now this doesn't limit to only celebrities as I'm just using it as an example, but could be anybody in general that dresses to avoid attention.


texts: Is there any difference between the following two forms?

texts:
I'm reading right now a paper related to the state of Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) and I saw:

  BEVs produce no pollutants such as particulates, (...)

What is the difference between this form and the use of: BEVs don't produce pollutants such as particulates, (...)

As far as I know, It's very common to use the first form in papers or textbooks. Why? Is it about formality, rule of scientific papers or something related to grammar figures?

Thank you for your answers.


texts: rna-pdb-tools (software name) were or was used

texts:
I wrote a software package called rna-pdb-tools. Hmm.. but now I have a problem. Is it?

  Furthermore, rna-pdb-tools were used to curated structures submitted
  to the RNA-Puzzles,
  https://github.com/mmagnus/RNA-Puzzles-Normalized-submissions)
  facilitating the comparison of structural models.

or was used?

Or I should say "software rna-pdb-tools was used" or "package rna-pdb-tools was used" but "rna-pdb-tools were used"?


texts: Does "goodly" in this sentence in Hamlet mean "considerable" or "pleasing?

texts:
In Hamlet there is the following conversation:

  GUILDENSTERN: Prison, my lord!

  HAMLET: Denmark's a prison.

  ROSENCRANTZ: Then is the world one.

  HAMLET: A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
        wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.

What does "goodly" mean here? After consulting some dictionaries, I tend to think it means "considerable", "grand" in a sense of scale. However, I encountered an Italian translation  (Google returns more than 500,000 entries for this search) which says

  "È una bella prigione, il mondo",

It basically means "the world is a beautiful prison", which interprets "goodly" in the sense of "pleasing".

Is this just simply a mistranslation or might "goodly" also have this meaning here?


texts:
What rules of thumb govern when to pluralise a foreign word as it should be in the original language and when it should be pluralised as an English word?

For example, you'd get some funny looks using "octopodes" or "lemmata" in normal conversation. (I don't know what contexts would allow mention of cephalopods and mathematics, but you know...)


texts: Should use third person or first person when describing someone's dialogue

texts:
Lets say I am describing the interaction between me and a friend (lets say John), to another person (Mike). If the interaction consists of John saying to me 'I don't know the answer, but you do'. How would I tell about this interaction to Mike?

Do I say:

1) John told me 'He doesn't know the answer but I do'

or

2) John told me 'I don't know the answer, but you do'