texts: I'm trying to figure out why there is "to be" instead of "is" in the sentence

texts:
Why do I have to put "to be" instead of "is" or "will be" in the sentence below. Could you explain what grammar rule this is? What I should seek in Google?

  I didn't expect the graphics of the video game to be detailed.

I mean graphics turned out better then I thought.


texts: How do you derive the adjectival form of an irregular verb such as "read"?

texts:
If I understand correctly, some adjectives can be derived from verbs.

For example, an interested person is someone who is interested in me, and an interesting person is someone who is interesting to me.

So how you do it with irregular verbs?

In the phrase "do something with data which was read" could the "data which was read" be replaced with something like "the read or readed data"?

I'm confused by fact that this verb irregular and is spelled the same in 1-3 forms.


texts: What does "hoodwinked" mean in this context?

texts:
The former headmistress of the school said she had been "hoodwinked"
  by Savile, but described some of those who had brought the
  allegations as "delinquents".

Source: Wikipedia article (permalink to section "Background")


texts: The differences bewteen "Mere" and "Merely".

texts:
What are the difference between these two sentences:
1) He's a mere boy.
2) He's merely a boy


texts: Does "he's" mean both "he is" and "he has"?

texts:
Is it alright to use the same contraction, "He's", to mean both "He is" and "He has"?

Examples:
  "He's angry."
  "He's been angry."
  "He's a beautiful house."


texts:
When is one preferred over the other?
This is in the context of the door to a large room. My sense is that "into" is preferred for closed spaces and "onto" for open spaces. This situation is kind of on the cusp.


texts: "You not only couldn't fix it but even damaged it more!"

texts:
Suppose you want to fix your brother's bicycle, but this time it seems that you cannot do it and at the end of your work, you find that you have caused an extra damage to that bicycle, too! :)

  We have an proverb which says:" You wanted to shape/fix someone's eyebrow but you blinded their eye!"

Is there any idiom or proverb that can convey the same connotation?


texts: "Without selection" vs. "without a selection"

texts:
W is the complex-valued transformation of the original signals x and y without selection of the window length with respect to time t.
  W is the complex-valued transformation of the original signals x and y without a selection of the window length with respect to time t.

Which is correct?


texts: Is this a correct sentence: The latter is a leaf and the former a branch

texts:
I am correcting a journal paper about mathematics.

Is this a correct and complete sentence:

  The latter is a leaf and the former a branch.

(I did not provide the context of the sentence, since I don't think it is necessary for the grammar. My co-author had a comma before the word "and", which is definitely wrong in my opinion. I goggled "conjunctive clause" but did not find a helpful answer. Btw, my mother tang is German.)

Btw, I was looking for an explanation such as given by G.L. "The gapping rule".


texts: How does the false-conditional work in "I made sandwiches if you want some"?

texts: This use of "if" has a completely different meaning than its normal conditional meaning. Can someone explain to me how this construction works, and provide other examples of this sort of thing?


texts:
Is it grammatically correct to write this sentence with the adverb at the end?
I assume it would be more acceptable to write this sentence as "The notice pleasantly struck me," but I like the less-common phrasing more, assuming it's correct. If it's incorrect, why is that so?


texts:
I am confused on how to properly describe an all expense paid vacation.

Is it an all expenses paid vacation or an all expense paid vacation, and are there any hyphens between all, expense or expenses, and paid?

I ask because it seems to be all over the place on google search.


texts:
"The bird is flying in the sky" or" The bird is flying in the air"
kindly explain the difference in detail...


texts:
The definite article is mostly pronounced 'thuh' before a noun beginning with a consonant (thuh chair), and 'thee' in front of a noun beginning with a vowel (thee apple).

Question 1: what is the name of this pronunciation change?

Question 2: many news and sports broadcasters (noticed especially on Irish television) use 'thuh' and 'thee' randomly, with no regard to the following word.  Where did this usage originate?


texts: 'Sooner than' meaning in this construction?

texts:
I have never seen a construction beginning with 'Sooner than' as the following one:

Sooner than fix the broken screen, l would buy a new mobile phone.

I looked it up in a number of dictionaries but i didn't find its meaning. I guess that it means ' instead of', doesn't it?


texts:
What does "Oh's" mean in the pop song "Ex's and Oh's" by Elle King?
http://www.metrolyrics.com/exs-ohs-lyrics-elle-king.html
I'm not asking any interpretations of lyrics, but would like to know what Oh/Ohs means as the word itself and if the word could be used in other context in daily life, I also want to know.


texts:
Both Google ngram and Cambridge Dictionary tell me that "manky" nowadays used to describe something dirty, as in it's "so old and/or used that it became dirty."

What I am curious about who you're more likely to hear this word from?

Would a granny who chastises her grandkid to wash his hands use it, or rather a teen describing shabby clothes?

Can we draw any conclusions about the education level and social status of the person using this word?


texts: "Pitch": the most intense state or stage of an event

texts:
I'm after an expression.  It eludes me.

I want to express something to the effect of, "At the pinnacle of the war", or "in its most intense fully-fledged state".  But using the term "pitch"?  "Fever pitch" isn't quite right.  Do I have my neurological wires crossed, or is there actually a common expression on the tip of my tongue?


texts: Why should "theirs" not have an apostrophe?

texts:
What is the reasoning by which people decided not to use ’s to indicate the possession of pronouns?

For example, one might write

It is Jack's dog.
The dog is Jack's.

But not

It is their dog.
The dog is their's.

Why does using a pronoun not follow the same apostrophe-s pattern as used for the noun it replaces?


texts:
I was always told by my teacher at secondary school (and I considered her a very good teacher), that "nicer" is grammatically incorrect. I never used it at all.

I studied English in 1989-1993. Has the language changed?

Now is the word "nicer" considered correct?

I see many people use it but I still remember the lessons of my Czech teacher and I can't use it. No way.

Please clarify.


texts: What is the real difference between direct objects and prepositional phrases?

texts:
I'm a fairly new ESL teacher. One of my students asked me recently why "...to comply with the rules of grammar" needs a preposition (with), whereas "...to follow the rules of grammar" doesn't. After some research, I decided that the answer is that "comply" is an intransitive verb, so it needs a prepositional phrase, and "follow" is a transitive verb, so it needs a direct object.

This is the answer I gave her, but I'm still unsatisfied with it. What is the difference, really? If "comply with" and "follow" are interchangeable in this sentence, why is one instance of "the rules" a direct object, and another a part of a prepositional phrase? Doesn't "with the rules" act as a direct object?

When a student asks me "why do some verbs need prepositions and others don't?" is the answer always "intransitive vs. transitive verbs?"

Thank you,

Lee


texts: What is it called when someone only wants something that is highly desired by someone else?

texts: I have a friend who I will call Sammy in my friend group and she always crushes on and goes after whoever my other friends like. She will secretly go after them and tell everyone else she likes them but not tell the friend who also likes them. And if Sammy is confronted she will deny it. Also if the person who liked the guy to begin with loses interest or gives up hope of being with him Sammy will drop him too. I really want to know if there is a word or condition for this.


texts: Expression for over-specified, and wrong, solution

texts:
Is there a word or term defined as: the wrong solution due to being overly specified?

This can happen when someone less knowledgable in a field suggests a specific solution to an expert, when stating the general problem or end-goal would be better since the expert is able to find a more appropriate solution.

For example: Telling a mechanic your car needs new brakes (which may not be true), when you should have just said the wheels are making an odd noise and allowing the mechanic to determine the correct solution.


texts: Is there a word that means the opposite of "gentrification"?

texts: Exactly what it says on the tin: is there a word that means precisely the opposite of "gentrification"? That is, the decline of a neighborhood due to an influx of lower-class families and individuals leading to an eventual flight of the middle- or upper-class residents.


texts: Is there a difference between "holiday" and "vacation"?

texts: What is the difference, if any, between these two words?


texts: English equivalent to the Bengali Idiom " bamon hoye chand dhorar shokh" which means wish of a lowly person to become equal to aristocratic people

texts: A poor boy wishing if he could have dinner in a five star restaurant, a beggar wishing if he could travel in a BMW - all these are example of the Bengali idiom which if translated literally means, a dwarf wishing to touch the moon. Is there an equivalent idiom in English?


texts: “To agree with someone”: is that prepositional phrase an adverbial or a nominal one?

texts:
In this sentence:

  I agree with you.

What is the function of the prepositional phrase ”with you” there? Is it an adverb or noun?

If it is an adverb, then what type of adverb is this?


texts: A way to express how one feels after an exhausting wait before results are known!

texts: What adjective or expression can describe the state of a person after a very wearing wait? Like the wait for the  results of an important examination,of  a decisive political election or  of   critical  medical analysis?


texts: Looking for a word to describe a very specific feeling of realised expectation

texts:
Is there a word for the feeling you get when you didn't notice you expected something to happen but then when the event occurs you have that moment of realisation or understanding where you recognise you expected or predicted what would happen all along? Its a feeling that would usually be verbally described by saying "Oh, of course that would happen!", in a literal sense.

I've been racking my brain for half a day and stumbling through dictionaries and thesauruses to no avail. I have the sensation I know the word I'm looking for and its on the tip of my tongue however I would also be greatly relieved to be told no such word exists.

An example of its use would be to describe the feeling you would get if you knew a close friend had affections for you, but it wasn't until someone specifically told you so that you realised you knew.

"Jane felt _______ when she finally completed the puzzle. Of course it was so blatantly obvious she realised she knew how to solve it all along" [Adjective]

OR

"Jane experienced a feeling of ______ when she finally completed the puzzle. Of course it was so blatantly obvious she realised she knew how to solve it all along" [Noun]


texts: Sources say English was rhotic in the 17th century -- how do they know that?

texts: Sources say English was rhotic in most places in the 17th century. How do they know that? Obviously, we don't have any samples of recorded speech from that time.


texts: Is it OK to use a figure of speech like "the sooner, the better" in formal writing? The actual text is "The higher the kinetic energy, the greater the run-out." I understand that I can put "is" and "will be" in there. But do I have to?


texts: Word to describe someone who publishes many works?

texts:
What word describes an author who publishes many works?

"Profuse" comes to mind, but this word has a broader meaning.


texts: How do I describe the difference between 'don't do x' and 'do y'?

texts:
What's the distinction between the following pairs of imperatives (ignoring efficacy)?

"Eat more vegetables" vs. "Eat less starch and fat"
"Look both ways before crossing the street" vs. "Don't get hit by a
bus"
"Put your hands up" vs. "Don't put your hands down"
"Get enough sleep" vs. "Don't stay up all night"
"Use the toilet" vs. "Don't pee on my house"
"Vote for me" vs. "Don't vote for them"
"Hold it like this" vs. "Don't hold it like that"
"Feel good about yourself and move on" vs. "Don't beat yourself up"
"Take a long walk off a short pier" vs. "Stop badgering me"

'Urging/exhorting people towards' and 'don't deter them from' capture some of the sentiment but they fail to capture the distinction. If I was being meta-ironic, I'd say 'Don't exhort people towards, rather, deter them from'.


texts: Is there a term for simultaneous snow and rain?

texts:
I'm from Australia where we don't have so many kinds of precipitation. I'm familiar with these:

rain
hail
snow
sleet

As I understand it, sleet refers to frozen rain but I'm not totally familiar with it. Right now I'm not in Australia but Georgia, the former Soviet republic. And at the moment it's raining but not just rain. There's also some mushy snowflakes falling. I've never seen this before and wonder if we even have a word for it in English. Would it be referred to as sleet after all? It's 2 degrees above zero centigrade now so frozen rain seems unlikely.


texts: What is the opposite of the Devil's Advocate?

texts:
If I am arguing against a proposal that I may actually agree with, then I am playing Devil's Advocate.

However, what if I do not necessarily agree with the proposal but am arguing for it, with the same goal of making sure it is fully vetted. What am I then?


texts:
In one sense, the word beat means an area regularly traversed by someone, such as a police officer. I'm wondering about the origin of this term as applied to an obsolete type of census division in some southern states, such as Mississippi. Specifically, were these simply existing police beats adopted for the purposes of enumeration? Or did the Census Bureau devise its own precincts based on the same sense of the word—i.e., an area that might be traversed or canvassed by a particular census-taker?

There's some evidence for the former, as genealogy web sites refer to subdivisions called "police districts" at around the same time; some even explicitly mention "police beats", but they may be applying the term conjecturally. And still today, police beats are used for certain types of record-keeping, such as crime statistics. But is there any history of the term beat being used for an enumeration district, separate from the context of a police beat?


texts: A word or phrase that describes overlooked structures that are part of the fabric of modern living?

texts:
Is there a word or phrase that exactly describes overlooked structures that are part of the fabric of modern living? For instance, these are institutional structures that are there and we take little notice of them:

train stations
bus terminals
bus stops
newspaper stands/racks
fire hydrants
street signs
bike racks
those big ubiquitous metal boxes that contain the electrical for traffic signals

I'm using it in a semi-academic context to call attention to this bit of the urban/suburban scenery we tend to overlook. I know I could make up a phrase like "urban scenery" or "institutional hardscape" or something, but wondering if anyone in the literature has developed a common phrase or word for it.


texts: Use of 'this' – relates to the directly preceding noun

texts:
I am a german native speaker. I am currently in the finishing stages of writing a thesis. One of my advisors (English is his mother tongue) provided feedback on the language of my writing.

One point of his feedback is that I do not properly use the word this. He says that in German this often is used to relate to something general or to relate to something which occurs one or more sentences before. In English, however, this should be used to relate to the directly preceding noun.

One example would be:

  We follow the vision of X because it enables to solve issues Y and Z. Hence, this will form the basis of the presented research.

Or:

  In the first phase we will review available literature. This will show previous research efforts from two perspectives.

I do not want to debate whether his feedback makes sense or not. I rather would like to know, how I can deal with his feedback accordingly? That is, find a proper way to avoid using this in these cases.


texts: be headed: adjectival -ed vs past participle

texts:
(Intransitive) go in particular direction: He headed toward the
  station.
  (Transitive) cause something to go somewhere: The pilot
  headed the plane on a northeasterly course.

  -ed2 (suffix): having, characterized by, like
  [redheaded, bigoted]

  Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

Then again, head is a verb which indicates motion

  BE: (auxiliary) Used to form the perfect aspect with certain intransitive verbs; this was more common in archaic use, especially with verbs indicating motion. "He is finished/gone" are common, but "He is come" is archaic.

  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/be#Verb

What is the morphological analysis (Part of Speech) of headed in  where are you headed?
It cannot be a passive from an intransitive verb, and no meaning of head can be used with the adjectival suffix.


texts: Are there any other words that are spelled with "a" but pronounced with /e/ like many, any?

texts:
Are there any other words that are spelled with "a" but pronounced with the standard phoneme /e/ in Received Pronunciation like many, any?

Exceptions: derivatives of any (anything, anyone, anytime, etc.); other regional/dialectal mergers (such as the Mary-marry-merry merger); /eər/ as in Mary.


texts: the implied meaning of 'Virtue's admired - and shivers with the cold.'

texts:
Can you tell me the implied meaning of the quote below by Juvenal?

  Virtue's admired - and shivers with the cold.

Virture should be admired, that's OK.
But why does it shivers?


texts: Is it correct to have 'a' before a proper noun?

texts:
According to my knowledge, the indefinite article 'a' must never be used before a proper noun. But I recently heard the English sentence: "Every civilian should be a Mahatma Gandhi to his society".

As per my knowledge, "Mahatma Gandhi" is a proper noun here and 'a' is the article.

Believing the speaker to have a good grasp of English, I now have this doubt: are there any occasions where it is proper to have an indefinite article before a proper noun?

Please advise me.


texts:
1 "Reminiscent Hawaii" - caption on photo

  2 "The Na Pali Coast is a reminiscent place!" - verbal

Would these technically mean the place inspires reminiscing? (of free agents)

Or would it literally mean the place itself has some sort of agency of its own and is reminiscing? (as if the place was literally a person/free agent)


texts: I heard it many times and I could infer that it means "all the time" or "without pause", "constantly". (Am I right?) But when trying to look it up, none of the dictionaries define it. Is this a correct English phrase?


texts:
(Which/What/That/Things) we saw surprised us.
Which is the correct answer?


texts: Fictional usage of "drone" to mean "worker" in the context of a eusocial species

texts:
Foreword: Please excuse me if some of the tags that I've attached to this question are inapplicable. I'm just trying to make sure I've covered all my bases.

According to every dictionary that I've come across, as well as all professional sources of relevance to the topic, the word "drone" in the context of a eusocial species is only properly used when referring to the fertile male caste of bees, ants, and wasps.

However, somehow the word has gained a very different meaning when it comes to fictional eusocial species, where it now serves as a presumably "cooler"/exotic-sounding synonym to what real-life biology knows as the "worker" caste, while males (if they even exist) are never referred to as "drones"; this even extends to examples where the species is obviously based on bees/ants/wasps.

How did this come to be? Might it be related to the fact that "drone" can also mean "one who performs menial or tedious work" or "drudge", i.e. "a person who works in a low servile job"? (I rarely see the word being used in this way, though; the first time I remember seeing such usage is in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, as a term for the working-class citizens of one's faction.)


texts: Noun meaning to stay in one place for a long time

texts:
I want my sentence to indicate I don't have enough money and I move too frequently.

"Starting a business would be almost impossible without any collateral or ...

Right now I have "long term residence" but that doesn't flow nicely.


texts:
It is true that as a fox, I should know this, so consider this a spoilers warning.

In a recent post, Geek Girl mentions that the mating call of the fox is a series of sharp, eerie barks and that this is called gekkering. This is supported by a citation in Wikipedia, but the reference is not one I have access to.

I am very curious about how this sound came to be named gekkering. There is nothing to be found on Etymonline, and gekker only appears in Wikitionary as far as I can tell. A Google search of the word turns up Gekker as a surname, but not much else.

Interestingly though, there is Chris Gekker, who is a master trumpteer and has a published series of "Gekker Articulation Studies". I don't know if he is old enough to have any sort of influence on the naming (his pictures make me think he is younger than the term) but I wonder if there is some connection there.

Does anyone know the etymology or history of the term "gekkering"?


texts:
If I were to go there then I would have been injured.
If I had gone there then I would have been injured.

Is the usage of sentence 1 correct? And do both these sentences mean same?


texts: Looking for a word for a slavery "contract"

texts:
Suppose a person is forced by law to serve a fixed time as a slave, before they are granted freedom. What would you call this arrangement?

It's not a contract or an agreement, because the slave does not necessarily agree to it. Arrangement is too soft and sentence too hard.

I guess a euphemism for sentence would do?

EDIT:

Just to put this in context, what I'm really after is a euphemistic way in which the slave's owner might refer to the finite duration of a slavery term

For instance

  Geoffrey has three years left on his contract, after which I shall have
  to find a replacement

I'm starting to think "commitment" or "obligation" might suit better


texts: Is there a standard way to pronounce latin words in English?

texts:
Is there a standard or common way of pronouncing Latin words such as the names of plants?
For example, "Iris virginica". There are websites such as YouTube which provides various sample audios (presumably from volunteers). But I am just wondering if there are general rules, e.g. where to place the emphasis and about how character combinations like ir are pronounced (as in languages like German which has consistent sounds for a given spelling in general).


texts:
I usually replace upon with on because it sounds less pompous. Is it correct to do so when the meaning is temporal? Consider

  Languages change (up)on contacting others.

Should I replace upon with when intead?


texts: Will you require anything? vs. Do you need anything?

texts:
In a comic book I’m reading, a wife asks to her husband, who’s working late in his study, “Will you require anything?”

Why does she use “will” instead of “do”?
Is there any difference in a vibe between “require” and “need” in that situation?


texts: Enlightenment, enlightened, Illuminism, illuminist

texts:
The Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectuals (Europe, XVIII century). It is associated with the Scientific Revolution, the Atlantic Revolutions (American Revolution, French Revolution, Latin American Revolutions, etc.), Romanticism, most of modern Political Science and Jurisprudence, and a lot more.

1) Is "Illuminism" an acceptable synonym?

2) Is "illuminist" the attribute (for both people and ideas)? Would an "illuminist idea" be the same as an "Enlightenment idea"? Would an "illuminist" be the same as an "Enlightenment thinker/intellectual"?

3) If not, is there any alternative to the attributive "Enlightenment"?

4) Is "Enlightened" an acceptable adjective for the attributive "Enlightenment"? In this case how do you avoid confusion with the adjective "enlightened" just meaning "wise"?

5) A single-word adjective for "Enlightenment intellectual", "intellectual who is a follower of the Enlightenment"?


texts:
I posted a comment to the Is "should" appropriate for polite requests? and it was spotted by @FumbleFingers saying that it had a grammatical error. I wonder if someone can elaborate as to where the grammatical error is in the following:

  To properly proceed with the work, please send me information for all of the following


texts: Can "I wonder" be put at the end of a sentence?

texts:
Usually sentences with "I wonder" are of the following form:

  I wonder why _______.

But what about this?

  Why is it that _______ I
  wonder.

It seems relatively unnatural. Why is that? Is it grammatically correct?


texts:
I have three sentences here, and I'm not sure of which one to use.

1

  She walked home, and slept immediately after.

2

  She walked home, and she slept immediately after.

3

  She walked home and slept immediately after.

Thanks, I appreciate the help.


texts: What is the proper word for someone who acts like you, or is doing the same thing you are doing? I was thinking about role playing, but it sounded very out of place.


texts: Should there be two apostrophes to denote possession?

texts:
In this sentence, should there be two apostrophes to denote discrete possession, or should there be an apostrophe just after the second subject to denote joint possession?

He said he didn't know anything about John and Jenna's deaths.

Or should it be this:

He said he didn't know anything about the deaths of John and Jenna.


texts: Is “play chess when others are playing checkers,” a well-known / well-used phrase?

texts:
I found the phrase, “he’s always playing chess when others are playing checkers,” in today’s (September 11) article of the New York Times, written by Charles Blow under the headline of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” It reads;

The Syrian debate is too serious to be subjected to the rules of Washington’s game, even as it must be conducted by its gamesmen. It has broken down the normal tribalism of left-right, liberal-conservative constructs, and mixed folks into maddeningly contradictory coalitions.
On one side are some of President Obama’s staunchest supporters, who are always convinced that he’s the smartest man in the room, that he’s always playing chess when others are playing checkers.

Without consulting a dictionary, I can assume that “playing chess” requires strategic thinking and in-depth analysis of the situation as compared with “playing checkers," of which the scenario is more simplistic and easier to play.
The Marc Ensign website makes this distinction:

While checkers is primarily played in the moment, chess requires a complex strategy that is often won by thinking ahead.

Though I haven’t checked any English dictionaries yet, Google Ngram doesn’t show any incidence of “play chess when others are playing checkers.”
What is the currency of “play chess when others are playing checkers.”？Is it a well-used and well-received phrase?


texts: Why do some users from India make these particular punctuation and capitalization errors?

texts:
Many users from India are now using the Stack Exchange sites and I see a common set of errors:

Spaces before punctuation: *where is this going ?
No space at all around punctuation *This is one sentence.Here is another.
Lack of capitalization in sentences, especially the word "I" is often not capitalized.

I'm aware that non-native speakers often have trouble with the English language, but these particular traits seem to be unique to users from India.  Is this a reflection of how English is taught in India, a similarity to Hindi, or something else entirely?


texts: How can "in a way that is similar to that of" be shortened?

texts:
Originally the text was:

  Energy is delivered to the charging system similar to that during
  normal power operation.

I came up with the following solution:

  Energy is delivered to the charging system in a way that is similar to
  that of normal power operation.

But it still seems awkward and clunky so please let me know if it's acceptable and provide some suggestions for alternative ways to word this phrase.


texts: "to go missing" versus "to turn up missing" versus "to take missing"

texts:
I have heard all three of these expressions in various parts of the US to describe the disappearance of things.

All three expressions appear to be readily understood. Are some more common in certain regions of the US or in other parts of the English speaking world?

Addendum: Growing up in Texas, I most commonly heard to take missing, which I suppose arose analogously from to take sick.

In movies and TV, to go missing is more common and presumably the standard form of the expression.

But one sometimes hears the contradictory to turn up missing.


texts: Word for a person who raises his/her skill/performance according to degree of hardness of situation

texts:
I am looking for a word that describes a person described in the description of the title.

An example of such a person would be a person who comfortably passes the (easier) qualifiers and gradually performs even better as opponents get tougher in the final stages of a tournament.

The person does not necessarily relax when he knows he can easily win, but "naturally" performs better as the stakes get higher.


texts: A linguistics teacher of mine said in class that English is one of a small number of languages that uses infixes, that is, additions to the middle of words that alter the meaning. Most of the examples are profane, for example, abso-fuckin'-lutely or fan-fuckin'-tastic. When did these constructions first come about, and are there other instances that aren't profane? New to the site, please retag for more relevance.


texts:
When is it a good time to call you?
  When is a good time to call you?

Everybody tells me that both are correct. What is the exact grammatical difference?


texts: Is there a term that describes someone who both seeks to control and is controlled by something?

texts:
Is there a term that exists implying contradictory aspects of both control and being controlled? A term expressing a simultaneous dichotomy along the lines of:

controller/controlled
master/slave
jailer/prisoner
governor/governed
superior/subordinate

One might perhaps use this term of a drug user, who both controls the substance entering the body, but ends up controlled by the substance, or a situation where  a person in authority over another person ends up under the authority of that second person (depending on context). So some examples might be:

The man was a ____ to methamphetamine.

The man was her ____, her political leader, led politically himself just as often by her words of wisdom.

But does such a single term exist to describe this relationship?


texts:
Every language has its stock of onomatopoeic expressions, but they vary across nationalities and cultures.

For example, the American “bow wow” (a rapper’s name) has its Japanese equivalent in “wan-wan.”  And the Korean equivalent is probably “mong mong.” The American “pitter-patter” has “para-para” in Japanese. American “chugalug,” Japanese “goku-goku.” And many others.

Of course the Japanese expressions above are written in Romaji or Western script, but there’s no denying that the whole reception of sounds is different.

My question is: Is there any technical term (or subfield) that can be used to refer to or that can best summarize this phenomenon? Of how almost exactly the same events would lead to completely different onomatopoeia across languages?


texts: How to go to the station or how to get to the station

texts:
When you don't know where the nearest station is and ask a passer-by for directions, which of the following questions is appropriate and why?

Could you tell me how to go to the nearest station?
Could you tell me how to get to the nearest station?


texts: The person who requests something is called...?

texts:
Let's say that I have a collection of books, and someone requests one of them. How would that person would be called, in one word?

The only thing I have been able to come up is "pretender", but does not sound right, for some reason.


texts:
Given two completely different sentences which are

This is the first movie without excitement I've ever watched/I watched (I am not sure which is the accurate one)
and
This is the first movie I've ever/I watched without excitement

Do the two sentences mean the same ?


texts: Word for theories that cannot be disproven ?

texts: Is there any word for something which cannot be disproven. E.g. I want to say: "Vedas were written around 10000 BC". This has some proof but not certain, but it cannot be disproven. What should be the one word for this?


texts: "Bike Factory" or "Bikes Factory" title is more usual?

texts:
In Lithuanian language we usually say in plural "Bikes Factory".
But I have checked by Google results count that there it is more usual in English to use the title "Bike Factory" instead of plural "Bikes Factory". Am I right? Thank you!


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “PIN Number” — why do we say it?

Assume we abbreviate "Orthogonal Multi-user Channel" as OMC. Is it correct to use the phrase "OMC channel" since channel is already contained in OMC?


texts: Are "whence" and "whilst" still used today or are they fully outmoded?

texts: I don't come across them in writing anymore, unless it's poetry.


texts: What is the meaning of the comma in this case?

texts:
He rides a bike reading the book. (with no comma between bike and reading)
  He rides a bike, reading the book. (with a comma between bike and reading)

In the sentence above, What is the difference in the sentence 1 (no comma) and 2 (with comma)?


texts: If the English language is always evolving, why do we need to learn and follow grammatical rules?

texts:
Since language evolves over time — the best example I can think of is slang where it mostly doesn't follow grammar rules — why is there a need to preserve grammar or stress that proper grammar be used?

My second question is if someone can get their exact point across to another person without using proper grammar, then why does grammar matter? Could the reason be that if grammar is used then it implies that there is a standard way of communicating, thus people would be able to spend the least amount of effort getting their point across? Wait! Doesn't slang already do this?


texts: Is “steal” a good word for something like grabbing someone's weapon in the course of a struggle?

texts:
Sometimes when there's news about a struggle of sort and someone tries to grab another's weapon to disarm or shoot them, some people would comment on it saying things like,

the guy attacked the gun owner and tried to steal the guy's gun

or

officials said he resisted arrest and stole an officer's Taser

I understand that the term is probably a technically correct one, but isn't “steal” more suitable for things you take, often without the victim's notice, to keep for yourself, or sell? There's just such a big disconnect between things like these and grabbing a gun to save your life. It feels like the only reason to use the word “steal” here would be to paint the “thief” in a bad light. Am I mistaken?


texts:
I understand that a semicolon is often used before a transition (e.g. The boy is smart; however...), but can you use a dash before a similar transition like this?
E.g. : The video games were exciting to play — in this case, the manager put out sports titles.


texts: Can I shorten this noun phrase using compounds?

texts:
So I have this sentence in mind:

  The current of the field coil of the motor is ...

Is it correct use compounds to write this sentence in a shorter way, like this (my attempt):

  The motor field coil current is ...

I am not sure of this sentence because I doubt that the reader will understand that the field coil is that of the motor.


texts: "periphery" and "perimeter" — are they the same?

texts: I looked up in the dictionary and found they both mean the boundary of a closed curve, or the extended meaning “not the center”. Are they synonyms?


texts: What is the etymology of sidesplitting?  In particular, is there a physical interpretation of sides splitting?


texts:
What syntactic function does the word "if" serves in this sentence.

  Certain pesticides can become ineffective if used repeatedly in the same place.

This sentence is taken from GMAC prep material so I am assuming that the sentence is grammatically correct.

According to oxford dictionary (https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/if) the word if can only be a subordinate conjunction.However, there is no subject after if in the sentence above.

Moreover the first example sentence given by oxford dictionary for word if is

  if you have a complaint, write to the director.

but there is no main clause in this sentence.

So can the word if serve some other syntactic function also?


texts:
He's not here. Can I take a message?

He's not here. Can I get a message?

Are these two sentences 'Can I take a message?/Can I get a message?' interchangeable?


texts: On the specifics of illegitimate children

texts: Is there a feminine form of the word bastard? It seems like bastard is a word that’s applied to male children only.


texts: How to describe efficient usage of coins/notes?

texts:
Let’s say that you owe someone $15. Using Australian currency, the most efficient way of expressing this amount of money is with a $10 note and a $5 note. If you gave that person a $10 note and 10 50c coins, how would you apologise? Would you say:

  Sorry I can’t express this amount of money with a smaller number of notes or coins

Just roles off the tongue doesn’t it? Maybe this:

  Sorry I don’t have smaller change

But that sounds wrong. That’s what I would say if I paid for my coffee with a $100 note.

  Sorry I can’t pay you more efficiently

Is “efficient” the word I’m looking for? I feel like there’s a better way to structure this sentence.


texts: What is a word that describes a monolithic national identity?

texts:
Something similar in French would be la jacobinisme (Jacobinism); however, I’m not looking for a political party but a phrase or word in the English lexicon.
The definition would be:
[Blank] is a noun that describes a centralized nation state coupled with a monolithic national identity.


texts:
Is there a word for something with a constantly changing or not easily identifiable form?
Example: If a person sometimes acts shy but other times is more extroverted, so you’re not sure how to describe their personality — is there a word for that state of not really knowing what category a person or thing falls into?


texts: A word describes the person who tends to stereotype people

texts: Is there a word/adjective (single word) that describes the person who likes consiously or uncousiously to stereotype people? I was thinking that there might be a word such as stereotypist, but such a word does not exist. The word I'm expecting should describe the type of people who are very interested in general backgrounds to prejudge. Of course I eliminate racist as the word I'm looking for includes people who prejudge even based on the gender. The kind of person who asks about age, religion, gender, race or political view  before he makes a decision in which corner in his circle will he locate you, no matter how differet/unique you are.


texts: Can articles be omitted in front of the second and third nouns?

texts:
According to one article reference book, it says we can omit articles (a, an, the) in front of the second, third,… nouns. Is it really acceptable from native English speakers' point of view? Is it really grammatically correct and allowed in writing? The book says it is so clear that each item (noun) is a different item, so we do not need to repeat the article.

Example 1:

  I bought a lemon, melon, and pineapple.

Example 2:

  I asked her to pass me the pen, eraser, and pencil sharpener.

I understand we can definitely place "a" in front of each noun, but could placing the articles (a, the) be redundant?


texts: Is "set some time on the side" a common phrase?

texts:
I was convinced set some time on the side was a correct, fairly common expression. However, I am now in doubt because I can't find it via Google phrase match search. Is it idiomatic English?
For example, one might say in a meeting invite,

I wanted to set some time on the side to discuss our Q2 plans.


texts:
Nosey Flynn was sitting up in his usual corner of Davy Byrne's and,
  when he heard the story, he stood Farrington a half-one, saying it
  was as (1) smart a thing as (2) ever (3) he heard. (James
  Joyce, Dubliners)

The meanings of the (1), (2), and (3) seem like:

(1) as : “to the same degree or amount” (Webster’s Learner’s, adverb, 1) : this meaning requires “indirect complement (CGEL’s term)”, i.e. as ever ~.
(2) as : “used to make comparisons” (Webster’s Learner’s, conjunction, 1a) : in “as A as ever B,” A has equal importance as ever B.
(3) ever : “used as an intensive” (Webster, 3) : the best

so, I suspect the highlighted part means: ‘it was as smart a thing as the smartest ones he’d heard.’ Is that a way to understand the construction?


texts: Is there a word for being addicted to words?

texts: I don't know... I just thought it might sound really pretty, or "deep" in some way. I've been compiling a list of beautiful and rare words and I'm pretty sure I am addicted to words so I thought "why not?". I would appreciate an answer, and thank you in advance!


texts: Is "teenage mutant ninja turtles" grammatically correct?

texts:
I think one of the attractions kids and teens have with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) is that the name itself is quirky and sounds fun. Those particular words mashed together are sort of an absurdity. An adjective followed by three unlikely juxtaposed nouns -- it's just weird. But is it grammatically correct? I've always thought it to be, until last night when I happened to hear it, and it didn't sound right.

Extended noun phrases are uncommon in English. As I understand it, they are common in Finnish and German (and probably other languages as well). They even remove the spaces between the words of the phrase. In English, though, it sounds, well, "off".

I understand the fun-factor is in itself a marketing tool.  Around 1990 a TMNT movie came out. To take advantage of the brand awareness, a commercial bakery began mass-producing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cookies.  They came in a bag like Oreos. If that's okay, how far can you take it? Can one speak of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cookies bag? And the bag has a label -- TMNT Cookies bag label??

This is a current topic. I could not find a page talking about the prepackaged, ready-to-eat TMNT cookies already discussed.  But I did find this: Betty Crocker Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell-Shocked Sugar Cookie Mix. (I think I'll buy and make it, and save the BCTMNTSSSCM box.  ) Let's see -- 8 nouns, 1 adjective, and one compound adjective. They are taking the "fun name" concept to a whole new level. But again, can that be correct?


texts: Origins of British expression "knocking on" meaning getting old

texts: Struggling to find any information on the origins of this expression. Is it just a form of the more specific "knocking on 60" meaning you're knocking at the metaphorical door of 60?


texts: The use of "therefor" in my High School Diploma

texts:
I just received my High School Diploma and want to make sure the following sentence is grammatically correct.

The diploma contains the following line: "This certifies that [Name] has satisfactorily completed the requirements prescribed for graduation and is therefor awarded this High School Diploma"

I've read that "therefor" means "in return for" and "therefore" means "consequently."  From those basic definitions, it seems like either word is correct here.

But I figure that just can't be right.  At first I thought that it must be "therefore," but now I'm thinking that "therefor" (like they used) is probably more appropriate.  Which is it?


texts: Does T become S sometimes in casual American speech?

texts:
Taylor Swift is American and I was listening to her song named "You belong with me". You can hear the song on Taylor Swift's official YT channel.
In this song (from 0:48 to 0:52), she says:

That what you're looking for has been here the whole time (listen to it).

But she says the "time" as if it were "sam", the T is S.
The song with lyrics
I also checked some other sites for its lyrics but it is "time" which is being pronounced with an S.
Research:
I did not find anything but another question on this site.
Only the second answer seems to have explained it partially, I will quote it here:

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that the [d] in fid'na comes from the [s] in fixing to, the way that the [z] in isn't, wasn't or business can turn into [d] in some accents before the following [n] sound. Something like [ˈfɪksɪntə] > [ˈfɪksnə] > [ˈfɪsnə] > [ˈfɪznə] > [ˈfɪdnə].
If the intermediate pronunciations [ˈfɪsnə] and [ˈfɪznə] exist, that would support my guess."

The answerer over there says [ˈfɪksɪntə] > [ˈfɪksnə] > [ˈfɪsnə] > [ˈfɪznə] > [ˈfɪdnə].
Question:
Do Americans sometimes pronounce the T as S?

EDIT:
Also hear "A thousand years" sung by Christina Perri (American)
At 1:48, she says: "standing in front of me" but the T in the front sounds to me like an S.


texts:
Some day after the publication of The Origin of Species, Darwin wrote to someone:

I have received in a Manchester newspaper rather a good squib, showing that I have proved might is right and therefore that Napoleon is right, and every cheating tradesman is also right.

Two definitions of 'squib' from Merriam-Webster seems to be more or less appropriate here:

a) a short humorous or satiric writing or speech
b) a short news item

Which suits the context better?


texts: Why does "...at once" sound fine but "...right now" doesn't?

texts:
A non English native colleague asked a questioned today that I couldn't answer clearly. The only thing I could come up with was that it sounded strange. The sentences:
"They liked him almost at once."
and
"They liked him almost right now."
I mentioned that if almost was taken out, either would be fine (at least it sounds fine to me).
Can anyone give a detailed explanation as to why right now sounds weird?
edit: Also can anyone give a grammatical explanation why?


texts: Are there words or concepts for ‘Real Chocolate,’ Obligatory Chocolate’ and ‘Reverse Chocolate’ for Valentine Day gift in English?

texts:
Valentine Day is nearing. In our country (Japan), Valentine Day is characterized as the day for young girls and ladies to present chocolate as a sign of love to their boyfriends, or thanks to their family, work colleagues and superiors. Among gift options, chocolates are overwhelmingly chosen as the Valentine gift. For confectionery manufacturers and retail shops, Valentine Day season is a critical moment.

The chocolate presented to one's man is called Hon Choco (favorite (sweetheart) chocolate); the ones presented to family members, colleagues and boss are called Giri-Choco (obligatory gift chocolate) which means it doesn’t accompany special love (affection) sign to receivers; ones given to ordinary friends,'Tomo-Choko (friendship chocolate), and the ones presented from males to females are called Gyaku Choco (reverse chocolate).

I understand Valentine Day gifts are not limited to chocolate in Western countries and that Westerners don’t bother with the character of chocolate or the purpose of giving Valentine Gifts. However, I’m curious to know if there are any words or concepts to correspond to our Honchoco, Girichoco, and Gyakuchoko in English.


texts: How to use semicolons to set off a list in a the middle of a sentence

texts:
How would you use the semicolon in the following sentence?

  He had worked on a number of films, including Monsters, Inc., Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and Toy Story, but never got noticed for the work he did.

Please don't suggest other punctuation, or reworking the sentence. I just want to know how to use semicolons here. It's just an example. Would this be correct?

  He had worked on a number of films, including Monsters, Inc.; Sex, Lies, and Videotape; and Toy Story, but never got noticed for the work he did.


texts: Is there a word for accidentally stealing something?

texts:
Is there a single English word to describe when someone has appropriated property that doesn't belong to them unintentionally?

For example, say I borrow a pen from someone and absentmindedly put it in my pocket after I finish writing. I discover the pen much later. Did I steal it, or is there a term with less harsh connotations?


texts: Pronunciation of read (past participle) and red in Singapore English

texts:
Are they generally pronounced with the same vowel in Singapore English, or not?
American and British dictionaries list them both as /ɹɛd/, but I find that I pronounce red with a less open vowel than read (although I can't quite tell exactly which). Looking on Youglish, I can find a number of videos with speakers that do pronounce them differently, and a number that don't. It's hard to find Singapore English examples on Youglish though.


texts: "The current crop of X (was/were)" - Which is correct?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Is the usage of “are” correct when referring to a team/group/band?
  Is “a wide range of features” singular or plural?

From here:

  The current crop of golfers were getting ready for the afterlife, one way or the other.

My question:

Is this the correct verb agreement?
I thought that of golfers was a prepositional phrase, and that crop, which is a singular noun, should dictate the verb agreement.


texts: Any other good way of saying "Happy Birthday"?

texts:
Quite a few of my friends are having their birthdays in the coming weeks. I feel a little awkward posting plain words like "Happy Birthday" on their Facebook pages.

I've decided I should come up with a different or special expression. Is there any other good way of saying or implying "Happy Birthday"?


texts: In «In addition to *his being a great writer*,» what is «his being a great writer»?

texts:
Is that a gerund-like construction? A noun phrase? What kind of part of speech is that? I apologize in advance if there is some thread that already deals with this issue, but since I don't really know the name, I didn't know where to look.
Have a great day!


texts: Sentence order around interposed sentences

texts:
I understand that the sentence...

  You can give a small boy, who is less than 1 year old, a kiss.

... is correct, but I often feel like wanting to do the following construction:

  A small boy, who is less than 1 year old, you can give a kiss.

The structure fits my intuition (but this might be influence from my native language), but the sound is odd in my ears. Is the sentence correct? And if yes, are there any differences or otherwise preference towards one version over the other?


texts: "Dear Sir (or Madam)" when gender unknown?

texts:
When writing a formal letter addressed to someone whose gender is unknown, how important is it to use "Dear Sir or Madam", instead of "Dear Sir"?

I was taught that "Dear Sir" is an acceptable gender-neutral salutation but times may have changed, is this right or wrong?


texts: Recommendations for non-native English speaking bloggers

texts:
What if someone who is not a native English speaker wants to write for a blog in English, but is not sure about the correctness of his writings? How could one ensure that the article won't annoy readers with its wrong language?

What would you recommend in this case? What should one pay attention to in the first place? What resources are there online for ensuring that an article is written well enough to be published?


texts: How did *Old* English transform into *Middle* English so quickly?

texts:
Anglo Saxon Old English was the most common language in England before the Norman invasion. To the modern eye, it is unintelligible without specialist learning:

  lange þrage;     he him ðæs lean forgeald.II Gewat ða neosian,     syþðan
  niht becom,  hean huses,     hu hit Hring-Deneæfter beorþege     gebun
  hæfdon.

Geoffery Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales about four hundred years later. It’s awkward for the modern reader, but essentially understandable:

  Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
  The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
  And bathed every veyne in swich licour
  Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Languages evolve of course, but usually not so fast. Six hundred years later, we’re still speaking roughly the same language as Chaucer with the same grammatical rules.

Back then, how did the language transform itself so completely from Anglo Saxon Old English in such a short time? I’d like some details, if possible, not just “because of the Norman invasions”.


texts: is there a difference between "last 2 days" and "past 2 days"

texts:
Are "last" and "past" interchangeable in:

last 2 days
past 2 days

?


texts:
What is it meant by "sanctions grip" in the following sentence:

"China, Germany defend Iran business ties as U.S. sanctions grip"?

Is sanctions here a plural noun or singular verb?

That sentence was the title of a Netscape news article (which is not available in the EU).

Can anyone explain it please?


texts: Words for first-est and last-est items from a sequence

texts:
Consider the alphabet (ABC...XYZ). The order is defined, but meaningless.

Say we have a subset of letters:
BEKOPX

How can I say that ‘B’ is the “first-est ” and ‘X’ is the “last-est” occurring letter in this given set? Not because of their positions in this set, but because of their positions in the original alphabet.

Edit:

Consider different-sized photos in an old scrapbook. They have dates on them, but they were not added to the album in strict chronological order. Still, they appear in sequence as you flip through the pages.

"Earliest", "alphabetically earliest", "nearest", "smallest", "least", etc. may work most of the time because there are enough of these words to choose from to avoid confusion when a conflict arises.

The scrapbook example illustrates a few conflicts all at once.


texts:
Is "as far as" the same as "to" in these sentences?

I read as far as the third chapter.
I read to the third chapter.

and

I'm going by train as far as London.
I'm going by train to London.


texts: Is there a word like 'twain' that means 'three'?

texts:
I have a list of three items, and I'd like to say the equivalent of "never the twain shall meet." Is there a word meaning "three" that I could substitute for "twain"? "None of them will ever meet" works, but doesn't have quite the same quaintness. I know that "twain" comes from the Anglo-Saxon "twengen," and was thinking that maybe the word I'm looking for could come from "threo/thrim/thrie" perhaps.
Thanks!


texts: What do you call bags for sorting travel stuff?

texts: What do you call those small bags that are used for sorting things inside a travel bag? Usually used for toiletries, socks, underwear etc.


texts: What do you call people who are constantly moving [i.e., "in motion"]?

texts: Moving here does not mean moving to a new city or something like that. I am talking about the people that just can't stay at one place. It is impossible for them to sit put at one place and relax.


texts: Apostrophe when using a noun to describe plural form of that noun?

texts:
I want to say something like:
You can almost empathize with the Robert Moses' of the world.
Where Robert Moses' is being used to describe Robert Moses and other people like himself. Is the apostrophe needed? It's not really ownership, so should it be Moseses? That doesn't sound right either..
What would be the correct way to write this?
Another example without ending in es: walker's of the world or walkers of the world?  Would this be different than the Moses example?


texts: How can I know the exact meaning of “cousin” in a sentence?

texts:
How can I know  the exact meaning of the word cousin in a sentence? How do English speakers distinguish between different kinds of cousins?

(Arabic distinguishes both the sex of the cousin and the side of the family —Cindi/Google)


texts:
From James Joyce's Ulysses:

  By inserting the barrel of an arruginated male key in the hole of an unstable female lock, obtaining a purchase on the bow of the key and turning its wards from right to left, withdrawing a bolt from its staple, pulling inward spasmodically an obsolescent unhinged door and revealing an aperture for free egress and free ingress.

I admit that I've seen this word for the first time "thanks" to an Internet troll, who, as part of spamming a website with their obscene garbage, claimed their fingers are "arruginated" and they need to see a doctor because of this condition; then they proceeded with some inappropriate wordplay, with the punchline being the above quotation from Ulyssess.

I'm mentioning this only because I wonder if this troll didn't use this word in some precise meaning? Or was it only a meaningless gibberish? Is there any precise meaning to this word? The word is not included in any dictionary I can find—not even Wiktionary or the OED.

What does "arruginated" mean? What did James Joyce mean when he was writing it? What does a modern person mean when they use this word?


texts: 'In the Fox Theater' or 'In the Fox theater' or 'In The Fox Theater'

texts: I am confused over the use of 'the' and capitalization.


texts:
Be it a book or a movie, a good story is always appreciated.

Can ‘be it’ be followed by plural?

Ex.  Be it books or movies, a good story is always appreciated.

What I thought is that ‘it’ always refers to a singular form of noun. So, ‘be it’ always goes with singular noun. But I am not sure whether it is true or not.

help me with your suggestion.


texts: When the word period is used after a sentence, what does it mean?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What does 'period' mean when someone says “something, period”?

When the word period is used after a sentence, like so:

  Bacon is awesome. Period.

What does it mean?


texts:
Does there exist a short form of I am not?

I'm not or I amn't or I am not?


texts: Can "information commons" be translated as information repository?

texts:
The reader may find some redundancy between the introductory section and the
  subsequent chapters on Locke, copyright protection, or the information commons in Section II and Section III.  (Spinello, Richard, & Tavani, Herman, Intellectual Property Rights in a Networked World:Theory and Practice, p. X)

Wikipedia defines the term as an information system. Do I get it right if I assume it refers to an information inventory (repository)? I need to know this as I have to translate it as accurate as I can into the destination language.


texts:
My instinct tells me to use result in. But in my working environment, it systems, somebody came up with result into. Example:

  To use this programs in parallel can result into a crash...

I have read To gain insight into or on? and "Result in" or "result to" . And when I enter result in dict.cc I get only results for result in.

So, is there any correct usage of result into and if so, what is the difference?


texts: Yards, courtyards, and gardens in American English

texts:
As long as reportedly Americans commonly designate an area of land, usually planted with plants, trees, flowerbeds, etc., adjoining a house as a yard (front yard/backyard); and a plot of land used for the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, herbs, or fruit as a garden — what do Americans call what is referred to by the British as a yard, i.e. a piece of open ground, usually paved or laid with concrete or gravel, and often adjoining or surrounding a building or buildings?

Is it also commonly designated by Americans as a yard (front yard/backyard)? Or as a courtyard? Or is there another term to it?

If indeed it's also called a yard, isn't there — if context is unclear — any chance of ambiguity or misunderstanding as to whether it's a planted area or a paved/concreted/graveled one that one is referring to?


texts:
How correct is this sentence:
"His parents did not approve of our dating because of our age difference, but we did anyway."
If "did anyway" refers to "approve", how can one approve one's own actions?
Would this sentence also sound right:
My sister hates swimming but I do every day.


texts: Does a continuous verb form avoids a comma splice?

texts:
I realize this question has been done to death but I'm still questioning it.

The following sentence I feel does not contain a comma splice as the clause doesn't seem to hold up on its own:

  Most European countries have proceeded with significant liberalization of financial law since the 1980s, Ireland being the latest example.

However, when I write it slightly differently, I'm pretty positive it is a comma splice.

  Most European countries have proceeded with significant liberalization of financial law since the 1980s, Ireland is no exception.

Is this correct? And if so, why? Why does the continuous form make it not a comma splice. If it is indeed a comma splice, how would you punctuate it to capture the informal style of the author. An em dash, a semi-colon, a full-stop or and?

Thanks for the help.


texts:
Which prepositions should I use here ?

  Working hours duration time should be below/under the one defined in/on parameter default.time.

Here the context was about programming languages parameters.


texts: Can I say "glad to be treated normally" to express my gratitude?

texts:
Someone writes back to me, consoling me that everyone has low-emotion periods and there's nothing wrong about that.
I feel quite relieved since she doesn't show excessive worry or view me as someone weird. But shall I express this feeling by using "Glad to be treated normally"?


texts: How to express the idea that "improve performance"

texts:
I want to express an idea that I "decrease app crash". But the sentence sounds weird.

  Fix app crash by 50 percent

How should I refactor this sentence.

Thanks


texts: I felt as if it "was" or "were" grinning at me?

texts:
A wicked aura around it, I felt as if it was grinning at me

or

  A wicked aura around it, I felt as if it were grinning at me

?


texts:
Would love some help with this. I'm creating a wedding invitation card and am confused on how it should be written. The invitation is for my dinner reception. I'm the grandson of Mr. & Mrs. Grandparents and son of Mr. & Mrs. Parents.

"On behalf of the late Mr. & Mrs. Grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Parents request the honour of your presence to the dinner reception of their beloved grandson"

should the text in bold be "grandson" or "son"?

Thanks!


texts: how to describe a person in office live by `Information Asymmetry`

texts:
if a person work in a office at a firm.

He reports his manager the information best for him, sometimes lies to his manager.
He tells his subordinate staff the information best for him, sometimes lies .

His manger thinks he is doing great job and take all the hard work,because manager doesn't know the full picture.

subordinate staff is doing the all the hard work and doesn't earn the credit he/she deserve.

he is using Information Asymmetry to live happily in the office .

Any english phase to describe this behavior or person ?


texts: Oxymoron structure - best way to structure

texts:
Writing a short story in which a young person finds a new friendship in an older person. And invites the older person to an event with a lot of young, long term friends.

I'm blanking out on what is better to describe the older person to a group of long term friends. "Hello everyone, I want you to meet..."

"... my old, new friend {name}."
or
"... my new, old friend {name}."

Yes, I'm aware both are 'rude', the context here is the all the friends are significantly younger, and the protagonist is putting it out there to remove the awkwardness others may have toward the newcomer.


texts:
What I want to say is that I compete with myself in short.

I was thinking that it could be

Me vs Me
I vs Me
I vs Myself

Which one is grammatically correct?


texts: Which spelling would be more correct: "Evictor" or "Evicter"?

texts:
Both "Evictor" and "Evicter" show up at Lexico.com. The "Evicter" page is much more substantial, though.

At Dictionary.com, "Evictor" is the only accepted spelling.

Google Trends shows that "Evictor" is a good deal more popular than "Evicter", but that is most likely due to a particular product which uses the former spelling.


texts: Word for killing off or attempting to kill off an entire bloodline?

texts:
I would like to know if there is a word or phrase for a systematic campaign to annihilate every descendant of a particular ancestor.

We have the word 'genocide' for killing off an entire race, and plenty of words for killing people based on how they are related to you (fratricide, filicide, et. al.), but looking over the "cide" words on The Phrontistery and the List of types of killing on Wikipedia, I couldn't find a term for systematically killing an entire bloodline.

My question is prompted by a US news story about the horrific murder of 8 members of the same family, but those murders are not an example of what I'm thinking of because the children of the victims were left alive, so the motive for the killings was not to kill off the bloodline. The sense that some group had coordinated an attack against just one family is what made me wonder what the "not an entire race, just one bloodline" version of 'genocide' would be called.

Searching the Internet for "kill off" and bloodline sends me straight into the land of vampires, Illuminati, reptilian overlords, and, naturally, Priory of Sion nonsense so I haven't had much luck finding a thread to pull.

It may be that there is no word for it in the sense of murdering a human bloodline, because we just don't attempt kill off our royals down to the last heir often enough to coin a term for it. Maybe there is a scientific term for culling a line from a test population as part of biological research?


texts: what kind of Grammer rules is using of " why else" ? when and how we ca use it? and for example, what is the meaning of " why else would you do it" ?


texts: What does "this design sucks like an inverted hurricane" mean?

texts: Martin Fowler in his Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture says: "this design sucks like an inverted hurricane". I can't get the last part. What does the "inverted hurricate" mean in this context? Or is this an untranslatable idiom?


texts: "(Of) different size" or "(of) different sizes"?

texts:
Which one is better: "two pipes of different radii" or "two pipes of different radius"?

In Futurama, "let me show you some of the different lengths of wire I use" uses plural "lengths", but is it only because it's more than two?


texts: What does it mean to be a sharp cookie? Is it a compliment (because I've never heard of sharp cookie)?


texts:
I want to ask which is the more formal and common word between
"vocation" and "occupation" in British English, for example similar to: "What's your job?"

I found "vocation learnt". Is it usual to say "What's your vocation or your occupation?" or "what occupation/vocation did you learn ?" ?

Google Ngram: job,vocation,occupation


texts:
What is another alternative to "computations that are time consuming"?
I've heard the expression "computationally expensive" but I am not sure whether it refers to the timespan of the simulation or if the Memory is also included.
I am not very technical, I'm still learning.
I would very much appreciate it if you go easy on me.
Thanks in advance :)


texts:
I'm having a difficult time choosing between "take + responsibility", or "take on + responsibility". Please see the following sentences(written by Chinese learners of English):

DINK couples refuse to play the role of parents and (take /take on) the responsibilities to cultivate offspring.
Mother is getting old, but I haven't (taken/taken on) the responsibility for supporting her.
She is ready to (take/take on) the responsibility of a wife bravely. (Note: Her husband is seriously ill in the hospital. )

Qestions:
1. Which is the right expression to use in each context: “take” or “take on”?
2. If one of them is correct, then why?
3. If both are correct, then any differences in meaning between “take” and “take on”?

Many thanks in advance!


texts: "What kind of stuff is it?" vs "What kind of stuff it is?"

texts: Please advise which version of the question is correct and what's the rule governing it?


texts: What is a word that means truncate from the beginning?

texts:
I am creating some software that has the concept of truncating a one-dimensional array from either the left or right end. I'm happy using the word truncate to describe lopping off the rightmost end of the array, but it doesn't feel right to use this word when removing array elements from the beginning.

I've considered left-truncate but that seems to have another meaning in statistics.

"I've (left-truncated) the array [1,2,3,4,5] and am left with [3,4,5]"


texts:
Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

"I just hope he walks out clean from the probe"

If not, what is the correct form?

EDIT: The context of the above sentence is a situation where you wish someone comes out of an investigation (say, by the police) being acquitted.


texts: Caption text punctuation: Full stops always necessary at the end?

texts:
Example caption text for a photo:

  Little Diane necklace

1a) No full stop is correct, yes?

Now a longer example of caption text:

  Little Diane necklace. The photograph of the young Diane was taken
  after a polio vaccination and appeared in the local newspaper. She
  smiles bravely into the camera to reassure other children.

1b) Is a full stop necessary at the very end if there is more than one sentence?

2) How are the name and description separated? By a period or semicolon?


texts: Using the example "to obtain similar to or similarly to," the latter sounds very strange even though similarly is definitely being used as an adverb. The sentence: "The fragments were obtained similar to / similarly to the sticks." This would be much less wordy than "The fragments were obtained using a procedure similar to that used to obtain the sticks," (or: with the same procedure as that used to obtain - still wordy), but which is correct, "x" was obtained similar to or similarly to "y"?


texts: When the first word of an initialism is the same as the initialism

texts:
Is there a word for an acronym whose first word is identical to the acronym?  There are real-world examples.  However, none come to mind so I will fabricate one here.

  Face
  Acuity
  Characteristics
  Expressions

  F.A.C.E.

If there is already  word for it I think it should be called an 'initialistic initialism'.

Or an 'initialised initialism'.

Edit: I am aware I have used' acronym' and 'initialism' interchangeably, my question applies to both.

EDIT: Although "GNU: GNU Not Linux" is a case of this and is known as a recursive acronym. The example I use as well as "IRIS: Iris Recognition Immigration System" are not recursive as the word Iris actually means something. Said another way "GNU: GNU Not Linux" could just as easily be "PNU: PNU Not Linux", the same is not true of IRIS.


texts: Describe someone who doesn't want anything better to happen to anyone else

texts:
I'm looking for a one (two might be ok) word description for a person who doesn't want anyone else to have a better life than himself. This is the type of person who will break your crayon on purpose because he accidentally broke his own. He's not inherently mean; if his own life is going well, then yours can, too.

To make this a little stronger, here's another example. Describe (in one or two words) a person who, after being born with only one arm, goes around chopping off other people's arms because he thinks it isn't fair that they all get to have two.

So far, the best I have is bitter or malcontent, but neither of these is strong enough in my opinion.

For context, I'm writing a log line and having trouble getting a strong enough adjective to describe the antagonist.


texts: Is it appropriate to use a forward slash (`/`) to separate more than single words?

texts:
Is it appropriate to use a forward slash (/) to separate more than single words? For instance, can we separate two words on each side of the forward slash, or perhaps even one word on one side and two words on the other?
The closest question I could find was this, but it seems to have been wrongly closed as a duplicate.


texts: Concisely describe an action as being performed in a paranoid fashion?

texts:
I would like to describe the manner in which a person performs a task as something like "done in a paranoid fashion." Suspiciously is close, but I'm thinking there should be something more like Paranoidly for this situation.

The use case is actually for documenting a software routine that is particularly untrusting of the input it is given. It acts as if the input is "out to get it," like a paranoid (person) might.

Right now my best succinct description is something like:

  A paranoid routine for obtaining a widget based on supplied search criteria

but that doesn't quite capture the emphasis I was hoping for.

  Obtain a widget based on supplied search criteria paranoidly


texts: "It was still bright/light outside." Is one of these incorrect?

texts:
If I want to say it's still somewhat early in the evening and it's not so dark outside so that you can still see things quite clearly almost like during daytime, which of the following sentences would be a better fit?

  It was still bright outside.
  It was still light outside.

I was told that one of them is incorrect, but both of them seem right to me.


texts: Single word for a person who puts forth effort only in front of management

texts:
I'm trying to find a single word/term for an individual that puts forth effort only when being observed by management. All other times individual is lazy/useless, but everything changes when the boss is around! Is there a term for this?
Thanks!


texts: Would I be off base if I suggested (or created) the word "sciophile"? Meaning "one who loves science".


texts: 'one's chest has straitened, yet he doth not utter'

texts:
This is a rough translation of a line in Arabic poetry and I can't seem to find a good equivalent to it.

'Ones chest/bosom has straitened/has narrowed so much/distressed/heavied (no more room in his chest (seat of his feelings), there's no appeal for anything in the world anymore, this person has been crushed and has been subject to extreme hardship and rigor. He's had enough and has worn to a frazzle. Life has thrown a lot at him and burdened him with far more than he can bear.) Yet his tongue doth not utter. (Maybe out of self-esteem, he doesnt want to share in other people with his worries). Imagine your chest is so constricted, when you're distressed you try to breathe deep and what have you. He is so full of anguish but still keeps his tongue tied and confines his misery inside and keeps to himself. Has become a captive of himself.

'Ones bosom has straitened' is also used in prayer as in
'O Lord my bosom has straitened and I have sated, so do widen my endurance and lighten my worries, you are most merciful'.

I need a good way of translating this. Is there a good English saying in poetry or prose or anything? Any ideas are welcome.


texts: All along, all I was running away from was "me" or "myself"?

texts:
All along, all I was running away from was me.
All along, all I was running away from was myself.

Which is (more) correct?

I understand that if the sentence was simply "I was running away from me/myself," myself would be the right word to use, because the subject and object are the same.
I'm just unsure with the second "all" in the sentence.

I've seen lyrics like "all I was searching for was me"  or titles like "all I was looking for was me." I know those could be incorrect.

Could someone please confirm which of the two sentences above is more correct?


texts:
What is correct “the last” or “last”?

I haven’t read any book since “the last Saturday”/“last Saturday”.

I read an article that we use last before a specific past time reference such as Monday. So day in a week are never preceded by THE LAST but just by LAST apart from if it is a specific reference in time e.g. It was on TV the last Monday in November.?

Thank you


texts:
Hi what is better to use?

Traditonal Library of WrUT ( WrUT is a Wroclaw University of Wroclaw)

or Traditonal Library of the WrUT

2.Visit the website of WrUT Libraries’
or Visit the website of the WrUT Libraries’
thanks Jola


texts: 'Strong' presence, but ________ absence?

texts: What would be a good collocation to emphasize the absence of something. A 'strong absence' sounds a bit oxymoronic to me.


texts: Word for sabot-like component in a non-projectile apparatus?

texts:
A sabot, in the context of weapon design, is a smooth covering that allows an irregularly shaped projectile to fit snugly in a tubular bore. A similar design can be used to securely mount a small-diameter cylinder within a tube that would otherwise be too large for it. Sabot seems to reside exclusively in the context of projectile weapons, but what would a more appropriate word be to describe this general structure? Specifically, picture a thick walled tube (the "sabot") which has an outer diameter just large enough to fit securely in an outer tube and an inner diameter just large enough to accept a narrower cylinder, such that the "sabot" allows the narrow cylinder to be mounted in the center of the larger outer tube.

Ex: We machined a ___ with which to consistently position the rod within the containment tube.


texts: Is it correct to say 'Do one thing' when asking somebody to do something?

texts:
In Indian English, sometimes we say things like this:
'Do one thing. Take a left turn there'. Basically, I am asking somebody to do something, which comes in following sentence.
What's the better way of saying so?


texts:
At this point the program starts printfing the pot value.
  At this point the program starts printingf the pot value.

Both sound wrong, and yet... one of them must be used.


texts: Comma - American versus British, Really?

texts:
So, from my writing infancy, my High School Teacher Mom taught me never to place a comma before the conjunction in any list of more than 2 things and yet there seems to be quite some debate about it, at least now.  From what I've learned, according to the APA, MLA and Chicago MoS, my immediately preceding list is grammatically incorrect (at least for American writing).  However, according to the AP, it is correct.

Have these largely considered worthy sources of grammatical information (and the like) always been in discord over this matter?  And regardless, wouldn't it be acceptable to choose either format?  I certainly hope so, as I far prefer writing lists without the comma before the conjunction to the alternative.


texts: Is there a specific word for a humorous device wherein after a reaction, more information changes the meaning of the phrase

texts:
I found it hard to summarise this in the title, and I thought a few examples would illustrate what I mean best:

"Well known local celebrities include Alan Bennett and Barry Cryer" (lead up)
<Audience woo>
"Wait a minute: Well known local celebrities include Alan Bennett, and Barry Cryer used to know his milkman". (Extra information).
<Audience laugh>

Another example:

"'Open fire!', roared the Colonel." (lead up)
<Gunshot sound effects> (reaction)
"Yes I do love an open fire, he went on, warming his hands by the blaze" (Extra information, in this case laughing at the expense of whoever's in charge of sound effects).

I hope I've made myself clear as to the type of comedy I mean, I'm just wondering whether it has it's own name.


texts: The use of apostrophes when there is no clear owner

texts:
Is this sentence correct and if so/not, why?

The cyclist's average speed is less than that of a car's.


texts:
When I was reading an English web site on the Internet (BBC's 6 Minutes English), I came across this sentence:

  At the weekends, me and my sisters didn't go to cybercafes or the cinema or hang around the park smoking cigarettes like other teenagers.

I've never seen "me" used as the subject and placed at the beginning of a sentence, so I was surprised to see this. I think of course "I and my sisters didn't go" is better, but is "me and my sisters didn't go" accepted as a colloquial expression by English-speaking people?


texts: What does drag mean in the context of a bull being chained to a drag?

texts:
My question comes after reading the William Carlos Williams' poem The Bull:

"...chained / to a drag / the bull is godlike"

I would be very grateful for an explanation.
Thank you!


texts: Did Shakespeare really coin "Alligator"?

texts:
I have read many essays on the heavily debated subject of just how many words Our immortal Bard coined. I think it is safe to say, some of the words (and phrases) which are credited to him are undoubtedly his own, and yet there are as well many others which I, and many others, though wholeheartedly would love to see credited to Shakespeare, nevertheless, seem uneasy to accept it.
I was looking through numerous compiled lists of words supposedly coined by the Bard, and found one which truly peaked my interest--"Alligator"!
I already knew the etymology of the word due to my previous interest in the cónquistadors and Spain's 15th, 16th-century history; initially "la lagarto" coined by the early Spaniards who entered The Americas and more specifically Terra de La Florida (possibly Ponce De Leon or those with him); and I already knew the Spanish word "aligarto" was already in use during Elizabethan England, and of course "Crocodile" is a word dating much farther back; But is there any evidence of the use of the word "alligator" before Shakespeare?
OED puts:

1560s, "large carnivorous reptile of the Americas," lagarto, aligarto, a corruption of Spanish el lagarto (de Indias) "the lizard (of the Indies)," from Latin lacertus (see lizard), with Spanish definite article el, from Latin ille (see le).
The modern form of the English word is attested from 1620s, with unetymological -r as in tater, feller, etc. (Alligarter was an early variant) and an overall Latin appearance

Here is the use of "alligator" by Shakespeare: From Romeo and Juliet, (V, 1, line 2840)

And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shaped fishes;

Here is the First (1623), Second (1632), Third (1665), and fourth (1685) Folio spelling:

and in his needie shop a tortoyrs hung, an Allegater stuft, and other skins of ill shap'd fishes

although Fourth Folio makes it "Allegator" with an "o".
And the first (bad) Quarto of R&J reads:

As I past by, whose needie shop is stufft With beggerly accounts of
emptie boxes: And in the same an Aligarta hangs, Olde endes of
packthred, and cakes of Roses,

But the second (good) Quarto of 1599 reads:

And in his needie shop a tortoyes hung,
An allegater stuft, and other skins
Of ill shapte fishes,

so, though the spelling is off, undoubtedly the word reads as "Alligator", and since those Jacobeans spelled the way a word sounded, I think there is strong evidence to hold that the pronunciation of the word is "alligator"--as the "r" in-between "aligarto" is moved to the front, "alligator" or "Allegater"--thus, the essence of our modern-day name of the animal is more like Shakespeare's added "r" at the end" then any other archaic name used prior.
By 1643 the word "Alligator" is in use, as seen in Madagascar, the richest and most frvitfvll island in the world (1643)

the greatest enemy their Cattell have, is the crocodile or alligator, who being in the fresh rivers, meets with them sometimes when they come to water, but of these there are not many, and those might soone be destroyed if the natives had either wit or skill to doe it:

I did find the word being used in a 1542 text, but it does not seem to have anything to do with the animal:

or throwe any thynge agaynst the grounde or walles: [.] # alligator, he that byndeth: [.] # alligatura

My question is: did anyone use the name before Shakespeare in writing? And thus did Shakespeare really coin the modern name of "alligator" (even though it was spelled differently--different syllables, but otherwise very recognizable)?


texts: "The past hours" or "The passed hours" which one to use?

texts:
Imagine the following situation :

You've arranged a meeting with a colleague at a specific time ( say at 6:00 PM ), but he didn't show up until 8:00 PM ( 2 hours have passed ).
If I were to refer to those hours I spent waiting for my colleague to show up ( the two hours ), what should I call them ? ( The past hours or The passed hours ).

Ngram :


texts: "The most distant ever visited by a spacecraft from Earth"

texts:
This is from the transcript of a podcast:

  Now, these pictures can be a bit messy. So scientists say they could use plenty of eyes to help scan the pics for things that move—the same way Tombaugh first found Pluto. The winning object could become the most distant ever visited by a spacecraft from Earth.

I can read the sentence in bold literally. But I think it supposed to be like this:

  The winning object could become the most distant one that has been ever visited by a spacecraft from Earth.

What is the grammar phenomenon in the sentence? And how should I understand it?


texts:
I've stumbled upon "Sign up free" and "Sign up for free" on different websites.

"Sign up free" makes no sense to me. Is it correct? Which one should I use on my website? Thanks.


texts: What's it called when you think you feel better but you are still sick

texts:
I swear there is a word for thinking something when its really just your mind pretending it.

i.e You are sick and have an Advil and immediately feel better. (Even though it might not have kicked in yet.)


texts:
Why are eggs fried (over-)easy while boiled soft?
I looked for etymological clues on the phrase "over-easy", but could find one.
In both frying and boiling, fully cooked eggs are hard in the sense of stiffness, not of difficulty, so I can't understand where the easiness is coming from.


texts: I've always used As Per Se in a sentence and assumed it was right. I googled it out on a whim and couldn't find it anywhere. I did find Per Se and it's variants. Would someone shine some light on this?


texts: What is the process of swapping two words in a sentence for comedic effect known as?

texts:
I have looked on the internet for this, and am repeatedly led to terms such as Malapropism, Anastrophe, Spoonerism, and even Ellipsis... none of which are correct in this case.
I am looking for the term that describes the purposeful juxtaposition of two nouns, such as:
'It's time to put out the fire, and throw another log on the cat' (Richard O'Brien)
or possibly 'With Gifts on the Fire and Logs on the Tree' (Mistletoe and Wine treated thus).
The effect is that one of the halves remains plausible, but the other is ludicrous.
Any assistance in this matter would be much appreciated, as I'm sure there has to be a word for it.


texts:
When checking if products do not smell weird or if the smell isn't bad,
Which is more appropriate?
Off-odor should not be found or There should be no off odor
I am confused if the term off-odor is actually used commonly when describing bad smells in a formal way.
I am also confused if found is the right verb to be used along with the word odor


texts: Meaning of specific passage of corporate text, "processes are managed in customized in-house training"

texts:
BMW’s active management development
process involves three components: corporate development programs (for
example on culture, e-commerce), professional development programs (for
example skills such as conflict management) and dialogue (communication
skills, working cross-functionally and so on). These processes are managed
in customized in-house training, facilitated by freelance trainers and business
school faculty. In addition, special programs help develop future leaders.

I can't understand the bold part completely. Please explain it to me in an easier way.


texts: The use of the apostrophe is equivalent in these phrases?

texts:
This is the house of John / This is John's house

Are they equivalent?


texts:
In the course I'm currently teaching, I give out assignments which the students do and submit for me to later review and comment on. They either pass this task, or they need to revise their work. They are not graded on this work, it's basically just a hurdle they have to jump over.

What would be the proper word for what I do in this? I'm not really grading the assignments, which otherwise would be the natural choice (i.e. if it were an exam). Is "correcting assignments" a valid expression? Or "reviewing"? Or something else?


texts:
When you say the sentence:

  The two men exchanged courtesies before getting down to
  business.

What are the examples of such a courtesies? May it be compliments (flattery)? Is it something formal like Good evening my friend. Can you show the contrast between statements that are courtesies and aren't courtesies and try to classify them if there are more types of courtesies-statements?


texts:
Should the first word after a colon be capitalized? Which of the following is correct?

For example: This.
For example: this.


texts:
"In Figures 1 and 2, the results of the studies A and B are respectively presented."

I'm not sure if the "respectively" position is correct.


texts: How did we get both sub- and infra- prefixes?

texts:
It seems that both sub- and infra- are prefixes that mean "below", leading to their use in different words to provide a similar meaning. We even have some words that are the same apart from these prefixes whose meanings could conceivably be flipped, eg. subsonic and infrasonic, substructure and infrastructure.

Normally in cases like this, the prefixes come from different languages but in this case, they both etymologically come from Latin. How did this come to be? Why 2 different prefixes with the same meaning?


texts: Origin of the term "driver" in computer science

texts:
According to Wikipedia:

  … a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device.

What is the origin of the term driver as used in the above reference? I’ve googled around a bit but haven’t been able to find an answer.


texts: Is there a term that defines nostalgia for something you've never experienced?

texts:
Often I find I have a sense of nostalgia for things I've never actually experienced, in a way that rivals the same sort of feelings I have for things I have experienced.

For example when listening to music that was big before one's own generation or seeing old black and white photos of how people lived their lives generations before you were born.

It's an odd feeling I've heard many people talk about, but I've never quite had a word for explaining it.

Is there a term that describes this? Or is it still nostalgia?


texts:
I'm writing a PhD thesis.

Should I use "upcoming" in the following sentence, or is it too informal?

  . . . the modifications will be
  included in the upcoming fourth
  version of the manual . . .

By upcoming I mean "to be released".


texts:
I have mostly seen "fluxes" but I could not find a definitive answer in some dictionary.
As it come from the French, I am enclined to think it is "flux" in the plural though.

Edit : I am talking about the flow of a quantity, as an air flux.

Example : "The sum of all air fluxes was zero".


texts: Can "guarantee" be used in a negative context?

texts: Is the usage of the word 'Guarantee' correct in a negative context? E.g.: "Living in a high landslide hazard zone is no guarantee that a landslide will affect your home." It seems wrong to use the word 'guarantee' here; but what is the alternative word? Thanks for your time.


texts: How common is ' to trickle down' used in contexts unconnected to finance, wealth, etc.?

texts:
I have been using trickle down in contexts totally irrelevant to economy and similar concepts. Here is an example:

  Any change involving a particular part of an ecosystem will trickle down, in due course, to the others.

Many Google results are related, in a way or the other, to national wealth, haves and have-nots, etc.

The following is a rare example Google fetches:

  That news may take at least a day to trickle down to the street.

I'd like to know if this usage is unacceptable or simply less common? What could be a better alternative, if this is not acceptable?


texts: What is a word for someone without allegiance?

texts:
I am looking for an adjective akin to "loyal" and "disloyal" in that it describes someone's exact null association with both words. Someone or something with no allegiances whatsoever, a goes-with-the-highest-bidder kind of person. Someone or something that can be the perfect model companion or machine or tool or concept, and then without warning he/she/it may whimsically and deliberately, yet completely uncomprehendingly, do something utterly devastating or infuriating to you, and have no idea that you may have considered it wrong, or even may have legitimately believed they were going out of their way to act in your favor.

Benevolent, though perhaps unwittingly and unpredictably deleterious.

The words I am looking for are not these: "non-partisan", "ambivalent", "apathetic".


texts: Difference between 'later' and 'later on'

texts:
Is there any difference between the usage of 'later' and 'later on'?

  I'll see you later.
  I'll finish it later on.


texts: Correct phrase for this kind of parking lot sign

texts:
I've seen parking lot signs in Spanish stating "en posición de salida", literally "in exit position", which means that you should back into the spot so your vehicle is facing out when it’s time to exit.

That's for safety reasons. That way it is less problematic when many drivers flee the location given a danger alert.

I've Googled images for equivalent signs in English in order no know the correct English version of this sign to no avail.

"Back in only", "exit-ready position", "exit position", "park front face" or "park facing forward" don't seem correct to me.

Can someone tell me what the correct/common/official wording is (a picture of such a sign in the real world will be most welcomed)?


texts: Meaning of "dying ain't much of a living"?

texts:
This is one very catchy phrase from an old movie.

Dying ain't much of a living, son
-Clint Eastwood (The Outlaw Josey Wales)

I know what does it mean literally but when to use it generally in day to day life?
I mean you don't really want to be in such situation. But for fun if you want to use this line, mocking a tough guy from movie.


texts: Most appropriate term for round and x-marker on a (scientific) chart?

texts:
In a research paper, I'd like to refer to some specific markers on a chart. One marker looks like an x, and the other one is small circle.

What would be proper terms? Circular marker and x-marker?


texts: What is the difference between "misapprehension" and "apprehension"?

texts:
I can't quite get  my head around the difference between misapprehension  and its opposite apprehension.

I understand the latter, but the former still eludes me.


texts: MS Word doesn't like the use of 'it's'. Am I missing something?

texts:
My MS Word says the use of it's - example: 'Don’t worry, it’s ok now' - is incorrect. It wants to change it to its. I use both UK and USA format but both do this. Surely I've got it right.
What are your thoughts, anyone?
Thank you.


texts: Difference in usage between "with" and "in" when describing clothing

texts:
What is the difference between "in red uniform" and "with red uniform"?

When are with and in used when describing someone's clothing?


texts: Were there any other synonyms to "sustainability" before the 80s?

texts:
The German word for sustainability, Nachhaltigkeit, arose (according to Wiktionary) in the 18th century. Ngrams shows this. I was wondering if the concept of sustainability did not exist before the 1980s? At least in English science, wasn't there a technical term, phrase, whatever to describe this problem?

Does anyone know if there were more common terms/technical phrases and when they arised the first time in English science/books? I need some keywords for a historical search.


texts: What does the phrase "scientific studies of statistically significant samples of people" mean exactly?

texts: "And we would urge the reader to do the same, while pointing to scientific studies of statistically significant samples of people that suggest Smith is right: the Easterlin Paradox, for example, is widely recognized." (Jonathan Conlin, Critical Lives-Adam Smith)


texts: Word for someone who is hungry for power and control

texts: What do you call someone who's running after power and is hungry of controlling everything/everyone, all the time? Somehow like a moderator Darth Vader.


texts: Benefit of Membership or Benefits of Membership?

texts:
I am designing a brochure for a local club.  The text, which was provided by one of the members, includes a list titled, "Benefit of Membership," followed by bulleted line items such as Volunteering, Camaraderie, Educational Meetings, etc.

Had I written the copy, I would have made the title plural, "Benefits of Membership," as the list contains more than one item. But the more I look at it,  the more I am not sure if the singular is also correct.   I hesitate to point out an error I am not entirely sure of.