texts: What to call a person who runs a non-profit organization?

texts:
A person who works in kitchens can be called a Chef, or Cook. Someone who designs websites can be called a Web Developer or Web Designer.

What would you call a person who runs a non-profit/community service organization?

My first thoughts were Philanthropist or Humanitarian, but those both seem a little large scale for my tastes and may come off as boastful. On the other end is Volunteer, but that doesn't seem to convey the fact that the person actually runs the organization.

The actual title is Executive Director but saying "David is an Executive Director" doesn't convey the non-profit nature of the organization

I'm looking for a single word that represents someone who is in charge of a simple non-profit/charitable organization that doesn't sound too "big."

Thanks!


texts:
“If I had to explain to a foreigner why Yamamoto’s action was a problem,” Miyadai said, “I don’t think I could do it.”Source

the "was" of "why Yamatomo's action was a problem."

Is it fair to say that this has two possible interpretations, that is, it is purely past and that it is because of the sequence of tenses due to the hypothetical mood of the clause?


texts:
In some time related sentences I saw expressions like in the morning and at night. For example

  I work in the morning

and

  I work at night

What is the difference here? Why does the writer use at with night and in with morning?
I also know that:

  at: In or near the area occupied by; in or near the location of

  in: Within the limits, bounds, or area of


texts:
Does anyone know which kind of noun 'public' is?

Is it a common noun or a collective noun?


texts: Meaning of “for” in “For the very nature”

texts:
Could you please help me analyze the meaning of this sentence?

If the order of Western historicism is disturbed in the colonial state of emergency, even more deeply disturbed is the social and psychic representation of the human subject.
For the very nature of humanity becomes estranged in the colonial condition and from that “naked declivity” it emerges, not as an assertion of will nor as an evocation of freedom, but as an enigmatic questioning.

The source is "Interrogating identity" by Homi K. Bhabha (1994)
I am not sure what the meaning of "for" is in this sentence. I was also wondering what subjects "it" refers to.


texts: Identical Meaning of "similar to" and "like"

texts:
Whenever I use the phrase "similar to", Microsoft Word wants me to use "like" instead. I'm not a native speaker, so maybe I'm getting the nuances wrong here. But to me, "A is similar to B" would indicate that both objects are still quite distinct, whereas in "A is like B" they are pracitcally the same.
How do you feel about this (especially native speakers)?


texts: A verb for transforming something into currency

texts:
I need a verb that expresses the concept of transforming a raw material into currency, as in this sentence "The bitcoin manufacturing process currenciates digital information."

New coinages are fine if they make sense and are less clumsy than the one I used above, but an existing term would be preferred.  I've considered the word mint but that seems to relate more to the final product than the raw material -- in other words, you mint coins (the finished product), you don't mint gold (the raw material).


texts: "Email" vs "mail" when referring to email

texts:
When referring to email in a business context (or any other) is it acceptable to say mail or should I always write email?

I have a secure email product for use on smartphones and would like to know if it is alright to market it as a Secure Mobile Mail product or if I should call it a Secure Mobile Email product.


texts: What does “Retail politics” mean? Is it an established political term?

texts:
I come across the word, “retail (oriented) politics” in an article under the title, “All presidential politics is local” in Conway Daily Sun (December 23, 2015), which contained the following paragraph:

  He (Marco Rubio) said a lot, but at the same time said nothing. -- If
  there was a human side to senator, a soul, it didn’t come across
  through. That might sound like harsh critique, but in essence that is
  the point of the New Hampshire primary, to test candidates in a retail
  politics setting. Rubio said it himself: “New Hampshire is very town
  hall based,” he told us, the politics “retail-oriented.” After the New
  Hampshire primary, he said, it transforms into a media race, not a
  human race.

From the context, I surmise the retail (oriented) politics means either mass-marketing / mass media oriented politics or just populism, but I’m not sure of. Though it comes out in quotation mark, what does it mean precisely?

Is “retail politics” an established political word, or just the one coined by Mr. Rubio?


texts: Difference between Letter and Alphabet in English

texts: Can anyone please explain what is the difference between "Letter" and "Alphabet" in English?


texts: Is using a comma between this list of quoted text awkward/incorrect? Please help!

texts:
Is it correct to list the following examples using quotation marks and a simple space?  Or would the example below need a comma in-between?

For example, you might choose to say: "Thanks for asking, but I'm a bit busy at the moment." "I'd love to help you, just give me a few minutes and I will be there to help you." "I'll be there with you soon, thank you for waiting."

Is this correct or should there be commas in-between each quoted sentence?  Is there any better way of constructing this sentence, or is this fine?

Also ... would I use a double space between each quoted sentence, or just a single space?  (I am habituated to using a double space after a period: it is cleaner to read.)

I'd love your help!


texts: What should I use when I want to say "without further ado"

texts:
I have just read another post on here which taught me that the phrase "without further ado" is misused often.  Most of the time, I suspect people say it (including me, before now) to mean "without delay, we will continue on", or something of the sort.

My question here is: is there an alternative phrase to "without further ado" to mean what people usually mean when they say it?  Or should I just say "without further ado" in the knowledge that most people know what I mean?


texts: The other day I met someone who was scared of getting a haircut. I was trying to think of a word to describe, but I couldn't think of anything. I couldn't find anything online either, so I decided to ask here. What is a word for the fear of getting a haircut?


texts: Suppose I went to the supermarket three times. Is my third trip considered my "second time returning there" or my "third time returning there?" Thanks. (I know this question sounds silly, but English is my second language...)


texts: Is there a word for irrational doubt or lack of confidence?

texts:
A sample sentence would be:

I have this lingering feeling of [irrational doubt] that's discouraging me from pursuing my goals.

I've used Merriam Webster to search for synonyms for doubt but none appeared to be what I was looking for which are distrust, distrustfulness, dubiety, dubitation [archaic], incertitude, misdoubt, misgiving, mistrust, mistrustfulness, query, reservation, skepticism, suspicion, uncertainty. None of which includes the irrational part to it.
Compound word or phrase can be acceptable.


texts:
What is the best way to improve your Grammar and improve your writing style?
What would be the best online resource to improve my grammar?

I maintain a blog of my own, and I have reasonably good spoken English, but it seems that I make a lot of grammatical mistakes, which are annoying to the readers; it also seems that I write unusually long sentences, and I can do a better job at breaking them.

Does reading older literature help in improving style?


texts: How important is the word "Please" when asking for something?

texts:
How important is this word 'please' when asking someone you don't know for something? If you have already said "excuse me" is it still necessary? Is it more important than 'Thank you'? I have heard that it is more important in some places like the UK than in the USA. Also I have heard that it is different with young people.
Can anybody clarify this to me, please?

  "You forgot to say please." Terminator II Judgment Day


texts:
I was researching the etymology of taper {verb} which motivated this question. Observe that Etymonline's entry for the verb just rechannels to that for the noun:

  taper (n.)
  Old English tapur, taper "candle, lamp-wick," not found outside English, possibly a dissimilated borrowing from Latin papyrus (see papyrus), which was used in Medieval Latin and some Romance languages for "wick of a candle" (such as Italian papijo "wick"), because these often were made from the pith of papyrus.

I don't know the meaning of dissimilated; so I researched it:

  dissimilate {verb}  {with object} {Linguistics} = 1. Change (a sound or sounds in a word) to another when the word originally had identical sounds near each other (e.g. in taper, which derives from papyrus, the p is dissimilated to t).

Alas, this definition looks circular. 1. Would someone please clarify which p in 'papyrus' ODO meant to target? Please disambiguate the bolded p?

2. Would someone please enlarge on the 'dissimilation' here? What's so special about the pronunciation of 'papyrus'? How did it feature identical sounds near each other ?


texts:
It has some microscope attached to it:

What is the name of this spectacles?


texts: What is the meaning of the word "savvy" in this context?

texts:
I'm not a native speaker of English. I wish to know what the word savvy means in this context:

  network-savvy


texts:
Which one is the correct use?

She judged him wrong.
She judged him wrongly.

Or, are both correct, but have slightly different meanings?


texts: Does "into" mean "in the middle of" or "until the middle of" there, or something else?

texts:
I've come across a couple of sentences containing the word "into" before "time"-words, but couldn't have found "time"-meanings for "into" in dictionaries. So could you explain what "into" mean in the following contexts.

  The teams worked into the night and continue to make progress. enter link description here

  He advised the EU capitals he would announce on Wednesday whether
  negotiations on an agreement would have to continue into next week. enter link description here


texts: Are there rules about the subject of a subordinate clause?

texts:
The following two sentences, which is commonly used and grammatically correct?

When Lisa unwrapped the package, she found the cellphone inside it was broken.
When she unwrapped the package, Lisa found the cellphone inside it was broken.

I know the noun Lisa is the antecedent of the pronoun she. Are there any specific rules about the subject of a subordinate clause? How about if we put the subordinate clause after the main clause?


texts: Another word for "Compete with" in the context of Languages

texts:
Scientists predict that Language X will compete with English in global usage.

Another expression or word instead of "compete with" in this context?


texts:
Do I need to use the commas in the following sentence?

  John's youngest brother, Jim, arrived at noon.


texts: Is one stronger than the other? More correct? Just curious, one of the many abstract things to pop into my head on the drive home today...


texts: Is there a list of vocabulary that 5 or 6 year old children (native speakers of English) know/understand?

texts:
According to https://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/149_VocabularyDevelopment.pdf

  The 6-year-old child typically has a 2,600 word expressive vocabulary
  (words he or she says), and a receptive vocabulary (words he or she
  understands) of 20,000–24,000 words.

I am looking for such 2,600 (or 20,000-24,000) word list.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.


texts: What does "case" mean on a museum guide?

texts:
"First, head to Room 51 on Level 3 and find Case 4."
This appears on a guide to visit The British Museum. This guide is designed for children and it is full of activities, pictures and there isn't much information.
I need to translate it into Spanish, but I don't understand the meaning of this term. Is it suppose to mean the "item" you need to find on that room and level in order to understans all the information given in the guide?
I really appreciate your help! Thank you.


texts:
The Collins Dictionary has

  If you say that someone is a character, you mean that they are
  interesting, unusual, or amusing.

I haven't been able to find an origin of this usage. Where does it come from?


texts: Difference between "due to" and "thanks to"

texts: When should "due to" be preferred over "thanks to", and vice versa? When can they be used interchangeably?


texts: Where to put the period after a quoted word

texts:
Here is the sentence:
The result of the moisture-laden air entering window assembly is visible condensation or “fog”.

Doesn't the period go after the g?


texts: Is the dated meaning of brick as a good, reliable person ever used outside the expression "to be a brick"?

texts:
I first came across the expression to be a brick in the spoof of Enid Blyton's Famous Five series - The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go Mad in Dorset. A few times one of the characters says to another You really are a brick! (YouTube link)

A few online dictionaries' definitions:

Cambridge: brick
The Free Dictionary: brick
Wiktionary: brick
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: brick

Can this meaning of brick be used outside the phrase(s) to be a brick / to be a real brick / to really be a brick? Or perhaps outside of a copulative expression such as You're becoming a real brick!?

None of the dictionaries list to be a brick as an idiom. They all have a separate meaning for brick. Hence, if it can't be used in any other phrase, why not?


texts: Does 'droll' have a negative connotation?

texts:
I'd taken droll to mean something like drily amusing, but without any implied negativity.
But I've often heard people say

Very droll!

in response to something that they appear to find mildly amusing but not exactly LOL territory. They certainly would not have described the comment as hilarious or very amusing, which terms would be reserved for something much funnier.
For example:

Hacker: Who else is in this department?
Sir Humphrey: Well briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, known as the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private Secretary. I too have a Principal Private Secretary and he is the Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, 87 Under Secretaries and 219 Assistant Secretaries. Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain Private Secretaries, and the Prime Minister will be appointing two Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own Parliamentary Private Secretary.
Hacker: Can they all type?
Sir Humphrey: None of us can type. Mrs MacKay types: she's the secretary.
Hacker: Pity, we could have opened an agency.
Sir Humphrey: Very droll, Minister.
Hacker: I suppose they all say that, do they?
Sir Humphrey: Certainly not Minister. Not quite all..."

(From Yes, Minister series 1, episode 1: Open Government.)
Is this a correct understanding of the term? Does it suggest a lukewarm assessment?


texts:
Can someone tell me which is grammatically sound in this context -- would or will? I've looked through some of the responses to similar questions, but the explanations weren't too clear for a non-native speaker like myself.

I'm not sure if this would make things more convenient for you, but I can meet you directly at the airport...

Or...

I'm not sure if this will make things more convenient for you, but I can meet you directly at the airport...

Many thanks.


texts:
In a book I've met the sentence and I can't understand the sense of the preposition "over". Would you so kind to explain this occasion of the usage of the preposition?
The context:
She noticed the movement of his eyes. Her own eyes widened, she mouthed down at him, "Jess"? He smiled over his gritted teeth and nodded.


texts: What does “good enough to lose” in “Red Sox were either good enough to lose, or just plain bad” in the World Series in the past”?

texts:
New York Times (October 31st) reported Red Sox’s victory in the World Series under the title, “Red Sox Rout Cardinals to Win World Series”

It begins with the following sentence:

  For much of the 20th century, the Boston Red Sox were a symbol of
  frustration and pain for an entire region. As popular as they were in
  their corner of the nation, either they were good enough to lose in
  agonizing fashion on baseball’s grandest stage, or they were just
  plain bad.
  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/sports/baseball/boston-red-sox-rout-st-louis-cardinals-to-win-world-series.html?hp

I’m comfortable with the expression, “they are good enough to win,” but feel somewhat uneasy with “they are good enough to lose,” no matter whether it’s in agonizing fashion or in happy fashion. If you are good enough (at game"), logically, you shouldn't lose (the game).

Is “good enough to lose” a common expression? What does it mean?
Can I say "My son was “good enough to fail" the college entrance exam," / "He was good enough to be fired because of frequent boobs," by the same token?


texts:
An exercise asks that whether this sentence should be corrected?

As an expert, John was used to people referring to his decisions.

Personally, I think that this sentence is completely fine, for the fact that "referring to", besides its meaning of "bringing up", also means "consulting sb". However, it turned out that the answer was that "referring to" must be changed to "deferring to".

I surely know that "defer to" means "to comply", which is pretty fit to the sentence; nevertheless, I think the original one is still suitable for the sentence. Therefore, could sb explain what is the difference between "refer to" and "defer to"? Thanks for any help!

Best regards.


texts: What is the difference between "lisible" and "legible"?

texts: What is the difference between "lisible" and "legible" ? These are two different words that direct towards the meaning "can be read" but can someone explain in detail ?


texts: What is the meaning of a construction like "no less X than Y"?

texts:
What exactly does "no less ... than ..." mean in this sentence?

  Aging can be accelerated no less by habits than by diseases.

I know that if the sentence read, "no more than," it would mean aging can't be accelerated by either habits or diseases, so I'm guessing the given sentence means aging can be  accelerated by both..? But the exact meaning doesn't register... Can someone clarify this for me?


texts: If city life is urban, what do you call living in a forest?

texts:
I know that rural relates to living in the countryside, and urban and suburban refer to living in cities, towns or residential areas. But some places, like in upstate New York, have dense trees and woodland. A forest, basically.
What do you call that?

Urban life and (required word) life?


texts: What are the abbreviations most commonly used on the Internet?

texts:
Every so often I see various abbreviations used on forums and blogs and whatnot, such as FYI (For Your Information) and AFAIK (As Far As I Know).

What other common abbreviations are there, and what are their meanings?


texts: What is "being out of job for a personal reason" called?

texts:
After I finished my study, I had to chose not to do any job because I had to take care of my parent. The period took 3 years. And then I was back free to have a job. What is that period called.

On the Internet I found Personal leave, carer’s leave, compassionate leave, family leave and career break. Which one is more appropriate for me to put in my resume for those 3 years?


texts:
This was written in a recent political debate on social media - I took the meaning, but several others did not understand the meaning.

"If the NFL Owner asks his employees to stand, that's it"

The critique has been "There is no NFL Owner!  The teams are each owned individually.."

But the sentence is properly constructed, is it not? What terms would you use to describe the use of "the" in reference ANY non-specific owner in order to explain the meaning to those who do not understand?


texts: "Just waiting for" or "waiting just for"?

texts: I have found both on the Internet. Which one is correct? If both are, what's the difference between the two?


texts: What rules make “Remember me, who am your friend” grammatical?

texts: An acquaintance recalled this specific example from an English textbook, but it is jarring to my native ear. Is this an example of prescriptive grammarians gone wild?


texts: If I were to personify death is there a better statement than "delay death"

texts:
If I were to personify death is their a better statement then "delay death".  I have considered saying "negotiate with death" but that does not sound formal enough for the tone of my essay.

I am trying to express that science continues to negotiate with death in order to delay it. Preferably with a negative connotation.

I have considered "parley" however I dont know if that is the proper use for it nor if I should use it as "parley death" or "parley with death"


texts: Difficulty constructing a sentence that reflect the interview process and targets entry levels

texts:
English is not my first language, and I do struggle here and there.

I would like to come up with a sentence that would reflect the followings:

Reduce your technical interviews in half. That is for many entry level developers / software engineering position. Many candidates have to undergo 3-5 interviews, and I want to convey that I aim to reduce your interview time by at least half.

Also make the point clear that I am targeting entry levels for the tech sector.

I am not sure how to word out or even maybe i should break into pieces. Have a heading, and subheading.

Any suggestion greatly welcome.

My attempts:

This will be slogan used for my website, in trying to market to my potential audience (recruiters, HR manager)

Slogan: Reduce your interviews in half (big heading)

Our system instantly provide you with our best available candidate (small heading)


texts: Is there a difference in meaning between the words benediction and blessing? Why would one be used over the other?


texts:
Can I use two colons in a sentence? A typical example would be something like the following:

  Note: I have substantial experience with the following languages: Python, Java, C++, and Perl.

I have often wanted to write something similar but have been forcing rewrites in order to get around using two colons in the same sentence. The general pattern is:

  Note: [sentence with a colon].

Is this use of two colons acceptable?

(This question is similar but distinct from Can I use a colon twice in one sentence? due to that question's focus on colons and lists.)


texts:
I'm trying to describe the general action of authoring documents on someone else's behalf.  I.e. decision writers may write a legal decision for a judge but because of who is responsible for the consequences of the content, the decision writers' are not credited or considered authors.

"Wrote" or "prepared" are currently the only word I can pull, but they seem to me to be imprecise and lead to a cumbersome and verbose statement when trying to explain what was prepared or written.

For example "The employee [authored/wrote/prepared/collaborated on] documents as a decision writer" -- hopefully, the "as a decision writer" becomes redundant with the correct [verb].


texts:
In France, there are people who welcome tourists into cities in a free manner, where said tourists do not need to pay for a guided visit around town, who are introduced to the local scene without needing to pay and without any restrictions nor commitments.

The closest English equivalent I could come up with was "greeter". But "greeter" for me has a more 'temporary' sense, that is to say that (normally) one doesn't 'greet' a person for several hours with a visit around town. "Volunteer tour guide" also comes to mind, but it just doesn't seem right...

Is there a good term to describe this kind of person?


texts: Single advancement within bigger strategy

texts:
Which word could I use to denote a single advancement within a bigger strategy?  For example, "a recent ? in my mission to improve my English was to..."

I was thinking of the word gambit but, according to wiktionary, it connotes an opening character of the move whereas I wish to keep that aspect agnostic by my choice of word.


texts: I would like to write a phrase of the type, A versus B, abbreviating versus; but I am not sure that which of ‘v’ or ‘vs’ is the correct abbreviation as I find both on the internet.


texts: Should an article title be capitalized if the word stylization disagrees?

texts:
I have students who have turned in their undergraduate thesis with a citation for a website:
http://www.foraker.com/ios-app-distribution-options/

The title of this article would be:
"IOS App Distribution Options"

However iOS is always stylized as "iOS", thus "iOS App Distribution Options"

Given that the the way that titles are normally written disagrees with the way the pronoun is typically stylized which convention takes precedence?

P.S. I apologize for the question title, if someone has a better way to phrase it I will happily change it.


texts: Meaning of "at least Dick Turpin wore a mask"

texts:
I tried to sell my stuff and one of the guys asked me if I could bargain on the item and I said no. He replied with the message,

  At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.

What does that mean?


texts: ‘One of two Japanese winning a medal in this Olympics’

texts:
I want to write the following sentence:

  He is one of two Japanese winning a medal in this Olympics.

The question is, are 'two' and 'a medal' compatible?

Should 'a medal' be replaced by 'medals'?


texts:
Here's what "banjax" means -

Banjax

: ruin, incapacitate, or break.
"He banjaxed his knee in the sixth game of the season."

Basic research showed that it comes from the 1930s -

: 1930s: originally Anglo-Irish, of unknown origin.

(From Lexico)
Merriam Webster gives a more specific "first known use" - 1939. However, it says:

Banjax: history and etymology:
origin unknown

And etymonline.com doesn't have an entry for "banjax".

No results were found for banjax

Therefore, I would like to know more about the history and etymology of "banjax".


texts:
I am reading "The Elements of Style"; the sentence below confuse me much:

  A common fault is to use as the subject of a passive construction a
  noun which expresses the entire action, leaving to the verb no
  function beyond that of completing the sentence.

If I wrote this sentence, I would compose it as:

  A common fault is to use a noun which expresses the entire action as
  the subject of a passive construction, leaving ...

I don't know what is the most common rule to compose such sentence; the original one confuses me much that I have to read it several times to understand the meaning. I think the rule the original sentence uses is pretty valid in English as it comes from a book talking about writing.

Can someone help to explain the rule? And where can I find details/examples for that rule?.

Thank you.


texts: How can I ask a question with the answer "I'm eating the fourth apple"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How should I phrase a question that must be answered with an ordinal number (e.g., the third prime)?
  Framing a question to which the answer is an ordinal number
  How to ask a question to get a cardinal number answer

Assume that there are 5 apples must be eaten by Jack. When you want to know about how many of the apples are eaten, you may ask Jack, 'how many apples have you eaten?'; But how can I ask the question to make Jack answers, 'I'm eating the fourth apple'?


texts:
There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.
— Charles Dickens, “Nicholas Nickleby”

What does furniture mean here? With which of these definitions does it comport?


texts: Idiom meaning to give up because of a little difficulty at the beginning

texts: Is there an expression or saying meaning "to give up because one got stuck on some minor part of the task"?


texts: Should I say I "post a post" on a forum?

texts:
If I want to say

  I wanted to create new post (topic, question) but I forgot to do so.

should I say

  I wanted to post a post but I forgot to do so.

or should I say

  I wanted to post but I forgot to do so.


texts: the verb of taking from before and putting after

texts:
Let's think we have 3 bottles. A bottle of cola, a bottle of milk and a bottle of water.

We put them in line. First is cola, second is water and third is milk.

Now, I change the place of cola with milk. I put milk before water, and cola after water.

What did I do? I ??? cola and water...

Do we have a verb to replace with ??? in that sentence?


texts:
Sometimes it's used as "as both" and sometimes as "both as", examples:

His performance both as a captain and as a player was terrible.

or

I start with my own story, as both a means of explaining where I come from and, I hope, a way to show why I believe everyone is capable of change.

Do they have different meanings in the examples and with what words could they be replaced keeping the same sense of those sentences?


texts: Word for focusing on the details to the detriment of the whole?

texts: There's a specific word I'm looking for and I even remember it being from Philip Roth's novel 'American Pastoral'. I just can't think of what the actual word is, but its meaning is to focus on the specifics of something to the detriment of the whole.


texts: What is a word/phrase to describe someone who thinks someone else is perfect?  For instance, if parents think that their child can do no wrong, then they are . . .? (Not necessarily biased or partial, because it is not in comparison to anyone else)


texts: Use of contraction for I have where have is used to denote possession

texts:
"I have" can be contracted to "I've" when the "have" word is used followed by an action or experience.
For example,
"I have been there" can be contacted to "I've been there"

Is the same valid for the "have" word denoting possession?
For example,
Can "I have a pen" be contacted to "I've a pen"?

I've seen usages like "I've got a pen" for "I have got a pen" and I suppose that is correct anyway.
But what about when there's no "got" ?


texts:
I would like to say:

Possibly aimless/non-targeted/ungoaled* rehabilitation may cause patients exclusion from physical therapy.

*there is no goal setting for rehabilitation, meaning that patients receive rather coincidental care
Which word would be correct to use?


texts:
Sometimes I see the following in ESL learners' writing:

I have been to America two years ago.

Am I correct in saying that it should be:

I have been to America.
I went to America two years ago.

My own understanding is that time periods aren't used with 'have been', but is this correct?
Thanks in advance!


texts:
I have a question regarding the usage of the definite article. Here is an excerpt:

  Those were the days of lofty promises made by a hopeful candidate. Today, we are faced with the disappointing record of a failed President. The last three years have held a lot of change, but they haven’t offered much hope.

I think there are two possibilities of interpretation for the italicized part:

A kind of disappointing record that you usually see from a failed president.
The disappointing record that you see nowadays from the present president, who is described as a failed President.

Which of these is an appropriate interpretation? Or is either okay?


texts:
When do absolute phrases lack a noun?

  absolute phrases are a noun + a modifier, although it is possible to
  use only a modifier.

When can a modifier, e.g. a participle, be used in an absolute phrase without being preceded by a noun?

I'm trying to learn wikipedia's list of parenthetical phrases, but am really struggling with this part. What does the author mean by it?

  Introductory phrase: Once upon a time, my father ate a muffin.[12]

  Interjection: My father ate the muffin, gosh darn it!

  Aside: My father, if you don't mind me telling you this, ate the muffin.

  Appositive: My father, a jaded and bitter man, ate the muffin.

  Absolute phrase: My father, his eyes flashing with rage, ate the muffin.

  Free modifier: My father, chewing with unbridled fury, ate the muffin.

  Resumptive modifier: My father ate the muffin, a muffin which no man had yet chewed.

  Summative modifier: My father ate the muffin, a feat which no man had attempted.

So, to be specific, may I ask whether phrases such as that in bold below should or can be parenthesized with commas?

  She is going to the store, burdened with shopping.


texts: What behavior (or appearance of behavior) would be considered the opposite of standoffish? While not necessary, a single word answer would be very interesting if it is exactly its opposite.


texts: I saw this notice in a bank today. Is this an oxymoron?

texts:
Fresh coins / banknotes are available
*Subject to availability

I know what they mean to say but shouldn't they be using some other word instead of available in the first part of the notice?
In computer programming that situation will call for an infinite recursion.


texts:
What is the correct way to use infinitive after the verb "help": with or without "to"?

For example:

  Please, help me to understand this.

or:

  Please, help me understand this.


texts: Comma before "include:" preceding list: right or wrong, and why?

texts:
My first style disagreement with another writer at a new job. I say the comma in the example below is superfluous because there is no introductory or non-restrictive clause. I think the options are:
"Key takeaways from the press release include:"
or
"There are many key takeaways from the press release, including:"
Context: This was included in an email to our marketing team announcing the distribution of a press release, so if any of us get questions we'll all have the same answer.
As written:

Key takeaways from the press release, include:
This thing digitizes stuff and simplifies workflows.
This thing changes how we see stuff, and makes customers happy.
This thing improves the integrity of our stuff.
This thing helps people see how stuff is being used.


texts: Convention or grammatical reason for commas around non-identifying relative clauses

texts: Is there any grammatical reason why non-identifying relative clauses are separated by commas or is it simply a convention?


texts: What is a person who works on applying makeup called?

texts:
I've read 'Makeup technician' in some places, but I am looking for a single word.

'Aesthetician' and 'Cosmetologist' refer to persons who apply general aesthetic treatments, but I haven't found any words which refer specifically and exclusively to applying makeup.


texts: Idiom for promoting someone to get rid of them

texts:
I feel certain that there is a common phrase for this, but for the life of me, I cannot remember it:

What idiom is there for the concept of promoting someone as a way of keeping them out of the way? Someone you don’t want to fire or lay off, possibly because of their long service and wanting to reward them, possibly because of concerns about the PR or morale effect of such a lay-off, whatever, but someone you don’t want to have to deal with. So you promote them into a position where they cannot advance and cannot influence matters important to you, and they’re just stuck there.

The position they end up in is a “dead-end job” but it’s far from the only, or most common, form of dead-end job, so that phrase doesn’t help me. I am looking either for a phrase describing the act of promoting someone in this fashion, or a phrase describing this position very specifically, so either

  He was [promoted] to chief pencil-pusher.

or

  His was promoted, to chief pencil-pusher, a [dead-end job].

With “[promoted]” or “[dead-end job]” replaced with a more specific idiom that refers to this particular situation.


texts: "The problem under consideration" vs "The considered problem" vs "The problem considered"

texts:
I'm writing a research essay.
Is there any difference between the provided three variants? If there is, which is best to use?


texts: Correct answer fo the question with 'do you'

texts:
I know one of possible correct answers for the question 'Do you want to see her?' is
– Yes, I do.

But is also grammatically correct an answer:
– Yes, I want.
?

Thanks :)


texts:
I'm a huge fan of the hallowed American tradition of raising the middle finger to those individuals (and there are so many of them) who have wronged us in some way.

This valuable and eminently necessary gesture has at some point gained the nickname "the bird," which is both indescribably charming and extremely inscrutable, as nothing about it would seem to suggest birds in any way.

How did this indispensable gesture come to be associated with our avian friends, who would seem to have nothing to do with the concept? OED and Merriam-Webster are no help. This question from six years ago, which purports to answer the question, is singularly unsatisfying. Please help.


texts:
In this sentence:

  Its shape resembles that of a kangaroo’s hind foot.

What part of speech would that be?


texts: When you don't respect your parents, no outsider will not respect them either. Is there a actual proverb or idiom or expression for the above quote

texts:
When you don't respect your parents, no outsider, not even your spouse, will respect them either.
  OR
  When you don't respect your spouse, no one, even including your own children, will respect them either.
  OR
  When you don't respect your subordinates, no one from other departments, not even their subordinates or clients, will respect them either.
  OR
  When you don't respect your compatriots, no other nationals will respect them either.

Is there an actual proverb or idiom or expression for the above quote?


texts: Another word for the "about" section of a personal website

texts:
The word that I'm looking for was frequently used as a means to communicate that there would be biographical or site based information via the link of that word.

I can't recall the word, something that ended in -phile, -phone, -gram or something of that nature. It could have began with homo-. (All of those are likely completely innacurate but for some reason at the tip of my tongue)

Does anyone recall this word?


texts: Is there a specific term in English for the smell of the early morning?

texts: I'm not looking for words like "freshness" for example, but a word that is used exclusively to denote this specific smell.


texts: Agreement in "[Singular Noun] Is/Are [Plural Noun]"?

texts:
My fish's native habitat is rice fields.
My fish's native habitat are rice fields.

Which one is correct? I'm pretty sure it's the first, since 'is' modifies 'habitat,' but it still sounds weird...


texts:
What is the meaning of, "Here's mud in your eye"?
Wikipedia reports a biblical connection, or WWI trench warfare, or horse racing. The O.E.D. says essentially the same.
I understand it to be a reference to the particles of sediment at the bottom of a bottle of wine.


texts: Word for two things that are opposite yet the same

texts:
Is there a word or short phrase that describes two contrasting ideas the ultimately end up the same? Like two ends of a spectrum that can wrap around? I'm using it to describe two foils for a character that ultimately end up being in the same boat.

This could also refer to examples such as Fascism and Communism, where the ends are very similar, but all other aspects are entirely different.


texts: A word to define "semi-transparent waving" effect?

texts:
I'm usually working with animations and also usually I find hard to define or put words on some things.

What would be the correct term to define this (pretty used) effect which is kind of semi-transparent waving? I attach here an image of League of Legends client, this is the game that uses it more by far, everything is surrounded by this effect on the game.


texts: Comma placement: "Hi, my name is Joe and I work in a button factory."

texts:
Will someone please tell me where commas should go in the following sentence:

  Hi, my name is Joe and I work in a button factory.


texts: Are there words like "Percent", but for other quantities?

texts:
If "Percent" is based off of the pseudo-latin "per centum", then it stands to reason that one could use numbers such as ten (decum) or thousand (mīlle) to construct similar words as "perdec" or "permill".

Are there such words and would they be decipherable to the public?

Searching "perdec" gives a lot of hits for companies and foreign surnames, and "perdecage" gives a few people essentially expressing my same thought process.


texts: Use of "Proper" as a postpositive adjective

texts:
I have an inkling that the following word usage is grammatically-correct; however, it is immensely difficult to search for confirmation, as all I receive for queries like "Proper as an adjective" are reams of results on "Proper adjectives". The word itself I am using as a postpositive adjective, similar in form to the phrase "time immemorial".

The shelter remains in name only; the shelter proper is in another town.
Work in theory remained, although operations proper had mostly been outsourced.

Can anyone advise?


texts: Third-Person Possessive Pronouns in Dual Possessives

texts:
I understand the rules for dual possessives, but I was writing and I realized that I have no idea how the following sentence should be written.

She and Kevin's house is big.

or

Her and Kevin's house is big.

Normally for a dual possessive, if there is joint possession (two people owning one thing), only the last noun takes the possessive form, but the first sentence sounds and reads awkwardly. Is it actually correct?

The pronoun seems to be the source of the confusion, as I would have no trouble choosing between the following:

Kim and Kevin's house is big.
Kim's and Kevin's house is big.

The first would be correct because the house belongs to both Kim and Kevin, so only the last noun, "Kevin", takes the possessive form. Does the same rule apply when one of the nouns is a pronoun, or is there a different rule in such cases? Can someone help me out, please?

Note: I realize that there are similar discussions already:
"My wife and I's seafood collaboration dinner"
Question about dual possesive nouns
Correct form of object of sentence with grouped possessive and personal pronoun?

However, these questions only discuss the proper formation of the first-person pronoun in such cases (i.e., "I" vs. "my"). I'm interested in the rules for correctly forming the third-person pronoun.


texts: Why is taking a side street called a "rat run"?

texts:
I stumbled upon this expression for the first time while doing some research for an answer, and I have to admit I love it!  An explanation of  rat running/ a rat run is as follows

  "Rat running/ A rat run" is the act of taking a detour, often planned, on a
  smaller and often little known or less traveled street or road. If you
  are familiar with the layout of an area, rat running can be a good way
  to avoid the congested main roads. There are some things to keep in
  mind when determining whether or not to rat run

How well known is it? If I use the expression with my British English friends and relatives will they be familiar with the term? Is it a recent coinage? Is a rat run similar to taking a shortcut?

Can anyone trace its history?

Thanks.


texts: Is "during the middle of" proper English?

texts:
In this question on the Movies & TV Stack Exchange the question starts with the following observation:

  Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who portrayed a character in The Hunger
  Games, passed away during the middle of filming for the Mockingjay
  movies.

I am not a native speaker, but to me this sounds incorrect. It looks like a combination of "during filming" and "in the middle of filming" (and even "during filming" doesn't feel right).


texts:
I am only familiar with 'a priori', such as 'a priori conditions'. Now a friend uses the word as follows:

  "the supremacy of nature and the priori and inevitability of death and of history."

I do not know if maybe they mean 'priority', or maybe they mean something esoteric and beyond me.


texts: The origin of the verb "has" (the verb "have" for third-singular person)

texts:
From what I know, in Simple Present, all verbs are followed by -s/es if the subject is a third-singular person. Such as makes, matches, buys, and studies.

I also know that if the verb is have, it becomes has if the subject is a third-singular person. And I'm wondering why it doesn't simply become haves, just like other verbs.

  She has a book.

Why not: She haves a book.

So, my question is, what is the origin of the use of the verb has? I'm guessing euphony has something to do with it, but I need to support my guess.


texts:
Would anyone happen to know where the terms for the units of time came from, and why? I know "minute," which also means something extremely small, comes from the latin meaning "small," but then why is it not the smallest unit of time?

Also, is there any relation between the time unit "second" and the ordinal number "second"?


texts: Should the noun be singular or plural in the expression "...one of, if not the, [superlative] [noun]..."?

texts: A common English expression takes the form of "It was one of, if not the, best experience[s] of my life." In this expression, what is the correct number for "experience[s]"?


texts: Deciding between "eponymous" and "titular"

texts:
William Gibson has a short story collection titled Burning Chrome. One of the stories in this collection is also titled Burning Chrome. I was recommending the book to someone and I wanted to say that of the short stories, the titular/eponymous story Burning Chrome was my favorite.

I believe both words are okay in this context but feel one would be more appropriate. Which one?

For titular, I'm using dictionary.com's 2nd definition:

  from whom or which a title or name is taken.

The book Burning Chrome is named after the titular story within.

For eponymous, I'm using the this definition:

  giving one's name to a tribe, place, etc.

The short story, Burning Chrome, gives its name to the larger collection of short stories, Burning Chrome.


texts:
I have seen this post for the answer to my question, but this is not much help in case of the question I am going to ask.

Here is an example sentence -

  The new design of Twitter profile is more of a Facebook profile than never before.

than here is a preposition, there is no doubt about that. But before after than acts like a noun. But from dictionary entry against before doesn't say it's a noun.

So what is the explanation?


texts: What’s a word for not knowing what to do or say?

texts: For a response from hatchet the book (3 paragraphs)


texts: Different words for “giving away” with the same meaning in this sentence?

texts:
I have to spin "giving away" text line but the best I could think "givin you" which does not work because of the number after it… Know of any other words that could replace "giving away" and sentence would still make sense?

Sentence example: As part of our new store opening we are giving away 120 limited discount codes.


texts: My son is learning English as a foreign language and I notice a mixture of British and American words in his vocab lists. Is there such thing as a checked shirt, or should it be a check shirt?


texts: Is it formally grammatical to just put "For example + noun phrases" and call it a sentence?

texts:
I got to see some English learners' writing works, and they often write like this:

a) My favorite foods are Japanese foods. For example, sushi, miso soup, and octopus balls.

For me, this sounds a bit strange, and I'm thinking of either one of the following corrections:

b) My favorite foods are Japanese foods: for example, sushi, miso soup, and octopus balls.
c) My favorite foods are Japanese foods. For example, I like sushi, miso soup, and octopus balls.

They are beginning learners and I'm not sure if they can handle punctuations like colons, so I'm inclined to the second correction (c).

As a non-native speaker of English, I'd like your advise on whether (a) is correct and which of (b) and (c) is better.

Thank you.


texts: Why do some people pronounce 'a' as 'u'?

texts: I often hear English people pronounce 'a' as 'u' when using words like 'rather' and 'bravo'. Why is this?


texts: Is the English adjective "whole" genealogically related in any way to the adjective "holos", which means "whole" in Koine (and possibly other varieties of Greek; I'm not sure), and has a similar pronunciation? If so, how are they related?


texts: Can "broken foots" be used instead of "broken feet"? (U.S.)

texts:
I recently read a sports article that stated:

  The bad news is that Watkins might be the team's most dynamic playmaker and broken foots can be complicated.

My immediate reaction is it should be "feet" and not "foots". However, the words "broken foot" are essentially short for one "broken foot injury". Somehow I think having more than one "broken foot injury" could be described as "broken foots".

When talking about multiple people having one broken foot each, is "broken foots" acceptable English?

Source: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-sammy-watkins-breaks-foot-expected-to-be-healthy-for-regular-season/


texts: "Big" and "Diminutive" are what kind of words...?

texts: What do you call a word that look different than it means? For example, the words "big" and "diminutive"?


texts: What does "break out the layer cake" mean?

texts:
In this sentence:

  For taxi drivers staring down an even bleaker future of driverless
  cars at a moment when Washington considers a weekly paycheck bump of
  $1.50 an occasion to break out the layer cake, it is hard to see
  where the metaphoric Prozac will come from.

Does "the layer cake” refer to somebody here?


texts:
It is mentioned in the Lyrics "Happy Jack wasn't old, but he was a man
He lived in the sand at the Isle of Man."

Isn't it supposed to be in the Isle of Man as it is a Crown dependency and should be treated nearly the same way as a country, like the phrases, I live in Egypt or I live in Australia?


texts: Are the names of these metrics proper nouns?

texts:
In my thesis I am writing about a number of different metrics. Not metrics in the mathematical sense, but metrics which are measures, functions. A function which takes an input and returns a symolic value.

There are different metrics, most of them are taken from other papers, some are my own invention. They are based on adjectives:

completeness
weighted completeness
richness of information
accessibility
accuracy
...

Obviously, these words are nouns, but are these proper nouns, too? My guess is yes, because they are very specific and they are not general known in a lot of areas, but a comparable small research field.

Examples of their usage can be found in this PhD thesis. There it was used in both ways: capitalized and lowercase. Apparently, in composition with metric lowercase and without capitalized.

  “While straightforward, the simple completeness metric does not reﬂect how
  humans measure the completeness of a instance.”

  — p.112 [87]

  “For the Weighted Completeness, also a table containing the
  pre-calculated alpha values should be available”

  — p.113 [88]

What is correct?


texts: noun clause - subject or object and why / how to explain in these 2 examples?

texts:
Example 1: It is important to remember that noun clauses are tricky.

Textbook: Noun clauses follow adjectives in the It is construction.
Me: The noun clause is the subject of this sentence, delayed by It is.
Student: But why isn't it the object of "to remember"?
Me: "To remember" isn't a verb; it is an adjective complement.
Student: What?
Me: Me, hmmmm. Is that right? Why don't I feel clearer about this?

Example 2: I would like to know how I should explain that to a student.

Me: This noun clause is the object of "would like to know" and again it follows an infinitive, but what do I call "would like to know" -- a verb phrase?


texts:
I was listening to a song of Frank Sinatra's called It Was a Very Good Year. A certain part got my attention because I did not quite understand what it meant:

  When I was twenty-one, it was a very good year,
  It was a very good year for city girls,
  Who lived up the stairs,
  With perfumed hair,
  That came undone,
  When I was twenty-one.

What does "came undone" mean in this context?


texts: Understanding the meaning and type of a sentence with the proposition "without"

texts:
I have this sentence below, which I could not understand the meaning behind it.

"I had to acknowledge that without having made a fortune I had not had to undergo the rigours of captivity. "

Could someone please paraphrase the sentence in a simplified manner? and try to give an example of a sentence with a similar structure.

Note: the sentence is from a translated novel.


texts:
Identify the underlined error in the following excerpt:

  More than 20 ceiling fan manufacturers, the American Lighting Association (ALA), and leading energy conservation groups invites everyone to join the fight to reduce energy consumption by turning off their central cooling systems and relying on ceiling, floor, desk, and wall fans to save trillions of kilowatt hours of energy consumption.

American Lighting Association (ALA)
invites
their
desk, and wall fans
no errors

The answer says:

  "Invites" does not match the plural subject of the sentence.

This is very vague explanation. Can someone please elaborate.


texts: Situations where to use "Shake and bake, baby"

texts: In which situations is appropriate to use the expression "Shake and bake, baby"?


texts: Does the law define the usage of "Immunity" and "Impunity"?

texts:
I had to edit my question because I think it led to misunderstanding.
For me, the definition of "immunity" is quite different from "impunity", and I know the differences. But what I don't know is that is the law the thing that draw the line?
It seems to me they both refer to exemption from punishment.

for example, a police officer can kill a criminal, whereas I cannot.
Another example is that a diplomat raped and tortured two women but nothing happened. But if a man who has a powerful and wealthy father did that, the word impunity would be said.

So, here is the question:
Does only the law define the differences?


texts: Tense Usage in Scientific Paper for analysis

texts:
I'm curious what tense is typically used in a scientific paper for analysis of one's own work/scientific observations.

Specifically, I'm wondering what is commonly used in a situation such as this:

  The current varied between 2 m/s and 5 m/s. The current speed is/was significantly related to the weather conditions at the time of measurement, and the coefficient is/was 0.5 (Fig. 5).

The tense for the first verb should clearly be past, but the second and third verbs are unclear. I'm leaning toward present tense based on this article:
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/com/Logan/teaching/html/wrt333/notes/S&R/2_verb_tense.htm

Thank you!


texts:
https://wikidiff.com/existential/existent says the differences between existential and existing.

Could you give me situations/examples

where they are exchangeable,
where only one is suitable while the other isn't?

For example, I heard that

  Bernie Sanders agrees somehow that he is viewed as an existential threat by Democratic establishment. (In contrast, Elizabeth Warren recently showed to Democratic establishment that she is a team player).

from recent interview on Bernie by The Hills in Kentucky, and immediately thought I would have used "existing threat" due to my limited vocabulary.

Thanks.


texts: "X depends only on A, [but] not on B" - with or without "but"? Any difference in meaning? Any stylistic arguments for or against?


texts: Will I love you forever? or Will I love you for ever?

texts:
http://youtu.be/cgNMSJTevAk?t=2m10s
This test states that the correct answer is: "Will I love you for ever?"

There are numerous songs\articles on the internet that say that "forever" is the right choice. Example:
http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/forever

I'm inclined to thing that the author of the test is wrong. Am I right?


texts: what "ranging" means in "He was a veteran of a hundred rangings"?

texts: This sentence is picked from "A Song of Ice & Fire:A Game of Thrones". I have no idea of the phrase"a hundred rangings". I'm not a native English speaker. I appreciate if someone can help me.


texts: Double negative complicated with the use of 'hard'

texts:
What does the author mean by this: 'It is hard not to conclude there is none...'
Here is the whole context:

  What is the cure? It is hard not to conclude there is none: some problems have no solution, one can only manage things as best one can.

Is this a case of triple negative because of the use of the word 'hard'?
Can you explain what is really being said there?


texts: Is there a name for this format - '5:number :: k: ? '?

texts:
Is there a name for this format - 5:number :: k: ? ?
The question mark in the above poses a question. The answer is supposed to be found out by looking the relation of previous pair. In this case answer would be a letter.
Is there a name for this construction, if any?


texts: Can one preposition directly follow another in a sentence? The sentence in question is:  "I am so impressed by the one-on-one time that we can take advantage of with the executives-in-residence program." I can just change the sentence, but I was also wondering about the rules of grammar in regards to this case.


texts:
There seems to be a lot of confusion about the word ironic. A good example is Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". I looked at three articles discussing it, and one said that the song was ironic because the lyrics weren't ironic, one article explained how the lyrics actually are ironic, and another stated that neither the lyrics, nor the non-ironic nature of the lyrics were ironic.

So what is irony? Are the lyrics in "Ironic" ironic? Sometimes the word coincidence is used to describe situations like the ones in "Ironic", but that doesn't seem to capture the reality-can-be-"funny" feel to these kinds of situations.

Is there a word for this thing that we often call irony, but apparently isn't?


texts: Joke about a magical tractor, I dont get it

texts:
The joke is:

  Did you hear about the magic tractor? It turned into a field.

What is the joke about?
I am thinking that the tractor is abandoned and the field cover it, I cant imagine other situation.

Help me please.

Thank you in advance.

PS: I am a native spanish speaker.


texts:
There was no doubt that a man, in succeeding to a lordship in
  right of his wife, would wish to bear the arms associated therewith.
  He placed them, therefore, upon his own, and arms exclusively of a
  territorial character have certainly very frequently been placed in
  pretence. His own arms he would look upon as arms of descent ; they
  consequently occupied the field of his shield. The lordship of
  his wife he did not enjoy through descent, and consequently he would
  naturally incline to place it in pretence. (Fox-Davies, Arthur
  Charles., A Complete Guide to Heraldry, p539)

I do know what is the conception of "in pretence" in heraldry exactly, but what is I can not perceive is the exact meaning of the term in English; does it mean "to claim" or "to pretend" or something else?
Which one is the meaning of "lordship" in above paragraph: "the rank or dignity of a lord" or "the authority or power of a lord" or "the domain or territory belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a lord"?


texts: What's the etymology of spam when talking about bulk unsolicited messages?

texts: What does spam stand for, when talking about unsolicited (mostly advertisement) messages? The nearest possibility I found was "Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages" but it seems like too colorful to be a proper acronym. When was it first used to mean "unsolicited messages"?


texts: "Rainbow of color" or "Rainbow of colors."

texts:
While editing a text, I came across this sentence: "The festival is a rainbow of color and joy."

My question concerns the word "color."  I feel it should be plural: "The festival is a rainbow of colors and joy."

I asked a colleague and she felt it was fine because color was describing the rainbow...an adjective use.  I felt that a rainbow cannot be only one color and consists of many so it should be "colors."

Color or colors?  Is there a way to decide this?

I should point out that the context is an article about a festival in which people dress up with multi-colored costumes.


texts:
I just read an article on Newyork times and I found a sentence having 2 present perfect verbs :

  After more than a year of speculation, Mr. Draghi, the never-predictable head of the European Central Bank, has given global investors what they have clamored for, with an extra twist: an open-ended commitment to buy eurozone government bonds in bulk.

The first verb "has given" is used because the action happened in the past but has results in the present which is an open ended commitment

The second one " have clamored" is used because they clamored several time in the past up to the present

Am I right? if no, can anyone give a correct answer?

Thank you


texts: What does "loss of wellbeing" mean in context

texts:
The economic impact of asthma was estimated to be 300 dollars. 100 dollars were attributed to financial cost, and 200 dollars were attributed to loss of wellbeing.

What does "loss of wellbeing" mean here?

Why is "loss of wellbeing" related to the "cost"?


texts: a word/term for having so little knowledge of a subject you can't understand how much work it

texts: I'm looking for a word/term for having so little knowledge of a subject you can't understand how much work goes into it.


texts: "Find ten apples and oranges" Do I find 10 or 20?

texts:
If I read the sentence

  Find ten apples and oranges.

Do I need to find ten or twenty pieces of fruit?


texts: "Brunette" vs. "brown" and "blonde" vs. "yellow"

texts:
Why is that we never use these terms interchangeably? I.e. one wouldn't say "I've painted my walls a deep brunette".

Why is it that "brunette" and "blonde" are used exclusively in reference to hair colour yet they just mean "brown" and "yellow"?


texts: Video conference and video conferencing, is there any difference between them?

texts: My English student asked me: "Video-conference and video-conferencing, is there any difference between them?" Is Video-conference a countable noun and Video-conferencing an uncountable noun? Is Video-conferencing formed using a gerund? Is that why it is uncountable?


texts: A word for feeling unequal or disconnected from someone due to prejudice?

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes when someone shows a lack of understanding or empathy to someone due to a prejudice.
For example, if a man and a woman are having a conversation and the man makes a comment alluding to some sexist stereotype, the woman would suddenly feel disconnected from him because he is demonstrating that he isn't able to extend his empathy to women in the same way he does to other men. If someone has a prejudice, they see everyone from a certain group as being different from them and thus in some ways unrelatable.
I had always thought the word for this was "animosity", probably because it's often used in these contexts and it sounds like "anonymous" so it gave me the impression of not seeing someone for who they are. I've only recently discovered that it describes hostility, more than the passive disconnect I'm trying to describe. The word I'm looking for also has a connotation of patronising someone due to prejudiced views.
It also isn't necessarily about seeing someone as inferior to you, just treating someone as different and unrelatable. For example, if a woman said to a male friend that she thought all men were inherently sexist, the same word would be used to describe the feeling of disconnect from her not being able to see him in the same way she sees other women.
An example sentence would be:

When my white neighbour told me that he thought black people were naturally more aggressive, I felt a sense of (not quite animosity) that forever stunted our friendship.


texts: What is the word for small pieces of sugarcane?

texts:
What is the word in English for Gandairiyan (Urdu), that is, small pieces of sugarcane, as can be seen in these photos:

(https://d2gg9evh47fn9z.cloudfront.net/thumb_COLOURBOX11619843.jpg)

(http://cdn2.stylecraze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Benefits-Of-Sugarcane-Juice.jpg)


texts: How are words that describe a certain sound called?

texts:
They're different in different languages, but I'm looking for the name of the category of those words.

For example, a sound of dog's barking: "woof-woof". But in Russian it's "ghav-ghav";

A sound of cat: "meow". But in Japanese it's "nya".

Also various sounds that are used in comics: "boing", "bang", "poof", "ka-pow", etc.

EDIT:

These words are called "Onomatopeic"


texts: Which is the correct passive construction of 'she bore him on the Christmas day'?

texts:
I think I understand the difference of meaning between 'born' and 'borne', plus I have also checked out a few questions that were asked about the two terms on this forum. So, I hope I am not posting a duplicate question.

Since 'born' is an adjective and not a verb form, 'he was born on the Christmas day' cannot be considered a passive construction of 'she bore him on the Christmas day'. And saying 'he was borne on the Christmas day by her' would sound as though she put up with him on the Christmas day.

Does this simply mean that 'she bore him on the Christmas day' has no acceptable passive construction despite the verb 'bear' being a transitive verb?


texts:
I have come across the word "cheersing", with an "s", as opposed to what I believe to be the correct form: cheering.

I think it comes from a misguided verbification of the exclamation "cheers!", as in the plural of the noun "cheer".

However since there is already a corresponding verb, "to cheer", I don't see why anyone would need to force a plural noun into a progressive verbal form like "cheersing".

Besides, it's impossible to conjugate and hilarious to even try:
I cheers
you cheers
he cheerses
we cheers
you cheers
they cheers

Please tell me that cheersing is only a made up word.


texts: Why is "you cannot buy all what you like" wrong?

texts:
I got the following sentences from http://www.engvid.com/english-resource/50-common-grammar-mistakes-in-english-2/

  Wrong: You cannot buy all what you like!
  Right: You cannot buy all that you like!

Why is the first one wrong? I do see the structure "you can do what you..." many times, e.g. "how to talk about what you want".


texts:
This is a phonetics question.

I am teaching English as a Second Language. In phonetics, we all know the "i" in "think" is a "short i" sound. Additionally, the "i" in "bit" is a "short i" sound. However, when many of my students pronounce "think", "link", "stink", and so on - they pronounce the "i" in those words in an unnatural fashion (as if they are taking the "i" directly from other "short i" words and putting it into these words).

To my ear, and my pronunciation, the "i" in "think" is far different from the "i" in "bit", even if it is short. In the same way, the "i" in "-ing" is different from the "i" in "bit" (or "sit", "grit", "fit", etc.).

I believe this has a lot to do with the "n", but I'd like some technical explanation regarding the nuances of the system and how I can explain different pronunciations of a "short i" sound (instead of just having them listen and repeat).


texts: "Because/because of/owing to/on account of/due to"?

texts:
I was doing my homework but I'm stuck on this exercise.
The instructions say: Complete these sentences: (my answers are in brackets)

“Don’t be fool; the dog’s dancing was … the extremely hot pavement.” (due to)
“I came home earlier yesterday … I was too tired.” (because)
“It can’t be played ... infringements.” (because of)
"Royal Jelly is used … its natural healing properties". (because of)
“ … all of this, their freezer would be filled with ice cream and joy for
years!” (because of)
“… the storm, this Easter we won’t have our picnic.” (because of)
“The damage was … the lack of motor oil.” (due to)
“Dialects in Italy vary …few kilometres of distance.” (because of)
“It seems they lost the match … the quarterback’s illness.” (because
of)
“We can’t buy any ticket now … they’re sold out.” (because)
“I didn’t buy the eggs … you forgot to write it on the list!” (because)
“I’m not going on holiday… incoming taxes to pay.” (because of)
“We didn’t go out … the strike.” (because of)
“If I am still alive that is … him.” (because of)
“ … the bad weather, they can’t deliver until Monday!” (because of)

The options are:
due to/on account of/because of/because/owing to.

I knew that "due to" as an adjective is mainly used after the verb "be" in sentences like "The cancellation of the concert was due to a heavy thunderstorm" whereas the others are prepositional phrases so the same sentence would be "The concert was cancelled owing to/on account of/because of a heavy thunderstorm".

But I'm a bit confused which one should I pick? Am I wrong about their usages?


texts: How to say one minute past midnight in military time?

texts:
I first would like to say that I did read How should one say times aloud in 24-hour notation? but my question isn't answered there.

How do you say 0001 in military time?

oh one hours?
oh oh one hours?
oh oh oh one hours?
something even weirder?


texts: Is using 'then' after 'if', considered informal English?

texts:
A colleague mentioned that while doing exams (in China) for academic English, using the word 'then' after an 'if' was marked as incorrect.

For example, "If it is raining then I will need my umbrella" vs "If it is raining, I will need my umbrella".

He thought this was because it was grammatically incorrect, however I have found other questions here that indirectly refute that. For example Can I use an if clause without then.

Is this a case of informal vs formal English instead?


texts: Collective noun for words that describe something they themself contain or are

texts:
Is there a collective noun for words that describe something that this word itself contains or is?

Here are some examples of what I mean:

‘noun’ is a noun itself;
‘háček’ contains a letter with a háček;
‘plurals’ is plural itself.


texts: Why did John Wells need three lexical sets--NORTH, FORCE and THOUGHT--for the same vowel /ɔː/?

texts:
The standard Lexical sets for English were introduced by professor John Wells which are widespread. Each lexical set represents a vowel present in a number of words, for example: the THOUGHT vowel /ɔː/ is found in taught, sauce, hawk, jaw, broad. The GOAT vowel /əʊ/ is found in soap, joke, home, know, so, roll etc.
However, there are three lexical sets NORTH, FORCE and THOUGHT for the same vowel /ɔː/ especially in British English. He has included different words in each lexical set:

THOUGHT: taught, sauce, hawk, jaw, broad
NORTH: for, war, short, scorch, born, warm
FORCE: four, wore, sport, porch, borne, story

(All the above information comes from Wikipedia)
All those words sound the same to me (a non-native speaker of English who is learning British English). I can't detect any difference between them and looking the sets up on UCL website, there is no information on whether there is any difference between them or not.
Why did John Wells need three lexical sets for the same vowel when he could easily have incorporated those words in one lexical set (say for example THOUGHT)? Are those vowels--NORTH, FORCE and THOUGHT--different in British English? Can anyone provide the phonetic values/realizations of those vowels they have in British English?
Edit:
I emailed professor John Wells and asked him why there were three Lexical sets for the same vowel. I said to him "someone (I meant @Nardog) told me that the whole point of lexical sets is to make it easier to describe differences between [vowels in different] accents. He replied to me and said:

"Someone" is correct. And not only American English, but also Scottish English and various other varieties. Read the book!
John Wells


texts: What's a word meaning a never-ending source?

texts:
Insatiable means can never be satisfied, sort of like a sink that can never be filled.

Whats the word for a never-ending source? For example:

  My source of funding is [Missing word goes here].

While we are at it, what word should I have used in place of opposite?.
(Since the opposite of insatiable is of course satiable).


texts: Expression for a very specific utility post climbing gear called "maneas"/"pretal" in spanish, widely used in South America

texts:
IMPORTANT, first just watch 30 seconds of 1 or 2 of this YouTube videos featuring the use of "maneas", to visualize this devices: 1,2,3,4, don
Pictures 5,6

I know this site is not spanish oriented, however, in this post spanish language is used merely as a tool for trying to translate the concept/device/tool "manea" into an english expression. Spanish knowledge is NO NEEDED AT ALL to answer, read, or understand this question.

First "manea"="pretal", they are just 2 spanish words used for this device. I'll use "manea" from now on to simplify.

The expression I'm looking refers to a device, which is simply a rope that, by doing a "cow hitch" knot to a utility post, allows the user, while stepping on the foot part of the "manea", and while alternatively resting the user weight on one of the 2 maneas, while lifting the other, to climb a utility post. It's used by linemans, to do electrical lines work on utility posts.

I have found that in english speaking countries, specially USA and Australia (that's the countries my research results shown mostly) this other system is used: called climbing gaffs, hooks, elevators, climbers this timestamp video starts right when he climbs AND 8


texts:
Which one is the correct sentence?

If you need a dictionary, I'll lend you mine.
If you need a dictionary, I lend you mine.


texts:
I'm having a problem to refer to the components that are in both, the client-side and the server-side.

I started writing: "client and server-side components"     (1)

I did that in order to avoid repeating "-side": client-side and server-side components     (2)

Maybe I should remove the "-", otherwise "side" is just applying to "server": client and server side components     (3)

But I think this could also be wrong since it is not a single side but two sides: client and server sides components     (4)

And maybe I should move "components" to the beginning:
components on the client and the server sides     (5)

I think the last alternative (5) is the right one, but not really sure if the reasoning is right.

Thanks for your time,
Gab


texts: Why do American and British English use different quotation marks?

texts:
American English uses double-quotes, while British English uses single-quotes:

"This is a quote."
'This is a quote.'

Why do we use different quotation marks? When did this difference originate? Were quotation marks not standardized until relatively recently?


texts:
Somehow I have difficulties telling which one is more correct

They penetrate into the building OR They penetrate the building

I've heard it being used both ways and I'd like to hear some thoughts on that.

Thanks.


texts: In phonetic writing, what does italics mean?

texts:
The word government is supposed to be pronounced guhv-ern-muh nt

See here http://www.dictionary.com/browse/government?s=t


texts: Term for aboriginal people of Canada in a historical context

texts:
The tribes that inhabited Canada before European contact are generally known as First Nations today.  From what I can tell, this term is fairly new.

What term could I use to refer to First Nations people that:

can refer to indigenous people from different tribes, and
would probably have been understood by someone from the 1800s, and
would generally not be offensive to people today?

In the US, for example, the term American Indian meets all three criteria.  Is there something similar for Canada?


texts: What is the word that describes a demanding look?

texts: Is there an idiom or a single verb for a patronizing stare or a demanding look? As if someone can speak with his looks and says something like "No!", "Stop!", "Do it now!" and makes people obey no matter how much they don't want to.


texts: 'Consists of a lot of' or 'consists lot of'

texts:
Which is correct grammar,

Farming consists a lot of manual work.
Farming consists of a lot of manual work.

Also, is is ok to write 'a lot of' instead of 'lot of'?


texts: Why is 'So' being used to begin an anwer to a question grammatically incorrect?

texts:
I see that questions about the usage of 'so' have been asked, but none of the answers I've seen get into why.

I first noticed this on the Shark Tank show. One of the sharks will ask a contestant something and almost always they begin the answer with 'so'.
Since they come from all over America, I think they are being coached by the producers to do this. It bugs me, but I don't have a definitive reason why it is incorrect usage. In my dialect, 'so' at the beginning or within a sentence is equivalent to 'therefore'. (aside from it's meaning in sentences such as 'it's so much better that its in a different league')


texts:
Each classifier in the group is a
  “weak” classifier (only just above
  chance performance).

What does "only just above chance performance" mean?


texts: Should commas *always* be followed by spaces?

texts:
When teaching and proofreading, I often come across examples of commas without spaces following them (e.g. "London,UK" or "apples,oranges,bananas").  In addition to correcting these, I would like to clearly cite and explain the rule.

I believe the rule is that a comma should always be followed by a space, but would like to confirm this with a reliable citeable source, and have a complete list of exceptions.  The only exceptions I can think of right now are:

before a closing quotation mark: "Where," he wondered, "could it be?"
When this exception applies, the space follows the closing quote.
Within a large number: The factory produced 3,252,975 widgets last month.
in the code portion of programming, where English grammatical rules don't quite apply
in Tweets, telegrams, or similar settings with character constraints that lead to relaxation of grammatical rules

Are there reliable sources for this rule and/or other exceptions?


texts: Nay good night! Does anyone know where this originates?

texts:
My aunt used to gasp, when shocked about something, "Nay good night!"

I didn't understand as a child, but I have a feeling now, it means (roughly) not getting a good night's sleep over the shock or concern.

Does anyone else have an insight? Or an old Aunt that used to say this?

For reference: She was born in 1920 in North Dakota. This was the first generation of her Norwegian family to be native English speakers.


texts: “Think+Noun+good luck” vs “Think + Noun+ is good luck”

texts:
I saw a question on Quora recently which asked about the grammar of the following sentence:

“The British think ravens good luck”

Interestingly, most answers weren't familiar with this structure but one person explained it as ellipsis (‘the British think ravens are good luck’).
I wonder what everyone thinks of this answer. Is it ellipsis or is it perhaps an archaic usage or maybe linked to a French grammatical structure popular in past times?


texts: What is the second "to" in "to take this opportunity to foreground poetry"?

texts:
That’s why it’s particularly appropriate for us to take this opportunity to foreground poetry as an aural experience.
  — Source

Is this "to" the same as "something to say?"

P.S.: Isn't this presumptuous? It's like we have the right and legitimacy to do this!


texts: What's an everyday or colloquial word for "trivia"?

texts:
We all have lots of little things we have to remember that are what programmers often call Key Value Pairs in the format key = value.
e.g. My shoe size is 11. or My wife's birthday is Feb. 29.
EDIT: It's not just personal info though. The original impetus was for business, such as:
Our third quarter sales goal is $375,000..
I can't use a programming term in everyday conversation with non-programmers. The closest I can come up with is trivia, but that sounds more suited for historical dates or random facts from Wikipedia.
Is there a normal everyday word for these individual details with the key = value format?
EDIT: I want people to see this word and quickly recognize what kind of information to put in this section with my assistance. So words requiring explanation or clarification won't work.
EDIT: @TylerN: In this tool, you can save little [trivia] that you want to recall later.


texts: something "to utilize" or "for utilizing" or "for utilization"?

texts:
I want to choose a title for my article. In this article I have investigated the characteristics of some special buildings in modern countries and I want to utilize them for developing countries.
Which one of the following is correct?

An investigation of the characteristics of the buildings "to
utilize" in developing countries;
An investigation of the characteristics of the buildings "for utilizing" in developing countries;
An investigation of the characteristics of the buildings "for utilization" in developing countries


texts: Verbs changing from gerund to infinitive

texts:
Some verbs such as advise, recommend, permit, allow, require, forbid are used in sentences either gerund or infinitive. For instance,

The plumber recommended buying a new water heater.
The plumber recommended me to buy a new water heater.

I wonder that in the second sentence, is it appropriate to use the gerund form (buying) instead of the infinitive.
What about other verbs?

The rules do not permit keeping pets on the premises.
The rules do not permit tenants to keep pets on the premises.


texts: What definition of Earth is used in the expression "walk the Earth"?

texts:
Please see this question for difference in definitions and capitalisation of earth/Earth

In the expression "walk the earth", e.g. "when dinosaurs walked the earth". Should earth be capitalised?

I always assumed that it was referring to the planet, and should therefore be capitalised. However I noticed that a lot of the time it isn't capitalised, indicating that the saying is the equivalent of "walked the ground/soil".

Is there a correct/more accepted usage of this expression? Should earth be capitalised?


texts: A person who knows how to read but cannot write

texts:
What do you call somebody who can read but cannot write?

I found the term semiliterate, the Free Dictionary says

  Having achieved an elementary level of ability in reading and writing.

But Oxford Dictionaries defines it as

  semi-literate: Unable to read or write with ease or fluency; poorly educated:

I want a word that means a person who only knows how to read. Is there such a word?


texts: Should we always capitalize Christians, Muslims, etc.?

texts:
A christian and a jew went into a bar....

or

A Christian and a Jew went into a bar...

The former is marked incorrect by microsoft word.


texts: Do we need a comma to separate these two sentences?

texts:
Which one of these sentences is correct?

  1 By using this method, they found that sugar is important in diet.
    2 By using this method they found that sugar is important in diet.

Do we need a comma to separate two sentences?


texts: Meaning of "the body soon learns to stand down in the face of fat"

texts:
The following is from the transcript of a podcast.

Dieters can choose from an array of snacktackular options in which sugars and fats are replaced by artificial, low-calorie substitutes. That sleight of hand seems ingenious. You can let your body think it’s getting the sweets and fats it craves while keeping the calorie count to a minimum.
But the new study suggests that this strategy is likely to backfire. Rats that consumed a mix of full-fat chips and chips with olestra wound up eating more and got fatter than rats that noshed on regular chips alone.
Their bodies were apparently getting mixed messages. A mouthful of fat is usually a signal that calories are coming, and the body reacts by getting ready to burn fuel. But olestra, which tastes like fat, carries no calories at all. So the body soon learns to stand down in the face of fat. All fat. Even real fat. Because as Shakespeare almost said, a chip by any other name still swells your seat.

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "stand down" has the following meaning:
1 : to leave the witness stand
2 chiefly British    a : to go off duty  b : to withdraw from a contest or from a position of leadership
But I still don't understand what the sentence "So the body soon learns to stand down in the face of fat." means.
Does it mean that the body will not react with all kinds of fat? Then how can one get fatter when such thing happen?


texts: Are hyphens needed in a noun-phrase that precedes 'manner'?

texts: I sometimes use "manner" to use noun-phrases as adverbs, like "in the manner of a vigilant watchdog". If I reverse the order, does the noun phrase then have to be hypenated? Like so: "in a vigilant-watchdog manner"


texts: Etymology behind "tim-" words involving honor and "tim-" words involving fear?

texts:
Words like timocracy (a form of government based on ambition for honor) and Timothy (honor to God) come from time, which means "honor" or "worth."

According to Etymonline, timid (easily frightened) and timorous (fearful) come from timere, which means "fear" and is of unknown origin. Are there any other sources that hint at where these words might have come from? Are the "honor" words and the "fear" words connected to some shared root word?


texts:
I'm reading this book, and there is a love scene in which I don't understand the usage of the word "type".
Here I quote a large chunk containing the word in question:

  The whole affair was the precise opposite of what I figured it would
  be: slow and patient and quiet and neither particularly painful nor
  particularly ecstatic. There were a lot of condomy problems that I did
  not get a particularly good look at. No headboards were broken. No
  screaming. Honestly, it was probably the longest time we’d ever spent
  together without talking.
  Only one thing followed type:
  Afterward, when I had my face resting against  Augustus’s chest,
  listening to his heart pound, Augustus said, “Hazel Grace, I literally
  cannot keep my eyes open.”
  “Misuse of literality,” I said.
  “No,”
  he said. “So. Tired.”
  His face turned away from me, my ear pressed
  to his chest, listening to his lungs settle into the rhythm of sleep.
  After a while, I got up, dressed, found the Hotel Filosoof stationery,
  and wrote him a love letter: ...

(from The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green)


texts: "As of this morning" vs. "as at this morning"

texts:
As of this morning, he was not in support of the motion.
  As at this morning, he was not in support of the motion.

Which is correct?


texts: why is a "apron on lathe" called an apron?

texts:
I am wondering about the term "apron" used for a lathe. It is a gear mechanism, it seems.

See http://images.slideplayer.com/26/8615152/slides/slide_47.jpg.

Why apron? Why does apron come in here as a term at all?


texts: I am Italian and would like a confirmation about a query I have. Is "Any chance you being home?" grammatically correct in English?


texts: What is the term for a safety feature that prevents operation in unsafe conditions?

texts:
I'm thinking about things like the switches in a rice cooker that won't let you turn them on without actually adding rice and water to the pot, or a handle bar on a lawn mower that turns the engine off if you let go.  Is there a specific term for those kinds of safety features?

They are the safety features that prevent bad things from happening, in contrast to a safety feature like a plastic guard that saves you if something goes wrong.


texts: Saying to cover a few good deeds but person still corrupt

texts: Is there a saying that covers the scenario where a ruler does a few good deeds but by and large is corrupt and deceptive ?


texts: Identifying Literary Devices ~ Synecdoche or Pun?

texts:
She would step out of the river, dry in the sun for five minutes and climb back into the car among the shocked eyeballs of her companions.

Is the emphasized phrase an example of a synecdoche or a pun?

My interpretation: It's a synecdoche since the sentence states that the woman literally climbs the car "among the shocked eyeballs of her companions." I am visualizing the woman actually entering the car and sitting next to eyeballs. In this case, eyeballs are used to refer to the people in the car; the same as hard hats may refer to construction workers.

Am I right, or any other suggestions/interpretations?


texts: Why is the subjunctive mood used in this sentence?

texts:
"Flesh," said the boy, and he pronounced the word with slow relish, as though he were tasting it.

I was analyzing this sentence with my high school class, and one student pointed out that "he were" should be "he was."  I didn't know how to respond to the student, but I have since discovered that the subjunctive mood is being used.

Are there any ideas at to why the author would be using subjunctive mood in this case?


texts:
I use the word "misconfigured" all the time, but MS Word, Chrome, and the two dictionaries I checked don't list it as a word.

I'm going to keep using it instead of "configured incorrectly" because I believe it communicates an obvious meaning. However, is it a word that I can use formally? If not, why not?


texts: Does "a [x] of [y]" take a singular or plural verb?

texts:
What kind of verb, singular or plural, goes with phrases like "a record of [singular or plural noun]", "the use of", "the time of"? Does the choice depend on the following nouns (a record of nouns) or on the 'first' nouns (record, use, time)? Or do these phrases obey the rule of proximity (as does "a variety of")?

I have found different example sentences on the internet (source: newspapers or magazines) with different uses. What is correct?

Examples:

there were a record of other issues;
there were a record of 28,000 runners;
there was a record of these statements.


texts: What is the meaning of "phantastic" and what does a dated form of a word mean?

texts:
I recently saw this word used in a Android SE post and at first I thought the user misspelt the word but actually I found that a word "phantastic" exists.

The phantastic meaning of yourdictionary website tells its the dated version of the word fantastic.

phantastic - Adjective
(comparative more phantastic, superlative most phantastic)

I couldn't properly understand when we should actually use the word. Can someone show some examples of the usage of the word. What does a dated form of a word mean?


texts: Is there a word to describe a work of art that relies on astronomical conditions?

texts:
I have two examples in mind. The first is this stunning Veterans' Memorial, and the second is the more prosaic and common examples of analemnas in art, the one in the movie Castaway, for example.

Note - I don't mean "analemna"...an analemna is a single example of a technique for what I'm talking about. I wouldn't say that the Veterans' Memorial strictly uses an analemna, except to the extent that the projection is a particular point on the analemna. In the absence of a better term, I guess I would settle on "analemnic projection", but Google comes up with zero point zero results for that.

Anyhow, whatever what kind of art this is, I really dig it, so I'd like to know if there's a term for it. Surely some Fine Arts post-doc has come up with one.


texts: Grammar rules for parellelism in comparisons and variations according to verb placement

texts:
I'm an academic editor in the field of medicine and I often come across complex comparisons. My question is specifically regarding how the placement of the verb affects the the parallelism of the comparison.

Please check the following three sentences:

Median serum thyroxine was significantly decreased in patients with a suppressed TSH compared to those with a normal TSH.
Median serum thyroxine was significantly decreased in patients with a suppressed TSH compared to that in patients with a normal TSH.
Median serum thyroxine in patients with a suppressed TSH was significantly decreased compared to that in patients with a normal TSH.

To the best of my knowledge, sentences 1 and 3 are accurate in terms of parallelism. However, a couple of my friends agree that 1 is wrong and 2 is right. We all agree on 3 being the best form.

I would like to know your opinion regarding the same. In particular, if someone can link me to any resources regarding the changes that need to be made according to the placement of the verb for maintaining parallelism in such comparisons, it would be great.

Thanks!


texts: Should I say 'for all sets of tasks' or 'for all sets of task'?

texts:
In general, should it read either as:

all sets that are collections of individual tasks
or
all sets of a task kind ?

In the first case I would expect 'task' to be plural, in the second case I would expect it as singular.


texts:
In American English (perhaps British as well), "housework" and "homework" have different meanings. "Housework" refers to working around the house, such as dusting, vacuuming, etc., whereas "homework" refers to doing some school assignments at home, after school is out.

Homework can be completed outside the home, such as in a library. In order to do housework, however, one must be at one's house. How and when did two words which seem so similar at first glance gain such different meanings?


texts: Are "power" and "clout" perfect synonyms?

texts:
Is there a slight difference between power and clout in the context of a political influence?

For instance:

  Asking China to help the euro world would give a non-eurozone nation the power to decide the fate of the currency

Is clout a perfect synonym of power in that context? Is the meaning the same? Is the level of language the same?


texts:
What is correct:

  1) Books and music makes life even better

or

  2) Books and music make life even better

(saw a quote #1 and t-shirt with #2)


texts: NOUN PHRASE, Biological problem and Biology problem

texts: what is difference between : "Biological problem" and "Biology problem" .


texts: English equivalent for "Picking a fight with your mother because you lost a fight at the marketplace."

texts:
In the Indian language of Malayalam, there's a funny saying which literally translates to

  Picking a fight with your mother at home because you lost a fight at the marketplace.

It means taking out one's frustration over one incident on someone else.

I found that Displaced Aggression and Redirected Aggression have a serious note to them.

Is there some equivalent phrase in English that is on a lighter note?


texts:
The verb for something that became popular (became a hit) when nobody expected it.

  Their first four movies have been quite obscure to the masses up until the release of the fifth one, which ______ (became a hit?) and became very popular.


texts: What is the word for a 'hint' that might help give the solution at the end of movies?

texts:
For example, in The DaVinci Code (movie), there's an upside-down pyramid shown at the beginning of the movie. When the movie comes to an end, the whole story kind of "gathers" around this pyramid. I can't explain it properly, but it's to do with of the "Holy Grail" being (possibly) found under the pyramid.

So, the pyramid in The DaVinci Code is [INSERT THE WORD HERE].

Please help me find this word.


texts:
Is the correct or incorrect (or acceptable either way) in the following constructions (examples taken from COCA)?

It hereby is recommended to the said Legislatures to authorize an immediate and earnest application to be made to the government.
Both men made their way to the said room.
A parachutist must be buried in close proximity to the said site of impact.
We determined point values assigned to said questions.
The relationship lasted a few months, and ended many months prior to said song's release.

I cannot find a good explanation for either.


texts:
What is a perfect synonym for Almighty?
For whom we could we use Almighty?
Can Almighty be used for God?


texts: What do you call the point at which an individual water supply line enters a building?

texts:
After an unsuccessful search for an English-language term meaning the connection point from which water is taken from a main urban supply pipe to a house, facility, etc., I ended up here. Please note that I don't mean a water meter. With the term I am looking for, I would be able to say, for example, "this facility has three X's" (X being the term in question).
Update:
I want to know the English term for the point where the water supply company delivers a water tap to a house (company's responsibility ends) and then internal piping of the building is done from that tap. Depending on it size, a building might get several of these taps (which have to be paid for more). If we want to say my new construction will have 4 water entries to the building, what should we say? I want a term to put instead of the bold part of the sentence. Shall I use taps? Or there are better alternatives?