texts:
What would I correct name the section of résumé where I describe myself? Word-for-word translation gave me “Personal properties”, but it feels like something is wrong.

EDIT:

Information in this section looks like:

can work in team
sociable
don’t have harmful habits
etc...

Not about my skills or interests, but about me as person.


texts:
In a popular song, "My Baby Shot Me Down", the text contains this expression:

  When I grew up I called him mine

What does it mean?


texts: Is this sentence correct? "Username have to consists only of ..."

texts:
Is it correct to say?

  Username have to consists only of letters, numbers and low dash.


texts: "I'm sorry for all that I've done" or "I'm sorry for all what I've done"?

texts:
I'm not sure which is right:

I'm sorry for all that I've done.
I'm sorry for all what I've done.


texts: "Figment" other than in "figment of the imagination"?

texts: Are there any recurring uses of the word "figment" other than in the expression "figment of the imagination"?


texts: Where did the names of English letters come from, and why are they all monosyllabic (except for "w")?

texts:
I don't know too many languages, but the ones I know have more elaborate names for their letters than the monosyllabicity of names for English letters. (E.g. - I'll pick on Greek here - ay instead of alpha, bee for beta, etc.)  How did these short names evolve, and when?

Further, why do nine of the letter-names (B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z) end with "ee" (as in "bee"), while six others (F, L, M, N, S, X) begin with "eh" (as in "ef")?  And why do (H, K, Q, R, W, sometimes Z) have less orthodox names?  (Is "ar" for "R" a corruption of "ehr", perhaps?) "J" needs to be different, so as not to be confused with "G".  The remaining ones (vowels, incidentally: A, I, O, U, Y) I understand as not possible to fit into any regular pattern.

Maybe the answer is simply that letter-names, like the language, are not logically created; rather evolved erratically.  But I want to make sure.  Does anyone have any answers?


texts: What is the difference between Philanthropy and Philanthropism?

texts:
In a the context of a paper, there's a paragraph-title: "Philanthropism in American culture",
I'm in general only familiar with the word philanthropy, hence I'm not sure
what an appropriate title would be.


texts: In what context do we use the word "rhetoric"?

texts:
So, a colleague of mine uses this term way too much but i really don't know whether he's using it in the right context. An example:

"So, i have 3 cars in the garage and they take up way too much space. Should i sell one off?...... Never mind that rhetorical question, i was just showing off."

...What? Isn't rhetoric supposed to mean something meant to persuade the audience?

According to my deduction, he uses it  while asking a question that need not be answered.
so what IS the correct meaning of the word?


texts: "He would go to the theater if I would go with him" - is this a correct sentence?

texts:
How to say properly in American English this sentence:
"He would go to the theater if I would go with him".

Does it look absolutely fine? First of all, I'm curious about two "would" in one sentence.


texts: Are there words that mean succeed and nurture, kind of like triumph and foster together?  Looking for something that conveys a winning environment that helps people achieve their goals. Halcyon is the placeholder, but feels too soft.


texts: Is "putting out an honest product" a valid phrase?

texts:
I don't know where I picked up the phrase seeing as Google has very few literal hits, but I want to use

"I'm looking for an employer who [....] is putting out an honest product"

in a job search ad.

Apart from having a bit of a colloquial touch (which is understood and intended), is this a valid phrase to use? Is it free from problematic connotations?


texts: number one and number two as euphemisms for urinate/defecate. rationale for which is which?

texts:
After years of never knowing which is which, I finally looked it up and it seems number one is firmly taking a pee, while number two is taking a poo.

This seems quite arbitrary so I am wondering the rationale for it?  (I spoke French as a child to my parents, rather than English, so I don't have an early familiarity to fall back on - crude English slang is what I used with other kids).

Is it that we normally tend to pee way more often than we take a crap so that ends up as number 1?  But you could equally say that defecating is way more complicated and problematic if you aren't near proper facilities.  Especially for men who find it easy to pee messily in emergencies.  So that would make it a candidate for #1.

Or is it just a convention without basis?

Also, are non-North Americans English speakers (UK, Ireland, Australia, NZ...) also familiar with it?


texts:
Is it grammatically correct to sign off using "We remain at your service."? Are the following any better?

We remain at your disposal.
We remain at your disposition.

or remove "remain":

We are at your service.
We are at your disposal.
etc...

or something even better that I haven't thought of!


texts: Leo DiCaprio pretended he was a doctor or "he were" a doctor?

texts:
Hi literary community!

I'm writing a book and I'm stuck on this part of a sentence:

Leo DiCaprio pretended he was a doctor..

Or

Leo DiCaprio pretended he were a doctor?

I know that we are supposed to use "were" if used in hypothetical, but in this case it's all tricky to me. He wasn't a doctor, didn't study for one, but he was in fact, according to the movie Catch Me if You Can, performing duties of a doctor in one scene.

Please advise.


texts:
I'm looking for a word or, more likely, a phrase--along the lines of "Hobson's choice," "busman's holiday," or "Pyrrhic victory"--to describe a problem that isn't really a problem. An example might be the "problem" of having too much evidence for something you are trying to prove.

"First-world problem" comes pretty close to what I'm looking for, but I'd appreciate a phrase that telegraphs a more focused irony and is perhaps a bit more sophisticated.


texts: A word for "want" without the connotation of desire or need?

texts: I'm looking for a word which would be able to express a will to do something without the desire or need to do it? Is it even possible have a word for doing something without referring to either of these aspects?


texts: What does "snug" mean in Edinburgh- Realtor-Speak?

texts:
This week's Economist has an advertisement for a house in a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland. The house has, on the First Floor:

  Sitting Room, Snug, Study, Kitchen, Family Room/Dining Room,
  Utility Room, Conservatory (emphasis added)

The upstairs has what one would expect -- bedrooms and bathrooms.

What is a snug in a private residence?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a snug as:

  2.a. dial. or slang. The bar-parlour of an inn or public-house; = snuggery n. 1b. Also snug bar.

  2.b. One of the compartments in the taproom of an old-fashioned inn.

By extension, a snug in a private house might be an elaborate wet-bar with stools, tables and chairs, but this is just a guess. Does anyone out there have a snug in their house?


texts: Trust to trustworthy is like Fired to ___worthy?

texts:
I'm looking for a single word. An example sentence would be:

  Yesterday I did something at work that is _______!


texts: Is insurance coverage that you won’t “see a dime” a frequently-used English expression?

texts:
I saw the statement, “there are so many restrictions on (insurance) coverage that you won’t see a dime,” in the following sentence in the article of Time magazine (August 18), titled “Things you should stop buying now.”

  “Credit-Card Payment Insurance: This “protection” can cost a few hundred bucks a year, and there are often so many restrictions and caveats on coverage that you won’t see a dime. Even if your claim is accepted, the insurance only pays the monthly minimum for a period of months.”

I assume “you won’t see a dime” means “you won’t be covered (compensated / remunerated) at all”, but I’m not sure.

There is no entry of “(don’t / can’t / won’t) see a dime” in any of Oxford, Cambridge, Merriam-Webster dictionary. Is such expression as “coverage (deal, agreement, transaction) you won’t see a dime” frequently used in conversation and writing?

Why can it be "won't 'get' a dime" or "won't 'recover' a dime," instead of "won't 'see' a dime"? Why is it 'see'?

Are there any other usages of “you won’t see a dime” than reference in financial context?


texts:
The sentence I want to write is something along the lines of: "I believe that the people here are what makes this such a great place to work".

I know people is generally plural and should be followed by "are," but for some reason it sounds off to me here. I'm curious if people in this context is more appropriately describing a singular population / entity and should be followed by "is" instead?


texts: Is there a single-word noun for an overwhelming feeling that uses “overwhelm” as its root?

texts:
Is there a single-word noun for an overwhelming feeling that uses overwhelm as its root?

My first thought was to make a gerund, that is, overwhelming. Although overwhelming is normally used as an adjective, this strategy applies to verbs like "cook", since cooking can be both a noun and an adjective.

That being said, I don't think I have ever heard overwhelming use as a noun, such as for example:

  The overwhelming was terrible.

Pardon the technical jargon, but that just doesn't sound right. Searching around here and elsewhere online doesn't yield more than people suggesting overwhelming feeling or overwhelmption (although girldetective.net may not be an authoritative source on the English language).

Is there a single word that fits this use case? If not, why does such a word not exist? Is the verb overwhelm part of a certain class of verbs that don't lend themselves to this?


texts: Which nouns should include an article after "go to [noun]" in AmE and BE?

texts:
When referring to a non-specific instance of a place (hospital, theatre), there seems to be a strange inconsistency as to when you use the. Is there any sort of pattern, or is there any reference site that lists these out somewhat comprehensively?

American English:

go to the hospital
go to school
go to church
go to the mall
go to the theater
go to the police station
go to the train station
go to the airport
go to the supermarket
go to the post office
go to the market (is go to market okay in American English?)
go to town
go to college
go to jail
go to the bank

British English:

go to hospital
go to school
go to church
go to the theatre
go to the cinema
???

This question is inspired by the conversation here: Is there a reason the British omit the article when they "go to hospital"?


texts:
I don't understand meaning of the word "latest" in the next sentence:

  Ivanka Trump’s personal assistant latest to test positive for
  coronavirus

Could you please clarify what does it mean?


texts: What's the English for the Russian saying "Love sometimes plays tricks - you may fall in love with a goat"?

texts:
In Russian, there is a phrase

  Love sometimes plays tricks - you may fall in love with a goat

(Любовь зла, полюбишь и козла). Goat means a bad person (stupid, abusive).

It is used, when an otherwise intelligent person falls in love with an obviously bad partner (e. g. a smart woman voluntarily stays in relationship with a man, who beats her, or a successful man stays with a woman, who humiliates him).

I'm looking for English equivalents, ideally rhyming.


texts:
He barely noticed when he ran out of the woods onto the bare red road. It streaked beneath him like fire hardened and only gradually as his breath choked him did he slow down and begin to take his bearings. The sky, the woods on either side, the ground beneath him, came to a halt and the road assumed direction.

What does the writer mean by 'fire hardened'?
Is 'hardened' here an adjective for 'fire'?


texts: What does this mean: "Credit card balance within $2000 of card limit"?

texts:
I'm trying to create an alert on my credit card so that I get a text message when the total charges on my credit card go over $1000.

Let's say my credit card limit is $3000. If I set the alert to send me a text message when my credit card balance is within $2000 of the card limit, is this equivalent to saying that I will get an alert when my card balance is over $1000 in this case?

The wording is confusing for me for some reason, and I can't get over it.


texts:
Forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask about this.
For context, I've been trying to figure out a good way to translate "なしてや", which is a dialect of どうして and なぜ. All of them mean "why, how".
In this instance, I have a character trying to correct her speech from "rural-sounding" to more "urban-sounding".

り: ......なら、参謀になりたい。
R: ......So, I should just join the military.
あ: 参謀！？なしてや！？あ、じゃなくって、なんでですかっ？
A: The military!? [rural dialect of why]!? Ah, I mean, why?

In order to keep the same meaning in English, I would need to find some equivalent of なしてや, keeping the dialect and all.
The options I've come up so far are

"What in tarnation!? Ah, I mean, why?"
"Whycome!? Ah, I mean, why(/how come)?"
"What in the Lord's name!? Ah, I mean, why?"

I don't think these are "natural" enough. For the last one, it doesn't seem in character for her to be using that phrase.
So exactly what is a good way to translate this dialect to English? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Is "myself" okay in this sentence (grammar, style, etc.)?

texts:
I read some other questions about "me" vs. "myself".  If I understood the answers right, "me" is correct or preferable in most cases.  So my question is, is it okay to use "myself" in the following?  My hunch is the administrator I'm writing to would like it better than "me".

  After reviewing the documentation I submitted today, if you have any specific concerns about my son's medical needs, please do not hesitate to communicate them to his doctor or myself.


texts:
no man is an island

  No one is self-sufficient; everyone relies on others. This saying comes from a sermon by the seventeenth-century English author John Donne.
  Dictionary.com

Is this it?
What is the meaning of No man is an island?


texts: How to differentiate a multi-word name in the middle of a sentence?

texts:
Let's say you name a project "Going After" or "Respect For". How do you differentiate these names in the middle of a sentence in order to minimize potential confusion?

Do you surround them with quotation marks like what I just did or is there a better way?

For example, I want to say:

  At the start of the Going For series, I worked on....

Is italicizing the text a better approach than surrounding it with quotation marks?


texts: Does ‘the mighty’ take a verb in plural form as in “the mighty are rendered helpless”?

texts:
There was the following sentence in the article of Time magazine’s November 25 issue under the title, “John F. Kennedy's Assassination and the Conspiracy Industry.”

  “This whiplash convergence of extremes — so sudden, so horrific, such
  enormity — makes the assassination of John F. Kennedy an almost
  uniquely deranging event. In a matter of seconds, the mighty are
  rendered helpless; the beautiful is made hideous; tranquility turns
  turbulent; the familiar becomes alien.”
  http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2157468,00.html#ixzz2khXYshkc

I was drawn to the line in which only “the mighty” is followed  by a verb in plural form – ‘are rendered,’ while all other nouns – the beautiful, tranquility, the familiar are followed by verbs in singular form.

Isn't 'the mighty' singular in number? Shouldn’t it be followed by ‘is rendered in the same way as ‘the beautiful is made hideous’ and ‘the familiar becomes alien.’?

Is there any special reasons to use a verb in plural form for ‘the mighty’?


texts:
Someone said a word, or saying, to me that I didn't know the meaning, so I looked it up.

I cannot remember what it was, but the meaning was:

  "Something good comes from something that was bad"

For example, I crashed my car into a beautiful woman's car and we then dated.

Please can someone tell me the word I'm looking for. I think it is two words, each with two syllable's.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.


texts: What does the adverb "yesterday" modifiy in a clause?

texts:
Not only yesterday, but other Time Adverbs as well. What do they "modify" in a clause?

Example:

  The athletes ran yesterday


texts:
I am a high school student and I often use 'I would be so grateful if you could take a moment to...' or 'I would be so grateful if you could help me.' or something like that when I am writing  an email to teachers.
My QUESTION IS..
IS IT RUDE? I really don't want to be rude and I have been always trying to be nice and be polite to my teachers. But I don't know if my 'I would be so grateful if you could..' emails are rude/un polite. Could you guys help me? Thanks .


texts: Which one has red color in this phrase "the red bottle's lid"? the bottle or the lid?

texts:
Which one has red color in the following phrase?

  the red bottle's lid

the bottle or the lid?

Edit

Now I understand the actual sentence with which I am faced.

  A more insidious attack strategy is to
  coerce an unwitting third-party
  visitor’s browser to send unwanted
  HTTP requests on the attacker’s
  behalf, abusing the identity
  relationship already established
  between your application and that
  victim.


texts:
Gerunds are always in singular.e.g. Dancing burns calories.

Now for this example: People dancing together are fun to watch.

Should it be people dancing together is fun to watch

Is the subject in the sentence people and dancing together an adjective and thus People dancing together are fun to watch.

Or is the sentence itself is incorrect?

Thanks


texts: Can a single sentence have both active and passive voices?

texts:
Can a single sentence have both active and passive voices ?

  Keep everything under 2 pages for now to help readability for me

Am I right to say the part to help... is in passive voice?


texts: "can either lead to X or Y" vs. "can lead to either X or Y": which is correct?

texts:
Which is correct?

This degree of freedom in design can either lead to energy efficiency or better space utilization of room, or both.
This degree of freedom in design can lead to either energy efficiency or better space utilization of room, or both.


texts: more professional alternative to offensive phrase

texts:
I'm trying to write a professional letter to someone with whom I am extremely upset.  While I feel that sometimes words that are considered offensive are the best words to express certain feelings, they have no place in a more professional situation.  That being said, is there a more acceptable term to replace "dicking around" in this case?  The meaning is that of taking advantage of someone and wasting the person's time.

"I don't appreciate the way I have been dicked around during your hiring process."

What would be a more professional way to word this without losing the irate undertones?


texts: "He feared a U.S. invasion" vs. "He feared U.S. invasion"

texts:
It it accurate to say this?

  He feared a U.S. invasion.

Or should I say,

  He feared U.S. invasion.

I'm trying to figure out when to place "a" in front of the U.S. when U.S. comes with a noun like invasion/attack/sanctions. What is the difference?


texts: Can *masturbate* be used as a transitive verb?

texts:
For example,

  She masturbated him.

Also, can masturbation only ever be performed on oneself? Or can it be done by one person to another?


texts: "Associate with [someone]" for "socialize with [someone]" in colloquial AE

texts:
What's the difference in AE between saying "I like to associate with new folks" and "I like to socialize with new folks"?
E.g.

I am a positive person and I like to associate with other positive persons. source
I like to socialize with new people. source
I like to associate with people on the same term as I do in my own country. source
I like to socialize with my dog, and I have a cat... source
I like to associate with other people. source

If it all means pretty much the same, is there one of these expressions that sounds more typical of AE than other English dialects?


texts: Why do some words exist in British English but not American English?

texts:
Thinking about the word "rubbish" which is widely used in the UK while non-existent in the USA, how do such words surface in Britain but not America?

I read somewhere that American English is closer to British English 300 years ago than British English today itself is. How does one explain this? Did English continue to evolve based on borrowing words from other European languages while America remained isolated? How big a role did British writers/poets that were popular only domestically play? Did technology entrepreneurs coin local words simultaneously (motorway, lorry)? I know there were language steering committees in America in the late 1700s but I doubt they would have abandoned words like "rubbish" for being too obscene as they did for some other words.

I know you can encapsulate the whole chaos in the term "culture" but this seems merely like a sophisticated way of saying "there was no systematic force, it was just chance" which isn't really insight.

Note I'm not focusing on terms that are more common in America than Britain. I'm talking specifically about British-only words.

Other words: autumn, knackered, nappy

EDIT - Those who can't answer but are finding entertainment in this can find more examples here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_British_terms_not_widely_used_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meanings_in_American_and_British_English:_M%E2%80%93Z


texts:
I'm looking for a word which has as its definition,

To persuade by the induction of fear.


texts: What is the closest match to 'Ignore' that keeps the passive nature?

texts:
The closest question searching found was Connotatively neutral alternatives to "ignorant"? which doesn't really help me.
I'm trying to find synonyms for the word "Ignore" that don't change the meaning pretty drastically. Looking on http://thesaurus.com/browse/ignore pulls up the following as the top choice:

Avoid

But in context this don't seem accurate to me, take:

I ignored the dog while I was walking.
I avoided the dog while I was walking.

One has a certain active feeling to it. I actively avoided the dog. Ignore is much more passive. By definition:

Ignore: refuse to take notice of or acknowledge
Avoid: keep away from or stop oneself from doing

Which confirms the idea. Ignore is without notice or acknowledgement. Avoid must have noticed or acknowledged to then keep away from.
So, the question is what would a better synonym be for Ignore that keeps the passive nature?
For the sake of question what I plan to use it for is along the lines of:

Unlike RF Tags, our advanced laser system ignores all RFI.
Our advanced laser system was developed to ignore all duplicate tags.

You can quickly see that Avoid doesn't work:

Unlike RF Tags, our advanced laser system avoids all RFI.
Our advanced laser system was developed to avoid all duplicate tags.


texts: What is the recipient of a disclosure called?

texts:
I am working on a software application in which users have facts about themselves which they must disclose to their employer or to a regulatory body. We are pinning down terminology to use for the various aspects of the disclosure process.

In general, we have the concept of a "party" which identifies a unique entity -- possibly an individual, a firm, a regulatory body, etc. We are using "disclosing party" to refer to the user who discloses the fact, and "disclosure" to refer to the act of disclosing.

We need a good term to use for the party to which the facts are being disclosed.

I've consulted a variety of common English-language dictionaries (M-W, New OAD, American Heritage, Random House) and thesauruses (Roget's, Collins, Oxford), and so far I have the following under consideration (with reasons I'm not particularly happy with them in parentheses):

Disclosee (not a real word)
Recipient or Receiving Party (too general)
Notified Party (implies past tense; the disclosure may not yet have occurred)
Informed Party (also implies past tense; also potentially ambiguous meaning)

Example sentence (just following the rules!):

  "The _____ must approve or reject the disclosure."

Is there a word for this? I would accept a standalone noun, or an adjective to pair with "party."


texts: What is a suitable word to describe a place where two rivers meet?

texts: I've googled for a while and on some sites I've found the word "watershed" as the proposed word. Is it the word that best suits it?


texts: 'Group A is bad'. Does this statement imply generalization?

texts:
My friend and I have an argument. My stance is that saying 'Group A is bad' means generalization, he says that it isn't and that can only be determined if he added the qualifier 'all' or 'some'.
My question is:

is there a rule in English language that can prove that it is generalization?


texts: Can capitalization be considered as a marker of definitness in proper nouns

texts:
Proper nouns are always definite (i.e. are names of people or names of places).
They are also always capitalized.
Does that mean that the capital letter is considered a marker for definiteness?
Do we use capital letters because they are proper nouns or because they are definite?
Example

John went to Italy yesterday.
So did Sam


texts: What do you call the property of having two separate groups that make a whole?

texts:
What do you call two non-overlapping (i.e., mutually exclusive) groups that compose a whole?

Two examples:

Men and women  (together = all humans)
Age ≥ 60 yrs. and age < 60 yrs.  (together = individuals of all ages)

How can this property be expressed?


texts: Plural vs singular form of verb after set of plural and singular subjects

texts:
Should I use verb in plural or singular form if the first subject in the row is singular but is followed by set of subjects in plural form:

  The story itself, the characters and their tempers make up/makes up a completely different utterance


texts: "Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind." What does this sentence mean?

texts:
Do your best to be lucid.

  ("I see but one rule: to be clear", Stendhal.)
  Simple sentences help. Keep complicated constructions and
  gimmicks to a minimum, if necessary by remembering the New
  Yorker's comment: "Backward ran sentences until reeled the
  mind."

The paragraph above is an excerpt from The Economist Style Guide(11th edition).

The last sentence is confusing. It is hard to understand even if I looked up all the words in it. Could someone please paraphrase it or explain its grammar? Thank you.


texts:
I'm launching a project which I want to make big as possible. I want to find a name, but I'm not looking for any real meanings. This project is a web tool (Javascript prototype & API) so I want to give it an English name. The tool will have a lot of "~" key, so I'm trying to find a word that matches the representation of this symbole. This is how I came up with "Wobble", however it's maybe too metaphoric because "Wobble" doesn't really mean "wave" right?

Is wobble a negative word? Which word could match the tilde and which sounds positive beside "wave"?

Thanks!


texts: "Bit rot" in the context of mobile apps on a mobile platform

texts:
Is "bit rot" appropriate as a term to describe how software on a mobile phone appears to degrade in performance as a consequence of receiving updates which are intended for a more powerful hardware platform?

I am torn, since I always understood this term to refer to the degradation in the performance of an immutable piece of software as a consequence to a change in its environment.

In the example given above, it appears that the change is the other way around, and so a degradation in performance is experienced due to the hardware of the platform being immutable and being pushed to its limits by greater demands in the software.


texts: Parsing the first two lines of "Western Wind"

texts:
The 16th century poem "Western Wind" goes as follows:

  Westron wynde, when wilt thou blow,
      The small raine down can raine.
      Cryst, if my love were in my armes
      And I in my bedde again!

Or, to in modern spelling and punctuation:

  Western wind, when wilt thou blow,
  The small rain down can rain?
  Christ! That my love were in my arms
  And I in my bed again!

What I'm trying to understand is the sentence "Western wind, when wilt thou blow, the small rain down can rain?" I cannot for the life of me parse this sentence to understand what it's actually saying.

How should this sentence be parsed; or, how would one paraphrase it to be more clear as to the actual meaning?


texts: Pronunciations of 'retard' and 'retardation'

texts:
Why are the verb form (/rɪtɑːd/, ri-tard) and the offensive noun form (/ˈriːtɑːd/, ree-tard) of the word retard pronounced differently?

While I have heard both variants in use as part of the pronunciation of the word, retardation, ODO as well as Webster only offer /riːtɑːdeɪʃ(ə)n/ (ree-tardation) as an option. Has the word always been pronounced like this or has the increased popularity of the "offensive retard" had an effect on it?


texts: Which sentence is correct and why? with 'to' or without 'to'

texts:
All I can do is to tell her not to go out during the weekend.

All I can do is tell her not to go out during the weekend.


texts: How do you distinguish between the future tense with noun clauses versus those with time clause?

texts:
I am confused about using the future tense in noun clauses versus time clauses.

I know that the future tense is not used in time clauses, but that it can be used with noun clauses.

However, I am having trouble differentiating between noun clauses and time clauses in a sentence such as:

I know when he will come.
I will buy this when he asks me to.

In those two sentences, how can I determine that the dependent clause is acting as a noun clause and not as a time clause?


texts: Word that describes someone that causes his own misfortune

texts: Is there a single word to qualify/describe someone that causes his own misfortune, or even a single noun that refers to such a person?


texts: Single word for 'increasingly convinced'

texts:
Is there a single word that represents a 'growing conviction' or 'increasingly convinced'?

For example:

  Montag's growing conviction of the importance of books is evident by the end of the first section.

or

  Montag becomes increasingly convinced of the importance of books by the end of the first section.


texts: is it compulsory to use "his/her" and "he/she" to refer to a person or just "he" and "his" is enough?

texts:
Let see this sentence:

a person needs to change his / her mind so that he /she can become good.

or a person needs to change his mind so that he can become good

is the second one incorrect?

I've never seen anyone write like this a person needs to change her mind so that she can become good


texts: What do you call a space or a mini room between flats?

texts: For instance, there's a floor and there are four flats on it. Two of them are enclosed with an extra room where both flats can leave their shoes or save supply meters. What do you call this room?


texts:
I would like to know the grammatical term for using the word but in the following context:

  John speaks loudly, but he's a nice guy.

The word but is used to signify a negation, to create contrast. Is there a term to describe this specific negation?


texts: Weird situation - using quotes as nouns and making them plural (APA format)

texts:
I'm in a strange situation where I need to take two short phrases and make them into plural nouns.  Here's the context:

  His was the destabilizing blow in a long bombardment of Why Latin?’s and waste of time’s.

The "Why Latin's" and "waste of time's" are obviously the problem.  Do I italicize them?  Use quotes?  And how do I make them plural?  Do I use apostrophes?


texts:
As an English learning student, I'm having a trouble understanding the differences of these 3 expressions.

The end of line
End of the line
End of line

Could someone explain the differences please?


texts:
There was the following sentence in Maureen Dawd's article introducing a Denber couple who are catering to marijuana tourists at their inn under the headline, “Now playing in Denver: Reefer Gladness” in New York Times (January 26).

“There is something not cool about a 22-year-old,” the 31-year-old
Brown admits, “who has to wait in line for an hour with people his
parents’ age.” Much less his grandparents’ age.”
[source]

Is “at” or “of” unnecessary in “people his parents’ age”? Is it considered redundant, or even ungrammatical, if we add “at,” “of” or “who are” between ‘people’ and ‘his age’?


texts: I just read a post where someone said "That's a friend of mine's house." My first thought was, "mine's" is a double possessive! The friend owns the house, and the one posting the comment owns the friend. Anyway, is there a grammatically correct way to say this without rearranging the sentence or should you just rewrite it as "A friend of mine owns that house." Is there some kind of rule for turning a whole phrase possessive? Thanks.


texts: What does "commitment" mean in the given context

texts:
I am applying for university for PhD and in the funding section there is an estimation calculator that estimates: Your Annual Commitment

This Annual Commitment has a breakdown of University Composition Fee, and Total Maintenance which sum up to the Annual Commitment.

Now is the Annual Commitment money that I will be awarded each year, or money that I have to pay each year?


texts: If i want to say that a certain tool can only only do one thing then how do i call it? I thought of unifunctional,but i don't think it's a real and formal word.


texts: What's the difference between "hence" and "thus"?

texts: Can anyone explain the difference between hence and thus and when should we use one and not the other?


texts: Word like "serendipity" but with less emphasis on fortune or development of events

texts:
Let's say that the previous week I bumped into a lot of people I knew as a child. Each event was random, occurred independently of the other and all were unconnected except that each of the people involved knew each other at around the same time that I knew them.

Serendipity seems a bit too strong a word for this because I gained no fortune and there was no chain of dependence in the events. Coincidence doesn't really fit, either.

There must be a word for this - or a way to explain it concisely. What is it?


texts: How have the "in + [adjective]" type expressions, such as "in general", "in common" and "in private", come into use?

texts: How have "in + [adjective]" type expressions, such as "in general", "in common" and "in private", come into use?  I'm puzzled by these expressions, because I understand that a preposition is usually followed by a noun phrase. Is it the case that there used to be a noun after the adjective, for example "in general cases", and later it was dropped?


texts: Rule to pronounce words ending with "age"

texts:
Is there a rule to pronounce words ending with "age" ?

ex : usage , outage => normal pronunciation of word "age"

ex : sabotage , mirage => seems to be french pronunciation of "age"


texts: What’s the origin/etymology of “mm-bye”?

texts:
As said to end conversations (especially on the phone): mmm-bye.
When and how did this form/usage start?


texts: (I redesigned the entire magazine as well but that’s another story)

texts: Finally, can someone settle the argument about the period going inside or outside of the close paren in this free-standing sentence?


texts:
In this SuperUser question titled "What are ways to prevent files with the Right-to-Left Override Unicode character in their name (a malware spoofing method) from being written or read?", what I wanted to convey was that some malware masquerade or disguise their filenames with the RLO Unicode character, and I'm looking for ways to prevent files with the RLO character from being written or read in the computer.

(I worded the question title that way to not go beyond the 150-character question title limit, and to put enough info in the question title.)

In the question text, I wrote:

  What are ways to avoid or prevent files with the RLO (Right-to-Left Override) Unicode character in their name (a malware method to spoof filenames) from being written or read in a Windows PC?

In the question title, is the usage of the word, "spoofing", correct in that context?

In the question text, if I wanted to mean "...a malware method to disguise or masquerade filenames...", is the usage of the word, "spoof", correct in: "...a malware method to spoof filenames..."?

If not, how should I have used the words, "spoofing" and "spoof"? Or should I have used another word to explain what I tried to mean instead?


texts: With a picture of a presentation that contains an arrow pointing from a text, for instance, "probability", is the label in the capture "The probability" or "Probability"?


texts: Style Question: Use of "we" vs. "I" vs. passive voice in a dissertation

texts:
As I'm not a native speaker and just finishing my dissertation in Computer Science, I wonder  what style I should be using.
In German (my native tongue) most dissertations, school-books and scientific writing use third person or passive voice to sound 'objective'. I know that passive voice in English should be avoided.
In most of my publications I use "we" (e.g. "we can improve the recognition rate by ...").

For the dissertation, as it is my work, should I prefer "I" over "we"? I don't like the idea too much, as it sounds pretentious to me.
Currently, I want use first person singular for the contributions section and first person plural for the rest. I try to avoid passive as often as possible.
Is this acceptable?


texts:
What do you call a university-level instructor/lecturer who’s in charge of a course? For example, suppose a course is split between two instructors, with one of them being responsible for the course as a whole. Are there any titles for this person which are more established than others? Some alternatives I’ve seen are main instructor, head instructor, or responsible instructor. Which is to be preferred, and are there any better alternatives?

(If the answer would vary by region, I’d prefer an American-style choice.)


texts:
What are the differences between iterate and iteration as nouns?

I don't quite understand the definition of iterate as noun:

  A quantity arrived at by iteration

For example, in computer programming, there are language features for iterations, such as for loop, while loop. Which one is correct: each iterate or each iteration?

I saw a lot of scientific literature use each iterate, such as this one:

  Since each iterate is contained within an interval ...


texts: Why are American and British English almost identical?

texts:
This might seem to be a dumb question; however, I think it's rather strange that the two dialects  are so similar considering the huge geographical distance between Great Britain and America.
In the old days it took over a month to sail from Britain to America.

Edit
The following sentence is not mine(someone else added to my original post).
I don't think current British English is more original or authentic than current American English, or vice versa.

  Why or how did American English remain so faithful to the original?


texts: What is a word for a hidden story beneath the main one?

texts:
It's a lot more complicated than my title seems... I've been trying to find a word that describes this specific situation.

For example, there is the story "The Wizard of Oz" and then there's the re-telling of that story, "Wicked". Where the audience sees the point of view flipped, and now everyone who seem good is now bad and vice-versa. Would it just be a re-telling? Because I'm specifically looking for a word ( that's not really Conspiracy, because where I'd like to use it the "Conspiracy" wouldn't be one because it was true and confirmed within the story) that deal with situation that there was the "REAL STORY" under the first one presented.

"Wicked" isn't the official prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" but it needed that story to create this fan made " This-Is-The-Real-Story-Going-On-Here " one ( or " This-Is-What-Really-Happened" story ). What is that called?

I've basically come up with jack squat to figure out if there is a word or a small phrase to describe this, the closest word I've found ( besides Conspiracy, but that gives off the wrong connotation and overall vibe ) is Arcane. And ... That kinda barely fits the way I understand it. Is it really just called a "Re-Telling" and that's just it?

Edit:

I'd just like to point out that "subplot" is also not the word I'm looking for


texts: How to explain accent variations to students

texts:
I am an ESL teacher working in China. During lessons, I am occasional interrupted by students or parents who point out that my pronunciation of some words is incorrect. They then produce a dictionary or text book and point to the IPA guide or pull out a electronic dictionary and play the rather tinny sounding, low quality, usually American, recording of the word.

Usually I am unable to discern any significant difference in pronunciation. If there is a difference, it will be in the vowel sound which in English is highly variable from one region to another. However the student/parent will argue adamantly that their book or dictionary is correct even though I am a native English speaker with an middle class, albeit regionally slanted, accent.

I think the situation is exacerbated in China as they have a concept of Putonghua or 'Proper Speech' in their native tongue. My university students have to take Putonghua exams to show that they can speak Chinese in a correct, standard, style. They thus extend the same concept to English. They know that AmE and BrE are not the same but they fail to understand that within these, there are large variations in accent and that nobody speaks a truly standard accent.

So with that background, on to my question.

I am looking for explanation and/or resources that can assist me in explaining English accents to students and parents who query the correctness, or rather validity, of my pronunciation. Does anyone have any ideas on how to teach students about accent differences within English?


texts:
In Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites, Esk, the main character, asks: "Am I or amp't I?"

What does "amp't" stand for here?


texts: What would be a single word to mean: repeatedly re-choose one of two options alternately?

texts:
Words like 'dither' or 'vacillate' both suggest being unable to choose between A or B and never choosing either. Is there a word that means 'chooses A, then goes back on their decision and chooses B, then goes back on their decision again and chooses A and so on'?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Paul


texts:
In these examples:

UCLA engineering professor shot to death in apparent murder-suicide

16-year-old Chicago boy shot to death while walking to school

Gorilla shot to death when child falls into enclosure

Does it function as an adjective or adjective phrase? As a verb, can you say to shoot to death?


texts:
I'm trying to express a situation were someone is being forced/persuaded to move in a certain direction by another person, not in a violent, but  rather a humorous, way.

The word I'm thinking of using is shoved. I am however worried that it would be interpreted as violent and not, as intend, amusing.

Cartoony example:

  The man was shoved towards the department store by his enthusiastic spouse.

Can the word shoved be used without violent connotations? Is there a better word to use in the example above?


texts: Is this sentence grammatically correct (version 2)?

texts:
I have been trying to write this sentence for a while and I am wondering whether this is grammatically correct?
The story nicely flows and the transition never stops the reader cold.
I also attempted to write:
The story nicely flows and the transition never stops cold.
I read the usage:

stop (one) cold (redirected from stop you cold)
stop cold

Both seems to be correct? Which one I should use or its just a matter of preference?


texts: Is the expression "Today school is off" correct? I only know the expression "Today school is closed".


texts:
In a TV show there was a narration saying that “He recently lost his medical license for administering CPR to a person who as it turned out was not having a heart attack.”

Would it be weird if it was said “He recently lost his medical license for administering CPR to a person who as it turned out did not have a heart attack.”?


texts:
I am working on reviewing a document which details what a software application does. It is supposed to be detailed enough for a non-technical person to understand.

A technical user will then translate this document into flow charts and other technical documents for software engineers and database programmers.

The technical user will pay attention to nouns, verbs, and adverbs to identify key elements for the application, so I want to be as thorough with my review as I can.

Many times I come across documents which are incomplete and leave room for assumptions, which leads to misinterpretation.

For example

I want to register for a chemistry class...
I want to register for a freshmen chemistry class...
I want to register for a freshmen chemistry class in section 02...
I want to register for a freshmen chemistry class in section 02 for the Spring quarter.

The last sentence here gives enough details and leaves no room for assumptions.

Is there a specific term for writing such detailed documents which leaves no room for assumptions? Could anyone point me to resources for mastering such writing?


texts: "Suspect" versus "Suspicious" as Adjectives

texts:
A recent question on this site ("to suspect" vs "to be suspicious of") asks about the difference between "to suspect" and "to be suspicious of." An even more complicated situation involves when to use suspect as an adjective (as in "suspect reasoning" or "a suspect classification") and when to use suspicious (as in "suspicious thoughts" or "a suspicious detective"). Is there a general rule about when to use one adjective or the other? Are they always interchangeable? A somewhat similar question comes up in an older query titled "that things were suspicious".

In this connection I note Wilson Follett's comment (under transitive/intransitive) in Modern American Usage (1966): "Thus, suspicious should designate the persons harboring a suspicion and suspect the person who is the object of it. From this it follows that  one cannot be seen carrying a suitcase in a suspicious manner." Presumably, Follett wants the author to use "in a suspect manner" here.

Follett's analysis is clearly prescriptive and just as clearly ignores centuries of frequent contrary usage; but is there any validity to his prescription as a way for writers to avoid possible ambiguity, as in the case of "suspicious behavior" versus "suspect behavior"?


texts: touchscreen, touch-screen, touch screen? Merriam-Webster and Oxford disagree

texts:
I have searched but cannot find a definite answer on the correct to write "touch screen". Merriam-Webster says touch screen. Oxford says touchscreen. And random people around the internet say "touch-screen".

What is the most correct and professional way to write touchscreen in the following sentence?

  We recommend using your touchscreen device instead of a mouse to draw a silly face in the box below.


texts: "The Group members shall consist of representatives who will coordinate and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and expertise, taking into consideration the interest or functions involving the following agencies:". Is the comma after "expertise" good usage? I added it because when spoken, there is a pause. Now I'm having doubts.


texts: Describe that someone’s explanation matches your knowledge level

texts:
In German, in the context of knowledge transfer from one person to another (or to a group) you can say

  Du hast mich gut abgeholt. (literally translated You picked me up well)

This sentence means that the "teacher" taught the subject at exactly the right level of knowledge, so the "student" was neither overwhelmed by the topic, nor did they already know everything they were taught.

So basically, if the student had 50% knowledge of a subject and the teacher started teaching at 25%, it would not fit the sentence. Neither would it fit if that teacher started teaching at 75%. I hope you understand what I mean.

How would you express this in English so that everyone understands? I know of the phrase picked up where I left off, but that doesn't fit well for the topic of one person teaching another.


texts: Using do not and don't (I do not think of it)

texts:
Man: What do you think of the view?

Droid: I do not think of it.

Man: I don't think of it. I don't. Droids and apostrophes, I could write a book, except you are... barely a droid anymore.

(c) Deep Breath

I can't understand the difference between do not and don't in this case. I'd be grateful if somebody helps.


texts: A good word for the opposite of pretentious?

texts:
Q: What is a good opposite of pretentious?

The dictionary definition is:

"Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed."

To which I can think of:

Humility: "The quality of having a modest or low view of one's importance."

Honest/Sincere/Genuine/Truthful: "Free of deceit; truthful and sincere.", "Free from pretence or deceit; proceeding from genuine feelings.", "Truly what something is said to be; authentic.", "of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine.", "Telling or expressing the truth; honest."

Unassuming: "Not pretentious or arrogant; modest."

Perhaps instead a short phrase like, "Humble and Honest".

However for the commonly understood or vernacular definition, which seems to have a significantly different meaning, perhaps a good opposite would be:

Artless: Without effort or pretentiousness; natural and simple.

Although it's unfortunate that "artless" is defined as being "natural".

An example: "I couldn't follow the film, I found it pretentious.", the opposite could be "The film lacked nuance and was refreshingly ..."


texts: What's the correct word for the priest who is in charge of a parish in Catholic Church? Provost seems to be of some higher rank, and Parson, I guess, refers to Anglican/Protestant Church? Also, should this position always begin with capital letter? So confusing...


texts: Proper punctuation when using "as is" to make a comparison

texts:
I'm wondering what the proper punctuation is when using "as is" to make a comparison.

Example: "Venus and Mars are planets, as is Earth when referring to the whole world."

I've noticed in this answer regarding a different use of "as is" the poster uses a comma, and in this question regarding non-adverbial uses of as-is the poster also includes a comma before "as is".

This was my first instinct, but when looking back over the sentence, I wasn't sure anymore. Is the second half of the sentence parenthetical (and thus belong in parentheses), or if the comma is correct, then why? Are both sides of the sentence independent clauses? If they are not independent clauses then should there be any punctuation at all?


texts: Is "Quinn" a good given name in English culture?

texts:
"Quinn" has a similar pronunciation with my Chinese given name. I wonder if it is a good choice to use "Quinn" as my English given name.

I have know that "Quinn" is from Irish culture and is mainly used as a surname. It seems a little rare in given names.

I want to know if an English native will feel it strange to hear a person with a given name "Quinn" ?


texts: Appropriate synonym for gently reprimand

texts:
I'm trying to think of a word that conveys a respectful calling out of problematic behavior, particularly in a workplace environment.

e.g. someone makes a borderline sexist or racist comment, and a manager or HR says something like "let's be careful about that kind of language" or "we want to avoid using [term] because it can be insensitive to [group]".

It's not quite admonish or reprimand or scold. It's something gentler but still assertive. What's the word?


texts: I'm looking for alternatives to 'in the pink'.


texts: Doing something an amount of times 'up to' so many

texts:
Does it include doing it zero times?

For example:

"By signing here, you have agreed to catch the bus to work up to 10 ten times."

I was sure it did but I'm just reading something worded similarly (action changed) in a legal document so it's put a touch of doubt into my mind.

Update: As a few replies have indicated the context could make a difference, I thought it best to include the exact wording. It's an employment contract for a sales job that says:

"The employee agrees to call up to 20 new prospects per week and provide a log of these when requested."


texts:
A caret is the point that text is in inserted in a text box. Is this known widely? Will the average user (non technical) understand this word?

What other phrase or word should be used to describe the point at which text is inserted?


texts:
Please help me figure out the meaning of the word "succeed" in the following text:

  So recruit all five nefarious members (they’re a quintet in the game) and reach 200,000 team power. Succeed and you’ll relish raid and arena battles like never before!

The text is from the description of the game "Marvel Strike Force".

Does the word "succeed" simply mean "be successful" here?


texts:
What is the difference between matter and substance?

For example, are ice and water "the same matter" or "the same substance"?

Dictionaries seem vague about the difference. For example, the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary states that matter is "a physical substance in general" or "substance, material or things of a specified kind", while substance is a "particular type of matter".


texts:
'She was still in love with her husband; frequently she glanced at him with furtive wistfulness. She was able to enjoy the summer weather. She was not quite dead to the common phenomena of the roadside. But the last resistances of departing youthfulness and vivacity against the narcotic of a dull, unlovely domesticity were taking place. In a year or two she would be the typical matron of the Lower middle-class.'

A Man From the North, Arnold Bennett.

I can not understand what roadside means in this context. Roadside is defined as:

  the strip of land along a road
  the side of a road

but those don't seem to make sense in this context; the usage appears to be figurative, but figurative for what? Perhaps she is in the sunset of her youth, vigour?


texts: Phrase for "a strong reason for wanting something to happen ..."

texts:
I have a problem with a phrase that can describe the following:

  a strong reason for wanting something to happen because you will get
  advantage from it.

I need the phrase for a formal essay.


texts: Looking for synonym 'look into heart' or 'reexamine thoughts'

texts: I am looking for synonyms for 'reexamine thoughts'. I want to use the synonym in a context where I want to say 'think about myself or karmas before going to bed'.


texts: What is it that allows a thing to be triggered?

texts:
If I step in a bear trap and get caught, I triggered the trap by stepping in it. The trap being set made it something that could be triggered. Both the trap and my stepping in it are causes of me getting caught. What word complements "trigger" to describe the kind of cause that is setting the trap?

If I lose money on a horse race, my horse coming in 2nd is one cause of my loss. Having placed a bet on the race is another cause. I only lost money because of both of these causes combined.

The horse losing the race is the trigger. What word complements "trigger" to describe the kind of cause that is having placed the bet?

Sample sentence: When looking into an incident, the trigger is often clear, but the more important cause is usually the __________.

I'm especially looking to use this term in the world of business and technology. Examples I'd like to describe:

I lost my data because my hard drive failed and I kept only a single copy of my data. The hard drive failure was the trigger. Keeping only a single copy was the other kind of cause.
An employee left the company because they found a good offer and because they were dissatisfied with their working conditions.
The company defaulted on the contract because they delivered in six months but had promised to deliver in three.
The computer was infected because the user opened a phishing attachment and the computer's anti-virus had been disabled.

I feel like there has to be a technical term for this from medicine or engineering even if there isn't one in common parlance, but my Google abilities are failing me.

Engineering example: The building collapse was triggered by the high winds striking the corner of the building, where the dampeners had only been designed for head-on winds.

Medical example: The bee sting triggered the patient's allergy.

What kind of cause are the design failure and allergy?


texts: What is another phrase for "start here"?

texts:
I am looking for words and phrases with similar meaning to "start here" or "get started".  The thesaurus is not helping because I'm not looking specifically for synonyms of "start".

I want a phrase that connotes the identification of a location/resource that is:

good for beginners
contains introductory knowledge
teaches what is needed to put the learner on the right path

What else means the same as or something similar to "start here"?


texts: Is there a word for saying something in a nice way without saying it?

texts:
So, you are walking all day with a friend, you feel tired, you don't want to say: "I'm tired, let's stop", but say: "Oh dear, we've walked a lot today".

A friend promised to meet you to go for the football match at 9pm. It's 9 and you don't say: "You forgot the match right?", but for example: "Enjoy your dinner".

What's the word to describe these situations? Not sarcasm, because that is in a negative scope. Can we call it "rhetoric"?

Example, if the friend answers: "Oh thanks mate" and he really forgot, you would want to say: "'Enjoy your dinner' was ______".


texts:
Suppose one of your clients emailed you a few weeks ago saying that it may want to hold a big conference at a certain conference center.  You do not know yet if it has decided to proceed with the plan or cancel it but you realize that if the former is the case, you have to secure the venue today.  It is up to the client to decide and it is your job to follow its instructions.
Would it be correct to ask the client:

Should the conference center be booked?
Should I book the conference center

My question is about the word "should."
I believe the use of "should" here is not exactly appropriate because "should" is used to say what is the right of sensible thing to do.  In this case, however, there is no value judgement involved on your part.  If the client wants to hold a conference, you automatically have to book the center.  Otherwise there is absolutely no need to book it.
But then I sometimes see "should" used in contexts like this.
Would you say the sentences above sound natural in this context?
Thank you.


texts:
Empt or emptive does not exist as a word, and I suppose never has.

Pre-empt and pre-emptive according to the OED have their origin in Australian land deals of the late-eighteenth century, where certain individuals were given pre-emtive rights over others.

But why empt? Does anyone know any more about the origins of pre-emptive.


texts:
I'm little confused.
Which one's grammatically correct?/sound correct?

"I've no obligation to get involve in the situation"
or
"I've no obligation to get involved in the situation"

PS. I think that 1st one sounds good.


texts: What do you call a person who tallies the scores for an event that is not a sporting event. An even such as a pageant, art show or other even where there are several judges who have score sheets. All the score sheets are given to one person who tallies theses scores up and hands the winning scores to the announcer. What is that person's title?


texts:
Whilst researching an answer to Combination Lock, I was reminded of word puzzles such as the visual

popularized by newspaper puzzle pages and TV programs such as "Catchphrase". I am aware the modern term for such pictorial usage is rebus** (n.)
c. 1600, from Latin rebus "by means of objects," and according to wiki can be traced back to similar usage in Egyptian hieroglyphics and possibly earlier.

However I seem to remember a form of cypher only using Latin letters but can't track such a reference. so for the example above it would look like

  AcToImObN

Note that it would not necessarily have upper lower case that is just my emphasis for clarity.

Can anyone put my mind at rest that it's not just a MfYi gMmIeNnDt (a figment of my mind) and, more importantly, what is this kind of puzzle or cypher called?

Hellion reminded me a similar form of substituting some characters for words is called a Gramogram or grammagram (as may be used in text-speak) but that also is a more modern substitution. NOR were letters added, such as in Pig Latin. What I'm after is an older usage by just the "mixing" of original letters.

And microenzo has identified it as probably a form of plaintext transposition cipher, which at its simplest can be made by wrapping a strip round a scytalae former such as a pencil and with some variation (perhaps a Caesar cipher) that I still cant recollect would probably look like my garbled words.

Final Edit

It looks like it was a 2 line form of Rail Fence Cipher as used by the greeks on thier scytale from the answer by microenzo thus

"Now is the winter of our discontent"

after unwrapping would become

Nwi h itro u icnet
o stewne fordsotn.


texts:
The title pretty much says it all. Is there a more eloquent word for a zigzag?

Edit:

Allow me to clarify, I'm referring to the shape of a zigzag, a picture is attached below.


texts: Can the word 'trafficking' mean 'freight transportation' without conveying the meaning of being illegal ? (Especially in the following sentence)

texts: "The Agency's performance and various measures adopted to manage the temporary increase in certain types of trafficking, in particular that of cereales". I checked COLLINS, the only dictionary where I found a definition of the word trafficking but it seems to corroborate the meaning of illegal activity.


texts: Can the phrase 'is contained in' be substituted by a single word?

texts: If a lunchbox contains an apple, then the apple is contained in a lunchbox. Is it possible to replace the phrase 'is contained in' with a single word? I can't think of one, and the thesaurus hasn't been very helpful, either.


texts: Say I have a definition and I am trying to find an English word that represents it, and I provide an example of said word (think word=fruit, example=apple). Someone gives me a word whose definition is a superset of mine (think food). How would I go about expressing "My example is contained within the definition of the word you suggested."? contained does not seem very sound here. I am looking for a word that is used commonly.


texts:
What is the difference between the following two statements.

By the time you sent me the email, I was gone.
By the time you sent me the email, I had gone.

Both of them clearly expresses what had already happened.


texts: Can I use "contortion" to express conflict or a fight? In what ways can I use it?

texts:
I have seen many examples of the word contortion. There is the twisting of the body in which you make a contortion. But can it be used as a synonym for a fight? For example:

Humans start unnecessary contortions amongst each other.

Is that sentence correct?
Please explain all the definitions of this word and how I can use this in different sentences.


texts: Is there an expression for directing your opinion to someone but you use someone else's name?

texts: Imagine there are 3 people A, B, and C. A and B are talking, A says to B that person C thinks he is arrogant. But actually, that's what person A is thinking. He just uses person C to avoid possible side effects or to make his opinion more valuable. The important thing is that person A does not have bad intention. Is there an expression in English that would explain what person A is doing?


texts: ambiguous object of prepositional phrase?

texts:
What is the object of the prepositional phrase along with... in this sentence, I was in the first wave of implementation, along with eighteen million other vampires, witches, ghouls, werewolves, feral youth, and the like.

Is the object all the things together or each thing individually.

In other words, are there eighteen million ghouls or are there eighteen million creatures altogether?


texts:
I don't really have anything to remember all those trips by.

What's the difference between

I don't really have anything to remember all those trips by
I don't really have anything to remember all those trips

And I want to know the grammar specifically of by there.


texts: How and why to conjugate verb with and/or subject

texts:
Which of the following statements is correctly conjugated? Is there a rule or explanation for conjugating verbs with and/or subjects?

  The X and/or Y is true.

or

  The X and/or Y are true.

Does the plurality of X and Y matter?


texts:
I was told that my friend, while acting as platonic comrade, was secretly

  "smitten with me."

According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, "smitten" means

  "deeply affected with or struck by strong feelings of attraction,
  affection, or infatuation."

So, had I known this at the time, I would not have been surprised to have heard this description.

But that's what I know NOW.  At the time I was more confused because I had only Google at my disposal which clearly defined "smitten" as

  past participle of

  SMITE.

  synonyms:  STRUCK down, laid low, SUFFERING, affected, afflicted, plagued, stricken

The King James Bible says in Exodus 7:17:

  Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold,
  I will

  smite

  with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

So why does—and for how long has—"SMITTEN" meant "deeply affected with or stuck by strong feelings of attraction, affection, or INFATUATION?  What does that have to do with affliction and anguish?


texts:
This is the teacher that we call "Hot Lips".
This is the the place that we read many books.

The examples using that instead of who and where respectively are being taught.  The pronoun that refers to the teacher and the place, yet my fellow instructor has continued allowing the students to use this relative-pronoun despite my advice.

Is there any way you could argue these sentences are grammatically correct?


texts: Should I repeat my greeting in an email exchange?

texts: In case I send John Smith an email and he sends me a response, should I include "Hi John," when I am replying to his email?


texts:
I have seen the following sentence: I can't get no satisfaction.

Can we say ''don't/can't [verb] no...''? I would like an explanation about this expression.


texts: Is it acceptable to use yes as a question tag?

texts:
I am aware that, for example, Russian and German speakers tend to use yes as a question tag (most likely because it is acceptable in their native language), as in

  You will come to the party, yes?

However, I was quite certain that this use was not correct English.

Today, while watching the movie Alien, I noticed that the science officer Ash repeatedly uses yes as a question tag, even though he does not have a particular foreign accent. Is this simply an artistic device, or is yes indeed used by native speakers as a question tag? If so, how colloquial is it?


texts: The meaning of "span" that belongs to horses

texts:
In the poem "One and one" of Mary Mapes Dodge there is a line:

  Two little ponies must go to a span

It seems, the "span" here is some term belonging to horses. Obviously, some place where they run or stay. But which one? I can't find it in dictionaries.


texts:
Penchant is synonymous with words such as "inclination" and "leaning."

Does the sentence below correctly use the word "penchant"?

  Joe has a penchant against the UCLA Bruins.


texts: Word that can be used to describe a business with an obvious name for what they do

texts:
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and he was telling me how some organized criminals use rather obvious company names to 'clean' their proceeds of crime. The companies are usually shell companies with a few clients but with a very big balance sheet.

An example of such a business is a company that deals with building and construction. Such a company is given the name building and construction limited, which is rather obvious for what they do.

When i want to describe such a company to someone, will i say that company has an obvious name or how can i put it to say that the company has an obvious name since what they do is captured in their registered name while at the same time not confusing people who may not understand what i mean by 'obvious' since its not very obvious what the company run by crooks is actually up to?.


texts: Is it correct to put "bros" before "hos" or before "hoes"?

texts:
I'm wondering about the pluralisation of "ho" (as in slang for prostitute) in the phrase "Bros before ho(e)s". To me, hos makes sense because it's consistent with bros. Hoes could also refer to a particular type of gardening equipment, although given the context of the phrase there should be no ambiguity.

On the other hand, hos looks like it's pronounced "hoss" whereas bros doesn't really suffer from that problem. A Google Trends search between "hos" and "hoes" shows that the words by themselves are used equally frequently.

However a Google Trends search between the phrases indicates that "Bros before hoes" is more popular (note the scaling), barring a large seasonal spike in "Bros before hos". In the latter case, it's almost as though brothership and camaraderie is strongly tied to Christmas cheer, but on closer examination it seems to be because of a World of Warcraft holiday achievement. Even then the phrase is a play on "Ho ho ho" and not to do with ladies of the evening.

So I'm still undecided between hos and hoes. Can anyone "help a brother out"?


texts: Addressing British nobility in third person

texts: Is it correct to say "Their Lordship"while referring to British nobility ?


texts: What does the word "institutional" mean in this context?

texts:
Racism and sexism are examples of institutional practices that result
  in discrimination against individuals on the basis of their race or
  gender.

The dictionary definition of institutional is

  of, in, or like an institution or institutions

and the dictionary definition of institution is

  a society or organization founded for a religious, educational,
  social, or similar purpose.

Putting the two together does it mean that racism and sexism are not though up by a single individual but a society as whole?


texts:
Are both "focus lies" and "focus lays" grammatically correct? Do they mean the same?
Examples

Our focus lays on the electronic and mechanic sectors.

Our focus lies in renewable energy sources.

EDIT: Help using "lie" and "lay" correctly says

To Lay – to put or place something. To Lie – to rest or recline.

Is focus put there or is it resting there? I don't know. At the moment Google shows some 573 mil results for "focus lies on" and 72 mil results for "focus lays on" so both forms are used widely.


texts:
When speaking of a group of people and referring to a body part of which there is only one (e.g. head, nose, mouth, etc.), do we use the singular or plural form? Which of the following is correct, or are both possible?

Our stomach is full.

Our stomachs are full.


texts: Should we say "the Kraken" or just "Kraken"?

texts: From Wikipedia, "In Norwegian and Swedish, Kraken is the definite form of krake." Since "Kraken" is already the definite form, why do we add a "the" prior to "Kraken"? Or "Kraken" is a word taken from another language, therefore its grammatical property was dropped?


texts: a word/phrase for someone who appears bad on the surface but is actually good (in terms of character)

texts:
my transition sentence after describing the actions and choices of a few characters: "On the surface their character can be construed as contemptible— squandering their intelligence and ability for lavishness, capitulation, and banditry."

now I'm trying to transition that these actions that "appeared" contemptible were actually a means to a greater good.

Thoughts?


texts:
While procrastinating during the tedious process of typing random stuff, I wondered if there was any activity referring to what I was doing.

What I mean is: is there any single word used to refer to something done to stall time? I want a word on the likes of diversion tactics and so on.

I apologise for not detailing it.

The reason procrastinating won't work is because, according to the Wikidictionary it is

  It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time.

Whereas the freedictionary lists it as

  To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.

Both of these here refer to it as a practice, while what I seek ( it gets a bit confusing ) is something that specifically means the act of procrastinating, or a metaphor that I can use in place.

That, and I have already used it previously.

For example,

  Knowing what his volcano-cranium'd hatchet hopping companion's next outburst would be directed at, despite agreeing by all means ( though not intensity ) he attempted to pass on a half-hearted salve in the intented hopes of _________: Lord Hugo Laxinor was an experienced procrastinator, otherwise he'd have gone to destitution ages ago.

Here, he is not putting something off; indeed, he is trying to delay his haste companion from taking any rash and collateral damage - causing decision. Thus most such words are cut out. He is not hesitating, he is not indecisive.

In fact, the most apt suitors asking for its hand are dilly-dally – whom I deem too rash – and plain dally, who is utterly lacklustre.


texts: Is the Oxford comma necessary in small, single-worded lists?

texts:
The main argument: which is advisable of the following two?

  A, B and C
  A, B, and C

Oxford (or serial) comma is useful to avoid ambiguities in phrases that involve lists such as the example given in this link. I tend to use it in long lists or that which could enclose conjunctions like 'and' or 'or' within them like so

  The methods used include regression analysis, trial and error, and statistical inference.

However, how necessary is it when it concerns single-worded lists, especially when it concerns notational identifiers like A, B, C?


texts: What is to be made of "e" ending so many Middle English words?

texts:
I was recently reading about the life of Robert I (the Bruce) of Scotland.  On his deathbed, since he had been unable to go on crusade to the Holy Land as he had once pledged to do, he directed that his embalmed heart be carried on a crusade:

  "I will that as soone as I am trespassed out of this worlde that ye take my harte owte of my body, and embawme it, and take of my treasoure as ye shall thynke sufficient for that enterprise, both for your selfe and suche company as ye wyll take with you, and present my hart to the holy Sepulchre where as our Lorde laye, seyng my body can nat come there."

Note that "out" and "hart" here are actually spelled both with and without a terminal "e".

What is going on here?  Was this just an unaccountable urge to plaster terminal and unpronounced extra "e"s everywhere, or were they actually expected to be pronounced?  Or was there some kind of spelling convention that called for "e"s?

I do see that some of this pointless terminal "e" thing is done to this day (such as in "treasoure" above).  Obviously that is just tradition. And of course a terminal silent "e" is used to indicate that a previous vowel is to be pronounced "long" instead of "short".   But what about the ME usage?


texts:
In computer science context, is often implemented as a security protocol that employees change their current passwords for another one. This procedure is sometimes called "rotating password".

My question is, why is this called "rotating" instead of "changing"? My doubts came from the fact that there's no finite predefined list of passwords from which the users choose their password, but instead, every rotation implies a new password.


texts:
Why is "It's THE early bird that catches THE worm
and why is "A drowning man will clutch at A straw"
I just can's the logic here. Would someone explain me?


texts:
Joel Spolsky:

  We started with Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for programmers about
  programming questions. StackExchange is an attempt to bring that same
  technology to other fields besides programming. Cooking, photography,
  etc. Each of these sites is a StackExchange. Collectively they are the
  StackExchange Network. So when we say "StackExchange" we mean all
  these sites, of which there is one big honking granddaddy called Stack
  Overflow.

The entries in Webster suggest that honking refers to an object making a loud noise, but that meaning seems off in this context.

What does "honking" mean in this context?


texts: Which English language groups/cultures would say "I'm going to bed now" while they were already in a bed?

texts:
I was reading a discussion on another part of the internet and many of the people involved asserted that it was common to use the phrase "go to bed" for "cease all other activity and go to sleep" even if the speaker were already in bed.

For instance someone might be in bed, under the covers, reading a book. They would close the book and say "I'm going to bed now".

In fact some people expressed surprise at others' not knowing this use of the phrase.

Is this use of "go to bed" common in American, Canadian or some other variant of English? I believe most of the people familiar with it were north american speakers.


texts:
In my native language, there is an idiom "getting stuck in/between the cogwheels/gears [of life or times]," referring to a situation, where a person is having serious difficulties in managing his everyday life, e.g. losing his job and ending up homeless and a drug addict. The idiom refers in particular to the difficulties of coming to terms with the fast-paced modern life (with its spinning "wheel of time" with innumerable small cogs and gears) and probably originates from the early-20th century technological pessimism. One can visualize the idiom in the famous factory scene in Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times," where the Tramp is swallowed into a machine full of cogs and wheels.

Is there a similar idiom in English describing what the Tramp is going through, getting lost in the "wheel of (modern) time" (even if archaic)?


texts: Capitalisation in common nouns that form part of a proper noun

texts: The word region is a common noun. In certain pairings, this common noun comes after a proper noun, as in 'the Highlands Region'. So region is now being specific: so the word is now capitalised because it forms part of a proper noun. Is this capitalisation correct, please?


texts: Using a full stop, question mark, apostrophe and a comma all at the same time in a sentence (in UK English)

texts:
Would

  .?',

in the following sentence be correct?

  A man asked 'how many are red, how many are green, etc.?', so I tried to find out.


texts: Is "Most of the world does not distinguish captions from subtitles" true?

texts:
In the wikipedia article about closed captioning one reads

  Most of the world does not distinguish captions from subtitles. In the United States and Canada, these terms do have different meanings, however: "subtitles" assume the viewer can hear but cannot understand the language or accent, or the speech is not entirely clear, so they only transcribe dialogue and some on-screen text. "Captions" aim to describe to the deaf and hard of hearing all significant audio content   [including] music or sound effects ...
  The United Kingdom, Ireland, and most other countries do not distinguish between subtitles and closed captions, and use "subtitles" as the general term—the equivalent of "captioning" is usually referred to as "Subtitles for the hard of hearing".

Questions: Are these assertions about the respective meanings in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and "most other countries" correct?  If so, on what authority?  If not, what meanings are correct?


texts: When is it appropriate to use "Yeah" and "Yep" as variants of the word "Yes"?

texts:
As a learner of English I know that yes is a standard variant and the other two are informal, spoken words. I know nothing more about it, and always try using the yes variant, just to not sound inappropriate. But I'd like to be able to not sound too formal in a casual conversation.

Could you help me understand the differences between these words and the contexts in which it is okay to use them?


texts:
I was drawn to the expression, “The book feels expressive” in the following sentence of the article titled “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Family” in The New Yorker February 4 issue:

  “In any case, it may be that “The Triple Package” like “Battle Hymn of
  the Tiger Mother” isn’t really about its argument. The book feels
  expressive, rather than analytical. Chua and Rubenfeld are
  self-conscious tiger parents.”
  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/02/the-battle-hymn-of-the-tiger-family.html

The format of [Subject+ feel +adjective] may not be uncommon. But I wonder;

Can an inanimate object such as book, desk, airplane, house ‘feel,’ i.e. have a human sensation like expressive, impressive, fashionable, swift, dull and so on?
Is this just a figurative expression? Can we say 'books love bibliophiles' as well as 'bibliophiles love books'?
Does the word, ‘feel’ have the meanings of ‘is felt (to me),’  or 'give the feeling (to me)' as an intransitive verb?

Would you clarify why a book can “feel”?


texts: What is the word for someone who is easily obsessed over

texts: We are wanting to know what the word is for someone who has a trait that can be easily obsessed over


texts: Is there a more fancy name for a "kitchen hole"?

texts:
Does English have a specific word for a hole between the kitchen and the living room that is used to get food directly to the dining table?

German has the nice Durchreiche, which approximately translates to hand-through. I am ideally looking for a nice translation of that word.


texts: Name for pairs of words with a strong association?

texts:
English has certain words that almost always go together. For example:

Wreak
Excruciating
Vastly

Reading that list, most native speakers will expect to see "havoc", "pain", and "superior" respectively. While you could "wreak destruction", that usage is very uncommon compared to "wreak havoc".
My primary question: Is there a name for this kind of word relationship?
Secondary questions:

Is there a reason this happens in our language?
Can you list any other examples of these pairs?

Funny side note: Not knowing what to call this concept makes it a little tricky to pick meaningful tags.


texts:
I'm planning to hire a car with driver from tourist agency and have one day trip or multi-day tour. They have their own tour packages with standard destinations and itineraries. But I want to make my own routes and itineraries or order other destinations which is not included in their standard packages.
Can I call it ''customized tour''?.
So I mean - can I call ''Customized tour'' when I want to order my desired destinations with my interesting routes and itineraries which is not included their standard packages?.
Thanks beforehand.


texts: How do you describe when a myth causes people to assume that something real is also a myth?

texts:
Is there a word or phrase for when something real is thought to be mythical because it resembles or is related to a known myth?

For example, the myth of unicorns makes many people think that narwhals are mythical creatures as well, when they're actually real. Another example is that the myth of Santa's reindeer make some people think that regular reindeer are mythical as well. Is there a term that would describe this?

To clarify: I'm not talking about things like creation vs. evolution or global warming's existence vs. lack thereof, where one side genuinely believes that A is a myth and B is a fact, and the other side genuinely believes that B is a myth and A is a fact. I'm talking about a situation where everyone knows that A is a myth, but A's similarity to B causes some people to erroneously conclude that B is a myth as well.


texts: Does "moonlighting" have a negative or neutral connotation?

texts:
We all agree that "moonlighting" denotes having a second job. However, Merriam-Webster and Oxford Advanced Learner's don't define it in exactly the same way.

For example, Merriam-Webster attaches a neutral meaning to it:

  moonlight (intransitive verb): to work at a second job in addition to your regular job

OALD, on the other hand, suggests a more negative connotation:

  moonlight (intransitive verb): to have a second job that you do secretly, usually without paying tax on the extra money that you earn

I don't know if this is a case of British English vs American English.

So I'd like to ask native speakers of English: Do you attach a neutral or negative meaning to the word? For example, would you say that Madonna moonlights as an actress, without implying that she doesn't pay taxes on the extra money she makes?


texts:
To eat is like to feed to yourself; is there a similar word for to wear? For example, I wear pants, but when I do the same activity to another person, what is the word?

Also, is there a name for such concept, related words eat/feed?

Edit:
If feed is xonym (due to lack of any terminology on my part) of eat, dress seems to be xonym of wear as VonC explained but still it doesn't quite fit

e.g.

  Father eat banana -> Father feed me banana
  Father wear shirt -> Father dress me shirt

but Father dress me shirt isn't quite right; it looks like I need to add a in.

May be I am expecting too much from English and I anyway know too little of it.


texts: How would you say 'go round the houses' in a formal way?

texts:
I am writing a memo (quite formal) and I need to mention that the attitudes in the previous meeting were really offtopic, the team didn't focus on the important matters.

Were it informal writing I would use go all round the houses. Which expression would be adequate for a formal context?


texts:
I read “Kafka on the shore” and met the next sentence:

  I look around,
  and seconds on toast don't seem likely to materialize.

Could you explain what “seconds on toast” mean? What is semantically and syntactically?


texts: Using "the difference between" for more than two things

texts: Recently, I corrected a sentence for someone so that it read, "What is the difference between a seamstress, a tailor, and a dressmaker?" Later, the person asked why it wouldn't read "What are the differences between..." instead. Other than the former sentence feeling intuitively correct, I didn't have a good explanation. Then it occurred to me that perhaps it has to do with "difference" being countable or uncountable depending on the situation. Which is to say, when used as a general concept about the dissimilarity of two or more things, it's uncountable, but becomes countable when referring to specific differences, as in, "The differences between us became too glaring to ignore." Does it come down to C/U nouns, or is there something else?


texts: Is there any word for "disobedience to God"?

texts: There are a lot of words meaning "disobedience to authority" but I'm wondering if there's any word for "disobedience to God". I mean a technical term or something.


texts: Is there a word for the noun modified by an adjective?

texts:
In the sentence "Jack saw John and helped him" we would say that "John" is the antecedent of the pronoun "him".

In "I saw a blue sky", what is "sky" with respect to "blue". Object? Modifiee?


texts: Is there a single word meaning "convivial, jovial" but in a way which is not pleasant to others, obtrusively friendly?

texts:
Is there a single word with the meaning of convivial, jovial but in a way which is not pleasant to others? The important part of the meaning should also be obtrusively "friendly".

Like people who bother you with their conviviality, who keep offering you drinks to share their merriness, throw their stupid jokes on you constantly not seeing that they are the only ones who find them funny, slap you "friendly" on the back etc.

I want to emphasize rather the unpleasant bothering friendliness and conviviality, than the noise.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jovial:

  jovial
  markedly good-humored especially as evidenced by cheerfulness and conviviality, jolly

  a jovial host, a jovial welcome

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/convivial:

  convivial
  relating to, occupied with, or fond of feasting, drinking, and good company

  a convivial host, a convivial gathering

I do not mean malicious like in Word for someone who is jovial, but malicious?

A sample sentence would be something like

  "I do not like him, he is such a xxx person"


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What's the difference between “successive” and “consecutive”?

Are 'consecutively' and 'successively' the same? Can they be used in place of each other freely? Does 'for 3 days consecutively..' and 'for 3 days successively..' mean the same ?


texts: Is there a name for the set of possible ***direct*** answers to a question?

texts:
For example, the set for the question "did you go to the store?" would be {'yes','no'} but not include '7', and for "how old are you?" would be the set of positive integers but not include 'by car', and for "how did you get here" would include 'by car' but not 'Jupiter' , and so on.

An indirect answer might challenge the question. For example, the direct answers to "have you stopped beating your wife?" would be 'yes' or 'no', but hopefully neither is correct, so you would challenge the question by saying "I never beat my wife". Hopefully this is the correct answer, but you have to go meta to give it.

Also, are there other, correct terms for what I called "direct" and "indirect" answers?

Thanks


texts: What is the meaning of "sword and gun on the table"

texts:
This phrase is used in The Sopranos by Phil Leotardo:

Listen to me. They make anybody and everybody over there. And the way that they do it, it's all f***ed up. Guys don't get their finger pricked. There's no sword and gun on the table...


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “My friends and I” vs. “My friends and me” vs. “Me and my friends”
  Is naming the first person last proper grammar or just proper manners?

"Julio and I went to the schoolyard." is a valid sentence.

How about "I and Julio went to the schoolyard."?

It's impolite (putting yourself first) and awkward, but is it
grammatically incorrect?

[I realize the original lyric "see me and Julio..." is a grammatically
correct imperative sentence]


texts: Should I always use the -ised ending for UK english and the -ized for US?

texts: Realized vs realised, randomized vs randomised etc. Is it true that the former is always correct in US and the latter in UK english? Is there a list of english-speaking nations that use the former or the latter?


texts: get the door for her so she doesn't scrape in on the curb? what does it mean?

texts:
the expression comes from the link below
https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/391742867559861412/

'get the door for her so she doesn't scrape in on the curb'? what does it mean?

get the door, I get that picture says it all but 'so she doesn't scrape in on the curb'? what does it mean? scrape is like to rip, to rob of something. and "on the curb"? I by no mean can't translate this expression nor I can get the catch of the meme... help?


texts:
So, I'm writing a dialogue and I'm not sure how to punctuate this question.

  "So where's the bag, you idiot?"

Would this be the correct way to do this even though the second part isn't a question and is instead referring to a person? Should the question mark go before 'you idiot'?


texts: In the sentence below is "the" required before huge and why?

texts:
Is it correct to write

  Newcastle disease is economically significant because of the huge mortality and morbidity associated with it.


texts: Is there a phrase that is the opposite of "putting two and two together"?

texts:
I've been looking for a phrase that would describe the opposite of putting two and two together.

For example:

"I thought Cindy's murder had everything to do with Mark's disappearance, but as it turns out, instead of putting two and two together and getting four, I put two and two together to get five, not realizing it was actually her estranged son that had done the deed!"

Or as someone else put it, I'm looking for a better way to say "I came to the wrong conclusion"


texts:
It sounds that distracting and being on the right track are related not only by meaning but also by common roots. Is the track that we see in distracting related etymologically to the track in the word track?

  track (n.) Look up track at Dictionary.com late 15c., "footprint, mark
  left by anything," from Old French trac "track of horses, trace"
  (mid-15c.), possibly from a Germanic source (compare Middle Low German
  treck, Dutch trek "drawing, pulling;" see trek). Meaning "lines of
  rails for drawing trains" is from 1805. Meaning "branch of athletics
  involving a running track" is recorded from 1905. Meaning "single
  recorded item" is from 1904, originally in reference to phonograph
  records. Meaning "mark on skin from repeated drug injection" is first
  attested 1964.

  distract (v.) Look up distract at Dictionary.com mid-14c., "to draw
  asunder or apart, to turn aside" (literal and figurative), from Latin
  distractus, past participle of distrahere "draw in different
  directions," from dis- "away" (see dis-) + trahere "to draw" (see
  tract (n.1)).

  tract (n.1) Look up tract at Dictionary.com "area," mid-15c., "period
  or lapse of time," from Latin tractus "track, course, space,
  duration," lit, "a drawing out or pulling," from stem of trahere "to
  pull, draw," from PIE root *tragh- "to draw, drag, move" (cognates:
  Slovenian trag "trace, track," Middle Irish tragud "ebb;" perhaps with
  a variant form *dhragh-; see drag (v.)). The meaning "stretch of land
  or water" is first recorded 1550s. Specific U.S. sense of "plot of
  land for development" is recorded from 1912; tract housing attested
  from 1953.

I see no clear connection in the sources. The dictionary says that tract originated from track in 15c whereas track was derived from trek only in 19c. This does not make sense at all!


texts:
To clarify, I'm not talking about money solely in form of metal coins. (As in: I then proceeded carefully to count out the entire 14 pounds 78 pence in coin - Oxford).

I'm talking about using 'coin' to mean money in general, a usage that Oxford does NOT define.

I was just watching Mad Max ('79). There's a line where Max says to a shop owner:

  You must have spent some coin. (at the 59:09 mark)

It's worth mentioning that this usage of 'coin' is frequently encountered in period/fantasy works, most notably in Game of Thrones. But, since money was only available in metal back then, the usage is understandable.

Since Mad Max is an Autralian movie from 1979, I was curious whether this usage was prevalent in Australia, and if it still is.

While we're at it, is 'coin' used this way in BrE/AmE? Was it ever?


texts: Meaning of "my fool of a sister can't get at you"

texts:
Another phrase/sentence I don't understand from Narnia Book 1 Magician's Nephew:

  Digory was quite speechless, for Uncle Andrew looked a thousand times more alarming than he had ever looked before. Polly was not so frightened yet; but she soon was. For the very first thing Uncle Andrew did was to walk across to the door of the room, shut it, and turn the key in the lock. Then he turned round, fixed the children with his bright eyes, and smiled, showing all his teeth.

  "There!" he said. "Now my fool of a sister can't get at you!"

Don't understand completely. I understand every word, but I
don't know what he is talking about.


texts: Mark to indicate pronunciation of a letter

texts: My last name is Noe. The e is supposed to be pronounced, but the majority of people think it is silent. I would like to put some kind of stress mark over the e so people will start pronouncing it correctly. What kind of mark should I use?