texts: Splitting the components of a compound verb

texts:
I've always understood that splitting infinitives should be avoided; e.g., instead of

  To boldly go where no man has gone before.

use

  To go boldly where no man has gone before.

With that in mind, I recently saw someone post the following comment on Facebook:

  This is horribly written.

It struck me that a phrasing that sounds more natural to my ear is

  This is written horribly.

In trying to determine why I prefer the latter, I realized that the adverb horribly splits the conjugated verb is written. Is this just personal preference, or is this "split conjugation" basically the equivalent of a split infinitive?


texts: Is there any single word for this type of trap?

texts:
On a Drama stage, They have numbers written below the floor. Man from bottom, see the numbers where Actor is standing (he can't see but hear where footsteps stops). so Man from below see that number where he stops and Pull that lever related to number, then actor will fall to bottom.

Example: https://youtu.be/01ZWXIY1mcs   (Thanks to @Clare)


texts: "To be" differences with other languages

texts: I am a native speaker of Portuguese, and in latin languages there are two verbs representing "to be", one which is a permanent state of being ("esse") and another that is a transient state of being ("stare"). My question is, what is the best way to convey this difference when there is a single verb available?


texts: Looking for a word to describe someone who has high achievements in a particular field

texts: I am looking for a word to describe a person who has high achievements in a particular field. High achievements can be subjective so this word should have personal meanings. For example, I really like an artist, although he may not be the best artist in the world, I just personally like his work so much that he has the power to motivate me to study art and set up a goal for myself to become someone like him. so he is my . Any ideas?


texts: Exact word when we throw a rope in english

texts:
What's the exact word for throwing a fish hook or a rope whose one end we are holding.

Any help is appreciated.


texts: Word or phrase to describe increasing periods between attempting the same operation

texts:
I'm looking for a term (single word or phrase) that describes the trick in software development to (typically exponentially) increase time between successive attempts to do an action on a server, for example logging in.

Context to use the phrase in
With talking with other software developers about the design of Software API's and login screens.
Criteria for which the suggested phrase will be accepted
Any term that has prevalent use in current software development literature would do: it should be well-known piece of jargon.
Phrases I didn't like
A term I feel is not a great fit (but my best alternative so far) is "Throttling". It's not a great fit because it describes the overal speed with which interactions between client and server take place, whereas in my context I have as fast as possible interaction for the first (few) request(s), only decreasing response time after successive attempts.
[Searches] for a suitable phrase
Skimming page 1 and 2 of "increased time between login attempts" gave no useful results. I've also looked through an online thesaurus (synonyms, and antonyms-of-antonyms) but found no suitable phrase.

I've got a feeling I've heard a specific bit of jargon for exactly what I want to express, but fail to remember what it was.

Any suggestions?


texts: What is the meaning of the name "Wilber" in English?

texts:
I'm thinking of picking Wilber as my English given name recently, since it has similar pronunciation with my Chinese given name.

But I'm not sure about the meaning of Wilber in English, especially in American English.

Is it fit for Asians?


texts: Definite article in the beginning of a sentence

texts:
I'm confused with the usage of the definite article.

  During the development the following tasks were accomplished:

  Software with a graphical interface was created;
  [some other things]

I know exactly the software which was developed, and I am writing an annotation for my work.
Should I use the before software?


texts:
I wonder what this phrase means in the following: get pokey. I fail to find out that meaning though I tried in dictionary or Google.

  Bright and affectionate, Tad was also wholly undisciplined. The nine-year-old boy could still not dress himself, and, despite the efforts of a series of tutors, he could neither read nor write. Lincoln refused to worry over his slowness in such matters. “Let him run,” said his father; “there's time enough yet for him to learn his letters and get pokey.”

From David Herbert Donald's Lincoln (Simon & Schuster, 1995).


texts: How to pronounce the adjectival form of "patent" in American English?

texts:
I understand that for the noun "patent", the word is pronounced as ˈpæt(ə)nt in British English and ˈpeɪt(ə)nt in American English.

However, a friend blew my mind yesterday and claimed that it could be pronounced as ˈpæt(ə)nt in American English if it was the adjective form.

I've looked on here and it seems like definitions 4, 5 and 6 of Entry 1 is indeed pronounced as ˈpæt(ə)nt but it does not mention if that is in American or British English.


texts: Difference between "prior to" and "before"

texts: I have read on the internet that prior to is a formal term for before and "prior to" is used when a past moment is relevant to the present one. However, I didn't understand the meaning of second explanation. Please explain with examples


texts: Is it okay to start a sentence with a Greek letter (variable)?

texts:
Is it okay to start a sentence with a variable? Do I need to rewrite a sentence just because the subject is typeset as a Greek letter?

For example:

  Φ is treated in a special way.

vs.

  The variable Φ is treated in a special way.


texts: Is there one word for fat gotten from stress eating (Kummerspeck)?

texts:
In German, there is the word Kummerspeck, which literally translates to sorrow lard and means:

  the fat gained from stress eating

Is there such a word in English? I never found any.


texts: Using Past Simple versus Present Simple in a commentary for a documentary

texts:
I've been translating a commentary to a history documentary and I'm not sure if my choice of tenses is optimal. In Polish, just like in English, the Present Simple tense is occasionally used for describing past events, to add to the dramatic effect and bring the audience closer to the past events.
Here is where my issue comes from: In Polish, using the Present Simple to describe past events in a documentary is pretty much just a matter of free choice - stylistically, there are no hard norms. There is no "Golden standard" so you have lots of docs where the commentary is predominantly Past Simple and lots of docs where the commentary is mostly Present Simple.
What about the English documentaries? Is Present Simple much more popular in commentaries? Let's say there is a sentence describing German soldiers marching into Warsaw in 1939. Which version is be more likely to be used:
In 1939, German soldiers march into Warsaw
or
In 1939, German soldiers marched into Warsaw
I know these two sentences are completely correct and can be both used. My question is: which way of describing events in a documentary is more popular and closer to the "commentary standard" if such thing exists :)
Thank you for your feedback!


texts:
A friend was explaining that the Japanese word "mimi" means ears.

But he ended up pointing to his ears saying "This means 'mimi'(in Japanese)".  But I felt that he was wrong and should have said it the other way round : "'mimi' (in Japanese) means this(pointing to his ears)".  He asked me to explain why he was wrong. I wasn't able to.

I tried finding out the answer for the same and saw this particular instance which I think is similar to this case : to have as its sense or signification; signify:
The word “freedom” means many things to many people.

But I was still unable to come up with an explanation as to the reason why it is used in this way.So can anybody please explain why he was wrong?  If he is not, could you also explain how he is right?  I would like to improve my understanding of the word "means" as a verb :)


texts: "A ten minute interview" vs "An interview of ten minutes"

texts: I remember my English professor saying that these two sentences are quite different in meaning, but after four months, I cannot recall the exact difference. Can somebody explain to me what's the difference?


texts:
I know that the word git is used for describing an unpleasant person.
Also Git is a name of a version control system which is quite popular among software developers.
I thought this word did not form verbs. But recently I found a use git as verb in a phrase which was written by a native speaker from US, on the Heroku blog. In "10 Habits of a Happy Node Hacker (2016)," #9 is

9. Only git the important bits
Most apps are composed of both necessary files and generated files. When using a source control system like git, you should avoid tracking anything that's generated.
For example, your node app probably has a node_modules directory for dependencies, which you should keep out of git. As long as each dependency is listed in package.json, anyone can create a working local copy of your app - including node_modules - by running npm install.

Is it correct to use to git in meaning "to use the computer program Git" like to google means "to search something in Google"?
Or maybe it's wordplay based on the homophony of git and get?


texts:
general jurisdiction sessions. [5] Proponents of going
  digital say that technology is the easiest way to get the
  most accurate record of the proceedings, as the machine
  records everything faithfully as it occurs and is not
  [26] subject to human errors such as mishearing or
  mistyping. [6] However, with the rise of high-quality
  recording technology, reliance on court reporters 27 as a
  record keeper is decreasing.

In the short excerpt above, the word following [26] will be subject or subjected. I think it should be subjected, but I am not really sure and can't convince myself why. Any help will be much appreciated.


texts: What is a term for the hierarchical relationship between parent and child configuration options in software?

texts:
Frequently we see configuration options with a hierarchical structure, often shown in a tree view. When enabling a parent option, all of the child options are enabled. When disabling the parent option, all of the child options are disabled. A user may be able to enable a subset of child options without "fully" enabling the parent option.

I am writing instructions/documentation and would like to explain this behavior in a simple, concise manner.

  "Enabling or disabling the parent option, by __________, enables or disables all child options as well."

I've thought of "by design," "by association;" but neither of these express my meaning as intended.

What would be an appropriate word to use here, or a proposed rewrite of the statement to accomplish my goal?


texts: Thank God it's Friday, tomorrow is THE weekend. Why the definite article?

texts:
Today is Friday. Tomorrow is the weekend.

In terms of grammar, how is the definite article justified there?

We say:

  It's noon.
  It's 12 o'clock.
  It's August.
  It's 2019.

But we also say:

  It's the 23rd of the month.
  It's the 21st century.

According to Wikipedia:

  The definite article is used to refer to a particular member of a group or class. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned or it may be something uniquely specified.

This explains the day of the month and the number century. Yet today is Friday — no article. Just any old Friday. But tomorrow is the weekend — definite article. Though also just any old weekend. So why “the”?


texts:
In Oxford Dictionary, under 'alight', it says:

on fire

•A cigarette set the dry grass alight.

(formal) (of faces or eyes) showing a feeling of happiness or excitement

•The children’s faces were alight with enthusiasm.

.................................................
What does "alight on his feet" mean in this sentence?

It's a relieve that the soccer player was alight on his feet.


texts: Singular/plural forms of objects with “respectively”

texts:
Which of the following two sentences is correct?

A and B are the minimum and maximum value, respectively.
A and B are the minimum and maximum values, respectively.

I tend to think that the first one is correct as it is a reduced version of the following sentence:

A and B are the minimum value and the maximum value, respectively.

In other words, sentence 1 is sentence 3 with two ellipses.

This question was originally a part of that one. However, it had been left unaddressed there.


texts: Adjective describing a person with a Ph.D

texts:
Is there perhaps a better way to say something like "a physicist with a Ph.D?" Is there an adjective that could come before physicist: "a ________ physicist?"

I was thinking "doctoral physicist" or "Ph.D physicist," but those don't seem quite right.


texts: "For both our sake" or "for both our sakes"

texts:
Should sake be pluralized in this usage?

  For both our sake, I'm going to leave now.

  For both our sakes, I'm going to leave now.


texts: Terms for name prefixes "Ms., Mr." vs "Prof., Dr."

texts:
I'm searching for two words that adequately describe and differentiate between the following two categories/groups of words, given they exist in english:

Ms, Mr, Mrs, Miss etc.
Dr, Prof, Revd etc.

Background is that I have to store this data in a database for both english and non-english persons, with some non-english languages requiring words from both groups to be present at the same time (as opposed to english where i.e. you would use either Dr. or Mr., but not both of them together).


texts: Sentence in which Past Perfect is not thought of as preceding the action

texts:
I can’t just wrap my head around it...
In which sentence the action denoted by the Past Perfect is not thought of as preceding the action denoted by the Past Indefinite tense:
a) He knew where hilda lived, but he had never been there;
b) They waited quietly till he had finished;
c) She had come before he phoned over
Initially, I thought that the right answer was b, because I applied the same logic to the sentence as it would be in Present Tenses, that is, that part after till denoting some sort of a future action, and in this case, Past Perfect was more for me as a successive thing. Thus, it seemed to me that the correct answer was b. But, my logic wasn’t quite right, was it?


texts: Plural or not after "they differ by ..."

texts:
There are a few constructions in English for which I often have a hard time deciding wether I should use the plural form or not. In this case it's with the verb "differ".
Which sentences are correct in these examples?

John and Bob differ by the size of their heads.
or: They differ by the sizes of their heads.

and

They differ by their height.
or: They differ by their heights.

On Google I found both. In French it would be all singular (the size of their head). I suspect that in English the correct form is the plural one, because in this language you tend to use the plural, e.g. "They touch their noses" (correct me if I'm wrong) and not "They touch their nose" (which is what you'd say in French, even if there are several noses – just one per person).
But here, I have the vague feeling that (maybe you could somewhat argue that) John and Bob differ because of one common attribute – which takes different values... so maybe, singular? I think I just prefer the French way!


texts:
Wiktionary shows the pronunciation of moiety as /ˈmɔɪ.ə.ti/, which I think agrees with the audio versions at merriam-webster.com and howjsay.com.  (Be warned that both those links produce audio when clicked.)  Anyhow, from an 1832-vintage quotation for sense 1 at wiktionary (meaning half), I have the impression that at some times or places the word has been pronounced with 4 syllables instead of 3, and rhyming with society:

  From New Holland the emu,
          With his better moiety,
      Has paid a visit to the Zoological Society.

Has its pronunciation changed since then?  Or was this perhaps meant to be merely a half rhyme?

Edit: A half rhyme, or near rhyme, or imperfect rhyme, entails consonance on the final consonants of the words involved.  Moiety (/ˈmɔɪ.ə.ti/) and society (/s@"saI.@.ti/) rise a little above that level, but not to the level of perfect rhyme, which according to wikipedia's rhyme article, entails having final stressed vowel and all following sounds identical.  But /ɔɪ/ and /aI/ are not identical.


texts: One word for "put something to a lower form/level/grade"

texts:
Is there a word for "put something to a lower form/level/grade (than it should be)"?

All I can think of are

  reduce
  cast something low

But I would like to assert the sense that the object deserves more recognition or value.

For example, to a friend who describes humans as mere animals whose behavior is dictated and predicted by biological and evolutionary principles,

  You reduce the human race to a mere conglomerate of biological and evolutionary rules.

in the sense that the statement puts something in a lower position, not giving its full value.


texts: Are reflexive pronouns typically used in compound objects?

texts:
We can all agree that the reflexive pronoun in this sentence is necessary:I bought drinks for myself.
However, I cannot seem to find a definitive answer regarding the following sentence:I bought drinks for my sister and [me / myself].
While searching online for an answer, I came across a few guides that claim you should not use reflexive pronouns in compound objects yet proceed to give examples for which a reflexive pronoun would be inappropriate even if the object were not compound!
My guess is that a reflexive pronoun should be used, as not using one could cause ambiguity. Consider the following:He bought drinks for his sister and himself.
Using him in place of himself here would cause ambiguity, would it not? However, I am still not sure whether reflexive pronouns are strictly necessary for similar constructions when the subject is you or I.


texts: Future perfect or simple in this context

texts:
In a movie I saw, a young boy told to an old man that he would be gone for a long time when something happens. I'm trying to figure out what the boy actually said and what tense should have been used (heard dubbed version).

Could it be:

  You will have been gone for a long time by then.
   You will be gone for a long time by then.
  You will not have been here for a long time by then.


texts:
I have a project to parse names and there's a thing called title (mr. dr.), suffix (esq. ph.d.) and generation (ii, iii, jr.), but I don't have the faintest idea what "p.s." is.

It's in the following format and it's a lawyer:

  Sunde, Kit T. P.S.


texts: "It really doesn't matter" v "It doesn't really matter"

texts:
I can't distinguish the difference in meaning between these  two sentences.

It really doesn't matter.

It doesn't  really matter.

It seems that there is a nuanced difference, but I cannot see what this is.


texts: "Stop by" vs. "stop at" vs. "stop on" vs. "stop in"

texts:
What is the difference between the following?

  [ I am on a bus] Could you stop by/at/on/in 23rd and Pine?


texts: Articles: “a” or “the” with “second assumption”?

texts:
I wonder if I have to use a, or the when I introduce two assumptions in an academic paper.

For example, in an introduction section of an article
it tells us that there are two assumptions that the authors will discuss in the section 3 and 4 respectively.

  Section 3 investigates sensitivity to one of the methodology's
  major assumptions:
  Dirichlet distribution of the shape frailty.

  Section  4 investigates a (OR) the second major assumption:
  that size and shape frailty variables are statistically independent.

Should they use a or the for “second assumption”?


texts: When saying "nominations are in", what does "in" mean?

texts:
What does in mean in the following sentence?

  MTV Europe Music Awards nominations are in and Lady Gaga leads

It feels like "announced", but does it refer to "in the news" or something? Where does it come from?


texts: Looking for one word to describe a feeling

texts: A word for 'A simpler time', or 'sadly fond of or amused by', (but not melancholy) I'm trying to describe the naivety of seeing the internet referred to in a newspaper article from the mid 90's as the 'world wide web' and how silly that sounds now, and how different perhaps in a positive way it was a then.


texts: A word that describes "false sense of knowing"

texts:
Is there a word that describes someone having a false sense of knowing?

In other words, one believes he knows X, but X isn't true.

Here is an example sentence:

  However, consent forms give people only a false sense of knowing.

The sentence means that people are not given full knowledge or information but they think they are.  This is close to being misinformed but not quite.


texts: "Born in" vs "born at" with proper nouns: is this a definite vs indefinite prepositional object situation?

texts:
Please help me explain to my friend why, while there's no doubt that he was born at St James Hospital, it is incorrect for him to say he was born in St James Hospital -- despite the fact that he certainly can go around telling everyone he was born in a hospital or within the walls of St James.

The best explanation I can find is that "St James Hospital" refers to both the physical building and the institution itself, while the phrase "a hospital" can only refer to (an instance of) the former. However, presuming there's only one hospital in town, it seems to me there remains a difference in meaning when saying "I was born at the hospital" vs "I was born in the hospital" -- and having thought about it this much and repeated the phrases to myself beyond what should be considered healthy, I no longer have a sense of which seems to be less awkward!

Is this a definite vs indefinite prepositional object situation, an institution vs a place situation, or something entirely different?


texts:
Sometimes, people use a colloquial phrase of "it figures" or "go figure", which is kind of an acknowledgement of the correctness of a fact, or something like that. It's also sometimes abbreviated even further to just "Figures" or "Go fig", depending on the speaker.

Examples of the phrase in context:

  It figures, this site doesn't have a question about this phrase yet.

  Go figure, the answer was right under my nose the entire time.

What is the origin of this phrase, and what exactly does it mean? What is being figured, and into what?


texts: If the sentence is evidenced, what should be used (v. to be) or (must be)?

texts:
In these two examples according to the 1st one what should the 2nd one be?

(1) He (must be) an officer. He wears a uniform and has a gun.

(2) John____a doctor. He wears an ID and people call him Dr John.

a) is  b) must be

Me and my friends discussed it but we still can’t get it.
some of us think that John is 100% a doctor so it’s (is) as it’s a fact

The other ones think that because there’s a justification in the example so it’s (must be) as if the sentence was (he is a doctor) it wouldn’t be necessary to give a justification.
So which one is true?


texts: I need another way to say "will be able to be used"

texts: The sentence is "The analyses will be able to be used to update job descriptions and to develop transitional work programs."


texts: Is "I love her more when she got older." correct or "I love her more when she gets older."


texts:
While purchasing in Walmart, after sliding my card the card machine was saying "Waiting on cashier".

What does "waiting on" mean in this case and how it differs from "waiting for"? Would that be wrong to say "waiting for cashier" ?


texts:
I have noticed in British TV shows the common usage of 'mine' or 'yours' being used to mean 'my place' and 'your place' respectively. I spent a year in Britain in the early 1980s and I don't recall hearing this usage then.
When did it appear? Is it only a British or English thing?
What brought it to mind was when I heard it in Foyle's War which is set in the early 1950s. A possible anachronism?


texts: "on the back of" meaning and implications

texts:
A The Independent of London article, The rise and rise of Sudoku, reads:

  [...] sales of pencils in Britain are reported to have risen 700 per cent on the back of the Sudoku boom.

Question: Does the phrase "on the back of" imply correlation or causation in British English?


texts:
Is there a difference between these two, or is only one correct?

  I shoot him. I shoot at him. She will shoot you. She will shoot at you.

How about these two?

  The plane shot missiles at the base.

versus

  The plane shot the base at its weapons bunker.


texts: As someone who follows tech, I have heard over and over that a product is "X on steroids." Now, outside of a few ailments and allergies that are treated with steroids, it is pretty well accepted that steroids have a negative connotation. Why the dichotomy?


texts: Word or phrase for switching between multiple approaches

texts:
I seem to remember that there is a word or phrase to describe this following behavior, but I can't recall what it is.

The word describes a phenomenon where someone tries one approach to a problem, but then switches to another (possibly due to deficiencies in the original approach or just personal preference); this then repeats where the person abandons the second approach to pursue yet a third.

The word or phrase can be negative in connotation, but no not necessarily so.


texts: Are the names of machine learning algorithms capitalized?

texts:
I am editing a paper on machine learning techniques employed to predict study outcomes and I am not sure if the machine learning techniques should be capitlized or not. Consider the following examples:

  Of all presented decision trees, the Bagging Random Forest, which is a combination of the random forest and bagging, achieved the highest forecasting accuracy in predicting study outcomes. Accordingly, the Bagging Random Forest will be used in the Adaptive Boosting algorithm - and not all decision tree algorithms presented above. The results of all presented decision trees in comparison can be found in Tables 5a and 5b.

I've read different rules on nouns and proper nouns, and I know the general rule; unfortunately, I find that the English language is riddled with inconsistencies (in practice). Eg. 'pine' is the name of a type of tree, as such it is a proper noun, but I have never seen it--mid-sentence--capitlized.


texts: Bona fide; genuine; authentic: what's the difference?

texts:
I'm really confused here.

The dictionary definitions overlap, and memorizing them only confuses me further.

I would really appreciate some tips on this matter.


texts: Reading books and checking websites has/have helped them

texts:
Which is more correct to say?

Reading books and checking websites has helped them.

Reading books and checking websites have helped them.


texts: If you click on the share button at the bottom left of this question, you will see the text already selected, ready to be copied. What do you call this text? My answer is copied-ready text, but I would like to have a better name.


texts: When to use humanitarian sciences and human sciences in contrast? According to my uni materials, humanitarian sciences should have something to do with scientific function style of texts.


texts: Is there a word meaning "of or like the squid"?

texts: I would like to know if there is a word for being of or related to a squid like there are words for humans, eagles, and lions, i.e. hominine, aquiline, and leonine. I don't expect the word (if there is one) to end in "-ine"; I'm just trying to avoid using "squid-like."


texts: In this sentence, what parts of speech are the words 'next' and 'last'?

texts:
Could someone please tell me what the word 'next' and 'last' are? I mean the word class.

'it's your turn next ish'
'I read the letters last ish'

Thank you!


texts: Usage of "note (bill)" and "banknote" in AmE

texts: Do American English speakers use note to mean bill (as in ten-dollar bill)?  If so, is note a shortening of the word banknote?


texts:
"He is happy, isn't he?"

If you did not use the contraction isn't he, in the question above, would the correct sentence be:

"He is happy, is he not?"
"He is happy, is not he?"

Sentence #1 seems to have to have same meaning as the above question but does not become the subject complement of he?  Is #2 the grammatical equivalent albeit archaic or uncommon in modern English?


texts: "Multiple different" or "different" or "multiple"

texts:
I have seen a lot of people using multiple different when only  different or multiple would have conveyed the meaning just as well. Is this correct usage? I know that sometimes doubling the words is used for more emphasis but I am seeing this used a lot more frequently than I thought.

  We have multiple different sizes to choose from.
  We have different sizes to choose from.
  We have multiple sizes to choose from.

If this is correct, is this something I just miss in school or is this a newer addition to the language? (My first language is not English, as you can probably tell from my post.)


texts: red handed war: is "red handed" specific to blood?

texts:
In my impression it is generally accepted that "red handed" referred to the blood-red evidence found on a thus discriminated criminal.

Then, what does "red handed war" mean?

  New-York daily tribune. 1848 (2nd collumn, first line)

  I sent you, to-night, a Telegraphic Dispatch, an-

  nouncing the arrival in this City of a Treaty of

  Peace. Yes, Peace, with angel fingers, has "fold-

  ed the banner of red handed war".

  Anti-slavery bugle.1846 (4th collumn, near top)

  "If this church divides, it is but another

  precursor of a division of the States and a red

  handed civil war."

I searched only one variation in only one search engine, and found two of seven 19th century results showing this quite different sense. Naturally one has to ask where the phrase, and its parts, came from, but this can often not be determined precisely. It seems difficult to explain this sense derived from a set phrase "caught red handed" and thus unlikely to have been its original use and meaning.

I found it unlikely, though not impossible, actually even convincing, that "blood-" was the original sense. It's pretty hard to search for a term that is not precisely known, more so if taboo could be stipulated as the reason for its absence. So please forgive me if I didn't even try.

Its meaning is broader than murder or violence and could, today at least, describe a thief with pockets full of loot leaving the premisses through a window. This is more likely if no such forbidding sense as "murder" is inherently attached.

I rather suppose a link to rude (< Lat "rudis"), for several reasons. I'll spare you the details. I don't mean the question to be preoccupied, though I am.

Disclaimer: I'm not sure how broad is too broad for a question. Feel free to read and answer as narrow as you like. Not answering at all would be most narrow, implying there was no connection--that's not to say narrow-minded.

Suppose it matters, What is "red handed war"?
What's the oldest use of "red hand-"
Has it always implied blood? Does it, now? How was it coined?
Could it be a mondegreen, a reinterpretation within English? (if you answer to this, and not just not "Yes", but clearly "No" then you need a very strong reason; As strong as the requirement you would hold to an argument for a positive answer).

PS: After Tim Lyminton's answer I noticed mens rea and in medias res, "guilty mind" and "in the middle of the thing [deed, act, crime]". Of course, I can't establish a secure connection, neither with red, nor rew, and much less rude, nor G ruhe "quiet, still" so I will have to accept the given answer for now.


texts: Where does the word "humbug" originally come from?

texts:
This question reveals the history of the peppermint sweet's name, but does not elabourate on how the word was first formed.

At first glance, it would seem to be a portmanteau or the like just from the word "bug"; is this at all pertinent?

Etymonline is left clueless, quoting the OED who appear that have also given up:

  1751, student slang, "trick, jest, hoax, imposition, deception," of unknown origin. Also appearing as a verb at the same time, "deceive by false pretext" (trans.). A vogue word of the early 1750s; its origin was a subject of much whimsical speculation even then. "[A]s with other and more recent words of similar introduction, the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention" [OED].

I'm sure the users of EL&U can dig deeper and find out where exactly the word humbug comes from.

Can you build on "unknown origin"?


texts: Could you please what does Sartre mean when he says that:"freedom alone can account for a person in his totality."? And what does "account" mean in this sentence?


texts: Should I use "such that," "so that," or "in a way that"?

texts:
I'm trying to edit a user guide in which the word such is used frequently  to describe the way things have to be done. For example:

  Step 1: Position the frame on the cone using the sliding bar, such that/so that/in a way that the cursor of the meter is on the crosshairs.

Or

  Step 4: Position the lens such that/so that/in a way that the lower segment marking is on the measuring dial.

Which usage correct? Should I use a different phrase?


texts: What does permeate mean in this sentence?

texts:
"I like girls who are just as confident without make-up on than when they are when it permeates their face."

I saw it on Twitter.

In this sentence, does permeate mean when makeup covers the whole face?


texts: What is the difference between a part of speech and a syntactic function / grammatical relation?

texts:
What is the difference between a part-of-speech and a function? In other words:

What is a part of speech. (e.g. noun)
What is a grammatical function. (e.g. head, subject)

[read "grammatical relation" or possibly "syntactic role", if you prefer that terminology to "grammatical function" - see John Lawler's comments below]

What is the difference?
If we use a part of speech which is often used in one function, in a different function, does it change the part of speech of the word? For example, if we use a noun (let's say some nouny word that we can often  observe functioning as a subject) as an adjunct, does it become an adverb?

Bounty Edit Note

These don't have to be addressed in different sections. One well illustrated paragraph which addresses the different concerns would be as welcome as a longer post with several parts!

I am hoping, though, that an answer to this question will, of course, give a description of what a grammatical function and part of speech actually are and not skip straight to the noun/adverb illustration!

I originally also asked about whether a noun used to modify another noun becomes an adjective as an example of a change of function. However, that has been covered in another question recently - though feel free to use it to illustrate your answer, if you'd like.

Motivation

Here's an example of why the question is interesting. In answers in rseponse to this question:

What exactly is an "adverb"?

... several posts seem to indicate that a word's part of speech is determined by its function in a particular sentence. In other words, most answers on that page seem to argue that a part of speech is determined by how a particular word is being used. This is underlined in the top-voted and much linked-to answer:

    ... you will find that they have a category of adverb called a noun-adverb, meaning a noun used in a slot expecting an adverb, analogously to how a noun-adjective is a noun used in a slot expecting an adjective.

I wonder, however, whether functions and parts of speech can in fact be conflated in this way.


texts:
OED reads as follows,

TO: PREPOSITION
IV Followed by a word or phrase expressing a limit in
extent, amount, or degree.

Indicating a limit or point attained in
degree or amount, or in division or analysis, and thus expressing
degree of completeness or exactitude: As far as; to the point of; down
to (an ultimate element or item), as in to a hair (hair n. 8 c),
to the last man; to a man (including every man, without exception);
within (a limit of variation or error), as to an inch, to a day.

Yet, I do not know what the "a" exactly means ("one" as in a countdown?).
Unfortunately the punctuation makes it really difficult.
According to Webster's, unlike to a man or to a nicety, neither to a day or to an inch are idioms.


texts:
what is the meaning of "The binding is fragile" ?
I saw it in one of the harry potters movie. But didn't know what it means
UPDATE: pretend that someone wants to take your book away from you and you don't want it to do.It insists and tells you why
you say "The binding is fragile"

Thanks.


texts:
Is there any rule stating what kind of adjectives can be nominalized (i.e. used as nouns)? I did some googling but could not find any examples of "impoverished" being used as a noun (e.g. housing for the impoverished)
(whereas I could find a lot of examples of adjectives like "poor" being used as a noun, e.g. housing for the poor. Most dictionaries even have an entry of "poor" as a noun)


texts: "alarm", "vanity" - April 3 1812 Letter by James Monroe

texts:
Such a measure, even for a limited and short time, is always liable to adverse as well as favorable considerations; and its operation at this moment, will add fuel to party discontent, and interested clamor. But it is a rational & provident measure, and will be relished by a greater portion, (Footnote 1) of the Nation, than an omission of it. If it could have been taken sooner and for a period of 3 or 4 months, it might have enlisted an alarm of the B. Cabinet, for their Peninsular System, on the side of Concessions to us; and wd have shaken (Footnote 2) their obstinacy, if to be shaken at all; the successes on that Theatre, being evidently their hold on the P. Regt and the hold of both on the vanity & prejudices of the nation. Whether if adopted for 60 days, it may beget apprehensions of a protraction, & thence lead to admissible (Footnote 3) overtures, before the sword is stained (Footnote 4) with blood, can not be foreknown with certainty. (Source)

I. Does vanity mean defnition 1 or 2 at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/vanity?q=vanity?
Would someone please explain how they ascertained the meaning?
I'd like to be enlightened about the thought processes.

II. I'm tentative about "enlisted an alarm of the B. Cabinet"? The definitions of enlist don't figure?

  [mass noun] Excessive pride in or admiration of one’s own appearance or achievements:
  [mass noun] The quality of being worthless or futile


texts: I can't find the word "listicles" in my English dictionary and I would like to know if it exists please.


texts:
My son picked this phrase up from a TV show {possibly Scrubs} but a simple search of the internet suggests several meanings. We usually have it as "That was friendly {a kiss, cat licking your face, baby's touching your cheeks}, now back away and give me my personal space back {tired of your breath, tired of your fur in my nose, your chocolate covered fingers on my face}."
Where did this phrase start? And how long has it been around?


texts:
How do they call a trip that you sleep in one place and each day you go to another direction?
Is there a name or a slang for this?
I want to search for information about that kind of trip and I don't know what should I write in the search engine.
(in Hebrew we call it a 'star trip')


texts:
Many sources (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, for a start) suggest the word "fluke" has mostly positive connotations when used in the sense of "accident." That is, "a fluke" properly describes a lucky accident, not just any accident.

However, I sometimes hear this word used to refer to negative and to unmarked accidents. Is such usage, strictly speaking, correct?

To me, the best proof in support would be an example of the broader use by a first-rate writer.


texts: Preface/Appendix but for the middle of a document

texts:
I have a document with several numbered chapters. If I added extra information at the end of the document, I would call it an Appendix. However, what if I added a non-numbered chapter (for extra information) between two numbered chapters?

I was thinking of calling it something like an "intermission" or an "aside", but I wondered if there is a specific term for this.


texts: The meaning of "You cannot go out and hang out with your friends."

texts:
My mom said,

You cannot go out and hang out with your friends.

I know there is only one meaning to this, which is:

I can't do: go out and hang out with my friends.

Question:
If my mom don't want me to do neither of them, she uses

You cannot go out or hang out with your friends.

Is that right?


texts: Definite article with "Wiener filtering", an uncountable noun

texts:
I have a sentence something like this

  We apply Wiener filtering to obtain a solution.

In this "Wiener filtering" is a uncountable noun. I am not sure whether "the" is required before it.


texts:
Tag Question — Does it sometimes border upon a comma splice?

I think it looks nice, do you? (This is a comma splice, correct?)

Shouldn't we technically use a period after "nice" in this sentence to avoid the splice?

Correct would be:

I think it looks nice. Do you?

But if we use don't instead of do in the sentence above, then I would think that we've eliminated a potential comma splice. (See below.)

I think it looks nice, don't you?


texts: Can I use "usually" to mean "not always"?

texts:
I had a conversation earlier and something struck me as not being right.
I will denote myself by M and the caller as C.

phone rings

M:"Hello."

C:"Is your grandfather there?"

M:"I am not sure to be honest, he usually answers the phone if he is here,that's why I left it ring for a while sorry."

C:"or he could be out the back"

...

My question:

Given that I said "usually" does that cover the possibility that he could be here and not answer due to being out the back garden? If I said "always", that would mean that regardless whether he is in the house or out the back garden he would answer the phone.

Sounds like a trivial matter, just I had a look in the dictionary and got

Usually: Under normal conditions.

Has the person on the other end of the phone not interpreted what I have said correctly or am I misusing the word usually?


texts: Is there a single word that means "next year"?

texts:
I remember reading a text (I think it was written in Early Modern English, so the word I'm thinking of might be kind of archaic) and seeing just one word that meant "next year," would anyone happen to know it?
I've Googled a fair couple of rewordings of this question and nothing has turned up (which makes me worry I've just misremembered reading such a word). All of the online thesauruses I've looked at suggest synonyms that still use two or more words ("the coming year," "the following year," etc.)


texts:
I am an English native speaker working with non-native English teachers. In one of our texts, we came across the following sentence:

  ABC Mall has the most comprehensive loyalty rewards program of any malls in the area.

But to me, this doesn't seem correct. "of any mall" is more natural, but they state that "any" can go before plural nouns too. And while I agree, this depends on the sentence and the structure itself.

So, is "of any mall" correct? or "of any malls"? And why?


texts: What does "living inside your own head" mean in this paragraph?

texts:
Can you explain for me the expression "living inside your own head" in this paragraph?

  The practice of living in the moment while being aware of reality is a good and natural state of mind, but being self-conscious, living inside your own head while being excessively conscious of your appearance or manner, is a bad and unnatural side effect of your socialization. It is the result of having heard too many comments that you should “think about what other people would think of you” and having seen your own face too many times in manmade mirrors


texts: Conditional sentences. Punctuation in the main clause which is a compound sentence

texts:
If event A happens, event B will happen, and event C might happen.

Do I need to put a comma before "and?"


texts: Morphological process for derivation of the word "ish" from suffix "-ish"?

texts: "Ish" is a recently derived word (free root) conveying a sense of "so-so" or approximation.  It is most commonly used as an adjective but occasionally as an adverb.  I would not be at all surprised to see it appear in standard dictionaries within the next decade.  Is there a term for the morphological process that derived the term "ish" from the derivational suffix "-ish"?  Or is this an example of slang/colloquial usage?


texts: Word for someone who gets angry the other person for being proved wrong or pointing out something wrong

texts:
A roommate of mine always confuses me. I'm trying to put a word to what she does. When she drinks others milk, eats their food, and they point it out to her (after watching her do it), she just yells "FUCK. FUCK. Fine. I'll buy you a new one. Everyone's always blaming me for taking their stuff. SHIT.", then continues to bad mouth the person who pointed it out when they leave the room. Then a few minutes later, she realizes that she did indeed use the wrong milk carton, and all is back to normal. That brief moment of random anger and hostility instead of rational behavior is what confuses me.

Or if she is proven wrong about something, or has a tough time writing a paper, the same emotion comes out.

It's really weird.. and I can't describe the irrational emotions.


texts:
"When are we going to appreciate that vaccines are the single greatest human invention, that have saved billions of lives."

Is it right to use the singular "invention" here? If yes, should it be has instead of have?


texts: I have seen the expression, "X is the Hilbert space in which the element x lives". As a native speaker, this seems quite sloppy to me. Is there a more succinct way to formulate this expression?


texts:
This is a linguistic term I came across recently, but I can't quite remember it - and searching for it is downright impossible!

The word implies that context is not required for a particular word.

"He" or "said" or "the" mean nothing by themselves but "Denied" written on an application doesn't need any further grammatical context. Similarly if you say you passed an exam, and someone replies "ecstatic!" there is no ambiguity; no requirement for the person to say "I am ecstatic" - its meaning stands alone.

Anybody familiar with this term?


texts: "The only witness is a prostitute!" What do you call this type of rhetoric in English?

texts:
The defense attorney:

  “…and finally, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client can never
  be considered legally guilty unless the prosecutor can prove it beyond
  a reasonable doubt. And, consider this seriously: the only putative
  witness is a prostitute.”

What do we call this type of rhetoric or fallacy in English?


texts: Use of "Here's" before a plural noun / noun phrase

texts:
I haven't ever read "Here is the potatoes." but I have read/heard sentences like "Here's the potatoes." and "Here are the potatoes."

Look at the following sentences:

  Here's the details.
  Here’s all the ways you can look at this problem.
  Here’s some things you should know.

I found the following, but it's difficult to find more than plain opinions.

  Actually, though, there’s no prohibition against using “here’s” before a plural. As with “there’s,” you could make the case that putting “here’s” before a plural is standard in common speech -- idiomatic. So I’m not critical of people who make that choice unless they happen to be members of the media writing for publication. News organizations strive to avoid sloppy, informal, ungrammatical forms. They hold themselves to a higher standard, which seems like a good idea to me.

(Citation: 'Here's' or 'There's' Before a Plural – Grammar Underground with June Casagrande)

I acknowledge it is not convention or purist to do so, but rather how English is used by a dominant percentage of English speakers around the world (arguable).

QUESTION: Can you provide some literature that explains the phenomenon, and provide some insight on whether the use of "Here's" is legitimate before plurals while expressing colloquial English?


texts: What do you call a connecting room that's too short to be a corridor, or even a hallway?

texts:
Imagine a room in the shape of a pentagon, a bit taller than this one:
⌂
The angled walls are scarcely wider than the bedroom doorways set into them. The other connected rooms have no common theme, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a dining room. There's a cupboard built into one of the walls and on the opposite wall, a mirror concealing an auxiliary electric panel. There is a light switch for the connected bathroom, and another switch for the ceiling light. Aside from these things and a rug, the room is featureless.
Surely this isn't a hallway or corridor - there's an implication of length. I've begrudgingly accepted connecting room as a placeholder, at least it's not hub.


texts: Why is the colour green associated with both growth and illness?

texts:
Why is the colour green often associated with negativity? Green is paired with jealousy, envy, vomit, immaturity, etc. Yet it is the colour of growth and freshness. In other words, the natural association of the colour green is with something positive.

This is true down to its etymology, as the OED reports that the same Old German root grô- forms the basis for green, grass, and growth. And it says of green that  "the associations with verdure, freshness, newness, health, and vitality are widespread among the Germanic languages."

But, in English, (besides its use as growth) it is often symbolic of something negative, especially disease, which in some senses is the opposite of growth. Why is this? Is the origin of this association known?

Etymonline suggests that green is the "color of jealousy at least since Shakespeare (1596)" (how/why exactly?). Could this be the source? If not, are there other explanations?

Note: yes, other colours can be associated with both positive and negative things, but this question asks about green.


texts:
With seemingly increasing frequency I come across a phrase using 'learn' when I think it should be 'teach'.

The classic example is 'that will learn them!', as in "Shoot all criminals - that will learn them!". I thought this was being deliberately wrong for comedic effect, in keeping with the general sentiment of the sentence.

Another example from a Stack Exchange site (http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/53880/stuff-you-should-have-learned-in-school-but-didnt-pay-attention-to-at-the-time)

  I don't know if you can learn someone
  to write at this age

Am I being overly fussy/old fashioned or is this just wrong?


texts:
I'm editing a legal document and my client was very specific about not removing words like "may," "shall," and "must." I'm having trouble rewording sentences like the following

  This bill permits a notary public may select one or more tamper-evident technologies to perform notarial acts with respect to electronic records.

Please help!


texts: What is the meaning of not in "as often as not" and "as likely as not"?

texts:
Am I failing to get a point here?

  Collins English Dictionary:

  as often as not: quite frequently

  as likely as not: very probably

Considering the meanings of these phrases, to my eye, they come to have connotations not in line with their real meanings.

Before consulting my dictionary I envisaged that as often as not would most probably mean just about never rather than quite frequently, and that as likely as not would be associated more with impossibility than with high probability.In short, I expected not, in the phrases above, to have the same implication as nothing does in, for example, as good as nothing.

Do you think not in these phrases is of some connotation different from what its commonplace definitions convey? Do you ever believe the component words preserve their meanings after these phrases are broken down and thus, are we supposed to treat the phrases the way idioms are treated?

I found one answer, but with no reference so far.


texts: "Good"="many" in "qualified with good years of teaching experience"?

texts:
What is the probability of "good" being interpreted to mean "many" rather than "positive" in this particular sentence:

All the teachers are Professionally qualified with good years of teaching experience.


texts: "meeting called to order" vs "meeting call to order"

texts:
Which do you think is more appropriate, "Meeting call to order" or "Meeting called to order" if it's used in a printed meeting program?

As for now, the program looks like this:

13:45 [Doors open]
14:00 [Meeting called to order] [Opening Remarks & Welcome Guests]
14:05 [Business session]
14:10 [1st speaker]
... and so on.

A native English speaker from England says "Meeting called to order" is more appropriate, whereas some supervisor pointed out that it should be "Meeting call to order."

To me, it looks a little confusing when "called" (past particle) and "to order" (infinitive) are used together. It's because past particle can be used for both 'passive' and also 'perfect' tense, while infinitive can imply 'future tense' for something that is yet to be taken place. Thus, I find "Meeting call to order" visually less troublesome, as "Meeting call" shows up as a noun phrase.

So, my question is,

Which is more idiomatic and frequently used?
Are both grammatically accepted? And if not, which one is correct and why?

If you could provide me with some explanation, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!


texts: Using "despaired" as a replacement for "said" or "asked"

texts:
May I say:

  "Why does this happen?" despaired Ralph.

Or if not, do you have any suggestions as to a suitable replacement for the placid "asked". What I'm looking for is a mixture of despaired and entreated.


texts:
Please let me know which sentence is correct. I have faced the first and third one in the Longman dictionary, but dictionaries are prone to typos and errors. So I couldn't be sure which one is correct and which one is not. Please help me know.

  The verb is in the past tense.
  The verb is in past tense.
  The verb is past tense.


texts:
How to understand the word "cast" here?

  The modern British artist Helen Chadwick invented a winter game by urinating in the snow and making casts of the melted spaces.

Source: The Guardian

The "cast" could be a flower, a fish, or whatever. Why call them casts but not images, pictures, scenes, or snow works or something else?


texts:
In software interfaces, technical documentation, scientific documentation and legal documents, I see phrases like:

The build is failed.
The test is failed.
If the test is failed,...

It seems more appropriate to me that these statements should use "has" instead of "is." But, considering that I encounter this frequently, it seems to be acceptable English. Why?
EDIT
Examples, in-context:

Step 'master>Build Project' is failed.
If at any time during the test the subject detects the banana like
odor of IAA, the test is failed.
If a required recertification test is failed.
The component contributes to system failure when a minimal cut set,
containing the component, is failed.


texts:
Is the phrase "The next big thing" considered a formal or a slang phrase?

Especially when communicating with a professional committee.


texts: How to properly say "the email that I've sent you"?

texts:
What would be the most formal way to say the following:

I wanted to see your thoughts about the email that I sent you last Thursday.

I am a little unsure about "the email that I sent you". I feel there should be a more professional way to say this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated it!

PS: Directed to a prospective employer.


texts: Formal alternative for "like" and "such as"?

texts:
Is there a more formal way of saying:

"In most western countries, such as the United States, an increased level of ... has been observed."

Or should such a sentence be rephrased completely?


texts: What is a word for a person who trusts (someone else)?

texts:
Alfred trusts Bob.
In some contexts — especially legal or financial — we might call Bob a trustee. Following this vein (and pursuing a notion of generalization) what might we call Alfred? A truster?
Bonus question: Is there a name for the thing that Alfred trusts Bob with?
In working around this question I came up with a few other somewhat related concepts.

guarantor. What do we call the recipient of the guarantee? The guaranteed? (Note the disambiguation required between the person who is being guaranteed something, and the object being guaranteed).
contributor. What do we call the recipient of the contribution?

Are these examples of some broader set of English words (or ideas)?


texts:
This is a general question I had in years. When we want to declare possession, we use the apostrophe and the s.

For example: Bayern's best goalkeeper is Oliver Kahn.

What about the words that end with an s though? If I put the trailing s there, it doesn't sound nice to me.

If you have a better title in mind, please let me know.


texts: I'm trying to find a word to describe a restaurant space that is the opposite of cozy. The only word I can think of is cavernous, however I don't wish to give the sense that the space is particularly large. It's simply that it is not cozy.


texts:
Given it's nearly Easter, I was eating some fruity Jelly Beans (I had forgotten how good they are) and my Indian friend said that he loved them because he had "sweet teeth".

I corrected him, saying 'for reference we'd usually say, "I have a sweet tooth"', but I couldn't think of a reason why besides convention.

I found it in some old books from the 17th century, but some other sites claim it comes from the 14th century.

I realize the term refers to a person's fondness towards sweet tasting foods, but how did it start to be so? And how come it's not plural?


texts: "poorly react to" vs. "react poorly to..."

texts:
Where should the adverb "poorly" go in this sentence?

The primer and coating poorly react to...
The primer and coating react poorly to...


texts: Word for a person who always wanted to get his expected results

texts:
What do you call a person who always wanted to get his expected results?

I'm looking for a trait of a person that means who always wanted to get his expected results.

For example: a person ordered a soup and he feels upset when the taste doesn't satisfy him because he is expecting some taste in the soup he ordered.


texts: Is there a derogatory word for "mobile phone" (cellphone) similar to "idiot box" for a television?

texts:
My father called our TV "the idiot box".  Implying either that it had idiots on it, was targeted at idiots, or you were an idiot if you watched it too much.

Is there any similar term in use but referring to mobile phones?


texts: "Something worked perfectly" vs "something worked perfect"

texts: While grammatically the former one seems to be the only correct form (English is my second language, so let me know if I'm wrong here), the latter one appears to be used quite extensively, and I wonder if it's appropriate, too. Thanks!


texts:
I doubt they will exchange the 20 inch monitor.

OR

  I doubt they would exchange the 20 inch monitor.

Which is correct, and why?


texts: "Where have you been?" or "Where had you been?"

texts:
Which usage is correct?

  Where have you been?

  Where had you been?

Can we ask Where had you been as a past tense? Can I answer I had been which happened in the past?

Is the rhyme

  Pussy cat, Pussy cat, Where have you been?

  I have been to London to look at the queen

proper? Please elaborate.


texts: How to choose an abbreviation for a given word?

texts:
I was trying to find a proper abbreviation for the word dictionary.
Dict. or Dic. or something else?

Obviousely there won't be a short form for each English word. But if there does exist one, how can I find it? Is there a rule of thumb for choosing the right abbreviation for any given word?


texts: Is there a difference between "anatomic" and "anatomical"?

texts: I want to say "anatomical context". Google tells me that anatomical in that context is preferred. An online dictionary claimed that American English does not have anatomic but only knows anatomical.


texts: Meaning of "That response really put the 'luke' in lukewarm"?

texts:
I was watching a TV series when I came across this sentence. What does it mean? Where does this expression come from?
The context was the following: A mother told her daughter that she got engaged, the girl's response was not very interested and she only said "wow" (in a sarcastic way). Then, the mother said: "Now, that response really put the 'luke' in lukewarm."


texts: "Further the goal": is this use correct?

texts:
Does the word "Further" fit naturally in the following sentence?

"The modern thinkers believe that by attracting the young generation towards museums, the management furthers the fundamental goal of the museums which is to educate the masses about their history."

Here I want to say that the goal of the museums is to educate the masses, and that the management can get closer to reaching this goal by attracting the young generation.


texts: What distinguishes a predicative complement from an object?

texts:
Asked this on ELL but with no answer:

What makes be an intransitive verb? How do we know that the analysis of It is me as transitive by tradtional grammars is incorrect?

Take for example:
1. I gave an [dO apple] to [iO her] 2. It was her.

In 1, gave is a transitive verb with the direct object "an apple" . In 2, it is argued that "her" is not an  object because be is an intransitive verb (?), so "her" is not a direct object in 2, like it is in 1 (indirect object).

And how does this analysis apply to other verbs, like hurt from the example below:

How to tell if hurt in It hurt me is a a predicative complement? "Hurt" can be replaced by other to be linking verbs (is, was etc.). Even though (is, was) are stative verbs and hurt is more of an action verb.

  The following verbs are true linking verbs: any form of the verb be [am,is, are, was, were, has been, are being, might have been, etc.],become, and seem. These true linking verbs are always linking verbs.

  Then you have a list of verbs with multiple personalities: appear, feel,grow, look, prove, remain, smell, sound, taste, and turn. Sometimes these verbs are linking verbs; sometimes they are action verbs.

  How do you tell when they are action verbs and when they are linking verbs?

  If you can substitute am, is, or are    and the sentence still sounds logical, you have a linking verb on your hands.

  If, after the substitution, the sentence makes no sense, you are dealing with an action verb instead.

  Source: http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/linkingverb.htm

Normally action verbs have direct objects, but nearly all verbs can be used as transitve and intransitive. For example the verb drive. Compare:

  He drives fast

  and

  "He drives the car fast".

The first is a predicative complement, while the second is not as drives is being used transitively with its object "the car".

In

  It was given to her

Her is an object because of the verb "given" being used transitively and is not a predicative complement.

But in,

  It hurt me
  It is me

Why is me automatically an object in It is me, even though verbs themselves can be transitive or intransitive: what makes be automatically intransitive? and why is me in It hurt me automatically an object when hurt can be a transitive and intransitive verb:

  I am hurt (intransitive) - predicative complement  He says his tooth hurts (intransitive) - ?  [He/she] has been hurting ever since learning of her friend's betrayal (intransitive) - ?

According to above, can the verb "hurt" be a reporting verb relating the feelings of the subject like (I feel hurt) or (I am hurt) in "It hurt me", rather than an action verb?

If it is seen as an action verb, me is an object, while the other interpretation is that there is no object and hurt is being used intransitively in "It hurt me". If hurt is being used intransitively, does that mean the pronoun me is a complement? If not what is "me" in "It hurt me"?


texts:
I read the following on a website and I was wondering if it was okay? Because the books only talk about the standard three forms. What would it mean if we changed the second part of the statement to 'wouldn't have been'?

If we talk about a  past action and its result in the present we use if + past perfect and would not + infinitive:
If he hadn't done well on the training courses, he wouldn't be a Project leader now.

At the same time what is the different between the following:

If you had gone over that question in your note-book, would you be able to answer question No. 2?
If you had gone over that question in your note-book, would you have been able to answer question No. 2?


texts:
Why are we not allowed to use the "used to" in the following sentences?

I used to work hard last month.
I used to live in London three years ago.

And could you please recommend a grammar book for advanced learners.


texts:
How can I write the inverted sentence included continuous tense?

For example,
(A) On the hill were training many people.
(B) On the hill were many people training.

Can I write the sentence both way?


texts: What exactly does "sweep me off my feet" mean? (And why?)

texts:
Although the phrase "sweep me off my feet" probably means, "make me fall in love with you in a short time", what does it exactly mean, because "sweeping" can be difficult to be associated with "love".  (It can be difficult to read the words "sweeping" and "feet" to get a feeling that it means love).

Below is one of its usage in Steve Jobs's letter to his wife:

  We didn’t know much about each other twenty years ago. We were guided
  by our intuition; you swept me off my feet. It was snowing when we got
  married at the Ahwahnee. Years passed, kids came, good times, hard
  times, but never bad times. Our love and respect has endured and
  grown. We’ve been through so much together and here we are right back
  where we started 20 years ago—older, wiser— with wrinkles on our faces
  and hearts. We now know many of life’s joys, sufferings, secrets and
  wonders and we’re still here together. My feet have never returned to
  the ground. -- Steve Jobs


texts: How to convert participial phrase into full clause/sentence

texts:
I have just read an article, which has following sentence:

The power failed repeatedly throughout the day, adding to the chaos

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/climate/record-heat-waves.html

Such examples continue to confuse me. It seems to be describing action/state of frequent power failure, so it must be acting as an adverb. This website explains that participial phrases act as adverbs where there is a cause-and-effect relationship between a dependent and an independent clause. This seems appropriate explanation for the sentence I shared.

My question is how one can form unreduced version of such participial phrases. For the above sentence, I can think of one possible version of its full form:

The power failed repeatedly throughout the day, which added to the chaos.

Based on shortening rules, we can delete 'which' and convert 'added' into 'adding'. But, as far as I know, adjective not adverb clauses start with 'which'. So, above version of full-sentence may be incorrect.

So, I would like to know:

How can one tell if participial phrase is acting as an adjective or adverb?
For such confusing phrases, how can one full-form of sentence?


texts: "Tell me why I should marry you" or "Tell me why should I marry you?". Which is correct?

texts:
I have always followed the former rule, i.e, "Tell me why I should marry you" (without a question mark). But my cousin insists the latter is correct. He seems equally confident that he is correct. So can you please answer which is correct? Or are both correct?

Or the following example would illustrate my question better:

  Give me reasons why I should marry you.
  Give me reasons why should I marry you?

Which of the above is correct?


texts: Is there a technical (and less gruesome) term for "execution squad" mentality?

texts:
A while back on Meta Stack Exchange, Shog9 described an "execution squad" mentality:

  First, if we're gonna do this then let's make it worthwhile: 1 vote == closed, regardless of how many other votes or flags are in play. My biggest beef with close voting is the execution-squad attitude it seems to inspire among folks: "oh, I don't want to take responsibility for closing a question, I just want to be one of the mob throwing stones". If we're gonna give more weight to votes from folks who according to their past participation we should be able to trust with them, I want them to be taking that extra responsibility seriously.

The execution squad attitude can actually be used beneficially — it can help people feel more okay with taking a very significant action which they know could be a bad idea, especially when you provide anonymity during the process. They're not the sole person doing it so they don't have to be absolutely 100% positive (surely one of those other people will be, right?), and if it was a stuff-up other people are equally to blame. It increases participation in scenarios like the close votes on Stack Exchange, or, you know, execution squads!

I'd like to be able to discuss this attitude at times. I'd like to be able to google it and learn more about it, and I'd like to mention it to people who can google it and learn what it means. Currently googling "execution squad attitude" and "firing squad attitude" just get me irrelevant results about current affairs and firing squads (but not the psychology behind them), and probably get me a little closer to being put on some kind of law enforcement watch list.

Is there a technical term for this mentality? Preferably, one that isn't gruesomely connected to executioners?


texts:
What is that sound called, when one produces a short demeaning (almost as if looking down upon the other person) sound, which might be followed by a very cunning smile.

Example:

A: The US is pressurizing Iran on genuine grounds. It has no horses of its own in that race.

B: That Sound, Are you really that dumb?


texts: superlative and "elative": What is "Elativ" in English?

texts:
I always forget that "elative" is no grammar term in English.

In Latin grammars (at least in German ones) "Elativ" is a superlative form that is not translated as superlative but
with "very/highly", expressing a high degree but not the absolutely highest degree.

What is the English term for an expression such as:
- a most interesting novel


texts: I have analyzed a sentence. Please let me know if you see mistakes

texts:
For a class I am practicing analyzing sentences. This question is not my homework; it is self-directed practice. The sentence is from today's New York Times. The link is below.

As it resurges across the country, the coronavirus is forcing universities large and small to make deep and possibly lasting cuts to close widening budget shortfalls.

[As it resurges across the country] Prepositional phrase acting as an adj, modifying coronavirus.
[the coronavirus] - Subject
[is forcing] - verb
[universities large and small] Indirect Object
[to make deep and possibly lasting cuts] infinitive phrase, acting as Direct Object
[to close widening budget shortfalls] infinitive phrase acting as an adjective modifying the Direct Object
Link to original sentence: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/us/colleges-coronavirus-budget-cuts.html


texts:
I found a set of examples where I expect led instead of lead.

  In recent years the rise in the crime rate has lead to increased concern on the part of both the police and the general public.

While these are just a few examples the number of results on a Google search is impressively high:

have lead to (8,850,000 hits)
has lead to (22,000,000 hits)

I pondered if using have lead to could mean that someone "has a lead position" and the preposition to introduces a comparison, i.e. subordinate person. But I don't think so. At least the cited example and the sentences in the link contain typos or even grammatical errors.

Hence I wonder if there is any specific in have/has lead to or if just too many people don't know that the past participle of lead is led?


texts: The t, p, k sounds in stop, spit, skip when we whisper

texts: Technically speaking, when we whisper, do the t, p, k sounds in stop, spit, skip become the same as d, b, g?


texts:
We all have them.  Experiences we will never forget.  Fond moments we will forever cherish.

But I was surprised I could not think of any word to describe such a valuable thing.

Is there any word that means a precious memory?


texts: "the smell heard the singing off of the fragments"

texts:
This is a sentence from A Farewell To Arms:

  We both went flat and with the flash and bump of the burst and the smell heard the singing off of the fragments and the rattle of falling brick.

How could the smell be heard? You hear a sound not smell a sound.
What does singing off mean? I am really clueless of this sentence.


texts:
There is a list of 12 people in a certain area together with their Net Worth (in Billions/Millions). In that list, there is a caption "Juan Dela Cruz is the poorest", which is unacceptable to hear from most of our people.
It is somewhat great to hear when someone rephrase it as "least rich", however, most readers from our people don't accept this as a valid (I don't know why).
One rule for this is, "poorest among the rich" can't be accepted either.
Is there anything else we should use?
Does "least rich" really bad to use?


texts:
If the sense is plural, I believe we'd use 'whereabouts are', as in 'Their whereabouts are unknown.'

If the sense is singular, we'd use 'whereabouts is', as in 'His whereabouts is unknown.'

Can this be grammatically defended? Are the two examples above grammatically correct?


texts: Writing a list with different levels of importance

texts:
The following sentence has a list with three levels of importance with each level having a list of items.

Common carbonate minerals, mainly calcite and dolomite, to a lesser extent ankerite, and in few cases siderite, magnesite, or rhodochrosite, are reported as the principal constituents of carbonate rocks and are the base of the classification model.

Does 'to a lesser extent' and 'in a few cases' need to be set off by commas? I find that this makes the list more confusing.

Common carbonate minerals, mainly calcite and dolomite, to a lesser extent, ankerite, and, in few cases, siderite, magnesite, or rhodochrosite, are reported as the principal constituents of carbonate rocks and are the base of the classification model.

I have modified it many times but am unable to reduce its 'clunkyness'. Here are some of my attempts:

The classification model is based on the principal constituents of carbonate rocks; mainly calcite and dlolomite, to a lesser extent ankerite, and, in few cases, siderite, magnesite, and rhodochrosite.
The principal constituents of corbonate rocks are common carbonates, mainly calcite and dolomite, to a lesser extent ankerite, and in few cases siderite, magnesite, and rhodochrosite. These are the base of the classification model.

Are there any suggestions? What are the gramatic rules when using 'to a lesser extent' or other indicators of importance in a list?


texts: Expression for "a place where you could settle and live without having to ask for permission, pay taxes, ..."

texts:
On the History Stack Exchange they were talking about “white spots”. Is there a proper expression, a single word, or a phrase for such a place?

  By "white spot" I mean a place where you (if you were so inclined) could
      "legally" settle and live in some wilderness as a trapper or farmer without having to ask for permission, pay taxes, etc. (A place where you could get away with anarchy, if you will.)


texts: Where or how does one comes by phrases like “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request”?

texts:
I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means “no”.

How does one find more phrases like that? What are such type of phrase called?


texts: Preferred writing (adjective): ‘offshore’ or ‘off-shore’

texts: I wonder what the preferred writing is of ‘off-shore’/‘offshore’, as an adjective to, e.g., (wind) farm. From the answer given in the similar question about ‘off-road’/‘offroad’/‘off road’, I would guess ‘off-shore’ is appropriate. However, I see ‘offshore’ a lot in this context, for example on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_wind_power. So perhaps ‘offshore’ should not be viewed anymore as a compounding of ‘off’ and ‘shore’, but as a word on its own.


texts: Does a name go before or after the noun it modifies?

texts:
The sentence

  The user “john_smith” has been registered; go to the “User Profile” tab to view the user’s details.

reads more naturally to me than

  The “john_smith” user has been registered; go to the tab “User Profile” to view the user’s details.

but I’m not sure why. In particular, it seems wrong for john_smith to go before the word user, whereas User Profile can go either before or after the word tab (although it seems to flow a little better when it’s before).

What rules of grammar apply here?

UPDATE 5/19/2018: I’ve changed “John Smith” to “john_smith” to help clarify that it is supposed to be a unique “username” assigned to a new user.


texts: Writing “the class of 2014”  in a résumé?

texts:
Is “class of 2014” correct?

Is “class of ’14” correct?

Assuming the reader is aware of the context, is simply using “’14” correct?


texts:
Pretty much in the title but to make it more explicit:

You have a child X
X has a half-sibling Y
You are not in a relationship with either of Y's parents (formerly you were with one of them to produce X)

What do you call Y with respect to yourself?


texts: Word for a reservoir of *something* at my disposal

texts:
I am looking for a word or phrase that describes the following:

A customer purchases software and receives 10 hours of training that he can use according to his wants and needs.

The native language expression translates into "Hour Bank", but I don't know if that is proper, or if there is another accepted expression.

  You have 10 hours in your ____________.


texts:
I'm currently working on neologisms in medical terminology and there is a word 'unpatient' that's been a pain in the neck for me.

Here's the original source:

  New terms giving names to new realities such as immunostain,
  drunkorexia, cyberchondria or unpatient (Navarro 2007) are frequent in
  medical texts and constitute one of the most challenging and
  time-consuming aspects of medical translation (Montalt, forthcoming).

If there's anyone working with medical terminology, could you please explain what's the exact definition for 'unpatient' in this case?

I've also come across this website: http://unpatient.org/ but I'm still in doubts about how should I translate this word.


texts:
I hope it's not too rare, but at least 1 other person has confirmed having experienced a similar feeling.

Small, ordinary things can trigger it, in ordinary situations. Then I sometimes get the strange, transitory feeling like I'm on the verge of a huge discovery into the mystery of existence, the universe and stuff.

But then probably the consciousness recedes, because it's like your brain hits a wall, and it comes back down to more mundane, familiar things.

My question is: If ever anyone has documented such a phenomenon, is there a particular term in English that I can use to refer to precisely this feeling?


texts: Periods and contractions and abbreviations

texts: My question is about "Ms". I wonder what the period is for?   In 'British English', as opposed to 'American English', if the abbreviation ends in the same letter as the word there is no period.   But under no known variant of English, that I know of, is there a period after a word  just because it is very short and lacks a vowel unless the word is a contraction/abbreviation.


texts:
Today I read from a book the phrase “meditation is allowing what is”. Can anyone explain what this phrase means in other words?

Context:

  So let’s keep it simple. Our definition of meditation: Meditation is allowing what is.


texts:
In 1852, a US senator complained that the head of the census bureau presented medical statistics to congress when he lacked expertise in the field. When the bureau chief told the senator of the experts he consulted on the statistics, the senator said he "did not wish to be instructed" on the subject. The census man replied he only wished to "explain as to the misapprehension" the senator was under regarding the source of the statistics. The senator repeated his wish not to be "instructed." The census chief then remarked to the senator that "where information was needed, it was not so apt to be solicited." Whereupon the senator punched him in the face.

How would I rewrite the "not so apt" line for the modern reader?


texts: Introducing a paragraph that also contains colons

texts:
At work, sometimes I have to send people password reminders. Our experience shows that about half the time when people think they don't remember their password, they're actually mistyping their login name, so our practice is to always send both. But I never know how to introduce it.

  Your login credentials are:
  Username: jsmith
  Password: 123abc

That "doubled" colon just bugs the heck out of me. Is there a better way?

(And before you ask: yes, we send passwords as cleartext, and yes, that's secure enough for our purposes.)


texts: "missed from detection" or "missed to be detected"

texts:
I wrote a sentence like:

The AAA signals are missed to be detected by the XXX device.

Is it a correct sentence? Or the below one is a correct one:

The AAA signals are missed from detection by the XXX device.

Or both of them are correct?

Actually, I want to say that: the XXX device cannot able to detect the AAA signals.

The sentence format should be like the above one. Thanks.


texts: Are there any synonymous alternatives to the prefix "exo"?

texts: I'm specifically looking for another prefix that has the same or a similar meaning to "exo".


texts:
I have a movie (The wolf of wall street) I'm translating (subtitling) with the dialog below, and I really don't have a clue what this pass is about. I'd appreciate a help understanding it.

-I'm not gonna give you a fuckin' pass, just give me the case.
-Oh, you're not gonna give me a pass?
-Get out of here. Look, it's a figure fuckin' speech.
-Oh my God, the Emperor of Foxville
-Just give me the fuckin' case
-came down from Foxville to give me a pass!


texts: Do you think 'hands-on' is redundant in this sentence?

texts:
Coming from a design and technical background, I believe ......

  Coming from a hands-on design and technical background, I believe ......


texts: What language technique is 'She is pure guts and steel'?

texts:
I am doing an English assignment where I have to identify the language techniques used in a feature article.

I am confused as to what technique is used in "She is pure guts and steel."

I first thought it is an idiom or a phrase but I'm not sure if that's correct


texts:
In some pieces of writing it is needed to begin with the name of God; usually centered on top.

Is there any difference between the functionality of "In the name of God" and "In God's name"?

Please, bring suitable (and, if possible, academic) reference.

Thank you all, so much...


texts: Can someone suggest a single word for "village of dreams" in any language except the word "leonesse" as it has connotation of a place known for wines.


texts: Proper usage of "From abc to xyz" with multiple nouns

texts:
Here is an example sentence:

"All of my interactions with the community, from the movie that I watched with Joe in his office, to Robert's engaging recitation about songwriting, to my hallway discussions with current members, gave me the conviction that this is the place for me."

Should the "to my hallway..." clause begin with "to" or "and"?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Is this sentence correct:I already have posted the letter

texts: "I already have posted the letter."Is this correct


texts:
After being told over text that someone was cooking, I responded with “what?”. I thought to myself that that “what” could have different meanings - was I confused about what the person had said, or was I inquiring as to the food he was cooking?

In my head, depending on the meaning, it’d be said differently. If I was confused about what the person had said, “what” would be said with a stronger tone than if I was wondering what they were cooking.

Is there a general rule for this phenomenon?


texts: I am so confused by, for example, "People love their life or lives."

texts:
I am always confused by these tricky-in my opinion-ones as below.

For example,

People love their life or lives.
Girls always love their boyfriend or boyfriends.
People think of their college or colleges as an enjoyable place or enjoyable places.

My point is that every time I come across such things, I am not sure about whether an objective or a complement has to be plural, every time the subject is plural. Actually, in the ex1 sentence, I think both of them are what I have seen before. However, the rest 2 sentences are not so sure if I let them be singular. In the ex2, every girl has one boyfriend-IN MOST CASES. Also, in the ex3, everyone attends one college.

In that sense, since the subjects are plural, should the objectives or the compliment be pluralized? Or, is it okay if I leave them single as the ex1 sentence? The problem is, though, if I leave them singular they sound like they have ONE boyfriend to share or they go to the same college. It sounds weird to me. Is it just me or is this incorrect?


texts: Can you say "don't tell me" in a monologue?

texts: "Don't tell me" is often used in dialogues, for example "Don't tell me you're tired already!". But can you use it in a monologue? Let's say you have a character in a movie just talking to themselves. Would "don't tell me" be an appropriate substitute for "wait, could it be that he..." or something along these lines? Or does it sound wrong?


texts: What is it called when you accidentally mix two thoughts with the same meaning and end up saying something with the opposite meaning?

texts:
A common example would be a famous story on Internet that spawned a meme where someone accidentally combined "Are you okay?" and "I'm fucking sorry" and ended up saying "Are you fucking sorry?"

A recent example was when someone I was discussing something with accidentally combined "handy" and "useful" and ended up saying that it was "handful". (If something is "a handful" then it's pretty problematic, not very useful.)

This kind of mixup when you two thoughts with the same meaning accidentally combine into something with the opposite meaning happens so often that there must be a word for it. I'm looking for that word.

Such a word would be used in a sentence like this:

  Sorry, I just had an X.

or

  X happens to me a lot, but when it does I usually catch it before I actually say it.

I'm thinking it could be something like "antonymic synonym compound", because it compounds two nearly synonymic thoughts into an antonymic sentence, but this really isn't my field at all so I'm just talking in my night cap. If there's a word for it then it's probably more psychology oriented rather than linguistics.

Should I maybe have asked this in the Psychology StackExchange instead?


texts: What is the origin of the phrase "bad blood"?

texts:
I recently met someone who used this in the following way:

  ...you know I want to keep a good relationship with them. I told them I don't want any bad blood between us.

I'd never heard this before, but I understood it contextually, and I know what it means now.

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates the expression bad blood to the early 19th century:

  This term is based on the old association with blood and emotion, particularly anger. Versions such as ill blood preceded it; Charles Lamb was among the first to use the idiom in its current form in an 1823 essay.

But Merriam-Webster dates its usage much earlier:

  First Known Use of bad blood
  1664

Can anyone help clarify its origin and date its earliest usages?


texts: What is the difference between “venom” and “poison”? Both in usage and in meaning.


texts: What is the English for the Swedish word 'snippa'?

texts:
This report appeared in yesterday's Observer - page 22.

Little boys have a word for theirs. Now Swedish girls do too....

It begins: I only ever speak English to our three-year-old daughter, and my wife only speaks Swedish to her. The one exception is the word snippa. It’s Swedish for a girl’s genitals, the female equivalent of snopp, meaning “willy”, and I can’t find an English word that does the job.

What is the equivalent English word?


texts:
Which of the following two phrases is correct?

  I'd put him right there in the ranks of the best anthropologists out there.

OR

  I'd put him right there with the ranks of the best anthropologists out there.


texts: Use and Meaning of Capacity: Capacity Dropped below 15 %

texts:
Is the use of the term "capacity" in the following sentence right?
ICU capacity dropped below the 15 percent threshold in some regions.

I has been a bit baffled. The word "capacity" means the maximum amount that can be contained, so I though it a constant fixed figure that does not change easily--at least in the short term unless new ICUs are built.
But the sentence above, from an article on a major news site, says it "dropped", implying a change--a decrease--in capacity (supply of ICUs), as patient numbers (demand for ICUs) increased.
Please tell me how to define and understand the word "capacity."
Thanks for your exceptional knowledge.


texts:
I don't know why I love you, even when you are homeless.
  I don't know as to why I love you, even when you are homeless.

I am crazy because I don't know what the difference between these two sentences is.


texts: Positioned in a way that is ready to intercept?

texts: If you were to anticipate something, perhaps an opponents serve in a racket sport like tennis, what would you call such anticipation? It's an interception of course, but what else can it be called?


texts: Is there a name for a building that produces potions?

texts:
A few friends and I are developing a game that involves producing potions, however we're finding it hard to think of the name for a building suited to producing potions specifically.

Some names we have thought of include:

Workshop
Factory (This seems like more of a modern term, which goes against the setting of our game)
Brewery
Laboratory
Pharmacy

Does anybody know if there a more suitable name that we can use?


texts: Is there an idiom for "it was just an example"?

texts:
Are there any idioms or succinct ways of expressing your resignation when you

give an example
the other person reacts with: "that's not what I meant".

…but your intention was for the example to be interpreted metaphorically? "It was just an example."


texts: What is Mongolian Trait ? when referring to medical scores of a newborn child in USA

texts: What is Mongolian Trait? I have been unable to find the meaning to this My Niece was classified as having Mongolian Trait ..


texts:
I wonder whether can we call someone a genius boy? I've been using this term to describe my cousin until someone told me that the correct usage should be boy genius.

The question is: Can we say Aaron is a genius boy? Is it wrong?


texts: Meaning of the "don't spring on the inner-spring this spring or there will be an offspring next spring"

texts:
Today we encountered this tongue twister:

  Don't spring on the inner-spring this spring or there will be an offspring next spring

Is there any meaning of it? Or it's just a tongue twister without any meaning at all?


texts: a definition of the phrase " On both accounts"

texts:
hi
  I have a problem with this phrase " on both accounts". what's the definition? I see this phrase in TOEFL IBT tes 7. the student said two characteristic of something and the teacher said that.

****sorry I listen again to thas lecture and I think she said on both counts and this means in both ways. according to longman dictionary:  on all/several/both etc counts=in every way, in several ways etc


texts: Does the phrase "waste breath" always indicate talking in vain?

texts:
everyone,

I am wondering if the phrase "waste breath" always indicates wasting time and talking in vain.

Let's say a teacher said to his class: Since you do not understand this grammar rule, I'll have to waste my breath to explain.

My question:

1) Is it proper to use "waste breath" here?

2) If so, does "waste breath" here refer to wasting one's time talking or talking in vain, as the dictionary suggests, or simply mean taking time and effort to talk?


texts: Is it appropriate to express a sentence without verb?

texts:
Many native speakers expressing sentences without verbs while speaking,
For instance,

What you doing now?
How you doing?

Is it appropriate?


texts: What's the meaning of "dangling a line" ?

texts:
In the song called It Sure Took A Long, Long Time by LoBo. I face this line:

*I'm sure it might have grown old

Like most young things usually do

and dangling a line to try and find your mind

For that I can't blame you.*

I really get confused since  how " dangling a line" can be good match for " to try and find your mind". Because if I use dangle as a verb, it has two  meanings:

(1)  to hang or swing freely

(2)   dangle something to hold something so that it hangs or swings freely.

Both of them seem illogical.

So I guessed maybe "dangling a line" is the idiom, I googled and still get nothing.

Thanks in advance.


texts:
I found myself accidentally writing "threshhold" today, thinking semantically on the meaning.

Was there a time when "threshold" was spelt "threshhold"?  Or is the etymology of this word really an esoteric combination of "thresh" and "old"?


texts:
can I use present continuous and present simple in one sentence, like in my writings below?

1."There is no bird singing without a reason so don't tell me you cry for no cause."

2."The moments I don't think about you, I just think about why I'm not thinking about you"


texts: When did "to lumber" mean to move clumsily or heavily?

texts:
I recently used the word lumber to mean plodding heavily forward, when I wondered how it came to mean that. So, naturally, I Googled it.

A short entry on Etymology Online suggested it came into English around 1300, from the Swedish loma "move slowly, walk heavily".

The OED, though, gives an earlier date:

  13(??). E.E. Allit. P. B. 1094: Summe lepre, summe lome, and lomerande blynde.
  1530 Palsgr. 586/1, I hoble, or halte, or lomber, as a horse dothe, je cloche.
  1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 229 Let 'em not..lumber o'er the Meads: or cross the Wood.
  1728 Pope Dunc. iii. 294 Happier thy fortunes! like a rolling stone, Thy giddy dullness still shall lumber on, Safe in its heaviness shall never stray, But lick up every blockhead in the way.
  1771 Foote Maid of B. iii. Wks.  (?)
  1799 II. 229 Hush! I hear him lumbering in!
  1830 Scott Demonol. iii. 100 The massive idol leapt lumbering from the carriage.
  1852 Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. I. viii. 138 We..were pretty well agreed as to the inexpediency of lumbering along with the old system any further.
  1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy xxii. 153 ‘Ouch..!’ barked Royal lumbering outwards like a great pot-walloping elephant through the shallows.
  1902 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 400/1 They lumbered to attention as I entered.

I can see where, by 1899, lumber seems to have today's connotation. But the other entries suggest noise (I hear him lumbering in), or hobbled, or something I don't know at all: The massive idol leapt lumbering from the carriage. (?)

I may have answered my own question here, but is there a clearer point in which "to lumber" entered common English usage, meaning "to move clumsily or heavily"?


texts: What is an alternative phrase to "swept under the rug?"

texts: I am writing a poem for my Creative Writing class, and my teacher suggested I find a "more interesting alternative" to one of my lines. For context, my poem is about how dead kids are honored and put on pedestals and "never forgotten," but mentally ill kids are hidden away and ignored by society.


texts: Genderless version of "Better man than I"

texts:
I (a woman) frequently find myself wanting to reply to a statement with the phrase "You're a better man than I."

If I say this to a man though, it sounds absurd, and to a woman, potentially insulting. Is there a genderless equivalent for this phrase? The obvious choice, "a better person than I", seems to have a quite different connotation.

E.g. someone says to me, "I always eat my vegetables, and run a marathon every Tuesday," to which I reply, "You're a __________________ than I, " or "You're more _____________ than I."


texts:
I was looking at a legal text which went something like this "if you do not wish to receive said advertising check the box below...".

Is it correct to omit the definite article (the) before "said"? It doesn't sound right to my ears but I have seen this before in other texts apart from legal and its use seems extense.


texts:
This question comes from this other debate at SuperUser Forum.
I have asked it here too because:

It appears not to be only a technical question, but a language question too.
Most of the answers in the referred thread until now seem to me most like "Everybody says 32 bit, so it must be correct" kind, instead of reason and logic based.

The question is: as long as a computer that works with, say, 64 bit(s) uses more bit(s) for computing than a computer that works with, say, 32 bit(s), should we say ... ?

32 bit operating system
32 bits operating system

What if we change "operating system" by "graphics card", "motherboard", or "version of the program"?