texts: Is there a word for answering a question with a question?

texts: I am aware that answering student questions with further, leading questions is sometimes dubbed “Socratic,” but I am asking more broadly about all occasions where someone asks a question and, instead of an answer, receives another question in response. Has a word ever been coined to name this phenomenon?


texts:
As far as I know when I use "a pair of ..." form, the word I will put in the blank needs to be plural. But, in case I want to specify two different types of things as a pair, can I specify them as "a pair of ..."?

Let me take an example. Assuming that I got two different types of balls – base ball and basket ball – and I bind them together into a pair, the pair will consist of two different types of balls. In this case, can I use "a pair of ..." form in the following way:

  The boy bought a pair of base ball and basket ball.

I have hardly seen this, but I am curious.


texts: How to annotate table bullets in Chicago Style?

texts: I have a table with a summary of information on various products with their pros and cons. I'm using Chicago style annotation with numbered superscript indicating which reference it pertains to. Do I need to put a number next to each bullet with information about the product or can I just put superscripts on the table's label text?


texts:
Which is more grammatically correct:

"I like to speak Japanese."

or

"I like speaking Japanese."

Also, do they mean the same thing? Why is one better than the other, if they differ?


texts: I have encountered such a term, and I have no idea what it is. Could it be 'of'?


texts:
The Collins English Dictionary defines a "debutant" as

  "a person who is making a first appearance in a particular capacity, such as a sportsperson playing in a first game for a team"

As the origins of this word lie in the French language, would it be correct to label a female sportsperson making her first appearance as a "debutante"?

Having briefly searched for any occurrences of this usage, all I can find are references to young ladies being introduced at high society events, such as the following on Wikipedia.


texts: What is the difference in meaning and usage between "content" and "program"?

texts:
I am writing my resume and would like to describe a job in which I planned what films to stream on a VOD service in one short phrase.

Which one of the following is most appropriate?

Planning content
Planning program
content planning
program planning


texts: "Hundreds of applicants" vs "hundreds of resumes"

texts:
When I am referring to a number of job applicants, I might say, "I've got a hundred qualified applicants in this folder"; when what I mean is, "I've got RESUMES from a hundred qualified applicants in this folder".

Although most English speakers would understand what I meant, it is not proper English. Is there a name for this grammatical shortcut/faux pas?

Although the Web has powerful search capabilities; unless you KNOW the name of something, it is hard to search for it. I am very grateful for all the StackExchange sites.


texts: Ideas for a word to use to describe your voice output over the phone, video chat, etc.?

texts: If you use a phone, video chat, etc. your voice kind of changes so that it's muffled, but when I hear "muffled" or "muffled by" I tend to associate it with something like the voices you make when gagged or smothered by a pillow (sorry for the dark example, but that's what comes to mind). Does anyone have any other words they think might work? I've thought of using "filtered" or "filtered by," but they seem more like something you would use to describe your voice if you used a voice modifier.


texts:
Marginal populations often negotiate with policies and practices of social exclusion for rights and protections.

What's the meaning of  negotiate with in this context?

Does it mean "to cope with", or "to negotiate about"?


texts:
This is a sentence in a book by Rudy Giuliani.

  I could ensure my deputies and commissioners were working off the same
  page and could carry a coherent message back to their staffs.

Isn't staff a mass noun with no plural when referring to people?


texts: What's the exact meaning of "vehicles loomed out of the darkness"?

texts:
When I look up the word "loom" in dictionary. An example is given that "vehicles loomed out of the darkness". I cannot get the exact meaning of this sentence. For my own instinct, "out of" sounds like to appear. Is that true? Do you also think this sentence implies the vehicles appeared out of the darkness? Besides, I would like to ask that, in this sentence, whether the word "loom" emphasizes

  (a) The vehicles are not clear but still visible.

or

  (b) The vehicles are visible but not clear.


texts: What are the differences between -ist, -ite, and -ian

texts: The suffixes -ist, -ite, and -ian all mean a follower of a person or idea. For example, a follower of Christianity is a Christian, a follower of Buddhism is a Buddhist, and a follower of Shia Islam is a Shiite. What is the difference between all of these suffixes?


texts: Use of verb to give is used alone or with preposition "to"?

texts: Why is it that when I say "I will give this book to my daughter",  I am using the verb "give" and the preposition "to", but "to" is not used in the following: "What kind of names do people in your culture give pets?"


texts: Word or phrase meaning unnecessary work, not "busywork"

texts:
In Chinese, there's an expression: 畫蛇添足 (literally: drawing a snake and adding feet to it). The phrase is used to describe a situation where you have completed the required task, but you do useless work on it anyway, resulting in you either missing a deadline (like the original fable), an unhappy customer, or both. I thought the closest equivalent to that was busywork, but when I was talking to a friend, he said I was using the word wrong, but he didn't know the right word either. Is there an English word or phrase that means the same thing?

Not a duplicate of this or the linked duplicate to that question either. Those questions deal with completing a task in a roundabout way. My question is about after they finish the task and do extra work anyway. Example: my company is tasked with building a computer, with a 1 month deadline. I finish building the computer within 3 weeks. My boss thinks I finished too early and wants me to (blank). I decide to come up with a way to make the computer talk. I either A: take too long and miss my deadline, B: irritate my client who just wants to type in peace, or both. (Ignore the unrealism of my example.)


texts: Any specific word to describe a date, contains only year, month and day, but not time?

texts:
I want a word to describe the name of a date, that is a date only contains year, month and day, like "2017-7-1", but not contains time "12:05".

The word "date" is not specific, because it can also contains time.


texts: A question about an expression- "Payment has been effected"

texts:
In the prologue of the video game "Hitman 2" some priest gets kidnapped.
In a note demanding ransom they leave behind, it says they will keep treating him
nicely until "payment has been effected".
I asked a few native speakers about this but they said they have never heard
this expression before.

I would like to know what exactly is that term.
Does it exist? What does it really mean?

Thank you,
Or


texts:
Which is correct?

  There is no means to listen what he is saying.
  There are no means to listen what he is saying.


texts:
For a leading sentence before a list of items to be presented in a slide deck what is correct?

Following items....

or

The following items...

Use of word "following" is definitively identifying the items being referred so do we still need to use "the"?


texts:
Consider:

  "The identity process is culturally embedded."

Is the following then possible?

  "Cosmopolitanism constitutes the cultural bed of this identity process."


texts: When writing "The Marriage Of," which preposition is correct?

texts: I understand "the marriage of X TO Y" is more common, but could it be said to be grammatically incorrect to say "the marriage of X WITH Y"? If so, why?


texts: Why "absolute phrases" are called "absolute"?

texts:
I know what an "absolute phrase" is, but I just like to know why it is called "absolute". Which feature the adjective "absolute" refers to exactly?

Here and some other sources do not explain the name.


texts: Does a predefined abbreviation imply the meaning of another undefined (but fundamentally similar) abbreviation?

texts:
I've defined abbreviation UDES representing untimed discrete-event systems. Now, I need to talk about the larger class of discrete-event systems, which includes the former one.

I'm wondering whether I can directly use DES abbreviation (because I've already defined UDES) or I have to first define DES as discrete-event systems then using its abbreviated form (because it's an independent concept whose abbreviation must be firstly defined).


texts: Should we always use the past if the person is no longer alive or when we refer to a past state

texts: When I want to point out that the person is still regarded as the best student till now, tho they have been gone or they are not a student anymore, what tense should I use, the present or the past? Please give a thought to the following: Susan is/was still the best student I've ever taught


texts: General noun for lingual/verbal/written representation of data?

texts:
I'm a software developer and I try to take naming variables, functions, classes etc. rather seriously. I'm looking for a single-word noun that describes the verbal display or representation of data. It will ultimately be written as a TimeSpanTo[Blank]Converter

For example, if I input "23" and output "twenty-three", I've converted from an integer to a(n) [Blank]

More specifically I'll be using this with time data, so a times stamp of "02:30:00" would display as "2 and a half hours"

If what I'm looking for doesn't exist, would lexicon or literal be appropriate? Any other suggestions?


texts: Logical/Etymological reason for unique conjugation of third person singular present tense

texts:
In most English verbs, there is a consistent pattern in the conjugation of present and past tense.  For past tense, the same inflection is used for each grammatical person, but in present tense, third person singular stands apart from the rest.
For example, with run:

Past tense: I ran / you ran / we ran / they ran / she ran
Present tense: I run / you run / we run / they run / she runs

There is an exception, which is To be.  The pattern of unique conjugation for the third person singular present tense can be seen in this chart, along with the irregularity of to be.

Setting aside to be (at least for now), is there a logical or etymological reason for the unique conjugation of the third person singular present tense?


texts: Is "terribly beautiful" a common use of the word terribly?

texts:
My brother mentioned the phrase terrible in French is used for both good and bad sometimes. Is this true for English?

I have heard people use the phrase "terribly beautiful" in a context of describing something intensely beautiful. My brother says he has never heard this phrase and doesn't believe it's a legitimate usage. Although I don't personally use this phrase because it seems contradictory to me, I have heard it used.

Is that a common or accepted use of the word terrible in English?


texts:
Where did the phrase "to come in handy" originate, and what exactly does it mean?

My understanding is that it essentially means to be useful. Is this correct?

As far as origins, I have no idea. Etymonline did not seem to know, either.


texts: Confusion with the phrase 'Under what circumstances'

texts:
Below is what is causing me a lot of confusion.

Say, I did a test, and will have to redo it if I get below a certain mark, and I want to pose a question asking what mark it is (Or there might be other reasons that I need to redo the test) Can I say:

Under what circumstances/In what situation will I have to resit the test?

However, it is kind of weird and ambiguous if I rearrange the sentence a little, like this;

What circumstances will I have to do the test under?
I will have to do the test under what circumstances?

It feels like the meaning completely changed from HOW BAD MY MARK HAVE TO BE, to asking THE SET OF CONDITIONS I HAVE TO DO THE TEST IN.

I have looked up some 'under what circumstances' clauses, but all of them seem to be perfectly logical even when rearranged. E.g. Under what circumstances is cheating a crime.

Is the wording of my question awkward/ambiguous? If so how can I make it better?
Or is the question perfectly fine under I rearranged it?

Many thanks


texts:
I often see this phrase:
'It can be used for...'

But why is it not:
'It can be use for...'?

Even though it is still can be used presently?
Is it because of the word 'be'?


texts:
I am an English Editor for a journal and came across the following sentence in a paper I was editing:

  ...the increase amount will be doubled at every check point.

The context is Cloud-Based Virtual Content Delivery Networks and so the word 'check point' is not a physical entity. My question is should it be 'check point', 'checkpoint' or 'check-point'?

I cannot find many uses of the word 'check-point' and do not know the rule or reason as to why it would be hyphenated.

Can anyone help me with this matter?


texts:
In US English, is it acceptable to use the word 'motivate' in the following context?

We motivated the decisions regarding...

I believe that it is OK in South Africa but not in the UK.


texts: In the phrase 'in the field instead of behind a / the desk', would you use 'a' or 'the'? It seems to me that 'the' is the more sensible option, as English has other expressions of the 'the N' form which denote an activity associated with the object referred by the noun, e.g. the bar as signifying the legal profession, the pen as in 'the pen is mightier than the sword'. However, a search on Google shows that 'in the field instead of behind a desk' exceedingly outnumbers the other version.


texts:
In British English we would often say something like 'in the thick of this crisis...', meaning 'in the midst of this crisis...' The latter is a little too formal for the context in which I need this phrase, but I need to be sure that the former would sound natural to speakers of American English.

Is 'in the thick of' used in this way in the US? If not, what would be the nearest equivalent?


texts: Add "you say" when asking a rhetorical question

texts:
Is it possible to add "you say" at the end of a rhetorical question?
Let me give you an example:
Someone says that their new job involves dancing - and then you respond by asking "Dancing, you say?"
-- Would that work? Is this an idiomatic phrase? What would be the connotation?


texts:
I would like to know when we use "the" for the institutions particularly when it is written in letters or newspapers as title/body.
As far as I understood, you don't put "the" for the title while use "the" for the body in a letter.
For example:

Title:  21st National Assembly   or  Embassy of the United States in Brazil
Body: The 21st National Assembly has a plenary session.....  / The Embassy of the United States expresses its compliments....

Please correct me if I'm wrong.


texts: Usage of the word "untrusted" and possible synonyms

texts:
To my surprise my spelling checker flagged the word "untrusted". I tried looking the adjective up in Meriam-Webster. Meriam-Webster however doesn't show any results.

Are there any synonyms of "untrusted" that I should use? "Uncertain" is one, or "doubtful" possibly; but I would hate to perform any actions over a "uncertain" network instead of an "untrusted" network:

Example sentence: "The administrator had did not want to perform the security sensitive operations over the untrusted network connection."

So are there any alternatives to "untrusted" that capture the meaning well in typical IT / security related settings? Or should I keep using "untrusted" in the hope that it will make it into the dictionary at some point in the future?


texts: Can I use past perfect after present perfect?

texts:
I know that we can use present perfect and past perfect in one sentence but is it correct to to use it like this?
The car, which no one can catch a glimpse of anymore, has disappeared as quickly as it had shown up.

Thank you!


texts: I hope someone can help me figure it out. I get so confused while trying to explain or understand the use of the phrases above. I've seen this "I'm tired of always being the one to text first" but as to what I know, it must be " I'm tired of always being the one who texts first". Which one is correct? Or are they both correct?  Thanks in advance.


texts:
What is the different meanings of these two phrases?

  to find answers in literature
  to find answers in the literature

Is one just better/more correct than the other or are they meaning two different things?


texts:
Can anybody tell me, what should be correct of or from?
I have used from, but when I checked in one grammar software it's showing of.
I googled about it but not got anything.

  He must be tallying their daily collection of/from the vendors, auto drivers or rickshaw pullers.


texts:
I know it was a sort of archaic greeting, but I don't know how to interpret the actual words.

I had a foggy idea that it meant "It is good that we met here and now", but even then, "well met" is not the intuitive way to say this.

Does anyone know why "well met" was used to express greeting?


texts: present perfect + past simple in the same sentence

texts:
Can I use present perfect tense and simple past tense in the same sentence ?

For example :

Even though I have just/recently cleaned  up the house, I spotted some bugs around the kitchen (today/this evening).

Is this sentence grammatically correct and idiomatic as well?


texts:
What is the appropriate word to use in this context:

  in 1996, Dad met my mom, and they fell in love, decided to get married, have children and.....a family.

Should I say ‘form a family’? I think it is not idiomatic. Is there another word, or words, to give the same meaning?


texts:
At what point does next Tuesday mean

  the next Tuesday that will come to pass

and no longer

  the Tuesday after the Tuesday that will come to pass?

And, when does the meaning switch back?


texts: Should I use "narrations" or "narratives"?

texts: At work I keep seeing the term narrations as opposed to narratives and I'm trying to understand if this is common across the English speaking world or if this is just a term in the US.


texts: Word for the opposite of "hypochondriasis"

texts:
Is there a word for the opposite condition of hypochondriasis? For example,  someone who denies being sick when they clearly are? I would just say that they are "in denial". Is there any other adequate word?

I thought about the obvious 'hyperchondria' but it doesn't seem to be used anywhere and doesn't look suitable as—from checking the origin of the word—just replacing 'hypo' by 'hyper' wouldn't fit well:

  1555–65;  < Late Latin  < Greek,  neuter plural of hypochóndrios  pertaining to the upper abdomen (supposed seat of melancholy), equivalent to hypo- hypo- + chóndr ( os ) ensiform cartilage + -ios  adj. suffix


texts: Isn't the expression "patently obvious" a tautology?

texts: "Patently" in this context is synonymous with "obvious" so this essentially translates to "obviously obvious". I've heard this particular turn of phrase crop up fairly often - ironically often in academic circles - to the point where I've become baffled at how and why people seem to consider it a perfectly valid expression when it's patently redundant. (Sorry couldn't resist!) Could someone please explain?


texts: What is the technical name for this type of passive: "I am seen"

texts:
For example,

I am seen, therefore I am
The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology: June 2019 - Vol 40  Iss 2 - p196

or:

I was seen entering the bank.

I know that these are passive constructs but I want to know the technical term that describes them (Pseudo-passive?)


texts:
I was shocked a little while ago to find out that what I assumed was a misspelled version of "acknowledgement" is not only a correct, but actually the preferred US version of the word.

How did "acknowledgment" come to be a word? I can't even read it.


texts:
A: Trent turned north off of Honolulu onto Glenwood.
B: The van's really booking.

Is there another meaning for 'booking'?
In this dialogue, the van is really going fast.

Maybe it means 'the van's ticketed'?


texts:
Renowned Swiss entomologist Martin Luscher described the mounds of
  this fungus-growing species as being as much as 16 feet tall, 16 feet
  in diameter at their base, and with a cement-like wall of soil mixed
  with termite saliva that is from 16 to 23 inches thick.

Does the above mean species that feed on fungus?

Can I use phrases like "grass-growing", "meat-growing", etc.?


texts: Plural followed by singular - "have" or "has"?

texts:
I'm wondering which of the following is correct:

  Guns are an invention that have had an enormous impact on African history.

or

  Guns are an invention that has had an enormous impact on African history.

These sentences aren't actually being used in my report, but I decided to create them to save you from the grammatical horror of my actual run-on sentences.

Anyway, I know "have" is used for plural subjects and "has" is used for singular subjects (wrong term, I'm sure), but I'm unsure as to whether the subject is the plural "guns" or the singular "invention." Microsoft Word is suggesting the latter sentence. Is that correct?


texts: Is it possible to improve on your English language in your late 30s?

texts:
Since high school I have been haunted by my inability to organize my thoughts, frame sentences well and write clearly in English. When I came to the States I was about 18, and I needed to finish high school quickly. Even when I went to college, which was more like a technical school, I focused on the technical subjects more than I did on language skills. I could communicate so I thought I was okay. I realize that I just wanted to get a good grade and be finished with my English classes, but today I realize how much I desire to speak and write well.

In 1998, when I arrived here, I wanted to keep moving and be done with my studies and I thought writing skills weren't necessary for techies. However, with the outbreak of the Internet and email, communication is much more important and you look indolent, confused, even demented if your writing skills are not good.

I also had some major difficulties in life so I missed out on a lot. I always thought that I will just pick up on things, just as the technical stuff as things go on and have I made a huge mistake thinking that things will always fall in place, that my confidence, strength will carry me, that I will be unbreakable, but I just started and need to write for myself.

I would say I read and understand the vocabulary well, but I can't seem to organize my thoughts and I am not a effective communicator when I am writing. I think if I improve, it will help me with my speaking skills as well, so I guess the question is how do I improve on my English and am I too late to get better at it now?

Do I study grammar rules, do I have to know all the jargon and the rules of the sentences structures which is a whole a lot of gibberish to me, or do I read more? I live in the States so I use English on a daily basis. Do I just write more when I rearrange, rewrite and correct my sentences to the point when I cannot say what is correct any more? Do I keep copying more text from books, magazines, news papers, and the Internet which in all honesty have helped me get better at my writing? I just write; I don't follow any rules and I really look forward to your advice.

I really appreciate you reading and providing constructive help with my question! Thank you.


texts:
Is either of the following is proper?

Are you related to one of George or Mike?
Are you related to one of George and Mike?

I'd like to ask a yes-or-no question to determine whether you are related to at least one the individuals George and Mike.


texts: Why is this idiom negative, as opposed to positive?

texts:
Why is the idiom drop the other shoe negative as opposed to neutral or positive?

I was looking something up when I came across this:

to do the deed that completes something; to do the expected remaining part of something. OK, I get that. But then it was followed by these examples:

  Franklin has left his wife. Soon he'll drop the other shoe and divorce her.
  Tommy has just failed three classes in school. We expect him to drop the other shoe and quit altogether any day now.

I never associated the relief one feels when the other shoe drops to a necessarily negative connotation of the idiom.

Looking further, wait for the other shoe to drop:

  to wait for something bad to happen. Once a company starts laying off employees, those who are still working feel they are  waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I understood it's origin, as I grew up in such an apartment: "A common experience of apartment living during the manufacturing boom of the late 19th and early 20th century. Apartments were built similar in design with one's bedroom under another's. Thus, it was normal to hear a neighbor removing shoes and hearing them hit the floor above. As one shoe made a sound hitting the floor, the expectation for the other shoe to make a similar sound was created."

I don't see this as bad, except perhaps for the minor inconveniece of anticipation between shoe-falls. But when it happens, there is relief. Any thoughts?


texts:
I want to describe a series of number

100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150

Can I say number increase from 100 to 150 by 10? how to emphasize it increases by adding 10?


texts: Is there any link between tada and toda--Hebrew for thank you?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Origin of ‘tada’

Someone told me that Tada may have come from Toda--which is Hebrew for thank you.   Did anyone else ever hear of that possible origin?


texts:
Is there a word to describe the situation where you call someone and hang up so they call you back? The purpose of this is usually so that they get the calling charges.

I was thinking it's kind of like 'poking' or 'tagging' them? Like a 'poke/tag call'.

Answer:

I voted on Tim Lewis' answer as it was the most interesting and it also suggested the answer which makes the most sense. Because we don't have a word for this in the English language, the word Ping can now be used as follows:

Ping (verb): the act of calling someone and then hanging up with the intent of having them call back.

Addendum: Based on this article Wayne Werner linked to in a below comment, the practice is known as beeping. This article lays out the reasons for beeping and the social protocol around it.


texts: Why is the article "the" not used in this sentences?

texts:
I don't understand why they wrote in the sentence below "swept away repressive dictators" instead of  "swept away THE repressive dictators"? Any idea?

"Some local pundits liken the protests with the Soweto uprising of 1976, when children protested against apartheid, or talk of a South African spring, alluding to the protests that swept away repressive dictators in the Middle East in 2011."


texts:
The risk is at some point, the bond market vigilantes are going to wake up in the U.S., like they did in Europe, pushing interest rates higher and crowding out the recovery.

What does "crowding out" mean, in the above sentence?


texts: What is the Origin of "wouldn't say boo to a goose"?

texts:
According to http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question284368.html this is the origin of the phrase "wouldn't say boo to a goose":

  Because of the supposed stupidity of the bird of that name, the word 'goose' has meant a simpleton since the 1500s. The word 'boo' in this context is the sudden, loud version of it...the one adults sometimes use to surprise or 'frighten' children...rather than the disapproving anti-cheering version. So, 'saying boo to a goose' - whether human or avian - is about the least brave thing one could imagine doing and, as a result, very shy people are accused of being unable to do even that.
  quizmonster

This seems strange because I have always thought of geese as aggressive animals that you wouldn't want to startle.

Is there any evidence that this is the correct origin?


texts: What does “Not to be a dick, but—” mean? Is “Dickishness” an accepted, stand-alone English word?

texts:
There was a recommendation of a new book, How Not to Be a Dick: An Everyday Etiquette Guide in www.Goodreads.com followed by this next sentence:

  “On the one hand, nobody wants to be a dick. On the other hand, dicks
  are everywhere! They cut in line, talk behind our backs, recline into
  our seats, and even have the power to morph into trolls online. Their
  powers are impressive, but with a little foresight and thoughtfulness,
  we can take a stand against dickishness today.

I know the phrase, “every (any) Tom, Dick and Harry” meaning every (any) body, but I’m not sure whether “’dick’ whom nobody wants to be” means, a ‘mediocre,” “unimportant,” “irrelevant to me,” or “officious and impertinent” person, or simply “nuisance.”

Cambridge English Dictionary carries definition of 'dick' only as a man’s genital.

Oxford English Dictionary defines it as 1. (British) a stupid or contemptible man. 2 [mass noun, with negative] (North American) anything at all, beside a man’s genital.

What does “dick” exactly mean when you say “Not to be a dick, but—”?

Are “dickish” and “dickishness” accepted derivatives from “dick,” though I can’t find them in any of Cambridge, Oxford and Merriam Webster English dictionaries?

What would you apply to in paraphrasing “dickishness” in a single word?


texts: Why's 'Cellar door' the most beautiful English word/ phrase?

texts: Recently I've had a few people mention that the phrase Cellar door is beautiful. I don't see what makes this so - it's not anything ironic like "driveway" or "parkway" so what makes this so beautiful?


texts: What would you call a person who doesn't like questions being asked of them?

texts:
My sister says I ask too many questions, such as "What have you been up to lately?"  She is the only person who says that.

What do you call a person who doesn't like questions being asked?


texts: Which is correct: 'leaving at...' or 'leaving by...', '..end of this week'?

texts:
My understanding of correct usage is 'leaving by end of this week', and that is what I have been using all along.

However looking at an example of 'informal letter', at an IELTS preparation site, I find the use of the 'leaving at...' expression. And this the the source of my confusion.


texts: Cooperation, how to use it in a question?

texts:
Is it correct to say:

Would you like to start a cooperation (with us)?

Or should it be: Would you like to cooperate (with us)?

I feel like the first sentence is wrong, as it sounds to much like saying would you like to start a corporation (with us)? (with a dutch accent) but the second sentence suggests more aggressive style of asking for someone to cooperate with you. Maybe there is a better way to ask this question?

edit

I should also state I am referring to a international business venture / collaboration. Where for example we would like to sell electronics on our website from his/her company for a small commission or put your vacation house up for rent on our website for a small commission. You would eventually sign a contact to do this(of course).

So what I'm asking is: is it correct to ask the above stated questions? or is there a better way?

Note: It should not sound like you would want to 'hook up' with the person your talking to e.g. partnering relationship


texts:
I'm trying to find out the origin of "water under the dam."
Was it an expression used in the nineteen twenties and was it considered an Irish expression?


texts: "What I feel [is] more important" - should I include "is"?

texts:
"What I feel more important is for you to go home right now."

"What I feel is more important is for you to go home right now."

Which sentence is correct? Also, is there a rule that is being followed here? I am pretty sure I've heard people use the first form. Is that a slang? or is the "is" in the second sentence redundant?


texts: Please elucidate the meaning of this quote by Immanuel Kant-  "so act as always to treat man, both in your person and that of another, as an end and never solely as a means". What's the meaning of "your person" here.


texts: Is it correct to say "emotional attack"?

texts:
When someone loses what is so important to him/her, can we say (s)he has an "emotional attack"?

For example, when we lose an important friend or a member of family, can we say:

  It gave me an emotional attack.


texts:
Is there a difference in these two sentences, and if so, what is the difference?

Immediately afterwards I remembered having met her.
I remembered having met her immediately afterwards.

I think there is a difference but cannot identify what it is.


texts: What are the rules for when to use commas inside parenthesis?

texts: I know sometimes a comma is used after the parenthesis, sometimes it's used before the parenthesis, and sometimes no comma used at all. What I don't understand is how to know when to use which. If someone could explain, with example sentences, I'd very much appreciate it.


texts: Why is the 'o' in 'antimony' pronounced differently than that in 'antinomy'?

texts:
So, 'antimony' comes from the latin 'antimonium', wherein the 'o' is pronounced as an /ō/. So, the 'o' in 'antimony' is pronounced as an /ō/.

'Antinomy' comes from the latin 'antinomia', wherein the 'o' is also pronounced as an /ō/. However, the 'o' in 'antinomy' is pronounced /ə/.

Why is this?


texts: I am looking for an idiom that describes people requesting something which they don't really need

texts:
Let me describe the context:

I am at an infertility treatment clinic. A 6-year-old boy is lost and crying. A clinic user sitting next to me nags in my native language. What she says literally means is that people coming to this clinic don't really need a baby. Then she adds that "they either have a daughter and wants a son or they have come for a second one. If God only gives us one, we don't have any requests".


texts: Are all officially recognized Scrabble words English?

texts:
Looking at the official complete two-letter Scrabble word list, I cannot help but wonder whether they are even based on real English words.  Are they?

Note: I realize the answer to this question may start going into more of a Boardgames realm, so feel free to restrict your answer to a rigidly EL&U answer.  I only need to know if the words are English, or if they are based on English.  I am not asking here how they were chosen.


texts:
Which of these is correct? This is in the context of buying a surprise gift for someone and you think your gift is hilarious.

  I bought myself a hilarious one!

or

  I bought myself an hilarious one!

I’ve been saying both so many times that neither makes sense to me anymore.


texts: “How to not be seen” vs. “how not to be seen”

texts:
I understand the following phrase as follows:

how to not be seen – how to avoid being seen altogether
how not to be seen – how to avoid outfits or circumstances in which you do not want to be seen

But it’s rather ambiguous and perhaps it’s the other way around or just depends on context.
I’ve seen Order of "not" with infinitive, but it still feels like there is a difference in this case and that the meanings are different.
If you’re curious, this comes from a Monty Python sketch.


texts: Way of saying 'washes hands of it' but implies physical

texts: Looking for a non-crappy way of describing someone doing that washing hand motion you do to clear your hands of dust or dirt, but without saying 'washing hand motion'.  I feel like there's a good way of describing it, a stock phrase of some kind, but I can't remember it.  Tip of the tongue, and it's driving me mad.


texts:
When I studied EIKEN Grade1 which is one of the English examination of Japan, I saw a sentence below.

  A kitchen knife that could slash even through bone was advertised
  on television.

I think this sentence contains typo, not “even through” but “even though”.
Is it OK my assumption?


texts:
I am teaching some students changing original quotes into reported speech. Well, one of my students asked how the following quote can be changed into reported speech:

  I would like to swim.

From my understanding, "would like to" simply means "want to". So, the whole sentence is a "present tense", am I right?

So, to change it to 'reported speech', is it:

  You Bi said she wanted to swim.

Is the above grammatically correct?


texts: Carried on with its solemn and arrogant brilliance

texts:
I am translating a story about a cursed piece of jewelry. One of the phrases I had especially difficult time with (translated literally) goes like this:"It did that, and silently, with arrogance inherent to it, continued to shine."
I chose to translate it as a sentence fragment:

"And carried on with its silent and arrogant brilliance."

I am having doubts on whether this sentence is grammatically (other than it is a sentence fragment) and stylistically correct. Can you carry on with "brilliance"? Do I have to use a verb here, i.e. "carried on gleaming silently and arrogantly"? Unfortunately, clumsy constructions such as this, tend to destroy the dramatic effect and brevity that I need for this particular phrase.

I would appreciate your thoughts.


texts: What's the proper usage of 'booking' when you are being booked?

texts:
If I'm attempting to be booked to do an event, and I'm saying: "we're now booking dates for such and such". Is that proper usage of booking?

Or should I say, "we are being booked for dates in such and such"?


texts: Why is the passive, and not the active (= "to enact"),  the equivalent of "to take place"? What's the intuition?


texts: Can you say “which goes in a downward direction” in English?

texts:
The inventory check conducted by a private contractor (name of the contractor) has revealed a 20 percent discrepancy which goes in a downward direction. The warehouse ledger shows the total inventory's (crude oil) worth to be 1 million US dollars, however the inventory check report provided by a private contractor shows the total inventory's worth to be at around 800 thousand US dollars. The internal investigation of embezzlement has been initiated as of the 4th of may.

The phase which goes in a downward direction is where the rubber meets the road and where the shoe pinches, for it is a Russian idiom written in English words. I personally think that with the context at hand one can easily infer what it means.
PS: If it is incomprehensible to native speakers, I’d like to know how it should be phrased to be comprehensible.


texts:
The verb favourite or favorite (past tense favourited or favorited) is fairly new and isn't in many dictionaries. Two of the few are Oxford Dictionaries Online, who define it as:

  favourite
  verb
  [with object]
  record the address of (a website or other data) to enable quick access in future:
  you can see who else favourited the same pictures

And Wiktionary:

  Verb
  favorite (third-person singular simple present favorites, present participle favoriting, simple past and past participle favorited)
  1. Alternative form of favor.
  1. (Internet) To bookmark.
  1. (Internet) To add to one's list of favorites on a website that allows users to compile such lists.

Some people dislike the verb as ugly, others say it's "an abomination of a non-word" and "emblematic of cultural necrosis & linguistic stupidity", but it's commonly used by Flickr, YouTube and Twitter (with 75m, 800m and 200m users respectively) so it doesn't look like it's going to disappear any time soon. There's no entry (yet) at the Oxford English Dictionary, so when was this internet usage first used? Who popularised it and when?

My research:

I suspect it could have been first popularised by Flickr (launched 2004), then later boosted by YouTube (2005) and more recently Twitter (2006).

Favorites were announced by the Flickr photography website in a August 2004 post, but they it only used the word as a noun. The first use I found as a verb on the Flickr blog is September 2005:

  In other news, Flickr user fd has a new addition to his fantastic collection of Flickr toys— his random photo browser [...] fetches a selection of random photos that have been favorited by at least one person.

I found a verb use by Eric, a Flickr staff member, in December 2004:

  But there are still a couple of bugs at play here: This photo should not appear in GustavoG's favorites, because he does not have permission to view it any more (it being totally private, and Gustavo not being a member of the fotolog group). I am guessing that he favorited it before it was made private. We will fix this.

(Interestingly, in the the bug report he replied to, GustavoG used the verb favored rather than favorited: "This was most definitely not a private page when I favored it.")

Edit: Stack Exchange also uses the verb favorite, and has done since at least 2010. If you click the star on this question then I may getf the Favorite Question badge for a "Question favorited by 25 users." (Or even the Stellar Question badge for a "Question favorited by 100 users.")


texts: How could a word 'none' be translated when it is located at the very last end of the sentence?

texts:
I was reading a book on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. And Here comes the sentence with a word 'none' at its tail.

" As for any inner meaning or “message,” it has in the intention of the author none. "

please help me to get it. what's the usage of 'none'? why does it exist at its last end of the sentence?


texts: Meaning of "did not so much as" do something

texts:
What does the following sentence, especially the highlighted phrase, mean?

  In that state of union, president Obama did not so much as mention the 10 sailors that had been arrested by the pirates.


texts: is it possible to provide a single word for describing an item that would need to be replaced over time

texts: Is there a word used to describe items that would need to be replaced over time from regular usage in regard to office supplies like paper cups, room fresheners, tissue boxes, etc?


texts: How can I describe someone that is "extremely set on a certain value"

texts:
Example: Moderators of XYZ discussion board push those less [word here] , to agree with their beliefs.

Thank you!


texts: Is there a word or phrase for this situation?

texts:
Often I see people comment on tragedies online and attempt to "deflect" it with something "more tragic."

For example, let's say that a woman in a workplace in the USA is oppressed for what she wears to work, and ends up making the rounds online. Usually I see comments such as 'Well in other parts of the world women face x punishment just for stepping out their front door.'

My question is, does this process of saying "whoever is worse off so it's not that bad" have a name? It almost resembles strawman but it doesn't quite fit I'm sure there is a better way of phrasing it.


texts: Is writing the pronoun "i" in lowercase a feature of Indian English?

texts:
The Rule

The personal pronoun “I” is always capitalized in English,  regardless of its position in a sentence. This is an orthographic convention that every native speaker should know.

Whenever I have seen anyone breaking this ‘rule’ online, irrespective of their nationality, I've tended to make the following assumptions:

a typo
fatigue (pressing that shift key can be so exhausting)
ignorance

For ignorance I don't mean stupidity, I mean that the writer (of any nationality) either chooses to ‘ignore’ the rule, or he is ignorant of its existence. This can be caused by a person's first language (or mother tongue) interference. For example, the italian personal pronoun, io,  is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, and coincidentally, the lowercase letter is also adopted for the words italiana and italiano.

So it was quite an eye-opener to read the following, posted on EL&U nearly three years ago.

  But i read a fantastic article some years back that convinced me to write a small "i" instead of a capital one, and to make the y capital in "You" to show more respect to the person, and attach a modesty to oneself.
  jeega (Sep 5 '12)

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe jeega is Indian, and it's indisputable that many Indian speakers who are learning English have a tendency to write the subject pronoun “I” in lowercase.

Questions

How established is this praxis among Indian English speakers?
Is writing i a means of circumventing the perceived limitations of the English language?
Can anyone confirm this practice, and/or provide a link to the aforementioned article?
Because English is continuously evolving and it has become, for better or for worse, the 21st century lingua franca, I wouldn't be surprised if I was written i in two generation times. Are there any studies on this eventuality?

Related:

Why is the pronoun “I” written with an uppercase letter, even when it's not at the beginning of a sentence?
Why should the first person pronoun 'I' always be capitalized?
Is it alright to use lowercase “i” or should you always use “I” (uppercase)?


texts: What's the word for things naturally not attracting or mixing with each other?

texts:
I want to use one word to express how people who have very different world views are naturally pushed apart, like water and oil.
It's not quite repulsion, but it's the natural avoidance. Thoughts?

Example below:
I don't find them interesting and the feeling is mutual. So I'm happy for this natural [insert word here]


texts:
The  Cambridge dictionary defines the word "overview" only as a noun!

Is the use of this word as a verb also acceptable? For example, in a scientific paper presenting an overview in a sentence like: "in this paper we overview..."?


texts: Reducing the usage of HAD in past-perfect constructs

texts:
If I change the below excerpt

  In the secret study of Duchess Bianca Cappello, Agent Brüder had
  heard a sickening thud followed by a growing commotion in the Hall
  of the Five Hundred. He rushed to the grate in the wall and peered
  through it. The scene on the elegant stone floor below took him
  several seconds to process. The pregnant museum administrator had
  arrived beside him at the grate, immediately covering her mouth in
  mute terror at the sight below—a crumpled figure surrounded by
  panicked tourists

to

  In the secret study of Duchess Bianca Cappello, Agent Brüder had
  heard a sickening thud followed by a growing commotion in the Hall
  of the Five Hundred. He had rushed to the grate in the wall and peered
  through it. The scene on the elegant stone floor below took him
  several seconds to process. The pregnant museum administrator had
  arrived beside him at the grate, immediately covering her mouth in
  mute terror at the sight below—a crumpled figure surrounded by
  panicked tourists

1. Is the above excerpt correct?

2. peered is in past-simple because it is the current point-of-interest, the most recent action in the past. Is this correct?

3. The pregnant museum administrator had arrived. This happened before the agent peered. Is this correct?

4.Why do we past-perfect at all? Why not to use the below example. The sequence of events is pretty clear, first the agent heard, then he rushed and the he peered?

  In the secret study of Duchess Bianca Cappello, Agent Brüder heard
  a sickening thud followed by a growing commotion in the Hall  of the
  Five Hundred. He rushed to the grate in the wall and peered
  through it. The scene on the elegant stone floor below took him
  several seconds to process. The pregnant museum administrator had
  arrived beside him at the grate, immediately covering her mouth in
  mute terror at the sight below—a crumpled figure surrounded by
  panicked tourists


texts: Is there any proper word for a person who is very hard to please?

texts: I searched on Google - but mainly find "difficult" / "demanding". I am just wondering if there is any more appropriate word?


texts: "Singular noun + of + plural nouns + singular verb" confusion

texts:
I've come across a sentence which says

  "The CEO of many corporations is responsible to the board that hired him"

notice the bold-faced part. Why can't we use "are" here?


texts: What is the distinction between “role” and “rôle” [with a circumflex]?

texts: One of our users, Stan Rogers, mentioned there was such a distinction, I think, when he answered a question and talked about how the orthography of foreign loan-words typically changes to conform with the usual rules of English spelling. In passing he used the word rôle as an example and said something to the effect that implied that artists made a distinction between the two spellings.  Anyway, if I’m remembering the episode correctly, can someone make that distinction clear to me?


texts:
A Chinese friend of mine says that in Chinese there are no different words for canal and river, and that they are the treated as the same noun. A canal would be a man-made river if you had to distinguish. In English I think they are distinct terms and that they are both types of waterway, if I wanted a generic term.

So am I right in thinking that a canal is not a type of river?


texts: Good synonyms for the words 'smarthead' and 'smartass', for use in a translation

texts:
I am translating a book from Portuguese into English, as an experiment. It used to be popular on the now extinct Orkut social network and is still somewhat discussed in some blogs around the internet.
It was published under the pseudonym, no much is known about the author.
I've been trying get a single word, and if there's a more proper way to translate it into English, I'll adopt it. I'm not having problems with anything else when translating its text, but with this word I do.
Among a few other things, the text addresses a supposed profane and perfidious characteristics of women who manipulate, lie or are insincere; in contrast to the  supposedly rare sincere and morally elevated women that can still be found – those who are suitable for a good spouse.
In the text, the author exaustively uses the word "espertinha", which literally translates to "smarthead" or "smartass", exclusively in reference to women who are insincere or manipulate men's emotions, and sometimes used to refer to women who cheat on them. Even though aforementioned translations seem to suffice in a single sentence translated, it happens to appear hundred of times in the text, what is irritating even when reading it in Portuguese. So, given situation I would like to gather a list of words to use as a substitution to those, or even better, one that properly means "insincere woman", since "smarthead" or "smartass" seems too inappropriate  or "forced" into the text, for they do not address the issue very specifically. Just for you to have an idea, here are some quotes of the book.

Unfortunately, women are nowadays and in most part negatively polarized in the relationship with the men, not always giving space to the good and superior part that exists in them. The truly sincere ones, who actually exist, are lost amidst the crowds and can’t be easily found, because the smartheads pretend to be honest women themselves.

or

A typical simulation of misunderstanding happens when, in faking innocence, the smartheads pretend they can't notice the explicit intentions of the males around them, thus refusing to acknowledge the implications of their improper and tolerant attitudes towards men who are courting them.

I even thought about replacing it for other words, according to my understanding, but in the specific case of this word, the author sometimes uses this word repeatedly to address an entire issue, sometimes in explorations that take many pages, and he insists in using only this word. Here is a case, for example, in which he specifically mentions the word.

May it be understood, that when I use the expressions "such women", "these women", "the women", "smartheads", "manipulators", etc, that I am referring exclusively to the insincere, the ones who cheat in the game of love, not to the others.

In conclusion, I don't now how to translate "espertinha" in this context.
[EDIT]
After almost 4 years since this question was posted, there's been one remarkable instance and several minor ones of people taking issue w/ what has been written here. I deleted half of it because of that.
Now, it baffles me that some people are just so unreasonable, not understanding the sole purpose of this question was to improve my English knowledge.
If you should take any problem with what's written above, know that's not a issue of mine. It's been 4 years and I'd be pleased to be left alone.
Also bear in mind that I'll reject any requests to edit this section out.


texts: Opposite of collocation, set phrase, and so on

texts:
Some strings of words are importantly different from other strings. For example, they might be used way more often than synonymous strings which would seem to be equally good choices.
Wikipedia defines collocation as

a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance.

This is a pretty good definition, although "the" and "man" certainly co-occur more often than they would if language were a genuinely chance grabbing of words from a bag. By the above definition, "the man" counts as a collocation. I think this is undesirable.
Despite the imprecision of the definition, we all have an intuitive idea of what a collocation is. It's a common phrase. Some people use set phrase, fixed expression, and even idiom (sense 1.1, here) in this way, meaning "common phrase".
On this understanding, all these terms mean something like "a form of expression that comes more naturally to, or is more popular among, a large subset of speakers than a synonymous expression". On this definition, "tall, dark, and handsome" counts as a collocation/set phrase/fixed expression/idiom.
I am not interested in formulating a precise definition of this concept, nor am I looking for precise criteria to differentiate, say, a collocation from a non-collocation. I am fine stopping at intuition, and boundaries, like peaches, are sometimes fuzzy.
But is there a term for the opposite of a collocation or common phrase? That is, is there a concise or canned way to describe a string like "birds fly overhead", a mere output of the normal combinatorics of language? Is there a word which describes, as @Drew puts it, "common words put together in an ordinary way"?
The reason I ask is because this site sometimes gets questions like

Who coined the phrase "the dog"?

What is the origin of the phrase "fly like a bird"? (cf. here)

What is the first occurrence of the phrase "in the back of the house"?

I always struggle in expressing the idea that these are not set phrases, that they were not "coined", that they were likely invented simultaneously by a hundred people, and re-invented by a billion more.
What would you call such strings?
Compositional doesn't quite work since phrases like "tall, dark, and handsome" are both compositional and set phrases. Plain language doesn't quite work for the same reason, "tall, dark, and handsome" is both plain as well as a set phrase.
I am looking for nouns, adjectives, or whole phrases which can be used to describe such strings, so I am flexible. That said, here are some example sentences:

"In the back of the house" is not a collocation, it's a ___.
"In the back of the house" is not a set phrase, it's ___.
"In the back of the house" is not a common phrase, it's ___.


texts:
I was playing Scrabble recently and the word ail was on the table. I tried to add an -er to the word to make the word "ailer." My reasoning was that since ail is a verb, one could add a suffix to the word to describe "one who ails." The word was challenged and removed since it is apparently not a word.

A "jumper" is one that jumps. A "renter" is one that rents. A "maker" is one that makes. Why is "ailer" not someone that ails?


texts: Symmetric term for engaging with someone over SMS or Email

texts:
I want to make a natural language question answering that can answer

  when did I speak with Raj
  when did I Talk to Raj

This term speak is symmetrical, it is not implied who initiated the call; while "A texted B" is directed. I want a similar phrase for:

  [Message/ Email with] Raj

that is also symmetrical. Being a phrase users have to utter themselves, it must be memorable for them.


texts:
"Stoolpigeon" and "stool pigeon" seem to be interchangeable, though the former's definition is usually that of a police informant (synonymous with "stoolie") and the latter a dummy or decoy pigeon.

The Online Etymology Dictionary only has the origin of the stool pigeon (bird) one, so I was wondering if anyone could assist in finding the origin or first occurrence for stoolpigeon?

Update
Doug Harper has now updated the Online Etymology Dictionary entry for stool pigeon with a nice and succinct answer as a result of Hugo's answer.


texts: How did zugzwang become an English word?

texts:
The word zugzwang means a move in chess which forces your opponent to make a detrimental move; a move causing all of your opponent's options to be moves which will worsen their situation. Although it is definitely an English word, appearing in most English dictionaries, when I have tried to find out the origin of the word the only information I have found is that it is a German word meaning "compulsion to move".

Does anyone know how this word entered the English vernacular?


texts: What's the practice for short-forming or nicknaming words called?

texts: Is there any term for the habit of playing around with words, or even names, and nickname them? Like 'No' becoming 'nopes', 'whatever' becoming 'tevs', milky-wilky etc. This happens a lot with cricket teams, who keep nicknaming people - Wilkinson becomes Willy or Wilks, Hogg becomes Hoggy (though it's longer).


texts:
I find the word, ‘purger’ in a popular English-Japanese dictionary (Kenkyusha's Readers English Japanese Dictionary) as a derivative from 'purge,' without definition. I took it for those who purge someone who is harmful or undesired to an organization or country, though it can mean 'pulifier'in correct sense. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

If purger means someone who purges an unacceptable person, how do you call the target of ‘purger’ other than ‘the purged’ which I can think of?

Like ‘persecutee’ as the target of ‘persecutor’, which I find in the same dictionary, can I say ‘purgee’ to this effect?


texts:
In section 26 of "Song of Myself", Whitman wrote:

  I hear the train’d soprano (what work with hers is this?)
  The orchestra whirls me wider than Uranus flies,

Who knows the meaning of the sentence in parenthesis? (what work with hers is this?)


texts: What do you call a government official who cannot be fired?

texts:
In Austria there are government officials who cannot be fired. Usually, they get this status after serving a certain amount of time.

In German this practice is called Pragmatisierung and seems to be specific to Austria.

I am looking for a close-enough English equivalent.

Example of usage in a sentence (XXXX is the adjective I am looking for):

  A XXXX government official cannot be laid off.

The only word that comes to mind is tenured. The problem is that tenured seems to be specific to academia, whereas Pragmatisierung is not industry-specific (all sorts of civil servants, not only teachers, can get this status).


texts: In this MSO question, the author refers to himself as sounding like a "tool".  What does this mean?  Specifically, the way it is used in the linked question implies that being a tool means being pompous or infatuated with oneself, whereas the urban dictionary and wiktionary write that it means one is being used without knowing it.  Is the way it is used in that question an acceptable variant or did the OP make a mistake in usage confusing a popular word for a different concept?


texts:
I've been using the word "lexophilia" for years, but only just realized that it might not actually be in popular use at all. I've even had heated arguments with fellow pedants over the veracity of "lexophilia" vs "lexiphilia".

Have I just been out at sea? Does anyone have any clear citations I could harbor? Any popular prior art at all? It's clearly a neologism, but how neo is my logos?


texts: What is the correct British way to say arbitrary?

texts:
Looking across many different dictionaries and websites, they have different pronunciations for the word arbitrary.

A colleague says it is pronounced like ahr-bitri, but this seems incorrect to me.

I am of the impression it should be pronounced as ar-bi-trery. Whereby, I am pronouncing all the R's and the er as a short u.

Thus, what is the correct way to say arbitrary in British English and why?


texts: Is there a word for "unnecessarily large"?

texts:
I would like to say:

  The utility produces unnecessarily large amounts of data, therefore most of it is discarded immediately.

The word should also, if possible, express the position that not only is the amount too large for me, but that it is too large for any reasonable use.


texts:
We write when we need to remember something, be it an idea, a quote or the outcome of a study.

In the second clause, the beginning is be. What is the grammatical rule behind it?


texts:
Sentence:
1.Sweets are made from milk.
2.This building is made of stone and brick.
In above "made" is adjective or "verb"?
Since "made" is followed by "be verb form" in above sentences.


texts: The moon shone bright like a diamond in the sky. 2. The full moon is shining bright in the sky. Why not they are brightly? Are they correct?


texts: Proper way of using who and whose clause at the same time

texts:
In my writing, I ended up writing the following sentence:

  It benefits both students who perform the review and whose work is
  reviewed.

I wonder if there is any structural issues in the way I used who and whose. For example, I wonder if it would be better to say:

  It benefits both the student who performed the review and the student
  whose work was reviewed.

Any ideas? Please also recommend me if I should use present tense (1) or past tense (2)?


texts:
From what I Understand , both these words in a day to day vocabulary describing a Person

Pretentious means Someone who is trying to get more importance by pretending something or Exaggerating something.

Superficial means something just on the surface, ie. Pretending something but you do not truly believe in that thing. Maybe to show Something your not(which in turn becomes pretentious?)

Seems like one is a Synonym to another,but it is not.


texts:
For an event, I would like to add next to the name of some participants, that they "will be there". For example,

Mr. AAA
Mr. BBB (will be there)
Ms. CCC

Can any one suggest a better, professional replacement for "will be there".

Thanks in advance.


texts: Is the usage of "will" proper in "Usually on Saturday, I will go to the store"?

texts:
Is the following usage of "will" grammatical?

  Usually on Saturday, I will go to the store.


texts: Difference between "fallback" and "fall back"?

texts:
I am struggling to understand when to use fallback and when fall back (with a space).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallback
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_back_and_forward

Basically I have to say

  This application implements a fallback [without space?] scheme: the application will fall back [with space?] to the next option if the first wasn't sufficient.


texts: 'More encountered' or 'encountered more'?

texts:
The prevalence of respiratory allergy was more encountered among females.

In this sentence, would we use more encountered or encountered more. Do they both mean the same thing? If not, what is the difference?

I found using Google Ngrams that encountered more is used more commonly and yields more search results, but I could not understand the difference between the two.


texts: What is the origin and sense of the phrase “put up or shut up”?

texts:
In researching the recent EL&U question Origins and meaning of "Put your money where your mouth is", I repeatedly came across the seemingly related but older phrase “put up or shut up.” Where and when did this older phrase arise, and what did it originally mean?

I will submit the information that I’ve uncovered so far as an answer below.


texts: What do you call an artwork that was not made specifically for a client?

texts:
I'm looking for a word for an artwork that was made exclusively to express an idea of the artist without him or her trying to tailor it to a specific audience.

The word abstract comes close because abstract paintings are usually not made for a specific client, but a painting of a landscape could also fit the description above.

Another word I've considered is un-commissioned art. This word comes very close, but the meaning seems more like no-one paid for this rather than it was an original idea by the artist.

The Dutch sentence I'm translating from is Vrij werk which literally translates to Free work. In English this would be interpreted as art one doesn't have to pay for (free) which isn't the meaning I'm looking for either.

Example sentence: ARTIST is famous for his WORD paintings, which only became highly appreciated and valued after his death. During his life ARTIST made both WORD and NOT-WORD paintings, but his only income came from the NOT-WORD art he occasionally made for noblemen.


texts: Shouldn't the verb be in the third person?

texts:
I came across this book

  It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow

and my question is why eat is not eats ?

Thank you very much


texts: What is the meaning and origin of the expression "Miss Thang"?

texts:
What is the meaning and the origin of the slang term "Miss Thang"?
I've checked in the Urban Dictionary. It says that the phrase is about a woman or a gay man who is pretentious, and think she knows everything, and that she is perfect, and it's mainly a term for black women, or at least at the beginning.
Source: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Miss%20Thang
I'd like to know the real meaning, how and when to use it (example), and why is it related to black women. What is the origin of this term?


texts: Why is 'Parliament' spelt without a capital sometimes?

texts:
e.g. "To provide an accurate, substantially verbatim account of the proceedings of the parliament and its committees..."

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Search?q=&expand=true&drvH=0&drt=2&pnu=43&pnuH=43&pi=0&pv=&chi=2&coi=0


texts: "would" as an auxiliary for present tense conditionals

texts:
Both of these sentences feel wrong to me:

if I am alone, I will go today

if I would be alone, I will go today

By looking up some rules, it seems that using would in the protasis is a common mistake, even if there are a few exceptions of the form if I would [verb], then I would [verb] (but given that the protasis is "more in the past" than the main clause, shouldn't it be if I would [verb], then I will [verb]?).

On the other hand, the common example of conditionals with the verb "to be" are things like "if I am lucky...", "if I am able...", "if god is...". In all of those cases it makes sense to be uncertain: we don't know yet if we are lucky in a certain circumstance, for example.

But it wouldn't make sense to write "if I am alone" right now: I should know already! Either I am alone or I'm not... In which case I should just drop the conditional.

Context: a friend that is learning English wrote

if I be alone, I will go today

I suggested:

"If I would be alone, I will go today" (if there's a chance that you might still go, if your friend might not be with you for the whole day)
"If I were alone, I would've gone today" (for an unreal past situation: you know that you were not alone, and the decision has already been taken)

I can sidestep the issue with something like If I end up being alone, I will go today, but I'm concerned that my previous suggestion to them might've been ungrammatical.


texts: Term for wiping hands together to get dirt off?

texts:
What is a term for wiping hands together to get dirt off?

For example, when someone falls down and they push themselves up and clean their hands by sort of clapping but then rubbing sideways.


texts:
I was watching a film with subtitles, and the phrase:
"Will you grab her blanket?" sounded like "We'you graber blanket". I'm Ok with "graber", but can we drop "l"-sound in "will you"?


texts: "watch more realistic 3D scenes" & hyphen

texts:
Problem:

"viewers can watch more realistic 3D scenes and interact..."

Do I need to hyphenate "more realistic" here?

I think I do, as the compound modifier "more realistic" is modifying "3D scenes". Otherwise, a reader may perceive this as viewers can watch more of something.


texts: What is a word that means religion adapted from history?

texts:
I have seen this word before on Wikipedia. Usage would be something like

Christians may believe in the story of Noah's Ark; but modern scholars have a _______ interpretation. Noah's Ark may have been a real flood that happened in 1000BC. Or something like this.


texts: A question concerning Past Perfect Tense

texts:
I met him in London in 1996. I had seen him last five years before.

This is an example given for Present Perfect Tense in my grammar book. Does the sentence mean the last time the speaker had met the person was 5 years ago (1991) before they met again in London in 1996?


texts:
Until today I had never heard of the shortened term "aspie" to refer to someone with Asperger syndrome. While the term strikes me as derogatory and belittling, I'm not a native speaker and obviously have no experience with its usage.

An online search seems to provide no conclusive evidence that it's an offensive term. I've found a few statements from parents of children with the syndrome or mental health workers who claim to use the term. Some say that it can be offensive depending on tone and usage. Yet others say that it shouldn't ever be used.

Is the term "aspie" innately derogatory?

Is there a good chance that some people might take offence at its usage and should I therefore avoid using it?


texts: I keep stumbling across this problem. In a sentence such as: '...indicates that offers of or requests for assistance...' should there be hyphens to indicate that both the 'of' and 'for' relate to assistance? I've sometimes seen it written like this: '...indicates that offers of- or requests for- assistance...' Is there perhaps a grammatical rule when dealing with this type of situation? Help, please. Thanks.


texts:
I know that any word can be stressed in a sentence to give it emphasis, but in the following sentences I'm interested in a default unemphatic accent. When I pronounce these phrases:

A: I have a question.

B: I have a problem.

we usually don't stress 'have' in the phrases above as long we don't want a special meaning. Right?

I think that the content words "question" and "problem" get stressed. They usually carry the new information. Right? I'm not sure about the pronoun "I". I think that putting a lower stress on the pronoun doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence and can be used in a day-to-day conversation. Right?

level of stress:
[2]I have a [1]question.

This might be a silly example, but let's say for example, you ring at a plumber's door. He opens the door and say Hi. Then you say: Hi, I have a clog. In this situation which words would you stress in "I have a clog"?

I would be grateful for any suggestion. Thank you.


texts: Which part of speech should I use for a "from-to" construction?

texts:
Ignoring that the "from-to" construction in this sentence doesn't describe a true range, can someone explain whether I'd use present-tense verbs or gerunds, and why? I know what sounds right, but I can't put my finger on the rule.

The apps help you do everything from creating projects to transforming presentations.
or
The apps help you do everything from create projects to transform presentations.


texts: Is “erect around” an idiom, or simply a verb＋adverb?

texts:
I came across the phrase “erect around” in the following sentence of the article titled “Campaign 2012: China or America” appearing in New Yorker magazine (April 6), which deals with the elections of the top leaders of two superpower countries in the world taking place this year:

“In the United States, modern political parties strain to project spontaneity and authenticity onto that which is, in fact, highly ritualized: an onward procession of bumps and setbacks and gaffes that rarely veers outside the lines.

In China, it is the other way around: the Party strains to project solemn ritual onto that which turns out to be brutally untamed.
This year, the artifice of calm erected around the hidden cut-and-thrust fell away at the hands of Chongqing Communist Party boss, Bo Xilai.”

I don’t think I’ve ever met the expression, *“erect calm." Though I'm familiar with "stay (keep) calm," I'm unfamiliar with the expression like "erect calm," or "erect serene / tranquilness / noise / clamor" around something. To me "calm" doesn't seem to be the thing to be "erected," though it can be secured or built.

Is "erect calm" around something a popular expression? What does the line, “the artifice of calm erected around the hidden cut-and-thrust fell away at the hands of Chongqing Communist Party boss” exactly mean?.


texts:
I was wondering what reads better.

Buddhism is a religion I’ve studied in school.
Buddhism is a religion I've studied about in school.

I think (1) reads better because, but when I say it, I want to put the "about" in there for some reason.


texts: If I help "evacuate" a building, what am I doing to the people?

texts:
I remember reading somewhere that to evacuate a person is a medical procedure, and not something to be done during an earthquake. (I thought it was in Fowler, but I just looked and couldn't see it). The point is that it is the building that is being evacuated, not the people. "Evacuate" comes from the Latin word for "to  empty out".

If this is so, what is happening to the people that are being helped out of a building that is being evacuated?

I was reminded of this question during an episode of CSI: Miami (don't judge me) where someone tells flame-haired Horatio Caine that "You helped evacuate me yesterday". What should she have said to him? "You helped evacuate the building I was in" sounds a little circumlocutionary.

I should have anticipated answers saying "You can use evacuate like that". As far as I can tell, the OED doesn't allow "evacuate" to be the verb that you do to people when removing them from a burning building. So there isn't quite a consensus that I'm barking up the wrong tree, although the concise OED allows "to remove from a place of danger".

Let's say I didn't want to do that for the (perhaps mistaken) reason that it was worth having a distinction between what is being made empty and what it is being emptied of. Let's say I'm super-worried about there being some confusion about whether Horatio helped the woman get to the hurricane shelter or whether he helped perform an unlicensed medical procedure on her. Both might be legitimate readings of "He helped her evacuate". I want this to refer to the latter, so how would I unambiguously talk about the former?


texts: Does shut your door sound ruder than close your door?

texts:
I am wondering does "shut the door" sound ruder than "close the door"?
For example, shut your mouth, which is rude.Therefore, I am not sure whether shut brings the meaning into the phrase "shut the door" as well?


texts:
I am wondering if this phrase always refers to romantic feelings. How do I express friendship arisen from a completely professional relationship?

For example, if I say this to my co-worker:

  I am not the best judge for this situation, because I have feelings for you. Ask George how things are supposed to play out in a professional environment.

What I want to express is that I like her and think of her as a friend, and so am not the best judge of this situation. But I don't want her to think that I have fallen in love with her.

What's the appropriate way to say this?


texts: Does a helping verb have to be followed by the main verb to form a complete sentence?

texts:
A friend wrote: "I just feel that now is a good time to reiterate that pluralization does not require an apostrophe."

In reply I wrote:

  Sometimes it does. "Mind your Ps and Qs" doesn't need them; however "Mind your p's and q's" does.

He replies: "Your p's and q's what?"

I'm 99.9% sure that I don't need to write "need them" at the end of my sentence in order for it to be a complete sentence, but I hate being wrong more than I like to correct people so I just want to make sure.


texts: How to ask a mixed-gender group for their participation?

texts:
This question deals with the use of y’all in written vs. spoken English, gender neutrality and group dynamics.

I often find myself writing emails to a group of both men and women asking if they would like to participate in some event, as in:

  Would y’all like to join me for a hike this weekend?

A lot of my peers would ask:

  Would you guys like to join me for a hike this weekend?

Despite “guys” being somewhat accepted as applying to men and women, it really isn’t gender-neutral in my head and truly annoys some of my friends.

I spent some time in Texas as a kid and picked up “y’all” which I have no qualms about using in speech. However, in writing it irks me.

Other possible options include:

  Would anyone like to join me for a hike this weekend?

But “anyone” seems to have a defeated and/or annoyed connotation, as in:

  Would anyone like to do the dishes tonight?

“Everyone” doesn’t work because a subset of the group would be perfectly acceptable, if not preferred. There's also “who of you” and “would any of you” but they sound too formal and again defeated, respectively.

Thus, I’m looking for suggestions on how you would ask a group of your friends if they wanted to go hiking with you this weekend.

I feel the need to add that I’m in my 20s and thus do need to be using younger/more hip vocabulary. If I were 70 and inviting my retired friends to tea, I believe the answer would be slightly different.


texts: AmE Equivalent for "people usually go to a cinema after going to a restaurant"

texts:
I would like to write the equivalent of "people usually go to a cinema after going to a restaurant and they usually choose the closest cinema to the restaurant" in American English. I think the following could be the answer:

"people usually go to the movies after going to a restaurant and they usually choose the closest movie theater to the restaurant".

but I am not sure since the term "the movies" seems to refer to a known cinema not any cinema.


texts:
I am looking for a single word for something that works well or something that doesn’t work well as interventions.

I don’t not want to use efficient or proper because these describe the person or the process, not the intervention.


texts: What's the meaning of "that's saying a lot."?

texts:
I heard somebody say a couple of things and they concluded by saying "and that's saying a lot". What does it mean? Does it mean it's a bit of a big deal? or an achievement of sorts?

Some example sentences I found on Google Books:

"There was nothing I loved more than English, not even volleyball and that's saying a lot!"
"I think I'd even prefer him to the terrorists—and that's saying a lot!"
"This has been the most fun and exciting month of my teaching career — after 14 years, that's saying a lot."


texts: "Evil always wins because it stops at nothing": A phrase or expression to reflect that ideology

texts:
This springs from the many comments which  over the years I have heard from adolescent  students   that appear to reflect the views of their supposedly upright and moralist parents--people who in spite of their religious affiliations nonetheless believe that since the triumph  of corruption is inevitable, it is just as well to join the corrupted and profit by it.
I think most rational people would  consider any "entity that stops at nothing to succeed" an inherently evil process, a  type of thinking  that has  justified some of the worst atrocities seen in the last 2000  years
"The ends justify the means"
attributed variously to Machiaveli, Neycheavov, etc. helps explain it, but is not an answer.
Pragmatic does not work for obvious reasons.
The expression should  describe the philosophy that allows for this type of practice. It is a darkly pessimistic attitude that assumes Evil will always triumph: like a juggernaut, the overwhelming power of corruption will always defeat the upright and moral.
Please no evangelistic religion-based answers.


texts: What is the correct way to say Women's Wear?

texts:
In UK English what is the correct term for 'Women's Wear'?
For example, what should the department where all the women's clothes are be called?

Earlier I was 100% sure it would be "Women's Wear" but now after reading around a little I have seen numerous iterations.

Would a skirt be described as woman's wear and a department be termed Women's Wear as a skirt is singular belonging to a woman whereas the department contains numerous items intended for women?

Or, has the usage of 'womenswear' grown to the extent that it is now okay to use without people pointing out the error?

Also, I originally wrote this question with 'ware' not 'wear' but as it was suggested this was incorrect I edited it. I had previously checked that 'ware' was correct and was under the impression that 'ware' was a manufactured item (which would make sense to use) so please suggest if I should be using 'ware' rather than 'wear'.


texts:
Could the word "sister" mean "wife" in British English of the 19th century?

Here's a quote from "The Greek Interpreter" by Arthur Conan Doyle.

  "To some extent," he answered, thoughtfully. "My ancestors were
  country squires, who appear to have led much the same life as is
  natural to their class. But, none the less, my turn that way is in my
  veins, and may have come with my grandmother, who was the sister of
  Vernet, the French artist. Art in the blood is liable to take the
  strangest forms."

It looks rather strange to me that Holmes would mean to say that his grandmother was a flesh sister of a French artist. Why then not just say that one of the great-grandparents was French? Or why not simply say that the grandmother was half-French? However, if the sister here means wife, than everything seems to be logical.


texts:
Should I repeat the by enumeration different theatres?

He has worked with many Moscow theatres, among them there are the Russian Academic Youth, the Maly, the Yermolova, the Oleg Tabakov, the Russian Army, the Pushkin and the Mossoviet theatres and the Moscow Operetta.

By the way, should I also repeat the word theatres in the end as I do in the example?


texts: Better and shorter phrasing than "With or Without"

texts:
I'm working on creatives for one of my products. Within this product I have a feature that allow users to repost from Facebook. When the user repost he has the option to "keep"/"add" the Watermark from the original user, or he can leave the Watermark section blanked, no watermark.

From a research I've made some users looking for Watermark, tho most of them looking for No Watermark.
I'm trying to understand what would be the correct phrasing for a case like that, containing the need both for the "I need watermark" users and for the "I want no watermark on my repost" users. The creative is limited in spacing, so shorten phrases are highly preferable. 4 words max.

A few ideas came to my mind:

Customisable Watermark
Remove or Keep Watermark
With or Without Watermark

But I'm not a native speaker, so i'm sure there is a better and shorter options.

What are your thoughts?


texts:
I am currently trying to understand noun phrases and I have a question.
From my understanding a noun phrases is created with a modifier when you modify a head noun.
For example «  Travel along the Rhine river » (in this sentence the head noun river is modified by Rhine) and the noun phrase is "the Rhine river »
Another example would be : "Travel across the Puente Nuevo in Ronda "(in this sentence Puente Nuevo is modified by Ronda with a preposition and the noun phrase is "The Puente Nuevo in Ronda »
Am I correct with those 2 examples ?
My question is can a conjunction, an apposition or even a verb create a noun phrase ?
For example here with an apposition : "Later on, experience the otherworldly feel of Riquewihr, a village on the route des vins."
Is the village on the route des vins a noun phrases and is the village identified as Riquewhir ?
Another example with a conjunction : "Later on, experience the otherworldly feel of Riquewihr and the route des vins. »
Is "Riquewihr and the route des vins" a noun phrase ?
Last example with a verb.
"Later on, experience the otherworldly feel of Riquewihr located on the route des vins " (is "Riquewihr located on the route des vins" a noun phrase ?
Thank you very much for your help and clarification,
Stephane,


texts: What does repetitive “#s” before “pushy, bossy, polarizing women and men” account for?

texts:
New York Times (May 17) reported Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The New York Times decided to fire its executive editor, Jill Abramson, under the headline, “Times publisher denies gender figured in top editor’s dismissal."
While citing “a pattern of Abramson’s behavior including “arbitrary decision-making, a failure to consult and bring colleagues with her, inadequate communication and the public mistreatment of colleagues” as the reasons behind Sulzberger’s decision, the article says;

  “Ms. Abramson has not responded to messages seeking comment since her
  ouster. But a message appeared this week on the Instagram account of
  her daughter, Cornelia Griggs. “Big thank you to all the #pushy #bossy #polarizing women and men who get it,” Dr. Griggs wrote. “The story isn’t over, not even close.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/business/times-publisher-denies-gender-figured-in-top-editors-dismissal.html?hp

What does # before 'pushy, bossy, polarizing women and men' account for? Is it just for the purpose of putting emphasis? To me, it doesn't seem to be necessary at all in the above context.


texts: How could you say something is from space? For instance, californian, french, american, etc. Spactian sounds like something that could perhaps be correct, but the spelling's transposition into pronunciation sounds different than the actual pronunciation, which should be spay-shean. Thank you in advance!


texts:
I am looking for a noun that means "thing built for a specific purpose" or "construct that was made with reason, rather than chance" or "entity which was designed", assuming such word exists.

The extremely specific purpose is for a new role playing group introduction, for every player to read. I am including a sentence for each character, trying to be specific enough so the player knows it's them, and vague enough so the other players are still mostly in the dark.

The sentence I'm working with is: "Alone in the darkness, a tireless {entity} hones his craft, and waits."

In this case the character is a D&D 5e Warforged, so they're a humanoid and for all intents and purposes a conscious being with free will etc (for whatever that matters to the word choice). I could go more specific and use "soldier" or "sentinel", but I'm hoping there's a way to make it a bit more vague while still adding some information.

(Also this is my first question on English stackexchange, if this is a better fit for Writing let me know.)


texts: Is "implicit" a suitable adjective for both "implied" and "inferred" properties?

texts:
I'm working on some software programming documents where certain types can be inferred from the code*. I have this tendency to then called these inferred types the implicit type. This makes sense because it's a contrast to an explicit type.

What bothers me is that the word implicit appears to have imply as its root. Knowing these types are inferred and not implied makes it odd to use the word implicit. It might however just be the history of the word and thus no longer relevant.

Is it okay to call these inferred types an implicit type?

*In non-programming terms: I have a document which describes an object. Some of the properties of the object are not actually written down, but can be inferred from the other listed properties.


texts: whatever / what ever happened to the Unknown Comic?

texts:
Should "whatever" be one or two words in the sentence below?

Whatever / What ever happened to the Unknown Comic?

If one word or two words, why?

Thank you.


texts: Isn't this comma erroneous? Otherwise, what "type" of comma is it?

texts:
So I'm going through The Elements of Style Workbook, and I'm on a section where they give us a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson written as follows:

  What must I do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

My question is just this: isn't the first comma erroneous? It would make sense as a parenthetical comma if you reversed the last two clauses:

  What must I do, not what people think, is all the concerns me.

But as it stands that common seems wrong and throws me off. If it's not erroneous, what is this type of comma called? Or is just expressing the way he spoke it, or perhaps an artifact from an outdated writing style?


texts:
What is more correct when I'm talking about Apache 2 (HTTP webserver)?

  It is Apache

or

  They are Apache

I think it's "Apaches are". What's correct?


texts: Is there a single word for "the desire to feel useful"?

texts: An example that comes to mind is, let's say, the sensation you have if you go to a party and you feel the need to make use of yourself/be productive/help the host. Or maybe when you feel underutilized at a place of employment or a volunteer activity or some such — the desire to be productive and contribute more. If that makes sense!


texts: Function of PPs with predicative complements

texts:
According to CaGEL* (e.g. p.636 ff), prepositions can take predicative complements, as in

[1] She worked as a waitress

[2] He passed for dead

[3] I took you for granted

[4] They left him for dead

[5] I love you as a friend

Now, I get how these are predicatives, but I'm uncertain as to how to analyse the PPs as wholes. I'm thinking they are complements in [1]-[4] and adjunct in [5] – is this correct? And, if so, what kinds of complement are we dealing with in [1]-[4]?

*Huddleston, R., and Pullum, G. K., 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


texts: Is "Everyone tends to get the best of my worst" a valid sentence?

texts: Is there any alternatives to the above sentence? I just needed to know how to say : "everyone tends to find my worst qualities easily" in a subtle way. And i really had no what to tag it with :)


texts: what is a single word or short phrase in English for "a nation within a State"?

texts:
A sovereign state (a 'country' in common language) consisting of 2 or more nations  (as in geographically defined, ethnic nationality) or even a sovereign state having 'at least one distinctive Nation within it', based on the example of Quebec [1], seems to be currently defined as a multi-national state, but I couldn't find a single word or even short phrase for the reverse: "a nation within a state", although this exact longer phrase is in frequent use, as the following Google search will show:

Google search for "nation within a state"

A few examples: Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Quebec (arguable), Ukraine when it was part of the former USSR (also applicable to all the other nations that once made up the USSR, later becoming independent states) and the Navajo Nation.

So what is a single word or short phrase meaning 'a nation within a state?'

Mandatory Example for SWR: Nation A is a __________ , which means that Nation A is a nation within a state.

Note: It is not enclave or exclave which terms instead deal with 2 or more entirely sovereign states.

Note 2: members are earnestly requested to please resist the temptation to engage in any political debate, and my question is concerned solely with the linguistic aspects of the matter.

[1] In 2006, the House of Commons of Canada voted in favor of Government Business No. 11, which states that the Québécois "form a nation within a united Canada".

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_state under the heading 'modern multinational or multiethnic states' - Americas - Canada.


texts: Can you use "little" to modify an adjective?

texts: For example, can you say, the toothpaste is little minty, or little fresh? Or, for example, that man is little tall?


texts: Why is “bales” the 3rd person singular of “bail”?

texts:
Today I come across a video where I heard "But each time God bails Abraham out ...", however, looking at the subtitle, it is "bales Abraham...".

I thought the subtitle maker made a typo, but upon looking it up on Google, the word is actually legitimate:

  bail 3

  verb:
  3rd person present: bales

  scoop water out of (a ship or boat). "the first priority is to bail out the boat with buckets"
  abandon a commitment, obligation, or responsibility. "after 12 years of this, including Sunday Mass with the family, I bailed"

So my questions are:

Why is it?
Is “bails” a valid word? And the speaker pronounce bales with only one syllable while to me (non-native English speaker), it should be pronounced as ba-les.

EDIT: sorry for the confusion, here is the screenshot of my side:


texts: Grammatically, comma or period after "no problem", "sure", "okay" and the like

texts:
Grammatically, do we put a comma or period after the phrases / words like "no problem", "sure", "okay", and the like, when responding to a request, or there is no grammatical rule and this is purely a style preference?
What syntactic role do these words play? Are these independent clauses, stand-alone minor sentences, or sentence substitutes (therefore, requiring a period / full-stop). Or interjections, discourse markets, speech tags, word substitutes, or particles (therefore, requiring a comma)?
Can these words play different roles in different situations and hence require different punctuation?
There seems to be contradictory examples from various websites and style guides calling these words discourse markers, interjections, formulaic expressions and pro sentences.
And even a style guide / advice (below) that always mandates periods after all of these words.
Margie Wakeman Wells: Court Reporting Resource, Books and Seminars on Good Grammar and Punctuation

Okay is one of those words that peppers the speech patterns of many people. Here is the scoop on okay.
If it comes at the beginning of a sentence, follow it with a period. It stands by itself and is not attached to anything around it.

I presume this advice only applies to free-standing "okay" and "no problem" and not when they substitute "yes"?
I would imagine that punctuation should reflect grammatical function? (Sentence substitutes should take period; interjections, word substitutes, particlesa should take commas after them.)
For example in the sentence below, would the word "okay" take comma or period?

-- Will you help me?
-- Okay (./,) I will.

Could I argue that "okay" takes comma if it stands for "yes" and period if stands for elliptical sentence "that's okay"?
What about "no problem" in the same construction?

-- Will you help me?
-- No problem(./,) I will.

Could I argue that "no problem" takes comma if it stands for "yes" and period if stands for elliptical sentence "that's not a problem"?
I am primarily interested in grammatical position (defining these words as independent constructions / clauses, requiring period, or as particles, requiring comma).
Would comma construction technically render a comma splice as it would be if the same words would be changed for "don't worry"?

-- Will you help me?
-- Don't worry, I will. (Comma splice.)


texts: comparative construction used with pronouns, especially 'her'

texts:
I was recently pulled up by a colleague when I made a statement along the lines of I am a better player than her. My colleague suggested the correct statement should be better player than she is because her is a possessive pronoun, and my colleague was waiting to hear what noun her referred to.

I was unconvinced. I am able to say:
I am taller than Jim, which can become I am taller than him.
So, just because her is both the feminine possessive and personal pronoun why does that exclude me from saying I am taller than her?

Or, have I made a false assumption, and should never have a noun/pronoun without a verb at the end of a comparative structure? Should I always have been saying I am taller than Jim is, and Rabbits are faster than turtles are?  This seems awfully cumbersome


texts: "Destination language" or "target language"?

texts: For example, I translate a word from English to German. I call "English" "source language". Should I use "destination language" or "target language" for "German"?


texts: Any term pertaining to geography, but not to toponymy?

texts: Can you, please, come up with some term that would be directly related to geography, but would have no relation to toponymy?


texts:
I was wondering if there exist some list of all verbs we do not put a preposition after them in a sentence? I'm talking about 2 objects in a sentence - the verb is before indirect object.

Eg. I told her a story.
    She gave me a smile.

I really don't know where to find them and if they have some special name.
Thank you in advance for your time.