texts:
This is the sentence that I've been thinking:

I would have gone had they been ____
a) ignorant
b) ignorance

Notice that the writer (of the question) omitted the "if", so that he could revert they and had, means that the sentence is a conditional sentence.
So, between ignorant and ignorance which one is better? In this case I'm thinking about "I'd be happy", It has an identical structure with the question, is it correct if I choose b) since it's an adjective?
Sometimes, I'm confused with what I should put after "be". Like:

I want to be a doctor (a noun)
I want to be happy (an adjective)

What's the difference? How do i know? Hope you can make me understand.


texts:
enter link description here

This is the third question from the editorial "I Don’t Want to Be the Strong Female Lead" from NYtimes.

  Butler felt to me like a lighthouse blinking from an island of understanding way out at sea.

I interpreted this in this way.

"understanding a way out at sea."

The text has no article. But I don't see the other way so I understood this way.

Please interpret this correctly.


texts:
When we create new words ending in -ex (mutex being short for mutual exclusion), should we (may we?) use the Latin plural form because the suffix is similar to the latin suffix -ex?

(Personally I've always favoured the -ices form.)


texts: Should "none" as a pronoun be used as singular or plural?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  None as plural indefinite pronoun

I was programming when it suddenly struck me that I did not know if "none" should be singular or plural.

Fore instance, should I write "none is yellow", or "none are yellow", if I know nothing more about what "none" refers to?

In this related question, it came out that in many instances "none" as a plural indefinite pronoun is completely acceptable. However, that didn't really teach me when to use it as singular or plural.


texts: Where, in English, is the simple* negation enjoyed by the rest of the world's peoples?

texts:
I have a smattering of exposure to several languages, and it appears to me that many languages allow a simpler* negation than we usually use in English. They allow the insertion of a word like no or not, without any additional verb.

For example in Spanish we can negate the sentence Yo como (I eat) as Yo no como (I do not eat). No Spanish word corresponds to the word do, which we add in English.

I do the dishes in the morning? Cool. I don't the dishes at night? Something's wrong.

There are a few archaic exceptions.

There's a sort of archaic negative imperative, as in Ask not what
your country can do for you. Yoda approached it with his injunction
Do or do not.
And in the archaic indicative, Ophelia mentioned to
Laertes a certain proud and reckless libertine who recks not his own
reed.

But most of us, living neither a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away nor in Elizabethan Denmark, would find other phrasings more natural. We seem to use negations pretty exclusively in multi-word verb forms. For example:

In infinitives:  I like to not go, or I like not to go (with various degrees of clunkiness)
With helping verbs: I am [not] swimming.

But usually, we not just add not.

So what ever happened to English? Is there an interesting story behind our inability to negate simply?

NB: When I use the words "simple" and "simpler," I'm not thinking about whether children growing up in various places find it easy or hard to learn the local language, or about whether adult native speakers find it easy or hard to communicate, or about whether adults learning a given language as a second language find that easy or hard to do. I'm not thinking about difficulty at all. I'm just referring to the addition of a single word as "simpler" than the addition of a group of words, for reasons that seem obvious to me but which I find I cannot explain at all. The "simple negation" of my title, and the "simpler negation" of my first sentence, is simply (that is, onewordishly) a one-word negation.


texts: Is it true that until the Civil War we did not capitalize the U in United States?


texts: Is it Ever Correct to Omit "to" Before "Be"?

texts:
If I had the sentence:

Jane requires Nathan to be with her when she studies.

Would it also be correct to phrase it:

Jane requires Nathan be with her when she studies.

I suppose if I replaced requires with needs then omitting the to sounds wrong.

Is it possible to omit the to (in the second example sentence) and still be correct? And if not, why is it incorrect?

EDIT:
Suppose the sentence were for a video-game:

Bob has a 150% bonus that requires Frank to be in the formation for the bonus to apply.

Bob has a 150% bonus that requires Frank be in the formation for the bonus to apply.


texts: In a poetic structure using an AABBA scheme, should the final line's meter match the first two's?

texts:
I'm writing a poem for a class, my upper-level college written comp class, and we weren't told what structure to use but that we needed to use an established poetic structure employing verse as opposed to writing in free verse or our own invented verse or structure.

This assignment's actually worth a lot of points and the prof said "where much is given, much is expected," pounding home the point that he's not putting up with anything that looks like it was "scribbled down in 10 minutes."  He told us to "dig deep," and while he made no requirement of length, he requires we use at the very least eight literary devices, which I have.

Anyway, I've written two versions.  This is the first:

  When does wind the wind of fate,

  Fate’ll wend the fatal date,

  The date to die? The date today—

  So mothers pray for reaper’s prey,

  That Father loves so love’s not late.

This is the one I far prefer, but you'll notice the last line of the quintain doesn't match the first two lines.  Rather than being trochaic, it's iambic, and rather than being seven syllables, it's eight.

This is a second version I've come up with to try and solve the problem:

  When does wind the wind of fate,

  Fate’ll wend the fatal date,

  The date to die? The date today—

  So mothers pray for, day to day,

  Reaper’s prey so love’s not late.

I don't like this one as well.  First, it eliminates God (i.e., Father), whom the mothers are praying to.  Second, it eliminates the internal homophones of "pray" and "prey" in the third line.  Third, it eliminates the parallel structure of the third line that I liked.  Fourth, and most importantly to me, I'm feeling like the language is stilted, like "day to day" is just sort of shoehorned in by appearing between the preposition "for" and its object "Reaper's prey."

What it does do, though, is make the fifth line like lines one and two: trochaic with 7 syllables.  But I feel I'm paying a heavy price, the four aforementioned items, just to make the structure match.

I've looked and looked, but I can't find an established poetic structure for quintains that employs an AABBA scheme where all the lines of the same letter don't match in verse, meaning they don't just rhyme but also match in meter.  Actually, I couldn't find that even in structures that weren't quintains.

So here are my questions:

Is there an established poetic structure that I can point to that
would allow me to use version one? If so, what is it? (This is the principle question)
If not, do you agree that the version two's language is stilted?
That "day to day" is just bad there?  With the other drawbacks,
sacrifices, is the second one just unacceptable (i.e., not worthy of
an A, unimpressive to an English prof)?  If so, any recommendations
would be awesome because I've worked it until I can't see straight,
until words have completely stopped making sense to me.

Maybe someone has an idea for a way to make the first one work.  I don't know.  If so, please feel free to chime in.  I'm completely open to suggestions.

Thank you for taking the time to read down this far and consider my question and my problem.

P.S. By the way, does it come across that "Father" being capitalized means "God" and that "love" after "so" is a term of endearment for the mother's child and that the definition of "late" being used is "dead"?  If not, maybe I just need to scrap the whole thing and start over. I ask because my boyfriend didn't get it.  I think it's super clear, but having written it, maybe I've got blinders on.


texts: What algorithm decideds whether to retain a word or drop it while downsizing a dictionary?

texts:
One approach I can think of is eliminating most of the words that are very commonly used in spoken English(since a prospective reader is likely to know meaning of most frequently used words, or he/she can get the meaning of those words from his/her peers)

But when I look at pocket dictionaries this does not seem to be the case. How is it actually decided which words to retain and which to drop ?


texts: “You mentioned that you want” vs. “You had mentioned that you wanted”

texts:
How to say it in a right way and why?
 1. In your advertisement, you had mentioned that you wanted to know about...
 2. In your advertisement, you mentioned that you want to know about...

Thank you in advance!


texts: Is it a correct word about mathematical problems

texts:
Is the following word correct?

Question) x = 3y, y = 4t

Considering the equations above, represent x with respect to t.

Answer) x = 12t

Is the bold sentence correct?


texts: Guidelines for interpretation of "all but a few"

texts:
For a clause of the type [all but a few X] [Y], there seem to be two possible interpretations. The first one is "Y is the case for all things/people/places, except for a few X," as in the following quotations:

  Moammer Gadhafi says his regime is still alive in Libya and is calling his opponents takeover of all but a few pockets of the country a charade.
  Stating the obvious to all but a few Supreme Court Justices, quoting an earlier decision, Scalia wrote, " We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. "
  After launch, the spacecraft began its voyage through the void of space and was promptly forgotten by all but a few scientists and space enthusiasts.

The second one is "Y is the case for all X, except for a few of X," as in the following quotations:

  All but a few entry-level, low-cost models with screen sizes greater than 40 inches have the 1920-by-1080 resolution of " full HD " (1080p).
  Vazquez outperformed all but a few NL starters.
  But Ismail never lets his political convictions get in the way of his business. He supplies most government agencies and all but a few foreign embassies in Washington.

What exactly is the semantic difference between the two variants, and how can their occurrence be predicted?


texts: Is this true "have we been here yesterday"?

texts:
which one is true ?

haven't we been here before?

AND

hadn't we been here before?

I ask this question because i heard haven't we been here before? from music lyrics.

Isn't 'before' including the past words ?


texts: Meaning of "Would you value the ethics of consequence over means?"

texts:
I've been reading a book for a while and I've stumbled on the following sentence, which I didn't quite understand:

  Would you value the ethics of consequence over means?

The context is the following:
Person A steals a valuable book and doesn't tell his superiors (In the book, this is punishable by death, since he's hiding information and this act caused a war earlier), person B is As friend and doesn't do anything about the book (person B is religious).

The mentioned superiors find out about the book and thus, person A is sent to court, where person B is a witness.

Person A asks B to lie, but him being religious, isn't able to do so.

Since B didn't lie in court, but did nothing before the act of hiding the information was found out (aka "I'm all good with it until there isn't something for me to lose), is called a hypocrite by person A, so he goes through a psychological drama, before talking to person C (person C being a priest and a good friend of person B).

During the discussion, person B lets C in on his drama and gives the aforementioned question as answer to his person Bs psychological drama.


texts: Is there a term that describes hating "sunset" moment?

texts:
There are terms that are used to describe something we like or dislike.  For example, the term "nyctophilia" means  loving or preferring the darkness.
Is there is a term that describes disliking sunset?


texts: Why use apostrophe-s to denote possession when using 'of'

texts:
Think of the simple phrase "Bill's friend".

If you were going to turn this around using the preposition 'of' would you say:

A friend of Bill's
or
A friend of Bill

It appears to me that, in the US anyway, people always say "A friend of Bill's".

Even though I'm a native American English speaker, this just sounds weird to me. It seems to create a 'double possessive' (a term I just invented). I always want to respond: "A friend of Bill's what?" A friend of Bill's aunt?

So what's at work here, and do British English speakers also do this?


texts: "I'd rather see him with you than with anyone else"?

texts:
A female friend of mine just got together with a guy I know and I wanted to tell her that he's better off with her than with anyone else but I'm not sure if I'm phrasing this right:

"I'd rather see him with you than with anyone else"

Thanks in advance.


texts:
The preposition "on" is used to refer to a surface like "on the floor" or "on the ceiling"
"in" is used to refer as a enclosed space like "in a country" or "in a city".

Why do we say "the Indians were put on reservations" and not "in reservations"?


texts:
I know future tense cannot be used in time clauses. I would like to know, is the following incorrect?

  You have to launch the game and quit the game before the file will show up.

I think it is as I cannot use "before" and future tense. However, it does not sound like purely time clause (I cannot "ask" properly WHEN.)


texts:
Compare these two sentences:

  They would have had the chance of choosing their own destiny.
  They would have had the chance of choosing their own destinies.


texts:
According to the dictionary, a cynic is:

  a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.

Alice is a cynic. She uses Bob as an example to illustrate her point of view. What's the best term (preferably a single word) she can use to describe Bob?

You could say that Bob is ___________.

For example, given the definition above, you could say that Bob is selfish. However, I believe that this doesn't sum up all of the things Alice believes about him...


texts:
Consider the sentence: "The need for lawful intervention is being felt more after the terror attacks in November last year."

Shouldn't it be even more instead of just more?


texts:
There's a particular word I once had in mind but now seem to have lost it, I believe it has a 'j' in it, that could be used to describe one or more of the following situations:

looking at multiple studies on a particular topic, in order to write a piece of content
assembling information from a number of (technical) sources and presenting it in a manner digestible to the layperson (as a reporter would do)

The word is a verb used to describe the act of doing the above (researching).


texts: What's the difference between the word "convention" and "standard"?

texts:
I know this is a basic question.

"Although this technique is the standard, it is not the convention."

In this sentence, I would interpret the word, "standard", as something that is accepted by a certain group and offers a high quality result when used, and the word, "convention", as used by everybody.

All in all, I would interpret this sentence as,

"Although this gives high quality result, it is not used by everybody."

Am I in the right course?

Another example from me would be the used of mathematical symbols. Mathematicians use it because it is the "convention". It doesn't seem using the "well known mathematical symbols" is the standard though.

When I try to use my interpretation of the word, "standard", which just means, "gives high quality result", I doubt that using mathematical symbols doesn't gives any of it (high quality result).


texts:
Are

  Method A is used in preference to Method B.

and

  Method A is used in favor of Method B.

synonymous (always)?  Which one is actually used in each case?


texts:
A friend made a typo when writing "bee sting" and wrote "beesting" but apparently this is also a word according to Merriam-Webster.

Does anyone actually use "beesting" if so, is it a result of some sort of localisation?


texts:
Reading my latest Michael Innes story "Stop Press", I came across this in a passage concerning a train journey:-

  Timmy's voice and the rattle of the train's subterraneous plunge were alike drowned in an awful and bewildering clamour. A pandemonium of sound, latrant, mugient, reboatory, and beyond all words, reverberated between the walls of the tunnel.

I have managed to run down latrant and mugient but reboatory doesn't appear in any dictionary I have access to; DuckDuckGo reports no results.

Does anyone know what it means?


texts:
I was just wondering if anyone could think of a single word meaning the opposite of contains.

E.g.

This bottle of beer contains alcohol whereas this one doesn't.
This bottle of beer doesn't contain alcohol whereas this one does.

Basically, I'm looking for a single word which means doesn't contain.


texts: What word describes someone who is the object of certification?

texts:
Certifiers perform certifications, but whom do they certify? I'm not able to find the related form in a few different dictionaries:

Cambridge
Merriam-Webster
Dictionary.com

The word I would choose is 'certee', but that is not recognized as a word in said dictionaries. For example, "The certee proudly displayed her certificate in a prominent location."


texts:
The sentence of concern:

  There is a job to be done here, collecting and collating evidence of
  current practice, trying out theories, developing academic tools to
  take charge of a field that is more unfamiliar than [what] many academics
  care to admit.

(Source: http://cybra.lodz.pl/Content/1081/issues/issue6_9/reviews/index.html)

It seems to me that the last part of the sentence should be "a field that is more unfamiliar than what many academics care to admit." Am I right? How come it can be omitted?


texts: What's the proper and formal way of asking "Didn't we used to do ..."?

texts:
I saw it used in an article online, and it doesn't seem proper to me because of the two past tenses used together. But since "use to" can't be used here, I don't know what would be the proper way.

Care to comment please? Thanks.

[EDIT] The answer here says that "Didn't we use to do ..." is informal and not widely accepted. So what would be the formal way of phrasing it?


texts: Which is correct here, “your” or “yours”?

texts: You and she have finished {your/yours} work?


texts: Can we use "until" for distances, as in, say, "we walked until the bar"?

texts:
I found a thread about this question here on the site, where people commenting said that "until" couldn't be used to express distances. And people I subsequently asked agreed with that.
BUT then I looked it up in the Cambridge English Dictionary, which says:

  until - preposition, conjunction (DISTANCE)
  as far as:

  You should stay on the train until Manchester and then change.
  Stay on the bus until 57th Street and then walk one block west.

So who's right?


texts: A verb that means "to both create and save something"?

texts:
Sometimes in computer programming, I write a function that performs both the action of (non-trivially) creating something and then also the action of saving that same thing created. I'm just wondering if there happens to be a short, single verb that captures both.

(I didn't think that the other questions on this site about creating and updating/editing quite matched what I'm looking for.)


texts: Correct title given to the highest authority of described organization

texts:
I am wondering what the right title is of the highest authority of the organization that have these specifications:

It's an organization that was required by the government office to show 1 million of the country's currency from the organization's bank account plus assets (house, vehicles, etc)
The organization is registered at Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Trade and Industry and Intellectual Property Office

As of the moment, the highest authority of the organization has the title "President" where I'm not really sure if it is the right title. I've been thinking that the "President" title is only given to a system of organization where the member elect the person. As far as I know, there is no election in the organization I have described above. I'm actually inclining to "Executive Director" as the right title to be given to the highest authority given to the the organization I have described above, but I am not entirely sure.

This is the sole reason why I am asking about this. Can somebody kindly clear what is the appropriate title that is given to the highest authority of such organization I described above?

Edit: I would not really say it is a company but more of an organization


texts:
The person narrating in the attached MP3 link sounds like a good narrator, but I was wondering what his English accent is. It's difficult for me to say because I am not a native English speaker.
Is that an American accent? British, Asian, or German maybe?

Here is the link to play the MP3 recording (It starts playing as soon as you open the link).
http://boomp3.com/mp3/6x6h4jfbaww-what-a...

The other question is: is it an annoying accent for the ear of an English native speaker?


texts:
What is the term for skills where learning Skill A overlaps or carries over to Skill B?

I.E. An Olympic class Gymnast could carry over those skills and become a very good diver or a very good dancer.


texts: "Was wondering" + present tense (tense concordance?)

texts:
I need a native speaker's opinion here

Do these sentences sound natural to you?

  1- I was wondering what she thinks of me.
  2- I was wondering how he is doing.
  3- I was wondering if you agree with me.

They all sound fine to me but I am not a native speaker and I don't know if this is actually grammatically incorrect. I do know though that it does not sound awkward to me. Could you please explain?

Many thanks.


texts: What do you call the grammatical element that describes the state of being of the subject?

texts:
Suppose we have these sentences:

1. Smiling, she offered me a hot cup of chocolate.
2. Busy finishing my homework, I have no time to even think about video games.
3. Knowing there's little change of being selected, Tim did not try out for the team.
4. Having visited NYC, now I know what real cities are like
5. Happily, he took my advice.

In the 5 sentences above, we have gerunds ("smiling", "knowing there's little change of being selected"), adjective ("busy finishing my homework"), verb participle form ("having visited NYC"), and adjective ("happily") all describing a certain state of being of the subject.

What is the formal name for such a grammatical element/structure?


texts:
In the book Great Expectations, Pip narrates:

  My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I,
  and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours
  because she had brought me up ‘by hand.’

What does this term mean? Is it an idiom?


texts: Is there a male counterpart to being a virgin?

texts:
Is there a word for a sexually-inexperienced man/boy - like how virgin is for a woman/girl?

I'm from Norway, and here the word svenn is used for males who have yet to sleep with someone.  Although jomfru (virgin) is also more and more used on males.

Svenn is also used for a person who's been studying (often a craft) under a master, and will soon become a master himself.  I guess apprentice would be a good translation, although a svenn may himself have younger boys beneath him, whom he instructs in the craft.

Svenn is also used in peppersvenn (an unmarried man 30 years old or older), as opposed to peppermø (mø = maid)(an unmarried woman 30 years old or older).

So is there a "male" version of virgin - and perhaps a male-specific word for losing his virginity?


texts: Can I drop the word "like" in certain instances?

texts:
The particular example I am thinking of here is: "This sounds like a noble pursuit." I was wondering if it would be grammatically correct to drop the like: hence, "this sounds a noble pursuit."

It sounds correct in my head and out loud (much to the confusion of my co-workers) but I don't think there's any grammatical precedent. Is it actually correct? If not, are there times when I can drop the 'like'? What would those times be?


texts: Appropriate title case: 'em or 'Em or 'EM

texts:
It's a common practice to capitalize headings/titles of articles. But is there a correct or conventional way to capitalize words in titles that are apocopated  apheresed at the beginning?

E.g.

  Disable Feeds (Make 'em Inaccessible) On Your Site

Yes, I do understand that using Them instead of 'em would be more proper, but I really wanted to know about this anyway.


texts:
What's an adjective that can mean risqué/shocking and idiomatically used to describe revolutions in art?

X's music video is ____

Has nudity, touches on lots of hot topics, exposes lots of taboos. Makes the artist vulnerable.


texts: "following conditions exists" or "all of the following conditions exist"

texts:
In a technical description I've written "When the following conditions exist" and listed Condition 1 to N. When I said "When the following conditions exist", I meant "all the following" conditions should exist.
Do be specific/accurate, should I have to modify my writing as "When all the following condition exist" Or "When the following conditions exist" itself will implicitly mean "all the following"?


texts: Word for when satire is no longer satire

texts: Is there a word for when a satirical piece of work ceases to be satirical because the concept under scrutiny has now become widely accepted.


texts: Can't make sense of a paragraph from Lovecraft

texts:
I decided to start reading some work of Lovecraft.
Reading The Beast in the Cave,
I got stuck at the first paragraph I encountered:

  The horrible conclusion which had been gradually obtruding itself upon my confused and reluctant mind was now an awful certainty. I was lost, completely, hopelessly lost in the vast and labyrinthine recesses of the Mammoth Cave. Turn as I might, in no direction could my straining vision seize on any object capable of serving as a guidepost to set me on the outward path. That nevermore should I behold the blessed light of day, or scan the pleasant hills and dales of the beautiful world outside, my reason could no longer entertain the slightest unbelief. Hope had departed. Yet, indoctrinated as I was by a life of philosophical study, I derived no small measure of satisfaction from my unimpassioned demeanour; for although I had frequently read of the wild frenzies into which were thrown the victims of similar situations, I experienced none of these, but stood quiet as soon as I clearly realised the loss of my bearings.

I think I managed to understand each separate clause,
but the logical relationships among them get me really confused.

I have no idea why the author used "yet", "for" and "but" at the places where I marked them in boldface. I also don't know why he wrote "my reason could no longer entertain the slightest unbelief", which means "my reason could not hold unbelief" if I'm not mistaken. Shouldn't he express something like "my reason could not hold belief"?

I'm feeling kind of frustrated now, could anyone help me figure it out?

Thanks to Greg Lee's answer, now I get a sense of what the author wants to convey. But I'm still not sure if I understand the exact function of these three words: "yet", "for" and "but". Is this "yet" related to "indoctrinated ... demeanour" (the sentence followed until semicolon) or "indoctrinated ... bearings" (the sentence followed until period)? Does this "for" stand for "because"? If so, I find this "because ... but ..." sentence structure really weird...


texts:
Given the sentence:

  He didn’t have a clue what was going on, but he didn’t seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.

I guess that in ‘to be being expelled,’ ‘be’ is for making passive voice and ‘being’ is for the meaning of future, that is, ‘to be expelled’ would be being happened in near future. Is this the right guessing?


texts: What do you call freshly ground coffee versus the coffee that has been brewed?

texts:
Some people refer to grinds as the coffee that comes out of the grinder, and grounds as the spent grinds you're left with after brewing.

Is this nomenclature correct?


texts: Term for first person complement of the "Royal We"

texts:
The "Royal We" or nosism refers to the usage of "we" to mean "I", ("We are not amused", meaning "I am not amused"), or "you", ("We need to mop that floor", which may mean "you must mop the floor").

Is there some name or phrase for the usage of "I" to mean "we"?  For example, speaking of the Keystone XL pipeline extension, Donald Trump said:

  I want it built, but I want a piece of the profits.

...which inspired a question on SE Skeptics about whether this was an expression of personal greed or nationalist identification; (answer: the latter).


texts:
Given a sentence such as,

  One of the reasons for certain large beetles developing teleportation technology, is to ensure annual pilgrimages to their home planet are well-attended and enjoyable for all.

Why is there a comma?  Is this correct usage, and does it have a name?


texts: What is the difference between ham, bacon, and gammon?

texts:
The OED defines ham as:

The thigh of a slaughtered animal, used for food; spec. that of a hog salted and dried in smoke or otherwise; also, the meat so prepared.

It defines gammon as:

The bottom piece of a side or flitch of bacon, including the hind leg. In later use also: a smoked or cured ham.

It defines bacon as:

The back and sides of the pig, ‘cured’ by salting, drying, etc. Formerly also the fresh flesh now called pork.

In Britain there is a street-wisdom about when to describe meat as ham, as bacon or gammon. Ham is usually bought ready-cooked. Gammon usually comes as a joint, bacon in slices.

But is there a clear distinction which is not being picked up here?


texts: Where did the sports and game term "rubber" come from?

texts: In sports, a rubber  is a series that consists of an odd number of matches where a majority of wins takes the series.  Wiktionary and Merriam-Webster both list the etymology of this definition as "origin unknown."  Is there any more information available than this about the origin of this word, perhaps some study or speculation as to the origin?


texts: Difference between "remain" and "be left"

texts:
What is the difference between remain and be left? Which sentence below is correct or normal?

  An ace of spades remained.

  An ace of spades was left.


texts: Why does 'nitpicking' have negative connotations?

texts:
If I had nits I would like someone to pick them out. It has come to mean basically unnecessary critism or pedantry in modern usage.

Why?

Did people of a certain time just accept lice as a fact of life and there was no real point in taking out the nits?

The thing that got me thinking about it was listening to a podcast talking about how macaques groom the nits out of each other's fur. It is a positive benefit for them. I was wondering how humans coped with lice and nits before we had toxic chemicals to deal with the problem.

Here's an article on it if you're interested.


texts:
In Seinfeld Season 6 Episode 21, "The diplomat's Club", the phrase in question is used in the following context:

Kramer, one of the show's characters, is gambling with a stranger, and he's down by some amount. Kramer proposes a "double or nothing" final bet, which is accepted. Kramer ends up winning that bet...and it's shown that he later walks away with a cheque.

I don't get this. Given the definition, how is he walking away with anything at all? Isn't the idea that his previous debt should be merely cleared upon winning?


texts:
I came through the following sentence in a technical research paper. Is it correct to use ping-ponging word? Please let me know.

  With TS policy, priorities of threads change very frequently for
  balancing load and providing fairness in scheduling. Due to this
  frequent ping-ponging of priorities, ...


texts: Formally saying that you are laughing without euphemisms or colloquialism without referring to yourself

texts:
I want to know how one can manage to assert that they are laughing without using euphemisms or  colloquialism in first person, for example in a letter, without referring to yourself, that is saying "me" or "I". These examples seem impossible:

  The chicken wanted to cross the road because it wanted to reach the other side. Haha!
  The chicken wanted to cross the road because it wanted to reach the other side. LOLZ.
  The chicken wanted to cross the road because it wanted to reach the other side. :-P
  The chicken wanted to cross the road because it wanted to reach the other side. (laughing with mouth foolishly open and smells bad breath)

Side-note: Please pardon that poor humor I have taken as an example.


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

texts: What the extra time and money bought, besides headaches and heartaches for the project’s sponsors and the thousands of patrons who line up for discount theater tickets every day, is nothing less than a new way of seeing the Times Square “bowtie,” that dazzling intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. That is because the TKTS booth proper is topped by a sweeping cascade of 27 ruby-red structural glass steps, rising to a height of 16 feet 1 inch above the 47th Street sidewalk, where hundreds of people (as many as 1,500 if they squeeze in tight) will be welcome to congregate every day until 1 a.m.


texts: Euphemism for "There's more than one way to skin a cat"

texts:
Growing up in the 80s, I ended up hearing/using this phrase a lot whenever I wanted to express that there was more than one way to do something: "there's more than one way to skin a cat."

I have recently been in situations where I need to express the same thing, but am realizing that the phrase is actually quite grotesque. Is there a well-known euphemism to express the same thing - that there is more than one way to get something done?

This questions is slightly related, but only asks for the origins: Origin of the phrase, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."


texts:
If a receptionist is a person who greets and deals with visitors to a office, can deceptionist be an acceptable English word to describe a person who delays and blocks visitors to a office, especially one who impedes visitors meeting the boss?

Or is there a better word?


texts: 'Whack someone" vs " Whop someone" vs "Wallop someone"

texts:
I noticed that, in the dictionary, the words Whack, Whop and Wallop can have a meaning resembling hit some one hard. ODO says:

  Whack (Verb) = strike forcefully with a sharp blow.
  Whop (Verb) = hit hard.
  Wallop (verb) = strike or hit (someone or something) very hard.

and I'm writing about a boxer or karate fighter who hit his opponent hard in a match. I'm considering saying that the fighter whacked or whopped or walloped his opponent.

I would like to know:

(1) Is there a difference between those three? Would you imagine that whacked an opponent is a slightly different meaning than whopped or walloped an opponent? (I typed all these three words into a Google image search, and I got similar images for whopped and walloped. I got different images for whacked. However I cannot grasp a clear difference).

(2) All of those three words have other meanings in dictionary. For example, whop has other meanings like the regular pulsing sound of a helicopter rotor

If all these three words are essentially the same meaning, is there any reason I should avoid using one word or the other?


texts: Using two articles before and after "and"

texts:
For example:

  I bought a newspaper and a magazine from the cisco.

There are two indefinite articles both in front of "newspaper" and "magazine." But I come across some literature the second article in front of "magazine" is neglected. Like,

  I bought a newspaper and magazine from the cisco.

So what is the appropriate usage of articles in this situation (The same question for the definite article "the".)


texts: Capitalizing “The” in styles of nobility

texts:
In a book I helped proofread, the author capitalizes the definite article sometimes in titles of nobility.
For example (slightly anonymized):

  “I am The Lady Jane Doe, daughter of the The Duke of Utopia.”

A comment to this answer to the question Capitalising the definite article in names points to https://royal.uk/her-majesty-the-queen, where this is used, for example:

  … the example and continuity provided by The Queen is not only very rare among leaders …

For works using this writing style, is there any standard guide to when the article is capitalized?


texts: What are all the ways the British use the word "lovely"?  Especially towards pretty girls?

texts:
From watching many period dramas and plays set in England, as I like to do, I've become more acutely aware of the British overloading of the word lovely.  In particular, I have two questions:

What are all the contexts in which the word is used?  For example, what does lovely mean as an interjection, as opposed to, say, great? Secondly, and more importantly, what are the connotations when lovely is applied to people?  For example, is it quite strong to publicly say something like,

  She's a lovely woman.

or

  Mum, I met a lovely girl at the cinema last night.

Does saying lovely in either one imply a romantic or sexual connotation above mere admiration of the woman or girl?


texts: doubts on the meaning of the auxiliary verb "do"

texts:
In the "seventh Hymn on the Nativity", where St. Ephraim speaks about Tamar (Genesis 38), I read:  "She was a widow for your sake. You did she long for, she hasted and was also a harlot for your sake. You did she vehemently desire.

Is that some typo? what do those two sentences mean?
Thank you.


texts: A single word describing a person who is impossible to live with

texts:
Is there a single word describing someone who is impossible to live with because of their bad manners?

Such as in the example:

  'John, my housemate, has terrible manners; he's an awful person and impossible to live with.'

I thought about using the words 'unlivable person' but that sounds a bit strange to me and it's not a single word.


texts: What tense should I use after the conjunction 'lest'? Must it always be an infinitive?

texts:
eg. 1
I have to be sharp and clever lest I go hungry? (infinitive)

eg. 2
John and his friends feared lest the inquiry promised into the extent of the hated forest areas would be carried out too rigorously? (past tense?).

Are both examples acceptable? I've read somewhere that the clause after 'lest' is usually in subjunctive mood and therefore the tense should be an infinitive? Are there other possibilities?

Thank you very much!


texts: Is "peckish" less common in American English than other varieties?

texts:
In SuperHolly's video about visiting Australia at around 3:04, Holly mentions coming across the word "peckish" for the first time. As an Australian, I wasn't aware of the word being more common in Australian English than American English.
Wiktionary doesn't indicate it's specific to a dialect of English, and according to Google NGrams the word is in the same order of magnitude in American and British English (the closest they have to Australian English).
Is the word less common in American English than other varieties of English?


texts: What is the difference between "so far" and "yet"?

texts:
I would like to know the difference between so far and yet.

I have not sent two invitations so far.
I have not sent two invitations yet.


texts: How do I tell someone I had a great time the last time I saw them

texts:
I went to lunch with a group of friends yesterday, and one of my friends brought two new people whom I did not know.

Today I bump into one of the new ones, and I wanted to be polite and tell the person that I had a great time at lunch.

I have read several places on the internet, that saying "Thank you for yesterday" has a sexual undertone to it.

Is that true? Or how else would you say it?


texts: What do you call a plot detail that becomes important retroactively?

texts: I know that foreshadowing is when you drop hints about the future, but is there a name for it when a statement which is innocuous at the time suddenly becomes very important in the light of new events?


texts: What is the word for knowing you are in someone's thoughts?

texts:
"Knowing you are in someone's thoughts" - is there a word for it?

The concept comes from Epistemic logic and the psychology of wellbeing depending on knowing someone's else thinking of you.


texts: the meaning of "they should not look nearly as different as they do"

texts:
The three species (Man, the chimpanzee and the gorilla) share almost 99 percent of their DNA, and on that basis, surely, they should not look nearly as different as they do.

Am I right in thinking that
the meaning of they should not look nearly as different as they do is "if they share almost 99 percent of their DNA, they should resemble each other more closely"?


texts: Difference between "level" and "degree"?

texts:
Can we change the word "degree" for "level" in this sentence:

  They developed a high degree of self-criticism.

If it is possible, what would be the difference in meaning?


texts:
"I always excelled at database and literature mining".
"I always excelled at database- and literature mining".
"I always excelled at database- and literature-mining".

What's the preferred version? In #1 "database" is too detached and may be interpreted as standalone. But since no hyphen is required between "literature" and "mining", it seems incongruous to put one after "database". What do you think?


texts: What does Sovereign mean in this context?

texts:
How would you explain what "Sovereign General Insurance Company" means to a child? Does it literally mean: The ultimate/ruler general insurance company

EDIT: Or is it just a name? Just like Joe's Burgers


texts: Word or phrase used to describe someone who controls someone else through possessions or financial means

texts:
Not sure if such a phrase or word to describe a person/actions actually exists. Have been using “to lord something over someone,” but this might not be the correct usage.

ex1: If someone pays for a vacation and subtly reminds you that they paid for everything when a choice of activities becomes a split decision, especially when the holiday has already commenced and there is no return/exit. This renders the original gift of paying more of a burden than an actual no strings attached gift.

ex2: person receives a gift of a new device from children and gives the older model to spouse, but when spouse tries to exercise control over older device the person reminds them that it is/was theirs and should still have power over it.

perhaps a guilt trip, but especially with monetary/possessions used to influence and hold something over someone.


texts: reversed order in sentences that start with negative words

texts:
When we start a sentence with negative words the word order for questions is used. Examples:

  Not once did i ask her to do that.

  Never have i seen such a thing.

This is also true for only after, only when, only if, etc.

Why don't we follow the same rule when we start our sentences with, for example, not one or no one? For example,

  Not one of you tried to find me.

  No one talked to me about that.

Aren't these negative as well?

What other negative words are excluded from this order rule?


texts:
What’s the meaning of “split wide open”??
I’m confused and I found it in this sentence: “everything I knew was split wide open”

Source (UCLA magazine)
“The world cracked down the middle,” she wrote later in a preface to a special edition of the book, “and everything I knew was split wide open. ...


texts:
I was looking up the longest words in certain works of fiction when I discovered this monstrosity: uninterpenetratingly. It is used in Chapter 108 of Moby Dick as follows:

  How dost thou know that some entire, living, thinking thing may not be invisibly and uninterpenetratingly standing precisely where thou now standest; aye, and standing there in thy spite?

However I am still unsure as to the meaning of this word, as I could not find it in any dictionaries. Does anyone know what it means?


texts: What is the difference between “take to court,” “take the court,” and “take someone to court”?

texts:
Today’s (April 27) New York Times carried a caption,“Clippers Take to Court, but in Protest” and the lead-copy:

  The players made a statement a day after racially charged remarks attributed to Donald Sterling, the Clippers’ owner, by wearing their shirts inside out before playing the Warriors.

in its home page.

But, the headline of the article was altered to “With Uproar Around Sterling, Clippers Take the Court.”

Is there any difference between take to court and take the court?

Why did NYT bother rewording the headline (though it may be better to ask directly to NYT)?

By the way, I found the following question and answer in wordhippo.com:

  Q. What's another word for take to court?
  A. Here's a list of words you may be looking for.

  Verb. prosecute, sue, take legal action, press charges, file a suit, bring a claim.

Does the phrase, “take to court / take the court” in the above NYT article simply mean “appear in the court / join the game”, or “sue /  bring a claim” by chance?


texts: Should the beginner's program read "Hello, World"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Where should the comma be placed in the salutation of a letter?

I was thinking today about comma usage and the typical first output for a beginning programmer. In the typical example you see "Hello World" but does proper sentence construction/comma usage rules dictate there be a comma between the greeting and the thing being greeted.

I.e. should a proper sentence read "Hello, World"?


texts: Do people in Britain use this structure nowdays? Or is it considered archaic there?

texts:
I found it on one website about If I were/If I was usage, and I'm not sure it's common:

If I had been a boy, I would have happily roamed outside all night.

“if I had been” talks about a particular instance, perhaps related to a context. For example:
“I saw all the boys chatting and enjoying themselves, starting at the moon from the stable. That’s when it struck me – If I had been a boy, I would have happily roamed outside all night too!”
Is it better just to use "If I were a boy, I would happily roam outside all night" even in particular instance?


texts:
In skateboarding, a nollie, short for "nose ollie", is an ollie executed at the front of the board while the rider is positioned in his/her natural stance.
Is there a term for those kind of words? Words that are not official English words? Not sure how to describe this and I don't think this is slang.


texts:
Sometimes after a fight when both parties have settled down, one of them will feint an attack trying to make the other flinch. I'm looking for word or phrase (a verb) that could describe that as succinctly as possible.

When he walked past Owen, he lurched (or _______) at him. Owen stood his ground staring defiantly at the tattooed man.

The word “lurch" doesn't convey the element of deceit I am looking for.
I am willing to accept other parts of speech (e.g., nouns like “stratagem” or “trickery”)


texts: Fill in the blank: "I say this with no _____ of pride" (Answer was "modicum")

texts:
To help make this all make sense, there is a word I am looking for--I can hear it in my mind and I can say it with my lips. But I can find no source.

The phrase I hear is, "I say this with no monocomb of pride." The way I understand it is, along the lines of, "I say this without an ounce of pride," or "one bit of pride."

UPDATE:

I looked up the greek word for bit at random and found it to be kommati, so I did variations of this and came up with modicum.


texts:
(I'm not really sure if the title is a correct definition of my problem at all)

I'm not a native English speaker, and I'm used to say:

  Spaghetti suddenly can talk

But I've seen a phrase from a native speaker

  Spaghetti can suddenly talk

I don't want to rush to conclusions based on one example, so please tell me what's the correct way to say such sentences and how incorrect is the other way (informal or maybe rough error)?


texts: Can there ever be such a thing as "proper grammar" knowing that languages change over time?

texts:
Who decides what is "proper grammar"? Who decides when to make changes when the grammar of the people change, and why is it important to follow "proper grammar" if languages change so often?

Edit: to clarify my question, I'm asking specifically about parts of language that can change over times, such as semantics and phonetics, and not about the grammar rules that are consistent across all languages


texts: 'Expect to' as an expression of excitement?

texts:
In a recent test we asked students to write a sentence expressing their excitement at a future activity. We gave an example sentence using 'looking forward to'.

One student wrote "I'm expecting to draw a cartoon."

To me (a native speaker) this does not have the same meaning as "I'm looking forward to...". 'Expect' sounds emotionally neutral and also some nuance of uncertainty.

However the student found in dictionaries that 'expect to' is a synonym of 'look forward to'.

What do you guys think?

We also have a meeting in a few hours with the students parents to discuss his answer and I've been asked to find some reliable resources which I've been struggling to find with specific examples!


texts:
Is the following grammatically correct?

  An area frequented by red kite and skylarks

It would appear to be incorrect as red kite should be pluralised to red kites, however this sounds wrong to my ear.

Is this a grey-area? Or is it definitely incorrect?

Another example usage:

  There were sitings of red kite.


texts: Word for "a thing that is derived from."

texts:
I have some code containing "derivations" which are values that update automatically when any of the values it uses are updated.  They are derived from these sub-values, but I don't know what to call them.

I could have sworn there was a math term for it, but I can't seem to find it.

As an example of the term, I've tried searching "derivee" and "derivation source," and checked the thesaurus for "derive."

Is there a single word for the values from which another value is derived?

Also, these aren't arguments for a function, but more like a column in a spreadsheet which some other column is dependent on.


texts: Word for a leader who rules from behind the scenes?

texts:
What would be a word for a leader who rules from behind the scenes?

The most obvious one to me seems "puppeteer" but I feel like it has this strong implication of "direct control" to it which does not particularly fit what I need.

I'm looking for a word (or phrase), that would describe a leader that from a first glance does not look the part. Perhaps even proactively seeks to conceal his leadership through deceit.


texts: What is the meaning of "tough little number"

texts:
According to longman dict, little number is a dress or suit of woman. But I can't get the meaning of the word "tough" in this phrase.

Here is the context:

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/northamerica/northamerica-life-arts/30-incredible-photos-of-animals-in-the-wild/ss-BBS2Mgv?li=BBKxOg5#image=13


texts: Word for the original enamor with an idea or concept

texts: Like, for example, a child wanting to go to space when he gets older. He is fascinated by this concept, even though not having experienced it. It's based on amped up perceptions.


texts:
When we have trouble with starting a car we say "Oh no, the car won't start."
Why do we use future tense here?


texts:
I know how negative contractions are used, and that they're all pretty straightforward in informal writing.

Didn't she go to the opera with you?

Weren't you a pastor before, Jacob?

Can't we get in trouble for this?

But I feel like the tones or meanings of these questions change when the contractions aren't used. Like the second one:

Were you not a pastor before, Jacob?

It almost sounds accusatory, in a facetious way. As if to imply Jacob had done something to contradict his prior lifestyle. The third one doesn't even sound correct when being used that way.

Does this tone-shift occur because of how we use the contractions in modern times? And in the instance of the third example, are they all still correct even when they don't seem like it?


texts: Another word for "effective", but not indicating a satisfactory solution

texts:
Here is the sentence:

  There are ways around requiring Proxy ARP on a NAT device, but that involves using a Static Route on the Router to manually instruct it to send packets which must be translated to the Firewall’s interface. While effective, this solution does not scale.

Here is a similar sentence that won't require understanding the technical jargon:

  There are ways to get around requiring toilet paper, but that would involve getting your hands dirty. While effective, this solution does not scale.

The idea is the "other solution" works, is feasible and would technically accomplish the goal. BUT, is not ideal or even suggested as a "good solution" to the problem.

The word "effective" works, but I feel it conveys too much positive sentiment for what I am trying to accomplish.

"Feasible" is also a potential candidate, but leaves to vague about the solution working at all (aka, it's possible, doesn't mean 100% certain to work). The solution in both of the sentences above absolutely work, but are absolutely not the most ideal way of doing things, and therefore not effective solutions to the problem.

Single word preferred, but willing to do multi-word. Would rather avoid a colloquialism.


texts: Is "catarolysis" a word? Whether it is or not, how might it be broken down into Greek or Latin derivatives?

texts:
Some definitions I have seen are:
"catarolysis - n. - cursing to let off steam"
 and
"catarolysis: letting off steam by cursing"
 and
"catarolysis /kat uh RALL ih sis/ n  The practice of cursing to let off steam"

So far I see that "lysis" means "to break down"; and "cata" means "downward movement"; but that doesn't seem to fully cover "cataro"...

Even if this is just coining for fun, how might the root words better match the definition?


texts: Should "ya" have an apostrophe? "Doin"? Etc

texts:
"How ya doin?" v. "How ya' doin'?" and so on.

There's... a debate.


texts: Use of enough, example from Murphy grammar course

texts:
What is the correct sentence:
I know English enough to read a newspaper   OR
I know enough English to read a newspaper.


texts: A sentence after a comma without any explicit coordination conjunction, is it allowed?

texts:
Consider this sentence from Bill Gate's book (Business @ the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System)

  We had to build an internet system that was so convenient, customers got more value for their time than they did on the phone.

There are two full sentence after and before comma! Is it correct? isn't it better to be:

  We had to build an internet system that was so convenient, customers getting more value for their time than they did on the phone.

To make the second one ablative absolute? how do you analyze this sentence?


texts:
-ergic as in sentences like Y is Xergic denotes that Y has the property of being sensitive to X or that Y produces X. In simple terms, it means that the noun does something with x. In my field of study, this os true for e.g. dopaminergic-, serotonergic-, and glutamatergic neurons which are neurons that are sensitive to these respective neurotransmitters and/or releases them.

But the word allergic seems to denote only a sensitivity to allergens but not a production of allergens? An allergic person does not release pollen. Is the word allergic too general and therefore a misnomer?


texts: I'm curious if this sentence is grammatically correct. Also, what kind of phrase is it called

texts:
In the pocket of his shirt is a protein bar, soft from the sun,
  uneaten, untouched, forgotten.

What is happening after a protein bar? Those aren't things in his shirt pocket; they are adjectives for the protein bar, I think.

Why are these adjectives following the noun? Why isn't there an and before the last adjective?

I searched comma after noun before adjective and further confused myself.


texts: Is there a short phrase that expresses sincere thankfulness to someone who takes time to help me?

texts:
When I want to express my thankfulness to someone who takes time to help me, I would say:

  您辛苦了

in Chinese, or

  お疲れ様でした

in Japanese.

Imprecisely, this means:

  You have taken a lot of time and might even have suffered some pain in fulfilling a certain thing (which is related to me, or even completely for me). So, you must be tired afterward. (Please accept my sincere thanks.)

Is there any short phrase in English expressing this meaning?

Google gave me a translation of "您辛苦了" to English, which is:

  You have worked hard.

But I don't think this is proper, because to my understanding, this sentence is more a judgment than a way of showing gratitude.

I think there might be no similar expression in English, because of cultural differences. But please tell me if there is any.


texts: Is there an adjective that means "affect each other"?

texts:
I have a phrase "X and Y are systems that are dependent on each other and affect each other".

I want to rephrase this to "X and Y are interdependent and ???? systems"

Is there a suitable adjective? perhaps "mutually ???"


texts: If someone pleads guilty to a crime, can they be described as "convicted"?

texts:
If someone pleads guilty to a crime, can I then describe them as being "convicted"?  I recognise that a person who pleads guilty to a crime will have a conviction on their record.  The confusion arises because, in the passive phrase "John was convicted", the implication is that he was convicted by a subject.  It seems strange to say that John convicted himself.

To put it simply, is "John plead guilty" synonymous with "John was convicted"?


texts: Who’s fighting "whom" in Syria? Who's fighting "who" in Syria?

texts:
In the headline of BBC News:

  "Who’s fighting whom in Syria?"

Is it correct to use whom instead of who?

This is a specific example of the who/whom question that has been asked in a more general sense elsewhere. Every time somebody asks about who/whom does not mean it is a duplicate!


texts: English proverb or idiom for bad bargaining

texts: I am looking for a proverb or idiom that indicates bad bargaining skills of a person. For e.g., a person might bargain for a kilo/pound vegetables, succeed but end up buying only a quarter kilo/pound. This would also indicate a foolish person.


texts: the 'form' of two physical quantities VS the 'forms' of two physical quantities

texts: When reading academic papers, I always come across the doubts like 'the noun' vs 'the nouns', which seem difficult for me to tell which one is best to choose as a non-native person.  Can anyone help me clarify the difference between 'form' of two physical quantities and the 'forms' of two physical quantities in the sentence 'the form / the forms is / are represented by vector notation'?


texts: What metaphor can I use for a collection of notes/facts?

texts: I'm trying to come up with a metaphor that represents a collection of facts/notes around one thing. I've tried "deck" and "notebook" but they don't really work. Any ideas?


texts: Is there a word/expression that would correspond to something like "self-distance"?

texts:
In Swedish there is a term called självdistans, which would be directly translated to "self-distance", which means possessing a certain objectivity towards yourself, to be ego-less or not taking yourself too seriously. In other words, it's a quality in a person that would be modest and not too egoistic. Important thing to stress here is that an apparent lack of "self-distance" is a negative thing while too much self-distance can also be seen as a negative trait as it would been that you are actively trying to avoid giving yourself credit for something you have done, or dismiss any praise you might get from others.

I am not sure if what I am trying to get at is clear enough or if I should try to explain it better. At any rate, I am trying to find a word or expression to express the same quality but I can't seem to find "self-distance" in any English dictionary. Is there a good, semi-formal word that fits in this context?


texts: Word for thing whose parts are independently movable?

texts: I'm thinking of a specific word here for something that is broken up into pieces which are connected by a kind of joint that allows each piece free motion -- like a Rubik's cube. I believe the word may have something like "sect" as part of it, but I could easily be wrong.


texts: Meaning of "How do I respond when confronted by a person you spoke ill about me to a fault?"

texts:
How do I respond when confronted by a person you spoke ill about me to a fault?

What does this sentence mean?


texts:
My colleagues in India frequently use "avail" to mean "use" or "take advantage of" as in the following example:

  Avail our special offer for this event.

I have never seen "avail" used in the manner; and judging by Merriam-Webster, I shouldn't be seeing it now :-) But I am, so I'd like to know what I might be missing.

Note: British English is the dialect my colleagues are most familiar with.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Do I ever hyphenate adverbs when used with "based"?

texts:
I've seen it used both ways, but I'm wondering what is the proper way to punctuate phrases with adverbs and words like "based".

example would be:
academically-based instruction vs. academically based instruction

newly-identified disease vs. newly identified disease

Thank you.


texts: "The reason being" — Why is this grammatically correct?

texts:
Observe the following three sentences.

I have a dog. The reason being dogs are fun.

I have a dog. The reason being is dogs are fun.

I have a dog. The reason is dogs are fun.

Even though I regularly hear sentences like 1 and 2, I do not understand why they are grammatically correct.


texts: Is it fine to say something like "I'm usually being ..."

texts:
For example "my English isn't much good, so I always think about it when talking with people". Which is most appropriate to quickly express it in English:

I (usually) have concerns about my language
I'm usually being concerned about my language
I concern about my language


texts:
I was wondering if it is okay to use "break the awkwardness" in place of "break the silence" or "break the ice" to describe an action leading to a social interchange/conversation. If not, then what are the possible alternatives to "breaking the ice" - perhaps something more formal?

EDIT:
The context is a social situation - two people deadlocked in an awkward silence for a rather long time trying to break the ice. So long that the situation becomes awkward for both?


texts: People usually use "typical" in place of using "difficult". Does "typical" also mean "difficult"?

texts:
Typical actually means "of a particular type" but that particular type may not be difficult.
What do you people think?


texts: Term for a person with absolutely zero knowledge of a topic

texts:
I'm looking for a term to describe someone who literally has zero knowledge of a topic.  Initially I thought of using something like green field but that doesn't really describe the person, it really describes a situation.

The context of this is for providing training.

{what goes here?}
Beginner
Intermediate
Expert


texts: Pronoun to refer to "Mrs. Jeffrey's class" — "it" or "them"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Which pronoun refers to a group …

Helping my sister with 3rd-grade homework, feel silly for checking.

She wrote:

  The candy was brought by Mrs. Jeffrey's class. The candy was brought by them.

I corrected her with this:

  The candy was brought by Mrs. Jeffrey's class. The candy was brought by it.

She wouldn't stop saying how it sounded weird. But I believe this is the right choice. Can anyone confirm?


texts: Is there a female or gender-neutral equivalent to the colloquial "man"?

texts:
I don't know how to define the usage of man I'm talking about*, so I'll do it with examples:

Hey, man, what's up?
C'mon, man, don't make me do this.

Is there a female or gender-neutral alternative for this word or is this sort of talk restricted to men only?
Is "man" in the examples a normal noun or is it a different grammatical phenomenon, maybe an interjection of sorts?


texts: Alternate phrase for hope you are doing well

texts:
What does this phrase mean and when do you use it
"I hope you’re having a two-coffee (versus a four-coffee) day"

Thanks

Priya


texts: What does "very notion" mean in this sentence "The       second       epistemological       consequence       derives       from       the       very                                     notion       of      mechanism-independence."?


texts: Use of "that" in enumeration such as "Not only that, but also"

texts:
I think that the "that" in the following sentence might have to go. How would you beautify such a sentence?

  Not only that the car was damaged, it had no gas either.

vs

  Not only was the car damaged, it had no gas either.


texts: Is there a word for making a change to something, expecting a change in outcome, but no change in outcome occurs?

texts: This is a phenomena I experience occasionally in programming when debugging. I will have a program that doesn't do what I want, so I make a change to the code expecting the program to do something different when I run it again. However, when I run the program again, I am surprised and frustrated to get the same result.


texts:
Is it right to say:

  the scientifically literate?

The reason I ask is that "The literate" is a noun. And the adverb scientifically modifies it. But as far as I know, adverbs cannot modifies noun. Is this rule wrong, or is this phrase ungrammatical?


texts: Sometimes the word "integrated" is put before system. According to google, is 'a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network', so isn't it integrated by definition?


texts: Meaning of 'quid pro quo': why does it diverge from its original Latin intention?

texts:
I am not a native English speaker; I am Italian. I am always puzzled when I hear the expression "quid pro quo" intended as "you scratch my back I scratch yours". In Italy we mean it as "misunderstanding" (from the literal translation "this for that", with "for" meaning "in the place of" rather than "in exchange for").

Here is a dictionary entry Treccani La Cultura Italiana Online which translates to:

  qui pro quo (or quiproquò) [...] from the lat. quid pro quo, title of a section that in some pharmaceutical compilations of the late Middle Ages included the medicines that could be given in place of others; the modern meaning is taken from French. - Misunderstanding, exchange of people or data or news due to not having understood correctly, to have taken one thing for another.

What are your thoughts? To be more specific, I am asking what your thoughts are on the possible reasons for this discrepancy, and is it possible that it had both meanings in Latin as well?

Also, just to help further clarify: I am not curious about the meaning of the expression in modern Italian, but the meaning in modern English.


texts: Is "acknowledge(accept status) sb + to + infinitive" valid?

texts:
When to acknowledge is used in the sense of to admit the gerund is used.

  I acknowledge having made a mistake.

However, I was wondering what is the appropriate form in the sense of to accept status.
I found this sentence on the Internet:

  He only hoped the applause was a result of his delivery and not to acknowledge him being voted most valuable player.

I think that this sentence means he was first voted as the most valuable player and for that reason people can acknowledge him being voted.

The jury who voted him the most valuable player, however, gave their votes beforehand; thus, using gerund would be wrong if my previous statement is true. Hence I guess:

  The jury acknowledged him to be the most valuable player.

Imho, this is the active form fitting to the passive:

  He is acknowledged to be the most valuable player.

I still have my doubts if the "acknowledge sb to be"-form is valid. I didn't find any examples on the web. So, is that sentence fine or must it be something like:

  The jury acknowledged him as the most valuable player.


texts: My question is how to use the word 'consequent' ? what is the preposition that follows the word 'consequent' ?


texts: Ability in the future: "can" vs "will be able to"?

texts:
According to the Oxford Grammar Course (Intermediate) book by Swan & Walter, we normally use can if we are deciding now what to do in the future. In other cases, we use will be able to.

I need some help with the questions number 8, 10 and 11 in the first exercise of the page:

  8 I'm free at the weekend, so the kids __[can]__ come round.

  10 We're busy this week, but we __[can]__ repair it by next Thursday.

  11 I __[can]__ pay on Saturday – I promise.

I put can, as indicated here.

My reasons for all three:

8) I think can is correct because the speaker is deciding to allow the kids to come round in the weekend though he is busy.
10) I think can is correct because the speaker is deciding when exactly what to do the next Thursday.
11) I think can is correct because the speaker is deciding (and consequently promising) what to do on Saturday.

But the answer key says these three sentences should have will be able to.

I really hope that there is someone here who has a deep knowledge of grammar and can explain to me why we can't use can in these three questions. Why do we have to use will be able to?


texts: The thing that we use to remotely open the door in English

texts:
What is "the thing that, in its simplest form, has a receiver and a button, and we use to open the door when somebody rings the door bell" called in English?

When I'm speaking English I almost always ask somebody to answer the door or I answer the door myself but today I was thinking, what is that "thing" exactly called, is it a "Door Answerer" or an Intercom?

In my native language, it is called 'AiPhone' or 'EF-EF'.


texts: "Covered with" vs. "covered in" vs. "covered by"

texts:
I want to find out the differences in meaning among covered by, covered in, and covered with.  For example, what is the difference between:

  covered with blood
  covered in blood

or the differences in meaning among

  the mountain was covered with snow
  the mountain was covered in snow
  the mountain was covered by snow


texts: Which of these two sentences is correct?

texts:
I don't like YOU leaving early.
I don't like YOUR leaving early.


texts:
I (a Japanese speaker) have been editing a mathematical coterie magazine which will be distributed in a school (university) festival.

My question is below;
1. How should I, as an editor, call the collected "manuscripts" from writers?---"manuscripts" or "articles"?
I'm confused because once papers through proofreading and have been published, the papers become "an article", but "manuscript" also has a meaning "a completed (yet first) version of papers" (cf. Collin's Dictionary) and also "article" is used like "write an article (not completed)".
2. For a "manuscript" becoming to be an "article", proofreading must be needed?
Or when should I use "manuscript", not "article" (of course vice versa)?

Thank you so much for your help.


texts:
I've just come across the pejorative term Cloth Head, and beyond pure speculation here on WordReference.com Language Forums that it's related to the term clot head.

The more familiar term is cloth-head, meaning dum-dum, dingbat, nitwit (etc. etc.). There is also a word clot, of the same meaning. I have never seen the spelling clothead before; it's either clothhead with one of the h's omitted, or it's a new combination of clot and some insult in -head, including but not limited to clothhead. So it could be pronounced either way.

But 'Cloth Head' seems to outweigh all other formulations in these Google ngrams, however that doesn't negate when cloth head is not used  pejoratively. So although that seems to be the original term, I then searched on 'clot(h)headed variants. The google ngram is here.
Clothheaded still prevails, making me think that is the original, but I cannot find an original use that gives an etymology.


texts: How to properly use "not...without" in English?

texts:
Please help me out by criticizing on the grammar and syntax of the following sentence used in my cover letter. I would like to make sure the sentence is not confusing in any way before sending it out.

"Our success in the consulting project has demonstrated my good customer-orientation because the client would not pleasantly accept our cost-saving recommendations without my tactful and proactive approach."

Any help appreciated


texts: Split infinitives—did Old English have them?

texts:
I've read a few articles as well as questions on this site about splitting infinitives. In the Wikipedia article, it claims:

  In Old English, infinitives were single words ending in -n or -an (compare modern Dutch and German -n, -en). Gerunds were formed using "to" followed by a verbal noun in the dative case, which ended in -anne or -enne (e.g. tō cumenne = "coming, to come").

I read a bit on the use of infinitives in Old English; apparently, Old English has a to-infinitive that became Modern English infinitive. For example, the following sentence from (I think) Alfred's English translation of "Consolation of Philosophy":

  he    wilnað  good    to  habbanne    ond mid goode   to  bionne.

"He wills good to have and mid good to be"

Since the infinitives, "to habbanne" and "to bionne" are also two words, did the English speakers back then ever think of putting an adverb between them? For example, would Alfred or Bede have written something along the line of this:

  he wilnað good to ā habbanne ond mid goode to sælige bionne.

"He wills good to forever have and mid good to happily be"

It seems English texts from that time don't contain this kind of sentences, but would it have been considered correct?

What about other Germanic languages?


texts:
While in the classroom, you need to keep your voice down.

Is "while in the classroom" a dependent clause with "you are" omitted as a subject and predicate?
Is "while" a subordinate conjunction?


texts: Singular or plural verb after the phrase "each item"?

texts:
Which kind of verb should it be used after the phrase "each item" in the following sentence?

  The law requires that each item clearly display the warranty information.

Should it be "displays" or "display" is correct?

Edit. Just to clear this up a little bit, let me explain that I got the sentence from a TOEIC book and that it called my attention on whether is correct or not.

Also

This question is diferent from others because I'm asking specifically about this sentence and phrase. Furthermore, I asked my teacher about it and she told me that it might be correct because they can be refering the word "item" as a whole, so if that is the case plural verb should be correct but using the word item as a singular thing it should be singular verb, but only they know what they tried to convey by saying "each item."


texts: Single word for "Someone who's in on a secret"

texts: Is there a noun that means "someone who's in on a secret"? There are words like accomplice and co-conspirator for people who take part in clandestine activities, but I failed to find one for people trusted with a secret, but not actively participating in anything.


texts: Why does these sentences could omit relative pronoun as a subject pronoun?

texts:
These sentences have perplexed me about leaving relative pronoun in relative clause. I  learn that we can not omit relative pronoun when this pronoun is subject. So why in these two sentences, both pronouns play the role as the subjects, but they all are omitted and changed into -ing clause?

1.We are confident that all the doctors WORKING in the hospital that we represent know that they have acquired the competencies to care for critically ill patients.

We are aware that the organization has recently circulated a letter to its members PROPOSING to change its name to include our title.

I think "doctors" and "a letter" are subjects so I think there are "who work" and "that propose".

These sentences are written by me. Are they correct if I omit the relative pronouns?

I came across a Twitter WRITTEN by a trainee doctor that share about his way to prepare for the exam.
Here are some of my learning sources INCLUDING math, history and physics which I have collected for a period of time.

Thank you a lot for your help.


texts:
Twice in the book I'm currently reading (and I believe elsewhere occasionally) I've seen "on an elevator" where I (in the UK) would expect "in an elevator".  Is "on" a common American usage (the rest of the book uses US spellings) or are they just typos / odd usage by the author?

I searched, but the only reference I could find was this question on another website which basically says "in" all the time.

The book in question is The Atlantis Gene (Origin Mystery, Book 1) by A.G.Riddle.  The relevant excerpts (my emphasis) are:

  Message: We were getting water together at the desk and got on the
  elevator together.  Didn't know if you wanted to get together for a
  little extra exercise. Tell what floor I got off on.

  Page 86; Kindle location 1353

and:

  On the elevator, Kate had fought at the guards' vice-grip hold on her
  arms.  They pinned her to the wall until the elevator doors opened,...

  Page 133; Kindle location 2036

On searching for the above, I also found:

  Josh felt his mouth go dry. "That's why you grabbed me off the
  elevator."

  Page 48; Kindle location 749

where pulling someone "off" an elevator corresponds to them being "on" it beforehand (I'd probably have used "from" or "out of").  However, elsewhere there is:

  Martin stepped out of the elevator onto the helipad.

  Page 128; Kindle location 1970

rather than "stepped off the elevator".


texts: Will the comma suffice to indicate whether the subject or the object is being modified?

texts:
There are two separate meanings I'm trying to convey with the following two sentences:

  1) "I painted my brother sitting against the wall."

  2) "I painted my brother, sitting against the wall."

My brother, in the first case, and I, in the second are sitting against the wall. At least, those are my intended meanings. Is this correctly conveyed through the addition of the comma in the second sentence? I know that restructuring the sentence can, of course, make it more clear, but this format somehow sounds nicer to my ear.

And as an aside, have I correctly put commas in the first line of my preceding paragraph? (The portion in bold.)


texts: Where, if anywhere, do commas belong in a "not only... but" sentence in which the "but" clause appears in mid-sentence?

texts:
I tried to find this rule explicitly on several grammar sites, but did not find it.

A "not only" sentence does not normally need a comma as the "not only" and "but also" are correlative pairs.  So "Not only does he like cheddar cheese but also mozzarella" does not need a comma.

My question is what happens if the "but also" clause is in the middle of the sentence, such as:

  Not only cheddar cheese but also mozzarella cheese is really good on Triscuits.

Should there be a comma after "cheddar cheese" like so

  Not only cheddar cheese, but also mozzarella cheese is really good on Triscuits

or maybe also after "mozzarella cheese" like so

  Not only cheddar cheese, but also mozzarella cheese, is really good on Triscuits.

I'm not sure which way seems to leave either clause less incomplete.


texts: Alternatives for "conducted" with respect to research

texts:
Literature review is a big part of my life. I usually use “[Scientist] conducted a research using data from” to state a previous study.

Do you have recommendations of other verbs to use? I am tired of keeping using conduct (and I am not sure whether it is correct) and really want to diversify.


texts: Synonym for a heavily modified or self-made car or thing

texts:
I'm looking for a word for the following things (they may be the same, or have different words):

cheap car modified or constructed by owner using scrapyard and low-end tools (and thus having certain "quality")
cheap car with expensive and redundant modifications (golden bumpers?)
a regular car which has almost all parts removed and/or replaced to make it more lightweight and faster up to make it unusable for everyday use
not a car but technically complex thing fits any description above

The only words I've found are junker and jalopy, but may be there is more?
EDIT: Commenters asked me to present a sample sentence, but unfortunately I'm trying to find a name for a blog, so there is no sample sentence. May be "%word% Lab" or something.


texts: What is the meaning of this quote as it applies to Native Americans?

texts:
Here is the quote:

  The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.


texts: Is "the fact there" grammatically correct?

texts:
My language exchange partner pointed out to me today that Americans like to drop "that" from the phrase "The fact that there is/are."

I didn't think it was grammatically correct at first, but then Googling "the fact there" seems to throw up many more examples than expected. In fact, it is used in this grammar book.

The sentence is "The issue is complicated, however, by the fact there are a number of restrictions on the use of do as a substitute."

This sentence sounds unnatural to me. Can anyone shed some light on the matter?


texts: Why does English employ double possessive pronouns such as theirs and ours?

texts:
I am a native speaker of AmE.  I understand when and where to use their vs theirs, etc. etc.  (i.e. Don't migrate this to ELL!).  I've searched the site and google, and I have not quite seen an answer to my question.
Etymonline describes the word theirs as:

possessive pronoun, "their own," early 14c., from their + possessive -s, on analogy of his, etc. In form, a double possessive.

And, their:

plural possessive pronoun, c. 1200, from Old Norse þierra "of them," genitive of plural personal and demonstrative pronoun þeir "they" (see they). Replaced Old English hiera. As an adjective from late 14c. Use with singular objects, scorned by grammarians, is attested from c. 1300, and OED quotes this in Fielding, Goldsmith, Sydney Smith, and Thackeray. Theirs (c. 1300) is a double possessive. Alternative form theirn (1836) is attested in Midlands and southern dialect in U.K. and the Ozarks region of the U.S.  Emphasis mine

(Parenthetical question, what do they mean by use with singular objects in this case?)
The entires for our and ours are similar.
Why does English have a double possessive pronoun?  And why does modifying it thusly change its usage?  Singular-plural possessive pronoun - possessive adjective; double-plural possessive pronoun - possessive pronoun?
Theirs is used when there is not a following noun, but, I don't understand why a double possessive would be used in this way.

The book is theirs.
That is their book.

We cannot say:

The book is their.

nor

That is theirs book.

But, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why making it a double possessive would make this happen!


texts: Are there examples in poetry of previously being contracted to prev'ously?

texts: I'm curious if there are any examples in poetry of the word previously being contracted to three syllables, by contracting it to prev'ously, or some variant spelling. It would seem that we are keeping the v consonant but eliminating the i sound. Is this ever done?


texts: Is it correct to use "off" in "I am off to the shops"?

texts: My son says that the use of the word off in a sentence like "I am off to the shops" is incorrect. Is he right?


texts: Is there a term for the sound of a bicycle bell?

texts:
A bicycle bell is a percussive signaling instrument mounted on a bicycle for warning pedestrians and other cyclists.

Wikipedia says that a bicycle bell produces a "ding-ding" sound, and so, since I'm not sure that "ding-ding" sound is the better choice currently in use, I wonder whether there is a single term with which one can more properly indicate this sound.

After some searches I focused my attention on "clang", "to make a loud metallic ringing sound", but I'm not sure it is the right term.

Thus, my question is, is there a term for the sound of a bicycle bell?


texts:
According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English,

The traditional rule about which preposition to use after ''compare''
states that compare should be followed by ''to'' when it points out
likenesses or similarities between two apparently dissimilar persons
or things:
She compared his handwriting to knotted string.
''Compare'' should be followed by ''with'' when it points out
similarities or differences between two entities of the same general
class:
The critic compared the paintings in the exhibit with
magazine photographs.

Does this rule have to do with the meanings of the prepositions themselves? Otherwise, how did the differentiation come about?


texts:
I am currently working on a game where the different areas of the map will have different climates. I wish to have 5 different levels of temperature and humidity for the different climates. I currently have the following descriptors(from lowest to highest) for the levels.

for temperature:
FREEZING, COLD, MILD, HOT, SCORCHING,

and for humidity:
ARID, VERY_DRY, DRY, HUMID, MOIST

Do you feel that these names are accurate? Any suggestions for more appropriate descriptors?


texts: What's exactly the difference between "per se" and "ipso facto"?

texts: These two seem quite interchangeable—is it so or is it just me unable to comprehend the difference?


texts: What is the origin of being "in the pudding club"?

texts:
Being "in the pudding club" seems to mean "being pregnant" in British English.

What is the origin/etymology of this phrase?
Where is it used nowadays?


texts:
Is "Envier" a word? I don't quite think it is :-/

And I know you can describe him as a jealous person..But that's again an adjective.

I'm looking for something like - You call a person who is extremely greedy when it comes to food, a 'Gourmand' or a 'Glutton'.


texts: What is the base form called of a superlative or comparative adjective?

texts:
Motivation:  I'm doing a text-mining project and I'd like to map all forms of an adjective to their "base-form".

Example:

bigger    -> big
biggest   -> big
stronger  -> strong
strongest -> strong

The words on the left are the comparitive or superlative forms of the word on the right.

Question: What is the word on the right called?

Related: Antonym of "superlative", but in this case I'm not looking for the opposite, simply the name of the form without the comparison.


texts:
My wife recently came upon the will & testament of some long past relatives.  In these documents the man leaves several slaves for the care of his "Unfortunate son".  The term "Unfortunate Son" is used a few times. We've also found other documents where that term pops up again, not only with that particular son, but another a decade or two later.

While Googling I can't find a definable answer as to what it means.  Was he mentally challenged? Born out of wedlock?  Born of a relationship with a slave?

The will was written in the 1830s in Georgia.


texts: What's a the word for people who make fun of themselves?

texts:
I don't mean people with low self esteem.

But there are people who feel happy at being able to make other people laugh at their own expense. I remember someone telling me there is a word for them, I can't find it.

Let me explain:

I sometimes, while sitting with a group of people, might just tell them a personal embarrassing story, which might be completely fabricated, to make other people laugh. And when they laugh, I feel happiness.

I'm also self deprecating, but not in a way that I hate myself, rather,  just my work (I'm a screenwriter) and knowing I can do better. I do not self deprecate myself in public (I don't praise myself either).

Edit: Now that its mentioned, I think the word I'm talking about was used to describe a person's sense of humor. Or it could be a word used to describe a psychological trait/disorder.

Edit: I just looked up humor styles on Wikipedia. And after reading it, I guess the word that closely matches what I'm looking for is 'Affiliated Humor' but in a 'Self Defeating' style.


texts:
My instincts tell me that the following phrase should be "2014 and newer off-road equipment." When I Google it, I see all of the these: offroad, off road, and off-road. Is there a correct one? Or should I just go with my instinct?

Thanks!


texts: Is there an adjective describing some person or group of people who blindly follow a leader figure, especially with negative connotations?

texts:
I'm looking for a word describing those who act like sheep to the shepherd, blindly following the leader figure, without considering their own actions. If I could conceive of such a word, I might make it something like "igorical" (reminiscent of Igor, who blindly follows his mad scientist leader).

Example of use (applying to behavior):

It is in such igorical behavior that such an election can arise.

Example of use (applying to people):

It is in the existence of such igorical people that such an election can arise.


texts: Noun verbs a-gerunding - the meaning of the "a-gerund" form?

texts:
The first time I saw this antiquated form was in Steeleye Span's interpretation of The Elf Knight ballad, but I tend to see it now and then and I don't quite know how it is used.

  Lady Isabel sits a-sewing
  Fine flowers in the valley
  When she heard the elf-knight's horn a-blowing
  As the rose is blown

What is the name, role, history (how it came to be, and how it died) of that prefix? Does it affect the gerund in any way, modifying its meaning or such, or is it just "the way it was spoken back then"? Is this related to the indefinite article a put in front of normal nouns, treating the gerund as any noun, or is it something completely different?


texts: A word to mean “give something up” (specifically: livelihood)

texts:
I’m looking for a word that means sacrifice something.  But I mean to use it in this sentence. I want to replace sacrifice with the word:

  They packed up everything they had, gave up the option of ever seeing those loved ones staying behind, sacrificed their livelihoods to sail across a vast ocean to some unknown land they weren’t even sure existed.


texts: The blue means literarily the sky or sea. Does its plural form indicate the sky and sea both? For example, is this a meaningful sentence if I say “the horizon is where the blues intersect”?


texts: word for when you let something bad happen just to prove a point

texts:
Anyone know the word you would use when you let something bad happen just to prove a point? "You're being _____."

For example, proactive would describe a situation where you attempt to prevent issues, reactive is where you respond after the fact. The word I'm looking for would be when an organization knows something bad could happen but allows it to prove a point or to teach a lesson. That organization could be said to be ______.


texts:
We create these events not to allow the news to go unnoticed

or

  We create these events to not allow the news to go unnoticed


texts: Participle of "center/centre" in UK English — "centring"? Seriously?

texts:
As an American, I was  never shocked to see the word "center" spelled as "centre." It didn't bother me at all. Honestly.

But then I saw the participle of it spelled as "centring" as opposed to "centering," and it really made me reconsider the whole thing. Do UK (and Australian, New Zealand, etc.) speakers pronounce it similarly to US speakers (three syllables)? Do you guys ever spell it "centering?" Do you find the US spelling as weird as we find the UK spelling? Does it make you uncomfortable in a way you can't fully understand?

Also, I see that my Chrome spell check is equally thrown off by the UK spelling. Is your browser's spell check disgusted by the US spelling?


texts: Difference between "testified" and "stated" in a legal context

texts:
If you're working in a law firm, do the words "testified" and "stated" have two different meanings?

For example,

  The witness testified that...
  The witness stated that...

And is it acceptable to use the two as synonyms?


texts: Under their appropriate definitions, can one "obtain" what they have "created?"

texts:
Having a simple discussion with my coworker, I mentioned that I was celebrating my two year anniversary with my girlfriend.

She asked me "What are you going to get her?" to which I replied, "Nothing. I have $5 to my name."

Once again, she asked the same question, and I said "I'm going to make something."

She claimed that making is getting, and I explained to her that obtaining is not the same as creating. This sparked an all out debate (her point being that to create something is to obtain it) which has driven us to not work near each other any longer, and we have ceased all contact.

Jokes aside, can "obtaining" be creating?


texts: Word for everything we've ever created to kill

texts:
Humans eradicated the plague, but created one themselves - a plague of violence and destruction, which came about with the invention of _______.

Or

  It is a disturbing balance humans have unintentionally brought by pursuing saving and taking lives at the same time. Bringing death through ____ and saving lives by medical advancement.

Basically, a hypernym for explosives, weapons, TNT, nukes etc. would suffice.


texts: Strange English mnemonic: 'S' before 'N', except after the 15th century

texts:
Whilst on my previous Angevin history kick, I strolled upon the word demesne, and of course had to look it up at the Online Etymology Dictionary, trying to figure out in what sense it differed from its close synonym domain. There isn't much of a difference, as it turns out:

  demesne
  c.1300, demeyne (modern spelling by late 15c.), from Anglo-Fr. demesne, demeine, O.Fr. demaine "land held for a lord's own use," from L. dominicus "belonging to a master," from dominus "lord." Re-spelled by Anglo-Fr. legal scribes under influence of O.Fr. mesnie "household" (and the concept of a demesne as "land attached to a mansion") and their fondness for inserting -s- before -n-. Essentially the same word as domain.

My questions actually have more to do with the curious note the dictionary gives in the definition — namely, the bit about "[scribes] fondness for inserting -s- before -n-."
I'm at a loss to think of any words that fit that pattern. Can anyone else think of words that display this -sn- pattern, that would have emerged during this time period under the influence of these Anglo-French scribes?
Secondly — and I'm not necessarily expecting an answer on this — is there any good reason scholars would have had such a fondness for this construction? Did they have reasoned etymological reasons behind doing so, correct or not?


texts:
Andy and Bob are twins.
  Andy says: "This is my twin, Bob."
  Andy is Bob's twin brother.

  Alice, Beth and Claire are triplets.
  Alice says: "This is my _____, Beth, and my other _____, Claire."
  Alice and Beth are _____.
  Beth is Claire's _____ sister.

Fill in the blanks. Sibling or sister work, but are less detailed than they could be. Triplet seems like the obvious answer, but it feels somewhat intuitively wrong when I actually speak the sentence aloud, so I'm posting this to see if there's another good option.


texts: Is it always necessary to use "and" or "or" at the end of a list?

texts:
For example:

a, b, c, x, y, and z.
a, b, c, x, y or z.

Are there any circumstances where it would be acceptable to omit "and" or "or" and simply write: "a, b, c, x, y, z"?


texts: Adjective for something that is spread out or not concentrated in a single location

texts:
I am looking for an adjective to describe something that cannot be found in a single location. For example, teaching jobs are spread out throughout the country, in cities and counties. They are not all concentrated in a single city and town.

Is there an adjective that I can use to describe teaching jobs? An adjective that means "spread out" or "not concentrated in a single location".


texts: Can you please correct this sentence. I am bit confused about this sentence. I think its not a correct sentence.


texts: When did 'post' become a popular replacement of the word 'after'

texts:
I am trying to determine when 'post' became a popular replacement of the word 'after'.

I have found 'post' being prefixed to words used in the medical and other professional disciplines, and in academic works in the 1800s.  However, I am trying to determine when it became common to use it as a replacement.  (Eg, using 'post-emancipation' rather than 'after emancipation')

I am also trying to determine when it started to be introduced in text books for 12 and 13 year old students.


texts: "Most of our generation only knows/know him by repute."

texts:
I stumbled at this construction today. Usually I have an intuition of English grammar from past reading that serves me well - but this time both of the versions sound right.
 "Most of our generation" is a collective, but singular entity. Does the verb conjugate as that of a singular or as a plural?
It would also be nice to have a reference to a general rule that covers such constructs.