texts: Is there a single word to describe a person or the quality of being obsessed with social approval?

texts: I am thinking in particular of being willing to demean or damage oneself to seek social approval. For example, a person who refuses to stand up for a friend when that friend is insulted by higher-status strangers, or maybe even pretend not to have that friend, in order to curry favour or avoid trouble.


texts: Using 'after which' to start a new sentence

texts:
I am a non-native speaker.
In a book I'm currently reading, sentences are often started by 'after which'.

She zipped up her tracksuit jacket.
After which he decided to go upstairs. The other three moved on to coffee.

This sounded odd to me, especially due to the paragraph, because I've seen 'after which' only when combining two independent clauses to a single sentence.
I wonder if this is some humorous style or rather a normal thing one could do without raising a strange undertone.


texts: How do I write (not cite) Bible verses in MLA format?

texts:
For in-text MLA citations of the Bible, everything I've seen says to write the following:

Saint John tells us that "God so loved the world that he sent his only-begotten Son" (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, Jn. 3.16).

Apparently you use a period rather than a colon to separate chapter and verse. But what if I want to say the following:

For the basis of his preaching Keble took Isaiah 49:23: in the Authorized Version, "And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers" (Ellison 227).

The Bible is not cited in-text because the verse was taken from an academic article. What about the 49:23, though? Does MLA allow for stylistic differences, or is a period necessary there as well?


texts: Its/It's for "It", but not for other words?

texts:
Why is there a distinction between "it's" and "its"?

You can write "The cat's walking." where "cat's" might ambiguously be either "cat is" or "cat (possessive)", and I don't think anyone considers this to be a major problem of usage. What's different with its/it's?

Perhaps it is better to compare with other pronouns.

Its is substantially different in form than other genitive pronouns, in that it appears to be a relatively modern construction (OED has the earliest attested use in the 15th century) which in fact generalizes from the apostrophe possessive, or is a result of the same transformation that produced the apostrophe from OE strong|singular|masc./neut. -es. "Him"->"his" definitely isn't generalized from a widely attested grammatical rule; they've been in the language from old english essentially unchanged. By the logic that "its" operates similarly to other pronouns one would expect its (its' ?) modern form to be something like "his" which was its' original genitive form.

So my question is, who decided that its doesn't get an apostrophe, and why?


texts:
I'm looking at this sentence, and I wonder how to label the grammar, specifically the italic part.

I want to see the robot drill through the ice.

In typical present tense, the verb would conjugate as "drills".

... the robot drills ...

So why is it "drill" here? And what is this grammar called?
It's confusing that many similar sentences all use different verb forms (conjugated, or not, or infinitive, or gerund) in the second noun+verb part.

I want to see that the robot drills ...
I want to see if the robot drills ...
I want the robot drilling ...
I want the robot to drill ...

That last one seems ambiguous. It could be that I want the robot because I want to drill something. Or it could be that I my "want" is about the robot itself. Ie, I want that the robot drill. Anyway, I'm digressing.
What is going on in that first sentence? If it's easy to also relate it to the others sentences, I'm curious, but maybe it's better to be narrowly focused in a question on this forum.
(Also: sorry, I don't know how to title this question well. If you have advice on this, I'm happy to edit the title.)


texts:
"The employee, who was a new hire, was let go later that evening"

What does it mean?
Does it mean "fired" ?


texts: Can any noun ending in -ism be swapped for -ist?

texts:
Can any noun ending in -ism describing some system or belief be changed for -ist to describe a member of that system?

My question might be confusing, so I will run through a few examples:

Nihilism => nihilist
Feminism => feminist
Racism => racist

This seems to follow a pretty predictable pattern. So, when I learned a new word a while ago - misoneism (having a fear or hatred of innovation or change) - I was expecting to be able to call someone a misoneist, if it ever came to that.

Unfortunately, while most dictionaries (online and paper) I have checked so far contain the word misoneism they do not contain the word misoneist. Were my assumptions correct that you can create any -ist noun from a root of -ism, or is this word in the dictionary because it really doesn't exist?


texts: What is the historical English word for graffiti?

texts:
Given that graffiti has existed even before the Italian loanword became commonplace, what is the traditional English word to describe it?

The closest I can imagine would be "epigraph", however, this does not convey the illicit or vandal intent.


texts: What is a better alternative to "at the most"

texts:
I was typing out an email to my colleague asking him to finish and deliver the current job. This is how it ends:

If possible please send it today or by tomorrow at the most.

It just doesn't feel right, especially the at the most part. How can I improve this sentence? The email is still in draft and yet to be sent.


texts: What is the term for multiple-long phrases in a single sentence?

texts:
The bark of the tree had progressively gained pallor and, like some
  town under siege, thanks to the repeated assaults of snowstorms
  and subzero temperatures, it was hard to imagine how this tree would
  survive.

What is the purpose of the bold phrases in the above sentence?
What are the bold phrases called in English grammar (in relation to my question)?
What is the standard English grammar rule when it comes to a series of phrases like those?


texts: How and when did the ('chiefly British') sense of 'wheeze', meaning 'good plan, scheme' arise?

texts:
The American Heritage Dictionary entry for this sense of wheeze adds only a [chiefly British] caveat:

wheeze  ... [noun]
...

[chiefly British] A clever scheme.

Collins adds a [slang] caveat:

wheeze [noun]: ...

[slang] [Brit] a trick, idea, or plan (esp in the phrase good wheeze)

But neither these dictionaries nor RHK Webster's, Wiktionary, CED, Lexico nor the Online Etymological Dictionary suggests how the 'scheme' sense evolved from the original 'breathe raspingly' sense.
Those non-paywalled online dictionaries listing the 'scheme' sense always include it as a polyseme, not a homonym. It is possible that the '[informal] a hackneyed joke or anecdote' sense (Collins) is an intermediate, though Lexico says that this is mainly an American usage.  But I have found not even a suggestion of how or when the 'scheme' sense, I'd say mainly a dated [CED] UK usage and very informal, with a strong connotation of roguishness, arose.


texts:
Is "revelationary" a word in the English language?.

If it isn't a word in proper English, then which word, if any, can be used for something that leads to a revelation?


texts:
I don't understand why they say "One by one, the street lights went out leaving us in total darkness." Why there can't be "...the street lights went off..."?
I have looked it up in dictionary; "go out" means "stop shining" while "go off" means "stop working". So why there can't be "went off"? Anyone please help me!


texts:
I've written:

(1) Taking action on climate change, is, if anything, the opposite of nimbyism.

But there are other ways I could have written the exact same words, in regards to punctuation:

(2) Taking action on climate change is, if anything, the opposite of nimbyism.
(3) Taking action on climate change, is if anything, the opposite of nimbyism.

The way I read this, the commas just represent where I would put pauses in if I were saying it out loud. For example (2) seems to emphasise the 'taking action' part. Whereas (3) seems to emphasis 'it might not be anything'.
Is there any guidelines or rules surrounding how the usage of commas affects the meaning?


texts: Using "although" and "but" in a sentence

texts:
Is the following sentence incorrect please?
Although there are many good reasons to switch to plan B, but we must stick with plan A as long as it is feasible.

That is, can't we use "although" is a clause of a sentence and "but" in its other clause?


texts:
In Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address,

  I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration.

Is press upon used as a phrasal verb here?  Or is it a verb (press) + preposition (upon)?
What's the meaning of press upon?


texts: What’s the grammatical classification of “where” when used in questions like “Where have you been all day?”

texts:
Consider the following sentence:

  Where have you been all day?

What category does where belong to in that sentence? Is it a determiner or a preposition? Is it something else?


texts:
To work as a loan officer, an education in financial planning is required.

I don't see a grammar mistake in the above sentence, if there is any?


texts: Is logging a valid word do describe the process of authenticating in an computer system?

texts:
I have a problem with the word logging. My current knowledge is that logging means:

  cut down (an area of forest) in order to exploit the timber commercially.

But what about computer systems? I have to name a component used to login into our application, and I am struggling between the name LoginController and LoggingController. Which one will be better/correct?


texts: It's the third time he called / has called

texts:
I'd like to know if there's a specific grammar rule about sentences like "it's the second/third (and so on) time"
Should I always use present perfect?


texts:
"Well, you've probably never been in a tighter place  than you are
today! If there's a lunatic hiding on this island, he's probably got a
young arsenal on him - to say nothing of a knife or dagger or two."
Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None.

What does "young" mean here?
From context it could mean "small" or be an intensifier. I don't see these uses listed by online dictionaries, even as archaic. The sense of being recent doesn't seem to apply, but is another possibility.


texts:
Which one of the following is correct use? If both are correct, what difference does this change make in a conversation?

Do you know when is this being used?
Do you know when this is being used?


texts: Is it necessary to add a comma in: ‘To Dad, with love’ or can it be ‘To Dad with love’? Especially if this going to be a title.


texts: Difference in meaning and use of future perfect forms

texts:
What is the difference in meaning and / or use between:

  I will have worked here for two years by this time next year.

and

  I will have been working here for two years by this time next year.

This is often a point of confusion for students and even 'experts' alike. There could be a number of reasons why a speaker chooses to use either construction:

The rest of the conversation was talking about the future using one form or the other, and to maintain consistency, or even because the speaker had been 'primed' by preceding language
The attitude of the speaker reflects their attitude. The use of the progressive could indicate that the speaker feels it's more of a temporary solution.

So, is there a difference in meaning and use? Which one of the above (1 or 2) is more likely? Or is there a third I've not considered?


texts: Term for "people paid to post bad reviews of a product"

texts:
There is a Chinese term 网路水军 (wǎnglù shuǐjūn) for people paid to attack a particular target on the Internet. I've seen "spammers" as the English for this expression, but to my mind a spammer usually operates by sending email or texts in bulk or by robo-phoning. In contrast, I'm interested in finding a term for people who specialize in posting bad reviews on commerce sites or discussion boards.

Example: "My company hired ________ to smear its competition in on-line reviews, but we had to apologize after being found out."

Update: There's some interesting discussion going on in the comments and subcomments. Good people, please be gentle with each other.

I'm not necessarily looking for an outright translation of the Chinese term I mentioned; ideally, I'd like to find a pre-existing term in English. The phenomenon of fake testimonials or criticisms of a product, in Anglophone society, goes back a long way before the Internet, and I don't think water armies would be comprehensible to anyone not already familiar with the Chinese term.

I'm interested in exploring sock puppet, which I've seen used to refer to the poster of a fake review or up-voter on Stack Overflow. The OED has a year 2000 citation to a related figurative usage, which it defines as "a person whose actions are controlled by another; a minion." (The citation calls the Presidential candidate Al Gore a sock puppet, meaning that he is just a front for some more nefarious political force.) Slang often has fluid meanings, and I'm not sure sock puppet has really settled into the meaning I'm looking for.

But I'm learning a lot from the discussion.


texts: "Only until" requires subject inversion?

texts:
Is this sentence correct?

  It also may explain why only until the economics was relaxed after a difficult period, the policies to solve EVD crisis could attempt to get openly involved in the response to EVD.

Is there subject inversion because of "only until"?
How should I write it?
Thanks


texts:
I can eat anything in this buffet including the lamb chops for dinner only, for if I pay the full price.
Does the "if I pay the full price" clause apply to everything before it?


texts:
I've seen this expression in an episode of Supernatural TV series:

  "Do it, or I go cards-up on your whole clambake"

For me it seems he intends to tell the others about "the clambake" unless they do what he is demanding.

But after some googling I could not find any clue to what this expression means and its origins.

Thanks!


texts:
Is this correct use of "thereby"?

  There is currently a new improvement in the education system, which was originally proposed by A and who thereby received the credits.

Would it be better to use therefore?


texts: How to state abbreviations inside brackets?

texts:
I am aware of the convention of stating an abbreviation in brackets the first time it is used, e.g. "I did well in the Biology Admissions Test (BAT)".

However, I am having difficulties with when you are already writing inside a bracket, e.g. "(I did well in the Biology Admissions Test (BAT))". I am not sure if using a bracket inside a bracket is correct. Would something like "(I did well in the Biology Admissions Test, or BAT)" be more appropriate?

Any advice would be appreciated!


texts: Why does "jack" occur in so many different contexts?

texts:
The word "Jack" is not only a name, but "jack" is also a verb with versatile meanings depending on prepositions and context.

to jack
to jack sth. up
to jack sth. in
to jack through
to jack up a price
to jack into place
to get jack of sth.
...

and I did not include the vulgar examples. In addition, there are many meanings as a noun:

playing card
plug (electricity)
jack boot
jack bush
jack head
...

This lists are far from complete.

I wonder why this particular word has so many different meanings, and if there is an answer to this question.

The name Jack appears to be of French origin ("Jaque"), but that certainly does not explain all of the above items.


texts:
Just saw this. Shouldn't it have the period (full-stop) after the parenthesis?

  Like the magazine? Take it with you. (Don’t worry, we’ll give the next passenger a new copy)


texts: How to express pouring to the very top of a receptacle?

texts:
For different types of receptacles, such as glasses, cups, jars, pots etc., what is a natural way to describe pouring until its volume is full of the liquid?

A construct pour up comes to my mind, but not sure whether it is correct. I also didn't find any support in dictionaries. Example sentence:

  The waiter poured my glass up.


texts: Is there something wrong with using "said (that)" in this sentence?

texts:
Quick context, work as a translator.

I had a short blurb I had to translate where I basically rendered it as:

  "Bob spoke about how Countryland was one of the countries that
  suffered greatly from the Big Bad Thing, and that he wanted to hold a
  photograph exhibition in Hereland."

(Names and places changed for privacy/company policy reasons)

Is there anything wrong with making it "said that Countryland..." Is it ungrammatical? If so, what would be the correct word(s) to use?

My proof reader initially changed "spoke about how" to "told that" which was ungrammatical, so I told her that, to which she responded "change it to 'said or said that' then," which I felt was wrong but could not explain why.

All the stuff I came across online explained that:

-Say is when you pronounce words, express a thought/opinion, for stating a fact, affirming something, declaring something, etc. and is also a one-way sort of action, i.e. doesn't necessarily imply there's more than one person in the situation at hand. It is also doesn't take a person as its object, not without some modifying/adding extra words.

-Tell is for giving information to somebody through speaking or writing and needs a person after it as the object. Unlike Say, it is a "two-way" sort of action, where it implies the existence of two parties conversing with each other.

-Speak is for languages and for general conversation, no specific details usually expressed.

-Talk is more or less the same as speak, but more informal.


texts: What is the word for grown to the point of rotting?

texts:
I remember reading "Light in August" in high school and there was a word that meant something like, grown to the point of rotting. Faulkner was talking about the intensity of the foliage and how full it was at the end of summer. Prurient is what keeps coming to mind but that isn't even slightly correct.

Fecund but rank? Virile but spoiled? The taste of an avocado a day past it's prime?


texts: Can we replace "Fast food" in "Fast food it is" with another noun phrase?

texts:
I found the following dialogue:

  A: What do you want to eat for lunch?
  B: How about fast food?
  A: OK.Fast food it is.

For the non-native speakers like me, it's very difficult to catch the meaning of 'fast food it is'.  Can the subject (in this case, 'fast food') be changed in any way? For example, can we say 'OK. Baseball it is' in response to the question 'Why don't we watch baseball on TV?'


texts:
I wonder what "after" means in this context. Does it mean that the chair is a replica or an original?

  A mid century Wassily / B3 chair 1925-1927, after Marcel Breuer (New York, 1902-1981).


texts: Is it correct to say "I would like to inquire about something?"

texts:
When I make a call to get some information regarding a matter, I generally start the conversation with "Hello, I would like to inquire about something."

Is this a correct usage? If not, what would be a good way to start such a conversation?

Edit: To provide some more context, here's a sample conversation:

Call center employee: Hello, my name is ... How may I help you?

Me: Hello. I would like to inquire about something. One of my clients is a paper factory, and they would like to do business with one of your suppliers. Do they need to be get any kind of certification from you to do so?


texts:
A strange compound of Latin and English. Reasonably common in epistemology and the philosophy of science. (Academic philosophers are not uneasy at creating new words when the need arises.)

Questions:

Should it be italicized as a whole, as in ad hocness? Or not at all?
When ascribing something a lack of ad hocness, should one say non-ad hocness? Hyphenated and italicized?


texts: Word for someone who tries to manage, or oversee everything

texts:
I know a couple of people who have determined that they, for whatever reason, need to help guide other people through their lives. They always do things or suggest things to multiple people, usually disingenuously, in order to reach a desired outcome. This isn't necessarily to their benefit, but usually a mutual benefit or to the benefit of the "victim".

Looking for something other then overseer, if possible.


texts:
What is a word which describes when a person loses it, when they reach their limit or pass the tipping point? I'm trying to use it to describe a person's transition from sane to insane. For example,

  Dick Prosser's (transition to insanity) was accompanied by a ...


texts: Should initial e's after h-dropping be capitalized?

texts: A new Victorian-set British novel begins sentences containing h-dropping with lower-case e's, as in " 'e took my money, 'e did." This seems incorrect but I'm at a loss to find the rule.


texts: Catch phrase/idiom/slang for every bad thing happens for a good reason

texts: Is there any catch-phrase/idiom/slang I can use to express that every bad thing happens for a good reason? (or that bad things could lead to good consequences eventually)?


texts: Mixed conditionals - can "will" appear in "then" clause?

texts:
There's something I don't quit get with mixed conditionals.
here is a situation:

you studied biology in the past, in high school
college level biology class is easy for students who studied biology before, the class starts next year

If I want to express these two sentences in a mixed condition, I would say:

  If you'd taken biology in high school, the biology class next year will be easy for you.

It appears for me, after reviewing several tutorials, that the more idiomatic, grammatically correct construction would be

  If you'd taken biology in high school, the biology class next year would be easy for you.

My question is - why? would suggests un-realistic present/future tense. but this situation is not necessary unreal/hypothetical. it's an action that happened in the past, and the affect is real for the future. basically it's like the "if present simple, then future simple" case, just with the "if" clause expressed in the past.

Edit:
Out of lack of responses, I'll post some of my thoughts on the subject.
Thanks to @Mark Hubbard , who shed a bit of light on the subject.

both of the sentences I wrote are grammatically fine, and neither is "grammatically more correct" than the other. they basically mean different things:

  If you'd taken biology in high school, the biology class next year
  will be easy for you.

Meaning: I assume you took biology in high school, and if you did, the class next year will be easier for you.

  If you'd taken biology in high school, the biology class next year
  would be easy for you.

Meaning: I assume you didn't take biology in high school. this sentence has some negative aura to it. I sort of "blame" that person that the course next year will be hard for him since he didn't take biology in high school.

do you guys agree with the insights I've had?

As  @Mark Hubbard suggested, it is also possible to replace the perfect past tense of the "if" clause with perfect present, as the construct of "if perfect present, then... " also refers to actions completed in the past.


texts: Are the "umbles" etymologically related?

texts:
From Warning: In Bitter Cold, Beware The 'Umbles'

  And we show telltale signs of early hypothermia, what the doctor and
  the National Institutes of Health and other cold-weather cognescenti
  call the "umbles."

  First we lose some fine motor skills, McLaren says, "and we start to
  fumble. And tumble. And stumble."

  Then our cognitive abilities are compromised. "We mumble and we
  grumble."

Are the "umbles", such as fumble, tumble, stumble, mumble and grumble, etymologically linked, either in terms of sharing a common ending, or entire words having a common ancestor?

Trying to do a search of the etymology of the umbles ended up giving the etymology of the word umbles instead.


texts: "much too [something]" vs "too much [something]"

texts:
Which are the differences in meaning and usage between the two expressions "much too [something]" and the most common "too much [something]"?
Are they completely interchangeable?

i.e.:  "much too wise" vs "too much wise"


texts: If you knew how bad things were... or If you knew how bad things are

texts:
Which one is correct and why?

  If you knew how bad things were, you would not go on vacation right now.

or

  If you knew how bad things are, you would not go on vacation right now.

This is assuming that "things" are actually bad right now (that's not up for discussion).


texts: What is a "patchwork approach" to solving a problem?

texts: Is it a disapproving concept? Does it mean a solution that seeks to fix interrelated problems one by one instead of addressing core causes? I ran a google search but couldn't tell much from the seeming rare contexts.


texts: Can you switch verb tenses when beginning a new sentence?

texts:
Tony had just grabbed another bottle of whiskey when it happened. Dropping it, he reached out and grabbed the closest thing to him, narrowly avoiding falling to the ground.

Like going from "grabbed" to "dropping" and back to "reached"

Is that allowed or is it right the way it is?


texts: Etymology/word formation of "program" (as in computer program)

texts:
The word is obviously derived from the noun 'programme' however I can't work out which way it's most likely to have been created.

I'm thinking its either descended from the British spelling of the 'programme' and is therefore a semantic shift and a clipping or is was formed in America where the spelling is "program" for all meanings of the noun and is therefore only a semantic shift.

I'm thinking of the former as the other tenses of the words eg 'programming' and 'programmed' still contain the double 'm' but I'm unsure.

Any help?


texts: "Why has this watch stopped?" Thought Ahmed,

texts:
"Why has this watch stopped? " Thought Ahmed,
How to change this sentence into Narration?
I tried to make its Indirect speech, but I could not change it.


texts:
"Is there any notebook on the desk?"
"There isn't any notebook on the desk."

I read these sentences in a worksheet made by someone whose native language isn't English.

Are these sentences grammatically correct?

Because I thought any is used with aren't and are
"Are there any notebooks on the desk?"
"There aren't any notebooks on the desk."


texts: Is "stress test" hyphenated when an adjective?

texts: My question is when "stress test" is an adjective is it hyphenated?


texts:
There could be a question of which the questioner does not know the answer. But the question may be very easy to the answering person because he is very familiar with the issue or has the information at hand.

What should such a question be called—"small," "little," or what?

(Of course, we can call it an easy question. But an easy question is usually easy for all.)


texts:
Is it okay to say:

  He will be going to get engaged to his ex-girl friend.

Is there a better of saying this?


texts: Usage of contractions like "it's" and "that's" in textbooks

texts: Is it considered bad style to use abbreviations contractions like "it's" and "that's" (instead of spelling them out as "it is" and "that is") in a textbook or academic publication?


texts: How to use "May" to hope for something in a sentence?

texts:
Is it right to use "may" as follows to wish for better days to come?

  May one day comes a time at which we get rid of all such burdens.


texts: "John was happy about being accepted as a team member." What part of speech is "accepted"?

texts:
John was happy about being accepted as a team member.

In one sense, John is an accepted team member, so it could be an adjective.

In an other sense, John was accepted by someone, or by the team or coach. In this sense being accepted is a passive clause. But I suspect that the passive is not really established, because as a verb it still lacks attribution to an agent, and even if it did, John is the subject of the clause, the agent of the action is not.

(1) Parsing the sentence: John was happy about something.

John was happy about being accepted as a team member. S|V|SC(AJP+(pp):happy+(pp):accepted)

So in this parse, the SC is complex. The core SC (happy) is modified by the pp about being accepted, which is complex in itself because it takes a clause (copular verb + adjective) as an object, and accepted is also modified by another pp. Both of these pp are integral to the SC because they are tied to the core AJP happy; there is a chain of semantic dependency.

By core I mean any part of the sentence that is required in terms of syntax or meaning. If you remove a core part, the sentence breaks. The rest is just added, non-essential information.

So, in this parse accepted is an adjective.

(2) Parsing the sentence: John was happy about something.

In this parse the focus in on the clause being accepted where being accepted is taken by some as a passive construction, simply because it could take an agent attribution with the pp by the coach.

  John was happy about being accepted by the coach as a team member.

But if this is a passive form then it should have an equivalent active form as well, but it doesn't because John is the subject of the clause being accepted. So even with this attribution of agency the participle is still an adjective, or at least it is not a passive verb.

I would have to say that accepted is an adjective, by zero-derivation, but I'm not confident in that, given what a newbie I am.


texts: "Being used in a disease" vs "being used on a disease"

texts:
The treatment didn’t work, because it was being used in/on a disease
  that wasn’t a disease.

A native English speaker told me on was the correct choice.

But Google Books returns 0 results for used on a disease and 6 for used in a disease. So I'm confused. What's the correct usage and why?


texts: I want to get this right, so I’ve decided to get the opinion of all you smart folks out there.  I’ve seen the word written both ways, I personally write cellphone as one word, but I’ve seen it written as two words too.  Technically I would imagine that I can’t go wrong if I write cell phone, but I would feel better if I heard other opinions on the subject.


texts:
If someone says to me

  Make sure to check this in future, next time you update this.

How should I reply?

Sure I will
or
I Sure will


texts: The correct use of the word “vicariously”

texts: Is it correct English when someone says that they live vicariously through something? If I were to say “I live through the TV”, would I not be living vicariously? So therefore the word vicariously is redundant and the statement is a tautology?


texts: Single word for floating dust visible in sunlight

texts:
Is there a single word used in English for the visibility of dust particles floating in a stream of sunlight?

shutterstock.com


texts: Which one of "My dead brother" or "My late brother" is used the most?

texts: I'm not a native speaker of English. I was on YouTube and there was a title written "... My Dead Brother" I understood that it has same meaning between 'My Dead Brother' and 'My Late Brother'. But which one is used the most by the native English? Do those sentences have the same meaning?


texts: Where does the idiom "Queen Anne is dead!" come from?

texts:
Looking through the dictionary, I chanced upon an idiom which attracted my attention: "Queen Anne is dead!"

The dictionary says that it means something about "The thing you've just said is well-known, you won't interest anyone with it".

I can't stop wondering, where does that phrase come from?


texts: Term/word for low-volume, agressive, "shouty" speech

texts:
What is a good word or phrase that describes someone speaking in a hostile, aggressive (even condescending) tone, with excaggerated facial features, but the volume of his/her voice is at a normal level (ie: all the traits of shouting in anger, but turning down the volume)? A good example of this is A Few Good Men, where we see the attorney suddenly become very hostile, but his voice is somewhat restrained (until he starts shouting 2 seconds later).

The closest term I could find is "whisper shout", but I think that applies to when someone is trying to speak in a restrained voice (ie: lower pitch) so their voices carries a longer distance without being as obvious to others nearby.


texts:
Can we use oxymorons to magnify dramatic effects on poetry and proses, can't we? (rhythm, tone, expressiveness, etc). When can we use it appropriately? I was wondering if you could help me give some specific contexts.

Thank you for helping me.


texts: "Would+perfect infinitive" vs "would+simple infinitive" with reference to the future or past

texts:
This virus would be done away with somewhere in august.
This virus would have been done away with by autumn.
No one would have anticipated that it would be this long.

In these sentences there is no Conditional Mood but the verb "would" in its modal meaning, isn't it?


texts: Is the use of future tense (especially "will" and "shall") going out of grammar?

texts:
My English teacher taught us that there is no such thing called "future tense" in existence.

Instead we were asked to use present indefinite tense.

He said that we should use "I am to go to London" instead of "I will/shall go to London".

In that case, how should this sentence be rejuvenated:

  "Freedom is my birthright and I shall have it"...?

I consider it worthy sharing another side of the story which started the above mentioned discussion in the classroom.
My teacher said that if some action is confirmed to occur in future then it 'must' be stated using Present tense. For example,

  "The school reopens in July".

After this discussion he said that nowadays books are being published wherein the authors state that there are only two tenses namely,The Present and The Past tense.
He reiterated that the use of 'will' is only confined to express the conditional statements of the future happenings.
For example,

  ** If is rains today, the match will be cancelled. **

So is the usage of "will" confined only to express a conditional meaning...???


texts:
Development is a process whereby insignificant and imperceptible quantitative changes lead to fundamental, qualitative changes.

Question 1: What's the meaning of 'imperceptible'? Does it mean that it's out of our capability to feel it, and we human being just cannot feel or know it?

Question 2: Do you agree it?


texts: Word or phrase for "Walking by and ignoring someone"?

texts:
I am looking if there is any single word or phrase.

The context is

  It’s not the first time when he had duty at gate and someone had
  ignored him while going their way to the station.


texts: A term for "radix point" that everyone would understand?

texts:
The radix point is the decimal separator character.

A third of the world uses a ,, another third use a . and the remaining do not seem to care... And then you have cases like Switzerland which use , for most numbers, and . when talking about money!

In all this we're trying to unify the input so want to something like

  Please enter all numbers using a "." as the decimal separator

There will be non-technical people using this, and there will be people from around the world who are used to using , for their decimal separator.

a) Is there a better term for "decimal separator"?

b) Is there a better way to phrase the statement to make it clear what we're asking?


texts: Is it "ironic" is someone proclaims to be the opposite or what they are?

texts:
I've heard it referred-to several times as "ironic" but is there a more appropriate term for when a group of people accuse another group of being what they themselves are. (eg. people with no sense of humour accusing funny people of being humourless).
And would that term be related at all to where these humourless people suggest that they are actually hilarious?
Thanks.


texts:
Oxford Dictionaries Online defines embedded in the meaning I'm interested in as:

Definition of embed
verb (embeds, embedding, embedded)
[with object]

(often as adjective embedded) design and build (a microprocessor) as an integral part of a system or device: it eliminates the need for an embedded controller on the plotter

Etymonline traces the word back to a geological term, but I doubt system engineers reached to geology in coining this meaning, and while nowadays the use is widespread and common, as I think about it, there are other ways to phrase this kind of relationship/property that must have felt just as, or more intuitive — integral, intristic, bound, inherent, ingrained, nested.
I'm interested in origins of this use of this word. Who, when, in what context used it first in this meaning? Any backstory/motivation?


texts: Word for the driver of a horse drawn carriage

texts:
I am writing a story where the main character travels by a 'horse drawn carriage'. He has a short conversation with the 'driver' of the carriage.

My questions:

Is 'driver' the formal term to describe the person who is 'driving' the carriage? (to illustrate the seriousness of the word choice, I can think of pilots - not drivers - who fly planes!)
Is it called a horse carriage or a horse driven carriage?


texts: How is "indulge" different from "cater to"?

texts:
Why should her father cater to her every whim?

He has always indulged her every whim.

They seem to be synonymous and interchangeable. But can we say that in everyday English one is more common than the other?


texts: How to refer to the position where you bend to the floor with your hands covering your head?

texts: So basically, the position you take while hiding under a table during an earthquake. I think it was something starting with "clu" or "cru"." Of course, I could be mistaken.


texts: Verb [will] -- in [Door won't budge] and [Husband won't budge] -- same meaning?

texts:
1B. Battery won't hold a charge.

  1N.  Noise from the device won't stop.

  2D. [ Door is stuck and won't budge. ]

  2H. [ Husband stuck on name and won't budge! ] --- (Baby Name Game)

For the auxiliary verb [will], three dictionaries I checked all have separate entries for

(P). -- A person desiring or wishing something, and
(Obj). -- An inanimate object having capability --- [the back seat will hold three passengers]

I believe that there is no difference between these two meanings (P) and (Obj), which you can confirm by trying to assign these two meanings to the 4 examples at the top.

(You will eliminate by deduction, [futurity] and other meanings.)

What do you think?

The (Obj) meaning  in the 3 dictionaries :

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/will
4 —used to express capability or sufficiency ---- [the back seat will hold three passengers]

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/will
6. (auxiliary) To be able to, to have the capacity to. [from 14th c.] ---- [ Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand. ]

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/will

am (is, are, etc.) capable of; can: [ This tree will live without water for three months.]

used as an auxiliary to express capacity or ability: [this rope will support a load]


texts: Are sentences like "She didn't so much say the word as hiss it" correct?

texts:
I think of this sentence as of a contracted version of She didn't so much say the word as [she] hissed it, treating as as a conjunction connecting two clauses. But this would require the past tense of hiss in the original sentence.

Another approach is to assume that did has its scope over both verbs: She did (not so much say the word as hiss it).

So should we use the past or the present tense in such cases, or both are acceptable?


texts: English equivalent for new Brazilian Portuguese slang term “desaplaudido”?

texts:
I read in Twitter in Spanish, translation mine:

  In Portuguese from Brazil there is a word for those people who always try to get attention but cannot achieve that because, in fact, they are not good at anything: he/she is a desaplaudido. It is wonderful. We have to import it to Spanish.

I was curious about it and dug around a bit, to find WordReference does not recognize it and also some people in that Twitter thread are replying to say they do not know the word. It must be some new, informal term.

Does English have a similar term for that?


texts: The term for a person who "re-joins" an organisation

texts:
I'm looking for a term (or terms) to describe a person who leaves a group (or organisation), and then later re-joins.

Something like a "re-joiner" perhaps?

For example, a "leaver" is someone who leaves or has left, and an "onboarder" or "inductee" may describe a new-starter.  My language is British English, but it doesn't really matter.

Example sentence as per the comments, "Mr ABC is a _____; he left in February but returned back in May".  Or, the actual usage in my own field:

  Person A: "Is he a new starter or a leaver?"

  Person B: "No, he's a _____; he left, then came back two months later"


texts: Which tense should be used for referring to a study in the past that continues until today?

texts:
I'm writing an academic article for journal publication. My field is social science, and the article is submitted to an American journal.

One of the reviewers suggested using the past tense ("were limited" and "were not investigated") in the following paragraph. This is the minimum working example (MWE).

  Someone (1990) studied X. [...] However, the study is limited to proposing only a theoretical framework for the problem of X. As a result, the impact of the framework in practice is not investigated.

Actually, I've confirmed that "the impact of the framework" has not been investigated at this moment, by checking all the publications from the research group after 1990.

Then, I can agree with  the reviewer because the study "Someone (1990)" is done in the past, in 1990. But if I use the past tense here, it sounds like the limitation is something in the past, hence does not exist now. This is not what I want to communicate.

Which tense should I use for this situation?

Note: I'm not a native speaker.


texts: A simple question about definite article

texts:
I am not sure which one sounds better or grammatically correct.

National parks are parks that are run and managed by the federal government.
National parks are the parks that are run and managed by the federal government.

This type of confusions occurs to me quite often.

Can they both be right? If not, what is wrong with the incorrect sentence?
Please clarify.


texts: Is an English version of the French phrase "un ange passe" used commonly?

texts:
I understand "un ange passe" is a French phrase, which is translated into English as  "an angel passes by" or something like that.
What does it mean and is it used commonly in English?


texts: I am organizing a seminar but i wonder how to address the person who presents the presentation in that seminar. presenter or speaker? What is difference between presenter and speaker? Are they interchangeable?


texts: The rule to have "ing" in the middle of a phrase

texts:
I am seeing this pattern in mostly formal sentences and curious what is the rule to write verb+ing after the first part of sentence. Is it replacement for "which"?

"Make possible epidemiological studies and other research endeavors in terms of problems,
having all the data on any given problem immediately available."


texts: Why Do English Speakers Use "Preposition + Relative Pronoun" Form?

texts:
As I'm not an English speaker, whenever I encounter "Preposition + Relative Pronoun" forms in the books, newspaper, etc., it is not that easy for me to understand right away.

  ... it will gain strength and so become a serious tool and take its place among the means with which you will be bound to create your art. -From 'Letters to a young poet'

If you just put prepositions at the end of sentence, then prepositions should be easier to understand for me. Why does English change the order?
I tried to understand why English makes sentences like that complicated but I cannot find any clues.

One of my friends, who living in UK, told me that there are some sentences in which I have to put prepositions before the relative pronoun. For example, "The situation in which". Could you please let me know what other things there are?

  The situation in which Rilke wrote the first Duino Elegy is again instructive.

Lastly, just for normal conversation, for example meeting up your friends, do you use that kind of sentence?


texts: As far as I know, the pronunciation of the name "Hinds" is /haindz/. Is there another way to pronounce this word? Many thanks for considering my request.


texts:
Can I use "vexed" in the example: "You're impossible!" she vexed.

or would I have to write: "You're impossible!" she said vexing.

Any thoughts much appreciated,
thanks and have a lovely day :)


texts:
I'm all mashed up inside.

Inside the Lost (TV series) a guy named Boone who got desperately injured imparted his physical situation to the doctor with the above sentence. The guy prefers to die, and tries to let the doctor off the hook.

Does it specifically refer to a special physical situation? or it generally means suffering severe injuries? Does it have mental connotations?


texts:
There's a (famous according to Google) quote by the German-Jewish poet Berthold Auerbach:

  Music is a universal language, and needs not be translated. With it soul speaks to soul.

Is the quote grammatically correct?


texts:
I would like to make a statement to the effect of:

The coating contains durable wind-, rain-, and chemical-resistant compounds.

Can someone please provide guidance on the proper use of commas in this sentence.

Thank you.


texts: Why is a comma used in the sentence "Jack has been studying zebras since 1972, when he started the famous Animal Center"?

texts:
Why is there a comma in this sentence?

  Jack has been studying zebras since 1972, when he started the famous Animal Center.

Isn’t the first clause independent, and isn’t when a subordinating conjunction making the second clause dependent? In this case, my basic grammar book says there’s no need for comma. Where am I wrong?

The explanation in my book says “the comma is appropriate between the noun ‘1972’ and the dependent, relative clause that begins with ‘when’.”


texts: I have found a sentence in a text in which the word 'very' works as an emphatic word. The sentence is: "These very habits should be formed in student life." The word 'very' emphasizes the noun 'habits' here. I have found this types of emphasizing first. So, I don't know so much about it. Please someone make me understand how 'very' works as an emphatic word. When, where and how can I use it in sentences? Please make me clear about it.


texts: Term for using phonetic orthography to make a speaker seem uneducated/vernacular

texts:
I stumbled across this term on Wikipedia, so I know it exists, but I can't find it now through searching and two linguist friends weren't familiar with it.

In novels, a speaker's dialogue might be rendered phonetically to show that he or she is uneducated or speaking in the vernacular: "Enuf," he said, "Wot is going on?"

However, what is written is actually the conventional pronunciation, so it's not communicating anything about how the speaker sounds different.

Does anyone know what the term for this is?

Thanks for your help.


texts: What's an adjective for someone who inspires fear and respect?

texts: This person is thought of as "great" and "majestic" because he has done terrible things to get a high job position. He is respected by his employees, and they practically view him as a god. I want to use "awesome," but I feel like it has a positive connotation; I want a negative one. So, I should I keep it or is there a better adjective to describe this person?


texts:
I was writing recently, and wanted to reference a competition managed by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It's called the "Global Liveability Rating".

First of all, should I capitalize the name of the competition? Second of all, is "liveability" even a word? Spell-check deems it an error almost universally.


texts: My friend said I did not think I would marry her. Why did he use would in that sentence?


texts:
If you dispose of an object, its state becomes "disposed".

  If the object has not yet been disposed of, it is called...

The obvious word would be "undisposed". However, I am seeking a positive state, without prefixes.


texts: "Be" as an action in the past or as linking verb

texts:
She was smiling when she saw you.

Is this the past continuous tense or is was acting as a linking verb between subject and predicate adjective?

How can one distinguish easily between the two?


texts: Meaning of the phrase "womp womp" in American English?

texts:
I'm British, I'd like some assistance understanding the meaning of the American idiom "womp womp" in this context:

PETKANAS: “I read today about a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was taken from her mother and put in a cage…”
LEWANDOWSKI: “Womp womp.”
PETKANAS: “Did you just say ‘womp womp’ to a 10-year-old with Down syndrome being taken from her mother? How dare you?”

Source: Washington Post, Corey ‘Womp-Womp’ Lewandowski invited back on Fox News for more nonsense, 20 June 2018
I've found these posts which seem to be related:

Fail trumpet onomatopoeia

Is there an idiom or typical expression for an unfunny joke?

They refer to the trombone "womp womp womp womp" noise as shown in this video, which is also used here in the UK to indicate a joke has fallen flat - the allusion (as I understand it) is to the music played by a circus band after a  clown does a pratfall.
I don't understand it in the context it's being used above; there does not seem to be a joke being made, so it can't that a joke has fallen flat. It seems to be a different meaning, but I'm not clear what that meaning is.
What meaning is the speaker trying to convey?
Thanks.
(I also wondered if it was the Family Fortunes "that's the wrong answer" buzzer noise, but that doesn't seem sensible in context either, and it's not so much of a "womp womp" noise as a "rrrr rrrr").


texts:
Which one is less awkard to native English speakers, a phrasal verb or a word, in function or variable naming?

For example:
Set up tracker module or install tracker module.

I already know the pros and cons between phrasal verbs or words in coding. But I don't know the awkwardness in the perspective of native English speakers.


texts: What is the name of this effect/situation?

texts:
Consider this situation, A group of people have to choose between two restaurants for a meal, restaurant A which is new to the group and restaurant B which is old having been visited by the group several times, the group yet again chooses B even though silently every single person of the group wanted to try A.
In this situation,everybody wanted to try out A but choose B as a group so as to not rock the proverbial boat.
There is a name for this situation or effect, does anybody know the name?
I don't think I am looking for herd mentality, as I think that is when everybody willingly chooses the same thing right? I believe I read a similar example in a book about leadership and how voicing and hearing out opinions is important. I might be mistaken but this situation was referred to as some effect.


texts: What's a word for a "parrot-like" person who attacks, criticizes, and postures loudly, but only from the shoulder of someone stronger, as it were?

texts:
I'm running into a person like this and cannot remember the term.

I imagine the archetype is common in mob-like organizations and criminal enterprise. A person who loves to join in the kicking but only when the person is victim is outnumbered, occupied, or helpless.

Somewhat like Zazu but he is a shade different (he may be right but is overexercising his authority or using it to say personal things).


texts: I’m looking for a word that means sad singing

texts:
Ive heard the phrase singing a sad tune, but I was wondering if there are any for suitable alternatives to singing. Ive thought of crooning, but that doesn’t sound right...

“It kinda sounds like I’m ____ a sad tune.”


texts:
"The problem is who can we get to replace her" vs. "The problem is who we can get to replace her"
Which one is correct and why?


texts: Is it necessary to put an article before the word "vacuum" and if necessary, why?


texts: Can we use the word "pierce" for making big holes in something?

texts:
To me, the word "pierce" means making holes in something but it also connotes that the hole being made is very narrow and tight, which is why it doesn't sound right to use it to talk about woodpeckers pecking on trees and making almost big holes. But what is a word we can use to talk about that kind of hole making in something? (I assume the word "puncture" is similar to "pierce")
Edit: I'm not looking for a word specific to making holes on trees by woodpeckers. I'm looking for a verb for making big holes in something, if there is such a verb.


texts:
So, I've got the following list containing a nonessential phrase ("ultimately"), non-Oxford comma:

  stifling curiosity, creativity and, ultimately, progress.

Is it then correct, when converted to an Oxford comma, to end up with this monstrosity?

  stifling curiosity, creativity, and, ultimately, progress.


texts: "If you remember, we discussed our research a few years back over a phone meeting". Is there a more formal or polite alternative to "if you remember" here?


texts: Use of a comma after "during" at the beginning of a sentence

texts:
What is the rule regarding the use of a comma when the word "during" appears at the beginning of a sentence?

  During church the child whimpered incessantly.
  During church, the child whimpered incessantly.

  During the long arctic winter the freezing cold and lack of sunlight deepens the depressive sense of isolation.
  During the long arctic winter, the freezing cold and lack of sunlight deepens the depressive sense of isolation.


texts: Would I say “Human Services in New York” or “Human Services of New York” if the Human Services serves and is located in New York but is not actually owned or governed by New York?


texts: ’He was off’ vs. ‘He started’ (in terms of their effect in story telling)

texts:
I’m feeling something more energetic from ‘off’ than from ‘start’ because of its shortness and pronunciation, but I don’t know for sure what effect ‘be off’ has in story telling. Is it exactly same as ‘start’? Just look at the following citation.

”What’s your Quidditch team?” Ron asked.
”Er --  don’t know any,” Harry confessed.
”What!” Ron looked dumbfounded. “Oh, you wait, it’s the best game in the world –“ And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he’d been to with his brothers and the broomstick he’d like to get if he had the money. (Harry Potter 1 [US Version]: p.107-108) [Bold font is mine]

I guess the author chose ‘off’ because Ron entered a new phase of his explanation, and that positively and more eagerly. I’m feeling (or maybe imagining) such energy agrees with off.
Anyway, here are my questions.
1. Which would you like to use in the following fill-in-the-blank question, ‘off’ or ‘start’? And why would you choose it?

“Oh, you wait, it’s the best game in the world –“ And he (???) , explaining …, describing ….

2. If ‘And he was off, doing, doing’ is a common expression, would you give me some examples? (I did tried google search, but I couldn’t do it due to my poor searching skill.)
I might be saying irrelevant things, but nothing venture nothing learn! I’d be glad if you could help me.


texts: "This type of element" or "This type of elements"

texts:
I hope this question is not too basic.
I recently edited a question and was accused of correcting a phrase that was grammatically correct to a phrase that is now wrong.
The context is:

I have Sodium and Potassium.
This type of element (i.e. elements considered to be metals)...

I changed the second sentence to

This type of elements...

because I thought there are two elements in this context.
Which of the above usage is correct? And Why?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT:
To make my question more obvious, I've made up some more complete examples:

He prepared some French fries and insomnia cookies, assuming that this type of (crispy) snacks would fit my appetite.
I am recently addicted to Triumph of Death and Tessellation; when I listen to this type of (metal) songs, I feel alive.

Is there a trusted source which claims the use of "this type of things" to be ungrammatical?
UPDATE:
Thank you all for your input. But I am more confused now.
While most of the comments seem to agree upon the same rule, some of the answers have different opinions on this. (hence downvoted?)
Could this be a preference then, where the majority of native speakers prefer not to use "this type of things"?


texts: Can we say "torch relay" and "relay the torch"?

texts:
We saw

  this school is having torch relay

(maybe it's correct), but I don't know if relay a torch is right. Eg, he is selected to relay the torch. If not, how do we usually say it?


texts: What's the difference between comment and note?

texts: Please give explanation and sample sentences, thank you guys!


texts: Is there a difference between unaccessible and inaccessible

texts: Inaccessible is more common, but it seems that unaccessible is sometime used in the same places and it is listed in some online dictionaries.


texts: Words like 'disgruntled' with no positive counterpart

texts:
"I was thoroughly gruntled."

Are there many words like 'disgruntled' where there is no positive counterpart? And was there ever a word 'gruntled'? And if not, where did 'disgruntled' derive from?


texts: "When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry." --- What does it mean?

texts:
"When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry."

I can't understand what this quotation means.

Can anyone help me understand its meaning?


texts: Is it correct to use "My minor endeavours"

texts:
Would it be correct to use My minor endeavors in this sentence:

  My minor endeavors through my high school kept up my curiosity in computers.

If not, please suggest an alternative and it would be great if I could know the reason why it is wrong.

P.S.: My reasons for asking are purely interest-based as this does not sound good to my ears.


texts: to water (to give an animal water to drink)

texts:
to give an animal water to drink
Example: The horses had been fed and watered.
Source: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary 4th Edition

Neither I nor my Australian teacher have ever heard such a usage, but the CALD has another opinion. Who is right?


texts: Using "All" twice in a row in a sentence

texts: Would "We're all all talk." or "We're all, all talk." be correct? Ignore how bad it sounds. Which one would be correct?


texts: Using "it" after a comma to restate a previously-defined concept within the same sentence

texts:
I hope I'm posting this in the correct forum.  If not, please direct me to the proper place to move my question.  This is my first time using this site since I found it on Google, though I've used some of the answers here as references a number of times before, so please bear with me.

I'm in the process of editing a friend's story, as she is unfamiliar with a lot of grammar and punctuation rules.  I've been trying to explain to her why I'm making each edit as I go so that she can learn from the experience.

I've run into a chapter where she's used a similar sentence structure a few times, and I'm not positive that it's incorrect, as I've seen it done plenty of times before, but it just feels wrong to me.  If it is incorrect, can you tell me how to explain it to her grammatically so she's less likely to make the same mistake again?

Here are the examples:

The thought that his kind were something to fear or at least be wary of, it was harmful.
The way Jordan was smiling and the lightness in his voice, it was unlike the man he had seen before.
The memory of her face, caught contorted in the middle of a scream, it had haunted him for the first year.

To me it feels like it would be better to remove the ", it" in each case but I don't want to tell her something is incorrect if it works grammatically (though I might mention that it feels more natural without that).  If I'm analyzing the sentence structure properly, it seems that the "it" she's using is just simplifying and restating the noun used at the beginning of the sentence, before the comma break ("the thought," "the way," "the memory"), but could using "it" in that manner also apply to other parts of speech that I should warn her about?

Also, are there instances where, with certain formatting changes, the "it" can properly repeat the subject without being grammatically incorrect?  For example, I've seen situations where someone would use an ellipsis in place of a comma, but I'm not sure if they mean to trail off and then begin a new sentence with it, or what.

Sorry for the long-winded question.  I'd appreciate any answers you may have for me.


texts: Meaning of "sanity" and "well-seasoned "

texts:
I read an article by Anemona Hartocollis-a NYT reporter:

  The gravel driveway to the farm is marked by stars and stripes painted
  on boards, like a Jasper Johns painting, with a baby’s footprints
  where the stars should be. Its whimsy hints at the affectionate family
  life inside. In the kitchen, the grocery list on the chalkboard shows
  requisitions, in different handwriting, for “man soap” and “sanity.”
  Well-seasoned cast iron pans hang on the wall, and in a freewheeling
  spirit, nobody minds that the bathroom has no door.

Question 1

Man soap " is one kind of soap which is proper for man to use". What about "sanity", what thing is it?

Question 2

What does "well-seasoned " mean? When I refer to the dictionary, it is telling:

(Cookery) (of food) flavoured pleasantly or generously with herbs, salt, pepper, or spices
(Forestry) (of timber) prepared and dried skilfully or thoroughly
(of a person) matured or experienced

Which meaning should be picked above?


texts:
Let's say I develop an internet site where producers can sell and consumers can buy flowers. I prefer to think of it as an exchange. From the point of view of native English speakers, which domain name would be more appropriate for the site: FLOWER.EXCHANGE or FLOWERS.EXCHANGE?
I have seen both notions of "commodity exchange" and "commodities exchanges", so am a little bit puzzled.
Thank you.
UPDATE: I can see that the "flower" in this case is called a noun adjunct, so it seems to be perfectly fine to use FLOWER.EXCHANGE. Just need a confirmation.


texts: What is meaning of sentence "Are you going to take out your disapproval on his children? "

texts:
I'm reading Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill a Mocking Bird". In the following paragraph:

  And it's certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don't know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit. Of course he shouldn't, but he'll never change his ways. Are you going to take out your disapproval on his children?

What is the exact meaning of "Are you going to take out your disapproval on his children?"


texts: Use of "I am having" on Stack Exchange sites

texts:
I use Stack Overflow a lot and have noticed a certain trend that I myself got caught up in at one time of using the phrase "I am having a problem" in place of "I have a problem."

I would use this phrase for an event in the future, for example, "I am having a steak dinner tonight," but for a problem that I need solved and am asking for a solution, I'd use "I have a problem..."

What would force us to use this phrase? Is it even valid English for the present tense?


texts: Use present continuous instead of present simple in a sentence

texts:
I saw on my english book the exercise's sentence:

  According to many, Google is changing our lives by broadening our knowledge of the world.

Is it also correct "changes" instead of "is changing" in this sentence?
I think so because present simple is about permanent situations.


texts: How did "terribly" come to mean "very" or "exceptionally"?

texts: "Terribly" generally means "very badly" but it has also come to be used as emphasis, even for good things, such as saying "I'm terribly excited." When did "terribly" start being used as a qualifier of emphasis?


texts: Is "successfully" redundant in "XYZ successfully crossed 1 mil customer mark"?

texts:
In the following statement

  XYZ successfully crossed 1 mil customer mark

Is successfully not required?
What additional information does successfully provide about the situation?
Can't I just say "XYZ crossed 1 mil customer mark"?


texts: Name to distinguish between parameters used for 'is not equal' operations and those used for 'is equal' operations

texts:
I am writing a dating website (for example) which allows a person to search for partners matching certain features. i.e "non-blondes in New York".

I am having trouble trying to find the perfect words to use that distinguish between:

search criteria that is used for queries like ( location is equal to New York )
search criteria that is used for queries like ( hair colour is not equal to blonde )

I am not necessarily looking for purely academic words - because they may not be understood by the general population. Despite that, academic words may end up being the best choice.

Any suggestions?

I have suggested some answers and would be interested to see which are the most sensible choice of words.

Feel free to add extra suggestions. There are probably some really obvious ones that I cannot see from the perspective of the mental trench that I'm sitting in.

equasive Criteria
inequasive Criteria

positive Criteria
negative Criteria

additive Criteria
subtractive Criteria


texts: Is the word a or an used if it is in front of 80%?

texts: Here is the sentence I'd like to use: I reviewed the applications of those who passed the written test with an 80% or higher.


texts: Is it acceptable to write "Best Regards" with a capital "R" and not followed by a comma?

texts:
Possible Duplicates:
'Thanks and Regards,' or 'Thanks and regards,'?
Should you use a comma/period after "Thanks"/"Regards" in email signatures?

In my company, we use "Best Regards" with a capital "R", not followed by a comma - is that acceptable?
I have searched the Internet, but I did not find any "official" style guide that clearly condemns or endorses the use of capitalization in the valedictory phrase. The vast majority of examples in the guides I found only use a capital letter at the beginning (e.g. "Yours faithfully"), but that is not something I can base a change of corporate policy on.
The second part of my question is about the comma. The sites I found have a slight tendency to use a comma, but I did not find any conclusive information on that either.
Our communication with customers and prospects has the following style:

Dear Mr John Doe
[Text]
Best Regards
Signature

As you can see, we use capitalization liberally and punctuation very sparingly.
Please provide some proof for your opinion if you take the time to respond to my question.


texts: How did crush come to be used to mean "an intense but usually short-lived infatuation"?


texts:
In this Stack Overflow answer, an editor changed my sentence:

  Not as simply as that, unfortunately.

to:

  Not as simple as that, unfortunately.

The original question was:

  Is there any way to get the following to work?

I used the adverb form because I wanted to convey ‘it is possible, although not in a manner as simple as the one described in your question’. I understand that the adjective form used by the editor is correct, but is the adverb form incorrect or unusual?


texts: "As shown in from Table 1 to Table 5", is this correct? Or should I remove "from"?

texts:
I'm writing a research paper, and trying to show something in 5 tables.
"As shown in from Table 1 to Table 5", is this correct? Or should I remove "from" or "in"?

It seems for referring to tables and figures in papers, usually they use the word "Table" and "Figure" with the first letter in capital. So usually they use "Figure 1" or "Fig. 1", depending on how the template defines the format of the titles of the figures. I just don't know how to deal with this when it comes to multiple tables/figures.


texts:
Trying not to sound too ignorant while instructing a piece of software in order to allow people to make request of services/items and while trying to say "For how many people would you like to make this request" or "How many of this do you want?", the sound of the sentence in the title appeared kind enough to me.

I followed the empiric principle of postponing the 'for' at the end of the sentence while coping the affermative version of it

I'd like to request it for 3 people -> How many would you like to request it for?

Does that look correct?


texts:
a dangling participle

The sentence below is from IT by Stephen King.

  Here, ganged around a bus stop with a sign reading KENMORE SQUARE CITY
  CENTER, he sees waitresses, nurses, city employees, their faces naked
  and puffed with sleep.

It seems to have a grammatical error known as a dangling modifier.
Since the doer(s) of ‘ganged around’ should be ‘waitresses, nurses, city employees.’ they are supposed to be the subject of the passage, but they aren’t but he is.

Am I right?

One more thing,
as this sentence is not so great in grammatical sense, I did revise it as follows.
(Just take out the part of ‘ganged around’ and put it behind its subject in meaning, that is waitresses, nurses, city employees.)

Here, he sees waitresses, nurses, city employees, ganged around a bus stop with a sign reading KENMORE SQUARE CITY CENTER, their faces naked and puffed with sleep.

Last but not least, how can someone's face can be naked?
Surely their face can be puffed with sleep but how can it be naked?


texts:
I keep hearing the phrase "to buy direct" from native and non-native speakers. Shouldn't it be "to buy directly", because "buy" calls for an adverb or is this some sort of exception?

Examples:

"In 2016, we had 2500 customer buying direct."
"More and more customer buy direct from us."


texts: Word to describe "compliance with unspoken resistance"

texts:
What I'm looking for is a word to describe "compliance with unspoken resistance" or something of the like.  In other words, one complies, unwillingly.  However, the unwillingness, is not stated outright, it is partially implied.

Any suggestions?

I was thinking "submission", but I'm not sure if it carries the full weight of what I would like to say..


texts: A word that means the opposite of "menagerie"

texts:
I'm trying to find a couple antonyms of the word "menagerie".  Some word that means a group of clones, or a collection of virtually identical things.  I haven't been able to find one.  Can you help me?

EDIT: this word must fit:

  "Mr. Smith had a ______ of birds.  They all looked exactly the same."

(Must imply the birds being the same w/o second sentence)


texts:
When someone says an English phrase is idiomatic, how should I interpret it?

Does it imply that the phrase contains an idiom?

  … having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (such as ride herd on for "supervise")

For further definitions and more detail, see the following ELU question: What exactly is an idiom?

Should I interpret “…‘idiomatic’ as a phrase that means more than the sum of its parts.”?
Is it the second definition of idiomatic by Merriam-Webster?

  …peculiar to a particular group, individual, or style

Or does it mean that the phrase sounds very natural and native-like, as if spoken by a native speaker?

If I were to say “I am owed love” that would sound unusual but we would understand its message. However, if someone said the grammatically correct phrase “My love is not traded” that might sound weird to many speakers and its meaning, I believe, would not be immediately intuitive. One might suspect it was spoken by a non-native speaker; or someone who is particularly adventurous with the language, or, a person deliberately avoiding cliché expressions.

However, would the phrase, “My love is unrequited”, be  idiomatic? The PHRASE does not contain an idiom and its meaning is easily deducible.  But is it “peculiar to a group”?


texts: Introductory Clause and Subject Agreement

texts:
I am unsure whether the following sentence reads correctly with the given introductory clause.

"In addition to embodying my interests, I am confident that this program will provide me with extensive opportunities in the medical field."

Am I correctly stating that the program is the subject "embodying my interests?"
Or am I incorrectly saying that I am the subject embodying my interests.


texts: Is it correct to use Exclamation mark(!) in the introduction of a Professional Email?

texts:
I work with teams that are in different geographic zones. This is how I usually, start the email introduction. for example:-

Hi Linda,

Good Morning! or Greetings!

Is it correct to use exclamation mark in the phrase. Is it polite or professional?


texts: How to use "and" after a complex sentence

texts:
I am a rookie in learning English. I want the clause after "and" to be governed by the same subject, but the sentence before "and" is sometimes complex.

e.g.,

The process reclines to random move where almost all solutions generated from the neighborhood is accepted AND reaches global optimum very slowly.

So I want the sentence after AND to inherit the process as the subject (so the process reaches...), is it a correct way to write like this? How about other possible subject in that sentence, like the neighborhood, all solutions ? Sometimes it confuses me about which subject the clause after "AND" will use?

Thanks for the BIG HELP!


texts: Word for "costs distributed across the sale of many units"

texts:
I'm looking for a word related to economies of scale, in business. I first heard of it in the context of military equipment being very expensive. This is because the the huge R&D cost is "word" over many units.
"The expense is ... over many items sold" and "the ... expense" when referring to the expense itself.
It's similar to "distributed over..." but I believe it starts with an "A".


texts: Explanation of a scene in Shakespeare's Hamlet

texts:
It is clear from my question that English is not my first language. I apologize if it sounds dumb.

I am trying to understand the structure of the sentences in the following scene of Hamlet:

  But virtue, as it never will be moved
  Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven;
  So lust, though to a radiant angel linked
  Will sate itself in a celestial bed
  And prey on garbage

Oxford Dictionaries Online says that if there is a modal with "though", then it means "even if". What does "though" exactly mean here? and how it is related to the previous sentences?

Moreover, where is the verb for the first sentence "But virtue,.."?


texts: Usage and meaning of the term "narrative"

texts:
I have the impression that the term narrative, which traditionally refers  to the literary sense of:

  the art, technique, or process of narrating, or of telling a story: Somerset Maugham was a master of narrative.- Origin: a tale, story," 1560s, from Middle French narrative. (Dictionary.com)

is more and more frequently used with the modern/contemporary connotations which I could find clearly defined only in the AHD:

  A presentation of real-world events that connects them in a storylike way:

  "There has been less of a coherent, connected media narrative and more of a kind of episodic focus on events, controversies and gaffes" (Mark Jurkowitz).

  An explanation or interpretation of events in accordance with a particular theory, ideology, or point of view:

  the competing narratives of capitalism and Marxism.

Though the latter connotations are clearly an extension of the traditional one, they appear to be more related to real facts with social and  political relevance rather than to fictional stories.

Ngram is not very helpful here but it shows an increase in usage of the term "narrative" from the '50s.

Question:

How recent is the usage of the term "narrative" as described by the AHD? Was it first and mainly a "journalist" usage?


texts: pro-verb: what does "did" refer to in this context?

texts: In the following article, the underlined 'did' refers to the word 'mature' in the same sentence. But, how about the word 'reach' in the previous sentence? Is it ok to say the word 'did' can also be replaced with 'reach' for having the similar meaning in the context?


texts: In 2014, Islamic State blitzed through half the country and threatened the capital


texts: What is the part of speech is "on" in the phrase "A few miles further on"?

texts:
There is an example sentence:

  We found a secluded beach a few miles further on.

In this sentence, I referred to the dictionary and found that the part of speech of further is an adverb. However on is given both as a preposition and an adverb, with very many definitions.

In addition, this post suggests that we shouldn't rely on dictionaries too much for grammatical information anyway.

The answers and comments below give responses from trusted users which give opposing analyses—some indicating on is an adverb here and some saying it is a preposition.

So I can't figure out that what the part of speech of on is. Secondly what is the meaning of on in this sentence?


texts: Use of "as well" in the middle of the sentence

texts:
I was wondering if the use of "as well" in the middle of the sentence is correct in formal English.

Here is the particular sentence I am writing:

  I got ample opportunities to communicate with a large audience and individuals as well, which enhanced my oral communication skills.


texts: Difference between "not every" and "every ... is not"

texts:
I've always understood that you can order the words not and every (or similar words) in the following two ways to convey distinct logical meanings.

Every human is not a man. There is no human being who is a man.
Not every human is a man. There are human beings who are not men.

Being a non-native speaker, I learn most of my English by reading things on the internet. The thing is that I almost never see people doing it this way and this made me question my understanding.

For example, a comment on another Stack Exchange website reads:

  Everything on DOS is not plain-text!

To my understanding, this sentence means that there is nothing on DOS that is plain-text, but it is clear to me that the author of the message intended a different meaning. I would correct this sentence to:

  Not everything on DOS is plain-text!

Am I correct and is this mistake very commonly made or do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of this sentence structure?


texts: Is it grammatically acceptable to start a sentence with "That that..."

texts:
This is something that I've recently had someone tell me is not grammatically correct. Now, to be honest, it's not something I would likely ever use in everyday language but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not perfectly acceptable.

So, as an example:

  That that you have eaten is poisonous.

This is similar (in my mind) to "That which...".

There are certainly examples of this both in modern usage (if you want to call it that), in the form of a Wikipedia article about ambiguity in a phrase that is missing punctuation:

  That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is

According to this article's text, this phrase is grammatically acceptable:

  The sequence can be understood as any of three grammatically-correct sequences, each with at least three discrete sentences, by adding punctuation:

  That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that it? It is.
  That that is, is that that is. Not is not. Is that it? It is.
  That that is, is that that is not. Is not "is that" it? It is.

But, Wikipedia is not always trustworthy.

This also appears historically, possibly the most noteworthy appearance is in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Hamlet, though the latter may not be the same usage.

Twelfth Night, Act 4 Scene 2:

  Bonos dies, Sir Toby: for, as the old hermit of
  Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily
  said to a niece of King Gorboduc, 'That that is is;'
  so I, being Master Parson, am Master Parson; for,
  what is 'that' but 'that,' and 'is' but 'is'?

This is the fool, speaking in jest, though... one might suppose that poor grammar is used intentionally?

Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 1:

  Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
  Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
  O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
  Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
  But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king.

Here, I could see this as being a stand-alone sentence (That that earth should patch a wall...), so it may be applicable here... but I think the first "that" is not a pronoun here, so it may not be the same.

So, is there an explanation of this form? Is it acceptable? As you may expect, this is difficult to look up because there certainly are acceptable forms of "that that" that appear internally in sentences. This is not what I'm interested in.


texts: Word that means "private word used by a group"

texts:
Here's an example: a group of my friends has a term we invented.  It's a verb that means "to pronounce over-correctly", used of a word borrowed from another language when that word has a common anglicized pronunciation, but the speaker of the word chooses instead to pronounce in the source language.  There may be a standard English word that has this same meaning, but our private word is derived from the name of a person we know who does this often, and so it's sort of an inside joke: "Oh, stop Trauthing, you pompous fool."

The word I'm looking for describes such a private word.  Sort of like a single word in an idioglossia but with no surrounding language; the private word stands on its own.  Taking a cue from neologism I might coin the word idiologism but that word apparently already exists (or so says google) and has a slightly different meaning since it's only used by one person.

Is there a word for a coined, private word, which has a specific meaning only to a certain small group of people?


texts: "Caution ... wet paint" Does "caution" act as a noun, verb or something else in this case and why?

texts:
An Alamy stock photo has the caption
"Caution wet paint tape and cone around freshly painted bench so people do not sit on it"

It's clear that the tape is continuously labelled "Caution Wet Paint" and the purpose is to prevent people touching the new paint.

Does "Caution" act as a noun, verb or something else in this case and why?


texts: What is a term for sarcastically downplaying something?

texts:
I remember reading the term for it years ago, but I can no longer remember what it is.

It is when someone downplays a situation, usually sarcastically.  They are fully aware of the problems of the situation, and are not downplaying it to hide something, but more or less to be snarky.

Examples:

  I was a bit concerned when I saw the bombs falling towards my head.

  Getting shot in the stomach ruined my day.

  Violent murder is typically frowned upon in polite society.


texts:
Listening to an interview (BBC, so British English), I heard an author describe an actress's performance "as near as dammit" to the novel's character. I was confused enough to listen again, and had heard it correctly.

From the context, the meaning was clear: very nearly exactly. Looking it up, all the dictionaries gave the same meaning, but no explanation. The Online Etymology Dictionary gave the usual definition of damn:

  late 13c., "to condemn," from Old French damner "damn, condemn; convict, blame; injure," derivative of Latin damnare "to adjudge guilty; to doom; to condemn, blame, reject," from noun damnum "damage, hurt, harm; loss, injury; a fine, penalty," from Proto-Italic *dapno-, possibly from an ancient religious term from PIE *dap- "to apportion in exchange" [see Watkins]. The Latin word evolved a legal meaning of "pronounce judgment upon." Theological sense is first recorded early 14c.; the optative expletive use likely is as old.

I'm very interested in how "dammit" came to mean, in effect, exact, or lacking that,  how the phrase came to mean "as close to exactly".

I'm limited to a phone and don't know how to link, sorry. I'm a dinosaur.


texts: Is it offensive to call people with autism "mentally disabled"?

texts:
I recently posted a post on Reddit about my app for people with autism, cerebral palsy and other diseases. Someone pointed out usage of "mental handicap" as offensive, but the comment has disappeared before I read it. Are these considered offensive?

Mental handicap
Mental disorder
Mental disease
Mentally disabled
Person with special needs
Mentally challenged

Could you please help me? I don't want to offend anybody. What are the best/"safest" terms to use?


texts:
When do we use "whose " in a relative clause?
People, things, or places?
Thanks for advanced!


texts: "Battery" and "Battery", why are they called the same?

texts:
This post made an interesting point about what would be understood when the word battery is used.

  In the U.S. at least, the word battery
  is so rarely used outside the legal
  phrase assault and battery  that a
  listener would be pretty much
  guaranteed to assume it meant an
  electrical battery unless it was
  specifically disambiguated by context.

This prompted me to see if there is a difference in the etymology of each words. According to Wiktionary, they both have the same origin, the Old French baterie, which means "the action of beating". So this prompted many questions: How did the meaning of the word evolve in one case to "A device that produces electricity by a chemical reaction between two substances."? When was it first used as such? Or is there a mistake in Wiktionary concerning the etymology of electrical battery?


texts: "He is better than _____." (1) I (2) I am?

texts:
Which of the following constructions is / are correct?

He is better than I.
He is better than I am.

PS: I'm unfamiliar with this site and its workings, so forgive me if my question fails to follow the community guidelines. If there are any improvements I can make to the question, please do point them out.


texts: Does using the words "might" and "could" consecutively in same sentence have a name or is it just improper English? (spoken English)

texts:
It is now more than a coincidence, but I have heard numerous people from different parts of the country use the words "might" and "could" together in a sentence as in:

"This might could help."

The first time I heard this, I chalked it up to a mid-sentence correction where the speaker started to say "This might help", but then changed mid-sentence to "This could help."
I've heard it now in spoken English from various people from different parts of the country. I'm curious if this is a dialect thing or if it has a name. I've also heard it repeated by the same person multiple times, both people I know and other people I don't know, so it appears not to be just a one-off mid-sentence correction, but a way of speaking that I'm not familiar with.


texts: How many dots are needed, when the last word of the sentence is a.m.?

texts:
Let's say you have a sentence like this:

  The new date of the staff meeting is March 16th, at 10 a.m..
  Please make sure that you enter all of the topics into into the
  agenda that you want to discuss before the meeting

Do I have to put two dots after a.m., after the sentence is finished or is one enoguh. Like this:

  ... at 10 a.m. Please make sure...


texts: Is "did you thought" a valid expression?

texts:
I saw a picture earlier that had a line that said "Did you thought, that was me?" and wondered, "Isn't it supposed to be 'Did you think [...]'?".

However, after using Google, I found this phrase being used quite frequently, and it has about 136 million hits on the exact search term of "did you thought".
If you replace 'thought' with other verbs in the exact same tense, it also doesn't really make sense.

I'm severely confused. My mind tells me this can't be right, yet it seems to be frequently (mis)used? Can anyone clarify on this?


texts: "Another category are/is appearance-based methods"

texts:
Another category of vision-based methods for fall detection are
  appearance-based methods, which can be applied even with a single
  camera, but can also benefit from multiple cameras so that they cover
  larger areas.

In the above sentence, is it wrong to use are?


texts:
A girl says, "I'm going out mom."
She gets angry and says, "Enough of your going outs."

Is this correct? I mean the usage of "going outs" in this sentence.


texts: Why on earth are binoculars pronounced as /bɪˈnɒk.jʊ.ləz/ instead of /baɪˈnɒk.jʊ.ləz/?

texts:
I once pronounced binoculars as

  /baɪˈnɒk.jʊ.ləz/

and my friend told me that it is supposed to be pronounced as

  /bɪˈnɒk.jʊ.ləz/

I didn't believe him as I was very sure that the prefix bi- is pronounced as

  /baɪ-/

instead of

  /bɪ-/

and so should the word  binoculars

until I checked with the Cambridge dictionary, the Oxford dictionary, the MacMillan dictionary, the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and the Collins Cobuild dictionary. It turned out that my friend was correct.


texts: Can I use "and" many times in one sentence?

texts:
I was always under the impression I should not use and more than once. I have this text:

  I appreciate that all my previous work experience is within office based industries however I am a quick learner, keen and enthusiastic and am looking to change to ensure longevity of career and that the remainder of my working life is spent doing something that I enjoy and that I can feel passionate about.

Are there too many ands in that sentence?


texts: Single word for someone having a fetish for watching women breastfeed?

texts: My wife was wondering if there were people out there who have a thing for watching women breast feed their kids. I went to google it but nothing really came up (So I'm posting here to look for the right keyword), the only close Wikipedia article was for 'Erotic Lactation', which isn't really what I'm referring to.


texts: Word for describing something by a characteristic that's plainly obvious?

texts:
I'm wondering if there's a definition for phrases like:

The Green apple is Green
Some optional options are optional
Silly people are Silly
We visited the museum, where we saw museum artefacts.

Where a description of something is otherwise worthless or repeated.
Googling hasn't helped much, so time to ask real people!


texts: word for bringing a number to its absolute value

texts:
In mathematics, the absolute value of a number n is either −n if n is negative or n itself if otherwise.

Is there a single word or shorter description for the replacement of n with its absolute value?


texts: "Vendors and consultants, each of which" or "... each of whom"?

texts:
Which is correct:

  Sources of information include vendors and consultants, each of which usually has an interest in selling something.
  Sources of information include vendors and consultants, each of whom usually have an interest in selling something.


texts: What does "scrap it out " mean in this context?

texts:
I could not find the meaning of "scrap out" in online dictionaries.

I found the above-mentioned phrase in the following sentence:

  In this golf game, you are dropped into the course with six other
  players and are asked to scrap it out for victory.


texts:
I work in one of the industries where there's a lack of trust across the board.

You know the type:

Used car salesmen
Banks/bankers
Estate agents

The way I look at it, you can ignore it completely or embrace it. We think we're different and choose the latter approach.

With that in mind, we're looking for a new tag line - something that will define us as a company.

I came across a tag line for a bank that could work for us - the only thing is I'm not sure it reads correctly.

The tag is "A bank you can actually like"

So, our tag line would be "A [snake oil salesman] you can actually like"

However, I'm not totally sold on the use of can. If it was used in a complete sentence, it would probably sound out of place.

Other phrases such as the ones below seem to flow better:

A [snake oil salesman] you **will** actually like

A [snake oil salesman] you **might** actually like

I'm no English expert by any stretch of the imagination, so thought I'd ask for feedback.

Does the original sound fine? Is can a stronger message in this context?

Are there other alternatives?

Thanks in advance.


texts: How does one group words together to show that they are the same object in the sentence?

texts:
I have encountered situations where a sentence can be rather ambiguous because it can be read in 2 different ways.

In the sentence "The large blue car is very slow.", how do I show that "The large blue car" is one thing and "very slow" another seperate thing? (this sentence is a rather bad example, as it is very clear what words are grouped together without the need of additional puntualtion, but I cannot think of a good example where grouping words together would be needed off the top of my head.)

The way I would usually do it is to use square brackets: "[The large blue car] is [very slow]." but I dont know if this is the correct way of doing it. I was wondering if there is an official way to do this.


texts:
I was writing an essay about fairness or appropriateness of taking older family members to retirement homes. Throughout the essay I had to refer to "taking family member to retirement homes" as "this practice" several times. For example I would say:

Many people find this practice cruel and unfair.
There are many merits to this practice.
This practice can make things easier for both the families and the elderly.
A closer look reveals many advantages for this practice.

I have already looked up synonyms for practice in a few dictionaries. Words like habit, tradition, method, ... do not really fit. Are there any other words that I can use in these sentences to avoid the repetition of the word "practice"?


texts: Is there a city/town or village equivalent of a compatriot?

texts: Like a town compatriot or city compatriot or village compatriot?


texts:
Smartphone, an increasingly popular term, refers to:

  a device that combines a cell phone with a hand-held computer, typically offering Internet access, data storage, email capability, etc.

According to the The History of the Smartphone:

  Ericsson was the first brand to actually coin the phrase “smartphone”, with the release of its GS88 in 1997.

Ngram shows that the term actually took off from the mid-90's, but there appear to be earlier instances of its usage as shown in:
Popular Science - Nov. 1990, page 47 :

  To simplify things, AT&T Co. has devised the SmartPhone. It looks like a phone, but it is really a miniature computer with a touch-sensitive 4-by-6.5-inch  screen.

Question:

Being a relatively recent expression I wonder  if it is possible to accurately trace who first used it and when.

Edit: some comments suggest it is 'hard' to trace its earliest usage/usages because its origin is from a common adjective (smart) which was  very likely used referring to phones before the term became common as smartphone.  Though I agree with this, "smartphone"  is a neologism which came into being, as many others, at one point in time and most likely some tech/telecom company used it first as a single word.


texts: What is the omitted subject of 'eating with your brother' in 'the big guy eating with your brother'?

texts:
(1) Who's the big guy [ ___ eating with your brother]?

Here, the subject of the bracketed non-finite clause is omitted, as shown in the blank, and is retrievable from the main clause. I'd like to know exactly what is the omitted subject of the non-finite clause.
Is it the big guy or big guy or just guy?
On the one hand, the NP (rather than the nominal or noun) generally functions as the subject as follows:

The big guy is eating with your brother.
*Big guy is eating with your brother.
*Guy is eating with your brother.

Therefore, the omitted subject seems to be the big guy.
On the other hand, the non-finite clause doesn't seem to be modifying the entire NP the big guy. It seems to be modifying either big guy or guy. So the parsing of the NP is either:

the [big guy [ ___ eating with your brother]]

or:

the [big [guy [ ___ eating with your brother]]]

but not:

[the big guy [ ___ eating with your brother]]

Does this mean that the omitted subject is not the big guy but either big guy or simply guy? If so, can the subject of a non-finite clause be in the form of a nominal or noun (as opposed to an NP)?
If the omitted subject is the big guy, how do you prove that the above parsing doesn't have anything to do with identifying the omitted subject?


texts: "As [adjective] as a [noun]" vs "as [adjective] a [noun] as there"

texts:
How does the meaning differ for the following two sentences?

  Even then, the subject seemed as fascinating a problem as there could be.
  Even then, the subject seemed as fascinating as a problem could be.


texts: Is there a adjective for someone with high pain tolerance?

texts: I'm trying to describe a character in a story, but all I can think of is high pain tolerance. I think it's a bit weird in the scenario though.