texts:
I've been brought up believing that most of the words that have suffix with '-ize' or '-ized' is the American English form and the British English forms use (most of the time) '-ise' or '-ised' as the equivalent.

Two questions:

1) What is the rule, if any, around exception cases, i.e. choice of one or the other in a single form (dialect?) of English?

2) I have read recently, on Wikipedia admittedly, that the etymology of these terms is such that the correct form anyway, for all English from Greek roots, is '-ized' using the 'z'. This contradicts what I see, and what I've been brought up to know. But is that correct - it was from this site:

http://www.metadyne.co.uk/ize.html

and the Wikipedia page.

I am not saying it is wrong, but I wanted to verify if this is the case...as I say, it runs contrary to what I know, but came across it by chance and it is a  very difficult habit to get out of. I don't want to do it (as a British person, using '-ise' all the time) to the American English version, when actually it would be wrong.

On a more pragmatic matter, I wonder if doing this is a bad idea anyway in the UK, since most people are told the 's' version is correct.

Finally, etymologically, what is the reason for this shift across, whatever the reason is? And is it something that is 'wrong' or more 'the development of language over time'.

I don't understand why America would revert to 'z' after the development of English in Britain towards 's', given that Greek is the origin. I understood British people discovered America and brought British English over there. Unless, and probably quite likely, I haven't got a clue re the history between the two nations (and this is not meant to offend, I just have a confused understanding - sorry if it does).


texts: What's this "Jl. Sg." appended to a name in the Social Register?

texts:
Screenshotted from the (fictitious) "1929 Social Register" in the opening sequence of the film Down to Their Last Yacht (1934).

"Miss Linda Colt-Stratton" I get, but what's the "Jl. Sg." after her name?

My impression from some very cursory Google-Booksing is that typically the Social Register would contain earned titles such as degrees ("M.Sc.", "Ph.D.") or I suppose military ranks, but even if Miss Linda Colt-Stratton were a sergeant, I still don't understand the "Jl." part. Vice versa, I've found "Jl." used as an abbreviation of "July" in one place, but I don't see how that would explain anything, either.

Theories which additionally explain Mrs Geoffrey Colt-Stratton's "Cda." suffix will earn bonus points. :)


texts: Grammaticality of "Shoreditch station to permanently close"

texts:
I recently read an article on BBC titled Bad grammar and the people who hate it. In it, there is a photo of a train station sign which reads as follows.

  Friday 9 June 2006

  Shoreditch station to permanently close

  As part of the East London line project, Shoreditch station will permanently close to allow for a new line to be...

The fact that the sign has appeared in the article hints that there is something grammatically wrong with it. Although, for a non-native English speaker such as myself, it appears completely flawless.

What am I missing here?


texts:
Wizard:

a man in stories who has magic powers
someone who is very good at something

Origin and usage:
The word wizard comes from the Middle English word 'wys' meaning 'wise'. In this sense, it first appeared in English in the early 15th century. As a word used to describe a man with magical powers, wizard did not start to be used until around 1550 - MacMillan Blog

The word wizard is derived from wise.

Wizard -> wise + ard

Wikitionary says wisard is archaic form of wizard.

Wize: Obsolete form of 'wise' — Wiktionary

The 's' in wisard changed to 'z' and 'z' in wize changed to 's'.

Questions:

Why did the 's' in 'wisard' change to 'z'?
Why did the 'z' in 'wize' change to 's'?


texts:
Which one is correct and what is the difference?

Majoring in Information Technology, xxx University
Major in Information Technology, xxx University


texts:
What is the one word that can be used in the place of "room for error", similar to the slang "leash".

For example,

  "Im gonna give you some .... (room for error)"


texts: Is "to be understood" or "to understand" correct?

texts:
There are two sentences:

This math puzzle is very easy to be understood
This math puzzle is very easy to understand

Which is more natural? Are both correct?


texts: Why does the word "coffee" have two "e’s"?

texts:
We know what coffee is and where the word comes from. Coffee was originally borrowed from:

The word "coffee" entered English language in 1582 via Dutch
koffie,[4] borrowed from Turkish kahve, in turn borrowed from Arabic
qahwa, a truncation of qahhwat al-bun 'wine of the bean'.
History of coffee, Wikipedia

... but why does coffee have two e's? Shouldn't it be Coffie like its original word?
Having two e's might be not a problem for people who use and speak English but for other languages we can see people usually make mistakes between these words: coffee against coffie and coffe.


texts:
Which one is a better usage of a comma? (Grammarly says the latter one is right)

  I also remember that he justified the Spearman rank correlation and rigorously proved a large sample normal approximation of it.

or

  I also remember that he justified the Spearman rank correlation, and rigorously proved a large sample normal approximation of it.

The only difference is that "," is added before the "and." or not.

Here I intended to say that "he" justified and also proved.


texts: What is the swimming equivalent of the word flight

texts:
The noun for the phenomenon of flying is flight. What's the equivalent for swimming?

Usage: A bird is capable of flight as a fish is capable of _______


texts: Is there an English equivalent of the Portuguese saying "Seven dogs to a bone"?

texts:
Is there an English equivalent of the Portuguese saying “Seven dogs to a single bone”?

Sorry for not including the detailed meaning of the expression.

“Seven dogs to a single bone” is the literal translation of the saying in Portuguese (Sete cães a um osso), usually used when noticing a situation of multiple people being after the same objective, as in:

group of single and lonely males after the same seemingly accessible female who just enjoys the extra attention;
several unemployed people after the same mediocre vacant job spot;

In general, it is the irony of the need for competition in obtaining certain things, that everyone needs or wants.


texts: What does the phrase "Nothing like anything" mean? Literally it doesn't make sense to me and also I do not know its figurative meaning either.


texts: Can you say "more environmentally friendly ways"?

texts:
English is not my first language and I'm trying to translate a text from Swedish to English for my English class.

I'm wondering if it is correct to use "more environmentally friendly ways" in this sentence:

  We need to find cheaper and more environmentally friendly ways to produce the fuel.


texts: How does "only" change the meaning of this sentence?

texts:
How do I interpret the same sentence but with "only" modifying different parts of it:

You need math only when you are buying vegetables.
You need math when you are buying vegetables only.
You need math when you are buying only vegetables.
You only need math when you are buying vegetables.

I understand 4. to imply that when buying vegetables, the purchaser needs math and nothing more—no money, shopping cart, etc.
I understand 3. to imply that math is needed in the singular context of buy vegetables.
I don't understand a difference, if there even is any, between 1. and 2.
Please correct me if I've misunderstood anything here.


texts: Are these two phrases acting restrictively or non-restrictively at the end of the sentence?

texts:
I'm trying to understand if these two phrases at the end of the sentence are acting restrictively or non-restrictively. Can you please help?

As far as I know, a comma is generally used before a non-restrictive participle phrase.

  Mary whirled through the large room, waving her hands in the air.

A comma is not used if the meaning is restrictive.

  She was in the kitchen making lunch.

In this sentence, is a comma needed before "getting" to show non-restrictive meaning? Or can I choose to withhold the comma?

  Her mother was at the coffee shop getting coffee and making calls to her friends.


texts:
For the mathematically inclined fellows:

If f is a function whose domain is the set A,  do you say that f is defined on A or over A? Do both prepositions apply here or is the use of one of them decidedly wrong?


texts: The use of "for" with the verb "to crave"

texts:
My gut feeling tells me one says "I crave chocolate" and not "I crave for chocolate". This was confirmed for example at this forum discussion.

However, google also showed me the sentence "I crave for you" was in fact used in this pop song!

Could someone please clarify which use is correct? Should one say "I crave chocolate" or "I crave for chocolate", or are both equally fine? Thanks a lot!

By the way, I am aware that "i have a craving for chocolate" is correct English (and am not a native speaker).


texts: If I'm your representative, you are my ______?

texts:
So, Dorian has a representative: John. Then John has a _______: Dorian.

(Dorian elected John / Dorian chose John / Dorian picked John / Dorian marked John as his representative / ...)


texts: Relationship between kingdom, dominion, and doom

texts:
I was struck recently by the -dom suffix in freedom and kingdom. Not having etymology references at hand, our lunchtime group settled on the theory that -dom in both these words was from "dominion."  Dominion is ultimately derived from Latin dominus (lord of the house), if I understand my etymology correctly. It seems to make sense; free from domination is freedom, domination by a king is kingdom.

But it seems that this is not the case.  According to Etymology Online, this -dom is derived from Old English dom (judgement, law, statute) and is etymologically close to doom.

I'm really confused by this origin.  It seems like the dom- prefix and the -dom suffix should be related.  Are they really not, or is it only that my references don't go back far enough or that my etymological understanding is superficial at best?  Can someone please clarify the etymology of kingdom, dominion, and doom for me?


texts: Can we use "original" to describe an idea that is "less" original?

texts:
Suppose someone comes up with a great original idea.

Some time later, someone else comes up with exactly the same idea without knowing that idea been conceived already and even without being influenced in any way by the other person's thought.

In other words, both of them make the discovery totally independently and not at the same time. For example, Leibniz and Newton invented Calculus this way; Cook and Levin established NP-Complete theory this way.

The idea from the very first inventor is no doubt considered original. But what about the same idea independently conceived by others later in time? I have no problem calling the latter original, although it seems less original than the very original one. Would there be a word or phrase that can readily convey the state of being "less" original?


texts: The usage of article: "stone, a stone, the stone, stones speak(s) in silence"?

texts:
The usage or non-usage of article and number of noun is always a headache for non-native English speakers, particularly to Asians who don’t have the notion of article and number (singular / plural) in their language structure. I have read a half dozen of English grammar books specialized in the use of article in the past. Still usage of articles is in absolute limbo to me.

Recently I tried to translate the following poem of a famous Japanese poet, Horiguchi Daigaku titled ‘Stone speaks in silence’ into English:

石は黙ってものを言う

直に心にものを言う

雨に濡れて日に渇き

石は百年変わらない

流れる水に逆らって

石は千年動かない

as follows:

"Stone speaks in silence.

It speaks straight to my heart.

Wet in the rain, dry under the sun,

stone doesn’t change for thousands of years.

Resisting the flow of water,

stone doesn’t move a bit for thousands of years."

Of course, I have ‘stone’ here as a collective noun in mind, but I was at a loss to decide whether it should be ‘stone,’ ‘a stone,’ ‘the stone,’ or ‘stones.’

Did I put it right or wrong? If it’s wrong, what should it be? Why?
What is a knack of deciding the use of article for collective noun?

By the way, the Scriptures say;

Jesus answered, "I tell you that if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will start shouting," - Luke 19:40.


texts: Can foreign words be reduced into English morphemes?

texts:
In class today, during an activity when we were given the task of breaking down a list of words into morphemes, I had a disagreement with a professor who tried to convince me that the word "companionship" was composed of four morphemes: com-pan-ion-ship.

I argued that there were only two in the word (companion and ship), and that since companion is a borrowed word, it is irreducible in English. "Companion" was taken directly from French, as it is, and not derived in English. The morphemes "com", "pan", and "ion" are Latin, meaning nothing in English, and cannot be used freely to make other words.

Take for example the borrowed word "origami" (Japanese). Origami is just origami, it is irreducible. It was taken whole, as it is; there are no morphemes in that. However, someone who knew Japanese might be able to break that down into ori-gami, but that would be ridiculous because those are Japanese morphemes that mean nothing in English. We don't speak Japanese, just like we don't speak Latin or French.

What do you say?


texts:
This question has been rounding my head for a while, id say help me cook but then  i think about omitting "to" which i think isn't correct. Can you give me more examples about this situation.

Thanks in advance


texts: What is the most "hardworking" letter in the English alphabet?

texts:
I hope I am not being pedantic; however, I could not come up with an answer on the internet.

  I wonder which is the letter which can be discriminated from the
  alphabet system on the basis of its myriad uses.

Any suggestions?


texts:
What's the meaning of surrender as used in the Aerosmith song,  “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”:

  I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
  Watch you smile while you are sleeping
  While you’re far away and dreaming
  I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
  I could stay lost in this moment forever

Is surrender here the act of surrending in this sense from  AHDE?

  to give over or resign (oneself) to something, as to an emotion


texts: Where does the word “snogging” come from?

texts:
Where does the word snogging come from, in the sense of canoodling? I’m looking for it etymology, not for its connotation or phonoaesthetic properties, as the answer of the other question provides.

The OED says that its origin is unknown, as does Etymonline. The latter claims that the word “is said to have originated in British India”, but says nothing more than that.

Citations in the OED date back only to 1945, so this came to us within living memory: we ought to be able to track it down.  Here are two of its later citations:

1966 P. Willmott Adolescent Boys iii. 40, — I went upstairs with Jill and we did a bit of snogging on the bed.
1975 Weekend 4 Feb. 19/1 — If a cinema manager tolerates snogging among his audience he is liable to lose his licence.

All the derived terms like snog and snogger ultimately lead to snogging, which leads to a dead end.

So where is snogging from, really?


texts: What's an alternative term to "politically correct"/"political correctness" that liberals can use?

texts:
This may be a fairly controversial question, but ...

I have known several people on the left (liberals, even radicals) who use the term "politically correct."

I also know a lot of people on the left (with a variety of different specific views) who are offended by the term "politically correct," seeing it as a derogatory way to refer to any attempt by people on the left to advocate for respect for those who differ from the majority. These people on the left tend to have a negative reaction to anyone using the terms "politically correct," or its noun equivalent, "political correctness"; and these people, after hearing anyone use it, are less likely to listen to anything they say.

I agree with the left's goal of respect for minorities and the historically oppressed. I think many people on the right do use the term as a way to attack the left, and as a way to get away with expressing prejudice.

As these quotes from the thread How has the meaning of "politically correct" changed? put it:

  There are all kinds of things people say that are a little (or a lot)
  hurtful in this way. Sometimes, people who like to say these things
  ("lady doctor", for example) object when they're corrected and say
  "oh, sorry, guess that's not politically correct" implying that it is,
  however, just plain correct.

  ... it seems clear that the vast majority of derisive users of
  politically correct employ it to caricature and dismiss the views of
  political liberals.

  Non-ironical usage of the phrase soon attracted mocking usage; and in the > past two decades, the phrase has broadened
  further—first to refer disapprovingly to liberal political views on
  any subject ...

I also think, though, that there are some on the left who can be rigid and doctrinaire, and sometimes have an us-and-them, with-us-or-against-us attitude. But I don't want to call what I think they can do "political correctness," because I don't want to use the same term as conservatives who use that to attack the entire left and principles of respect and equality.

So--does anyone know of any terms that liberals and others on the left can use, instead of "politically correct," without confusing people about what their meaning and their politics are? Any terms that suggest, "I agree with the principles of the left, I am not a conservative; but I find these particular people, or particular views, to be doctrinaire, strict, with-us-or-against-us, leading to infighting ..."?


texts: Should I factor-out "to" in a series of infinitives?

texts:
Which of the following two forms of the sentence is better?

"Managers can use these findings
to bound estimates,
to assess the realism of road maps,
to recognise unsustainable growth,
to judge the health of a software development project, and
to predict a system's hardware footprint."
"Managers can use these findings to
bound estimates,
assess the realism of road maps,
recognise unsustainable growth,
judge the health of a software development project, and
predict a system's hardware footprint."


texts: Is there a word for someone that is impacted by change?

texts: This would be a subset of a total population that is affected by a change in policy or law.  I tried 'party' but that really didn't work and sounded too legalese. Phrases like 'impacted persons' or 'affected persons' were cumbersome.


texts: Parse a sentence (from Ratcliff 1990 paper)

texts:
A little background: this paper concerns forgetting in neural networks (a computer science concept). The word "activation" might mean the activation (=output) of neuron(s), but since I cannot parse the sentence, I'm not sure. Another one, "at test" - it likely means "at test time", that is, after the network has been trained, when we "test it" and no longer change any weights etc.

  The model was applied by McClelland and Rumelhart (1985) to data from
  the time course of growth of activation at test as a function of
  variables such as familiarity and priming condition.

I cannot parse the passage in bold specifically. To me, the sentence is illegible and possibly incorrect, but my English skills are limited. Please help.


texts: What is a phrase for an extreme form of Hunger? e.g. They ripped him apart in their throes of (extreme hunger)

texts:
I'm writing a scene where 2 characters come across a village ravaged with famine. Where children are malnourished skeletal figures. As one of them makes to give one child a loaf of bread, the other experienced one, forbids it.

His rationale "As soon as we move away, the others (in extreme hunger) won't hesitate to rip apart the child alive to get to that morsel of half-eaten food"

What phrase/word can I use to describe this extreme form of hunger. the best I could come up with is 'ravenous'


texts:
May I ask weather or not to use a hyphen after a prefix only depends on individuals' editorial style, but not that of British or American English?

E.g., multi-tasking or multitasking?

Many thanks!


texts:
Even though the second one seems right, is the first one totally wrong? It sounds ok to me. Correct me if I am wrong. Please explain if possible. Thanks. :)

Context:

Someone recollects a proverb that he/she read somewhere. I am intending to praise this person. So which usage would be apt for the situation?


texts: "high rate of speed" or "high speed" to mean going fast

texts:
Why do reporters (and sometimes police officers) say that somebody was going at a high rate of speed when they actually mean high speed?

In physics, speed is already the rate of distance over time, otherwise known as velocity. Rate of speed is velocity over time, otherwise known as acceleration. By saying high rate of speed they would be implying picking up more speed.

Is there a social reason for using high rate of speed rather than high speed?


texts: "I won't stay longer than I can help" or "longer than I can't help"?

texts:
I've come across the following sentence recently:

"I won't stay longer than I can help."

I've heard similar uses of "can help" in other contexts and they all sounded strange to me.  Shouldn't we say :

"I won't stay longer than I can't help."

In the same manner, doesn't it sound strange to say:

"I'm not driving at night, unless I can help it"

Shouldn't one say "unless I can't help it"?


texts: Word for someone who is extremely up-to-date with the latest facts (news or research)

texts:
I seek a word for one who is up-to-date, enlightened, and extremely well informed about the latest developments or research in a particular field.

An example is a person who complains about a recent encyclopedic book publication, criticising it for being out-of-date despite its recent publication date. I want to be somewhat ironic and say something about his or her obsession with "up-to-date-ness" and his failure to appreciate this truly magnificent book. Any suggestions?


texts:
The sentence

  The company holds the show's licence.

when we paraphrase, we use

  The company holds the licence to the show

not 'the licence of the show' (or perhaps you do? please also discuss on this)

I found these kind of usage on some other occasions.

So, how do we determine whether to use to or of when we wants to say something's

Also, what would you use here?

'the rights of distribution' or 'the rights to distribution'

Thank you for your time.


texts: Difference between “have to aware” and " have to be aware"

texts:
Actually, I'm confused about the structure:"have to be"
As the title mentioned, Can anybody explain for me the such difference.


texts: What is the difference between "begin" and "start"?

texts:
The children are eager to start the novel.

or

  The children are eager to begin the novel.


texts: I like this phrase a lot but wonder where it comes from.


texts: How to refer to a specific floor of a building

texts:
Are there any differences between "floor" and "Floor" when talking about areas of a building? For example, "The children book section is on the 4th floor" or "The children book section is on the 4th Floor"

And I found a sentence like "Computers are available on the 5th and 6th floors"? Why is "floor" plural?


texts: Is it normal to use place to represent a group of people?

texts:
Consider this example:

  After the police office collects all the evidences, they arrest him.

Is it correct to use the police office instead of the police office's staff in the sentence above?

If it is, should I add '-s' at the end of the verb?


texts:
I've already looked at Is there a word for "a point in time"?, but there doesn't seem to be any answers other than "timestamp". While I agree that it is the most technically accurate description, is there a term that lends itself more to a business environment?

For example, I have a spreadsheet with a list of customer feedback. The date and time that each issue was reported is listed in a single column. What would be a good business-y name to call that column? I'm looking for something that means "timestamp" without using a term that could be…misconstrued…as overly technical.

EDIT: To be more specific and concise, I'm looking for a term that means "timestamp", is used more popularly in a business environment than "timestamp", and is generic enough to always mean "timestamp" with almost any data.


texts: I want to write: help them by/through being a good example. What is the right word, by or through?


texts: Is there a difference between the two sentences?

texts:
-The train could leave Boston.

  -The train would leave Boston.

Is there a difference? Are they interchangeable?


texts: Making adult decisions "is" or "are" really not fun: Which is correct?

texts:
Making adult decisions are/is really not fun.

What is the proper answer and why? My gut says "is" but I can't explain why.


texts: What's wrong with this sentence? How can it be improved?

texts:
It has been a long time that I associated myself with an organisation.

I'm not sure if I can use myself in this context, since there is an I already implying the same. Can I use associated - a past tense here?

Any better way to convey the same?


texts: Is it correct to say “not needed to be “?

texts:
Whenever someone says sorry, we simply say It’s fine, no problem etc.
Instead of that  i want to use ‘Not needed to be’ because i want to say ‘No please don’t say sorry, don’t feel that you are guilty’

Can somebody help me to clearify whether it is correct or not to use that line ?


texts:
As we all know, "Thailand" is not pronounced with a /θ/ — so why is it spelled that way?

Is the 'h' vestigial?  Does it represent some subtle phoneme in the Thai language, and if so, what is that difference?

A couple of observations:

It is also spelled with an 'h' in French and German, so it's no accident of English.  (To be fair, there is no 'h' sound in French, and the 'h' is sometimes silent in German, as in "Neanderthal".)
The Thai language is a member of the Tai language family, which is not spelled with an 'h'.


texts: How to describe the movement of a dress when the person twirls around?

texts:
My friend put on a gown and then started twirling and moving around. The dress started to swirl around...

I want to eloquently explain this. Can someone please help me with this?

"My friend started twirling around and her dress was spiraling around"?


texts:
Get out of your own head

  How do I get out of my own head.

Kindly explain this idiom!


texts: I've done some searching but still can't fully understand this sentence. Can somebody explain to me?


texts:
I always had this question in my mind: Why people use the phrase "sense of humour" for the quality of being humorous and funny?

The word sense suggests it is about perceiving and receiving something. But when somebody has good humour and hence referred to as having a good sense of humour, it shows that they create humour rather than receiving and appreciating someone else's humour.

Does this mean that to be able to create good humour one must have a sense and appreciation for good humour as well?


texts: I have a small presentation on epistrophe coming up and I want to make sure I don't say anything incorrect.  Would the sentence "Ever since I left the city you, you, you" (it's from the song "Hotline Bling" by Drake) count as epistrophe?  The one part I'm not sure about is the fact that "you, you, you" isn't three different clauses because they don't each have a subject and a verb.


texts: More Casual and Succinct Way to Say "John's Areas of Expertise"

texts:
I am creating a user profile page, and one of the sections will contain a list of the subject areas in which the user has had the most activity and up-votes e.g. User a has answered the most questions and/or received the most up-votes in categories x, y, z. The assumption is that categories where the user answered a lot of questions and received the most up-votes would be categories in which the user has a degree of expertise.

The section will list the categories under which the user's highest percentage of the above two took place.

I am struggling to find a succinct, natural heading for this section.

I am playing around with:

John's Top Subjects
John's Areas of Expertise
John's Expertise

...but none of the above fit the scenario exactly, and all feel awkward and unnatural.

Looking for suggestions.


texts: A term needed for mixed pharmaceutical compounds

texts: Anyone could help me to provide a term for compounds mixed by pharmacy then served as a medicine? Could I still just use materia medica nowadays? Thanks.


texts: Phrase describing increased secondary level demand

texts:
I'm looking for a phrase (or related) that describes the following phenomenon:
Product A sees an increased demand from buyer group X, therefore prices for A increase. This will also affect the purchasing behaviour of buyer group Y, the ones who would buy A under normal circumstances.
Due to the increased price, many out of Y are now buying product B instead, which serves as an alternative for them but is of no interest for X. Now the increased demand for B causes its price to raise as well.


texts: Term for a complaint made about somebody present that not everyone knows refers to this person

texts:
Person A and B  go to the movies
Person B drinks very loudly throughout the movie
Later that night person C comes over to person A and B's home
In a "joking" manner, Person A says something negative about people that drink loudly to person C, while person B is in the room.
Person C is unaware that person A was indirectly attacking person B

What is the term for the comment made by person A to person C?


texts:
In reported speech, tenses are generally backshifted. If what was said is still true at the time of reporting then back shifting is optional.
My question is, if someone doesn't backshift the tense knowing for a fact that the statement is no longer true, is that still acceptable?

For example, suppose John tells me today:

  I am hungry.

Then two days later, I happen to tell my friend:

  John said that he is hungry.

Even though I know that John is no longer hungry, I used the present simple tense (is). Is this usage correct?


texts: Word, idiom or expression to describe feeling full (after eating)

texts:
For example:

  I like how you conveniently informed us after most of us had eaten already and  we are [feeling full].

The phrase in brackets sounds unnatural to me. Would you suggest how to rephrase that better?


texts: This is in relation to the question "It's “1 degrees” or is it “1 degree” outside?". I have heard many people say that it is zero degrees outside. Is this correct, or is it 0 degree? The latter simply doesn't sound right.


texts:
Can anyone explain to me when to use 'a customer', 'customers' or 'customer'?

For example, which of the following is the most appropriate?

If customers have a problem, as a customer representative, I will always offer my help.
If customer has a problem... (the same as above)
If a customer has a problem...(the same as above)
If customers have problems... (the same as above)


texts: What are the best examples of how American women spoke in the 1940s?

texts:
I'm struggling to figure out what the best examples of American 1940s speech would be, especially for women.

Movies from the 40s often suffer from Mid-Atlantic accents. Much of the media of the day was sanitized, so it may make the speech cleaner than it actually was, particularly with female characters?

What today is considered a good example for teaching how people spoke in the 40s?


texts: My teacher was talking about "playing cards" and he asked us what is correct. Is it "I'm playing cards"/"I'm playing with playing cards"/"I'm playing at cards"?


texts: Looking for a word to describe a change in your perception of someone

texts:
Is there a name for the concept of a person's perception in your mind changing based on new information? I'm thinking something like 'taint', but more specific to people and maybe less negative.

For example, I love the music of Chick Corea, but recently learned he is devoted to his belief in Scientology. Try as I might, I cannot even hear his name without thinking about Scientology. Regardless of my thoughts on the religion, my idea of him has changed permanently based on this new information. Does this transformation have a name?


texts: What's a shorter way of saying, "Can you increase the temperature of the air conditioning please?"

texts:
I'm a little sensitive to cold temperatures and will often ask my roommate to increase the temperature of the air conditioning as he usually has the remote control.

One time, I said, "Dude, can you turn up the air con?" He thought I was asking him to increase the fan velocity of the air conditioning.

I thought of multiple ways of shortening this sentence myself. Here are a couple of my attempts:

"Can you make the air con hotter?" But this would mean that I would like to increase the temperature of the air conditioning itself and not necessarily the surroundings. Also, it doesn't sound very right... to me.

"Can you make it hotter/warmer? Again, 'sounds a little strange. But most importantly, my roommate might be confused if he isn't thinking about the air conditioning at the time.

I still can't think of a perfectly smooth and chill way of expressing this sentence. Please help me out!


texts: What word means "taking something to unrealistic extremes"?

texts:
This has been bugging me for a while, does anyone know what this word is? Maybe I imagined it.  I thought it might have been "superfluous", but I don't think that is it, then I thought it might have been "hyperbole" but I do not think that is it either.  Any thoughts?

Here is some context.

Person A: If a billion people view my web site, my server will crash.
Person B: That is a ___ example.

The difference between the word that I am looking for and "hyperbolic" is that a hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally and this is.

Hope that helps.


texts: a word for "trickster god" or "ambivalent demon"

texts: Is there an appropriate or clever word that could be used to describe a sort-of deity that was not entirely evil or benevolent but would behave in an evil or benevolent way for its own amusement? Perhaps "demon" is still the optimal existing choice.


texts: How to pronounce August Dvorak's last name in English?

texts: I've recently come across the existence of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard created by professor August Dvorak. And I've been looking for solid sources on how to pronounce the man's name and I can't find any.


texts: Term for Subversive, Passive-Aggressive Insults (In which the insulter has plausible deniability, concerning any actual effort at offense)

texts:
To clarify, what I'm seeking is a term that represents a speaker offering a backhanded compliment, in which the speaker is the only one that doesn't share this point of view.

Example: "Personally, I think you were hilarious -- even if you did ruin the entire event, cheated the children, and the rest of the world hates your guts ..."

I'd also be interested in different takes on the purposeful, yet shielded (cheeky) offense and a completely unintentional, clueless (friendly) offense.


texts: Do you *ever* need to use "of" with possessive "s"?

texts:
For instance, which is worse?

An agent of King Ronald's.
An agent of King Ronald.
He's one of King Ronald's agents.

Thanks!


texts: What is the meaning and the grammar behind the second sentence?

texts:
I specifically need help understanding the "to recommend a wine firm in whose hands you could not go very far wrong" part. Thanks.

"Previous governesses had limited their conversation on the wine topic to a respectful and doubtless sincere expression of a preference for water. When this one went as far as to recommend a wine firm in whose hands you could not go very far wrong Mrs. Quabarl thought it time to turn the conversation into more usual channels."

Quote from the The Schartz-Metterklume Method by Saki, or H. H. Munro


texts:
I am writing a study proposal broken into three sections. The third section will cover "what I hope to learn," which is not the greatest phrasing for a section. Alternative suggestions would be appreciated.

Document breakdown:

Problem Statement
Measurement
What I Hope to Learn <-- Need better phrasing


texts: In English, adjectives do not take a plural form. How do we explain the use of the adjective "sales" (as in sales growth, or sales decline)?


texts: What's a more professional or formal way to say that someone is "cowering/hiding behind their keyboard"?

texts: I am trying to explain how a lot of people online have a lack of accountability on the internet by hiding behind their keyboards.


texts: I'd like to say something like "You do know grappa, don't you?", intending to mean "You have indeed heard something about (or tasted) grappa (an alcoholic beverage), haven't you?" Does this (the first quoted sentence) sound weird? Is there a better alternative?


texts: Are there good alternatives to "making the best of a bad situation?"

texts:
Life is full of adversity, and people facing challenging life circumstances have to find a way to cope. I'm interested in single words, phrases, or idioms that capture coping strategies. For example:

  Jane's job was absurdly repetitive and oppressive, but for her family, she tried to make the best of a bad situation.

Are there good alternatives to the coping strategy of making the best of bad situation?

Clarification: I am looking for alternatives, especially idioms, that don't involve words like good and bad.


texts:
I'm working on a copy editing project and in the copy they use

  ...only nine and one-half kilometres long...

I have decided the hyphen is wrong. However one half sounds awkward to me. Is that just because of usage? So I'm wondering: are both nine and one half and nine and a half correct? Or is one more formal? In the end, which is preferred?


texts: It irritates me that advertisers often claim a product is "New and Improved".  Surely, if something is new (ie, has not existed previously), it can't be improved!  And vice versa!


texts: In a 2×2 matrix the intersection of a single row and column can be referred to as a quadrant.  Is there a corresponding or more general term for a 3×3 matrix?


texts:
Q 1. Is the subject "5 bottles of milk" countable or uncountable?

Q 2. What kind of verb should I use for "5 bottles of milk", singular or
    plural?

Many thanks!


texts: Where does the expression "a wide berth" come from

texts:
Where does the phrase "a wide berth" as in "give it a wide berth", meaning lots of room, come from? I know it as a nautical term.

(Some of my female friends seem to think it's a chauvinistic reference to birth.)


texts: How did the "dog days of summer" enter the English language?

texts:
The expression "dog days of summer" appears to derive from  ancient Greek and Roman mythology according to which  the star Sirius was indicative and probably responsible for the hottest days in summer:

  The ancient Greeks noticed that summer’s most intense heat occurred during the approximate 40-day period in the early summer when Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, rose and set with the sun. To them it was simple math. The daytime addition of the warmth of Sirius—ancient Greek for “glowing” or “scorcher”—to the blaze of the sun equaled extreme heat. According to Greek mythology, Sirius was the dog of the hunter Orion, and the ancient Romans placed the star in the constellation Canis Major (Latin for “Greater Dog”). The Romans thus referred to the sweltering period when the rising of the sun and Sirius converged as the “dies caniculares” or “days of the dog star.” (www.history.com)

The expression entered the English language in the 16th century:

  1530s, from Latin dies caniculares, from Greek; so called because they occur around the time of the heliacal rising of Sirius, the Dog Star (kyon seirios). (etymonline).

The same expression remained similar to the Latin "caniculares" in other languages such as   canicula in Portuguese,  canicula  in Spanish,  canicola in Italian and canicule in French where the term has an older, medieval  usage.

Was the term "canicola" used before "dog days" entered English common usage or was the expression unknown before the 16th century.
Was the expression  imported or translated at that time by some some 16th century English writer?


texts:
Lester B. Pearson, a famous Canadian politician, once said

Foreign policy is domestic policy with a hat on.

Is this a quip? If not what word would fit my sentence

Lester B. Pearson's ___, "Foreign policy is domestic policy with a hat on."

Right now I have quip.


texts: Capitalizing a lower case screen name at the beginning of a sentence

texts:
When starting a sentence with a lower case pseudonym, such as a screen name of a user account on a website, should it be capitalized? Or are there different cases where it would and would not be appropriate to do so?

My curiosity was sparked by this meta EL&U page where a user comments that he does not mind if his name is lower-cased or not.

Are there any established standards on this practice?


texts: What does the term 'fatal conceit' mean in this instance?

texts:
From Paul Ryan Is 'Not A Fan' Of Romneycare And Compared It To Obamacare:

  They see how this idea of having the government be the sole, single
  regulator of health insurance, defining what kind of health insurance
  you can have, and then the individual mandate, it is a fatal conceit.

I have tried to understand the meaning, but I could not grasp it all. I don't understand the usage of "conceit" here. Someone please re-write this sentence so it's simpler to understand.


texts:
According to Garner's fourth edition,

Question whether; ✳question of whether; ✳question as to whether. The
first has a long literary lineage: it properly uses the noun clause
beginning with whether in apposition to question. The other two are
minor prolixities.
Although issue whether is typically better, issue of whether has
certain justifiable uses in which of is obligatory, usually when
issue is modified by an adjective.

What are those justifiable uses?
Secondly, why does an adjective make of obligatory?


texts: "Seek the truth in X" vs. "seek the truth with X"

texts:
Ran into the phrase

  to seek the truth in love

meaning "seek truth without hurting others in the process". I feel it should be "with" rather than "in." No rule in this case?


texts: "Where did you buy it?" or "where did you buy it from?"

texts:
When someone purchase something from somewhere and I ask him the location of purchasing, which one is the correct question:

  Where did you buy it?

OR

  Where did you buy it from?

Is preposition necessary to use in this question or there is no need to use it?


texts: A word for a secret organisation that controls the government

texts:
I'm trying to find a specific word that I've forgotten , it is a noun that refers to a secret group or society that is controlling the government. I'm about 60% sure it starts with 's' and 90% sure it's a single word. It's sometimes used in spy/action movies. Any help would be appreciated.
Edit: Some examples of things that could be considered this are the illuminati, hydra from marvel. Use of this word would be "the illuminati is a blank" or referring perhaps to a politician "I sespect he is part of a blank"


texts: Is there software that can determine whether I speak with a neutral accent?

texts: I have a query regarding enhancing my accent. I am searching for software in which I speak a paragraph and it compares my speech to find out whether it is accent-free or not.


texts:
Is there an antonym of client for the following context?

  The [?] performs services for his clients.

Usually one would just specify the profession or job title:

  The contractor does home improvement for his clients.

But is there a term that is as generic as client? I thought of professional, but that obviously implies they are practicing a profession, which they might not be.


texts:
Merriam-Webster Online:

  eloquence (1) discourse marked by force and persuasiveness; also: the art or power of using such discourse (2) the quality of forceful
  or persuasive expressiveness.

  rhetoric (1) the art of speaking or writing effectively: such as (a) the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by
  critics of ancient times (b) the study of writing or speaking as a
  means of communication or persuasion (2) skill in the effective use of
  speech.

What exactly is the difference between "rhetoric" and "eloquence"? From what I see, "rhetoric" has a negative connotation—that the speaker is trying to persuade (perhaps something not moral or not right) by means of artful use of language. (Or that however eloquent it sounds, it is just empty talk.) In either case, is there a word that carries only the negative implication of the word "rhetoric"? (Or is it the case that that is the contemporary usage for "rhetoric", and no more it has positive connotation.)


texts: What does "carry away" mean in the following passage?

texts:
This is from Rudyard Kipling's The Drums of the Fore and Aft. (A regiment is very dispirited, because they have been under fire from enemy snipers without chance of retaliating.)

  Pot-shots up and down the valleys were unsatisfactory, and the bayonet never seemed to get a chance. Perhaps it was as well, for a long-limbed Afghan with a knife had a reach of eight feet, and could carry away lead that would disable three Englishmen.


texts: How to use "on the other side of the ledger" in a sentence?

texts: Some where, I have read an author use a sentence like "However, on the other side of the ledger" while talking about disadvantages of a proposed solution. How to use that phrase in a sentence without sounding "awkward"?


texts: Are hyphens required in ' a $100 million to $150 million a year industry'?

texts:
Without recasting, would you include hyphens in any of the examples below? I think they're clear, as is, without them. If you would use hyphens, where would you put them? I know there are rules governing the use of hyphens in compound modifiers, but I think that because clarity is not compromised we can avoid hyphens in these four examples. The intended meaning is certainly clear without them; do you concur with all four as they stand below?

a $100 million to $150 million a year industry

an $11 a barrel price

a 10 to 20 percent a year increase

a 20% to 25% a year increase

Thank you.


texts:
Just about any site mentioning Raspberry Pi computer will say it's credit card sized. Yes, length and width of Raspberry Pi exactly match those of a credit card, but a creadit card is 0.76 millimeters thick and Raspberry Pi is 17 millimeters thick and so it's 22,4 times thicker.

In my native language being 22 times thicker than a credit card disqualifies a thing from being credit card sized even when length and width match those of a credit card.

In English what exactly does credit card sized mean? Does it include all dimensions or only length and width?


texts: Adjectives to describe a person that looks clueless/lost

texts:
As in the title, what's a word to describe a person who looks clueless or lost? As in the person looks like they don't know anything. However, in this context, I don't mean the person is dim-witted, nor slow. It's just that they have this expression on their faces that somehow displays a lack of understanding.

EDIT: Forgive me, but to clarify, I don't mean the person looks confused.

I was thinking of "Guys from that country always look so blank".

But is "blank" the right word to use here? If, so please let me know as well as any other words you can think of.


texts: What is the term for this non-paperclip technique?

texts:
As a schoolboy, when we did not have access to staplers or paperclips, we would fold down the corner of the paper and tear a small notch in the fold with our fingers in order to keep papers together.

What is the term which describes this technique ?


texts:
For example:

  Smallville. The name belonged to her [...] hometown.

I thought about yearned but apparently using it in cases like this seems grammatically incorrect?


texts: Does it sound idiomatic to say "Regretfully, I won't have the privilege of being with you that day, but I do wish you all good luck."

texts: There is a very common expression in Farsi that translates to something along the lines of "It's my bad luck that I wasn't there to enjoy your company" or "I will not have the good fortune to be there with you guys", and it's usually used as an act of being humble. I mean they are not "literally" unlucky not to be there, it's not like something very important is going to happen, they are just being polite. And of course, depending on the context, it can take any tense. Is there any expression in English that can be used in such situations? Do the ones I used seem natural to say?


texts: Less formal way of saying "I'm going offline"

texts:
Imagine a situation I'm going to the subway and will lose signal any moment.

How would you tell someone you will lose signal soon? Or that you're going .. Offline essentially?

Is "going dark" the phrase?


texts: A word (other than stationery) to describe a collection of 'paper, journals, books, invitations, wall art'

texts:
I am a designer and will be opening a store with 3 sections weddings, home and lifestyle. In all I will be selling wedding stationery suites (wedding invitations, place cards, menus etc) under the wedding section, journals and notebooks under the lifestyle section as well as a selection of wall art for homes.
I am therefore in search for a word that describes a collection of these things. I was going to use 'stationery', however I am aware that the general public would perceive this as referring mainly to office or school supplies.
Any input is greatly appreciated :)


texts: On the optionally of "each other"/ "one another"

texts:
It seems that with some verbs "each other" is optional but not with others.  Is there a general sense of when it is optional?  Is there a terminology or concept behind this I can google for further discussion?

For instance, when using "meet" we can discard "each other" without changing the meaning.  However when using "know" we cannot.

We met each other.
(same as above) We met.
We know each other.
(not the same as above) We know.

I don't think of these expressions as reflexive (reflexive would be "We know ourselves" and "We met ourselves" (the latter being awkward/not allowed)).  But maybe the use of "each other" is a special case of reflexiveness?

I am interested if "one another" would follow the same rules.  (I assume it does)


texts: What is a short term for words that have more than one spelling?

texts:
Is there a word or short term for words that have multiple valid spellings that don't correspond to any differences in meaning or pronunciation? The different spellings can be described as "spelling variants", but I'm looking for a word to describe the words themselves. I don't consider the term "homophones" (or the more specific "heterographic homophones") to be applicable because I understand it to refer to words that have different meanings.
A noun would be ideal ("Ax(e) is a(n) __") but an adjective that can modify a noun like word would be OK too ("Ax(e) is a(n) __ word"). To be clear, in this sentence I am using ax(e) to refer to the word itself, not to either of its two spelling variants. The word ax(e) is not a "variant" (n.): it comprises the two variant spellings <ax> and <axe>. I guess ax(e) could be described as a "variant word", using the adjective definition of variant that means something like "exhibiting variation", but I don't like this very much because it seems too ambiguous or unclear to me. However, if somebody can post an answer showing that "variant word" is some kind of established term for words like ax(e), I would be grateful for that information.
I'm not looking for the word variant
The questions Terminology for pairs of words with the same meaning, similar or same pronunciation but different spelling and Is there a word to describe words that can be spelled different ways? both look similar to mine, but neither has any answers that fit my sentence. I want to emphasize again that variant doesn't work for my purposes because I'm not looking for a word to describe the pair of spelling variants; I want a word to describe the single word corresponding to the multiple spelling variants.
If no such word exists, what is a good phrase for this?
I realize that such a word might not exist (as Pitarou's answer to the first linked question suggests); in that case, I'd be interested in hearing suggestions for a good multi-word term. The best I was able to come up with was "words with spelling variants not associated with different meanings or different pronunciations", which is pretty long.


texts: Do I keep myself "up-to-date" or "up to date" on something?

texts:
The question is quite straightforward: Which of the following is preferable?

"I keep myself up-to-date on the latest technology."
"I keep myself up to date on the latest technology."


texts:
I would like to know the difference between "definite" and "certain". I think they're synonyms but is there any difference?
for example in this exercise: "Although it is impossible to give a _____ age, we believe that the woman was between 25 and 30 when she died." the correct answer is "definite", why not "certain"?
Thank you all for your answers.


texts: What does this joke between Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra mean?

texts:
I have been listening to Dean Martin Pandora radio lately and there is a song medley between Sinatra and Martin. During each song they have little quips back and fourth, and there is one that I don't seem to understand

  Frank: "Do you have a fairy godmother?"
  Dean: "No, but I got an uncle we keep a close eye on."

What is the meaning behind this joke?


texts: A word which describes a statement or question that is vague or random

texts:
I'm looking for that word which people use to describe very random out of the blue *questions.

You say the most (???) things?


texts:
I'm sure that most of you will be familiar with the phrase "once again."

  Once again, I take that back.

However, I don't get the words. Once means "one time." However, again means that you did it again. Isn't this phrase an oxymoron?


texts:
On a wiki a user has replaced all instances of the phrase

a combined total of 100 x and y

with

a combined total of 100 x or y

Which one is more correct/appropriate to use? Is it situational? Are they interchangeable?


texts: Is there a term that describes leaving out the implied subject of a question?

texts:
For example, "Not going? Be sure to cancel at least 24 hours in advance." has an implied "Are you…" in front. Is there a term for this concept?

Is it proper grammar (or at least accepted in business communication)? I feel I've seen this structure use a lot.

Update

Is this just an example of conversational deletion? I'm guessing "conversational" means it would be generally okay for marketing and user interfaces but not for a memo to the CEO (or other more formal documents).


texts: "most common after" vs. "second most common after"

texts:
I have this sentence:

  iOS is the second most commonly used smartphone operating system in the World.

And to name the most common, I write:

  iOS is the second most commonly used smartphone operating system in the World after Android.

In the second sentence, has second become redundant and should have been removed?


texts:
I want to describe a group of people who are experiencing a kind of “echo chamber” effect, reinforcing each other’s beliefs, e.g.:

  The clique tends to have a ____ culture: once someone suggests an idea, the whole group clings on to it.

I’m gravitating towards self-reinforcing and self-feeding, but these both sound hopelessly off the mark.


texts:
'will' has different usages, for certainty in the future, making predictions, conditional sentences, intentions and decisions, willingness and offers, requests and invitations, promises, commands.
 I think 'will' in the sentence bellow announced 'invitation', am I right?

  I hope that my colleagues will expand on this.

I asked a question in a Forum one of the teachers answered my question and in the end of his answer, he wrote that sentence.


texts: Irritated by upper bounds pretending in adverts that they mean something "guaranteed to keep your baby dry for up to 12 hours"

texts: To me the meaning is clearly that the baby will remain dry for up to 12 hours. I don't see why it is irritating?


texts:
Does such a word exist?

It has occurred to me that the "woman" part is redundant, since only women can be pregnant (except for Arnold Schwarzanegger in Junior)


texts: Is there an established English term for ‘domiciled/hosted’ researchers

texts:
Within the world of Danish academia, it is possible for a researcher to be ‘hosted’ by an academic institution (frequently the Royal Library) without being officially employed there. The Danish term for such a position is domicileret (forsker) ‘domiciled (researcher)’.

These ‘domiciled’ researchers are granted permission to do research and given access to collections, copiers, and sometimes even offices on an equal footing to regular researchers, who are employed by the institution and have a contract with them; but unlike tenured researchers, ‘domiciled’ researchers are not paid by the institution, and their research is owned entirely by themselves with no copyright falling to the institution.

Currently, the publisher I work for is publishing an English book where the author is a ‘domiciled’ researcher for the Royal Library. This must be mentioned in the author blurb on the back cover, but we’re having trouble coming up with a good English term that fits and, more importantly, has actual currency in English-speaking academic circles.

A few possibilities have occurred to me, but Googling them yields varied hits from various spheres, and it’s hard to determine whether any of them really have any actual currency—or indeed if they actually refer to a different concept. The main contenders I’ve been able to come up with are:

Untenured researcher at the Royal Library
Seems to be an exact and accurate description, but untenured is slightly ambiguous (it can refer both to not having any kind of tenure at all—i.e., not being employed—or to having a non-permanent, time-limited post) and has a slightly negative sound to it
Independent researcher at the Royal Library
Seems a slightly less accurate description (‘domiciled’ researchers are, after all, not entirely independent, in that they have a dependency relationship with their ‘domiciler’), but sounds quite natural to me, and independent has decidedly positive connotations

Is there an established term used in English academia to describe this kind of position/researcher?


texts:
"3 generations of stupidity is enough."
OR
"3 generations of stupidity are enough."?

P.S. in the book Grammar in Use (advanced) the author suggests that when the complement is a singular noun phrase (though our complement here is an adverb (=enough)) a singular verb must be used. I believe the exact example was "3 hours is a long time (=the singular noun phrase) to take on the homework." However, I once heard a lawyer use "are" in a very formal and eloquent speech before the judge, which I think negates what the book says.


texts:
When editing the title to this question here on our sister site ELL:

The "p" in Trump

my childish inner self was tempted to try and make some sort of scatological pun on the "p" in the question. Now, if you play enough scrabble, you may be aware of the notional spellings for the names of the English letters. The name of the letter P, for example, is spelled pee according to many dictionaries. This of course would enable one to come up with the pun in the title of this question—which I was tempted to use for that other question (for about five seconds).

However, on discussing this point with a colleague of mine, we both noted that we have never seen the word pee used in any piece of authentic written text. My colleague then ventured so far as to argue that he doubted that the written word pee even existed in any meaningful sense.

A search on Etymology Online reveals no results at all for a word pee referring to the letter. In addition, a search on Googlebooks for "How many pees in" yields no results. A search for "double pee" yeilds only one relevant result. However in that text, many of the other letters are spelled in ways not listed in any dictionary I have been able to reference - for example the letter I is spelled eye.

Even a search on Googlebooks for "the letter pee" only yielded five bona fide results, out of of which four results are in books printed since 2006 and one is from 1987.

My question therefore is what is the provenance for the spelling pee as used to represent the letter P? Has this spelling ever been used frequently enough for us to properly regard this as a standard spelling and what is the earliest known usage of this spelling of the word. Lastly, are there any alternative spellings of this word which have been in competition with this one?


texts: Is there an idiom/phrase for the situation where people hang out in a foyer saying goodbye, but not leaving?

texts:
The situation is after some event, like a dinner or a party, and the last people to leave are saying their goodbyes.  Then, just as they're at the door, they start chatting with the host, and before anyone realizes it, they've been standing in the foyer for about 1-2 hours and still haven't left.

I've been in this situation often, and for some reason I thought it had a name or phrase, like "suck in the foyer saying goodbye" or something.

I tried googling it, and I got results like "long goodbye", when someone says goodbye to someone they know they won't see for a long time, which is not at all what I'm looking for.


texts: Origin of the phrase "There's a fine line between A and B"

texts:
For instance, Oscar Levant says

  "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Levant)

but I'm not sure if he is the original maker of this saying. For instance there are many other examples of it's usage : There's a fine line between pleasure and pain, and so on.


texts:
How come I often hear native speakers say "the (/ðiː/) US" as if "US" started with a vowel? It starts with a consonant /j/, right? Or are they using a strong form of "the"?

Thank you.


texts: How do we respond to tag question after urgings starting with 'Let's'?

texts:
There is a question bothering me. It is about an acceptable response to a tag question following Let's ...

The following example is from English Club:

  A: "Let's go, shall we?"

  B: "________."

How should (B) answer A, maintaining correct parallelism??

Compare the below example, where B replies "Yes, we can".

  A: "We can go out, can't we?"

  B: "Yes, we can."

I am not looking for workarounds like like "Sure."


texts: Expression for when you've fixed something, but something else breaks? And repeatedly?

texts:
Is there an expression for the situation where you've just fixed something, only to find out that your fix broke something else? So you fix that something else, and another thing breaks. And so on and so forth?

Totally inspired by my current work at my job.


texts: Do these sentences contain comma splices?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  What is a comma splice?

My girlfriend wants me to correct her fan-fiction, and to me it looks fine stylistically, but I wonder if some of the sentences are technically comma splices.

  They climbed out the carriage, and Gabriel was silent, taking in all this new information.

Is it okay to use a comma after silent? Or should she rephrase the sentence as, for example, "They climbed out the carriage, and Gabriel silently took in all this new information"?

I'm guessing from my limited understanding that the sentence doesn't contain a comma splice because the second clause is not independent. Or is it?

Another example:

  At first they didn't kiss; they just stood and stroked each other's faces, living in their joy and happiness of having finally found each other.

Is it okay to follow on with living here?


texts:
A vendor sold me some article of merchandise for $30, but the real cost of the article was only $20. Can I say:

  They tricked me for/by/of $10

I also wonder if the verb trick is appropriate in this context or it'd better be replaced with cheat.


texts: Synonym for 'reinforce/back up idea/concept'

texts: I'm sure there must be a word for this! I'm looking for a synonym for 'reinforce/back up idea/concept'. Eg: "He looks like an Australian and his accent would seem to back that up/suggest likewise/reinforce that notion." Any ideas for a synonym? Thanks!


texts: "Two separate nouns + based" as the attribute?

texts:
In scientific writing, it is correct to write something like

  The filter-based method is good.

But what if I have two nouns before -based? Something like

  The lowpass filter-based method is good.

Is it still correct?


texts: Should I use “philosophy” as a noun to describe my world view?

texts: I do this often. I use the word "philosophy" to indicate I am talking about the way I think. I use it to indicate my own personal beliefs and conclusions about the world. It is in a sense a disclaimer at times as, "In my philosophy...", or, "My philosophy is...". In a way I am warning people to take what I am about to say as "something to think about", rather than fact. It might be true and I think it is. I can't prove it to you, maybe it can't be proven, there is evidence though. Another phrase I like to use is, "Philosophically speaking...". Does anyone else do this sort of thing? Is there a better way to start such a statement, in particular with someone who does not study philosophy? What tags should I include for this question?


texts:
In Australian English slang, the expression "to arc up" means "to become upset or angry" (Wikitionary), e.g. "he arced up at his boss after being denied a promised pay rise", or "it was just a joke, no need to arc up."

I am struggling to verify the etymology of this phrase. It seems opinions are divided: one camp imagines the expression to refer to an electrical arc as in welding or between two live wires held close, the other imagines an angry cat arching its back to look threatening.

One source writes:

  I first heard this in Alice Springs in 1996. It was said to mean "losing your temper" or "getting defensive"... I think it might be related to the arch in a cat's back used to ward off an offending approacher.

While another says:

  I think it comes from steel welders starting to weld so look away.

I had thought the etymology was evidently the electrical explanation, but I find the feline framing fitting, if fanciful. Trouble is, I have no idea how to even approach the problem of discovering its roots. To an extent, both are automatically "valid" if enough people subscribe to them, but it seems plausible that people were saying it and thinking about cats long before the idea of an electrical arc was part of the vernacular.

Any ideas on how to pin this one down?


texts: How to pronounce "tor" as in "terminator"

texts: I need helps to pronounce the "tor" sound as in "terminator" and "escalator". In the dictionary, it says that I should pronounce it "der". But sometimes, I don't hear the "der" sound when native English speakers are pronouncing the "der" sound, i hear a combination of "der" and "tor". How to pronounce it?


texts:
I want to say 'I would like to count the number of patent applications which is eventually granted and the number of applications which is non-granted.' is it correct? how can i express the meaning simply and correct ?

thanks in advance.
best regards,
Alex


texts: Meaning of the word "rendition" in this case (BIM)

texts:
english is not my native language and I am struggling to find the right meaning for the word "rendition" in the following definition:

Clash Rendition (CR) is rendition of the native format model file to be used specifically for spatial
coordination processes. To achieve clash avoidance or to be used for clash detection.

Model in this case means a 3D model when designing building plans. I have found a lot of meanings for the word rendition, but I can't find one that fits to this situation. Please, help me!


texts:
I am unsure about the possible meaning(s) of this phrase. Does a sentence like
"She did anything but sleep"
mean something like she is a very dilligent or very lazy person depending on context?
How about these sentences, do they make sense?

"She is responsible for the project being completed on schedule. She did anything but sleep these last few days."

"This is the best movie I've seen for a long time. It is anything but wonderful."


texts: "It is the god-given given that must be accepted because it cannot be changed." vs a colon

texts:
Is the difference purely stylistic, or is there a slight change of meaning in using one form of over the other?

"It is the god-given given that must be accepted because it cannot be changed," as opposed to:
"It is the god-given given that must be accepted: it cannot be changed."


texts: A word for a fallen tree with roots exposed

texts: I'm looking for a single word or an idiom for a fallen tree with roots exposed, or a cavity formed between the roots of a fallen tree and the soil. Preferably an uncommon poetic/dialect word


texts: Is it more correct to say uncouple or decouple?

texts: Which is the correct antonym of the verb "couple"?


texts:
According to Garner's fourth edition, there is many a person is the correct verbal agreement because many a is a distributive rather than aggregate idiom.
What does the author refer to by the distinction distributive vs aggregate here?


texts:
When somebody says "this will take me about an hour" or "I ran about four miles", is there an unstated assumption that the actual quantity (time or distance, respectively) will be less than the one specified?

I tend to say, for example, "I ran about four miles" if I actually ran a little less than four miles. But I say "I ran a bit more than four miles" if I actually ran a little more than four miles. Is this distinction unnecessary, and can I use "about" for both meanings?


texts: What caused bell peppers to be called capsicums in some countries?

texts:
I have read this answer on the question "Why is the word “pepper” used for both capsicum (e.g. bell pepper) and piper (e.g. black pepper)?", and it contains some useful etymological information.

I've noticed that what name we call Capsicum annuum by seems to depend on which country we are speaking English in. For example, Australia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore and New Zealand use Capsicum.

A person working in an Indian supermarket was shocked when I told her it's called Bell Pepper in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland. I had to pull out Wikipedia to convince her it was true. (Probably because she associated pepper with the spice.)

What is the historical/etymological explanation for this divergence in names between countries? How did former British colonies end up using a different name from what the UK uses today?


texts:
Although used a lot, the phrase 'Look and feel' of a web application's assets seems a little inaccurate.

Is it not better to change this common phrasing to 'look and character' because we really don't feel much about something displayed on the screen- but this something could have a character e.g "it's rough, it looks sexy, vibrant, irritating, annoying".

You feel me?


texts: What does the expression “rabbit-out-of-a-hat” mean?

texts:
I read this phrase on a guide for texts about mathematical logic, it says that this proof is “rabbit-out-of-a-hat”.

What does this mean?  Is it a slang expression? The exact sentence is:

  A little unfortunately, the proof of that is rather too
  rabbit-out-of-a-hat for my liking.


texts: How is the English Subjunctive Composed?

texts:
Yesterday, I read about the English subjunctive mood. I tried to, but couldn't, discern a concise conception of it.

What do you regard as a useful and concise conception of the subjunctive mood?


texts:
I was wondering what the difference is between a den and a living room.

What does a den really mean?

For example, an apartment with two Bedrooms, two Baths and one Den:


texts: What is the character set of the (written) English language?

texts:
More specifically:

What dictionaries or lexicons (considering all ever published) of the English language contain exhaustive lists of the characters or symbols used in the formation of the words contained therein? In a modern dictionary, such a list would contain a-z, the apostrophe, and the hyphen. I would not count special symbols that are used only in guiding pronunciation.

This is not a question about typography, but a similar question must come up every time someone designs a typeface (whether produced physically or electronically).


texts: Why is "archaic" pronounced uniquely? Is the sequence -ɪɪ- only found in this word?

texts:
Before looking this word up, I have always rhymed it with cake i.e. /ɑːˈkeɪk/. But when I looked it up, it was actually /ɑː(r)ˈkeɪɪk/ with the sequence of a similar vowel repeated consecutively: -ɪɪ-
I find it rather strange and while looking up its etymology, I found nothing convincing. Here is what Wikitionary has to say:

From archaism (“ancient or obsolete phrase or expression”) or from French archaïque, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀρχαϊκός

But none of its roots have -ɪɪ-. Is this sequence of the same vowel repeated consecutively unique to "archaic"? How did it come about?


texts:
What's a good way to write a sentence like the following:

  I want it rather than him.

where I mean that "I want (to have) it rather than him (having it)," and don't want the sentence to be potentially misread as "I want (to have) it rather than (to have) him"?


texts: Is “month year” or “month, year” the more common form of punctuation in print publishing?

texts:
A great many style guides address the question of whether or not to separate the month and year with a comma in phrases of the type "January[,] 2018"—and yet, to my surprise, a search of English Language & Usage for the terms "month year comma" yields only one question that seems to focus on precisely this point: Is there always a comma before and after a year in a sentence?

Unfortunately, that question was closed as duplicate back in 2014, even though the prior question that it supposedly duplicates (How to use AP Style commas after dates) does not ask about "month[,] date" constructions, and even though none of the answers posted in response to that question address the issue either.

But the "Is there always a comma before and after a year in a sentence?" question doesn’t show any research, which would probably lead to its being closed again for that reason if it were reopened as not being a true duplicate—so rather than try to rehabilitate it, I ask the question afresh (and in my own words) here:

  In instances where only a month and a year appear as date indicators—such as "January[,] 2018"—is it more common in print publishing (that is, in ink-and-paper books and magazines, whose publishers tend to enforce in-house or third-party style guidelines) to include a comma after the month or to omit it? Are the relevant style guides evenly divided on this issue, or do they preponderantly favor one or the other option?


texts: 1.3 Liters or 1.3 Liter? Fractions and plural form

texts:
I searched Google, but I couldn't get exact result.

I think question is clear. Do you add 's' or not? 1.5 meter or meters , ...


texts:
"A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client"

I have checked online and found this

I still hesitate and need to understand it better.
What does "A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client" mean exactly?


texts: Whats a good word for somebody holding back sobs?

texts: I am in a roleplay and want to express my character holding back sobs out of fear of being seen as weak but don't have a word for it


texts:
I found a confusing usage of "consist of" in Belles Make Up site:

  Water consists of 70% of our whole body.

I think that above sentence is wrong because water is within our body, not the body in water; therefore, it should have been like this:

  Our body consists 60% of water and 7% of blood. [found this usage in Quora site]

Additionally, how and when to use "made up of"?


texts: What word am I looking for? Related to unique parts or non-universal components

texts:
For example. You cannot use Mac parts in a Windows computer because they are ________ parts.  <- I believe the word I am looking for starts with an S.

Unique, not universal, can only be used on a specific platform etc..

any help would be great thanks!


texts:
Regarding the etymology of the term 'condom', Etymonline makes two interesting  but weak assumptions:

  1) 1706, traditionally named for a British physician during reign of Charles II (a story traceable to 1709), but there is no evidence for that.
  2) Also spelled condam, quondam, which suggests it may be from Italian guantone, from guanto "a glove."

It adds that condom is:

  A word omitted in the original OED (c. 1890) and not used openly in the U.S. and not advertised in mass media until November 1986 speech by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop on AIDS prevention.

As for the first assumption, does it seem plausible that condoms were used at the beginning of the 18th century?
As for the second one, I can confirm that still nowadays guanto (glove) is a slang term used for condoms in Italy, but when and why it was adopted by the English language is unclear.

Is there a more reliable story behind this term?


texts: What is the name for this feather-like material coming out of this wire?

texts:
This white feather-like thing exposed out of telephone cable:

(click on the image to enlarge)

This wire comes from the Main office to my home.

The white "feather" has two copper wires side by side.

What is the name for this feather thing?


texts: Is there an expression for asking two people to perform a task, but neither do it, assuming that the other will?

texts: I'm somewhat familiar with the French "tomber entre deux chaises," which means "falling between two chairs", but it doesn't scan in English. Is there a common expression for this fairly common issue in English that I'm missing?


texts: "You don't want to..." vs. "You wouldn't want to..."

texts:
If I want to tell someone that they shouldn't do something (e.g. buy a computer), should I say:

  You don't want to buy that computer.

or

  You wouldn't want to buy that computer.

I suspect that the latter is the correct choice. But I'm unsure about the first.


texts:
Does "suffer from" have the meaning of "tend to"?

I looked up the Collins dictionary, and found that "suffer from" can mean "given to", which means "tend to".

E.g. A chemical element suffers from being a solid~ precursor.
In the above sentence, Does "suffers from" mean "tend to"?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Idioms meaning to do something at great cost

texts: What I'm looking for isn't quite the same as a Pyrrhic victory, as the action isn't necessarily done to obtain victory. Rather, it is any action that will ultimately result in the person taking said action to pay great (preferably terrible) cost either along the way or afterward, whether or not they realize it in advance.


texts:
Is there any specific word or phrases to describe teacher of teachers?

If not, how do I express this idea?

More precisely,someone who train people to be teachers on their fields.

Thank you very much!


texts:
Could I ask what "with" means here? I didn't undertsnad the bold part. It is so confusing.

  You don't have to be an Olympic swimmer or star musician to experience
  flow. In order to achieve flow, you must experience an activity as
  voluntary and enjoyable, and it must require skill and present an
  achievable challenge, with the goal being success. You must feel
  as though you have control and receive immediate feedback about your
  performance with room for growth.

Can we say "with" mean "because of" or "as a result of"?


texts: How to use another word or other words to replace "extent" in a given sentence?

texts:
This is the given sentence:
Usability: “The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.”

I'm trying to use another word to replace extent in the above sentence.

In the google dictionary, extent means the area covered by something.

So,
usability is an "area" which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.

Does it make any sense in English?

After doing more google search,
there are two more ways to paraphrase the sentence.

Usability refers to methods for accessing or improving the way to achieve specified goals by specified users with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use during the design process.
In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a software can be used by specified consumers to achieve quantified objectives with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a quantified context of use.

How could I write a better sentence?

Thank you for reading this question.


texts:
What is a term for powerful, moving words?  Rhetoric implies the opposite (“empty” rhetoric).

  The nominee’s speech was filled with XXX


texts: Is there a single word that means 'more information on a user'

texts:
I'm a programmer and I'm looking for a single word that works for the following scenario:

I have a list of basic information about people, I call this list the 'user repository'.
I need a word for "to view and change more detailed information about a person". I've thought of using words like refine and elaborate, but they don't seem to quite fit the idea that the data can be viewed and changed.


texts: What's the most common word refer to the after death letter?

texts:
I am confused between : Will, legacy, Commandment, Precept, Behest, Testament and more.

Which word refer to the declaration or the message by which a person ask the world to do certain things after his death, like his recommendations and the distribution of his property..etc.


texts: What is the origin of "up and did something"?

texts:
Consider the examples from the Free Dictionary:

That summer, she up and died.
He had lived here for twenty years, and then one day, he up and left for good.

Is this a contraction of a longer phrase, making "up" a particle (as in "get up")? Or is "up" meant as a verb, but mysteriously not inflected according to tense/person? (in which case, how did it end up not being inflected?)


texts: What is the difference between "how you would" or "how would you" and when to use them?

texts:
I am trying to understand what is the difference between these two sentences and which is correct.

Please select how would you like to receive your messages?

Please select how you would like to receive your messages?


texts: Is there a name for when you read two or more digits together rather than as a single number?

texts: If I say 'one-one' when I mean 'eleven' or 'two-three-four' when I mean 'two hundred and thirty four,' is there an expression for reading in digits like this?


texts: what to call the previous time interval , that is equally long

texts:
I have to display some reporting data and am having a bit of trouble with naming the columns. I have:

today
1 day ago (yesterday)
last 7 days
the 7 days before the last 7 days (so today-14 until today-7) <-- what can I call this?
last 30 days
the 30 days before the last 30 days (so today-60 until today-30) <-- what can I call this?


texts:
Which is correct
1 Get out the house. Or
2 Get out of the house?
I've heard that the American English standard is the first one and the British English standard is the second one. Is that true? The Oxford dictionary says in a side note that out as a preposition is standard in American English while the prepositional phrase out of is standard in British English while saying out is not standard.


texts: What do you call a medical procedure that requires the patient to recover walking

texts:
For some medical operations its required to revalidate the patient because the procedure was so heavy he/ she had to lie down for 1 to 3 weeks with a completely paralysed lowerbody. After the patient is health they need physiotherapy to relearn walking.

What is this phenomenon called.


texts: Word that accentuates the stillness of an object?

texts:
For example, you can say, her hands were ice cold. Is there a word to be used in a similar way with still?

  The bodies were [...] still.


texts: What's a word that means things go from "worst to better"?

texts:
This question refers to a life changing turn of events.

For example, “No one hired Stan for years because of a conviction of murder he didn't commit and did time for, but recently he won 100,000 dollars at the lottery.”


texts: What is the meaning of “screen” in this context?

texts:
What is the meaning of “screen” in this contexts? And what is for an screen to be elementary? Screen has two main meanings: monitor and partition. None of them seems to fit in this context.

As weather reveals one of the most open, unpredictable, and
uncontrollable dimensions of life, its uncertainty has been
interpreted in the Jewish-Christian tradition as an elementary
screen for interaction between creation and the Creator. As such,
weather, although it certainly does not do anything other than
weathering, has also served as a screen for the projection of God’s
presence and moral relation to his/ her created beings.


texts:
"So what we did, we got in touch with a nature reserve out in the country, and asked them what you could see there. And that's when we realised that we've as much, if not more wildlife than they do."

What does the sentence "And that's when we realised that we've as much, if not more wildlife than they do." really mean? Could you please rephrase it?

Especially, " that we've as much" and " if not more wildlife than they do" make me really confused.
Thanks in advance.


texts:
Mr Mosley is not listed on the company's most recent documents filed to Companies House, which name as directors the former Foreign Office advisor Sir Daniel Bethlehem, who is understood to have an independent role overlooking corporate governance, and Alexander Carp, Palantir's chief executive.

The part "which name as directors" sounds grammatically wrong to me. Can anyone explain what does it mean if there is no syntax error?

I am interpreting as "which name former Foreign Office advisor Sir Daniel Bethlehem as directors"(?) And if that's the case what rule does it fall under?


texts: "Nothing is compared with" or "Nothing is compared to"

texts:
Do we say "Nothing is compared with the Egyptian pyramids" or "Nothing is compared to the Egyptian pyramids"?

If both are correct,is either one favourable in general or in British or American
English?


texts: What does "She is tall for her age" mean?

texts:
I read the following sentence

  She is tall for her age.

Now I'm greatly confused about its meaning. Does it mean "she would have as long age as she is tall" (perhaps showing prediction)
Or "she is as tall as her age"

Which meaning is correct or is there a third meaning?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How to answer a negative question without ambiguity?
  Response to “Would you not do it?”

When a negative question is asked, what is the grammatically correct way to answer? If someone asks you Didn't you come by car today?, what is the correct answer?


texts:
Backlash being strong public reaction against something, what exactly is cultural backlash? Googling it is not that helpful.

I was reading an article that contains the sentence:

  The cultural backlash to America's financial system in the wake of the Great Recession brought the topic of widening inequality into the mainstream. Ten years after the crisis, income and wealth inequality between the top 1% and the rest of the country are both still rising.
  —"US inequality sparked second Gilded Age and revealed defining struggle", Business Insider


texts:
Can we use "as" in this manner?
It is very hot here in the summers. However it isn't as hot in the countryside.
or
It is very hot here in the summers. However in the countryside, it isn't as hot.
I've searched the web but only found sources using as...as for comparison. I think my sentences just convey the same meaning as
It is very hot here in the summers. However it isn't as hot in the countryside [as it is here]
where "as it is here" is implied.
edit
If I simply say "It isn't as hot in the countryside." without any context will it be fine?
I'm worried because I found some examples here where they're using the phrase without context.
Is the structure I'm trying to form not popular enough because all I can find on the web is as...as comparison?
Is it always necessary that 'as' has to be followed by 'as' while making comparisons?


texts:
Example Scenario: PersonA wants to do something, but is told they can't. They're persistent, and they quiet down eventually, but then they find just the slightest justification and jump back into hours-long pleading again as if the past conversations never happened.

I could say that PersonA is a wishful thinker, but "wishful thinking" doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation. PersonA in this case is a wishful thinker to the point of lunacy. Is there a single word or phrase that accurately describes this so that even when heard out-of-context it would be understandable? Optimally it'd be workplace-appropriate, but it's fine if it's not.


texts:
"Important" and "significant" seems to be very close in meaning when denoting that something matters much.

But am I right in thinking that "important" is less formal word than "significant"? And what, if any, are other differences in usage between them?


texts: What is the meaning of: “If we offend, it is with our good will”

texts:
I was reading A Midsummer Night's Dream; Act-V, Sc.1 . There Peter Quince read the prologue:

  If we offend, it is with our good will.
  That you should think, we come not to offend,
  But with good will. To show our simple skill,
  That is the true beginning of our end.
  Consider then we come but in despite.
  We do not come as minding to contest you,
  Our true intent is. All for your delight
  We are not here. That you should here repent you,

Does the line in bold mean the following?

  If we happen to offend you, it’s because we want to

He is saying that they would offend with  good intention! They've not come here to make the audience happy! They want to make the audience sorry to watch them acting.

In @deadrat's answer he said:

  If we offend (you), it is with our good will.
  That is, we have good intentions even if we end up offending you.

But, Quince is making sure he is not going to tell these but on the contrary he is clearly saying like 'Hey! I'm a burglar. I'm here to rob you.'

So, I'm not getting whether he is reading the prologue which should be as pointed by @deadrat or rather darely declaring they are here to make the audience feeling sorry for seeing them.

Is the speaker actually criticizing the drama?
Is it a prologue or is Quince boldly criticising or offending?
Could anyone please explain what Quince actually wanted to say?


texts: Why are things often "very tasty", but rarely "very delicious"

texts:
When I saw this ELL question it struck me that very delicious didn't sound vary "natural" to me.

Checking Google NGrams, I find that relatively speaking, toothsome food is five times more likely to be described as delicious rather than tasty...

...but if the intensifier very is present, that preference reverses. Things are actually three times more likely to be very tasty rather than very delicious.

As a native speaker, I already knew intuitively that the preference existed - and it was no surprise to me to discover how strong it was, since otherwise I wouldn't have been aware of it in the first place.

But I can't think of any reason for the difference. It's not obvious to me delicious has any greater sense of being a "non-gradable" attribute than tasty, so I can't see how the phenomenon can be rationalized by analogy with, say, very unique, very dead, very perfect.

Please don't just closevote this as "matter of opinion", or brush it aside as "established idiomatic preference". I feel there must be some "reason" causing such a marked preference, since it's so consistently observed, but it can't simply be that we repeat what we hear others say, since neither of the "intensified" versions occur often enough for an average speaker to consciously notice anything. I feel that somehow or other we must all be influenced by the same underlying principle, without being consciously aware of it.


texts: How did the word buoy come to be pronounced "BOO-ee" in most of the US? The British pronunciation "BOY" as in the word buoyancy or buoyant (which both countries pronounce the same) seems to be pretty straight-forward, so where did the US version come from?


texts: Present tense in Flashback story for something that is still true now?

texts:
I'm wondering whether I should use the present tense for a descriptive statement but in a past context. For example:

  (1) I went to the zoo and saw a giraffe last week.

  (2) A giraffe is a mammal with long neck.

  (3) It is the first time I see that animal with my own eyes.

Statement (2) is a description of a giraffe in general, not the specific one in the zoo, so is it correct to use is?

Statement (3) is an event that is still true now, so should I use is and see?

I'm not native speaker so forgive me if the question is very obvious to others.


texts:
I am trying to determine what is the best way to determine what a word means?

I found three references and each give a different definition.  For example for immemorial, it could mean "centuries ago" or "beyond memory".

Is there a goto online reference that is best.  The 3 I found are below.

For example authors love to say "Since time immemorial ..."

REFERENCE

dictionary.com

collinsdictionary.com

merriam-webster.com


texts: How did English final /əl/ come to usually be spelled "le"?

texts:
English has suffixes spelled "-le" and pronounced /əl/ with several meanings. However, they variously come from Old English -el, -ol, -ul, and -lian. Of these, only -lian has a vowel after the l.
Also, many other words are spelled this way. When I look up their etymologies, they often come from Old English words ending in "el," /əl/, which explains the modern pronunciation but not the spelling, or are borrowed from Old French words ending in "le" (like circle), which I understand would have been pronounced /lə/ in OF, which does not explain how they got their modern pronunciations. Other words, like battle, are borrowed from French or Latin words that had vowels before the "l," and must have been respelled since, the same as the OE origin words.
I suppose it could have come from later French, where "le" would be pronounced /l/, which is often unpronounceable in English and so would be approximated as /əl/, which may have already been pronounced as [l̩]. This would match British "re," I believe. However, it does not explain why so many other /əl/ words were respelled with "le," when the same did not happen with "er" words. It also does not explain why words borrowed from OF like circle now have /əl/ and not /lə/. I suppose it's possible so many words were respelled to match the French, but it seems strange that it would have only happened in this one ending.


texts: Difference in usage between the nouns "merge" and "merger"

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As a non-native speaker I am having some trouble distinguishing between the two words "merge" and "merger". To me, it sounds like "merger" describes a major event, often occurring between legal entities such as companies, countries, pieces of industry,... In computer science, I have more often seen merge used as a noun, e.g. if in a version control system two branches are merged, the result is called a merge. The process while it is occurring is also called a merge.

Are the two terms interchangeable, or are there clear distinctions in usage (in general practice)?


texts: Is it necessary to use article before" law and order" in the given sentence below?

texts: In india, Law and order is not as good as it should be and reason being this, The police never reaches in time to rescue the ones who need them most.


texts: Semantically / Pragmatically correct / incorrect sentences

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I am revising for my NLP quiz and am getting confused at the difference between semantic and pragmatic. I studied that semantic is the study of words and their meaning in sentences while pragmatic takes context into consideration.

I have some examples below of a quiz that I am looking through. It still confuses me and I hope to ask my professor soon but would like some help here so I can ask better questions when I meet him.

Based on Syntactically correct, semantically incorrect sentence and the solutions below, semantically incorrect sentences are sentences whose syntax is correct but do not make any sense when bringing in general knowledge. Example: The green apple ate a juicy bug. Apples don't eat things.

1) But what about pragmatically incorrect sentences ? How do I identify one ? The solutions below did not state the reason sentence no. 6 is pragmatically correct.

2) Can a sentence be semantically incorrect but pragmatically correct ?


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I feel silly asking this but I can't find the answer anywhere (including CMOS, dictionaries, etc.). I am a professional editor and am struggling with an author who uses "being" in the following way:
He has a sleeve of tattoos on his left arm—the most prominent being a picture of Bettie Page.
I mostly see this usage in romances or with British authors. What is "being" and why should I not change it to "is" to retain her phrasing.
Thank you!!!