texts: Can “Call it a career” be applied only to celebrities and successful people?

texts:
I saw the idiom, “Call it a career” in the article of New York times (May 12) announcing Barbara Waters’ planned retirement in 2014:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/business/media/barbara-walters-to-announce-2014-retirement-on-the-view.html?hp&_r=0

  “On the program she invented, on the network where she worked for the
  past 37 years, on the medium where she broke barriers and rules for
  more than 50 years, Barbara Walters will announce on Monday morning,
  definitively and with no regrets, that she is calling it a career.

  “It’s time,” Ms. Walters said, previewing the announcement she will
  make to the national television audience watching her daily program,
  “The View.”

As I was unfamiliar with the phrase, “Call it a career,” I looked for instances of the usage in Google to find a few examples:

1.Gerald Sensabaugh has decided to retire and is signing a one-day contract so that he can call it a career while a member of the Cowboys. -profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/

2.. After 16 NFL seasons, five Pro Bowl selections, a Super Bowl title and 47 career interceptions, Ronde Barber has decided to call it a career. -www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/.../2144715

Now questions:

Are only celebrities and successful people entitled to vocalize “call it a career” when they retire?

Is it out-of-place and ridiculed for an average people like me to say “I ( he /she) ‘called it a career last year (or 15 years ago).” in the same cotext with "call it a day"?


texts: Where is the boundary (if any) between oxymoron and paradox?

texts:
The virus crisis has produced many sentiments of the sort “Nobody is alone in being alone”. This makes me wonder if I am reading a paradox or an oxymoron. Where does the boundary (if any) between the meanings of these words lie, and which side of it is my statement? Previous discussion on this site is not definitive because it tended to repeat definitions of these and other related words without considering fully the overlaps of meaning. Considering the following definitions I incline towards oxymoron but feel myself on soft ground in doing so.

Paradox = a statement or situation that may be true but seems impossible or difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics
Cambridge Dictionary

Paradox = a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true. Or = a self-contradictory statement that at first seems true
Merriam Webster

Oxymoron = a phrase or statement that seems to say two opposite things
Cambridge Dictionary

Oxymoron = a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel kindness)
broadly: something (such as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements
Merriam Webster


texts: Perception of the phrase "kindly let us know..."

texts:
Recently, I talked to a native speaker about the proper usage of the word “kindly”.
I frequently use phrases like “kindly let us know whether you agree with the suggested approach” in business letters to clients.

However, my American friend now pointed out to me that he felt “offended” by this sentence since he found it rather patronizing.
I was quite baffled – of course, my intentions in using that wording are entirely different, and I always thought I was humbling myself when using this phrase…

But he also thought it was quite impertinent to actively demand a reply by using this phrase.

I am rather confused now. Is this an assessment shared by other native speakers?


texts: Using "a tiny" in the same way as "a little"

texts:
Saying

  That made me a little happier

is clearly perfectly fine, yet no one would really ever say

  That made me a tiny happier,

even though both "little/tiny bit happier" are fine.

Is there some logic to this? It's perfectly clear what the second sentence means, even though it sounds "a tiny" wrong.


texts: I have a trip that already plan a year ago and fully paid?

texts:
I am a bit confused about this sentences.

1) As I mentioned during my induction to HR, I have a trip that already plans a year ago and fully paid so that I cannot cancel it. It would be my pleasure if you both could be my buddy for below dates.

Is this correct?

Thanks


texts:
When I hear the word "decoration" I assume it must be visual. However various definitions don't really require this to be the case (such as "The process or art of decorating or adorning something").

To put it differently, is Li'l Sis correct or incorrect in her usage of the word in this video?


texts: What is the origin of the term "bull****" in its figurative sense?

texts:
When/how did the word "bullshit" or the phrase "I call bullshit" (or its multiple variants) become acceptable in English? Was it a direct adaptation from another language or was it introduced in some other manner?

(Please note that I am just referring to the use of the term in everyday general banter as questioning disbelief and not its literal usage in reference to cow dung.)


texts:
The word "piggyback," or "to piggyback" means to carry someone on your back.

What is its origin and why is it a pig?


texts: What's the difference between "the lack" and "the lacking"?

texts:
In the following sentence, my teacher says that the lacking should be the lack, instead.

  The lacking of trees may lead to global warming.

If it's wrong, would someone mind explaining why it is wrong? Thanks.


texts: Who are my uncle's parents to me, if my uncle is related by marriage?

texts: For a blood relative, your uncle's parents are your grandparents. What do you call an uncle's parents if he's related by marriage? Step-grandparents?  Grandparent-in-laws?


texts:
According to my Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the word "Professor" is a countable noun. However, one of its examples reads:

professor a teacher in a college or university. In Britain, a professor is a high-ranking university teacher, especially one who is head of a department.

She was professor of linguistics at Cambridge University.

"She was professor ..." or "She was a professor ..."?
Is this a difference between American and British usage?

Another Example from a website of Prof. Tony McEnery:
Link

I am Distinguished Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Lancaster University.

Thank you in advance.


texts:
I see this a lot:

  I shall say, Daphne, that my going to Athens on Saturday need not disturb our tea schedule one bit.

Versus what seems right to me:

  I shall say, Daphne, that me going to Athens on Saturday need not disturb our tea schedule one bit.

I'm somewhat sure that the former is actually the right one, but the latter always seems like the right one to me.

Can both be used? If seems weird to say "my going to Athens" as opposed to "me going to Athens", but the more I use "me" in this context, the less I sound like a native English speaker (which I'm not) and it bothers me.


texts: What does "Don't call him late for dinner" mean?

texts:
What does the phrase "Don't call him late for dinner" mean?
As I am very thin, I believe this is a figure of speech used to sarcastically describe someone of near fragile size. I am not sure. I am willing to hear any and all opinions and even suggestions regarding this phrase.


texts:
I generally see the word “irrigation” as an agricultural term in sentences like:
There are several lakes of great depth and streams well fitted for the purposes of irrigation, of which full advantage is taken by the natives.
Can I use it in a more casual way like I used in this sentence below?
Her plants died because of over irrigation.


texts: Why are numbers associated with shapes and nomials so complicated?

texts:
I was reading up a bit on the wiki page "Numeral Prefix" and realized that the monos, bis, and tris etc. prefixes of nomials, and the hexa, poly, and nanos etc. of shapes are all mixed around amongst the Greek and Latin ordinal, cardinal, and multiple prefixes.

Could someone please help me make sense of this? Perhaps send me a chart that is easier to understand?


texts: Recognizing right relative pronouns for clauses

texts:
I have read some grammar points about adjective clauses, but I still have problems recognizing the right choice in questions requiring them.

  A Jekyll and Hyde is a person who has two personalities, one of ---- is bad and the other good.
  (I guess it should be whom but the answer is which.)

And I wonder if using relative pronouns in this paragraph is correct:

  He invents a drug that (which?) can separate them. When he takes the drug, he becomes an evil version of himself, whom (that?) he calls Mr.Hyde.

Can someone please provide information, or resources to get better answers?


texts: What term captures "just the thing" or "exactly what is needed"?

texts:
Example usage:

  If Plato and Aristotle wish to maintain the status quo, then such a system is just the thing that is needed.

"Sufficient" doesn't carry it. "Ideal" gets closer. What word captures "just the thing" or "exactly what is needed"?


texts:
Both beforehand and before are adverb and both mean the same. (See Reference, below). Then what is the difference between them? Can they be used interchangeably?
Are these sentence correct (and can I swap before with beforehand)?
A: Have you had an avocado before?
B: No, I never had an avocado before.

A: Before I say anything, I must say that you are an honest person.

A: I had missed my bus before I decided to take a taxi.
Reference

beforehand - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com
before - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com


texts: I am curious about the parts of speech of ...  Class "will be led" by....  Isn't led past tense,  while will is future tense.  Can anyone explain this to me?  Why is this correct grammar?  (or is it?)


texts: Why is "does" sometimes pronounced "is"?

texts:
I'm watching a movie at the moment and I came across something that I've always found strange in the English language.

In some questions, mostly something like "What does he look like?", the does is pronounced is, so it sounds like "What is he look like?".

EDIT: The example from the movie Click here


texts:
I recently read a NY times article and I am not sure why the writer says “Never mind that...”:

  On Tuesday afternoon, townspeople gathered inside the gymnasium here at Uiseong Girls High School to root for the South Korean women’s curling team, whose match against the United States was shown on a big screen as an M.C. leaned into a microphone and banged on a drum.
  “I skip dinner whenever they’re playing,” said Chung Poong-ja, 75, who danced on the gym floor once the South Koreans sealed their victory against the Americans. “My focus needs to be on the match.”
  Kim Sung-hee, 67, said, “I lost my voice from cheering so hard.”
  It was the biggest, loudest party in the province, and for good reason: The team’s top four players grew up in this small city of about 54,000 people and graduated from this high school. Now, thanks to an improbable run at the Olympics being held in Pyeongchang, about 80 miles to the north, the team- dubbed the Garlic Girls by the Korean press, owing to the region’s production of garlic - seems on the cusp of international celebrity.
  Never mind that the Garlic Girls, with their dominant record in pool play, have vaulted themselves into medal position in a sport that is still foreign to most South Koreans.

Does it mean “do not be upset with the fact”?
I tried to search and I found “do not be upset” and “despite the fact that”, and still I am not sure the meaning of that sentence.

And I also would like to know if “run” of “an improbable run” means “the series of successes”.

I searched for them on dictionaries but still I am not sure.
Please help me.
Thank you in advance!

(+)
Actually I asked this question to my English speaking teacher and he answered Never mind that means despite. But I am so confused cuz if Never mind that means despite, there is no main clause: despite the fact that the girls have vaulted....? It does not make sense to me. If never mind that means despite, how can I rephrase the sentence using despite? My teacher said “despite the fact that the Korean spectators are unfamiliar with the game, there is local enthusiasm” but I don’t know why “never mind that the girls have vaulted...” become that sentence. Does my teacher mean “that” of “never mind that” is a pronoun so that it is like “never mind that, the girls have vaulted...”? Then I understand why he said despite.


texts: When should the word "God" be capitalized?

texts:
Aside from proper noun usage, like "We're on a mission from God", when should "God" be capitalized? A few examples:

That's a god awful question.
Oh my god!
No god-damn way.
He played the part of the cannibal god

It occurs to me that whenever used for decisive emphasis, by referencing deity, it is effectively functioning as a proper noun as well? For comparison:

That's a really awful question.
Oh my stars!
(no viable equivalent)
He played the part of the cannibal chief

PLEASE, no rants or tangents. This is a grammar question.


texts: Is there a way to describe the situation of things being at 60° to one another?

texts:
I came across the word 'trine' which was new to me and one of its meanings (in astronomy) is to describe the relative position of planets when they are in the aspect of 120° to one another (the sun being the centre of the circle).

Collins Dictionary

90° - 'at right angles'.
120° - 'in trine aspect'.
180° - 'diametrically opposite'.

But I cannot find a term for the 60° relationship.


texts:
This is a followup to my post on meta.SE.
The filler text:

Apparently, this user prefers to keep an air of mystery about them.

sounds odd to my ear. I understand that "them" is being used as a singular, third-person gender neutral pronoun, but I don't think that's the issue. The analogous gender-specific constructions:

Apparently, this user prefers to keep an air of mystery about him.
Apparently, this user prefers to keep an air of mystery about her.

seem to be archaic and awkward, more naturally replaced by:

Apparently, this user prefers to keep an air of mystery about himself.
Apparently, this user prefers to keep an air of mystery about herself.

While it's true that "an air of X about them" is at least a moderately-common construction in English, the construction "keep an air of X" is less common, so I don't think that the example of "There was an air of secrecy about them" is informative in this case.
I think the construction here is "to keep an X about Y" is the one that is important, and in the example of:

They keep their friends close to themselves and their enemies closer.
They keep their friends close to them and their enemies closer.

I'd say that the former is more correct than the latter.
I have no references for this, however, and I'm not sure where I would look. Is this a question of style, or grammar? Is there any authoritative reference for this? Is there an informative Google ngram search that would lean one way or the other?


texts: Which is correct: "The facts are known by us" or "The facts are known to us"?

texts:
Which is correct?

  The facts are known by us

or

  The facts are known to us

I think by is correct but my friends persist that it's to.


texts: What do we call the person who is doing small business?

texts: If a person is earning 5000 rupees monthly in a business, then can we call him a businessman? What are the words we use for different earners earning from hundreds to millions of rupees in a  business.If a person is running a shop (selling snacks and homemade items), then what do we call that person? Is it a kind of a business or not? and If a person is selling the same items on the road, can we call him a businessman?


texts: What does President Obama’s phrase “We don’t need to spike the football” mean?

texts:
President Obama made the following statement regarding his decision not to show dead body of Osama bin Laden to the public:

  "I think that Americans and people around the world are glad that he is gone. But we don’t need to spike the football. And I think that given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk."

By following the definition of the word, “spike the ball” by SportsDefinitions.com – "The quarterback throws the ball straight to the ground instantly after a snap" - I can vaguely guess what the president meant by the line, “We don’t need to spike the football.” But I would like to know exact meaning of this phrase. Can somebody put it in more forthright expression?


texts: What word or phrase describes a person whose role in a social group is to make others look good?

texts:
I'm thinking of a person who is accepted as part of a social group despite being annoying, awkward, slow, or otherwise undesirable. As a trope, this person tends to fall victim to the whims of others in the group, often serving as a scapegoat, a punching bag, or a prop in an unfavorable comparison with someone else in the group.

I like punching bag but I'm wondering if there's something that more specifically references that this person is accepted for the fact that they make everyone else look good.


texts:
Should we say industry problems or industrial problems?

Which is incorrect? or maybe each of them has specific meaning, then what is that meaning?

I myself think the "industry problems" means the problems occurred in the industry
, and the "industrial problems" means problems which are related to industry.


texts:
Is this the best way to conjugate "cheerlead"?

  they cheerleaded for it just the same

"Cheerlead" becomes unrecognizable when you say "they cheerled", so I'm guessing this is why you don't conjugate it like "lead", but I cannot find any references that include conjugation of the verb. This is not the same issue as found here, since it's not about the placement of the suffix, but rather the choice of suffix.

EDIT:
I think @KristinaLopez is correct, if you're speaking about literal cheerleaders, although the context here is more figurative, casting the media as "cheerleaders". If you say the media "cheered", it doesn't have the same connotation of "leading the cheering for". I suppose though "cheered" still is correct in that case, and you'd need to recast the sentence to get the word "cheerleader" into it, such as:

  ..., and yet they acted as cheerleaders for it just the same


texts: Changing the order of that clause and prepositional phrase

texts:
I can say that the world will end with confidence.
  I can say with confidence that the world will end.

I know that people would avoid to say the first sentence, but it is highly unlikely that someone would interpret it as saying "with confidence, world will end". So here comes the question. It is possible to say both of those sentences, but I don't know why we can shift the "that clause". Does it work in the same way as "heavy noun phrase shift"? Or is it because this that clause is used as a noun being an object?

Here is my assumption.

3."I can say that the world will end."

4."I can say with confidence."

Both sentences work greatly without a that clause for the fourth sentence and without the prepositional phrase, "with confidence," for the third sentence. Thus I am assuming that changing the order of these two, that clause and prepositional phrase, is possible since we can delete one of them and still make sense, which makes changing order of those two do not matter at all. Is my assumption correct? If not, please tell me why it is grammatically and idiomatically correct to shift it around.

Thank you.


texts:
What other terms or expressions can be used to say "wake up", either slang or not?

I have read about "quake up", but as English is not my natural language I am not sure of how used is this expression.

Can you list other expressions?


texts: Sentences that do not contain the classic subject and predicate structure

texts:
I understand the classic definition of a sentence is one that contains a predicate and a subject, but is it okay to have shorter sentences that don't follow this structure for effect?

For example, if I was to write something like the following:

  Inside was something ancient. Something powerful. Something mysterious. Something that...

I realize I could put the 'Something ancient' and 'Something mysterious' between commas, but would it be okay to use them as stated (between periods) for a kind of more dramatic effect even though they don't fit the classic definition of a full sentence?


texts:
An obvious communicator assumes that the listener is unaware of background information or related issues, and therefore provides them in the advertisement.
Its goal will be to create a positive mood or feeling about the product. As a result, movie stars and celebrities often appear in advertisements to create these kinds of moods.

Can we use pronoun 'them' to indicate 'background information or related issues' as in sentence 1?

Can we use demonstrative adjective 'these' to indicate 'a positive mood or feeling about the product' as in sentence 2?

Since the subject 'A or B' takes a singular verb form in terms of subject verb agreement, I thought matching pronoun/demonstrative adjective of 'A or B' should be a singular one, too. However, obviously, I found many examples where 'A or B' takes a plural pronoun/demonstrative adjective.

In addition, in case of 'A or B + verb', when both A and B are plural nouns, do we still use a singular verb? How about when only one of them is a singular noun?


texts:
As I know, the word "there" has been used as an adverb a lot.

But it's also a noun. Not only can you say "What are you doing there?" but "What are you doing in there?" also works. But what about "at there"?

I was checking some homework from a few kids in my work.
There was this question: What did he get at the supermarket?

Nearly all the kids wrote "He got some apples at there."
I've never heard people say that, but I'm not quite sure if it's grammatically correct but people just don't say it, or it's just ungrammatical.


texts: Why does "don't have a cow" mean "chill out" or "calm down" in American English?

texts:
I am just unable to understand why "don't have a cow" can mean "don't panic".

What is the origin of this expression?

What's more, If someone is getting flurried, can I say "he is having a cow"?


texts:
I have the impression that the word "survivor" can be used in English in a rather loose sense, that is: to express the state of someone who has lived through a difficult, but not directly life-threatening, situation.

Here's an example I found today: "[Her fans] bought 85m copies of her ten novels in more than 50 languages because they loved how her heroines were survivors, not only of incest or sexual abuse, but of being fat, looked down upon, left out."

In French, my native language, using the word "survivant" in this situation simply wouldn't work because the heroines weren't directly threatened by a serial killer, a serious illness or a plane crash. So I'm curious to read  your opinion the truth about the breadth of the meaning of "survivor" in English.


texts: Why use the prep "to", why not others like "of" in the following sentence?

texts: There are three fundamental parts to the <locale> header.


texts: Usage of indefinite article: "thanks for showing an interest in me" or "thanks for showing interest in me"

texts:
Though I am not sure, I believe the noun "interest" is uncountable, hence using an indefinite article before that must be incorrect, yet it sounds so weird without it.
Which one is correct? My limited knowledge leads me to the latter, however, my ears lead me to the first one.

Happy Holidays,


texts:
I am wondering if saying "tune to this music" would make sense?
Guitars can be tuned to particular note, can people tune to song, or music, or idea?

Google doesn't return many results for "tune to" so I guess it sounds strange, but I found a song "Tune to the Music" by Status Quo.
I am asking this question because I am looking for a name for new web site related to music and songs and tune-to also came to my mind.


texts: Is this sentence correct? - "Every one of them could not solve it."

texts:
Thank you for checking out my question.
Even though I asked a similar question earlier, another confounding issue showed up here.

Is this sentence grammatically correct or, at least, acceptable?

  Every one of them could not solve it.

I know that it should rather be written like;

  None of them could solve it.

However, I failed to clearly point out what is wrong with this sentence.
I would be delighted so much if you kindly give advice to me.

Thank you so much for your time!


texts: The usage of "and" & "or" in negative sentences

texts:
Is is grammatically okay to say?

I can't do this and that

My colleague persists that when you negate the verb, you can't use 'and' and it should be either;

I can't do this or that

or

I can neither do this nor that

This doesn't sound substantial to me. I've tried googling, but there weren't any thread that specifically discusses this. Either it's pretty much rudimentary and usage of 'and' is completely okay, or I'm going to learn something new.

Please share some insights.


texts: Does this require a question mark, comma, or dash?

texts:
Which do you prefer? Apples or oranges?

Which do you prefer, apples or oranges?

Which do you prefer—apples or oranges?


texts:
How can I make the bold part of this sentence less awful?

  The symbolic regression problem is the problem of finding a closed form that models...

You can move around the second part of the sentence, but not modify it.


texts:
Python, along with its related packages

numpy
scipy

is / are  used to make the statistical analysis.

What should it be, is or are ? I was pretty confident it would be is. But someone more knowledgeable to me made the correction and changed it to are. Thus came the doubt.

It should be similar to the usage of with, I guess.

Hope, this isn't a duplicate. I searched and did not find.


texts:
Ryan et al. (2005) added that in-depth assessment of the family was important, and this could be best achieved by considering all points of view and by exploring a broad range of family functions, including how they had been communicating, solving problems, allocating roles and responsibilities, engaging emotionally with each other, and setting rules and expectations (as cited in Keitner, 2005).

or

Ryan et al. (2005) added that in-depth assessment of the family is important, and this is best achieved by considering all points of view and by exploring a broad range of family functions, including how they communicate, solve problems, allocate roles and responsibilities, engage emotionally with each other, and set rules and expectations (as cited in Keitner, 2005).


texts:
A sentence from my reference book is

  He can't adapt himself to being free again.

Why is being used instead of be? Isn't verb form and not verb + ing form used after to?


texts:
I'm looking for an English equivalent to the German "Einen Tod muss man sterben" ("One has to die one death"). As far as I know the literal translation is not in use.

It refers to a situation in which there are several options, but all of them include an unavoidable, very adverse component. This adverse factor is so inherent to the situation that it is compared to death, which is an unavoidable part of life - one may just chose which kind of death one wants to die.


texts: Is the American Revolutionary War an example of civil disobedience?

texts:
I am involved in an argument with a friend about the meaning of civil disobedience. The question is whether or not the American Revolution involved civil disobedience. To clarify, this does not refer to the events leading up to the revolution, but the actual fighting. The argument against the use of civil disobedience is that it usually refers to nonviolence. The argument for its use is that it does not always have to refer to nonviolence. A source for this view is this article.

Is it be correct to use civil disobedience to refer to the violent parts of the Revolutionary War?


texts:
Extending this question: "Criteria" versus "criterion"

What is the difference between "criterion" (singl, noun) and "criterium" (singl, noun) ?


texts: What does the phrase 'make the girls tick' mean?

texts:
I read the following phrase in a dating book.

  find out who they are and what made them tick?

What does the phrase make the girls tick mean?


texts: What is the simple subject in "Is that my bike"?

texts:
Is that my bike?

I'm not sure if the simple subject is that or bike.


texts:
I came across this paragraph on the web:

  The leather craftsman blogger that Bob reached out to was so enthused about the iPhone case, that he asked Bob if he could do a giveaway. Contestant entrants emailed him (so Bob could add them to his newsletter list), and the winner received a free iPhone case with custom engraving.

Does the 'he' in "if he could do a giveaway" mean Bob or the blogger?


texts:
Previously I asked a question concerning a statement written by Jack London in White Fang:

To antithesis was due his naming.

The answer I received satisfied my qualms with regards to its meaning, however I still feel unsettled in regards to its grammatical validity.
My question: Is the inverted structure of London's sentence grammatically valid.
In his answer, Peter Shor provided a helpful rephrasing of London's statement, via un-inverting it:

His naming was due to antithesis

which although helpful in providing a sentence from which its meaning is easier to identify, I would still like further clarification in how the original statement works. To myself, intuitively the statement doesn't appear to work, because, with respect to Peter Shor's rephrasing, 'To antithesis' was transplanted to the beginning rather than just 'antithesis' alone. Thus to me, the inverted sentence should have been:

Antithesis, was due to his naming.

If you want more information regarding my thought process, below are the inverted permutations which I feel 'work':
(1) Those that I'm confident are grammatically valid:

Due to antithesis, his naming was.

Due to antithesis was his naming.

And (2) Those that I'm uncertain whether they are grammatically valid:

Antithesis, his naming was due to

Due to his naming, was antithesis


texts: "Baby is creeping" vs. "baby is crawling" in AmE

texts:
Years and years ago, I remember reading in a book on AmE usage that the phrasal turn a baby creeps before it walks was to some extent more common to AmE than to BrE, which preferred exclusively the "crawl" version.

And so, I just recently checked on the accuracy of that information on NGram Viewer, and it actually was fact...more than a century ago!

What I would like you to tell is if it would sound sort of weird to hear someone say today in the US that a child "creeps" before walking and running (see Synonyms) rather than it crawls.

Also, what's the story to those terms? How did "to crawl" come to prevail and supersede "to creep" to describe the way a baby moves around?

As with a plant, so with a child. His mind grows by natural stages. A child creeps before he walks, sits before he stands, cries before he laughs, babbles before he talks, draws a circle before he draws a square, lies before he tells the truth, and is selfish before he is altruistic. Such sequences are part of the order of Nature... Every child, therefore, has a unique pattern of growth, but that pattern is a variant of a basic ground plan. (Bigge & Hunt, 1962, p. 166)

My impression is that "to creep" instead of "to crawl" for how a baby moves around might have made a lot of sense in the old days if you consider the way babies were dressed back then. Think also of Swee'Pea's outfit in Popeye the Sailorman cartoons.

Besides, here is a article I just found on Parent.com, which asserts a difference between saying "to creep" and "to crawl."


texts: "Oestrogen" and "oesophagus" -- why are they spelled differently in British English?

texts: Within Biology, there are some biological terms that differ in spelling between the British English and American English dictionaries. For example, oestrogen and oesophagus, as well as the word oestriol are all spelled differently in British English dictionaries. Is there anything in particular that makes this so?


texts: "It is to be discussed", what is the infinitive doing in this sentence?

texts:
It is to be discussed.

Is be + infinitive forming the future tense here?

  You are to be dressed and ready by 8:00.

I was thinking it's almost commanding (or speaking of a command) but this doesn't seem to be the case, as sentences like this are commanding without this structure:

  You will be dressed and ready by 8:00.

or

  You are going to be dressed and ready by 8:00.

And there's sentences like this that don't imply commandment in any way:

  I am to go home tomorrow!

or

  I am to be home tomorrow!

(Slightly different meaning, same general sentiment)

So what's going on with the be + infinitive structure?


texts: "to argue a view": Is this correct and common?

texts:
Is the phrase "they argue different views" acceptable?
When I google the phrase "argue a view" with quotations, I found relatively small number of results and some of them had a clause after "view" (e.g. They argue the view is not correct.), which I believe to be a correct usage.

But at the same time, I did find a phrase Can you argue a view that is not your own?, where the verb "argue" takes "view" as its object.
So, my question is "is it ungrammatical/semantically unacceptable/very uncommon for the verb to argue to take view as its object, or is it totally fine?"


texts: What is the function of MIGHT , HELP and LEAVE here?

texts:
What are the functions of the following verbs in this sentence?

  It might help leave a better impression?

Is might a modal? How about help? leave?


texts: Author(s) last name(s) (to use possesive or not)

texts:
I am translating a text and the result is the following:
author's last name(s)
and
authors' last name(s)
how do I state that both a single author's last name(s) and that multiple authors' last name(s) are to be stated...in the simplest way possible?
I thought of this but it looks horrible:
author(s')'s last name(s)


texts: Difference between "had + past" and "would have + past"?

texts:
Is there any difference between these two statements? When should each be used?

  I thought you had slept.
  I thought you would have slept.


texts: Past perfect and perfect continuous: a difference in meaning?

texts:
The pavement was wet, it had been raining.
  The pavement was wet, it had rained.

What's the difference?


texts: Word for someone who is more than a friend

texts: What word could I use to define someone who is not kin to me but I regard to be better than a friend?


texts: A word for breathable in the spirit of potable and edible

texts: What would be the appropriate choice to use instead of breathable in line of edible and potable?


texts:
I got a email from my lecturer saying

  You have over-ridden the design document with a progress report.

What does this mean?


texts: Word meaning “based on outward appearance”

texts:
There is a word, on the tip of my tongue...

An adjective I think.  It means something to the effect of “based on outward appearances only, but doesn’t necessarily represent the true nature.”

“__________, Tony was a nice guy.  Sally didn’t know he moonlighted as an axe murderer.”


texts: Let's say there is an expense, and it's shared between a number of people. What do you call the person who has a share in that expense? Sharer?


texts: What does ‘Adjusts playbook with a pencil, not a sharpie’ mean?

texts:
I was puzzled to find the headline – ‘D’Antoni Adjusts Playbook with a Pencil, Not a Sharpie’ in the sport article in today’s New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/sport/basketball ).

Although I understand ‘a pencil, not sharpie’ is a figurative expression comparing metal cylinder sharpie to wood pencil, what does it exactly mean? Adjust his hard style to softer style?
Is ‘Adjusts playbook with a pencil, not a sharpie’ a kind of cliché?

The headline is followed by the following sentence:

  Mike D’Antoni is fighting against perceptions, resisting his impulses and wrestling with his playbook.
  For years, D’Antoni cultivated an image and an offense based on speed and small lineups, constant movement and contrarian thinking. In Phoenix, that offense produced 60-win seasons and deep playoff runs. In New York, it re-energized a moribund franchise. But circumstances have changed, drastically.


texts: Can anyone explain this word to me? I found it in Robert Byron's book 'The road to Oxiana'.


texts: Does "Pursue Impossible" Make Grammatical Sense?

texts:
My university recently pushed a campaign for their new rebrand, and their tagline is "Pursue Impossible". I have seen a few adjectives used as nouns before but all had a definite article in front.

Surely my university isn't so stupid so as to make such an elementary grammatical mistake, so I ask if there is any way in which this tagline makes grammatical sense?

Either by some hidden rule, archaic form, or otherwise.

Here's the campaign too if it helps shed light


texts: is this the right phrasing for designation in email or letter

texts:
My signature in all my official emails & letters state my designation as

  Sr.Digital Marketing  Executive.

One of my work colleagues told me its wrong & change it to

  Sr.executive digital marketing

I am confused as to how I should state my designation -

  Sr.Digital Marketing Executive

or

  Sr. Executive Digital Marketing

which one would be appropriate? - according to me its the first one which states sr.dgm exec


texts: What is the purpose of using the word "why" in "why, thank you"?

texts:
I sometimes have heard somebody replying with Why, thank you. instead of Thank you.

What is the meaning of the first phrase? What is the difference between the two phrases?


texts: An Article before nouns for definition, when to omit?

texts:
I am confused about when to omit an article before a noun for definition.

E.g., we would say "Today is Monday" but "He is an office boy"

Is it also correct to say "he is office boy"?


texts: English equivalent for "easily blaming the person you dislike"

texts:
In Malayalam/Indian, there's a saying "Istam illatha achi thottath ellam kuttam". It literally translates to:

  You find fault with anything done by a woman you don't like.

It means that if there is someone you dislike, you are eager to find their faults or flaws.

What's the equivalent expression in English?

EDIT:
I already know about prejudice, but I'm looking for something more than one word, some expression/idiom commonly used.


texts:
I am trying to express credit earned toward a total number of points, and I'm considering two ways to write it in the case where full credit is only one point:

X of 1 points
X of 1 point

My opinion is that the first one sounds more correct, but I'm not sure.

I am using these standalone to display as titles over something and it is possible to get a fractional amount of points.

Would it make a difference what the first number is? For example, if they get full credit would it be "1 of 1 Point" but otherwise it's (for example) ".5 of 1 Points"?

I should make note that full credit isn't always worth one point and the actual number of points it is worth is important to make known (since it can be different for each question) so the total points has to be there.


texts: How to write an email to a Professor to politely agree with his request?

texts:
Sometimes, my supervisor writes emails to ask whether we can cancel or reschedule our meetings, or request me other things. The way he writes emails is very polite. And I usually reply him by:

Yes, sure!
Yes, it's fine!

I wonder if these responses are considered polite?

How do I politely (but not really formally) respond to my Professors' requests?

Thank you very much!


texts:
Here is the sentence:

  "The goal of my position is to have as wild of bears as possible in this park"

What does "wild of bears" mean?

I know the form "as [adjective/adverb] as possible" like in "as soon as possible" and "as clean as possible".

But it seems neither forms apply to the quote above.

What I intuitively understood from context is that "the more wild and less habituated to humans the bears are, the better".

But I would have a deeper understanding if someone could provide more examples of expressions in form as ... of ... as possible.

Thanks!


texts:
Is it acceptably formal to use "sheds light on" in a sentence? For example:

  This sheds light on the matter in hand.


texts: What is the modern equivalent of "scoundrel"?

texts:
Someone who deliberately sets someone up. Some of whose actions can be described as "a dick move." Someone who habitually commits base acts that hurt other people. Someone whom one would not trust if one knew them.

Scoundrel no longer has the same ring it did a century ago.

Asshole is way too general a term.


texts:
The audio clips at ODO do not vocalise any sound resembling a 't', and the IPA contains no 't':

  BrE /ˈkrɪsn/ ;   NAmE /ˈkrɪsn/

The 't' in 'christen' and 'hasten' (mooted by this comment in a deleted question),
was it ever pronounced?

What formal linguistic concepts or terms describe this phenomenon? I read this (Why is the 't' in 'nextdoor neighbour' usually silent?...) and this (Why does English spelling use silent letters?).


texts: What does a quantum mechanics magician do?

texts:
Thousands of years ago a coppersmith was a magician doing stuff most couldn't fathom, a few decades ago a computer programmer was a magician doing stuff most couldn't fathom.

If a quantum mechanical magician made a lead bar into a gold bar, in addition to performing his magic, was he applying quantum mechanics or utilizising quantum mechanics? I assume employing quantum mechanics is out of the question.

English is not my native tongue, so feel free to correct my wording or spelling or tagging.


texts: What makes you think I would just run away?

texts:
In Lost Dasmond talks to his future father in law and tells him the following:

  What makes you think that I would run away.

I was wondering what tense it was and why 'would' not 'will'?


texts: "the following photo is the photo of" or "the following is the photo of..."

texts:
Is it common in English to use one word twice, for instance, is it true to say:
"the following photo is the photo of our previous home"
or is it better to use the sentence below :
"the following is the photo of our previous home"
Thank you in advance


texts:
In Norwegian we use an expression which in direct translation means:

  to swear in church

The expression is used in a situation where you give your opinion that is totally outrageous in the eyes of the people you are talking/writing to.

Is there a similar expression in English?


texts: Archaic phrase similar to "not give a damn"

texts:
I'm looking for a phrase that would mean

  I don't give a damn about it

but could be used by a girl in the 1930s. It needs it to be very informal but not vulgar.


texts: Why does "theatre" mean both a place for performances and also a military location?

texts:
The most common and widely used meaning of the word theatre is (from The Free Dictionary):

  a building designed for the performance of plays, operas, etc

Why then can it also mean (as one of its other meanings):

  a major area of military activity

(as in "the European theatre of WW2")

War is in no way an act or performance (performing surgery in an operating theatre still fits) so why is "theatre" used in a military sense?

The etymology is:

  from Latin theātrum, from Greek theatron place for viewing, from theasthai to look at; related to Greek thauma miracle

This fits the performance theatre definition but does not help with the military meaning.


texts:
I want to say that the chip carrier is like the cover of the chip and that it also provides "surface mount", where surface mount is a technical term that means that the chip carrier facilitates the mounting of the chip on the surface of boards.

My sentence:

Chip carrier is a technology package that is used in integrated circuits as a surface mount which implies that it is placed on boards.

I am not sure whether the word implies is the most appropriate word to express that I am going to say the definition of the "surface mount", I am also not sure about structure of the overall sentence.


texts: Starting a sentence with 'About your question, ...'

texts:
I have noticed myself often starting a sentence like this:

  About your drawing question, I don't think there is an easy way to draw these shapes.

Is it formal to start a sentence that way (formal in the sense of writing it in emails sent by students to a faculty member or adviser)? And do you end it with a comma or a semi-colon?

How does it compare to:

  Regarding your drawing question, I don't think...


texts: Is there a term for someone who "can see multiple perspectives"?

texts:
A colleague of mine is trying to describe herself as "capable of seeing a situation from multiple perspectives" or "able to look at the big picture from various viewpoints". I feel like there must be a better way to get this point across.

Is there a more concise way to describe this characteristic?


texts: Why is the verb form of "record" pronounced [ri-kawrd] but the noun form is pronounced [rek-erd]?

texts:
Is there a different origin of pronunciation style for record as a verb and as a noun?

Fun fact: in OS X, if you type say "this record" and say "record this" — the text to speech system picks up the difference. Impressive.


texts: "What need is there to ..." vs "Is there a need to ..."

texts:
Is a question that starts with "What need is there to" grammatically correct?
For example:

What need is there to tell a lie just to make a joke?

If so, is there a difference in meaning or nuance between that clause and "Is there a need to"?

What need is there to tell a lie just to make a joke?
Is there a need to tell a lie just to make a joke?


texts: Meaning of "bloody" in "Full Bloody Italian"

texts:
I have once seen somebody in a chat expanding FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) as Full Bloody Italian, after I said I was from Italy.

While I can understand to what the person who wrote it was referring, I don't understand what bloody would mean in the phrase.

What does full bloody mean in full bloody Italian?
Should blooded be used instead of bloody, in this case?
Would full blooded Italian be understood as who completely has Italian blood?


texts: Plural or singular when being asked "what's the unit of a number"

texts:
Example 1: "What's the common measuring unit of the speed of a car in the United States?"
Do we say "It's mile per hour" or "It's miles per hour"?

Example 2: "Please enter the degrees of the angle:" as the text for an input field. Is it okay to say "Please enter the degree of the angle" too?

Example 3: "Angle (degrees)". Also a text for an input field. Should we write "Angle (degree)" instead?

This is NOT a question asking whether units are singular or plural following a number. That has been already well answered here.

One of the answers in the link mentioned that "All of the units are inherently plural". If this is true, we should say the unit for speed in the metric system is "meters per hour" instead of "meter per hour". Since this is a single answer and it doesn't have any reference, I'm not sure if it's correct. Even if it's true, why "m/s" then?


texts:
What's the difference between absolutely and definitely? Actually which of the following sentences is correct?

  You are definitely right.

  You are absolutely right.


texts: 'I have a little pin that says..' Is this literal or metaphorical

texts:
Is the sentence :

  “I have a little pin that says I didn't miss school for nine years.”

to be taken as being metaphorical, that I unnderstand the sentence to say something like “I am quite sure of the fact that I haven't missed school for nine years  ...”, or am I supposed to take this sentence literally, that this person actually received a little pin, maybe to put on his clothing, on which is printed (in small font) that he didn’t miss school for nine years?


texts: How to call a so-called helper spelling to help reading a word?

texts:
Using words below as example:

team /tiːm/
head /ˈhed/
eat  /ēt/

The common syllable ea sound cannot always be pronounced consistently the same sound in English language. It differs per word. That's why there are e.g. tiːm , ˈhed or ēt coming along side in place to help us learn how to pronounce a word. In this question I call them helper spelling because I do not know how to call them.

How to call such a word, e.g. tiːm, ˈhed, ēt?

To help express my question: team is a word and what is tiːm?

How to call such a syllable,  e.g. ə, i:, ē?

To help express my question: ea is a vowel sound and what is iː?

I want to find a list of such syllables e.g. ə, i:, ē so that I know how to pronounce a new word which I've never heard before e.g.

  Write          Read
  ---------------------------
  consistent     kənˈsistənt
  confluence    ˈkänˌflo͞oəns

I do understand that Google Translate can help you read words but it cannot give  you knowledge related to above questions and I would to gain that knowledge.


texts:
Which word is most apt to state that there is a (abstract but definite) border which defines the difference between two religions, philosophies or faiths? Is it limit, border or boundary?
For example: to accept full responsibility for one's own acts as opposed to considering these (more or less) as a manifestation of the will of God (Allah, or another Supreme Being) can be considered as a defining difference between Humanism (or a humanistic trait in a religion) versus a strict adherence to an orthodox religion. Is this discerning difference of conviction a limit,border or boundary? I am grateful for all views.


texts: Is the term hanger or coat hanger used more often in colloquial speech in American English? I'm afraid Google Ngram is of no help here, as the first word has several meanings, plus we are talking about colloquial speech here.


texts: “There’s a horse running a pal of mine owns a leg of”

texts:
What does the sentence in bold mean? It from the movie 'Poirot':

  Poirot: And you, Hastings, do not you run away with such celerity. I have work for you too.

  Hastings: Oh! Er... As a matter of fact, I was thinking of popping down to Sandown this afternoon ... There's a horse running a pal of mine owns a leg of.

  Poirot: When he owns four legs, I pop with you. But now it's time for work, yes?

Source

I am confused. What does Hastings mean? How can a horse run a person (a pal of mine)?


texts: Is it correct to say: "I would do something, be it me"?

texts: I mean that "I would do something, if it only were me. But it was not me, so I've done nothing".


texts: What's the difference between "I did eat" and "I ate"?

texts:
In short, what is the difference between the following sentences?

I did eat my lunch an hour ago.
I ate my lunch an hour ago.

They both are past tense.
Honestly, I'm confused between them.


texts: Why is "herself" required in this particular sentence?

texts:
Why is a reflexive pronoun, i.e. herself, grammatically required in the following sentence?

  I gave Susie a picture of herself.

Compare with:

  I gave Susie a picture of her.

This sentence doesn't seem to be able to mean I gave Susie a picture of Susie. It means I gave her a picture of someone else.

I've looked at the following page, but this type of usage doesn't seem to be covered there:

  When is it correct to use “yourself” and “myself” (versus “you” and “me”)?

The answers there suggest that we use reflexive pronouns when the subject and object of the verb are the same entity. Herself isn't an object in the example above, and Susie is not a subject either. The syntax in this example seems to be entirely different.

Also, why is the following sentence not grammatical?

  I went there by me.

... as opposed to:

  I went there by myself.

This last example, of course, is perfectly fine. So the question here is why does this so-called 'idiomatic usage' contain a reflexive instead of a normal pronoun.

Lastly, why is a reflexive required  in this imperative?

  Do it yourself.

Compare with:

  Do it you.

Note that yourself isn't an object in that first sentence. (It would be if the sentence was Watch yourself, for example. The object in the example, however, is it.)

What then are the grammatical rules that stipulate the use of reflexive pronouns in these examples?

Edit note

I've changed the order of the examples here to take the focus off the probable emphatic usage in the imperative (although I'm still interested in the grammar here). I've also added a third example, which highlights more clearly the two issues I am most interested in hearing about:

Examples where we need a reflexive pronoun, but the pronoun isn't the object of a verb.
Examples, where the antecedent, the original person or thing that the reflexive is duplicating,  is not the subject of a verb.

Any answers with relevant observations and or research would be very gratefully received, whether they address the whole question, or just parts of it.

Observations about the imperative example

Although I'm most concerned with the photograph example, I hereby offer some observations about the imperative one. Some of the interesting comments below suggest that yourself here is an emphatic version of you. As RegEdit's answer points out, the example with yourself seems to be contrastive. The sentence with you, on the other hand, does not give the same reading. I wonder why that is?

I note in passing that yourself seems to be an adjunct ('adverbial') here. This makes it different from another emphatic use of pronouns, which is when a pronoun appears as the subject of an imperative:

You do it!

I originally gave the imperative example for two reasons. Firstly, the reflexive pronoun here is obviously not the object of the verb. Secondly, however, I gave it because there is no antecedent word in this sentence which could be the subject of the verb, or, which represents the same person as yourself. I am curious as to whether the rules requiring reflexive pronouns in emphatic usages, are basically the same ones that require us to use them the rest of the time. In other words, I return to my original question: Why is  a reflexive pronoun required in this case?


texts: Should "ate" and "eight" be pronounced exactly alike?

texts: Is pronouncing "ate" and "eight" differently wrong? When I say "ate" it sounds like "ate" itself and when I say "eight" it sounds like "ey-ht" is that a wrong pronunciation?  I understand pronunciation may differ from one person to another depending on the accent spoken by the person. But one of my friends told me that ate and eight must be pronounced exactly alike and if you're pronouncing them differently you are pronouncing one of the two words wrong.


texts:
Today I came across the following phrase:

  He couldn't have put it better, when he said: "..."

But why does it require perfect tense? Can it be replaced with simple tense instead?

  He couldn't put it better, when he said: "..."

For me it sounds like these two actions (put and said) happened at the same point in the past (i.e. simple) - why perfect then?


texts: Is there a social class shift in "raff" to "raffish"?

texts:
I have just watched a historical documentary on the life of Edward VII in which it is explained how the heir to Queen Victoria, both as Prince Of Wales and later as King had been a quintessential exemplar of the raffish mood of the late nineteenth century.

The OED examples of raffish indicate that it is people like James Bond who are raffish.

  1906   Bookman Oct. 179/2   One's attention is riveted upon Jessie
  Incell, a woman reporter, for she inevitably invites comparison with
  Nancy Olden, the somewhat raffish heroine of In the Bishop's Carriage.

  1937   Harper's Mag. June 101/1   The raffish, free-for-all girl finds
  a devoted husband.

  1958   Spectator 27 June 831/2   [He] displayed a certain raffish
  elegance in his long, dark jacket and dog-tooth trousers.

  1989   Observer 3 Sept. (Colour Suppl.) 24/1   Sag Harbor has a more
  raffish, agreeable, even faintly Bohemian air.

  1997   Daily Tel. 27 June 21/1   In a James Bondish sort of way,..[he]
  combines a raffish charm and an aristocratic sang-froid.

However the etymology of raffish has it that it was formed within English from raff - as in riff-raff.

  Etymology:  Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: raff n.3,
  -ish suffix1

Now the riff-raff quite clearly are not the sort of people who would tend to early-twentieth century raffish behaviour such as that indulged in by Edward VII - visits to the high-class brothels of Paris, the gambling casinos of Monte Carlo and Biarritz, high class courtesans, massive overindulgence in fine food, elegant drinking, trade-mark cigars, and beautiful heiresses.

So how did raff (from riff-raff) get to raffish.


texts: Schmuck is supposedly an obscene Yiddish term for the male sex organ, yet it appears all of the time in the media as an American idiom for a jerk.  Can one use it in polite company?


texts: what is the difference between movie/film and theater?

texts:
what is difference between movie/film and theater?. Do these differences make movies "better" than theater,or simply "different"?

thank you for your answer:)))


texts: Response to "Excuse me" when some one wants to pass you

texts: It has happened to me a lot that when  I am searching for an item in aisle in a supermarket and somebody says  "excuse me" and passes me. What is a natural response to excuse myself here? What should I say?


texts: What is the origin of the term 'pixie cut'?

texts:
Specifically, how did the connection between short hair and pixies form? All old pictures of pixies depict them with long, flowing hair or hats.
The oldest reference I could find was this ad in Cue: The Weekly Magazine of New York Life from 1952, which refers to Fonda Hair Stylists as the 'originator of the pixie cut'.
The Disney Peter Pan movie came out in 1953.
A lot of articles refer to Audrey Hepburn as popularizing the haircut, but I can't find any articles from the time which describe her as a 'pixie'.


texts: Single word for object that is addictive

texts:
I am looking for a single word that can be said in replacement of the activity, substance, etc. that an addict is addicted to. eg: In the case that someone is addicted to smoking cigarettes, what would the official title given to the cigarette be?

  An addict (person) is addicted  to a _____ (object).


texts:
I feel that the word personal offense is too harsh. I'm trying to find a word or phrase (preferably a word) that means offensive but more hurt. Like provoking feelings of sadness instead of anger. Like attack or assault but to a much much lower degree.

Her words were a _______ to my already bruised ego, making me feel worse.
His kind offer to show me around was a _______ to my belief that I was good at finding my way around.


texts: What is a word that captures the *desire* to empathize?

texts:
[I've checked all the single-word-requests about empathy; they mostly deal with those who lack empathy or somehow empathize "wrongly."]
Empathy is (roughly) the ability to understand another's experience, to put oneself in another's shoes.
Is there a word that captures the desire to empathize? Or the enjoyment thereof or satisfaction derived therefrom?


texts:
Can anyone please explain a bit about the meaning of the phrase "trailing clouds of glory"?
Context:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
[from William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"]


texts: I'm not a native speaker, so while learning articles came across this example from an English speaker. He just told that natives discern them and one of them sounds "cooler". Could anybody explain, please, if you see the difference...


texts:
Is it OK to use "if" at the end of a sentence? e.g. I saw a professor once saying:

They can withdraw the paper you don't go to the conference if.


texts: Why is stick/shove/etc up one's ass much more common than in/into one's ass?


texts: One word to describe "someone who made a pact"

texts:
I'm looking for the one-word equivalent to the german word "Paktierer".

  "to do a deal with so."

In relation to making a deal with the devil / making a deal with a demon (or perhaps other similar entities). It would translate to: "A person who made a deal with the devil / a demon."

We use the term frequently while playing DSA (The Dark Eye, german RPG) and I always wondered about a good english equivalent. The word should be usable to describe a person: "Bob is a X".


texts: What do you call somebody who is constantly up-to-date with the latest news?

texts: A term for an individual who is always aware and knowledgeable of news (international, political, trades, etc.)


texts: The quote "keep looking up, that's the secret of life" is a statement or command?

texts: how to classify this sentence, cause while it start out as a command, the intent is to state that "the secret of life is to keep looking up", so what is the correct way to classify that sentence.


texts: Word meaning doing something just cause you can or have the abilitity to do it

texts:
I'm looking for a word that describes the act of doing something without a real logical reason but just because they can. A example of what I'm talking about would be like this:

  The boy hacked the Pentagon just because he could. He didn't steal anything and he didn't want the attention; he just wanted to proclaim his own self-dignity.

What would you call someone like that or the act of doing something like that?


texts: Where does the idiom "beating around the bush" come from?


texts: English books reading complexity ratings

texts:
Is there some rating for book regarding how hard they are to read for foreigners? Or the way to figure out how more difficult is book A than book B? I have begun reading "All The King's Men" and finding it a bit difficult to read, not something incredible but I have found about 30 new words from the very beginning during about 2-3 pages.

How do I choose the level of a book that is not too easy and that will let me learn more new words and more advanced English?


texts: Prepositional phrases - adverbial vs. adjectival

texts:
I have a question about a prepositional phrase.

-Don't throw the cigarette butts away in the trash bin.

-Make sure to throw away all the paper on the floor.

Both of two sentences have the same verb and the same prepositional phrase.

However, the latter prepositional phrase is an adjectival one - paper which is on the floor, while the former one is an adverbial one - put them in the trash bin, not in the other places. Right?

What made this difference? I wonder if there is any possibility that the second sentence could be understood by the meaning of "Be sure to discard all the paper on the floor(not on any other places)"?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Can I use the word "sense" in this case?

texts:
I'm writing an article and I'm in doubt about the sentence below. Basically, uncanny valley "is a hypothesized relationship between the degree of an object's resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to such an object" (taken from Wikipedia). I decided to use the word "sense" after it, but I don't know if it works well after an established term like that, or if it sounds too casual. What do you say?

"Developers try to make facial animations look real without eliciting that uncanny valley sense."


texts: When to use attributive nouns vs. deverbal adjectives

texts:
I'm not sure if I have the title correct, but I am trying to figure out how to determine whether to use a noun form as an adjective or a verb form as an adjective.

For example:

1) Is it an extension leg or an extending leg?

2) Is it a stabilization wing or a stabilizing wing?

Is this a case-by-case thing? Does it depend upon context? I'm hoping somebody can point me in the right direction. Thanks!


texts:
I've written a short story for my English class. One sentence I wrote begins with:

  A fearful pathos overwhelmed [her]...

Someone reading the story very annoyingly marked the word "pathos" with a bunch of question marks:

?p¿athos??

And since they are an English teacher, I was wondering whether the above sentence actually makes sense.

I used it as to mean she had a surge of emotion (of the scared kind). To me it sounds pretty natural, but I'm not sure if the word "pathos" can be used in this way.

Not to mention my use of the word fearful. Surely you can use it to mean "related to fear", right?


texts:
This question is from a diagnostic test of one ESL school in Bangkok.

  Ann wonders how much time she has to work on her assigned project. Her teacher says, “No need to hurry yet ________”

  a) You hit the big team.
  b) It’s night time.
  c) Take your time.
  d) In no time.

It's obvious that the best fit answer would be "Take your time." I felt the whole dialogue sounds odd, since Ann wonders "how much time," not "should I worry or hurry," thus it sounds as if Ann doesn't know the deadline yet.

I did the test since I was considering sending my niece to learn English there. But the test gave me a second thought. (And not to mention the missing of a period after the word "yet.")

My question here is, would a native find the dialogue unnatural?


texts: Is "fished" a transitive verb in "I fished around in my pocket for my keys"?

texts:
In English it doesn't sound natural to say "I fished a fish." You would say "I caught a fish." However, in the instances where I can think of using fish as a verb, it must take a preposition (around, for, in, about).

  I went fishing in the lake

good

  I went fishing the lake

not good

Does "fish" act as a transitive verb? In English, is there a grammatical term for verbs that require a preposition? Can these verbs still be transitive?

I found this entry in an online dictionary, but honestly I have never heard of the verb fish taking what appears be an object. Let's fish the creek just sounds wrong to my ears.


texts:
What is the origin of the term "white supremacy"?

Online Etymology Dictionary gives this as the origin of the term:

  White supremacy attested from 1868, American English [John H. Van Evrie, M.D., "White Supremacy and Negro Subordination," New York, 1868]....

Yet OED records earlier attestation:

  The belief or theory that white people are superior to other peoples, and should therefore have greater power, authority, or status. Also: a social system based on or perpetuating the political, economic, and cultural dominance of white people.
  1824   T. S. Winn Emancipation 57   It may be too late by any means, however wisely and honestly attempted, to reduce them to order and obedience under White supremacy, or even among themselves.
  1839   H. Bevan Thirty Years India II. xviii. 299   The security of our empire in the East would be greatly strengthened if..our functionaries would abandon, or at least conceal, those notions of White supremacy, which are frequently absurd, and always offensive.

The disparity between those two sources suggests the story presented may be incomplete, and neither source delves into preceding terminology that might have helped to chart the course of the development of the term.

Who was the first person to use the term?

How has the meaning changed or developed?

In which historical periods has the term been used most often?


texts: Looking for words or phrases to fit the idea of this form of hierarchy

texts:
I'm using text as follows to categorize some information. It goes from the general to the specific much as is done in libraries with books.

languages/english/spelling
science/biology/genetics

What I'd like to find is a word to describe the line above and also each individual word. There's path like in the computing world but that doesn't quite convey the idea.


texts: Inline citation for source refrenced a second time

texts:
I'm using IEEE citation style. If information is cited from one source, then another, then again from the first how does the inline citation work?

Take the following made up example:

  Dogs make good pets[ 1 ]. Scientific studies show that dog owners get
  more exercise[ 2  ]. As long as dogs receive walks on a regular basis
  they will be well behaved[ 1 ].

Then would the works cited look like the following?

[ 1 ] J. Doe. Benefits of Dogs
[ 2 ] A. Jim. Healthy Habits

or would I have to include a [ 3 ] inline citation and add another entry to the works cited that would be identical to [ 1 ]?


texts:
Suppose for example I want to buy something, but don't have enough money on
me. If I want to come back later to get it and don't want it to be sold
before I come back, what do I say to them? Is there any way to say - "Can you
put this aside for me for a few hours till I get back?"


texts:
I know of the oxymoron, and that it means that the differences are irrelevant.
But I wonder, where did this oxymoron originate? (Where, how, etc)


texts: Is there a more detailed classification of English adjectives and their ordering?

texts:
I recently come across several particular noun phrases/compounds such as

"Automatic emergency light" (as the name of a product)
"the fourth consecutive monthly decline" (as in "Consumers paid 2.1 per cent less for food in January than they did a year earlier, the fourth consecutive monthly decline.")
"another alternative suggested order" (as in "But know that there are times when you can deviate from the order, and there is another alternative suggested order too")

My questions are that:
1/ What types of adjectives are "alternative," "consecutive," and "automatic?" They are neither opinion nor purpose adjectives, so I can't use the traditional OPSASCOMP ordering to sort them out.
2/ How do you know to add "consecutive" before "monthly"? Is it possible to write "another monthly consecutive decline"?
3/ Is there any more detailed descriptions of adjective ordering that can explain the sentences above. As far as I know the most widely known adjective order is that of OPSASCOMP.


texts:
What is the difference between preserve, protect, and defend in the following sentence, which is the Oath of office of the President of the United States:

  "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."


texts: Word/term for "the ability to affect history or make things happen"?

texts:
I'm looking for a word, but I'm not entirely sure one exists that fits exactly what I'm looking for.

The concept is "the ability to affect events" or "the ability to inexplicably make things happen."  It's a tendency for certain people to just be able to do great things, while others can never quite make them happen, even though their resources are roughly the same.

The idea was originally inspired by superhero stories: Batman has no superpowers, and yet there's something about him that makes him unstoppable, unbeatable, and eternally capable.  Other non-powered characters (like Green Arrow or Lex Luthor) may be similarly skillful or well-equipped or intelligent, and yet they just don't seem to have that thing that allows Batman to stand alongside godlike figures such as Superman.

Similarly, the Penguin is able to pull off a lot of unlikely, impressive feats and capers, but the Joker is just SO much more...  what?  That's the word I'm looking for.  It's more ephemeral than "capable," more deliberate than "lucky."  The Joker can just make things happen.  If he wants to smuggle bombs into a building under police guard, he can; if he gets thrown out of a building, he'll somehow survive.  It's like he's got a cheat code in the universe.

But it's not just fictional characters.  Modern or historical people are often thought of in a similar way, where some people just seem to be able to affect history or pull things off, inexplicably or without an easy distinction we could point to that separates them from others.

A few more examples, to give you an idea of the distinction I'm making:

It's what Winston Churchill had, that Neville Chamberlain didn't.
It's what Steve Jobs had, that Steve Wozniak didn't.
Hitler had a LOT of it, as did Alexander the Great, Osama bin Laden, Augustus Caesar, or Rasputin.
Sherlock Holmes has more of it than John Watson does, Frodo has more of it than Sam does.
The Greek Heroes (like Achilles and Hercules) had more of it than the average Greek soldier or citizen did.

Obviously these people may have had talent, charisma, intelligence, or skill that helped them, but oftentimes there's nothing we can point to and say "that's why they could do those things," it's just like the person has an aura or ability that others don't have.  In fictional/entertainment circles you might call it "star-power," or even just say "they have it."  In historical/business circles you might say "potency" or "potential."  The French phrase je ne sais quoi is often used, but that phrase literally means "I don't know what."

Does anyone know if there is a term for this quality?  I'm not saying that such a thing actually exists, in the sense of being measurable, but in the same way that people would say that someone has "the touch" or "leads a charmed life," we would say that they have incredible "_____________"?


texts: `Try doing and do` vs `Try doing and doing`

texts:
Which one is correct, possibly both?

Try reducing your query and searching again
Try reducing your query and search again


texts:
It seems to me that when used as a noun, 'day after tomorrow' is preferred with 'the.'

'The day after tomorrow is the deadline.'

But when used adverbially it is not so-prefaced.'

'I'll see you the day after tomorrow.'

After all, we don't say 'I'll see you the tomorrow' or '...the next year.'

What do you think?


texts: What is the English term for being sexually attracted to people with white teeth?


texts: What is the term or rule to describe this word order issue?

texts:
I remember reading about word order importance but when I Googled this, it's too broad. A sentence for a better example of what I'm trying to convey (but it might be too simple):

"To share the history of the legendary John Doe in North America."

John Doe isn't in North America
The purpose is "to share the history in North America" of John Doe.

I hope it implies what I'm trying to find because I cannot think of another example. I don't mean the Subject + Verb + Object examples like this:

"The chicken crossed the road” and “The road crossed the chicken", but when in my first example, either or makes sense and could be true, yet clarity is key. Sorry about this question if it's stupid.


texts: need to repeat the subject in a coordinate clause?

texts:
I'm editing a text and so far the sentence I'm working on looks like this:

They are the ones we wanted to pay tribute to, and remind people what they protested against.

The subject of "remind" is "we" ... is this clear? And also, is the sentence correct?
I wonder if I need to repeat the subject: "and we wanted to remind people..."


texts: Word(s) to describe an indirect boys club

texts:
I can't think of word(s) to describe a twitter group of people who haven't met but have an indirect familiarity with each other. I thought of clique but it doesn't seem to fit a loose indirect group.

e.g.

  John hesitated to contribute to a twitter conversation on a technology subject as reading through the conversation it felt like an exclusive boys club and he was worried his contributing could make him see like an outsider which could tarnish his public image.

Background:
I find with twitter the people who converse with each other in conversations in a technical topic use humour or snappy one liners and have this unique language of their own. They have never met each other just follow each other due to a common interest. It is similar to a boys club or exclusive club but not really as they have never met in real life but follow each other so know the unique behavior and what twitter tweets the other would engage with. A new person wanting to give his insight in a current topic of conversation might ask a logical question but because it isn't in the same style, format or historical sequence the person is treated as an outsider or twitter shunned, excluded or treated as a person not part of the group in their tweet responses.


texts: Why is "be" the only English verb that inflects for grammatical person, not just for grammatical number like all the rest of them?

texts: Why do we say “I am a teacher” instead of “I is a teacher” considering that I is a singular pronoun not a plural pronoun? Don’t singulars always take -s forms?  Why does be work differently?


texts: What's the name of the action for opening a lock with an RF card?

texts:
We're constantly bombarded with new gadgets in our everyday life. Lately, hotels are moving away from ordinary locks and towards card keys. Some of them simply slide into a small slot in the lock, while others work with radio frequency (RF) and one does not even need to slide them, one simply presents them near the lock and the door opens.

I am wondering what the correct verb for this action would be. Does one swipe them, as would be the case with a credit card? Hover, perhaps? Place over? Something else?

Thanks


texts: What is the exact equivalent to “daylight ghost’?

texts:
I came across the word, “daylight ghost” in the following sentense of the fiction titled “The Lost Order” appearing in January 7 New Yorker magazine.

  “I have not always – had not even long – been a daylight ghost, a
  layabout, a mal pensant, a vacancy, a housewife, a person foiled by
  the challenge of getting dressed and someone who considered eating
  less a valid primary goal. I hade been a fairly busy environmental
  lawer, an accidental expert of sorts in toxic-mold litigation.”

I can imagine that “daylight ghost” is the word to describe an introverted and passive woman from the following words, ‘layabout,’ 'mal pensant,’ ‘ a vacancy,’ ‘housewive.’
However, no dictionary at hand carries the word, “daylight ghost.”

I found two entries of this word in Google. One as the title of the fiction, ‘Daylight Ghost - A Memoir of War and Love’ by Janine di Giovanni, and the other as the same name title of a song of John Wesley Harding.

What does “daylight ghost” exactly mean in a word? Is it well-used English word, or did the auther of “The Lost Order” just pick up the word from such a title of books and songs?

In connection with the above quote, can I translate a ‘mal pensant’ simply as “wrong thinker”? Is there any other implications? Does this word pass as a day-to-day English word today?


texts: Transforming a sentence into passive report without using the object

texts: How do I transform the sentence "People say there has been an accident" into passive report to a "X is said to..." form without using "an accident" in the beginning? The criteria are weird and are really giving me trouble since I can't think of anything that meets them.


texts: Word/phrase to describe time of an event relative to a second event

texts:
I'm reviewing papers that discuss the relationship between exercise and cognitive testing. Specifically, I'm categorizing papers by when the exercise happened relative to the cognitive test.

For example, category 1 might be papers where the exercise and cognitive testing happened concurrently, category 2 contains papers where testing happened immediately after cessation of exercise. There are about 5 categories, each one covers a different amount of time between exercise and testing (1 hour, 1 week, 1 year etc).

What word, or short phrase, can I use to describe this type of temporal breakdown? I'd like to be able to use the word/phrase in a sentence like:

"Does the relationship between exercise and cognitive testing differ depending on < word >?"

A few words that I've considered but don't quite fit the bill:

Recency: doesn't really capture the case where exercise and testing are happening at the same time
Timescale: to me, this seems to imply something about duration rather than when the event occurred relative to another


texts:
Why do almost all words that are "able" written like:

Comparable
Disposable
Doable
Writable

Except for the word "Convertible"?

Can someone explain this to me or are there no rules tied to this?
(I was just curious).


texts: “Time” versus “Times”: When is time plural?

texts:
I have difficulty in using time and times correctly.

I understand that times may be used for some idiomatic purposes such as "at all times" or "of all times" or "some times", although sometimes it will be in singular, as in "all the time".

My concern is not really about the meanings of the particular idioms in my examples. Instead, I want to know if there is any general rule that I may refer to when I am deciding whether to use time or times, for an idiom, nouns, or likewise.


texts: One among the few shops that offer or offers

texts: One among the few shops in London that offer or offers designer clothes.


texts: looking for a replacement to the descriptor "deep" to describe experience

texts: Every member of our team has deep operating experience in healthcare.


texts: meaning of the sentence towards time obligation?

texts:
When a player discards a card, you may choose to take that card from the discarded pile of cards.

Must I take the card immediately after the player discards it or can I wait until it is my turn to play?


texts:
I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to ask this, but going through some old documents from my great grandfather I discovered a line with a word which I don't understand, the word was "and _______ from house to house" - I've included a shot of the original document and a zoom of the line in question below, I originally thought it may have been 'Saunter', but it doesn't quite look like it.

If anybody can do a better job of deciphering this than me I'd really appreciate the help.


texts:
Connexion is the original and variant spelling of "connection", common until at least the 19th century, and still occasionally used in British English (it was the house style of The Times of London as recently as the 1980s). It is derived from the Latin connexio, hence the spelling, unlike most words ending in "-ction" which are derived from Latin words ending in "-ctio" (e.g. "protection" from protectio).

1) How do we pronounce the above word, connexion?

Like connection, its successor can be pronounced as con-nek-shun, how can we pronounce connexion? perhaps con-neg-zhun? And if it is the same as connection, then why so? the spelling and origins are different.

2) How do we pronounce its verb, connex? (But is connex even the verb of connexion?)

Like connection's connect can be pronounced as con-nekt, how can we pronounce connex? can it be con-neks? or simply con-nekt, but there is no sound of k or t in the spelling.

Lastly, as British English user, is it acceptable to use this word as a substitute to connection in formal English or is it completely taken over by connection?


texts:
On another StackExchange QA site, I asked a math question involving Friday 13th. It deals with years having more than one Friday 13th.

I used 'Fridays 13th' as the plural form of 'Friday 13th'. Was I right? Or it should be 'Friday 13ths'? Or even 'Fridays 13ths' (that somehow looks nice to me, but I doubt it is correct)?

My research:

Google search for +"fridays the 13th" gives 36.600 results;
Google search for +"friday the 13ths" gives 239.000 results.

Examples of reputable internet sites using both versions:


texts:
I'm trying to write the following sentence without the adverb "abruptly"

  They were walking to the main office, but stopped abruptly when they saw her.

"halted" seems kind of clunky, I'm hoping there's a better word I'm overlooking..

Edit: I forgot to mention, I'd prefer a verb, but if there's a better way to write this, I'm not picky about how.


texts:
I encountered a word dawn and I have a feeling I understood the meaning in context. For example,

  1) It dawned on him that she had loved him.

means

  2) It entered his consciousness that she had loved him.

I noticed that no dictionary states realize as a synonym of dawn.

  3) He realized that she had loved him.

Is there a difference in meaning between 1 and 3? Could these two words be synonyms in dictionaries?


texts:
I am learning uses of articles.

And the book i am using tells that

"article the is used when a singular noun is meant to represent a whole class"

For example
The cow is a useful animal.

I want to know the reason how the above example represents a class.
How can I prove it represents a whole class

This question seems foolish but I am really confused please help me

And correct me where I am wrong


texts: Why don't writers make more use of the word "abracadabra"?

texts: If you want to import a sense of the miraculous into your text, why not use abracadabra which has been available in English since the late 17th century, and originated in Gnostic writings in the 2nd century? My instinct tells me these would have been Greek, but the OED claims they were Latin. Is this correct?


texts: What is it called when you use wrong but smart arguments?

texts: What do you call it when someone uses smart and intelligent but wrong statements to strengthen their argument?


texts:
Today I came across this sentence:

  Though I don't sell photos taken by me it still makes me feel good/appreciated/wanted

I want to know exactly what this sentence means. I assumed two possible meanings:

He doesn't sell photos taken by himself but sells those taken by others. And that makes him feel good.
The fact that he doesn't sell photos taken by himself makes him feel good

Which one is the correct interpretation?


texts:
In the song of "Friends" by Marshmello & Anne-Marie:

Ooh ooh, ooh ooh
Ooh ooh, ooh ooh

You say you love me, I say you crazy
We're nothing more than friends
You're not my lover, more like a brother
I known you since we were like ten, yeah

Don't mess it up, talking that shit
Only gonna push me away, that's it
When you say you love me, that make me crazy
Here we go again

it says: "Don't mess it up".
What does it mean?


texts: I teach an ESL Class for Spanish speakers.  I've taught them the rules regarding "double negatives".  Today, I had them translate the Spanish equivalent of "It isn't that he doesn't understand me."  They pointed out the double negative & I'm not sure how to explain the contradiction.  Can someone help?


texts: A pair of words that mean fast- and slow- changing

texts:
I'm looking for a pair of adjectives which mean, respectively:

Fast/Frequently-changing
Slow/Rarely-changing

As an example usage:

  Due to its everyday use, the balance of a current account can be quite fast-changing, but that of a savings account is more likely to be slow-changing.

And as a demonstrative graph: the value denoted by the red lines is more fast-changing, whereas the green value is a lot more slow-changing. The size of the changes is irrelevant - only the frequency is of importance.

The best I've come up with is volatile for the fast-changing part (probably closest to the third definition at dictionary.com), but I can't think of a suitable antonym. To me, stable has more of a connotation of not changing very much when it does change, as opposed to not changing very often.

By contrast:

If the green and red graphs above are frequently and infrequently changing respectively, then the orange, blue and purple graphs are changing continuously (infinitely frequently) - they're all way off to the "frequently" end of the spectrum.


texts: I think she was right or I think she is right?

texts: A lady says to her female friend Amelia that her boyfriend looks handsome. So when the boyfriend finally arrives to meet these ladies, how would Amelia admire the boyfriend saying that her friend was correct about him?


texts: Calque pairs like 'praeternatural/metaphysical'

texts:
There are words (not paired normally) which are, say, close relatives with (sometimes) totally different lives. For example, praeternatural = (Lat. praeter [beyond] + natura [nature]) and metaphysical = (Gr. meta [beyond] + phusis [nature]).

The both have different meanings, at the same time they are calques of each other.

Do you know of any other such pairs?

P. S.: It is interesting that in Russian one of such pairs has just been created within my generation: the word прейскурант (from German Preiskurant) had to make room in usage for the more recently introduced прайс-лист (from English price list).

SUBMITTED PAIRS:

By myself: Praeternatural (Lat. praeter [beyond] + natura [nature]) / Metaphysical (Gr. meta [beyond] + phusis [nature]).

By Colin Fine: Adrenaline (Lat. ad [to, near] + renal [of the kidneys]) / Epinephrine (Gr. epi [near] + nephros [kidneys]).

By Janus Bahs Jacquet:

Aqua vitae (Lat.) / Whisk(e)y (abbr. whiskebae/usquebaugh < Irish uisce beatha/ Scottish uisge beatha). Water of life.
Vladimir (Slavic vladi- [rule] + mir [world]) / Henry (Germanic heim(i)- [home, world] + rīkaz [rule]). Ruler of the world.

By choster: Sarcophagus (from Greek) / Carnivore (from Latin). Both stem from words meaning flesh-eating.

By Fred2: Overman (over + man) / Superman (Lat. super [over] + man). Coined to translate German Übermensch.

By Merk:

Putsch (Swiss German blow) / Coup (Old French blow), former meaning 'riot, revolt', the latter any sudden, decisive political act (popularly restricted to the overthrow of a government).
Chirography (Gr., chiros (hand) + graphe (which is written)) / **Manuscript (Latin, manus (hand) + scriptus (which is written).


texts:
Given a sentence

  Please sign on the duplicate copy of this letter.

Am I correct in thinking that either duplicate or copy should be used, not both of them?


texts:
Consider the phrase:
"That shovel belongs to Tim."  which when you reverse the subject becomes:
"Tim owns that shovel"

However there is another use of belong, which means membership of.
"Susan belongs to the North Hampton Soccer Club.".
How would I reverse that subject.
"The North Hampton Soccer Club owns Susan"? That isn't correct, Susan isn't property.
"The North Hampton Soccer Club includes Susan"? That doesn't convay the same strength of belonging, but it is better.

Consider another example:
"Fred belongs to the Catholic Church"
"The Catholic Church owns Fred", "The Catholic Church includes Fred",

I am ideally looking for a single word verb.


texts: What is the difference between "apart", "except", "other than" and "besides"?

texts:
Do the following phrases have the same meaning or are there differences?

  Fortunately, apart from a broken toe, she was not badly hurt after the car accident.
  Fortunately, except for a broken toe, she was not badly hurt after the car accident.
  Fortunately, other than a broken toe, she was not badly hurt after the car accident.
  Fortunately, besides a broken toe, she was not badly hurt after the car accident.


texts: Does a verb phrase always function as a predicate?

texts:
What is obvious is that we are choosing a new path.

Does the VP (is obvious) function as a predicate?

If it does, is there any situation where a VP doesn't function as a predicate? Or does a VP always function as a predicate?

EDIT

Another example would be:

  I took a train heading north.

Here, does the VP heading north function as a predicate?


texts:
I currently develop an e-commerce website.
I got confused about this sentence:

use coupon code at checkout
use coupon code at the checkout

Which should I use?
Is "the" neccessary?


texts: What does the term mean and what is the best way to use it? And, I also wanted to know if there is any information about where it comes from. And by the way, how do we pronounce it?


texts: Does "was sent flying off the horse" imply bumping?

texts:
Here is a quote from Wikipedia's page on "Made of Honor" movie (as it was on January 9th, 2011):

  When questioned about Tom's sudden
  departure shortly before the wedding
  is to take place, Hannah informs Colin
  that Tom is just afraid of losing her.
  On the way home, Tom realizes that he
  must stop the wedding and goes back on
  horseback. Just when the priest asks
  for objections, Tom is sent flying off
  his horse and through the chapel
  doors. Seeing her best friend on the
  floor, Hannah rushes to him.

Is it clear for native English speakers from this passage that Tom's horse bumped into something (it was a fence around the chapel), so this was the reason why he was sent flying off his horse?

If I were to read this passage for the first time (without having previously watched the movie itself), I would definitely be puzzled as to why Tom was sent flying off the horse. But, perhaps, this expression ("sent flying off the horse") automatically implies to native speakers that the horse must have bumped into something.


texts: How many question marks and put where in this sentence? You should consider a memoir, Bob. How 'bout the end of all, or the road ahead

texts:
The sentence is

How 'bout 'The End of All'Ø or 'The road ahead'Ø

where Ø is a stop or zero punctuation.


texts: When do "direct" and "indirect" questions become the same?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “I'm not sure what the right way is”

Direct and indirect questions are not usually the same:

  What is your name? I don't know what your name is.

But sometimes, they become the same:

  What is wrong with you? I don't know what is wrong with you.

  What is available? I like to know what is available.

So my question is, what the grammatical rule is when they become the same.


texts:
1)

a) A roof of a car is made of many different materials
b) The roof of a car is made of many different materials

2)

a) The branch of a tree will make decent firewood
b) A branch of a tree will make decent firewood

If we're talking about ageneral reference, not a spefic one, what's the correct ones ? a or b or both? if so what's the difference? What comes into play? Any extra comments would be appreciated.


texts: what is the difference between, "she is beautiful" and "beautiful is she"; "cold was the night" and "the night was cold" and so forth and so on

texts:
is these sentences all correct?

He is Great.
Great is He.
Great He is.

If correct, how do they differ?


texts:
I know we can say “smart choice” or “wise choice”, but does “bright choice” sound natural, too?

For example, can I say:
This is clearly not the brightest choice I have ever made.

I’ve searched online but most of the results are lighting company names... Hope someone can help me. Cheers!


texts: Neutral word for saying that a task is finished, without denoting success or failure

texts:
I'm working on some code where a task has two result states:

- Complete | The task completed successfully
- Failure  | The task failed to complete successfully (no further attempts will be made)

The actual implementation has more to it than this, but it really comes down to success or failure.

I have a number of convenience methods for checking the state of the task, such as isComplete and isFailed.

I need one that essentially answers the question:

  "Has the task reached a final state where it is no longer running and will not resume at any time in the future."

Or, in pseudocode:

isComplete() or isFailed()

I find myself having trouble choosing the final name for this method. All the candidates I've written down seem to hint towards a positive or negative outcome. They are:

+ Finished
+ Done
+ Processed
- Stopped
- Terminated
+ Finalized
+ Processed
- Attempted

I feel the latter three have the most potential here, but I welcome any suggestions.

Note: I have read Words for resulting task states in computing [closed], however it doesn't answer my question.


texts: Idiom for making fun of something people are ashamed of?

texts:
What is the idiom that can describe the action of making fun of somebody's already sensitive and weak spot for which s/he is already troubled or ashamed?

For instance, mocking somebody about his/her bankruptcy, past crime history, etc.


texts: Why Germanic type of Language (German, English,...) uses a lot of air from Lung to contruct the sound?

texts:
I speak Thai belonging to Sino-Tibetan language (Chinese, Japanese, Korean..).

In Sino-Tibetan language, we mostly use tongue to construct the sound, we use very little air from lung to make sound. But when we learn English, we have to change & use a lot of air from lung, try to make it nasally & sometimes blow out the air to make sound. If we don't do that then noone can understand our English.

That is very curious to me. There must be a reason behind that, is that because the European living in cold climate that they often blow off a lot of air from the lung out to limit the cold weather & gradually they construct the sound via that way?

Speaking English by using air from lung costs me a lot of energy, I often feel very tired when speaking English continuously for 1 hr!


texts: What type of shock would you call it when approaching around age 40 you see people all around you start taking regular medication

texts: What type of shock is it called when you approach around age 40 and you see known people all around in last 30s start taking regular medication and you start thinking/fearing this will be a regular for you too sooner or later.


texts: Difference in meaning between 'the' and 'that'

texts:
I have some doubts about the meaning of 'the' and 'that' in the following two constructions:

The house over there is mine.
That house over there is mine.

Is there any difference in meaning between 'the' and 'that' here? Or are they interchangeable?


texts: “There are believed to be some ghosts” or ”There is …”?

texts:
There are believed to be some ghosts in that house

  There is believed to be some ghosts in that house

Can anyone tell me which of the to be verb is correct in this case?