texts: What is the definition and usage of "tids and bits"?

texts:
What is the correct definition and usage of the term "tids and bits"?
I tried googling but nothing turns up, not even a definition.


texts: What does 'for' mean in 'We are done for'?

texts:
There is an English expression do for, which means to kill, to execute, to ruin, to defeat etc. and this expression seems to always be used in passive voice: e.g.) We are done for.

I understand this is like an idiom, but why is the preposition for used?
Most prepositions have so many meanings to them, and I would like to know what for in this case means.

edit:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/for
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/for

In the definitions of the above links, which for do you all think the for in done for is the closest to?

edit 2:
I don't think the for is dangling, but I just want to know why for is used. Like, for normally means purpose, cause, or to be given, etc.
But the for in question means quite opposite.


texts:
As a non-native speaker of English and an engineer by training, I always get confused about hyphenation and almost always end up referring to Google every time I need to make that decision.

Does anybody know of a concise, comprehensive style guide to hyphenation that explains this rather complex issue, once and for all?


texts: How do I address people who give feedback?


texts: "split it down" meaning in business context

texts:
I came across this in the Business Advantage listening.
Two parties, Y being the manufacturer and X the distributor, are discussing the issue of whose responsibility stockouts are. Here is the dialogue:

A: I'm not happy with the description of "X stock out". That means that we at X will be responsible for any stock out - but that will not show if the market information from you at Y has provided the wrong figures for production.
B: What we used to do at Y head office was we used to have a number of markets out of stock and then we used to split it down.

Does B mean they would direct the existing goods to those several out-of-stock markets? or does this have to do with shares and equities, of which I have no understanding whatsoever? What does B refer to as 'it'? the number? the whole situation?


texts:
Perfection: the state of being perfect ( Oxford Learner's
  Dictionaries)

The novel achieves a perfection of form that is quite new.

I think that "perfection" here means the highest degree of excellence.
Could I replace "a perfection of" with "a perfect" here? What is the difference?


texts: Is there a difference between "dislike" and "don't like"?

texts:
A friend of mine for whom English is a second language told me that I am the only person he knows who uses the word "dislike", and asked me what the difference was from saying that I "don't like" something. I answered that they were the same, but that "dislike" might be more formal... but it occurred to me that I was not totally confident with this answer.

Is there a difference between "I dislike that" and "I don't like that" besides the former being more formal?


texts:
I wrote:

  Things farther away subtend smaller angles at the eye.

Wiktionary has this example of the usage of "subtend:"

  A 43° angle subtends an arc about ¾ meter long on a circle with a radius of 1 meter.

Can we say both that an angle subtends an arc and that the arc subtends the angle, or is my usage wrong?

The etymology is "stretch under," and "under" doesn't seem to imply any such distinction in a general context like this, where our geometrical figure has no particular orientation with respect to the earth.

As a side note, are there examples of correct usage where A subtends B, and neither A nor B is an angle? As a trivial example, I suppose we could have a solid angle rather than a plane angle.


texts: Meaning: "All spelling errors are property of the finder"

texts:
Recently I found this phrase in a site by NOAA (http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/wesley/):

  All spelling errors are property of the finder.

Is this a joke? I could not get the gist of it.


texts: What's the word for the person who the cheater is with?

texts:
What do you call the person who a cheater is with other than their significant other? Is there a word? This is hard to explain, but the person who isn't in the relationship and

  the cheater cheats on their significant other with the insert word
  here.

It's not the person who is getting cheated on.


texts:
There are other reasons for the racism: the legacy of fascism and
  the continuing adulation of Benito Mussolini; the tangible insecurity,
  even sense of inferiority, of many Italians; widespread economic
  misery for at least the last decade; and a political class that is
  absurdly ignorant. But perhaps the most interesting explanation for
  racism comes from an Italian mate of mine who's an armchair anthropologist.

I know that notions like racism do not take a definite article unless that notion is well referred to in a context. Then why is the first occurrence of racism in this fragment preceded by the, and the second one is not? If, on the one hand, the first occurrence of racism is about the racism in Italy, the second one seems to me to be about the racism in Italy, as well. On the other hand, if racism was used notionally, then both occurrences of the word should have been preceded by no the. Either way, racism in this fragment, whether it is about racism in general or the racism in Italy, should have been used uniformly. So my question is: why wasn't it?


texts:
I've seen the expression "desperate picnic" whose exact meaning I've been unable to find in the Internet.

I thought it could be a common expression in English. The full sentence was:

  Dwarika's Hotel a safe haven thanks to dedicated staff that made a natural disaster feel like a desperate picnic in the garden.

  http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1236810?ref=feeds%2Foncnn

Could you help me?


texts: Is there any other literary technique other than metaphor in the following quote?

texts:
I'm writing an essay required for school, involving the analysis of texts.

  “remove the shackles of prejudice and intolerance”

I was wondering if there is any other literary technique in the above quote, other than just a metaphor?

  Context: These, then, are our common hopes that unite us -- that as the shackles of prejudice and intolerance fall from our own limbs we can together strive to identify and remove the impediments to human development everywhere. The mechanisms by which this great task is to be achieved provided the proper focus of this great Forum. I feel sure that women throughout the world who, like me, cannot be with you join me now in sending you all our prayers and good wishes for a joyful and productive meeting.


texts: Is it "Foreign Language Department" or "Foreign LanguageS Department"?

texts: I searched the Internet and found some universities use the former and some latter. Can't professors agree at one? Or when the former is used, only one foreign language is taught?


texts:
It seems to me that there are many election-related expressions borrowed from the realm of horse racing in English.

I'm looking for an expression meaning

  a race or competition where it is difficult to predict who the winner will be.

What would be such an expression?


texts: What is the adjective that describes a person who takes everything in stride?

texts: I seem to remember there existed a word that is a synonym of unflappable but I can't remember the word anymore. I think it starts with a c but I am not sure.


texts: I have to do it until/by tomorrow. Why both seem to be common?

texts:
I have always thought that the correct one is "I have to do it by tomorrow" as "by" is used for some point in the future while "until" is used when something longs until now/that time.
Is that correct?


texts: Is it grammatically correct to use "who" for inanimate objects?

texts:
Is it grammatically correct to use "who" for non-persons such as organizations, animals?
Consider a question
Q1: "Who should I feed?" and the answer
A1: "Feed the hungry, your friends and your pets."
Would the answer be grammatically correct if it includes "pets", but the question had a pronoun "who"?
A similar example:
Q2: "Who should I donate money to?"
A2: "Donate the money to the poor and to the universities."
Would the example answer be grammatically correct if it mentions universities which are organizations rather than persons?


texts: Should there be a comma or a colon here?

texts:
His latest album is Foo featuring his band, Bar.
  His latest album is Foo featuring his band: Bar.

Which is the more appropriate way to punctuate the sentence?


texts: Use the word "higher" or "more" when referring to costs?

texts:
Is it proper to say that "the cost of X is more than the cost of Y" or "the cost of X is higher than the cost of Y"?
Or are they interchangeable?


texts: What is the term for giving an action or phenomenon somebody's name, e.g. "Doing a Lord Lucan"?

texts:
A friend of mine is keen on taking the glory (or adverse publicity!) when something goes wrong on a job he's working on and he likes to give it his name, e.g., "this is turning into a right Simpson of a job […]."

So I suppose my question is two fold:

What do you call it when somebody does this?
What is the grammatical description for the name when used in this context?


texts: What do you call a "Director's cut/minority report/dissenting opinion" if it regards a report/book?

texts:
There is "Director's cut" for movies and "minority report/dissenting opinion" for legal issues. What do you call a (longer) report, where the author states some things a little (or very) different than the official, published version? Think of a company selling hammers and publishing a report titled Hitting a Hammer On Your Thumb is Not Dangerous, where the conditions "padded hammer, padded thumb, just slight touch" have been edited out. If the author is even allowed to publish her/his own version, you would not call that book a "Director's cut" (because it is a book and not a film).

This is not a single-word-request: The answer may consist of several words (but, if it is possible, not of a whole paragraph, please). In case there really is a single word for this type of report/book, I would also accept that, of course.


texts: Is it "What should he have done?" or "had he done"?

texts:
What should he have done?
  What should he had done?

Could you tell me which one is correct? (If any.)


texts: What is the name of the area of skin between the nose and the upper lip / mouth?

texts:
What is the name of the area that is between the nose and the upper lip, circled in figure 1 below?

source of face image

I have found that the area circled in figure 2, the small indentation under the nose, is called the "philtrum," which is what the many searches I have tried have yielded, but I cannot figure out what the entire area is called.


texts: If an event "ends on" a day, does the day constitute a part of the event?

texts:
If I loaned someone some item, and I told them that their possession of the item "ends on 2014/12/31", would 2014/12/31 be part of the time that they still have possession of the item?

Or, say if I were to hold a contest, and I said that contest "ends on 2014/12/31", would 2014/12/31 still be a date where the contest is still being held?

What's the more common expectation of the phrase?


texts:
We all know that there is a sentence "He is a very man". In this sentence I suppose that
"very" refers to "man":noun. So in this case, very should be treated as an adjective, isn't it?


texts: An alternative to "Old Wives' Tales" to avoid implying old women are likely to be wrong

texts:
An old wives' tale, according to Collins, is a traditional belief, especially one which is incorrect.
We might not always want to imply that married women, however ancient, are repositories of traditional erroneous views, so is there an alternative phrase carrying similar meaning?
Sometimes folk wisdom (Collins again) will do, but this doesn't carry the same suggestion of "probably wrong" or scepticism.  It works,  in my opinion, in the context of traditional cooking tips in a question at cooking.se (where I suggested it as an alternative), but I can't see it being a universal replacement.


texts:
In German there is the word Spielraum which literally translated means "space available for limited movement" and is used for example to describe a limited location/angle tolerance in mechanical bearings or joints and the like, more often however it's used figuratively to describe the range of tolerable actions an individual can take in order to reach certain goals.

The dictionary translates elbowroom (among other things) to Spielraum and I'd like to know whether it is fine to use it in the same way for describing the range of actions someone is able to take.


texts: In/on for "into/onto" in colloquial and not so formal AmE

texts:
If the context is crystal clear and, as such, allows no risk of misunderstanding or ambiguity whatsoever, unlike "Paul jumps into the lake (= Paul jumps into the lake from a certain point)" vs. "Paul jumps in the lake (= Paul is in the lake and jumps out)", is it grammatically acceptable in AmE to substitute "in" and "on" for "into" and "onto" to indicate movement or the idea of movement, for all but the most formal prose?

E.g.

Should we go in the pool first, or should we shower first? source

Let's get on the bus before the good seats are taken. source

Let me translate this in the language of non-BS... source


texts: If "lad", "fella" and "bloke" are synonyms, then "hombre", "homme" and "man" are _______?

texts: Is there a technical term for the relationship between a word and its equivalents in other languages? I thought of cognate, but don't think it quite works, as cognates could include words like chief and chef which aren't in fact synonymous, and would exclude words which have the same meaning in different languages but have no etymological connection (like "hombre" and "man" in this case). Obviously "equivalent" does the job, but is there a more precise linguistic term? Something like transynonym, perhaps?


texts: When someone says something that you agree with, should you say "that's true" or "this is true"? I have heard people say it both ways. My question is for both formal and informal usage.


texts:
What is the meaning of "strips thin but very delicate" in the following precisely-quoted passage?

  "My grandson Vin come at weekends and he likes to sun himself in the garden.  He strips thin but very delicate, and a lovely choice of the trunks.  Gold and white satin." — p.57, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, 1956, Angus Wilson.

The quotation is part of Mrs. Salad's explanation to Gerald Middleton about living at the residence of her daughter, Gladys.  Mrs. Salad is Middleton's former char-lady, and is visiting him two days before Christmas, for exchange of gifts.


texts: Which verbs apart from the pure copula follow the existential 'there'?

texts:
The existential 'there' is usually followed by a form of the verb 'to be', used as a pure copula.

For instance, rather than saying, a wrench is on the bench, you'd say there's a wrench on the bench.

Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002) list a number of syncategorematic/copular verbs which can also follow the existential 'there', eg:

There used to be a house ... there's supposed to be a plot ... there seems to have been a mistake ... there's said to be a ghost ...

They don't make a distinction which I've noticed about what I call 'emergent-type' verbs, always used in the past, describing, as I see it, an action which has emerged, but seems as yet incomplete, eg:

...there arose such as clatter ... there appeared a great multitude ... there emerged, out of the freshly tilled soil, ...

I noticed today another type which I hadn't clocked before ... the use of the intransitive after 'Once upon a time', eg:

Once upon a time, there lived ...

I can't think of an instance where you'd use a transitive verb in this construction.

Are there any other types of verbs that can follow the existential 'there' in declarative sentences that you know of that I can add to my list?


texts: How is the word "self-conceited" different from "narcissistic"?

texts:
According to vocabulary.com, the word "Conceited" is defined as:

  A conceited person has an inflated self-image and perceives himself as incredibly entertaining and wonderful. Talk incessantly about your accomplishments on the clarinet or amazing ability to wiggle your ears, and people are going to think you’re conceited.

It pretty much sounds like "narcissistic". However, I sense that there could be a subtle difference of connotation, or nuance, of those words. Could anyone tell me how those words are used in real life?


texts: Is there any difference between “exquisite” and “excellent”?

texts:
For example I could say

  The city has an excellent public transport system.

Could I also say the following?

  The city has an exquisite public transport system.

To my ears the second one sounds wrong. Is it wrong?  If it is can someone explain what is the difference between the two
 words?


texts: Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, once (?)

texts:
I have this list of choices:

Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, once

The last one "once" is used to indicate thing that occurs only one time.

I wanted to keep up with pattern of the first four words.  Is "once" the right word?


texts: What is a "thread" called on Q&A sites like SE?

texts:
Sometimes I want to refer to a question, all of its answers, and the comments on everything, collectively.

For example:

  I've read through a entire thread that contained many answers. It also had dozens of comments on both questions and answers.

Or, to give an example of where it might be useful:

  Did the [insert noun here] contain any references to X?

Is thread the right word to use? It's obviously the correct word on forums, but is it the right word on Q&A sites?

Wiktionary defines thread in this sense as:

  (Internet) - A series of messages, generally grouped by subject, in which all
  messages except the first are replies to previous messages in the
  thread.

Is this the correct word to use for this? Reasons I'm unsure:

I can't recall this word ever being used like this on SE. I'm sure it happens, but I haven't personally seen it and I don't believe it's widespread. I'm not sure about other Q&A sites.
I associate the word "thread" with forums, where there's a continuous, chronological conversation going on, thus thread. Q&A is quite different, as chronology is much less relevant, and it's not really a conversation in that sense. Q&A sites like SE are more about providing helpful information (and deleting or hiding useless information) than to have a continuous thread of conversation.

Is thread a fair word to use, or are there better alternatives?

I'm aware I could just say question, but that's ambiguous, as it's unclear whether I'm referring to just the question or the rest as well. In my perception, the same thing applies to the word post.

And saying "the question, its answers and the comments on both" is not very elegant.

Looking at SE isolatedly, I also asked it at Meta SE.


texts:
I asked this question on a different site but I didn't get an answer.  Could you tell me what use of present simple this is?

  They come to dinner tonight.

Is this a situation that often or regularly happen or is it a part of a scheduled event?

I think I could use 'they are coming,' 'they are going to come,' 'they will come' too, but not 'they will be coming' if I am right. Some online test are really confusing.


texts: Question inversion in English like in German?

texts:
In German, one has to invert questions in a sub-sentence. Not doing so feels wrong in English to me, is it allowed in English too or is that strictly illegal grammar?
Example
"Now the question is only, how accessible is the XML structure." (not inverted)
"Now the question is only, how accessible the XML structure is." (inverted)
Corrected Second Example
"I wonder, how does he do it?" (inverted)
"I wonder how he does it." (not inverted)


texts: Is there a difference in meaning when pronouncing paytronizing or pahtronizing?

texts:
I am not a native speaker, and I was recently corrected when pronouncing patronizing "paytronizing" when meaning condescending. I was told it is wrong to pronounce it that way; however, after looking it in dictionaries, I found both pronunciations to be accepted and no information on differences in usage.
Should I stop pronouncing it paytronizing? Does it have a different connotation/denotation when using one or the other pronunciation?


texts: Word for flying, stinging/biting insects

texts:
Today an insect was flying around me and my family but I wasn't sure what type of insect it was. I could tell from the noise that the wings were making while it was flying that it was some type of bee or biting fly, but I don't know of a word for that type of description. To describe it to them, all I could think of is "flying, stinging/biting insect" but that's a bit long and seems out of place.

I tried researching it and the closest term I found was hymenoptera:

  Hymenoptera: Hymenoptera is the third-largest order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants - Wikipedia

However, this is more broad than the word I was looking for. I'm looking for a term specific to flying insects that bite or sting.

Is there such a word? It could be colloquial or scientific.


texts: What is this wordplay I'm thinking of involving homonyms?

texts:
I remember knowing there was a name for this type of sentence construction, but I can't recall it and google is failing me.

The basic concept is that you use a word in two different meanings in the same sentence. A (poor) example is: "He ran a marathon and his own company", playing on the idea of running as a physical activity versus running a company. What is that called?


texts: Why is 'present perfect' present if it happened in the past? And why is it 'perfect'?


texts: A word for general proficiency with musical instruments

texts:
I'm looking for a word for skill or talent with musical instruments in general.

This is for a video game, there are skills like singing and dancing and I can't put "musical instruments" because its too long.


texts: what's the meaning of this? (whitewash, pants dirty, pop them off, pop them in)

texts:
In the drama 'Miranda' season 2, episode 1, near 6:58,
I see Miranda's mom as she comes downstairs saying (in the subtitles)
'Darling I'm doing a white wash, if your pants are dirty, pop them off, I'll pop them in.'   (But to me it sounds like 'I'm putting on a white wash' instead of 'I'm doing a white wash')

People(the audience) laugh here but I don't get the point. What's the exact meaning of this sentence?  (Miranda used to wallow and lived like a tramp for some time. Miranda pledges to her friend that she will be neat from that day on, that she will be a new person. that's when her mother says this coming down the stairs from upper floor. Something to do with Miranda's dirty clothes?)


texts: Participles? Present participles? Are they nouns too?

texts:
A participle is just a infinitive verb + ing right?

A participle is also used as an adjective a lot of the time right? For ex:

"She looks at the rising sun". The present participle here is an adjective here right?

The participle can also be a noun right? For example:

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall".

So "failing" and "rising" seems like verbs to me. How can you help me see these words as nouns? I don't get why they are nouns.


texts:
Is there a way to use must in past simple?
Present simple: You must run.
Past perfect: You must have ran.
Past simple doesn't work: You must ran.
Not even with another word to indicate past (since must is ambiguous): I thought you must ran. (wrong)


texts: A word similar to 'inspire' which modifies the subject

texts: I want to construct a sentence saying that a pointed chin is a symbol of authority. My current sentence is "The general's [noun] inspires authority". I know that a more correct use of inspire here would be "inspires obedience", but I am looking for a correct way to keep this same sentence structure and use the word authority.


texts: What is the name for a person who rents equipment to others

texts: I need a word or two-word phrase for someone who rents their equipment to others. For example: if person A wants to rent a boat from person B, A is a renter but what is B called?


texts: In my example, do I need a comma before which?

texts: The linear fit fails to fit the age profile because it does not really account for the changes in arrests rate which implies a large bias.


texts:
I want to include my mother's maiden name on her gravestone. What is the proper form? ( I don't care for the use of nee.)

Which of the following is appropriate?

First Name, Maiden name, Married name
First name, (Maiden Name), Married name
First Name, Married Name, (Maiden name)


texts: What is the antonym for the phrase "role model"?

texts:
"Role Model" is used in a positive light, and thus doesn't fit the sentence below.

Bob saw his incriminated elder brother, and made a ____ out of him.


texts: Asking for 'experience at X place' implies only timespan or also details of the experience it self?

texts: In the application form of a internship one of the fields states Experience at (current work place) with no additional information. The field allows for a more than one-line answer and I am not pretty sure if they are asking just for how long have I been working in this place or, in addition, how my experience has been or a description of the things I've done while working at the current place.


texts: I'm looking for a word that means "something must occur with another thing"

texts:
I'm looking for a word that means that something must occur with another thing. Almost as though it is mutually inclusive, however it must happen with another. Anyone know?

Sample sentence:

  Tomatoes in a salad are not ______, salads don't have to have tomatoes.

I considered mutually inclusive, but mutually inclusive does not mean that it necessarily has to be together and that's what I'm looking to say. I'm writing a speech for a debate about immigration and I'm attempting to say that immigration from our Southern borders and crime are not together all the time and that Sanctuary cities don't facilitate drug problems and prostitution because they do not question immigration status. Like salads and tomatoes don't necessarily go hand in hand.


texts: Why is an article not needed before the noun "island" in this sentence?

texts:
This question is based on the following excerpt from a GRE example:

  Experts have differed about where the genus Varanus (monitor lizards) originated. Because most existing species live in Australia, early researchers concluded that Varanus originated in Australia and subsequently island hopped westward along the Indo-Australian archipelago. Herpetologist Robert Mertens later argued that Varanus probably originated in the archipelago. Chromosomal analysis has since supported
  Mertens’ contention, and in addition, geologic evidence points to a collision between the archipelago and the Australian landmass after Varanus evolved—a fact that could account for the genus’ present distribution.

Here is my question:

In the second sentence, "Because most existing species ...", why is an article not needed before the noun "island"?


texts:
What can you call a 3rd person who's gender is unknown?

He - Male
She - Female

I've never heard of an unisex word for 3rd person.


texts: Is it good style to factor out the common root word of two (or more) prefixed compound words?

texts: I see sometimes in conjunciton or disjunction, the common root of two or more compound words are factored out, for example, "super- and sub-script" (maybe bad example, but it suffices to describe the situation).  Is this good style?  To me, I would prefer "super-script and "sub-script".


texts: What is the technical term for an infinite sentence?

texts:
Is there a name for the infinite (repeating, unending) sentence or paragraph? Here is an example of what I mean:

Joe Blow is a chef, painter, author and vocalist from San Francisco who enjoys vinyl records, black and white movies and referring to himself in third-person, as in “Joe Blow is a chef, painter, author and vocalist from San Francisco who enjoys vinyl records, black and white movies and referring to himself in third-person, as in "Joe Blow is a chef, painter, author and vocalist from San Francisco who enjoys vinyl records, black and white movies and referring to himself in third-person, as in "Joe Blow is a chef, painter, author and vocalist from San Francisco who enjoys vinyl records, black and white movies and referring to himself in third-person, as in...........


texts: Common word to describe financial terms Trade, Position, Valuation, Collateral

texts:
What is a word to generically describe all of these financial terms: trade, position, valuation, and collateral?

Example sentence: "The Trade, Position, and Collateral classes all inherit from the abstract class _______."

There could theoretically be an additional category of items added to this set in the future. A broader term that is not too generic would be best.

The context is regulatory reporting of trades, positions, and collateral to governmental bodies, such as for the EMIR regulation from ESMA.

Words like asset or security may come to mind, however, a position isn't technically an asset because it is an abstract concept representing a positive or negative result of many trades--it is their net result, not the trades themselves. Plus, you can report both trades and positions for different underlying assets, or securities types, so those are really concepts at right angles to what I'm looking for.

A crude word might be ReportableItem but this is so generic as to be dissatisfying. I'd like to come up with a more specific term that describes these valid financial concepts—and that is also completely apart from the reporting context (it's for a layer of code that shouldn't know about reporting yet). Item is even worse.

Collateral can be securities such as T-Bills but can also be cash. Cash is not really a security, either.

These terms are generically TradeAspects I suppose, and I think I'm getting closer with that, but this term is still unsatisfying as an aspect seems a far cry from an item or a real thing—it sounds like something less primary and more ancillary.

Later, in the reporting generation layer, I'm quite content to deal in ReportableMessage or otherwise a more generic term, but I need to separate the concerns for now.

While this word is for programming, I don't need programmer knowledge to get the best answer—I need English knowledge!

Update

The core concept here is that all of these are aspects of a business's dealings in derivatives that expose what's really going on to oversight. So I think the concepts of divulging, making visible, and exposing are heading in the right direction. Something like a SecuritiesVisibilityFactor. More promising words: disclosure.

Bonus Question

P.S. A position and a valuation are nearly indistinguishable, and in many cases are used interchangeably, and although they do have slightly distinct meanings in this business domain, for all intents they can be treated as the same thing. For bonus points, though, a new term that describes both of these would be quite useful as well. (I will accept for the first word, and vote up for the second word.)

Example sentence: "The Trade, (1)_________, and Collateral classes all inherit from the abstract class (2)_________. A (1)_________ will later reported as a Position, a Valuation, or both (in two separate reporting messages)."

*Where (1) is this second word, and (2) is the word being requested above.

A Year Later

The term that eventually won in the code and with which I am satisfied is RegulatoryItem. The other classes are RegulatoryTrade, RegulatoryPosition, RegulatoryValuation, RegulatoryCollateral, and so on. These are useful as they distinguish from versions of these classes that are specific to a particular regulator or data source.


texts: An idiom/phrase for someone whose opinions must be accepted by other people

texts:
(As a follow-up to the question,) Suppose there is a group of people, and suppose in this group opinions and ideas of a specific member of the group is always accepted by other members and they obey what he/she says. Is there an idiom/phrase for it?

  [...] We had had a special respect for my father in my family and his opinions and ideas were always accepted by other family members and as they put it, [the requested idiom or phrase].

In my native language, we say:

  He always says the last word.

(The child is the one I mentioned in my previous question)


texts: Word to describe an increase in technology and processes

texts:
I am trying to say the following:

  "The Machine Stops" is E.M. Forster’s literary attempt to call to attention to an ever-growing technicalization of society.

Of course, that is not a word, but I need a word or phrase that does the same job. I thought that maybe mechanization might work, but that doesn't really describe what I am trying to say, since that implies that only machines are involved, while I am thinking of machines and beyond (i.e. all technical processes).


texts: Is using the term "allopathy" to describe mainstream (i.e. real) medicine, pejorative?  I know the term was originally used by homeopaths to insult real medicine, but I have heard it being used more and more lately, and am curious if there is still a pejorative sense to the term.


texts: Which preposition to use with "interface"

texts:
What is the best preposition at/for/on to use in sentences like these:

Configure CoS queue parameters at interface

or

Configure CoS queue parameters for interface

or

Configure CoS queue parameters on interface

These sentence fragments are help messages for CLI commands in the networking device. Articles are intentionally omitted to shorten them.

UPDATE #1:

What should the prepositions be if I use Set and Enable instead of Configure?

Enable 'something' on interface

and

Set 'something' on interface

UPDATE #2:

Meaning of these fragments is the following:
There is a device and it has some ports (I call them interfaces). There are some parameters that can be configured for the particular interface. There are some parameters that can be enabled on the interface. There are some attributes that can be set on the interface.


texts: thereby +(verb+ing) or thereby +(verb in other tenses)

texts:
I've observed that "thereby" is mostly followed by (verb+ing) form regardless of whether the sentence takes place in past, future or present. As in this example from the dictionary:

  "The number of uninsured cars will rise and the cost to the industry
  will increase, thereby pushing premiums up further."

.

However, I seldom see "thereby" followed by a verb in other forms such as past tense. For example:

  "This behavior increased demand and thereby pushed prices up still
  more."

why isn't it "pushing up the prices...". Is either form right,?

I'd be glad if you could give more information/examples on thereby usage


texts: Request for a scholarly reference for the correct usage of the English indefinite article (a/an).

texts:
This is NOT a request for a recommendation of a "best" book. I'm looking for a definitive authoritative source to address a specific question...

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine who is a retired high-school English teacher. We were discussing the correct usage of "a" vs "an".

In her opinion the article must always match the subject. Thus she says "an emergency" is correct but so is "an dire emergency", she claims.

I personally think she is wrong, that the correct usage of the indefinite article is never based on the subject per se but rather only on the vocal pronunciation of the most proximate word following the article.

Any suggestions for a source that would generally be well-respected by school teachers?


texts:
A colleague of mine wrote the following sentence:

  I have worked on the below mentioned issues:

Now, I'm not a native speaker, and certainly not an authority on grammar. I construct sentences based on what I can only describe as intuition (what sounds right based on what I've previously read/ heard.)

I told him below mentioned issues didn't sound right and I thought it should be issues mentioned below instead.

His counter:

He was reluctant to end with a prespostion.
If above mentioned is valid, below mentioned should be, too.

I don't subscribe to the notion that prepositions can't end a sentence. But I didn't wan't a debate about that. I replied:

The phrase which the preposition governs goes without saying (as in, mentioned below/above this sentence)
above mentioned isn't really two words. It's a one-word adjective.

He was satisfied, but he insisted he had seen it being written as two words.

Later, out of curiosity, I did an ngram search, which shows that above mentioned as two separate words is indeed frequent. More so than above-mentioned until 1935, and still in 2nd place, outranking abovementioned. I assumed people using it as an adjective were more likely to drop the hyphen than use two words. Apparently I was wrong.

I suppose the frequency of above mentioned could be padded by sentences like this:

  The people (who live) above mentioned seeing him.

But the same should be true for below mentioned, which is virtually non-existent according to the ngram

Hence my question:

Is above mentioned issues grammatical? Is below mentioned issues? What are the rules behind this?


texts: Is it correct to say “I will lie quiet beneath his touch”?  Shouldn’t it be “I will lie quietly beneath his touch”?


texts:
Admiral Gonzeles told his men to search for a gun. A soldier asked if the admiral had any further instructions.

Should the second time admiral is used be capitalized or not?

Thanks

Frank


texts: Why isn't the word "undiscovered" a double negative?

texts: Why do we use the word undiscovered? As far as I know, un– and dis– have the same negative meaning; why don't we just say "covered"?


texts: Singular or plural usage for ellipsis in direct object

texts:
Suppose I have the following sentences:

There should be an X and a Y chromosome.
There should be an X and a Y chromosomes.

Is the second grammatically correct? If the last word had to be plural for the same meaning of the sentence and an ellipsis, would the following be correct?

There should be X and Y chromosomes.


texts: Inversion - Sentence starting with rarely

texts:
This is from my English Cambridge Proficiency Book. In Unit 8 about inversions, I had to rewrite the sentence:

Original sentence:

It is very difficult for town centre redevelopment to achieve a harmonious balance between old and new

My answer:

Rarely is it easy for town centre redevelopment to achieve a harmonious balance between old and new

Correct question (according to the book):

Rarely do/will/can town centre redevelopments achieve a harmonious balance between old and new.

I wonder why my answer isn't acceptable.

Is there anything fundamentally wrong with my sentence?

Thanks


texts: Is there a dangling modifier in this sentence?

texts:
"The expression constantly changes while watching it".

We are talking about a picture here and this sentence is supposed to mean "while smb. is watching it", "it" refers to the expression. Is it a dangling modifier? Answers from philologists (or just native speakers who are really good in English) will be much appreciated as our professor and I are having an argument over this sentence. Thank you for your help in advance!


texts: omission of infinitive marker: i.e., He'll come, if he wants (to)

texts:
To me, these

He'll come, if he wants
He'll come, if he's able
He'll come, if I allow him

are simply variants of

He'll come, if he wants to
He'll come, if he's able to
He'll come, if I allow him to

in other words, the infinitive marker "to" is optional; it's omitted simply because it can be omitted. But this is instinct on my part; some people tell me that "to" is required, and omitting it makes the sentences unacceptable (if not ungrammatical).
Grammatically speaking, is "to" in the above sentences required or optional? And what's the linguistic/grammatical case for it?
(By the way, is this a case of "preposition stranding" or does it go by another name in the literature?)
Thanks in advance
edit: It's been pointed out that this question is a possible duplicate of another question, but that question focuses on whether the to-infinitive or the bare infinitive is used after the verb "help." My question focuses on the infinitive marker "to" and what dictates/allows its omission when the infinitive itself has already been omitted. So, for example, instead of saying "He'll come, if he wants to come," is "He'll come, if he wants" acceptable or is one grammatically required to say "He'll come, if he wants to."


texts:
I was reading Harry Potter and I had a question.

  After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows along the walls.

I'm confused because I learned that usually you can't use an adverb with prepositions. Does it sound more natural to you than saying "It was cool and dark there."? And what do you find the difference between "in there" and "there", concerning this sentence?


texts: A word for an object that doesn't fit in.

texts:
I am looking for a word that describes an object that doesn't fit in, preferably a word that also can be applied to describe a person as well.

For example with clothing, you talk about 'regular fit', what is the opposite of a fit for bodies with an unusual shape.

Or a word for an object that doesn't fit into a box. Not necessarily an oversized object.

Or a person that doesn't fit into set categories, someone who doesn't have a box to tick.

I am either looking for single words and expressions.


texts: Could it be correct to have the word "however" flanked by two commas?

texts:
Could it be correct to have the word "however" in the middle of the sentence flanked by two commas instead of a semicolon and a comma?

When I want to write something like this:

  His passive vocabulary has definitely increased, however, his
  ability to express himself in English still needs to be developed.

The software application "Word" always automatically changes it into this:

  His passive vocabulary has definitely increased; however, his
  ability to express himself in English still needs to be developed.

Does that mean that two commas on each side of however is always wrong and will give a wrong meaning?


texts: How to interpret confusing statements involving either/or/not?

texts:
I have a simple problem basically I am unable to understand the meaning of some questions involving or/not, and using comma with and. I have the following questions:-

1.Whats the meaning of, say , X does not play football or cricket.

What we can infer from this. Can we say X does not play both of them? or one of them?

2.How the previous line is different from X does not play either football or cricket.

next is

3.If x does not play both of them, why in books such kind of statements are there instead of neither/nor.

and

4.whats the meaning of
M and N, who reads newspaper, are not sitting together.

Here,  Do M and N, both reads newspaper?
Please clarify these things to me. I am not a native Englishman so I found it very difficult to understand and as in logical reasoning questions these statements are common to see I face lot of problems.
Please also tell me about such more things that can be confusing, may be, provide a link.


texts: "Unconscious" versus "nonconscious" in everyday dialogue

texts:
These words have subtle distinctions in related research fields, but even there are often considered interchangeable or just an matter of tradition/trendiness in a particular field.
Since I am a bit entrenched in that environment, I don't have perspective on what is common outside of academia.

In normal, everyday conversation, which is more common? If they are both used, do they have commonly understood distinctions in meaning?


texts: What does the phrase "Don't be upset because someone didn't help you" mean?

texts:
What does this phrase mean:

Don't be upset because someone didn't help you.

Does this mean "not to be upset with the reason being someone didn't help you" or "since someone didn't help you, don't be upset"? Could you please provide other sentences like this?


texts: Is there a word for someone who has the need to consult a professional for everything?

texts:
For all matters in their life or their life and someone's they know.

Someone who can't trust their own instincts or think for themselves.

Someone who needs a mediator to handle affairs instead of trusting and believing that they and the other party can manage it on their own.

Required Sample Sentence:

"I agree," Steve uttered, "She is quite the _________ as she tends to seek someone else's point of view before even considering her own."


texts: Mixidity? Quantitative property of mixed subjects

texts:
I am looking for a word to describe the level(quantity) of a "mixture" or "mix".
For example A is more mixed than B. Hence A's "(the word I am looking for)" is bigger.
I thought of "mixability" but it is about the quality of being mixed. Then I thought something like "mixidity" but it doesn't exist in any dictionary.
Can anyone help?


texts: Comma before "which" and after "unable to do so"

texts:
I'm having trouble deciding if "I estimate to be $10,000.00" is a non-restrictive or restrictive phrase, and therefore the need for a comma surrounding this phrase.

In addition, is a comma required after "unable to do so"?

"The problem lies in generating the necessary capital to make a down payment, which I estimate to be $10,000.00, and I worry that if I am unable to do so, my plan to pursue the opportunity presented before me may be in jeopardy."

Thank you!


texts:
Example Sentence: "Public tranportation such as train or bus."

Question: What do the words "such as" refer to?

Do the words "such as" refer to "public transportation" or to "train and bus"?

I had this question in my exam.


texts: "What needs to be done" vs "What is needed to be done"

texts:
When you are looking at a task remaining, it seems right to me to say, "what needs to be done" in the simple present tense.
I have seen some people write "what is needed to be done."

While I don't know what is wrong in the second sentence, it doesn't seem alright.

Can you tell me  why is it wrong?


texts:
If I met a person yesterday, could I say, now, "I am glad to have met you" ?

Or is it better to say: It's been a pleasure to meet you?


texts: Tense/construction of verb following 'looked at'

texts: For example, in a sentence like 'he looked at his enemy....(use the verb fall)', would one say falling or fall? I feel like if the sentence was watched, it would be fall, but now for this construction I am not sure. Is there a rule or something that dictates this?


texts: Is "bobsled" or "bobsleigh" more commonly used in Jamaican English?

texts:
"Bobsled" versus "Bobsleigh" , along with Wiktionary's entries on bobsleigh and bobsled say that "bobsled" is more commonly used in the US and Canada, and that "bobsleigh" is more common in British English.

However, neither source mentions which term is more commonly used in Jamaican English, nor does Wikipedia's article on Jamaican English. Which term is more commonly used in Jamaican English?


texts: Is there a term for hyperbolic words or expressions that are no longer used for exaggeration?

texts:
I recently encountered two instances of apparently hyperbolic terms that were used without any realisation that the traditional implications were far more serious / demanding / extreme.

Someone said their husband had been "run over" last night.  To me that meant tires crushing bones and organs, but it turned out that he had slid up the bonnet (hood) of the car and had only a slight bruise.  But to the speaker, "run over" was an appropriate expression for being hit by a car in any manner whatsoever.
This is possibly a British expression.
A recipe said to boil something at a medium setting for 2 to 3 minutes. I heated it to the boiling point, turned it to medium, and boiled it for 2.5 minutes, and completely ruined it.  Apparently in India, "boil" doesn't mean boil; it means heat or warm.  I can't find the original recipe that I had the problem with, but here's a recipe with the same problem - YouTube.  At 1:10, it says:

  Pour the milk in a deep pan and boil on a medium flame for 1 to 2 minutes or till the milk is lukewarm.

This one at least makes it obvious that "boil" cannot possibly mean boil.
Why they couldn't say "Heat to 85°C" as I later found elsewhere, I don't know.

These are two examples of exaggerations of the actual situations reported, using expressions that seem to have lost their original more 'drastic' or extreme  meaning, at least in certain regions of the English speaking world.

Is there a term for such words or expressions, or the process that creates them?


texts: Is the spelling fundraising, fund-raising or fund raising?

texts: I have seen different spellings for fundraising and would like to know the current best practice. The history of this word/phrase is also of interest to me.


texts:
I'd like to apply the -ly suffix to shell but I'm not sure how many L it should have? Three like shellly or two like shelly?

Is there a rule that can be used with other suffixes too if the suffix makes the last letter to occur threefold?

Background: It should be a project name derived from shell as a user interface.


texts: Ways to express "something bad is going to happen"

texts: How can I express something bad is going to happen in a better way. Something along the lines of An ominous chain of events is starting to ensue


texts:
A noun is defined in Oxford as:

  A word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things (common noun), or to name a particular one of these (proper noun).

A compound noun is defined in Oxford as:

  A noun made up of two or more existing words, e.g. cat food or playgroup.

According to Oxford, then, a noun is a word, and a compound noun is a noun. Now, cat food is a compound noun, and therefore also a noun. But is cat food a word or two words? Is it correct to define 'compound noun' as 'a noun'? Is it correct to define 'noun' as 'a word'?

How do we reconcile this apparent incongruity?

If Oxford's definition is not accurate enough, please let me know where else to look.


texts:
What does see you means?
Is it bidding goodbye or saying that I am coming soon to meet u...means I am on my way to meet u?
Does it has two meanings?


texts:
A document in a hypertext system (commonly "a web page") consists of navigation elements, advertising elements, and what a lot of authors call "content".  The "content" carries the information for which the user is viewing the document in the first place.  This term is medium-agnostic; it can refer to text, images, video, 3D models, or anything else that an author can include in a document.  For example, the questions and answers on Stack Overflow or EL&U are "content".

Likewise, in video games, "content" refers collectively to all components other than the program itself, such as the meshes, textures, maps, and audio.  For example, Id Software has long had a policy of making the program of its five-year-old video games free software, but not the rest.  These games are sometimes called "free software with proprietary content".

However, one style guide published by a prominent organization in the free software community discourages use of the word "content", claiming it "disparages the works" by regarding them "as a commodity whose purpose is to fill a box and make money."  The phrase "cultural works" has arisen as a general term for works of authorship other than computer programs, but it doesn't quite carry the meaning of "parts of a work other than infrastructure".

What better word than "content" exists to describe these concepts?  I'm looking for something that will fit into the sentence "Interstitial video advertisements are acceptable in pages with video content and nowhere else."


texts:
In my opinion, the second part of a comparative clause should be a complete sentence. But I'm always confused by some comparative clauses as some clauses are incomplete. For example, are both the following two sentences right?

He always spent more money than George spent.
He always spent more money than George spent it.

In my opinion, the first sentence omits the word it. Am I right?

Another question is whether the it in the following sentence can be omitted.

Technological capitalism produces so much more wealth than there are useful things to spend it on that we have to spend it on rubbish.

If the "it" cannot be omitted, how about the following sentence:
He always spent more money than George spent (it). The "it" is omitted.


texts: Synonym for "like a dragon" or dragon-like (dragonish?)

texts: Is there any word that comes to mind if you were to see a statue that is very like a dragon? The first ideas I had were dragonoid, draconoid, draconian, and draconic, but save for draconian none of those are words, and draconian has nothing to do with dragons.


texts: Should I use an infinitive or gerund to explain the how people can earn money? Context: Get paid to teach Spanish/teaching Spanish

texts: Which variant is correct grammatically and is used more often among native speakers?


texts: Is this sentence correct? Can you help me understand it?

texts:
Dossier (“a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject”) comes to English directly from the French, in which language it referred to a compendium of files, arranged in folders, each one with its name written on the spine, or back.

This comes from Merriam-Webster's entry on the word dossier.

I do not understand the clause beginning after the first comma. Taking language as the subject thereof, this is not a complete clause. I feel like there might be another way of reading it, but I can't wrap my head around it. I see that French refers to the people, so I can see which being replaced by whose, but I don't understand it as is.


texts: the idiomatic use of "no more than" and "no less than"

texts:
I have questions about the use of no more than and no less than .
The following is the item 14. phrase of the word more from COBUILD online dictionary.

  You use no more than or not more than when you want to emphasize how small a number or amount is. (emphasis)   ⇒ "He was a kid really, not more than eighteen or nineteen."

The following is the item 9. phrase of the word less from COBUILD online dictionary.

  You use no less than before an amount to indicate that the amount is larger than you expected. (emphasis)   ⇒ "No less than 35 per cent of the country is protected in the form of parks and nature sanctuaries."   ⇒ "He is lined up for no less than four U.S. television interviews."

My questions are

Why doesn't "not less than"  have the same idiomatic meaning (larger than you expected) as "no less than" while "not more than" has the same idiomatic meaning as "no more than"?
How did "no more than" and "no less than" get their idiomatic meanings?
When do you take the meaning of theses phrases literally, and when do you take the meaning of theses phrases idiomatically.


texts:
What does "keep peace with" mean here? It is a little confusing to me.

The poet Max Ehrmann says, “Whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.” My peace is only possible because of the love and support of Bill, Chelsea, Marc, Charlotte, Aidan, and our entire family.
Source: What Happened, by Hillary Rodham Clinton

I've looked for it on the internet and I could not find a satisfying answer. There was an answer which I thought it does not right for this sentence. The meaning was "Don't deviate from your principles" which did not seem right to me. Because this meaning does not fit the second sentence. Please help me to understand it.


texts: Use "a" or "an" in a sentence with parentheses?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  “a/an” preceding a parenthetical statement

Should I use "a" or "an" in a sentence like this:

  There's just an (usually small, but) unbounded number...

or is it a bad style, anyway?


texts:
I am correcting a translation for a friend. He wanted to say:

"Don't look for treasure nor earthly pleasure."

This sounds wrong to me. I would say:

"Look not for treasure nor earthly pleasure."

The following would be correct: "Don't look for treasure or earthly pleasure,"
but he wants to use "nor" for emphasis.
I have lived abroad for 35 years and so my grammar has slipped. All I have left to go on is how things sound. Which of these is right?


texts: Word for the bias of a profession towards itself?

texts:
I am looking for a word or phrase (possibly of the form "____ bias") that describes the bias felt by members of a profession towards their own profession, some of examples of which might be:

An author is more likely to write about characters who are themselves authors, a playwright to write about playwrights, and a painter to paint about the experience of painters.
An engineer will tend towards trying to solve the problems faced by other engineers.
A politician is most attuned to the issues faced by people who work in politics.

Example sentence:

  The engineers don't seem to feel the new project is as important as the old one, but that might just be their _____ bias.


texts:
In present-day English, a double negative as an intensifier is regarded as non-standard.
For example I don't think that "I can't get no satisfaction" is considered as standard English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoxRFOr_sQ0
However, here's from Hamlet Act 1, Scene 2.

O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good;
But break my heart,--for I must hold my tongue!

Notice that "nor it cannot come to good" is a double negative.
And Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark who is supposed to be well-educated.
Here's from the Abbot's:

Many irregularities may be explained by the desire of emphasis
which suggests repetition, even where repetition, as in the case of a negative,
neutralizes the original phrase: ...
This idiom is a very natural one, and quite common in E.E.
(E. A. Abbott, A Shakespearean Grammar, Item 406, p.295)
https://archive.org/details/shakespeariangra034962mbp

So here's my question.

Since when a double negative as an intensifier was considered as non-standard and why?


texts: Word for a person whose job was replaced by an advance in technology

texts:
As the title so subtly suggests, I am looking for a word describing someone whose job was replaced or eliminated by advances in technology.

For example:

  Blue-Collar Bill, a [noun], is searching for a new job now.

Maybe a verb/participle implying this would work too:

  Blue-Collar Bill was [participle]; he was replaced by a sowing machine.

Or maybe,

  My [adjective] friend, Blue-Collar Bill, is going to technical school so that he will not feel obsolete anymore.

Another way to put it is that I am looking for a more concise way to say "made obsolete/displaced/replaced by an advance in technology".

I can add more examples if desired.


texts:
My teacher gave us a list of 'scrambled' proverbs that we have to 'decipher' into their original meaning. Here's an example of one that our class already figured out:

"It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipitately departed lacteal fluid." = Don't cry over spilled milk.

Our class was able to figure out most of them, but there were a few that we couldn't. The three that we didn't get were:

"Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude"
"Eschew the implement of correction and vitiate the scion."
"Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted."

Any ideas?

(The assignment won't be graded, so don't think I'm just asking for homework answers. It was just meant to be a fun Friday activity--and it was.)


texts:
I am currently writing my thesis concerned with the analysis and design of data visualizations. For certain use cases my thesis suggests certain visual interpretations (to which I generally refer as visualizations, this being the term used in the academic field).

One of my chapters eventually introduces these proposed visualizations, and I am wondering about the chapter's title:

  Visualization Proposals
  Visualization Suggestions

Both come to mind, and I am unsure as to the exact difference in the meaning (or how they feel).

Could someone elaborate on the difference of the two words in the above context? Many thanks in advance.


texts: Is there a short form for words with "inter" prefix?

texts:
I want to write the word "interrupted" in a space which does not allow so many characters.
Is there a shorter way to write this word similar to how words prefixed with "cross" are shortened by replacing "cross" with "x".


texts:
I am unsure what word to use in the sentence. It is part of a system that we are releasing to the public so it has to be grammatically correct :)

The sentence in question is:

  Thank You for your booking. We will reserve a seat for 72 hours...

What I would like to know is, in the context of an online course, do you say "Thank You for your booking..." or "Thank You for your reservation"

I don't know if it's a US English vs UK English matter.


texts: What is the meaning for the term kissing cousins?

texts: Example: A nil-nil soccer game being like kissing cousins


texts: To which 'court' does 'courtyard' refer?

texts:
courtyard (n.)
      1550s, from court (n.) + yard (n.1).

Strangely, the OED forgoes the etymology.  Wikipedia also is ambiguous. So please disambiguate the meaning of court? I know that court originated from the PIE root gher-1, which produced:

  Latin cohors (stem cohort‑), enclosed yard, company of soldiers, multitude.

But does court here refer to:

1. the original Latin meaning above? But then court + yard = enclosed yard + yard.  So court would be redundant; yard already means it.

2. a royal court?   3. or a law court?


texts: Could anyone explain what exactly does "soundness of judgment" mean? I understand this as when you can judge something and take in count all possible exceptions that are involved in the evaluation of a certain matter/object, but I'm not sure I got the term right


texts: What is a word for a person who desires to get married, or that desire?

texts:
What word or words could be accurate used to express that someone strongly desires to be married? This could be in general or to a specific person, but particularly the general case.

Misogamist is used to describe someone who is adverse to marriage. I want the opposite of this. Is there a similar latin derived or clinical word like this? A traditional or casual one?

An example of misogamist usage: "Good luck with that... Morris is a misogamist. He will never want to marry anyone."

An example of my desired word usage: "Lillian, ever the ?????, has always been planning for her inevitable wedding day."

Another example of desired word usage: "Caleb, absorbed in (his) ?????, pursues romance at every opportunity."

I have checked thefreedictionary.com for words with the -gamy prefix, looked around on wikipedia's marriage related topics, looked though dictionary.com's words related to matrimony, and nothing quite fits.

An informal (and disparaging) example might be 'marriage fever'. A formal (and positive) version might be 'matrimonial aspirations'. I would prefer a clinical, psychological or otherwise least value-neutral term.

A single word or compound word is much preferred, though if a phrase is needed it must be as brief as possible.


texts: What is the difference between "gender" and "sex"?

texts:
What is the difference between gender and sex? Wiktionary says that gender is The mental analog of sex but that's too high English for me.

Basically, I'm developing a web-application that stores people's profile along with a field for gender/sex. Which name would be more appropriate?

__

[UPDATE]

After getting these good answers, I can figure out that,

Sex - Biological characteristics
Gender - Social characteristics

And, well, for my web-application, I went with the term sex, as it sounds more scientific and less political. P.S. Values for sex are clearly defined and can be easily validated (only two values AFAIK* + an optional blank value).

* plus some anomalies.


texts:
Why are the Welsh and the Irish called "Taffy" and "Paddy"?

Where do these words come from? And why are they considered offensive?


texts: Should a contraction taken from the center of a word have two apostrophes?

texts:
I'm currently reading Entrepreneur Magazine, and there is a story profiling a 13-year-old who created a series of stickers to embellish Lego blocks. The subtitle of the story reads

  A pint-size 'trep solves a sticky toy dilemma

This doesn't seem right to me. Since 'trep is a contraction of entrepreneur, and the word is losing en- from the left side and -reneur from the right. Wouldn't the correct subtitle read

  A pint-size 'trep' solves a sticky toy dilemma

Yes, it looks awful, but wouldn't it be technically correct?


texts:
I encountered the word in an X-Men comic once:

  One person makes a show of the effectiveness of this weaponry but is
  unable to use it because of the presence of Magneto. He informs him
  that they are all guests and must behave as such.

so I know it’s legit, :-) and I’d like to be able to use it with some welcome but irritatingly insensitive recurring guests. The term for my obligations to my guests would also be of interest.

Pardon the superhero references, but the context was where a group of mutants had escaped to Magneto’s headquarters and were bickering about whose fault it was that they were on the run. Magneto walked in and told them to stop fighting, because just as he has the obligation of . . . to them as his guests they have the obligation of . . . to him as the host.

Update: I located the word and @jwpat7 helped identify it.


texts: Alternative expressions to explain jargon in a sentence?

texts:
I have this expression (I know it seems to not make sense):

  Groceries being usually presented without the corresponding "belt".

Now, I want to explain what "belt" is. I'm thinking of these two forms:

  ... without the corresponding "belt", that is, without an adequate price tag that users are able to see.

and

  ... without the corresponding "belt". By "belt" we mean ...

What alternative expressions could I use to disambiguate my use of "belt"?


texts: Rhetorical effects of future tense when describing past event

texts:
Just before 2 a.m., as it prepared for its return to Earth, the Crew
Dragon jettisoned what SpaceX calls the “trunk” section of the
spacecraft — the cylindrical compartment below the gumpdrop-shaped
capsule. The trunk will burn up in the atmosphere. Five minutes
after the trunk is detached, the capsule fired its thrusters for
about 16 minutes to drop out of orbit. Once it was low enough in
Earth’s atmosphere, parachutes deployed to gently lower the capsule
into the sea.

As I read a New York Times article about the return to Earth of four astronauts in a SpaceX capsule, I came across the sentences above. In chronicling a string of past events, the author applied the future or present tense, perhaps aiming to create a vivid description of some sort.
But as a non-native speaker, I found it difficult to point out precisely what effects this rhetorical device had since I was a bit baffled by the sudden appearance of the future and present tense.
Could you tell me about exactly what effects this rhetorical technique has and how you, as a native speaker, feel when this future-tense sentence suddenly appears?


texts: What is the term for calling off a war when you are winning?

texts:
If you're losing a war, you can surrender to end the war. In an armistice, neither side surrenders, but both agree to end the war. Is there a term for a side that is winning that has a change of heart and ends the war unilaterally?

A ceasefire or truce both appear to be cessations of hostility that are somehow less than an armistice. Neither appear to be unilateral.

I understand that it probably doesn't happen much, so there may not be a word for it.

As to why such a thing might occur, besides just thinking better of it or having an election that leads to a new direction from leadership, I could also see enough Pyrrhic victories leading the aggressor to give up on the war, but certainly not surrender or even enter into an agreement of any kind.


texts:
As we know, when the pronoun someone is used, the succeeding verb will be conjugated in the 3rd-person singular. Thus, the following sentence demonstrates legal usage:

  I cannot enter the room; someone is cooking.

However, note the following sentence:

  I cannot enter the room; someone is cooking, are they not?

As can be seen in the second sentence, when a question tag is used, it doesn't use the corresponding conjugation of the 3rd-person singular previously used, but rather, it takes on the 3rd-person plural. Why is this the case? What is more, why is the following sentence illegal?

  I cannot enter the room; someone are cooking, are they not?

I thank you, in advance, for your responses.


texts: What's the name of this grammar error: "due to him having..."

texts:
I know there's something wrong with the way the indirect-object pronoun "him" and the gerund "having" are being used here, but I can't put my finger on it or find it on Google. Here's another example:

The whip was unable to muster the votes of her caucus members, due to them being divided over the amendments.


texts: How did English gradually change into an analytic language?

texts: English might be the most analytic language in the IE family, in that it has no case, no gender, and very few personal pronouns. Since PIE and other IE languages are generally synthetic, then what drove English to be so analytic compared to others??


texts:
So today I was playing a video game where a child said "I best get going" (I'm sure she said I instead of I'd because it was a typed dialogue). Now, I know that this had the same meaning as "I had better get going" and that you can drop the "had" in informal English. However, is is the same case here? Is the correct form "I had best get going" and the child dropped the "had" due to informal English?

Thanks a lot for reading!


texts:
I heard a joke last night about cramming one's mouth with a liquid. I've looked at several definitions, including this one, which seem to allow cram to be used in this way by saying something like:

  To force, press, or squeeze into an insufficient space; stuff.

But then it seems to be more related with solid than liquid, in the case of food and drink:

  3.

  a. To gorge with food.

  b. To eat quickly and greedily.

Can cram be used to mean "to fill by force a space to full capacity with liquid"? If not is there a better word?


texts: A word for "to claim a position or place above something or someone else"

texts:
The verb I seek is defined as: to claim a position above something, to position oneself higher than something or someone.

The important aspect is the claim of superiority over something, without necessarily being superior.

For instance: When the mind answers all the whys about God, it {situates itself in a position higher than} God.

Any ideas?


texts: The meaning of the phrase "to delay the time to occurrence of mood episodes"

texts:
I'm not exactly sure what this phrase mean:
"the purpose of _ is to delay the time to occurrence of mood episodes ..."

My guess is that it means that _ increases the amount of time between episodes.


texts: Should we capitalize Prisoner's Dilemma and when?

texts:
Prisoner's Dilemma is a game used to study both social and economic research. You can read more on it on Wikipidia or in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Interestingly, it seems that either:

These two sources are not consistent in how they spell it
They change spelling depending on context in a way I do not grasp

For instance on Wikipedia we have

  The prisoner's dilemma is a standard example of a game [...]

and then

  Prisoner's Dilemma tournaments have been held [...]

or

  The structure of the traditional Prisoner's Dilemma can be generalized [...]

Similarly in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy we have:

  A closely related view is that the prisoner's dilemma game [...]

and then

  [...] take the Prisoner's Dilemma to say something important [...]

or

  [...] story suggests that the Prisoner's Dilemma also occupies [...]

It seems that on Wikipedia lower case spelling dominates, while in in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy both versions are used interchangeably.

I would expect it might be correct to use upper case spelling for games matching the definition or for the original version of the game and lower case for variations on it or when more general sense is meant.

That is, we can write

  In Golden Balls contestants are presented with prisoner's dilemma

because we mean type of situation in general.

And we can write

  This game is a proper instance of Prisoner's Dilemma

meaning that this games matches the definition the specific Prisoner's Dilemma.

However, the abovementioned examples do not seem to comply understanding nor to any other that I could see.

So do these two source spell Prisoner's Dilemma correctly?

And how should we spell it?


texts: Does the word relitigate imply legal proceedings?

texts:
I understand the word, "litigate" to indicate some kind of legal action. However, I have recently come across the word "re-litigate" in a context that implies a difference of opinion that has not (yet?) become a matter for the courts.

Is a non-legal sense of "re-litigate" common usage?

I've lived all my life in the UK, but to my recollection, I have not heard the word before.

Is usage of the the word "re-litigate" more common outside the UK? In the US, for example?


texts:
If I have been presented with a time-stamp in the 24-hour format: 12:24:33 (hh:mm:ss)

Is there a word to address a component of this? By a component, I mean each value between 2 delimiters (only the minutes or only the hour etc.)
With reference to the above example:

  12, 24, 33 are all ____ of the time-stamp.


texts: Is female an acceptable term to describe a woman?

texts:
I sometimes hear people refer a woman as a "female", but some people say it's derogatory to call a woman a "female". Is it acceptable to call a woman a "female"?

P.S I'm not a native English speaker


texts: How to say that it takes 5 seconds for a car to achieve 100 km/h?

texts:
In Persian, we say that "0-to-100 of a car is x seconds". In other words, "0-to-100" is somehow a word on its own (also it is pronounced quite fast in Persian).

In List of fastest production cars by acceleration on Wikipedia I see the expressions "0–100 km/h time" and "the car can accelerate to". So I think the following sentences can be used:

The 0–100 km/h time of this car is 5 seconds.
The car can accelerate to 100 km/h in 5 seconds.

Are these sentences correct? If yes, then how do you read/pronounce the expression "0–100 km/h time". What is/are the common expressions to use?


texts:
I'm looking for words that describe the rope that hangs from a bell in a bell tower.

ADDED: This isn't so much about where the word would be used as it is trying to identify examples or variations from literature or other reference to the item.

The nautical reference below is one scenario where there might be other terms to fit the description. I thought there may also be a reference from the religious sector (though Bell Rope and Bell Pull seem to fit here).

I would even be interested in slang as noted below, "Go jig the bell". Thanks for that.


texts: "The government 'is' always changing 'their' mind" in AmEng

texts:
Why would using the construct "is/their" instead of "is/its" in the following examples likely be frowned upon by some native speakers and marked as incorrect on tests?

The class is working on its assignment. (AmEng)
The class is/are working on its/their assignment. (BrEng)
The class is working on their assignment. (disputed usage)

-and-

The government is always changing its mind. (AmEng)
The government is/are always changing its/their minds. (BrEng)
The government is always changing their mind. (disputed usage)

-and-

The team is putting on its uniforms. (chiefly AmEng)
The team are putting on their uniforms. (chiefly BrEng)
The team is putting on their uniforms. (disputed usage)

-and-

The Smith family is at the beauty parlor getting its hair and nails done for the wedding. (chiefly AmEng)
The Smith family are at the beauty parlor getting their hair and nails done for the wedding. (chiefly BrEng)
The Smith family is at the beauty parlor getting their hair and nails done for the wedding. (disputed usage)

On the other hand, why might other native speakers consider this usage to be acceptable?


texts:
What does the following phrase mean?

  Robert danced his way out the prison.

Does it mean that Robert succeeded in leaving the prison?
Or that Robert danced while leaving the prison?

A similar phrase is, for example, found here

  "Jackson man dances his way out of poverty and violence"


texts:
i have encountered many [sing.] existings in Oxford English dictionary.Fox example  ,

what that means?I have look up in different dictionaries but i can't find a proper answer or a authorized one.
please help.


texts: Is there any difference in meaning between these sentences?

texts:
A: Positive and negative numbers cannot satisfy the condition.
  B: Positive or negative numbers cannot satisfy the condition.
  C: Non-zero numbers cannot satisfy the condition.


texts: What will be the word for people who support corruption or keep their eyes, ears and mouths shut upon witnessing political corruption?


texts: "Queue" without sequential order implications?

texts:
What word might I use that has the same connotations of "queue" but without the 1-by-1 implied order?

Example: an individual can make multiple changes to a series of items. Some changes may ultimately depend on another change, but all changes are made at once when complete. So they don't have to be recorded in order.


texts: "I couldn't but laugh" - correct or not?

texts: Is the usage of  "I couldn't but laugh" in place of "I couldn't not laugh" correct English? Or should it always be "I couldn't help but laugh"?


texts: Is the phrase 'increasely likely' acceptable? If so, what does it mean?

texts:
I like to read different newspapers and news websites to pick up some English  words and phrases with which I'm unfamiliar.

I found the two-word phrase increasely likely, which I found confusing.


texts: Does "allegedly made a drug that does X" or "made a drug that allegedly does X" sound better?

texts:
As an engineering-type fellow, I was thinking about this article about a drug that replaces sleep.

It occurred to me that I could frame it in two ways:

Scientists allegedly created a drug that replaces sleep.

or

Scientists created a drug that allegedly replaces sleep.

There are obvious arguments for both of these statements being correct - saying someone allegedly created a drug with certain properties or that they created a drug and it allegedly happens to have certain properties seems to ultimately have the bottom line of there being the possibility of replacing sleep.

But which sounds better? Which ... feels more right? Are the phrasings interchangeable, or could an argument be made that one or the other is in some way, tangibly or otherwise, "better"?


texts:
I am looking for a single word that can be used to describe an activity (e.g., work or studies) that is both “fun” and “challenging”. Words I have tried include “intriguing”, “fascinating”, “engaging”, “captivating” and “absorbing”, but I feel that these all are slightly off the mark, usually because while they might describe an activity that is both “fun” and “challenging”, they don't necessarily do so in my eyes/ears.

However, as English is not my first language, I might very well be incorrect. Is there are word that conveys the meaning of “fun” and “interesting”, and if so, which word?


texts: Can anyone explain me the meaning of " most beautiful language ever written" .What does "ever written" mean?


texts: In some western movies one cowboy says to another 'looks like he got the drop on us Tex'.Just wondering what there that phrase originated?


texts: I insist on them getting X I insist on getting sth for them

texts:
What is it that sometimes I can put a noun instead of an ING verb:

  I insist on getting a present for them.

  I insist on them getting a present.

In the latter, is the meaning the same? I cannot think of another example (with another verb).


texts: The difference between "qualified to" and "qualified for"

texts: If someone won a regional competition, shall we say "he/she qualified [to or for] the world finals"?


texts: Does anyone know what the word "monocase" can possibly mean in the following context?

texts:
Source: How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know by Brian Ward (2014)

Example:

  FAT filesystems (msdos, vfat, umsdos) pertain to Microsoft systems. The simple msdos type supports the very primitive monocase variety in MS-DOS systems. For most modern Windows filesystems, you should use the vfat filesystem in order to get full access from Linux. The rarely used umsdos filesystem is peculiar to Linux. It supports Unix features such as symbolic links on top of an MS-DOS filesystem.

Any idea as to what that means?


texts: Plural or singular noun when it refers to two things in a list

texts:
I wonder which of the two is correct:

  I have a red and a blue car.
  I have a red and a blue cars.

or

  Everyone has a left and a right arms.
  Everyone has a left and a right arm.

My (non-native) inclination would be for option 1, as it sounds better.
On the other hand, in the following examples, the plural sounds better to me.

Everyone has left and right arms.
I have old and new cars. (when I only have only one old car and one new car)
The left and the right arms are...

But are they correct?


texts: English spelling and grammar exercise database

texts:
I have a little odd question, probably borderline applicable to stackoverflow...

What I am looking to do is to write a Windows program, which I will give my kids to exercise in English spelling as well as grammar. I want it to be in a quiz-like format (like: If we * [to cycle] to Dresden, it will be a fantastic trip). However if there are too few different sentences in a quiz, kids would just remember those, and they will be filling them mechanically instead of learning, so I need to get an access to a big pool of exercises, and those should be in a program-accessible format - xml, or database, or some text with a clear format.

Is anyone aware of any English exercise database available in such form?


texts: Word for numeric value that is not necessarily the result of a measuring process

texts: I have the phrase “mechanical properties measurement” and am looking for a good replacement for measurement that would not imply a measuring process, as the "measurement" in question is simply a numerical value that can also be the result of a prediction model.


texts: Noun for a person with wrong moral values

texts:
Is there a word for an individual who has wrong moral values? I was thinking about "hypocrite", but I'm not sure.

I'm looking for a noun, rather than an adjective. It may also be informal and shouldn't be too strong or too insulting. Imagine a teenager, who is still adjusting his principles and values.


texts: What do you call a word that is broken onto two lines?

texts:
For example, the word "recreated" fell at the end of the a line, and thus was printed as:

re-

created

Is there a special name for this sort of thing?


texts: Are there any English equivalent for the words Mahram and Namahram?

texts:
In Islamic religious law there are two words:
1- mahram
2- namahram

A woman’s mahram is a person whom she is never permitted to marry because of their close blood relationship (such as her father, grandfather, great-grandfather, her son, grandson, etc.)
and namahram or non-mahram is someone to whom she is not related such as in-laws, strangers, cousins.

Are there English equivalents to these words?


texts:
I currently work as a Test Engineer. I test (power) electronics.

One test I often perform is something called a "smoke test". Among engineers, this is a common term:

  "The phrase smoke test comes from electronic hardware testing. You plug in a new board and turn on the power. If you see smoke coming from the board, turn off the power. You don't have to do any more testing."

Easy to understand, right? But not necessarily professional in a test report. One of my colleagues, the one having to deal with the customers, notified me we should probably change the wording in reports. He's afraid it will be considered pejorative. I don't necessarily agree with him, but sure, let's find an alternative. Except I can't think of an alternative to "smoke test" that's equally unambiguous and clear.

What would be a proper equivalent term for "smoke test"?

Target audience is engineers, salesmen and managers when addressed in written reports.


texts: Should Kelvin symbol have a preceding space?

texts:
I'm working on a lighting product catalogue with products from many overseas suppliers. In regards to colour temperature, some of them put a space character before Kelvin symbol, some not:

  4000K, 5600K

or

  4000 K, 5600 K

Is there any official recommendation here?

Edit:
It was suggested that this question is a duplicate of similar question related to computer symbols, suggesting it depends on style, and I happily agreed and considered that question as answered. However just now I've just found that there actually is an official recommendation related to SI unit symbols. Which makes the situation different than with units of computer storage.


texts: Can you guys tell what the right answer is? imo the right answer is (B)


texts:
Our studio has a one-hour TV program which runs three times a week and broadcasts different films. The content of the program is usually like the following, so can we call each broadcast an episode of the program?

1st broadcast: part one of a film

2nd broadcast: part two of the same film

3rd broadcast: part one of a new film

4th broadcast: part two of the new film

……

Does the word “episode” apply to each individual broadcast of a TV program, no matter what the content each time?


texts: Why “me” instead of “my” in pirate speech?

texts:
I don’t understand the usage in constructions like “Spare meself, me ship, me crew” in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

Is it a dialect or “bloody pirate’s speech” or what?


texts:
A Canadian writer says

  In the limit, we will be able to create bionic humans. Progress towards this goal was portrayed in a remarkable video...


texts:
What is the opposite of commercial?
Is  it "personal" or "public"? I want to use these terms for a dichotomous variable I have created.
EDIT:
I was trying to create a variable for trucks and passenger car but writing commercial for the trucks


texts: How do bare clauses beginning with "in which" work?

texts:
The latest Stack Exchange blog post contains the following section header:

  In which we stop being dumb

I have never really understood what is going on in these "in which..." constructions at a grammatical level. Is it just an elision of something like "this is a section in which..."? Or, perhaps, is it an imitation of a famous quotation/title/etc. that has the same structure?

I feel like I've only seen this construction on the internet, which suggests to me that it is either a piece of internet lingo that I've somehow missed or a very new construction that hasn't caught up to me yet. I am a native speaker of American English, but am relatively ignorant of other varieties, so perhaps this is just a feature of BrE that I'm unaware of or something.

Note that I am not asking about constructions like:

  In which of these two fields should I write my name?

These constructions are full sentences in which the preposition "in" has been hoisted to the beginning of the sentence, and I understand them perfectly well.


texts: How do you have a person asking: ["What is your answer?" he said.]

texts:
How do you have a person asking:

  "What is your answer?" he said.

Should the "he said" part be capitalized? Does the question mark come after the comment or after the 'he said' part?


texts:
How do you pronounce this phrase, "as for me"?:

/æz fɔr mi/

/æz fər mi/

/əz fɔr mi/

/əz fər mi/


texts:
According to grammarist.com, the word muchly is regarded as obsolete.  I and many of the people I know use the word regularly, however, frequently in situations where it would seem to me much would be incorrect.  Examples:

Thanks muchly for the insightful gift!
He was muchly peeved when he found out what had happened to his car.

Are our usages acceptable within 'Standard English'?  How common is formal use of the word?  What about informal use?  When did this word stop being normal regular everyday English?


texts:
While showing my work to my adviser, he uttered a sentence, "You could do it better!".

Is it analogous to:

You could have done better

OR
You can do it better (so improve it)?

It seems to me this sentence can mean both of these.


texts: Is it ever correct to have a space before a question or exclamation mark?

texts: In written English (mainly online) I often come across sentences ending with a question or an exclamation mark with a space before it. Is it always just an error or a typo? Or there are cases when it is a correct English, for example after closing parentheses or some other punctuation marks?


texts:
The tickets cost £20 each (=each ticket costs £20).
You get two cookies each (=every one of you gets two cookies).
They each have their own skills.
The question I'm asking is why 'they each have their own skills' doesn't become 'they each have his or her own skill,' other than 'they have his or her own skill each.'


texts: When did Londoners stop using yus for yes? Or did they?

texts: I grew up in London in the 50s and the kids on my street used yus for yes.


texts: Is either "in a call" or "on a call" incorrect usage when referring to someone attending a phone (possibly conference) call? If not, what's appropriate usage for both?


texts:
I'm writing an essay, and I'd like to write a phrase like "He finally achieved the moment he'd been working towards his whole life."

Is it okay to say that someone "achieved" a moment?


texts:
He enjoys skiing, playing the guitar, hiking, and wildlife.

Is this semantically correct? If not, is there something wrong with “enjoys … wildlife”?


texts:
What exactly does "brother mine" mean? Is it the same as "my brother"?

As far as I know "brother" is a noun and "mine" is a pronoun, so it doesn't make much sense to me why one can precede the other.


texts: Does anyone recognize "vittler" as "one who supplies vittles or food"? I've checked home and online dictionaries.


texts:
When do you say something was standardized by and when do you say something was standardized in?

It is my understanding that in is used to refer to a document describing the standard, while by is used to refer to the standardization body. Similarly to published in and published by.

Example: IPv6 was standardized in RFC2460 "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification" by IETF. Comment: It is a tricky phrase because IETF is the standardization body, but not everyone writing a RFC document is a member of the IETF. Here is the document.


texts: Capitalization of German words in English sentences

texts:
If I write an English text and use some German nouns in there do I have to write them capitalized or not?

If I would have a whole sentence or quote in German I would probably use German grammar and capitalization rules but what about single words in an English sentence?


texts: “You go and dry yourselves while I polish the car.” or "You go and dry yourselves while I'm polishing the car."

texts:
context
i/Cleaning_the_Car/Transcript
Oxford Dictionary says: "while-at the same time as sth else is happening
eg: You can go swimming while I'm having lunch."
so I am confused. Why doesn't Daddy Pig say "You go and dry yourselves while I'm polishing the car."?


texts: Is there an alternative, one-word name for the question mark?

texts:
Is there an alternative name for the question mark?  For example, the exclamation point is often called a bang, the number symbol is called a pound sign or sharp symbol and the asterisk symbol is often called a star.

Is there such an alternative name for the question mark whether it be slang or otherwise?


texts:
When I was chatting with a friend just now, I didn't know which sentences to use. Can someone help me on this?

"I have had the same thought as you when I looked at her profile just now." (Present perfect + Simple Past)
"I had the same thought as you when I looked at her profile just now" (Past Perfect + Simple Past)
"I had the same thought as you when I was looking at her profile just now" (Past Perfect + Past Perfect Continuous)
"I was having the same thought as you when I looked at her profile just now" (Past Perfect Continuous + Simple Past)
"I was having the same thought as you when I was looking at her profile just now" (Past Perfect Continuous + Past Perfect Continuous)


texts: What's the difference between "you guys" and "you folks"?

texts: You guys and you folks seem to have similar meanings. Do they have any differences? Thanks a lot


texts: What is the name of something that contains a balance?

texts:
Is there a noun that generically describes something that contains a balance that is not the word "account"?  Such things can be checking accounts, credit cards, outstanding fines, or basically anything that keeps track of a sum of money.

The word account is a bit broader than I need because it implies that a person is a member or a part of an organization or business where they are associated with some "account number".

EDIT:

An "account" is a business object that actually encapsulates one or more savings, checking accounts, credit cards, loans, customers, cards, or any other service that is offered. Here, the word account is already being used as a programming term, but still looking for a word that covers the overlap things with balances, an abstraction as you will.


texts: What does "mainstream pop music" mean? And is it singular or plural?

texts:
Is "mainstream pop music" just a genre or genres?

Whatever it means, can I use it as below?

  What kind of mainstream pop music do you like?
  What kinds of mainstream pop music do you like?


texts: Is it better to list adjectives, with an "and"?

texts:
When we use more than one adjective, e.g.

  The big, red, bouncy balloon.

The list of three adjectives {big, red, and bouncy} is a list, so by rights it should be separated by commas, with an "and" between the last two terms.

If somebody asked us to describe the balloon we would without hesitation say that it is "big, red and bouncy".  Going by the rules, the correct form for the first phrase given above would be to write:

  The big, red and bouncy balloon.

But we virtually never see this.  In lists of adjectives and is used as the exception, whereas in lists in general, to exclude it is the exception. Is it a correct technicality to include the "and", which nobody observes, thereby making it acceptable to exclude the "and" on the basis of common usage?  And to write the best English we can, should we be including the "and" in lists of adjectives?


texts: How to concisely say that pairs of items are on par with each other?

texts:
A1 and A2 are on par with each other.
  B1 and B2 are on par with each other.

So

  A's are on par with each other.
  B's are on par with each other.

I want to say 3 and 4 in one single sentence without repeating "on par with each other". How can I do that?


texts:
Do we need "to be"(or a form of 'to be') before adjectives? For example:

I want my hair black.

I want my hair to be black.

This is ready to publish.

This is ready to be published.

I would like this short.

I would like this to be short.

Would you tell me which of each pair is correct and explain the syntax behind it, please.
Thank you.


texts:
I know that Uncle Tom's Cabin is full of neologisms, and I try my best to grit my teeth and infer as best I can without racing down every such rabbit hole that presents itself, but with rhumatis, for whatever reason, I can't quell my curiosity. I must figure out what it means (if anything). The passage for context, from Chapter 10:

"Now," said Aunt Chloe, bustling about after breakfast, "I must put up
yer clothes. Jest like as not, he'll take 'em all away. I know thar
ways—mean as dirt, they is! Wal, now, yer flannels for rhumatis is in
this corner; so be careful, 'cause there won't nobody make ye no more.

Question
What is rhumatis supposed to mean here? Given that flannels are usually warm, I'm curious if its something to do with the outdoors. Or perhaps its some kind of phonetic neologism? Can't think of any words that sound anything like rhumatis though.


texts:
I stumbled across some contradictory idioms, and it made me wonder how many idioms can be contradicted with other idioms! Some that I've collected so far:

The pen is mightier than the sword
Actions speak louder than words

What you see is what you get
Don't judge a book by its cover

A stitch in time saves nine
Good things come to those who wait

Many hands make light work
Too many cooks spoil the broth


texts:
We use space between the numerical value and unit in SI system.  Is the same principle applicable to other units e.g. Year, week etc. I mean is it 1year or 1 year? 25wks or 25 wks?  etc.

I found this discussion  but it didn't provide this answer.


texts:
What is the verb in this sentence?

  The friends had to get the door open soon.

I think it is open, but I am not sure.


texts: If a chicken crosses the road, is it still a pedestrian?

texts:
A pedestrian is one who travels on foot, ped being the Latin root for foot. But even though many people refer to chicken's feet as feet, are they actually feet scientifically speaking, such that they would qualify as being pedestrian when walking on them? What about animals with hooves, or paws?

Note: This is a question about the meaning of the English word pedestrian, specifically how (and if) it applies to non-humans.